Reviews appreciated and welcomed.
Title: Nowhere Man
Rating: M
Warning: Non-consensual sex, rape. G/OCs
Story Details and Full Disclaimer in Chapter 1: My stories are a work of my imagination and I do not ascribe them to the official story canon. This is a work intended for entertainment outside the official storyline owned by CBS and the producers of NCIS:LA.
Interpol
Chapter 4
For the first time in his entire career as a federal agent, G sat on the opposing side of the interrogation table. He stared at the opposite wall with his arms crossed as he leaned back in the chair.
Hetty settled down in the chair across from her lead agent. "This is off the record."
"I want it on the record," he said.
"I'm trying to afford you the privacy you deserve."
G sat forward, closing the gap between them. "I don't deserve anything, record it."
Hetty waved her hand at the camera in the corner. "They are here and can hear what we're saying."
"Good because I have nothing to say." G leaned back against the chair.
"You are not defending yourself?"
"Nope," he said, "no reason to defend myself. I've done nothing wrong." A partial lie. It protected himself and someone he dearly loved.
Sam rushed into the room and slammed the door against an inner wall. "What in the hell are you doing?"
G gaped at his partner and glanced at Hetty. "I'm sitting here being interrogated by my operations manager," he said with a causal tone.
"Damn it, G, stop being so stubborn," he said. "This is one time you need to acquiesce and tell us what you've gotten yourself into."
"I don't concur."
"What?" Sam gawked at him and eyed Hetty. "What's the deep, dark secret you've hid from me? From us? From the team?"
G glanced at him sideways.
"Don't give me that look!" He reached down and yanked his partner off the chair by the scruff of his shirt and shoved him against the nearest wall. "You are going to throw away your whole career as an NCIS agent and for what?" Sam asked glaring at his partner and getting in his face. "Nothing can be this important—"
"Mr. Hanna, back down and release him."
"No, damn it, I want to know what could be that important that you'd throw this all away."
Hetty came along side her agent. "Sam," she said, lowering her voice to a whisper, "release him."
Sam shoved his partner harder into the wall and released him with a loud huff stomping out of the interrogation room and slamming the door behind him.
G gawked at the shut door. He composed himself, trying to gain a sense of calmness before settling back down in the chair. G had never seen his partner this riled up over a situation between the two of them. Sam's actions shook him to the core. Maybe this whole sequence of events was not a good idea, and yet it necessitated that he follow through with what he had set in motion weeks ago. His life and his loved one's life depended on it.
"Mr. Callen, are you okay?" Hetty asked as she settled down in her chair again.
G nodded.
"Is there anything—"
"I'm prepared to be arrested by Interpol."
"Mr. Callen!"
"I need to get on with this right now."
Hetty stood and left the interrogation room.
Two officers entered the room, one with handcuffs in his hand. G had hoped that handcuffs would not be necessary if he cooperated. These two officers were not taking any chances. At least they were not zip ties.
"Stand."
He knew the routine, had repeated it to countless criminals. G stood and placed his arms behind his back, surrendering to them. Upon hearing the handcuffs being clasped into place around his wrists, he cringed and his entire body jerked. He flashed back to the kidnapping at Hollywood and Vine around 5 AM almost two weeks ago. The drugs coursed through his body until he succumbed to their powerful effects. G's eyes fluttered and he came back to the present moment unsure if his two new captors had spoken to him.
"Come with us." The taller of the two agents guided his prisoner out into the hallway. "Thanks for being cooperative instead of fighting us." He took his prisoner out into the parking lot and helped him into the backseat of the black, unmarked SUV.
Again G began to have flashbacks of the kidnapping. Too similar. The vehicle. The handcuffs. The strange odors in the car. He willed himself to stay calm and not react to the similarities. A strong feeling of dread washed over him—the doors slamming shut, the odors, the handcuffs, the vehicle, the drugs—all contributed to that feeling. The kidnapping repeated in his mind again and again and wooziness in his head from the ale amplified the sensations and feelings in his body and mind. G faced the empty seat next to him, hurled onto the floorboard, and passed out on the seat.
