Chapter 8
Moving on
A/N From now on there will be quite a lot going on. But hey, perhaps it was to be expected? After all, it was going to be a SHORT story. That is what I thought beforehand… Things can change, right?
Keep enjoying the read please and let me know if it is readable at all… Because somehow it seems as if there less people following, reading and reviewing. So, this is a shout-out to anyone reading: just give me that simple help and just tell!
Kni®benrots
Disclaimer: anyone reading should realize by now that there's no way I own any character of NCIS LA. I just use them and thank CBS and Shane Brennan for creating this incredible team!
~ They were dealing with an enemy who knew what they were doing before they knew it themselves… But all they could do was moving on ~
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Los Angeles || Sam's car
Sam drove his Challenger through the LA streets while he simply followed the instructions of his younger and temporary co-worker. Meanwhile he let his thoughts go over every single bit of information they had so far. After another few miles of silence he simply slammed the steering wheel. "Dammit Eric… Is it that you and I are too sloppy after this long day?"
He accelerated and overtook some cars, simply because he wished he could gain time, not really knowing why or how those few seconds would make a real difference at all.
"Well, technically I'm just a technical operator of course. But…" Eric paused a bit too. "Well, to me it seems that someone wanted to cut the ties of Callen and the team. Flush him out. One is easier to handle than four, or six. Maybe they know what to expect from Callen, but also from us."
"Win time, you mean?"
Eric hummed a confirmation. "Don't ask me for what exactly, but yeah."
Sam shook his head. It could mean everything and nothing at the very same time. He let Eric's word sink in. "If it's Janvier, well, the creep knows better than anyone how to get under our skin. He knows how we work." He sighed deeply and was about to continue when his phone rang.
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Coast Starlight Train
Callen had instructed Peter to close the panel once he got on the solid ground of the upper level compartment, but not until he'd wished the young boy good luck.
He observed the mother of the boy, whose real temper now showed. All he wanted was to move swiftly to the next step.
"Say, Rose?"
She looked up by his calm but demanding voice.
Now that Callen had her attention he said "Peter will be okay, Rose, he will. Now it's your turn. So, I'm going to open this door and what I want you to do is go and hurry as soon as you can to the passenger compartment too. From these illustrations, it's through the wet area and changing rooms, straight to the first set of seats. With a little luck, you can find Peter as he will be on the upper compartment."
"You mentioned that before. Sounds so easy but I told you before, that door's locked."
"I know." He looked up from his position — working the lock patiently with the set of hairpins he always kept clipped on his jeans. Hell, the laundromats which complained about his stuff were several already.
"Still," he continued "I'm pretty sure I can open it so what I want you to do is hurry out of here the moment you can."
"Why? I mean… why you keep saying that? Where will you be?"
"Right next to you." Clear enough. She needed to know she wasn't on her own. "Oh, and Rose? This section is the one those guys will keep an eye on. So it'll be… more challenging."
This time he saw how her eyes widened and she swallowed. Well, he couldn't make it more attracting for them to try and get away. Callen knew he unlocked the shallow door already. "Listen… I want to go through those boxes once again to try and find something that would work as a weapon. This pen, for example, will do nicely."
"You expect there will be knives and guns in there?"
It sounded just as insulting as Callen knew she meant. For someone he didn't know and who wasn't in the same line of work that he was, he understood and he tried to be as patient as he could. "Wire, a soda glass or even a hard-cover novel, things like that would help me."
She shrugged and sat down in a way that showed her reluctance.
It took only a few minutes for him to go through the contents of the boxes and he knew he had to hurry since he had the feeling time was ticking faster than he wanted. All he found, next to the pen he already had, was a used faucet. It should do.
"Rose," he called. "Are you ready to go?"
This time she slowly nodded, got up on her feet and he felt like instructing her only a bit more. "You told me there were four men, right?"
She nodded again and he continued "If we will meet any of them, I figure you would recognize them as well. And if so… well, if they come after us or will meet us, what I want you to do is run away as fast as you can. I'll see if I can deal with them."
There was a shaky breathe. "I can meet Peter?"
Callen tried to smile as confident as possible. "You can. There's the upper floor where he should be. Get there too as soon as you can, and once you find him, cross this one compartment and get as far away as you two can."
She nodded and now they were this close to the next move, Callen closed his eyes for a brief second. He was ready too.
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They managed to pass by two changing rooms. If he'd spent less time finding some gear, indeed they'd won just the time that was needed to get away unseen.
Now Callen knew he'd have to use all he had to fight those two muscled men who came in their direction. In a cramped room like this he figured they weren't going to use any guns. But there'd be fists or perhaps other weapons. And those two guys certainly didn't expect them to be in here, so the odds were even.
Callen swung his right arm in which he held the faucet straight into the torso of the man who was closest to him. It made the guy stumble backwards, and for the briefest of time there was a small pass.
