Co-op Mission

by BlackBear53

An undercover mission 15 years ago is coming back to haunt him but he doesn't remember it or her. How does he know her? This is a backstory for my story Aneca, written and posted almost a year ago. Thank you Mr. Brennan for allowing me to play with G and thanks to Chris O'Donnell for bringing G to life.

Prologue

In 1991 Yugoslavia began to break apart. The states of Croatia and Slovenia declared their independence due to economic differences and ethnic conflicts. About a year later Bosnia-Herzegovina declared their independence and all hell broke loose. Bosnian citizens of Croatian or Serbian heritage began a land grab that turned violent. As the battles raged and territory changed hands back and forth, there began a systematic ethnic cleansing. There were many mass killings and each was more horrific that the last. Many leaders ended up as war criminals due to their "ingenious" methods of killing the other side's people. This war lasted for five gruesome years.

Chapter 1

My name is G. Callen and I'm an agent for the Central Intelligence Agency. I am on loan to the Russian Intelligence Agency, SVR. The flight I currently am on will have me attending a meeting with their agents in Moscow. One of those agents and I were going undercover to flush out a Serbian war criminal by the name of Zoran Kravsic. He was wanted for one of the many atrocities that happened during the Serbian-Bosnian Conflict. He has been in hiding for several years and is rumored to be building a crime syndicate in Pristina, now the capital of Kosovo.

When I landed I was met by a man by the name of Mikael Rossoff. He was to be one of my handlers during the operation. We went to the headquarters of the SVR, and met with others who will be working directly with me and other agents that will be in a supportive role. Boris Roschek and Vladimir Kochenko were to come along as muscle and information drops. Mikael also introduced me to a woman with whom I would be living. Her name was Valentina Rossoff. We were supposed to be a newlyweds and this was going to be our honeymoon. No one notices newly married couples. The couples also supposedly do not notice anything else either. I could think of more romantic places to take a new bride than a war torn country, but no one asked me and besides, Zoran Kravsic wouldn't be there. I was supposed to be Mikael Petrov. The other fly in the ointment was that Mikael Rossoff was her husband. Call me crazy, but this was going to be great fun: not,.

Valentina was a petite blond woman, nicely built and very attractive, however, she didn't set off any of the usual attraction vibes for me. She appeared to be in love with her husband and I didn't want the complications of any romance. I wanted to get in, get the information and Zoran Kravsic, and get out. That is what our two agencies wanted as well.

We were also notified that we were not the only agencies working the area. Naval Criminal Investigative Service, NCIS, was working in the area, Navy Seals were looking for Bosnian war criminals and the Mossad was around looking for some of the criminals as well. We also had the Red Cross and Red Crescent working with the injured and homeless.

As soon as the briefing finished, Valentina and I were sent off to get used to being

together. We were given a flat in Moscow for three days to acclimate to each other. We

spent those days reading about Zoran Krasnic and learning the lay of the land in Kosovo.

We began to feel at ease working with each other, but I got the impression that she

never wanted to discuss anything personal and I left it at that. It wasn't exactly my strong

suit to talk about anything to do with me either.

Mikael Rossoff left immediately after the meeting for Serbia. He had to infiltrate Kravsic's

cartel. He spoke perfect Serbian. I was chosen for this mission because I spoke Russian.

Four days later Valentina and I left for Bulgaria for the start of our "honeymoon."

Chapter 2

We flew into Sofia, Bulgaria, to stay for a couple of days and started to build credentials as honeymooners. We stayed in a mid-class hotel and behaved in public like two people in love. She was pretty and it wasn't difficult to act it out. When we went back to the hotel we were lovey until we closed the door and then we were ourselves. She was a quiet girl and kind of skittish. I noticed the behavior but wasn't overly concerned with it until later.

Boris and Vladimir had left Moscow two days before us. They were meant to pave our way just in case someone caught on to us. They were to bring Valentina and me messages from Mikael. He wasn't supposed to come near us. We started getting information from Rossoff through his men. One of them brought us information to decipher and return through one of our other handlers. Vladimir met us in the lobby and dropped information into Valentina's bag. It gave us something to do that night.