"Damn it, stop the car, the guy's lost his lunch," the taller agent said from the passenger seat. After the lead agent stopped the car along the side of an isolated street, the taller agent opened the passenger door and helped their prisoner out of the backseat, settling him on the curb while the two officers cleaned up the backseat. When the officer turned back to lift his prisoner off the curb he found the spot empty. "What in the hell?"
From behind the officer, G grabbed a weapon from the man's holster and pointed it at his spine. "Give me your hands and tell your partner to sit in the backseat."
"You don't want to—"
"Don't tell me what I don't want to do," he said, "follow my instructions to the letter."
"Gary, sit in the backseat, do what he says."
"Thank you." G cuffed the man's arms behind his back.
"Can I ask how?"
"You may ask all you want and I won't guarantee I'll answer," he said guiding the man into the backseat. "One move from you Gary, and I won't hesitate to shoot you. I'm a great shot. Your choice." G hurried around to the opposite side of the car and grabbed the handcuffs off the officer. "Step out of the vehicle, Gary, nice and slow, hands behind your back." G cuffed the second officer and guided him back into the SUV. "Where do you prefer I drop you off? Your homes or your job?"
"What?" Gary asked.
"I'm a federal agent and can access anything I wish to know."
"You pick it," Gary said.
"Smart choice." G climbed into the front seat and took the still running vehicle out of park. "For the record, I keep an implement on me at all times. It has helped me out of sticky circumstances such as this." G drove to a spot on a deserted road halfway between the two agent's jobs and homes. He guided the two men out of the vehicle and removed their cell phones, destroying the smart cards in them and tossing the batteries over a fence into a field. "Where's your weapon, Gary?"
"Glove compartment."
"Stupid idea," G said. "When you transport a criminal be prepared for the worst-case scenario. For your sakes, I hope someone comes along this deserted road and rescues you." He climbed into the SUV and pulled back onto the road.
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"You have him, Mr. Beale?" Hetty asked, standing in the OPS Center behind her technician.
"Yes, pulling up the most recent videos from traffic cams."
"The device is tracking well?"
"Yes, better than expected." Eric brought up the most recent videos of their wayward agent.
Sam leaned against the light table, folded his arms and sighed. "That's not exactly the way I'd send off my partner."
"And if you hadn't, Mr. Hanna, we wouldn't have these videos and the tracking."
"I know," he said, "but now he thinks I'm pissed at him."
"Too bad," she said, "you get paid to follow my orders not to placate your partner."
The whole team watched the videos of their lead agent take down and handcuff the two Interpol agents.
"He's good," Deeks said, "less than thirty minutes and he's confiscated their vehicle and left their team on the side of a deserted highway."
Sam rubbed his chin with a forefinger and a thumb. "Come on, G, show us where you are going." He muttered to himself but loud enough for the team to hear.
One by one each team member's jaw dropped when their lead agent parked outside a government facility. They watched him survey the facility and then leave.
"What the?" Sam straightened and watched the video from the traffic cam.
"Don't lose him, Mr. Beale, I need constant surveillance on Mr. Callen."
Eric knew what that meant, no going home tonight.
"I need the team to ascertain the purpose of this government facility," she said. "I need access to every camera in the area including the secure ones outside that government building. Do not pursue or take Mr. Callen into custody."
"Wait a minute," Sam said, "you want us to watch him perform whatever task is associated with that particular building and then sit back and witness a crime?"
"Yes, if need be, Mr. Hanna."
He sighed. It was one thing to tag multiple tracking devices on his unsuspecting partner and another to watch him commit a crime without intervening in the circumstances. Sam left the OPS Center with his guts doing flip flops. Never had he laid into his partner the way Hetty had asked him to. The look on G's face said it all. Shock and confusion. Of course Hetty knew that would be the outcome but now his partner was running and pursuing some other calling and Sam was at a loss as to how to proceed. Do not pursue. Do not take into custody. G is my partner and I know something is not right. I might have to disobey Hetty in order to save my partnership and G's life and sanity.
