Chapter 33
A/N: Thank you for those who have read and left reviews of the previous chapter. Thank you for your patience, now for some more information of what's been happening in Russia.
Time was crucial for everything, in Sam Hanna's mind. For a mission to be successful, the planning, researching and scheduling every inch of the tasks had to be down to the second. The SEAL training was imbedded into him like his own DNA. Everyone on his team had to have their watches set to match his, otherwise it opened up holes for failure, and Sam didn't believe in deficiency when lives mattered.
However, no matter what depths of planning they delved into and went over again and again back at the apartment, nothing prepared them for surprises. His jaw set hard as he looked at the lifeless body of his temporary partner whom Director Vance had arranged. They had a mole within their agency again, and this time it wasn't on the West Coast, but their head office in D.C. Special Agent Tom Grasby had been a bad seed, placed in Russia in time to betray his team when they needed all the help they could get on the ground in mainland Europe. Although Tom had been tall, he was thin and weak in comparison to the former Navy SEAL, and had tried to overtake Sam on his way to the General's location. To strangle him no less.
Sam scoffed at Grasby's inept skills. If you were going in to take down someone with Sam's training, you needed someone stronger, smarter, and just as well trained. Now, Sam had a body to dispose of, and no way of alerting Gibbs and Deeks, that they were possibly burned before they reached the property of General Kuznetsov.
Thankfully under the shadow of night, and the fact that they were all dressed in black, it was an easy task to dispose of Grasby's body inside a dumpster out back of a restaurant. He didn't see any cameras, but Sam didn't take any chances and kept his head down, just in case.
Free from his betrayer, Sam decided he needed to find Gibbs to warn him. He was his closest ally, and he hoped Special Agent Stephanie James wasn't a rogue agent like Grasby, and that Deeks was safe. He had no idea about Special Agent Shawn Evans who was with Gibbs, and he had his adrenaline pumping through him, hoping that only Grasby had been the bad apple.
Sam pulled a map out of his inside jacket pocket and looked at where Gibbs should be at that moment. He double checked his watch, and figured out his fastest route to where he would find him. He hoped he made it before Gibbs' reached the General's property. He took off across the park and hoped no one thought him suspicious as he ran as fast as his legs would allow. Keeping his head low, he holstered his jacket up around his neck to hide any detail of what he looked like, if anyone searched him out on security cameras.
With his black beanie firmly in place, he moved swiftly down a couple of streets before pulling up behind two figures wrestling in the shadows under a large tree. Sam recognised Gibbs immediately, and realised Evans was attacking Gibbs. He bolted towards them and pulled Evans off Gibbs, who at sixty-nine should be retired. But the older man remained working, what else was he going to do in his retirement? How many boats can one man build in a basement?
Sam punched Evans hard on the face and the man went limp in his hold.
"Where's Grasby?" Gibbs looked behind him.
"Dead. He tried to strangle me."
Gibbs arched his brow at the ridiculousness of their situation.
"No joke." Sam looked at Evans. "I'd hoped Grasby was the only bad apple, looks like we better find Deeks and fast."
"We need to hide Evans."
Sam looked around them. "Let's place him on a park bench, let people think he's intoxicated."
"It will work." They lugged him to the nearby bench seat and laid him down. Carefully scanning the area, Sam took a greedy breath and looked at the map again. "Deeks and James were coming in from this end. The south is more built up, more chances of being seen by witnesses."
"We better go." Gibbs urged. He ran after Sam who was quick and light on his feet, he felt his age creep up on him, and swore when he returned to D.C., he was retiring for good. Now he had a damn good reason to head west and stay there permanently.
Gibbs found Sam alone where Deeks and James should have been.
"I don't like this one bit," Worry for Deeks seeped out of Sam's deep pooled brown eyes.
"Me neither." Gibbs looked at his own map and looked towards where Deeks and James should have gone from their position. "Two blocks out from the General's location."
"Gunfire echoed through the streets."
"No!" Sam bolted towards the gunfight, worry for Deeks filled him to the brim. He tore down the street, his footsteps echoing as he ran, but he suddenly stopped and stepped back behind a building, when he saw the army of special elite forces firing at General Kuznetsov's men.
"What's wrong?" Gibbs panted behind him, clearly out of breath.
"We're too late, but it's a good thing. I doubt Deeks and James will be up there. Take a look."
Gibbs quickly looked around the corner, his eyes widened at the firefight two hundred metres away. He pulled back. "Where's Deeks?"
"I suspect they saw the army head to the General's and split. They had a vehicle nearby, let's head there now."
Gibbs nodded and followed Sam, the two moving swiftly away from the chaos, incase the Russian armed forces headed back their way. Their own vehicles awaited them to the west of the property, and they needed to get out of the city fast. Ahead of schedule, they should make it to the port before they were due to check in.
