"Anna, what are you doing? What's going on?" Clara asked shocked.
"I'm sorry, I didn't have a choice. You have to believe me. I don't want to do this but they have my mom."
"Who has your mom?"
"I don't know, I don't know him. He just called me on my phone using my mom's number. He said his name was Comescu." Clara froze once Anna said Comescu. "Who is he? Why did he want me to bring you to him?"
"Long story, family feud. I'm really sorry they involved you in this."
"I didn't want to do it but they threatened to kill my mom. I didn't have a choice, you have to believe me."
"It's okay Anna. We will get your mom out of this. I promise you."
Clara pulled out her phone and wanted to text Callen.
"Please don't send that text. They said they had our phones tapped." Clara fished in her bag and pulled out another phone. "What are you doing?"
"My dad gave me this phone in case of emergencies. It's a burn phone. There's no way they know this number. They can't track it."
"Are you sure? They said they would kill my mom if I tried to contact anyone for help."
"Don't worry. I'm not gonna ask for help. My dad will know something's up if I text from this number. Don't worry. We'll get your mom and you out of this. I promise you, my dad's team is the best. They will get us out."
"But you said you live in LA?"
"Yes the team is near there but NCIS has offices all over the country. They will relay the case over to an office closer to here while they travel down her. Trust me, it's gonna be fine."
Clara put a new sim card in the phone and sent a quick text to Callen. After the text had been send Clara pulled the sim card out and broke it. She removed the battery from the phone and hit the phone in the car.
"Now out and get inside. Pretend you don't know what's going on."
"Don't worry. It's gonna be alright. Your mom and you will be fine."
Clara got out of the car and walked to the entrance as Anna followed with the gun pointed at Clara. Anna knocked on the door and shortly after the door opened.
"Ah good Anna, you're here," Cristi Comescu spoke with a thick accent as Clara and Anna walked in. "And welcome Clara."
"Anna, what's going on? Who's this?" Clara immediately recognized the Romanian accent.
"I'm sorry Clara, I had no choice."
"No choice? What's going on Anna?" Clara spoke angrily.
Cristi motioned to one of his guys and he grabbed Clara and tied her hands together.
"No! What's going on? Who are you?! Let go of me!" Clara yelled as she fought her restrains.
"Ah the same fighting spirit as her father," Comescu spoke with a sick grin.
"You know my dad? Who are you?"
"Oh how rude of me, let me introduce myself. I'm Cristi Comescu."
"Comescu," Clara spat. "You won't get away with this. My dad will get you, like he did to all your other relatives."
Cristi slapped Clara across the face.
"Take her away."
The man took Clara to a room and tied her to a chair.
…
Callen sat behind his desk when his phone chirped. He looked at the screen and saw the text came from the backup phone he had given Clara. He immediately feared that something had happened.
'Hey dad, everything is going fine here. Finished early today so Anna and I are just gonna do some shopping. Citp on mission even shooting came up. Talk to you later.'
Callen looked at the message. He knew something was up if Clara send him a text from this phone. Callen took his phone and went upstairs to OPS.
"Hey G," Jenny greeted as Callen walked inside.
"Hey Jen, I just got this text from Clara, it's from the backup phone I gave her."
"Is something wrong?"
"I'm not sure. The text doesn't say, but this text she could have send from her regular phone. Something's up. I have a bad feeling about this."
"Let me see the text."
Callen handed his phone to Jenny. Jenny looked at the text. The first two sentences and the last one were normal. The third one was weird and didn't make sense. Then it hit Jenny.
"Look at the third sentence G, and the first letter of every word. It spells Comescu."
"Comescu! She's in trouble! Find out what you can, I'll contact Tony."
Jenny typed Clara's number into her system to see where she was. Callen stepped outside. He couldn't believe that Clara again had been taken by a Comescu. Was this ever going to end? He really hoped they wouldn't brainwash her again like they did last time. Callen pulled his phone out and called Tony.
"Hey Callen," Tony answered the phone.
"Hey Tony, I need your help."
"What's going on?"
"It's Clara, she's in trouble."
"Trouble? What kind of trouble?"
"She just send me a text from her backup phone. I believe the Comescus have her."
"The Comescus? Are you sure?"
"Yeah, Jenny's trying to find her now."
"Okay. I'll contact the office in Mayport. I'll fly out there to coordinate."
"Jenny and I are on our way as well."
"Alright, we'll get her back Callen."
