Hi all! And here it is, the last 'technical' chapter. I've been going back and forth, deleting, re-writing it more than once. And suddenly, this came out. Caro, thanks so much, I wouldn't have pulled through without you. :-)
Let me know what you think!
The apartment was empty. Keira was nowhere in sight, and it looked as if there had been a struggle. So off in the direction of the warehouse they went. Callen send Kensi and Deeks with a camera to see if there was any way he could get a visual from the outside. If not, they needed to break in without knowing anything, and Callen rather not do that. He could go in guns blazing, but for all he knew, the guy had his own small army and they wouldn't come out alive.
Deeks ducked by a window. "He has a tiny army with him. Counting at least four armed men, far as I can see."
"Any sign of Keira?"
He changed the position of the camera a few times, only to come up empty. "Negative."
Callen barked orders at his team, gearing up. "Go and see if you can find Keira and other girls. Try not to make it an entire bloodbath. I'd rather have him alive than dead." He wasn't going to wait for backup from the FBI or LAPD. It needed to be over.
Drawing his gun, he and his partner took the front entrance. There were more men in the building than Deeks had seen. But stealthily taking them out one by one, they moved in the direction of Bogdanov.
"Federal agents! Drop your weapons!"
He didn't seem particularly surprised. "Так что вы нашли меня." So you have found me.
"Tell them to drop their weapons, Bogdanov! You're surrounded."
"I'm surprised it took you this long to find me.'' He turned around and let his eyes survey the room. ''I do hope you're hurting. You deserve that.''
''Yeah?'' Callen prepped his gun. ''You want to make me hurt? I've already lost my parents and my sister. I felt what you're feeling long before you did.''
Bogdanov's eyes narrowed. ''That was why she was the only one that I could get. I heard she didn't make it.''
Callen's eyes flickered to Sam, a frown on his face. Then it hit him. Keira had told him that Deja hadn't made it. That he'd been succesfull in killing her. Judging by Sam's expression, he'd figured the same thing. ''She didn't. And with her, my will to live or to be careful went out the window, too. You better surrender now, Bogdanov, because the only other way you're going out of here, is in a bodybag.''
"And here I am, protected by all these men. You really think you're going to get close?"
In answer, a bodyguard close to him dropped. Sam indicated that they could move a bit closer. Bogdanov wasn't impressed. He shrugged. "Ah." He raised his hands. "You can kill all of them, agent Callen. I only have to activate a timer, tell you where to find the girls, and while you're busy saving them before all of this goes boom, I can walk out of here a free man."
Just then, Callen heard Kensi in his ear. "Callen? We've found Keira and the other girls. I'm sending Deeks in your direction now." He nodded at Sam, and inched closer still.
"I really hate to burst your bubble, but we have already found the girls. It's just you and me, now."
That did throw Bogdanov for a loop. He hesitated for a moment. "So you want to fight this out?"
"What I really want is to put a bullet in your head. But I'll settle for bringing you in and locking you up."
"I'm standing behind them," Callen heard Deeks say. "Shot is clear."
Bogdanov mentioned to his bodyguards. "Find him. Kill him." Then he turned around, a scornful smile on his lips. "You see, I have more men here. They'll find you. And when they find you, I'm going to make you hurt even more."
"Deeks, take a shot at the bodyguards if you have it." Sam took a breath. "Do you want to wait for it?"
"Not really." Callen rose, aimed and shot. Between the three agents, the bodyguards were down before Bogdanov could blink twice.
But Bogdanov wasn't all that stupid. He'd moved in the direction of the exit, taking cover. Callen wasn't about to let him go. Again, he took position, aimed and hit Bogdanov in his knee.
The man staggered on his feet, more surprised than anything. Callen came into view. "Это был для Маша." This one was for Masha. Again, he aimed. The other knee. "Это один для Линди и Джесс." This one is for Lindy and Jess.
He wasn't going to let Dee get hurt again, if it was the last thing he did. "Это одно, это женщина, которую я люблю." This one, this is for the woman I love. And he shot him right between the eyes.
"Are you sure you want to handle this yourself?"
Callen nodded, his eyes already diverted to the hall. "I know how to do my job, Hetty. Let me do my job."
Hetty let him go, turning to the screen. Keira had seen the medic, she was fit enough to be heard.