We left Sofia after three days and drove to Skopje, Macedonia in our rental car. Macedonia is a mountainous country that is rugged and beautiful. The ride through the mountains took our breaths away. We drove through those gorgeous mountains and up the Vardar River Valley to Skopje. That ride was incredible for the beauty and the people. The Macedonians are a very friendly people. The route we were driving gave us the time that Rossoff needed to get into place and be noticed by Kravsic. It was also time for Valentina and I to get to know one another better.

Valentina and I found our hotel and checked in. Rossoff's man, Vladimir, met us in the elevator and handed off a packet of information. He left us at the next floor and we proceeded to our room. We set up our computer and sent the coded information to our handlers at the SVR in Moscow and the CIA in Washington. Rossoff who would now go by the name Ranjic, seemed to be making progress with Kravsic.

After delivering the information to our respect agencies we went out to eat. Valentina had seen a cute little café on our way in. We walked there and then after dinner we went for a walk to sell ourselves as newlyweds. When we returned to our room she went to bed and I hit the couch. It had been this way since Moscow. She was a really sweet kid. But I, for one, didn't see the attraction to Rossoff.

Chapter 3

Since we were expected to stay in Skopje for two more days, we decided to do some sight-seeing. This was also a way to make sure we stayed undercover. If anyone was following us we would know and adjust accordingly.

We went up to the Kale Fortress. It was a very impressive building. It was built in the sixth century and it was later rebuilt in 1963 after a major earthquake. The next day we walked across the Stone Bridge built between 1451 and 1469 by Sultan Mehmet II. We spent time in the museums in the city and made plans to leave the next day.

The next day we began our drive to Pristina. We had expected another drop by Ranjic but nothing came. Maybe he would have one delivered when we get to our flat in Pristina.

Chapter 4

There is an armed conflict, no a war, going on in Kosovo, so it would take a few days to get there. We had to drive around battles and look out for marauding soldiers. We were stopped several times to make sure we weren't spies. That was really kind of amusing and we had a good laugh over it. The ride was less amusing as it held no beauty and I believe it to be one of the most desolate rides I've ever taken. The countryside was torn up and most of citizens were either refugees or moving to a safer area with their families.

As we neared Pristina I watched Valentina's disposition slowly take a turn for the worse. She became quiet and reserved. She wouldn't cuddle or hold hands anymore and our newly-wed cover was becoming more difficult to sell as she got more and more stand-offish. It made it more difficult to do this job with her acting this way. I asked what had happened to change what we were doing and got some distant answer as to not feeling well. It looked more like fear to me: but fear of what.

We reached Pristina and found where we were going to live for the next few weeks. It turned out to be a little furnished apartment, a little drab, but I've been in worse. As Mikael Petrov, I was supposed to try to find a part time job, like we really wanted to live in Kosovo. I was really beginning to wonder who had set this operation up. It had been terribly planned from the onset and we'd had to improvise before and I sensed we were going to have to do it again. I went out looking for Boris and he found me and gave me a packet. I returned to the flat and found Valentina asleep. She tossed and turned and she looked sickly. I really thought that she was physically ill. I woke her and asked if she was alright. I asked if she needed a doctor but she said she was fine and just needed more sleep. It was hard for me to believe. We had been having so much fun playing our parts on our way here. She had laughed and was really interested in all we were doing and now, she gave nothing to the mission. I had her get up and send the packets to the SVR and the CIA. I felt like a bastard but didn't have any options and needed my partner in the game.

As newlyweds we'd probably be looking for restaurants but we were not finding too many restaurants due to the war and we needed to eat. I needed to get Valentina back on her feet so I went out shopping for food. I made some soup for Valentina. If she was sick I wanted to help her. If not I wanted to know what was going on. This behavior could get us both killed. I wanted to be someone she could lean on and have her feel like I was a friend. Maybe then she'd open up to me about what bothered her.