"Alright, see you there." Callen hung up the phone and went downstairs to Hetty's office. "Clara's in trouble, the Comescus have her."
"Are you sure Mr. Callen?"
"Yes, she send me an encrypted text, she's in trouble. I already contacted Tony from the DC office and he would contact the Mayport office. Jenny and I would like to fly out there as well."
"Of course Mr. Callen. I'll arrange it right away."
"Thank you Hetty."
Callen walked out and wanted to walk back upstairs.
"Did I hear correct G?" Sam stopped his partner. "Do the Comescus have Clara?"
"Yeah it looks that way."
"I'm coming with you too."
"Thanks Sam."
Callen walked upstairs. "Anything?"
"Her phone is turned off and the sim card has been destroyed," Eric informed him.
"Find out where she was last. Jen and I are heading over there. Hetty booked us a flight out."
"Great."
Callen, Jenny and Sam left for the airport. A private plane was waiting for them to take them to Jacksonville.
"I hope she's alright," Jenny spoke to Callen.
"I'm sure she'll be alright. She can take care of herself."
"How did the Comescus find her?"
"Hopefully Eric and Nell can find that out."
"If they brainwash her again I'm seriously going to hurt them."
"Yeah you and me both.
…..
It had been two hours since Clara had arrived at the warehouse. She was still sitting in the room tied up to the chair. Comescu or anyone else had not come in to check on her. What did they want with her? Was she here to lure her dad here? How did they find her? Clara really hoped Anna and her mom weren't badly hurt by them. She would never forgive herself. Surely by now her parents would know what's up. Clara was sure her mother would figure out the clue she hid in her message and the NCIS team would be checking her cell phone and cameras to see where she was. She would just have to stall Comescu and his goons until they got her. She had trained for this already. She could do this. She just hoped the Comescus wouldn't drug and brainwash her again. She didn't want to relive her last encounter with the Comescus again.
….
Jenny had sat up her computer in the plane to have a connection to OPS and to the Mayport office.
"Hey Tony," Jenny greeted once Tony's face appeared on screen.
"Hey Jenny, hey Callen."
"Is there any news?"
"We've just got a connection with OSP. The techs and analysts here and looking over the data with Eric and Nell now. Do you know if Clara has a rental car here?"
"She said she probably would rent one but they could have taken Anna's car as well."
"Do you know her last name?"
"Anna Garnett."
"Alright we'll look for her as well, maybe we can find her car."
"Alright, we should be there in about three hours. We'll hook up with you then."
"Alright, we'll keep looking. Will let you know if we've found her already before you guys get here."
"Great, thanks Tony."
Jenny turned her laptop off. She really hoped that they would be able to find Clara before the Comescus would hurt her. Would they ever be safe from the Comescus? It was like they were growing on plants somewhere, they were like weeds. They kept popping up.
….
Clara looked up when the door opened. Two of Comescus goons pushed Anna into the room and tied her up to a chair as well.
"Let her go! It's me that you want!" Clara yelled at them.
"And have her tell someone where you are? I don't think so."
The two goons stepped away and spoke quietly to each other.
"De ce nu le-am omoar pe amândoi acum? Cristi nu este aici.[Why don't we kill them both now? Cristi is not here.]"
"Cristi le-a dorit atât în viață. Amintiți-vă că e tatăl vrem. [Cristi wanted them both alive. Remember that it's the father we want.]"
"Am putea doar să le omoare pe amândoi. Callen va veni pentru ea oricum. [We could just kill them both. Callen will come for her anyway.]"
"Pariezi tatăl meu va veni pentru mine și atunci când el nu-i va ucide pe toți.[You bet my father will come for me and when he does he will kill everyone.]" Clara spat.
The two goons looked at her surprised. She understood and spoke Romanian. They had not expected that.
"Not if we kill him first."
"You won't have the chance."
Clara was rewarded with a slap across the face. "You're lucky the boss wants you alive otherwise you would be dead by now."
"You would kill me?" Clara spoke with a smile. "You can't kill me. I will have you lying on the floor before you could even try."
"Oh really?" The man replied with a smirk. "And how are you planning on doing that? You're tied to a chair."
"One, always assume that your prisoner can get out and two, if you use ropes you should use better knots."
Clara launched forward and punched the man in his face before kicking him in the privates. As she was fighting she threw the chair the way of the other man. She punched him and took a hold of his gun. She aimed it at both men.
"Don't try anything stupid or I will shoot you both. Now hand me you gun too. Do it now!"