Detective Marty Deeks' head felt like it had collided with a concrete bollard. He blinked a few times trying to clear the blurred vision. He saw light and movement around him, but nothing came into focus. He tried to pull the memory forward but it refused, it was like chasing the wind and never reaching out to hold it into ones hand. *Damn it! What happened to him?*
"He is waking up." A female voice quietly told another person in the room, but who was she and whom was she speaking with?
Nothing made sense, but at least he understood the woman's words. So he wasn't brain damaged from whatever had hit his head.
"He needs to be in a hospital where he can receive the best care."
"It is not safe for him to be found in this country. I tried my best to get him out, but someone burned our team, and a fired upon our getaway vehicle, sending us down a ravine. I didn't know who I could trust, which is why I called for your help." Special Agent Elena Aldia looked over at Deeks, worry filled her deep brown eyes. "He is fortunate to still be alive."
Now, everything returned with a gust of fierceness to his memory. They'd found their vehicle easily enough, and they began their drive towards Estonia. They should have made it, but they were lured off the main highway with a detour sign, and attacked. Fear for Sam and Gibbs filled him. *Were they still alive? Did they make it out of Russia, unlike him, whom was still within the Russian Federation's borders. Who burned their team?*
"Do not move," the soft voice of Elena attempted to soothe him.
Marty moved his lips, his voice was barely a whisper. He tried to clear his voice again. "Sam and Gibbs."
"We do not know how they have faired, I am afraid. All I can tell you is that we were burned and lured into the attack."
"I remember," Marty croaked out, his voice beginning to strengthen.
"You suffered a gash to your head, we tried our best to patch you up, but you really need to see a doctor. We do not know what other injuries you have suffered from the impact." Elena brought a glass of water over to the bed which he laid on.
"Can you sit up a little to drink this?" She held two paracetamol tablets in her hand. "I have something for the pain."
Marty gave his best efforts and was thankful to see his body did not betray him. He took the glass and the tablets, swallowing them. The cool liquid coated his dry throat. He moved to sit up some more, his head pounded and the room swayed.
"Best if you stay lying down until your concussion improves."
"We need to get out of here."
"We are safe here. I do not know who burned our team, I cannot reach out for help outside of this place."
"Where are we?"
"Somewhere safe."
"But where?" Deeks' patience ran thin. He felt like the woman spoke in riddles like Hetty did. "You sound like Hetty."
Elena smiled. "That is because she had been my mentor, many years ago."
"Hang on. How old are you?" Deeks studied her face closer.
Elena arched her brow and smirked, with one hand on her hip, daring him to approach this subject.
"Okay, never mind." He furrowed his brow, realising he wasn't the only one hurt.
"What happened to you?"
Elena's eyes lowered to her injured left arm which her trusted companion whom she'd yet introduce to Marty, had tended on arrival—cleaned, taped and bandaged. "Nothing time won't heal. It's a good thing I'm right handed."
"Anything else I should know about?"
"It was a graze. Nothing deep or any damage which would require medical treatment."
"You were shot." Deeks blinked remembering his own shooting and knowing how even the grazes burned and sting.
"Like I said, nothing to worry about. I'll survive, and it looks like you will too." Her body shuddered at the worry she'd had, contacting her companion who helped her move him to this safe location.
"Thank you." Deeks' eyes shifted to the unknown man in the room. He was younger than Deeks, he observed, tall and lanky like him, but strong with dark features similar to Elena. His eyes shifted between the two of them.
"Felix is my cousin. He lives and works in Russia. No one within the agency knows about him. We are safe."
"I thought NCIS was safe before we arrived here. It was the CIA we had problems with."
"I know. Hetty told me. She will be worried over you and your friends." Her eyes shifted to Felix. "We need a satellite phone."
"How about access to the internet?" Deeks suggested.
Elena and Felix looked at him expectantly.
"I have a friend who is talented in that area. Let's say, he once killed the internet."
"What are you suggesting?"
"I've seen him and his old work partner send coded messages on some cat food websites. Maybe I can send him a message?"
"I'll get my laptop." Felix left the room and quickly returned with an apple MacBook pro in his hands. He typed in his password and handed it over to Deeks, who had managed to sit up and not pass out.
Marty went to work, trying to remember the website where he'd seen Nell send messages to Kensi when she'd worked in Afghanistan. It took him some time to work it out, but then he found it, and smiled. "Gotcha!"
Eric Beale searched and searched every inch of the data that came in from St Petersburg, and the surrounding area leading into Estonia.
"I think I've found something," he mumbled to himself. It was quiet in OSP since the agents brought in to fill in for his usual team were out investigating an incident down at Long Beach. Nothing to do with the case on hand—finding their agents in St Petersburg. He pulled up a report of a shooting off the E20, in a small isolated road half way between St Petersburg and the border.