What I didn't know was that Mikael Rossoff had visited her while I was out.

Chapter 5

When I got back from the shops we made soup together. Valentina was a little more out-going. We made the soup and put the extra into the fridge. I'd bought some wine, cheese, and bread to eat with the soup. Tomorrow we will shop again. That is the norm here in Kosovo. There really was not much to do in Pristina at this time with a war going on. Some shops were looking for clerks, but they tend to be looking for someone who has a specific skill. The bake shops were looking for bakers and the butchery's were looking for someone to cut meat. Those are definitely not my skillset. Valentina and I got jobs in a street side café. She waitressed and I bussed tables. There were not many hours but we really didn't need them. We just needed a place for Boris and Vladimir to find us and surreptitiously slip us information.

We usually worked different hours and different days. I was fortunate that many of the clientele spoke English. I could put a Russian accent into my voice. There were many days when I spotted foreigners among the patrons. Some were from other European nations and others were from the United States. There was a Navy Seal Group that came through. There were some big guys in that bunch and they were good men. There was one called Sam that made a great impression on me. He was conscientious of his team mates and helped anyone who needed it. I liked him. There was also a raven-haired beauty that came into the café. I wondered where she came from. She introduced herself as Rania Evanic, but the accent was slightly off. She sounded southern Mediterranean. Somewhere like Lebanon or Israel. I later found out she was from Israel.

I would go home at the end of my work day and find my "wife" either, happy and ready to do our job or asleep and depressed. I was getting concerned that she was mentally unbalanced and wanted to get her some help.

Chapter 6

Ranjic was moving higher and higher up in Kravsic's organization. We kept an eye on what was happening in Pristina. Kravsic's group was making headlines by having a gang war in the midst of the conflict and it was becoming dangerous in the city because of it. Many people didn't want to end up dead so they cooperated with Kravsic and his band of thieves.

Valentina and I had a shift where we both worked. We started at ten AM and were to work to five PM. The Israeli woman came in around two PM and said to me in a quiet voice, "I am looking for Slobodan Ranjic." "I have no way of knowing who or where he is." I answered. She looked at me skeptically and said, "Your wife seems to know him." I must have looked as surprised as I felt. I asked, "Why do you think that?" She smiled, "Ask your wife. I'll be back tomorrow, when you are working. I'll need an answer then." That was interesting. It ended up being a slow day so the owner let us go early. Valentina and I needed to talk. I needed some answers, from her apparently.

When we got home, I made tea and sat down to talk to Valentina. She was not very co-operative. She said of course she knew him, Mikael was her husband. She asked why I wanted to know and I told her about Rania Evanic. I wanted to know why Rania knew that Valentina knew Ranjic. Unfortunately, Valentina was not going to help me with information. I reached across and grabbed her wrist. She screamed as I grabbed. I had her hand and pulled up her sleeve. There were bruises. I looked at the other wrist and there were bruises there as well. "What the hell is going on and how did you get those bruises? Why did Rossoff come here? He's not supposed to contact us at all. Did your husband do this to you?" I asked and I got no answer but in a way it was the answer. "If he does this, what else does he do to you? If you need someone to talk to, I'd be willing to listen." I said to her. "If he beats you why don't you leave him?"

Her quiet response surprised me. "We make a lousy marriage, but a great spy team."

My surprise must have shown on my face because she looked away from my gaze. "Really? How many times have you been 'married' to someone else and what was his response to it? What makes this time different?"

Her eyes came back to meet mine and her response was shy. "You make it different. All the others were his compatriots and he trusted them with me. I think they were afraid of him."

I needed to know why her husband was coming to our apartment when he shouldn't. "What's Mikael doing here? Did he need information or did he leave some for us to post back?"

She just looked away. I wasn't getting any more answers from her but if this continued I would get the answers from him.

Chapter 7

As time went on the episode with Rania Evanic passed. She never came back. Ranjic kept making a name for himself with Kravsic. Their syndicate was now the top organization in Pristina, if not all of Kosovo. They were known for their graphic and grizzly torture of people who would not work with them.