"Mr. Hanna!" Hetty followed her agent to the stairs.
Sam flipped on his heels, faced her, and stepped back to the doorway.
"You need to avoid getting emotionally invested in this case."
"No, can't do it, he's my partner."
"If he suspects for one moment we are pursuing him, he'll know we tracked him."
"Damn." He sighed. "And we can't allow him to know that." Sam crossed his arms and leaned his right shoulder into the door jamb. "I'm concerned about him."
"As well as I, Sam, but we must keep our distance and watch this scene play out to its fullest."
He sighed louder.
"You didn't betray him."
"You don't know that. We don't know that. No one knows that," Sam said. "This is a shot in the dark."
Hetty sighed and placed her hands on her hips. "And the only shot we have left in the chamber of our gun."
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Night fell on Los Angeles as G parked to the side of the government facility. He double checked his equipment and his attire and his face. Earlier he had ditched Interpol's SUV and rented a nondescript vehicle for his heist. As a precaution, he used an alias to rent the vehicle. Better hidden and discreet than using his real name. Although, he had gone undercover too many times to remember in the last two months that his name no longer held any meaning for him. It was just a placeholder. His entire persona tonight reflected the meaninglessness of his name. The black smudge paint on his face and neck hid his light skin and two day-old facial growth. The black jumpsuit covered his usual attire of jeans and a dark blue, long sleeve t-shirt. The black night cap secured over his head hid his light colored hair. And his black, bulletproof knapsack and vest concealed more secrets than he cared to know or tell his own team.
G slid out of the driver's seat and softly closed the door. He hoisted the knapsack over his shoulders and removed the gun from under the arm holster. G had not used one of these holsters in a long time. He practiced drawing his weapon out of the holster before a mirror at his hotel.
As he neared the facility's outer fence, he thought back to the confrontation with his partner in the interrogation room. It shook him to the core. His partner. His partner had attacked him. His partner had got in his face. G pushed the unpleasant memory out of his mind and focused on the fence searching for the one spot to test the electrical current. When he reached the area farthest away from the building's side entrance, he lowered his knapsack to the grass at his feet and removed a specialized device from it. He eyed the control panel on the device, pressed several buttons and ordered the electrified fence to shut down. Afterward he used a pair of bolt cutters to hack his way through the chain-link fence.
Once inside the facility's yard, G crossed the wide open space, keeping to the shadows. He grabbed another device out of the knapsack and keyed into it information about the facility's secure system. G approached the side door undetected and inched toward the entrance. After swiping the device over the keypad beside the entrance, a green light signaled the door was released. He pulled the door open with a black, nitrile gloved hand and slid through the doorway into the secure facility. G eased the door closed, keeping the noise to a minimum.
After searching through the schematics on the same device which allowed him to gain access to the secure facility, he found the room he wanted and edged toward its direction. G slipped around the last corner and saw the room directly across from him. He scanned the door again and disabled the security lock. Once inside the darkened room, G pulled a flashlight from his knapsack and surveyed the area for the item he needed.
A noise in the corridor sent him to the floor, turning off his flashlight. G inched upward to peek over a countertop and saw a man pushing a floor polishing unit past the room. When it disappeared down the long corridor, he breathed out a long sigh of relief. He searched the room which was about the size of the OPS Center and discovered the device next to several prototypes. G grabbed the device and stuffed it into his knapsack.
Before exiting the room, he scanned down one hallway and up the other one to make sure the polishing equipment was no where in sight. G slipped through the doorway and hurried toward the exit. Once there, he pressed an ear to the door and listened for at least thirty-seconds before pushing the door open. After sliding through the opening, G hustled across the open yard, staying to the shadows. He reached the opening in the gate and slinked through it. Several minutes later, G had patched the cuts in the chain-link fence and reestablished the electrical current.