Why would any of their people leave the E20? He searched for surveillance cameras, and thankfully, he could tap in through their security walls and look for his people. He saw a highway maintenance vehicle pull up and place detour signs up on the road.
"So that's how you lured them off the main highway." Eric pushed his glasses closer to his face. "But which of our agents did you manage to get to?"
The first vehicle to arrive was driven by a woman, Eric recognised Deeks in the passenger seat immediately and watched them leave the E20. He paused the video, the time fitted the intel on the shooting. He drew in a deep breath and searched the area of the attack on satellite imagery.
"You bastards!" Eric shook his head, annoyance flickered in his blue eyes. He felt helpless, knowing what was going to happen and he could do nothing to help them, because he was catching up to the situation. He was eight hours behind what had occurred, and counting.
A beep sounded on the computer beside him. His eyes shifted and he pursed his lips as he rolled the chair sideways in concentration. "What do we have here?"
His eyes scanned the message. "Strange, yet not strange." A brow lifted, slightly amused at what he read.
"Aunt Bertha and Uncle Barty require 2 bags of food delivery at Bethesda Game Studio in Rockville, Maryland."
"Deeks and Elena." A smile hinted on Eric's lips. "But why Bethesda Game Studio? That's no where near Russia."
Eric pulled up a map of the area of the western fringe of Russia. "Bingo!" Eric found Beseda on the map. Pleased it had been an easy find, Eric messaged Deeks back.
"Thank you for your order. We will process it soon and get back to you with the time of delivery."
Eric pulled a satellite phone out of the drawer and dialled Hetty.
"Mr Beale, I do hope you have something for me?"
"I do. Deeks and his partner, Elena Aldia, have made contact. They're in Beseda, south of the E20, they haven't a ride into Estonia."
"Tell me all of it, Mr Beale." Hetty listened, her spine stiffened as her face showed now signs of the situation Deeks and Elena had faced.
"Miss Aldia has a cousin who lives in Beseda. It is why I sent her in to support our men. His name is Felix Reiter, and they would be hiding out at his place. She would have called Felix for help." Hetty sighed with relief that Dr Deeks had Miss Aldia with him. They'd been close to leaving Russia behind when they'd been lured from the main highway into a trap.
"Do you have his address to send in a team to get them?"
"I do, but no, I am not sending in any of our NCIS people. Our people have been burned, and it looks like Eric Cairns had people inside our agency to help him. Do you have any idea who they are?"
"No, Hetty. I couldn't find anything on Special Agents Tom Grasby or Shawn Evans, which stood out that they could have been working for Cairns.
"Keep digging. If anyone can find out the traitors, it is you, Mr Beale."
"I'm doing my best."
"Good job on finding Mr Deeks and Miss Aldia." Hetty looked over at John and Natalia, who'd returned from their wander in the forest. They looked like they wanted to be doing something more than sitting around waiting. "I may have someone to send, but it will take time. Tell Mr Deeks and Miss Aldia, the delivery will be at the earliest, tomorrow."
"Will do. Thanks, Hetty." Eric disconnected the call and quickly sent Deeks the updated delivery time.
"Any news?" Elena was pacing like a caged tiger, not liking them being stuck inside Russia's boundaries.
"Something has arrived just now." Felix handed his laptop over to Deeks who read the message.
"Tomorrow at the earliest." Deeks laid back down to rest his head. The pounding refused to go away and he closed his eyes.
"Probably the best in your condition," Elena told him, although she didn't like staying put and placing Felix in danger. He was not cut out for this kind of work. She turned to her cousin.
"I am sorry, it looks like we'll have to stay put for another day."
"It's okay, Lena, I will take good care of the two of you." Felix's eyes shifted to Deeks. "How well do you know him?"
"Not very well, but Hetty called me especially for this job because she knows me and trusts me. He is one of her people, close like family to her."
"Like you are to her." Felix smiled warmly over to his cousin. "She took you in after your parents were killed. You are like a daughter to her."
"Yes, she did. She took me to America, but she made certain I kept in contact with you and your family."
"Because we are family." Felix rested his hand over hers for comfort. "Our family suffered after that fatal vehicle accident. If you had been in the car with your family at the time, we would have lost you too. You know my parents would have raised you as their own if it wasn't for the risk from the Comescues."
Elena shuddered from the memory. She'd been ten at the time, and had been staying over at a friends, when the phone call came through over the death of her family. All five members, gone in an instant. A truck pushed them off the road, down an embankment. There was no chance of any of them surviving, unlike their fortune tonight, when she was able to get Deeks out of the wreckage before it blew up from the leaking gasoline. The fireball had caused a wider fire in the ravine, but she managed to get Deeks to safety across the small river which flowed through the ravine. They'd waited for Felix in an abandoned shed one hundred metres away from the fireball.