There were four more information drops and then they stopped. We saw in the newspaper that a Russian was found murdered on the outskirts of town. We never saw either Boris or Vladimir again. We had received orders to take down Kravsic and that would be problematic. We had no way to get information to Ranjic to let him know it was going down. We would have to take him in too. I went to work and Valentina stayed home. She was going to start packing for our quick trip back to Sofia and home. The rest of our back up was at the café waiting for me. We planned to take him down tonight.

Chapter 8

Told to Callen at a later date by Valentina.

Valentina was packing and getting ready for a quick getaway when there was an angry knock at the door. She opened it to find Slobodan Ranjic standing there. "Mikael…what are you doing here. You're not supposed to be here."

He seethed and began yelling. "Why don't you want me here? Are you afraid that I will see how you and your lover are living? That he is stealing another man's wife? Anyone could tell you were falling in love with Petrov by how you walk and talk with him." His jealousy made him mad.

Valentina tried to talk sense into him. "What are you talking about? Callen and I are just working together."

Mikael did not want to hear sense. He had made up his mind. Mikael started hitting Valentina and pushing her towards the bed.

She was crying and trying to make him hear reason. "No Mikael, stop. I am your wife." The beating kept up and something inside her gave way. she started screaming at him.

"You don't care about me. I am your wife but you keep pairing me up with other men that I don't want to work with. Mikael Petrov is a better man than you. Petrov is a loving, caring, wonderful man, all of the things that you are not. Yes I am falling in love with him."

That pushed Ranjic over the edge and he dragged her to the bed and took what was his. He told her time and time again, "You are my wife and this belongs to me." As he raped her, he hit her again and again. "Let him love you now." He said as he got up and left. Valentina lay on the bed crying and wondering how to tell Callen of Mikael's visit or if she even had to.

Chapter 9

I came home from the café to pick up Valentina. She was supposed to drive us out of Kosovo.

I opened the door and the apartment was a mess. Furniture was overturned and Valentina was in the bathroom crying. I pushed my way into the bathroom to check on her. She looked like she had been beaten to within an inch of her life. "Valentina, who did this to you?" I asked but I already knew the answer. I took her out to the kitchen and applied ice to her bruises. "Mikael did this?"

She nodded. "Yes he did."

My face must have shown my anger and surprise. "Why?"

Valentina didn't meet my eyes and I understood that she felt ashamed of how this had played out. "He wanted to make sure I knew whose wife I was and to make a point that you would understand."

It was a point that was not lost on me however; it was a point that never had to be made. Valentina and I were a team, not lovers. It led me to believe that Rossoff was a very sick man. This situation put our mission at risk. I needed to get Kravsic out of country but couldn't do it with an irate husband who would fight me in the process. I also didn't know the whereabouts of Boris and Vladimir. I was assuming they were in this with him or dead. I had to find Kravsic and move him and I needed Valentina to do that. She, however, was in no shape to do that. I messaged our handler and explained the situation to them. Kravsic needed to be picked up tonight. We had to adjust our plan that Valentina went with us. I didn't like it. It could put her in real danger of being hurt or even killed. If Rossoff was there it would infuriate him more to see her with me. I couldn't just abandon her and she insisted on going with me.

I had no other choice. "Ok, but you stay in the car."

She agreed to do that.

Chapter 9

We encircled Kravsic's home and I went inside to get him. There was no one in the house except Ranjic. I met him face to face. I asked where Kravsic was and his face showed an angry sneer. When I asked again he spoke one word. "Gone."

His attitude bothered me and I'm afraid I let my temper get the best of me. "How? Where?" I know I sounded angry but he never answered.

He was quite irrate. "How could you steal another man's wife? Is that what you Americans do? Come take whatever you want?"

I must have had a look of complete disbelief on my face. The whole situation became ludicrous. I let my smirk do the talking for me and I shouldn't have done it. I had gone beyond the limits of my patience with Rossoff.

Rossoff started to laugh. "What is she not good enough for you? Are American girls prettier than my wife? Do you have a wife in Los Angeles?"

