The light was blinding as the hood was removed from Callen's head and he found himself in a ornate hotel room.
"So, I assume you are not planning on killing me, it would ruin the rug." Callen quipped at the man standing in front of him.
The man scowled and turned away.
"Who are you?" He asked.
Still no reply. The man walked to the window and looked out of it.
"Where am I?" Callen tried again.
Again the man said nothing, but picked up his phone and sent a text.
"Just tell me what you want?" Callen said, hoping that if he acted innocent enough, they would think they had made a mistake, although his gut told him they had exactly who they were after, "Who are you? Comecsu?" He asked.
The man by the window laughed quietly, but still said nothing.
Slowly Callen started to feel more and more uncomfortable. He had no idea how long it had been since he had been taken. He had at first assumed that it had something to do with that chip in his ear, but no one had asked him anything. The man in the room hadn't spoken to him at all.
He looked at the clock on the mantel in front of him. By his reckoning he had been gone about 5 hours. He could see the sun starting to rise over the city.
He knew Sam would be looking for him, he hoped so, but the others? He didn't know.
Another man in a suit walked in and looked at Callen sat on the chair.
"Why is he tied up, Pyotr?" He asked. "Untie him at once and get him some food."
Anatoli looked kindly at Callen, "I am sorry, they were asked to bring you here, but sometimes.... Help is hard to get." He smiled, spreading his hands in apology. In many ways he reminded Callen of Arkady.
"Who are you?" He asked.
"My name is Anatoli Reznikov, I am your Grandfather." Anatoli said as he took a seat at the table by the window. "Come join me as we breakfast. You must be hungry, I remember my Nikita as a child was always hungry in the mornings."
"Who?" Callen feigned ignorance, which to be honest, while he thought of Owen as the assistant director and not as Nikita Reznikov, it wasn't hard.
Anatoli looked confused, "Your father."
Callen shook his head, "I don't have a father." He said, "As far as I know my mother died when I was five," For a moment Callen stifled a smirk as he replied, "No one has introduced themselves to me as my father."
Anatoli let a moment of annoyance cross his face; he sighed, this would be harder than he thought. He stopped for a moment, thinking, maybe it would be easier.
"I am sorry it has taken us so long to meet, moy vnuk." Anatoli stopped as one of his men came in with a tray full of breakfast foods and two pots of coffee and tea. "Please, sit." Anatoli said again as Callen, who hadn't moved an inch just looked at him.
With a curt nod Callen sat down. After all, he knew from long experience, he should take nourishment while he could. Maybe he could play this to his advantage. Maybe Anatoli wasn't as bad as he had been made out to be.
"So..." Callen sat down and looked at the man, "So... You're my grandfather?" He asked, "Why did you have me kidnapped?"
"Like I have said, I am sorry for the way my men handled it. In the motherland they would have called that an invitation." Anatoli looked at the younger man, "Tell me about yourself?" He asked.
"Nothing to tell." Callen shrugged.
Anatoli smiled, "I beg to differ, my sources tell me you are in law enforcement of some kind."
Callen shrugged, "Security, for a data server warehouse, nothing fancy." He lied.
Anatoli nodded, "Still, you are employed, no? This is a good thing with jobs as hard to come by as they are."
"What else do you know about me?" Callen asked.
Anatoli took a sip of his coffee.
"I spent a long time looking for you."
Callen gave a short, barked laugh, "Well, I could have used you when I was a child."
Anatoli looked sad. That surprised Callen and only his training kept it from showing on his face.
"I had a private detective try to look into your past." Anatoli admitted, "I was saddened at what I found."
"I'm sorry," Callen said automatically. He didn't know why, but after his meeting with Constantine, he had expected Anatoli to be ruthless and cold. He found himself warming up to the older man.
"No, child, I should be sorry." Anatoli reached out to take Callen's hand, but Callen pulled away. "I am so sorry, you were... are a part of my family, had my son told me about you I would have found you earlier, like I did with your sister."
"Amy? You found Amy?" Callen was shocked at that.
Anatoli shook his head, "No... Jennifer. I am responsible, I should have raised your father better."
"I don't have a sister called Jennifer, I had a sister called Amy, she died when she was eleven. I found this out when I was an adult."
"Jennifer is your younger sister. Your father didn't love your mother, I am afraid, he left you and your sister to grow up alone. He married another woman and had a child with her. Jennifer is your younger sister." He pulled a lot of pictures of a young woman that Callen recognized. He kept his surprise hidden.
