Callen watched as Anna slept, he got up and walked into the bathroom and dialed a number on his phone and waited until the call was picked up.
"The first drop has been made, I have the payment. Is our boy on the way?" he asked.
He waited as confirmation was given.
"Good. For the record, I hate this." He growled. "I hate all the pretending I have to do with them."
He waited as the person on the other end talked.
Callen sighed, "I know, I know it will hurt him and it's the last thing I ever wanted to do. Damn, No?! He's been sitting outside Arkady's ever since this went down. I don't want to hurt him, he's like a brother to me, but if my contacts find him, they'll kill him. He needs to back off." Callen waited on the other end as he was chewed out. "Fine, but…. Yeah, I know… fine." Callen hit the button on his phone to cut off the call. This would either go really wrong or really right, but right now there was nothing he could do. Putting the phone on the nightstand, he walked into the bedroom and climbed into Anna's bed smiling as she moved to snuggle closer to his warmth as she slept. He allowed himself this moment of calm before the storm he knew was coming.
Callen woke, an uneasy feeling in his gut, he knew what was coming and nothing was going to make him like it any less.
Anna stretched as she woke.
"Did you call?" She asked.
"Yeah, I have the second package, I left the third on the dresser for you. It's still going down as planned."
"You ok about that?"
"I hate lying to them, but we have known for years that the greater good has to prevail." He sat up and pulled her to him for a moment needing the warmth and contact.
"Grisha, you have known since you were child that this day would come. You have lied to them since you've known them."
"I didn't tell them." Callen argued, "But I never lied."
"Lie of omission is still lying." Anna argued, but turned to kiss him. "You need to do this."
"But those I hurt…." Callen sighed, thinking about his friends.
"Will suffer less because you hurt them." Anna countered as she extricated herself from his arms and headed to the bathroom.
Callen watched her sadly, knowing her words were true.
Callen looked at the list in an envelope sitting innocently on top of his folded pants. He knew the names in this list were in danger if it fell into the wrong hands. Anna's list was not so incriminating and he felt a modicum of comfort knowing that as he sat up and got dressed.
Sam had told the team where Callen had been staying. He had been staking out Arkady's for a week now since that first Sunday he had discovered him staying there.
Gibbs and Sam sat in a nondescript sedan, waiting for Callen to show. Kensi and Deeks were in a car down the road and Granger and DiNozzo were sat in front of Arkady's mansion in the Challenger, much to Sam's disgust, all waiting to find and apprehend their target.
DiNozzo fidgeted as his cell phone vibrated for the 4th time.
"Agent DiNozzo, switch it off or answer it." Granger growled.
"Rule 3." Tony replied as he took the cell phone from his jacket and answered the call.
"Special Agent Anthony DiNozzo?" He said as Granger rolled his eyes. "When?" His voice suddenly became serious, "Where… Los Angeles? I'm in town I'll be there as soon as I can." He replied. He closed the phone and shooting an apologetic look at Granger he called Gibbs.
"Boss, Senior is in Los Angeles, he's had a heart attack…. Ok Thanks… I'm… yeah, thanks Boss." He cut off the call and turned to an inquiring Granger.
"Who's Senior?" Granger asked.
"My father." Tony replied, "He's in town on business and he's had a heart attack."
"Where is he?"
"He's in the hospital, I have to go."
Granger nodded, "I'll drive you."
For a moment Tony looked conflicted but he nodded.
"Eric, Agent DiNozzo and I are going off point, his father is in the hospital, we are going to head down there, can you get the backup team to take this position?" Granger asked talking into his earwig.
"On their way." Eric replied as he tapped a message into his computer to activate the backup team.
Callen watched as one of the cars outside Arkady's property drove off.
He smirked as Kensi and Deeks moved their car to cover the gap.
"I'll go first, I'll catch a cab." he said as he kissed her.
"Be careful Callen." Anna said as she picked up her own envelope.
Callen smirked at her and closed the door.
Jogging across the back lawn, he climbed the fence at the security blind spot he had discovered a year or so earlier. He figured that Sam had been in the lead car with Granger and that Kensi and Deeks were the only ones watching the house and he smirked as he dropped down onto the strip of grass below Arkady's back wall not noticing the non descript car with his friend and his partner in it.