I tried one more time to explain what our relationship was. Unfortunately he wasn't listening. "I like Valentina just fine as a friend, but there is no attraction. We only have a working relationship."

He grew very angry and I didn't know why. "My wife, she wants to be with you. She says she is falling in love with you. Are you going to throw her away?" He thought for another moment. "I will not relinquish her."

I stood looking at him in disbelief. "I understand that. Valentina and I are partners in this mission nothing more. She's your wife."

Mikael smiled an evil smile and then he shot me. I fell to the floor and I heard another shot ring out and saw Valentina leaning on the door jamb aiming her pistol. She had shot Rossoff, her husband and I rapidly lost consciousness after that.

Chapter 10

Valentina's POV

Valentina walked into the house where Kravsic lived and found her husband having a heated discussion with Callen. She realized her feelings were confused as to who she owed her allegiance to, Rossoff and Russia or Callen and her heart. She watched in horror as Rossoff shot Callen in the chest. Watching her husband shoot a good man broke her. She raised her twenty-two caliber pistol toward her husband and shot Rossoff in the head. He was dead before he hit the floor. She went to Callen and realized that he was seriously hurt and needed help right away. She called out to one of the others and told them that Callen needed help and when he went in she slipped away. She wouldn't leave until she knew that Callen would get help.

An ambulance arrived a short time later with a doctor on board. He was an older gentleman and Valentina heard him tell the others his name; Dr. Mallard. She was glad that someone had come quickly. The men picked Callen up and placed him in the ambulance and it left, wheels kicking up gravel as it hurried away. When all the men left she found a way to take Rossoff's body and dispose of it. She surmised that Rossoff had shot Kravsic and put him in one of the mass graves that were commonplace. Valentina added Rossoff's body to the count. It really didn't matter anymore. Then she started driving. She didn't know where she was headed; she just needed to get away from that house. It took several weeks but she returned to Moscow and her family.

Chapter 11

When Callen was admitted to a makeshift hospital in Pristina it was under the name Mikael Petrov as that is how the men he worked with knew him. He needed a lot of immediate attention. He was given a transfusion, surgery and was expected to come to. He didn't, but he was stable and Dr. Mallard remained concerned. He wanted the man to wake so that he could be sure he didn't suffer brain damage. The young man just didn't seem to want to wake up and that bothered Dr. Mallard. He was then air-lifted to Landstuhl Hospital in Germany.

Three weeks later he woke from his coma. He didn't remember who he was or what he had been doing in Pristina. The CIA finally located him and had him flown back to Washington, D.C. to recuperate. It took two months and he finally remembered his name but the rest was gone.

Epilogue

I no longer work for the CIA. I have taken a long trip through the alphabet soup including the CIA, DEA, FBI and now I work for NCIS as an instructor at the Naval War College in Newport Rhode Island.

It is a small world. Rania Evanic is Ziva David. I worked with her several more times in Europe in most of my soup work. She now works for NCIS in the Los Angeles Office of Special Projects and she is married to one of my good friends, Tony DiNozzo.

The Navy Seal, Sam Hanna, was my partner and still is my best friend.

Dr. Mallard works for NCIS as a medical examiner, in Washington and is a friend of Leroy Jethro Gibbs.

I got married several months ago and became a dad to a beautiful little girl.

Valentina showed up in my life once again. There were a few fearful moments because I didn't know her. It turns out that when Mikael Rossoff raped her, she became pregnant with a son, who she named Alexi. He lives in Moscow with his grandmother. Valentina suffers with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder from that mission. Because of her mental state she disappeared five years ago and left her son with her mother. Alexi is a constant reminder of what happened back then. Her family thought that she died on a mission for Russia. As we speak she is returning to Russia to reunite with them. Nate suggested more psychological counseling for her and gave her names of doctors in Moscow to help her. I hope she gets that help.

That mission screwed with both of our memories. I didn't remember it and she was driven over the edge because of it. We're friends now and I am glad that we both have our lives back.