G climbed into his rental car, started the engine, and drove toward his hotel room.
NCIS:LA NCIS:LA NCIS:LA
On the high definition video screen in the OPS Center, Sam had watched his partner's daring moves to bring back a specific item from the government facility.
Eric Beale's fingers flew over the keyboard at his station searching for the description and identity of the device, while Nell Jones scanned the devices next to the one their lead agent had taken and the rest of the secure room.
"Good news and bad news," Eric said.
"Give me it all." Sam moved away from the light table where he had been leaning with his arms crossed and observing the video.
"Bad news first, this is the same device which was stolen by the Romanian woman in the Doppelgänger case from almost a year ago in July of 2011."
"And the good news?" He stepped closer to his tech.
"There's one more device like it."
"Where?"
"I'm… I don't have that information yet."
"Well, get it, fast," Sam said. "Show me the close up of this device again, Eric."
He sighed. "I can't do both—"
"I've got it, Eric," Nell said, stepping in for her partner. Eric was right. They were partners. Not partners as their other team members but partners of a different type and they worked well together. With the video on the screen, Nell smiled and glanced over at Eric for a moment and back to the screen.
"Stop, slow, three frames backward, stop." Sam edged closer to the screen. "Can you get a snap shot of—"
"Already done," Eric said, "that's what I used to ascertain the device's identity." With a few keystrokes, he positioned the high definition photograph on the screen. "Crap!"
"I don't like the sound of that."
"The other device is…." He paused and keyed in some more strokes on his computer keyboard. "Was.…"
"Was what, Eric?" Sam sighed extra loud exasperated by his tech's hesitation to complete his sentence. It was one of Eric's most annoying habits.
"Stolen."
"When? Where? How?" Sam spat off a barrage of questions and edged closer to his tech. "Was it G? Come on, man, was it—"
"No." Eric sighed and presented a grainy video with a familiar looking man.
Everyone's jaws dropped as they watched the grainy video.
"Is that Callen's—"
"Don't even say it, Deeks." Kensi gave him a soft punch in the arm. "It can't be, can it?"
"Is there any way to clean up this video?"
"You wanted fast and you got fast."
"Eric!"
"I'm working on it, Sam, as fast as I can." Eric's fingers flew over his keyboard, punching in keystroke after keystroke and clearing up the video on his own LCD monitor. "Try this." He sent the new video to the wide screen.
"Oh… my…." Hetty stepped into the OPS Center, her lower jaw dropping. She partially covered her mouth and gawked at the images on the huge screen. "This is the other device."
"Yes."
"Give me a name."
"Searching."
"What do we have so far?" Hetty asked turning to her new lead agent.
"It's confirmed that the device is the same one stolen by the Romanian woman in the Doppelgänger case from last year."
"And?"
"That's it and this video which Eric is working to improve." Sam glared at their tech when he turned to face Hetty. He watched Eric flip around on his chair to refocus on the task at hand.
Hetty eyed her lead agent. "I need to see you in the archive room, alone." She flipped on her heels and left the OPS Center.
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Sam entered the lounge and opened his locker removing all the items he had discovered in G's glove compartment. He stuffed them into his briefcase and followed Hetty to the archive room. Once inside he sat across from her and pulled out every item and displayed them on the table between them. "I know this is what you wanted to see me about."
"Why on Earth did you keep this from me?"
"I didn't know if it had a bearing on any of our cases," he said. "Now with that new video, I have to wonder if it does."
"And you found all of this in Mr. Callen's glove compartment?"
"Yes." Sam sighed. "I thought he wanted me to find them. All of it was hidden on the bottom and taped to it. It appeared to be the bottom of the glove compartment."
"That's why the new alarm system on his car," Hetty said. "I want Ms. Blye and Mr. Deeks on that car immediately, every square inch of it needs to be searched."
"I agree."
"You may go, I'm confiscating these items as part of our investigation."