"There!" Sam said as he spotted Callen drop to the ground, pull a baseball cap from his back pocket and slap it on his head.
"Follow him, but don't get too close." Gibbs ordered, "We need to catch the person he's meeting and Callen at the same time."
"I hate this." Sam sighed as he watched Callen get into a cab and started to follow it; "G is my friend. I know him better than anyone. There is no way he is a mole."
"I've seen document; he was, for a while as a teenager, missing." Gibbs told him. "The FBI found information that his name was linked with Sergei Minshev, the man who tried to kill myself and McGee earlier this year. We have his name given by the man we think was running a terrorist group called The Calling." Gibbs rubbed his left leg absent-mindedly as he told this to Sam. The same leg he had been shot in by Luke, the kid turned by The Calling who had tried to trust him, but then had tried to kill him.
"I read about that." Sam said, "That group were awful, finding vulnerable children and poisoning their minds."
"The FBI looked into the group more thoroughly after DiNozzo killed Daniel Budd, the guy we thought was the leader. It turned out that this group has been around for decades. We don't know how many kids were taken by these people."
"You think G was one of these kids, and he was turned into a sleeper agent?" Sam snapped his voice full of disbelief. "There's no way!"
"Where do you think Callen learned Russian?" Gibbs asked.
"A family he was placed with, the Rostovs. He told me." Sam replied.
"He lied. I had Fornell, a friend with the FBI unseal his juvenile file. When he left there, eleven months before he went missing, he could only say a few words. When he was arrested after he had been missing, he was fluent in Russian. Sergi had a brother, an older brother, Alexei. He was a member of The Calling and was based around the same area that Callen disappeared from at the same time."
Sam shook his head, "There is no way Callen would join a terrorist group."
"Maybe… maybe not. The Callen you know might not have done, but Callen as a teenager? You can't say you never did anything stupid as a teenager can you?"
"I can, I was in military school." Sam argued.
"But if you'd had the same life he did?" Gibbs said.
Sam glared at Gibbs for a moment and looked at the cab four cars ahead.
"Looks like he's stopping." Sam said, going back into work mode as he pulled up; watching as Callen got out of the cab and walked into a closed industrial unit.
Sam watched as Callen seemed to slow down, look around with a concerned look on his face and then continued towards his destination.
For a moment Callen slowed his pace, he had thought that he'd have a shadow by now. Maybe Sam or Kensi and Deeks. But he couldn't see anyone. He looked around concerned, if there was no one there that would put a dent in his plans. He briefly thought about calling, but he knew it would be counterproductive, he was on his own.
He pulled the envelope out of his back pocket and walked into the unit.
"Hello?" He called as he walked in.
"That's far enough Callen." Came a familiar voice behind him.
"I have the information you asked for." Callen said not turning around.
Alexei Mishnev leaned on his cane for a moment and walked closer.
"All of it this time?" He asked.
"Most of it." Callen admitted.
"You disappoint me." Alexei said as he sat down behind a desk he had commandeered.
"You said you'd give me the information I was looking for."
"Marco's Father told me you met him with your lovely young lady the other day." Alexei said.
"That was Marco's father?" Callen was shocked, he hadn't expected him to be here too.
"It was, we are both here now." Alexei coughed, taking a handkerchief out and wiping a small speck of blood there.
"Father?" Callen asked in shock, not even noting the endearment as it slipped from his lips.
"Cancer, not long now." He admitted. "I am showing Marco's Father the area, Marco will be taking over this area, there are children that still need saving, like I saved you."
Alexei didn't see Callen's hand ball into a fist.
"Yes Father, you saved me and I am grateful for that."
"Yet, you feed me piecemeal information. It is good that Marco is still in place, his information is more forthcoming."
"Maybe if I met with Marco, we could sort something out so you don't get conflicting information." Callen offered.
"How about you both put your hands up and you come with me." Sam growled as he and Gibbs held a gun on them.
Alexei went to move for his weapon.
"Father, NO!" Callen warned, raising his hands at Sam and Gibbs.