"Go Rose!" he yelled.
He dodged when a first fist came his way and he now aimed higher. He hit the front man's face and heard a bone crack while blood spattered around. She still was behind him, not moving at all and he yelled again "Now, Rose!"
He shouldn't have been distracted, not now and not by her.
New steps came their way and an older lady who entered the wet area started screaming as she spun on her feet, shut the door slammed and left the place. Then the third guy was there, definitely blocking the exit.
The temporary and unusual weapon was slammed from his arm with a force Callen didn't expect and he was knocked against one of the doors. The pain in his torso made him want to curl up for a moment, but he needed to stay on his feet and keep fighting, for the slightest chance that she could get away from this place.
Another fist hit him, and there were more blows coming than he could return or handle. There was blood running from his brow, blurring his view. The attack from two pairs of fists on his body made him nearly going down.
Then there was the sharp intake of breath behind him and a soft spoken 'a knife'. He registered it without being able to avoid the single stab that hit him. Just enough to make him give up this fight for a few seconds too long.
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Los Angeles || Sam's car
Sam tapped the 'accept' button on his dashboard and simply introduced himself: "Yeah?" The number that appeared was unknown to him.
It was silent for a couple of seconds until he and Eric heard a soft spoken -"Are you Sam?"
Sam replied "Yes, this is Sam Hanna speaking."
Another short pause. -"Your friend says you could come and save us."
He steered the car to the right lane and slowed down a bit. "My friend?"
-"Callen."
Sam glanced at Eric and raised his brows.
"Peter," Eric mouthed.
"Peter?" Sam said. "Where are you? You okay?"
There were some rustling sounds and another person replied -"Are you the boy's father?"
He replied "No ma'am. I'm... a friend of the family. Is Peter alright?"
-"Yes he is. Told us his mother isn't though. So he wants you to meet them and get them out of here."
"Where are you? Who are you?"
-"Linda, Linda Watson, Sir. And we're heading to San Francisco."
"This is special agent Sam Hanna speaking, by the way. From what I hear it sounds as if you're in a train."
-"That's correct. We're on the Coast Starlight Train. All in all it's a lovely journey with the most beautiful views. Now, this young man asked me to use my phone to make a call. And I must say, Mr. Hanna, that I am quite worried about what this boy just told me."
"Well I understand that you're worried, but please try not to show it to anyone around you, for the sake of your safety but especially for that of the boy and his mother. Could you please keep an eye on the boy?"
He heard a confirming hum and continued "Uhm, ma'am can I speak with Peter just another short moment?"
Sam shot another glance at Eric, who had his tablet on his lap and tapped on the screen, enlarging the item and nodding to himself. Then, there was Peter's voice again.
-"Will you be here soon, Sam?"
He tried to make his voice smile since he knew it would sound more convincing to anyone listening. "Peter, I will be there as soon as I can, and I will take some policemen with me. But you have to understand that you are far from me, quite a bit further than you and I feel happy about. Right now I am in the middle of Los Angeles, and you—" He switched his gaze to Eric's screen and quickly saw "You just passed Santa Maria. I think it will be about 3 hours and a bit, Peter. But we will hurry. Anf Peter, you just stay close with the lady that I just spoke with."
That should be clear enough, Sam hoped.
-"The police? I hoped… No SWAT?"
"What? Well yes, Peter. I will ask a SWAT team to assist me."
-"They can save us. I know, Mr. Sam."
"Then I will get them around and I will assist them, Peter. I need to call them now, so I will disconnect this call, right? You can call me again if anything changes, you understand? Ask the lady. She will help you too."
He waited for another hum and pressed the red button on the display. He simply didn't have to ask Eric - he knew the younger man already was working through routes and schemes and he would ask Nell to assist them.
o)o)o)o)o)o)o)o)o)o)o)
Coast Starlight Train
Callen knew escaping was out of the question from now on. They were kind of forced back into the same space they escaped from and from what he gathered the place was now guarded too.
He gladly sank down to a seated position and closed his eyes. The 'chuga-chuga' cadence of the train on its railroad pounded through his entire body and unwillingly he let out a groan.
"You're... bleeding." Her breathing was fast.
"I know," he grunted as he let his hand go over his eye to wiped away some blood.
Again, she inhaled deeply and shakily. "My God. You could've died. They... a knife. And you —" She swallowed. "This was... when I'm working things are so different."
She'd been paralyzed. Something he hadn't been prepared of and he blamed himself for that. Any civilian could and might have acted like she did, but Callen figured her drive to reach her son as possible would've been strong enough. But it wasn't …
"Real life, Rose. Wished... I really wanted to avoid this. But I've had worse." His hand now went over his left shoulder. "This is just a graze, no need to panic."
She didn't respond and he didn't want to prod. Instead he let his thoughts go over the why, where and who…
As ever, thank you for reading!