Sam stood and stared down at the postcards and letters and the baby and child's sets of tableware. He kept one item in his personal possession, the baby's spoon with the Romanian love signature from G's father. Sam wanted to pass it back to his partner himself.
"Mr. Hanna, it appears something is missing from this collection."
He sighed. "I'm keeping it for him." Damn, sometimes she exasperated him with her keen abilities in observation and this was one of those times.
"I'll determine if it's an insignificant piece to the case." She held out her hand.
"I want it back ASAP."
"Sam."
He sighed again and retrieved the item from his pants pocket where he had kept the spoon ever since he found it almost two weeks ago. Sam reread the inscription on the back of the spoon and handed it over to her.
Hetty examined the baby's spoon and read the inscription. She nodded her head in agreement with her lead agent and returned it to him. "Keep it," she said. "We need to find out if this is indeed Mr. Callen's father in the video."
"My gut feeling says yes without Eric doing further research," he said. "Looks exactly like G, the mannerisms, the facial features, the… everything."
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After washing the black smudges off his face and neck and taking a shower, G settled onto his bed in the hotel room. The device secured in the hotel room's safe, he decided to take a nap. The moment his head hit the pillow, G started to dream about the kidnapping almost two weeks ago. He jerked awake and rolled over in bed. Sleep was not going to be easy until those men were out of his life for good. G wished he could have told his partner what really happened and what those men wanted from him. Now that he 'owned' the second device he felt safer than when those men had released him. He possessed a bargaining chip and intended to use it to gain his father's release.
G grabbed the TV's remote control off the nightstand and flipped through the channels for a weather station, a global weather station. Before he settled on the specific channel he passed a news report which caught his attention. G flipped it back to the newscast and listened to the report.
'This just came into our studio five minutes ago. A break-in at a government facility in Los Angeles caused government officials to scramble their resources in search of the identical unit housed in a facility across the country in the District of Columbia.'
"Oh hell." G's mouth hung open. "I'm now on nationwide news." He straightened in bed, sitting upright and bringing all three pillows on the king-size bed behind his back. Maybe it is time to ask for help from Hetty and his team. This was the third time in the last twenty-four hours G had pondered the possibility of telling everyone what kind of mess he'd gotten himself and his father into, yet he stopped himself from autodialing his cell phone.
'Sources tell us that one man is responsible for the break-in at the ultra-secure facility on the outskirts of Los Angeles. The identity of the single man is still unknown at this hour. Anyone who knows the identity and whereabouts of this shadowy and well-disguised individual is asked to call LAPD at their special hot line for the case, 877-555-1111.'
The newscast showed a picture of him, although a mostly disguised photograph. G cringed and sighed. I am officially screwed. He grabbed all his belongings and stuffed them into his duffle bag and removed the device from the room's safe shoving it into his knapsack. G stood listening to the latest breaking news on the break-in.
'An update on our breaking news story: A person of interest has been spotted at the vicinity of the Courtyard by Marriott in Simi Valley. Police are on there way there to investigate.'
"Damn it!" G opened the drapes and glanced into the back of the hotel. After cracking a window open, he listened for sirens. Nothing.
G yanked on the heavy, dark blue, double draped window material pulling both the inner and outer material off the rods. He tied them together and secured them to the bathroom door's handle. After testing the hold several times, he pushed the window open all the way and slung the knapsack over his shoulders. He grabbed his duffle bag and wrapped the drapes around one arm and hand. Next he kicked the screen out and pulled it back into the room. G crawled backwards out of the window shimming down the drapes onto the rooftop a story and half below his room. Next time, if there was a next time, he needed to choose a lower floor. He rushed along the rooftop searching for an easy way down to the patio below. An emergency exit staircase to his far left looked promising. G edged toward it and found the staircase dropped down to a slide. He leaped over the handrail and took the slide down to the bottom level. A careful search of the area surrounding the hotel revealed no police presence. He strode out into the open and acted as cool and as calm as usual. This was a persona he could easily pull off.
