Stannislav laughed as he realized he had won. He looked at the woman who was unconscious in her chair as one of his men walked up.
"The van has arrived." He said.
Stan nodded. "Take the package down and get it sent to LAX, it is going to Moscow by air freight." He said and stepped aside as they took the crate with Callen's body in it down to the van.
"Boss?" The man in the van asked, "Won't he die if he's in the hold of an airplane? It's gonna get pretty cold on the flight to Moscow in the hold of a jet." He told him.
Stannislav laughed. "They want what's in his head, I don't think they care if he's alive or not." He said and shut the door to the van as it drove off.
He turned and walked back into the building.
Granger and Nell caught up with Sam and Jessie as they had left the building, Granger had wanted Sam to stay with Nell, to stake out the building but Jessie doubled up in pain, "What's wrong?" Sam asked.
"I think I'm having contractions," Jessie was worried, if she had her son now he'd be viable but far too early.
Sam remembered he had promised to keep her safe, "I'm taking you to the hospital." He said.
"I'll take her Hanna; you go in with Jones and clear the building." He said as a dark brown UPS van passed him, a wheel bumping into a pothole and spraying Granger with dirty water. "What!"
Sam suppressed a smile and turned his attention back to Jessie. "Come on, we'll take my car, Granger, Callen and Emma are still in there, you get them out, let G know I'm taking good care of his sister."
He turned and headed back to the car with Jessie clinging onto his arm.
Nell and Granger entered the building Granger taking point and heading up to the room where they heard voices.
"The package is on its way to you, I am clearing up here and then I'll get back to you." Stan put his phone in his pocket and headed to where Emma was slowly coming around in her chair.
"G?" she called weakly.
"He left, he doesn't care what happens to you, and he said I could do as I wanted with you, he didn't care." Stan snarled.
"You're lying, he wouldn't leave me!" Emma said looking around.
"Do you see him?" Stan laughed, "No, because he left, he's had enough of you all playing with his life and he just ran out without looking back at you."
Emma looked down sadly, she didn't want to believe it, but running was something that Callen did well, also she had betrayed him, by not telling him about the chip in the first place. She had failed him.
"I'm sorry," She sobbed softly as Stan walked out of the room smiling.
Stan's smile was soon wiped off his face as he turned the corner to find a small redhead holding a gun, "Federal Agent, throw down your weapons." Nell said.
Stan knew he was dead if he made a move, and it didn't really matter anyway, the prize was on its way out of the country and his father would soon be freed.
"Fine," Stan threw his guns to the floor having looked further down the corridor to find the only other person left in the building had been subdued as well.
Nell cuffed him and looked up at Granger, "That's all of them, where's G and Emma?" she asked.
"No sign yet." Granger said and walked past her into the room that Stannislav had just walked out of.
"Nell?!" Granger called. "We need a paramedic, Mrs. Hurst is injured." He said looking at the open cut on the back of her head.
Granger slammed a folder down in the boatshed Stannislav stared dispassionately at him, "Where is Agent Callen?" Granger asked as he sat down opposite him.
Stannislav shrugged, "Who knows." He said honestly.
"You do, you were the last one to see him…you know where he is, we can make things easier on you if you tell us where he is." Granger snapped.
Kensi walked into the boatshed, Hetty had offered to sit with Deeks for a while and she was using her break to find out what was going on and fill Deeks in on her return.
"What's going on?" she asked as she walked in.
Nell smiled at her in welcome and turned to the screen, "Stannislav Vocovitch he was born in Russia, educated in the US, his mother fled to the US after his father was captured by the KGB and sentence to Black Dolphin prison. Changed his name to Stan Parker and joined the CIA."
"So he's a company guy?" Kensi asked. "Why's he after Callen, was he part of the kill order?"
Nell shook her head, "The kill order from the CIA was fake, they had decided to abandon the project, without activating Callen, They assumed as he was already working for a federal agency there was no need to activate him as an asset, apparently the one they had been working with was such a liability that they didn't want to risk activating the second one. Stan Parker joined the CIA right out of university, he had a single minded determination and he asked about Callen a few times, but kept his head down."
Kensi looked at the information on the screen, "So why did he set this up? Was it just to get his father out of prison?" she asked.
Nell looked at the screen where Granger was staring at Stannislav, "I don't think so, I mean I know I'm not in the field as often as you guys, but my gut say that Stan…and Callen…I mean they are the same age…I ran a background check on Callen and they were both at the same High school in '85."
"So they knew each other, maybe Stan let Callen go? Were they friends?" Kensi asked.
