Eye to Eye

~ "Any reason to believe I don't? Old school, Langley." ~

Eye to Eye, chapter 10

Disclaimer: All the characters [except the OC] are known from the original NCIS Los Angeles series: they were made up by Shane Brennan and belong to CBS.

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Bulgaria, Shabla, Dobritsj || 11.45 AM

Seconds before Grace had put the car in reverse, Alec started yelling "My 'tendo, my 'tendo!"
It took a while before Callen understood — the boy was upset because he didn't carry his game-computer.
He hurried inside, took the item from the couch where Alec had left it, and was about to hurry back outside. Until his thoughts went over the discussion about 'how did they know where to find us'…
No way.
This might be how, and he needed to find out. But most of all, Callen wanted Grace and Alec safely out of the way.

He came back outside, emptyhanded.
"You've got to go now Grace, there's no time to lose. I cannot find it. See if you can buy the boy a new one," he urged her.

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Varna airport, Bulgaria || 11:50 AM

Finally, after passing customs, there was time to call the LA office.
"Listen, Mr. Hanna. I can't guarantee your safety. With what miss Stevens told me only minutes ago, the only thing I know for sure is that there was a small army heading toward the place they were staying, and she was sent off by Mr. Callen. All I know is the location you should be heading to."
She sighed deeply, not liking the message she was giving to the part of the team she was talking to.
"And for your information, Mr. Callen is not answering his phone, nor is anyone else."
Despite the fact she was not adding anything Sam did not already know, there were so many questions he had.

-"G told you there are Comescus involved. What did he tell you, exactly?"
Sam felt he had the right to know. After all the whole team, including Hetty, knew what it meant if any of the Romanian crime family would find out about Callen being in Europe, only miles from the place the Comescus lived. It was a matter of one short call or even worse, only the unheard use of a thumb to send a short message, and they'd be around.

"All he demanded was if I knew. To which, Mr. Hanna, the answer was no." She paused for a beat, then spoke softly "Take care, Mr. Hanna. And bring him back, will you please?"

She hardly ever pleaded.
Sam realized it after he had disconnected with a more or less ignorant 'okay'. Hetty was just as nervous about what was going on as he was himself…

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Meanwhile || Shabla, Dobritsj || 12:00 AM

Now only the both men were around in the Bulgarian house.
Callen trusted that Grace was clever enough to travel southward as soon as possible, back to Varna, a place where she would call Hetty ánd book a flight back to Turkey. He planned to visit her, once this all was over.
He refused to think in 'if's', just like he refused to think that the Comescu-family, that huge family, would finally succeed in hunting and wiping out all the Callens.
Not him.
Not now.
He wiggled his jaw several times, a habit which even drew the attention of JayJay.

"You're THAT mad?" the other man asked.

A short glare and sharp nod came as Callen's response. Despite the fact the agent had been ordered to be around 'just in case', he did not mean to be best-friends-forever, and sharing his feelings with someone he hardly knew did not suit Callen. Besides, Hetty had asked for Jacobs, not for... for her.

"We have to be prepared and be prepared quickly. If that what Dimitrov said is right, we're going to face at least ten men, maybe more, willing to kill us."

Callen checked the rifles he got from the car where they'd been carefully tucked away, out of sight for any innocent viewers.
"You know how to use those?" he asked.

JayJay tilted his head, looking slightly arrogant that way. "Any reason to believe I don't? Old school, Langley."

A smirk came his way. "Been there, did that," Callen remarked. Immediately serious, he started to plan now.

"I'll see if I can find petrol or gasoline. You can empty some bottles and tear apart a towel or something in the kitchen. Some Molotov cocktails might help." He sent another quick smirk and added "Old school, Langley, buddy."

He made a quick round around the house, trusting JayJay to do the same inside. Looking for the right material and checking the right position was his kind of work.
Alert, his adrenaline was on high level now. No-one near the house so far. Callen noticed the jerry can next to the neighbors' house and grabbed it without asking. If war broke loose, they might understand.

"Jacobs?!" he shouted. "Got some bottles already?"

He cursed aloud when he found the other man. Sure, he'd found what they needed. Too bad he took some of it in his empty coffee-cup.
"You're still sober enough to hold a gun, aim and shoot?" he asked coldly.

"Sober enough."

He had to trust on those words. "Then let's get to work."

Ten minutes later, they were ready, in position and the waiting started.

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Shabla, Dobritsj || 15 minutes later

He waited patiently from up on the small shed which was attached to the neighbor's house. From there, Callen had eyes on the front road as well as over the backyard of the Comescu property.
They came, silently moving closer and he watched them come near — a well-trained army. Men dressed in uniformed black boots, trousers and jackets.
Callen shook his head. Those guys weren't Comescus.

He decided to wait for whatever action was necessary, just until they were close enough to study their faces, their movements and the way they divided tasks without speaking aloud.
The moment four of them were moving in half a circle heading to the backyard, he heard them whispering. The words weren't Romanian, nor Bulgarian or American. Callen knew enough about the languages around. This was a Russian dialect, to be more specific, Eastern-Ukrainian.
But no matter their background, these men came with one target — to take the lives of the people in this specific house.

Callen smoothly got up. The most difficult part had come now, he had two small but lethal DIY-bombs he'd needed to throw nearly simultaneously to the men. It meant he would need to give up his hiding place, and it meant he'd put a lot of strain on the wound that still bothered him.

Both bottles smashed on impact and the fireballs, which were followed by the spreading flames, surprised the men. They forgot to fire their guns, while Callen had bought some seconds to get inside the house from where he had the automatic gun put on one of the bedroom-chairs, which he put upside down and used as a standard. Firing the gun, he knew there were now six men out of action.

All he counted on was that JayJay managed to keep the other four that he'd noticed away and no longer threatening them.

He saw another of the prepared bottles being thrown from the ground floor, immediately followed by some shots sounded which came from the back door in the pantry. Indeed, John Jacobs hadn't forgotten how to use a machine gun. Callen prayed it was good enough to stop the other men from shooting.

Then, as if lightning struck, the shooting stopped, both from outside of the house as from the inside. He needed and wanted to know why, so he had to go downstairs, and decided that doing so was best from how he started — through the large bedroom-window and the small ridge onto the attachment.

There were five men he could see, more than he expected, but he would definitely not be able to eliminate from where he stood. However, he did hear the words that were shared, when one of the men switched off his phone after he'd made a call.

"Joeri says they've caught the woman."

The words hit him like a ton of bricks. It's when Callen felt he'd lost this battle anyway.

'Grace'…

Thank you for reading. Your reviews are very welcome, as ever!
Kni®benrots