Hunted

HUNTED Chapter 36

NCIS Office, Seattle

The chat with Alice had gone better than Stephen had expected. His daughter understood, as far as he could see, that he was Callen. Well his mother's family name, anyway. From previous conversations he'd had with her on Lanz and Moresby Islands, it built a foundation for Alice to add the latest information to it and absorb it. However, the hardest bit was to explain why he was now a Campbell, and not a Callen. He ended up likening it to a game of hide and seek. They were hiding from someone bad with new names, so they could live a safe life. In that time, she and her brother had come along.

Of course he expected her abounding amount of questions. Were they Campbells, Callens or Reznikovs? It was difficult to answer her. As long as he could remember, he was a Callen. Until he found his father, who he really was remained a mystery. Alice's hazel eyes widened at what he told her, her blond curls at the ends of her hair bobbed with her nodding of her head. Butter could melt in his mouth, she was so perfect.

He needed to sit down and talk everything over with Thea on what they were to do next. Sam's offer for them to return home to Los Angeles was the best option for them, and he'd seen Thea keen to accept. But who were they to be? G. Callen and Nell Jones again, like they were before? She was his wife, but officially, she'd kept her maiden name, to keep their marriage a secret. What good had that been, they'd been found out anyway, and just by being with him, her life had been placed in danger. Was it safer to remain the Campbell family when they returned, but be their old selves only at work? Whatever their decision over what to do next, he knew it was too dangerous for them to live with his father's family name—-a Russian name that would stand out like a sore thumb in Los Angeles. Especially when he knew that there was someone back in Russia, who was serious in finding his father, to hurt him.

While he pondered about it, he followed Sam and Gibbs into the interrogation area and watched through the glass, as they started their questions with Kostyra Evanoff.

"Who sent you to hunt down the family on Moresby Island?" Gibbs kept the details on who Stephen and Thea were out of it, as if they were strangers to them before this case.

Evanoff lifted his head and stared into Gibbs' blue eyes. "You were with a younger man, the last time I saw you. He too had blue eyes, but more vibrant."

Gibbs knew who Evenoff was referring to. It was the last operation he'd worked with Callen on, before they were separated by the breadth of their country. Had Evenoff figured out that Callen was Nikita's son? He furrowed his brow, as he thought back to that operation, which took them to Moscow. He and Callen had argued over who's ass had needed saving on that operation. Gibbs said it was Callen's, but he denied it, saying that was in Serbia. But it was "Petrov who'd needed saving in Moscow—-his ass always needed saving," Callen reminded him.

Petrov. Now that was a blast from the past. Gibbs wasn't even sure what happened to him since that last operation, all he remembered was that he and Callen had been sent into Moscow to assist him. That was when they came across former KGB officers, FSB and Arkady Kolcheck. Arkady assisted them, it was the Russian Government's good will towards their own Government, and as far as they were concerned, no one high up in the Russian Government was bad. Not with regards to their operation at least. But now as he sat opposite Evanoff, he had a gut feeling that this man knew far more than they did—which wasn't good at all.

"What about him?" Gibbs finally asked, trying to piece the puzzle together on his own.

Evanoff scoffed, "are we really going to play this game? Let's face it here, Special Agent Gibbs," you could feel the sharp blade ripping through the air at his tone. "We both know that he is this G. Callen, whom Marcel Janvier told me about. I have photos to prove it."