He entered the parking area surrounding the hotel and saw the blinking red and white emergency lights in the distance coming down the Ronald Reagan Freeway. If G played his cards right, he would be heading in the opposite direction just as they pulled up to the hotel. He settled into the front seat of his rental car placing his bags on the seat and floor next to him. G backed out of his parking space and drove toward the safest place he knew, NCIS Headquarters. It meant he was about to tell Hetty and his team the whole story and the trouble he had gotten his father into too. He sighed. G entered the freeway onramp heading toward headquarters at the same time the ten police cars exited the freeway.
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Sam and the team watched the ten police cars near G's last known location. They were all on edge until they saw the traffic cam Eric just pulled up. "He cut that one too close."
"Well, if you want to see some fancy footwork, I've got this from the hotel's back courtyard." The team watched their lead agent shimmy down tied drapes to the second floor ledge and then escape down a ramp to the courtyard.
Sam chuckled. "You've got to hand it to him, always the consummate undercover agent and escape artist." He sighed. "Track him and check his on car system to see where he's headed."
"He's shut it all down."
"What?"
"Crap!"
"What Eric, what is it?"
"They've turned around and headed back to the freeway." Eric brought up the traffic cam videos and showed the live chase going down on the Ronald Reagan Freeway. He covered his mouth with one hand attempting to contain the horror of their lead agent's possible future arrest or worse.
Sam's cell phone buzzed. He pulled it out of a deep pocket and read the text message. 'I need a diversion. Quick. Help. Coming in.' "G's on his way in and needs help. Call Hetty. Pull out all stops."
"Mr. Hanna, what's the situation?" Hetty rushed into the OPS Center. "I got a message from Mr. Callen."
"The police are on his tail and he might not be able to elude them for long."
She watched the scene on the high definition video screen as it was happening, her jaw slacked open. "Tell him to go back the other direction and take the Moorpark Freeway."
Eric texted Callen on screen, 'Take 118 reverse.' "What next?"
"Nell, I need the freeway system map on this other screen." Sam stepped over to the smaller screen and eyed the system. "Tell him 118 goes into 23." G was not into the names of freeways. For his partner, it was a numbers game.
They watched Callen switch back the way he had come.
"When it gets around the curve, take Tierra back to the 118 or toward his hotel."
"He's texting about the reservoir."
"Tell him no."
"He's saying yes."
Sam texted his partner. 'Listen to me.'
G said back. 'No, I have a better idea.'
"Damn it." Sam repeated his message.
"He says, 'Five cars.'"
Sam eyed the big screen and noticed his partner was right as usual. Damn, he was the most intuitive, hands on agent he knew. Five police cars took off at the hotel exit and five followed G back the other direction. His partner was screwed if he exited on Tierra. He texted back to him 'You are right. "How fast can we get a helicopter over there to rescue him?"
"Not very fast if we use LAPD's copter," Deeks said.
"Damn it, I forgot about that," Sam said. "Private plane?"
"Yes, Mr. Hanna, perfect, I know just the fellow to help." Hetty dialed a number on her cell phone and confirmed her agent's ticket home. "Okay, it's done. Tell him to take Olson to Madera to Day Creek Ranch, first field on the right across from the residence."
The team watched their lead agent speed toward his destination going well over the speed limit.
"He's got about twenty minutes on them," Eric said, noting the distance between the five police cruisers and Callen's car. "Make that twenty-five."
They watched Callen pull into the Day Creek Ranch driveway. Everyone released a loud, long sigh.
"I've got one question, Eric, where are you getting this feed from?" Hetty asked.
"A blimp." He smirked. "And a police helicopter."
"Mr. Beale!"
"Well, you said to track him." A sheepish grin spread over his face.
Sam chuckled. He watched his partner climb on board the Gulf Stream 4. Sam breathed out a sigh of relief when the plane took off and circled over the five police cruisers as they barreled down the freeway offramp toward the mystery man's location.