She looked up when Callen opened the door, her eyes filling with tears. "Grisha…"
Callen didn't respond as he pulled the chair back and sat down. Then he took a breath. "Is it Masha or Keira? Which one do you prefer?"
That was not the question she had expected. She swallowed. "Nobody has called me Masha in a while." She squared her shoulders. "Keira is fine."
"How do you know Bogdanov?"
"My parents sold me to him when I was seventeen. He came into town, all charms, with promises of opportunities. They wanted me to have a better life." Her eyes hardened. "So much for a better life."
"Why did he send you to LA?"
"To find you. Needle in a haystack, really. All he had to go on was a rumour that you were in the area."
"Why you?"
"I volunteered. I'd sugared up to him ever since I was with him and I found out what exactly it was he did. Since I'm the only one who could speak English, he let me go. Anything to get away from him." She closed her eyes. "I didn't want to leave the girls, but I figured that as long as I didn't have to be his slave anymore, maybe I could find a way to help them. Help all of us."
Callen studied her. "How come you speak English?"
"I had a friend when I was little whose mother was Irish; she taught us before they all moved back to Ireland." She gave him a small smile. "For a long time, it was all I had to keep me sane. Growing up poor means you have to be inventive."
"Why did you enrol at UCLA?"
"I convinced him that I'd have a better chance at finding you if I got a job and pretended to be a student. Bigger network, more connections. I'd blend in more. For all he knew you could be working at the university." She fidgeted with her fingers. "At least for a while I had some sort of normal life."
"How did you find me?"
She looked up; licked her lips. "I wasn't even looking. I was gathering evidence to get the girls out; every time he sent someone to check on me and my progress, I'd feed them some dumb story about how LA was huge and I couldn't exactly find you in the yellow pages. He'd leave me alone for a few months after that. It wasn't until Deja hired me and you came down the stairs that morning and she introduced you that it clicked. I swear I wasn't even looking for you, Grisha."
Callen crossed his arms. "Why did he attack Indulge? Why not the house?"
"He was counting on Deja being there, instead of that he house. I didn't tell him that you'd moved in."
"Why didn't you confide in Dee? Or Lindy? Or Jess? We could've helped you."
Her stare was unwavering. "I didn't know what you did for a living. I couldn't confide in anyone until I had gathered enough evidence, and before I did, he'd caught up with me; figured out that I had been stalling and came here. You think I'm proud of all this? You don't think I blame myself? If I had opened my mouth, maybe none of this would've happened. Maybe the café would still be there. Maybe I didn't have to bear the weight of putting Deja in danger. Maybe I wouldn't have to bear the weight of death on my shoulders. But where I come from, authorities are not to be trusted. And much as I like you, you carry a gun, and I don't know what you do. So I keep myself safe."
"What did you tell him?"
"As little as possible. And that's not because he didn't try." She pulled on her shirt and revealed cigarette marks. Burn marks. Cuts. "I wanted to keep all of you safe, but I had to give him something." Her voice caught. "So I sent him to the café, knowing that Deja was taking all late shifts this week. Told him that the earlier he struck, the likelier it was that he'd catch her."
"Why didn't you send him after me?"
"Because he didn't want to kill you. He was going to make you desperate enough to kill yourself. He was going to torture the hell out of you; first by killing her and then slowly doing it to all the other people you cared about." She swallowed. "I'm not dumb, Grisha. Marty and Kensi both carry guns too, they behave the same as you do. They first check every centimetre of the café before they sit anywhere, always with their face to the entrance. I figured that you'd have some sort of backup, and that if Deja was at the house, you'd find a way to keep her safe."
"I did."
She nodded. "You did."
"What was Bogdanov going to do with the girls we found in the warehouse?"
"They were going to be sold. Sex slaves to some South-American cartel."
"And you?"
She shrugged. "I don't think there'd be much left of me once he was done."
Callen's eyes softened. Although she wasn't completely blameless in all this, she'd tried to contain the damage done. She'd actually helped save Dee. There was one more thing. "What happened to the evidence you gathered?"
"There's a key in my uni locker. A safety deposit at the bank."
When he came back into the main room, he threw the file on the table and walked over to where Deja was standing. He sighed. There was something in her eyes he couldn't put his finger on. Something that was not right, but honestly, he was going to worry about it later. She was here, she was safe and he could hold her.
"Is it done now?" Her voice was small and he could tell she was exhausted.
He gathered her close. "Yeah baby, it's done."