Anatoli waited, soon he would play his trump card.
Granger had deliberately left him out in the cold? He'd had another family? He had lied to him, told him about the evil man that was his grandfather and not told him about his sister.
He took a sip of the coffee in front of him trying to hide the warring emotions that were going on in his head.
"I know you recently found out that my son... who now goes by Owen Granger, is your father. Did you know he found you years ago and decided to leave you, not to be your father?"
Callen had remembered seeing Granger, but the man hadn't told him why he hadn't taken him in.
"I do not lie Callen, I do not steal, I am not the man your father paints me to be. However, he lies; this is why your father didn't come for you."
He took a small digital recorder out of his pocket and placed it on the table, "I think you have trust issues, yes? I hope this will prove to you that I am not the enemy." He pushed it towards Callen who took it and turned it over in his hand.
He heard the sound of a car engine as it stopped and Hetty's voice over the speaker....
Hetty pulled over to the side of the road, "You found him, and yet you never took him in?"
"He wasn't my son." Granger said angrily, "That... That boy wasn't my son, he was..." His voice stopped for a moment and Callen's heart clenched at the venom in Granger's words.
"He was sitting on a wall outside the Los Angeles County Children's Services offices. I knew it was him, he looked like his mother, and those eyes, he couldn't be anyone else. I sat in the car and watched him. I was so... He wasn't my son, he was angry, rebellious, sitting on a wall a can of alcohol by his feet and he was smoking. There was a security guard watching him, but he hadn't approached him, like he was afraid of him. It was obvious he was a delinquent and he hated everyone. I watched as his latest foster family approached him, how he was with the mother, how he practically drooled over the elder son, he was manipulative and cunning. I couldn't go to him then."
"Then was when he probably needed you the most Owen." Hetty chastised him.
"I know, I did some background digging to find out what had happened. I knew as much as he ever said about Bill and his brother, I heard rumors about what Grant had done when he had got back to the group home. How other kids had asked to go and stay with Nick after he urged them to go. How over the years only a few would come back. I lost faith in him. I didn't want him, not like that. I couldn't get him back and then lose him to prison in the future."
Callen couldn't keep the pain from his face as he listened.
"Amy had been perfect, like her mother. But I found that Grant, he was damaged. I just assumed it was because he had witnessed his mother's murder. I thought he was... defective."
Hetty sigh was audible, "Oh, Owen."
"I was hurting Hetty and I took that hurt out on everyone around me."
"And Grant paid the highest price?" Hetty asked.
"Not just him, his sister's too, Amy paid with her life, and Jennifer..."
"Jennifer?" Hetty voice sounded surprised.
"I went back into deep cover, I was sent to Korea as a businessman my contact was a North Korean double agent. I got too close, Mai Lin gave birth to Jennifer my daughter in 1981. We arrested her a few months back. I had her transferred."
"Does she know you are her father?" Hetty asked.
"I told her as I had her transferred and I paid for her lawyer."
"Are you planning on informing Mr. Callen that he has a younger sister?" Hetty asked.
Granger shook his head, "Not yet. Right now Jen is safe and I want her to stay that way."
The conversation cut out as Anatoli took the dictaphone from Callen's hand. "I am sorry." He said as he looked at the shocked man. "Your father has been abusing you his whole life, he left you with those animals in the system, he used you as a mule to hold his lies and left you alone. I want to be here for you Callen. I know about you and your lover Sam."
Callen flinched at that.
Anatoli smiled, "He is handsome, no?"
Callen shook his head in shock, "No.... I mean, Yes... yes..." He let out a small smile.
"I do not judge as long as he makes you happy." Anatoli said, "My friend Kirkin, he likes men too." He shrugged, "It is a whole new world, who am I to fight it." He smiled and then looked at Callen sadly, "I know your father put a chip in you. I know you want it out. I have someone who can do that for you."
Callen looked worried at his grandfather, "Then I give you the chip I suppose?" He asked angrily.
"No, I do not care what you do with it. Keep it, destroy it, give it to the authorities, it is up to you. But all your life people have been chasing you, killing those you care about to get that chip. Do you not think it is about time it was gone, is your Sam not important enough that you want to protect him from this?" His grandfather asked softly.
For once Callen stopped and looked at the man, there was kindness and concern in his eyes. Was the concern for him? He didn't know, but taking the chip out would be one way to ensure no one tried to kill Sam.
Callen took a deep breath as he thought about his reply and then turned to his grandfather.
"Ok, I'll do it."