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"Debriefing in the archive room, Mr. Callen," Hetty said, greeting her lead agent at the door to NCIS Headquarters.
He followed her toward his destination, one that he loathed and yet one that was necessary. It was time he confessed his crimes and possibly she could help him find a way to remedy the situation. G stood in the doorway to the archive room and stared at the setup. He swallowed hard. It looked almost identical to the setup at the boat house. The conversation he resisted and needed was now inevitable. G sighed and entered the room, his knapsack and duffle bag in tow.
"Please have a seat in this chair." She pointed to it.
He felt as if a huge lump had formed in his now dry throat. The chair faced Hetty, Sam, and Eric. At first, he failed to understand why his tech was there until he saw two laptop computers set up next to the man. G eased his dog-tired body into the comfortable, leather easy chair. He placed his belongings onto the floor beside him.
"Can I ask one question before we start?" G said.
"Yes."
"How in the hell did you know where I was?"
"We tracked you," Eric said.
"When I accosted you in the interrogation room," Sam said, "I placed several tracking devices on you and switched your cell phone for one we rigged for tracking."
"I thought you were serious."
"Half serious, half doing the job Hetty ordered me to do."
"I pissed you off," G said. "Sorry, I couldn't tell you what I needed to do. You would've stopped me and that would endanger my family."
"Your family?" Hetty asked sitting down across from her lead agent. "You mean your father."
"Yes."
"We've tracked this back to the original Doppelgänger case in July 2011."
G sighed. "I kept this from my team because I wanted to bear the burden myself."
"What?" Sam asked sitting across from his partner.
"It's about me and my father."
"And your team, G, come on, if that case is what caused you to be kidnapped then it's about us too." Sam sighed and leaned forward. "We all worked that case together."
"No!" He shot off the chair and stared at the weapons' cleaning bench, arms crossed. "This is what I mean. We worked it together but I pulled the trigger."
"What?"
Hetty came along side her agent. "Mr. Callen, please sit and help us understand what you are going through."
"I can't stand this." G settled down on the stool behind the weapons' cleaning bench. "I brought this on myself. I pulled the trigger. I shot her."
"Who did you shoot?" Sam asked, standing and stretching and flexing his upper body to relief his stress.
"His sister, Livia," he said, lowering his voice to a barely audible whisper.
"What?" Sam stepped closer to his partner. "Who's sister?"
G stared at the blank gun cleaning table before him. "I killed the guy's sister and he's pissed."
"Mr. Callen, this is directly connected to the Doppelgänger case."
"Okay, yes, but I made it worse."
"How, G?"
He sighed and lowered his gaze to the bench's bare surface. "I got my father involved and had him steal one of the devices that man wanted."
"Steal it, why?"
"To use as collateral for my release, that is if I got taken by that man."
"You preplanned this assuming they would kidnap you?"
"Had to because they threatened me." G remembered back to that first fateful call. He wondered how that man obtained his cell phone number. It had to be connections in Europe.
"With that telephone call you received?"
"You mean the one I told you about?"
"You are telling me there was more than one," Sam said.
"Yes, sorry, I should've told you about it."
"And the first was when?"
"At least six months ago."
Sam's jaw dropped open. "At least?"
G kept a record of every strange call he received on his cell phone this particular one hitting the top of his list.
"I need to know exactly when you received that first contact by the unsub," Hetty said, interrupting their close to private conversation.
He cleared his throat. "I don't know that off the top of my—"
"Mr. Callen."
"Six months to the day after I killed his sister."
"And you kept this from me and the team?" Sam stepped closer to his partner, scrutinizing him.
"Had to after I involved my father."
"At what point did you contact your father?" Hetty asked.
In his mind, G reminisced about the first day he found his father living in Romania. "Three months after you told me about him."
"The consummate researcher," she said, "and three months later you received the initial phone call."
"Yes."
"We've researched this unsub and haven't found his name."
"It's Romanian like his sister."