Nell stood up and walked towards the interrogation room, "I don't know, but I'm going to find out."
She opened the door and Stannislav looked up, "Nice." He leered.
Granger looked up at her, "Miss Jones?"
"I want to ask a question." She said and Granger leaned back giving her permission, "I've been going through your file, both you and Callen attended the same high school for a while, the file says you were friends is that why you let him go?"
Stannislav laughed, "Friends, me and the freak! Never…I hated his guts, and right now he should be dead…if not now then soon and there's nothing you can do about it."
"Why's that?" Nell asked in her sweetest voice.
Stannislav smiled, "Because right now he's suffocating to death in a hold of an airplane bound for Russia, and you guys don't have the pull to stop an airplane in mid-flight."
Granger stood up and leaned towards him menacingly.
"WHICH FLIGHT?" he yelled.
"13.15 from LAX to Moscow." Stan said shaking.
Nell left the room Granger hot on her heels.
"Can we stop the flight?" Granger asked.
Nell pulled up some information on her tablet and paled. "He's been in the air for three hours…I don't know if we can ground the plane or bring it back before he dies." Her hands shook as she placed the tablet on the table
"Eric? Can you ground a plane enroute to Moscow from LAX took off at 13.15?" she asked.
Eric on screen shook his head, "I don't have the clearance." He said worried, "I'll call Hetty,"
"Don't worry I'm already on the phone with her." Granger said in the background. "And get Sam to meet us at the airport." He said into his phone.
He closed it and turned to the two women. "Hetty will contact air traffic control and get the plane turned around and back to LAX, we will be meeting it with an ambulance."
He turned and walked back into interrogation, not stopping he picked Stannislav up and slammed him into a wall, "Where is he on the plane?" he growled menacingly.
"He's in a crate, marked UPS. The ticket on the side says 'Freak'." Stannislav grinned at his own joke, "It should have said dead freak."
Granger dropped him to the ground and walked out nodding to the agent who was standing in the hallway. "If he so much as breathes wrong….shoot him!" Granger snarled and walked out to Kensi and Nell.
Sam pulled up outside the cargo area of LAX in the challenger, flashed his badge at the security guard and was told to follow the ambulance that had entered ahead of him. Worriedly he did so and pulled up next to Granger and Kensi's cars.
"What's going on Where's G?" he asked.
"You haven't been briefed?" Granger asked.
"I was with Jessie and her parents, they've stopped the labor and put her on bed rest, I was told to come here by Hetty she said you'd fill me in where's G?" he asked again.
Granger pointed to a large Russian Aeroflot plane that was coming in for a landing.
Sam looked at him, "He's run away again?" he asked. "Emma said he'd gone but I didn't believe her," he looked angry at Granger, "Hetty have the plane turned around to bring him back then?"
Granger looked mad at Sam, "Agent Callen was incapacitated and loaded into a wooden crate, and stuffed in the hold of that plane, it's been in the air for six hours, having turned around just before the halfway point to get Agent Callen back here for medical treatment that is if he's still alive."
Sam paled, "No?" he looked at Nell, "Is there any way you can tell if he's alive, what about that chip of his?"
"It only shows he's in the hold, not if he's alive or not." She answered him.
Sam looked worried at the plane as it came closer to landing. "Couldn't anyone on the plane get in the hold to find out?" he asked.
"No…the hold is automatically sealed in flight; there is no way to get in there. The pilot turned around as soon as he knew and has been flying at a lower altitude all the way back." Nell said.
They watched as the plane landed and taxied towards where the ambulance was standing ready.
As the hold opened Sam rushed forward with the paramedics, "G!" he yelled climbing into the hold.
He spotted the UPS crate and grabbing a crowbar from an airport worker who had climbed in with him he pried off the top of the lid.
Callen was curled in a fetal position his body shivering but he himself was totally unresponsive, Sam reached down and pulled his partner up out of the crate and into his arms.
"G…Come on man, wake up!"
Callen's head fell back limp as Sam climbed off the plane and carried Callen past his co-worker and laid him on the gurney.
The paramedics set to work, "He's hypothermic and tachycardic, we need to get him warmed up." They put monitors on him and covered him with a heating pad.
The team watched as he was wheeled into the ambulance and it headed off to hospital.
Sam walked by them without a word, climbed into his car and followed the ambulance to the hospital, determined that if his partner ever woke up, he would make it up to him. For not being there when he was needed and for doubting him.
Sam swallowed and shook his head as he followed the ambulance, and he prayed to whomever was listening, that Callen's stubborn streak against dying would continue.