The man kicked his gun over to the Clara. Clara picked it up and aimed both guns at the men.
"You sit in this chair and you, tie him up." Clara kept an eye on them as she untied Anna. "You sit here. Anna, tie him up."
Clara kept the guns aimed at them. Once Anna was done she handed one gun to Anna and went to check the knots. Once she was satisfied that they wouldn't go anywhere Clara and Anna stepped out of the room. No one was there.
"Is your mom here too?" Clara asked.
"I don't know."
"Alright, we'll check the building."
"I'm really sorry about all of this Clara, I never wanted to do this but I couldn't let them hurt my mom. I really didn't want to hurt you. I had no choice."
"I know Anna, it's okay. We will find your mom and we'll get these guys."
"What do they want with your dad?"
"Long story short, their families have been in a family feud since like world war two. They are Romanian, my dad is part Romanian too. It started with my great grandpa. The Comescus are criminals, the worst of the worst. Once my great grandpa killed one of them they swore their revenge on my family and they would kill everyone in this family. They killed my grandma. My dad and my aunt were able to escape to America. I don't know how exactly. But the Comescus will not rest until my dad and every last one of his family is dead. They once took me and brainwashed me. They made me believe I was a Comescu and they were gonna use me to kill my dad."
"That's just sick."
"Yeah, luckily there aren't that many left. My dad killed most of them and we will get this one as well and we'll get your mom back."
"So all this started because your great grandpa killed a bad guy in the war?"
"Yes. They build an entire empire but fortunately my dad and his team have been able to take out a lot of them. There are not that many left."
They searched the building but there was no sign of Anna's mom.
"What now?" Anna asked.
"They have gotta be keeping her somewhere else. If we leave they might notice. We need to stay here until Comescu comes back."
"What about my mom?"
"I'm sure she's safe. We will find her as soon as we've taken down Comescu. My dad's team will be looking for me now and they will find us. Once we're out of here we'll look for your mom. But right now we have to go back to our room and wait for Comescu to come back."
Clara grabbed a roll of duct tape and they went back to the room. Clara put some duct tape over the goons mouths so they wouldn't scream if Comescu came back.
…
Callen and Jenny were about an hour out from Jacksonville when Tony called them again.
"We've got a location on Clara. She's in a warehouse. Eric looked at the footage and he saw Comescu leave there. We haven't spotted him coming back yet. We're going over there to see if Clara is still there," Tony explained to them.
"Okay great. Keep us posted," Jenny replied.
"Will do."
"And Tony," Callen added. "If you have a chance to shoot Comescu by all means take it."
"Got it."
Tony cut the feed and they all geared up. The techs were keeping an eye on the warehouse as Tony and the team drove to the warehouse.
"Comescu still hasn't returned yet. We haven't spotted any movement," the tech spoke over the com.
"Alright, we'll breach," Tony replied.
They all geared up. Tony counted down and they all breached.
Clara heard the noise. She thought it was Comescu. She was ready to strike in case Comescu came into the room.
"NCIS, federal agents!" Tony called.
As soon as Clara heard NCIS she opened the door. Immediately she had a couple guns pointed at her.
"Easy, it's me," Clara said.
"Clara, are you okay?"
"I'm fine. Comescu is not here. His two goons are locked up in here."
Tony looked into the room. Two largely build man were sitting tied to chairs. "You did that?"
"Yeah, piece of cake. Just distracted them and took them out."
"Nicely done. Your parents are on their way over here as well."
"We've still gotta get Comescu and he has taken Anna's mom."
"We will find her I promise."
"Sir, we've got a car approaching," one of the agents interrupted them.
They all took a covered position inside the building. It was indeed Comescu who walked back in.
"Costel? Florin?" Comescu called.
He didn't see them anywhere. He pulled his gun and walked towards the room where Clara and Anna were. He stepped in and he saw Costel and Florin sitting on the chairs, tied up, but there was no sign of Clara or Anna.
"Aruncă arma! Acum![Drop the gun! Now!]" Comescu heard a voice behind him.
He slightly turned around and saw Clara standing there with a gun aimed at him.
"Well, well, Clara, you really are like your dad. I'm impressed. Too bad he won't live to see what you did here."
"What are you talking about? You won't get the chance to kill him. He'll kill you before you ever get the chance."
"Not if he doesn't see it coming."
Comescu slowly grabbed his phone and pressed a few keys before showing the screen to Clara. Clara looked at the screen. She saw her parents sitting in the airplane, someone was watching them from the cockpit.