"Of course it is." Sam sniggered. "Your father knows him, right?"
"Knows of him, not a personal relationship."
"You know that's what I meant." He shot his partner a look.
G winked at him. "I hoped it's what you meant."
"Maybe I ought to find the nearest fountain…."
"Are we starting with this again?" G smirked.
"A name, Mr. Callen," Hetty said, interrupting their short repartee but at the same time not wanting to interrupt it. Their humorous jabs and stabs at one another signified to her that their relationship was healthy and strong.
He lifted his gaze to the gun cleaning tools surrounding the bench. "A name which sounds familiar and yet I'm uncertain as to where I originally heard it."
"G."
"Bagoescu."
"Never heard of the name," she said.
"My father knows the name and I figured that is where I heard it years ago."
"Which one?" Eric asked, glancing up from his laptop computer. "Twelve names and counting so far."
"Serghei Bagoescu," G said, "all the Bagoescus are related to Serghei's family, in one way or another. Similar to the Comescu's extended family."
"Your father sent you the postcards and baby and young child's tableware," Sam said.
"Yes, he figured I'd want them." My father was afraid if he got caught that I would never see them. "He remained in Romania until I asked for his help." He sighed. "I should've asked for the team's help too."
"Mr. Callen, you shared a confidential, classified NCIS case file with your father?"
"Not exactly," he said, "my father had given me some details about a case and I knew they were related to each other."
"But you pursued it on your own anyhow."
"Yes, Sam, after all, I killed the guy's sister."
"The murder occurred during an NCIS case, Mr. Callen, this was not your vendetta nor your sole responsibility."
"I felt responsible and wanted to keep this guy's wrath from our team," G said, fidgeting with the gun cleaning devices on the bench's front shelf. "The guy contacted me not our team."
"Interpol arrested your father."
G swallowed hard and left the gun cleaning bench. He crossed his arms again and stared at the comfortable chair across the room. G desperately needed to sit down before he collapsed. He settled down in the comfortable chair again. "They arrested him because he sold the device on the black market in Europe to secure the money for my release."
"Mr. Callen!"
"Sorry, Hetty, this is the most convoluted, mixed up mess I've ever gotten myself into, and I don't know how to back myself out of it," G said. "There's more… the man my father sold the device to turned out to be an agent working for our government who was tracking espionage cases abroad."
"Your father never got the money to you," Hetty said.
"No, I promised to steal the device for the men who kidnapped me."
"That was the agreement for your release?" Sam asked.
"Yes." G sighed and leaned back in the chair. "However, I intend to use it for the release of my father."
"Exactly how do you plan to do that?" His partner asked.
"I haven't quite figured this part out." Actually, he had. His plan involved manipulating and controlling the men who had raped him.
"And the device, what did they want with it?" Sam asked.
"Same thing, use it in a 'pet project' where a full handprint is necessary."
"No idea what the 'pet project' entails?" Hetty asked.
"Nope."
"We're back to square one on that," Sam said.
"Not necessarily so," Eric said, facing his team, "the Bagoescu family appears to be involved in numerous so-called businesses. A thorough investigation into their livelihoods should reveal the plans for the device."
"I want you and Ms. Jones on this right away," Hetty said.
Eric stood to leave with his computers.
"Top priority." She turned back to her two agents. "Mr. Callen, if there is anything else we need to know about this family, I hope you'll keep us updated and informed. You two need to make this a top priority as well. Ms. Blye and Mr. Deeks have continued to scour the SUV from the Doppelgänger case."
G stood and lifted his duffel bag and knapsack off the floor. "What about my arrest with Interpol?"
"I've taken care of the situation, Mr. Callen, and informed them I want your father released into our custody."
"Hetty, I… thank you," he said. "And the devices?"
"You'll be placing yours into NCIS's custody, today," Hetty said. "NCIS Headquarters in DC has already received the other device."
"I take it you haven't seen your father."
G sighed. "No."
"It's about time you two met in person."
Thanks for reading my story.