Her family burnt to ashes before she even knew they were dead. She wiped at her right eye, a tear betrayed her strength. Her mama and tată, whom she loved and held onto her precious memories like the crown jewels. Her older brothers and younger sister, with their whole lives ahead of them—dead. She'd overheard her uncle tell her friend's father, there were fragments of bones left, since the fire had been so intense. She'd cried for her family for weeks afterwards, not wanting to speak to anyone, until the tiny lady entered her life, and offered her a chance to live away from the memories that haunted her day and night, and far away from the danger she feared continued to press around the girl—from the Comescues.
The Romanian crime family was infamous in Romania, for protecting what was theirs, and making people vanish if they didn't follow the rules. She'd heard from her uncle that her father had been desperate for work after the war, and he ended up working for the Comescu family. He'd risen in the ranks and became a trusted employee, until a considerable amount of money had vanished, never to be seen again. The head of the Comescu family, a woman named Alexa, figured her father had been the traitor. So her family suffered because of it, but the money was never found, and her fear of the Romanian crime family had her hiding in the corner of the small bedroom she was sharing with her cousin—Felix's sister—until Hetty arrived and told her uncle she was not safe to stay in Romania.
Elena had not returned to her birth country since. She was thankful for Hetty's kindness in taking her away from the horror and fear which had consumed her, distracting her in Los Angeles— with a new life, education, and a purpose—to train to protect herself, and become a Federal Agent for her new country—which she was proud to do. Her work took her to various countries around the world, and yet, for some reason, Romania never came up. She heaved out a heavy breath, unclenching her right fist from the memories.
Deeks watched Elena with his bright blue eyes from the bed. With his head turned towards her, his ears pricked up at Felix's mention of the Comescu family. So, Elena was Romanian as he'd suspected, and another of Hetty's orphans she'd rescued. Why wasn't he surprised? Relief washed through him again, knowing Hetty had sent Elena to Russia to keep him safe. He did matter as much as Callen, Sam, Kensi, Eric and Nell. He steadied his breathing, never taking his eyes off Elena, who was obviously remembering a terrible time in her life.
Elena's dark eyes met his. "You do not look surprised?"
"No. I've seen too much of what Hetty's done over the years, I understand why she brought you in to be my partner for this job." He swallowed the lump which stubbornly lodged in the back of his throat. "She trusts you like she trusts my team."
"I suppose I should thank you for taking down the Comescu family. Someone needed to end their evil dealings. I'm glad it was you and your team." Tears welled her eyes, thinking of Callen being dead.
"What is it?" Deeks asked her confused over the sudden emotion.
"I am sorry for Callen. Hetty loved him like a son."
*So she'd heard about his death,* Deeks mused. He kept his face stilled, blank from the emotion which wanted to rage about the attack on Callen, and yet at the same time, , he wanted to say it was okay because Callen was really alive. Deeks kept his lips closed on the matter.
"Hetty told me why you were going in after General Kuznetsov, but it looks like the Russian army were severing their ties with the old bastard." She spat out her words, her anger sneaking up on her.
"And we have a mole within NCIS," Elena voice levelled as she sat down, her energy wavering.
"You need to rest." Felix had listened into the conversation like the unseen guest until now. Elena had been through hell during the night and survived. Her rush adrenaline at the time of the attack, had now left her drained and exhausted.
"I don't know if I can, not until we've left here." Uncertainty that they'll be able to leave Russian sprouted in her mind.
"Tomorrow is a long day, especially since it's only the early hours of today." A hint of the new spring day presented itself through the edges of the curtains and blinds inside Felix's cottage.
"You can have my bed. I need to leave for work soon anyway."
Elena nodded and pulled herself up to leave the room. Her eyes shifted back to Martin Deeks. "I'll just be through that door, if you need me." She pointed to the stained wooden door which led through to the only bedroom of the small cottage. Deeks laid out on the sofa bed in the living space of the main area of the cottage.
"Thanks." Deeks closed his eyes, his own exhaustion and throbbing head taking him under. He hoped Kensi and Zander were safe, wherever they were, and that Callen was healing from his injuries.
He dreamed of happier times until a sound brought him out of his sleep and had him sitting upright. His heart slammed against his chest, his eyes searching the cottage. Blood rushed past his ears, slighting his hearing. He looked for a weapon and was pleased to see a Sig sauer resting on the table. He moved to reach for it, and a sharp pain knocked from the inside of his head from his movement. He pushed back and continued to move until his hand rested on the weapon. He blinked a few times and waited with bated breath.