Disclaimer: We do not own any characters from the TV Show; they belong to Donald P Bellisario and Don McGill as well as CBS. The original characters that appear are all ours. Pine Gap Association is nothing but a work of fiction. We disclaim any knowledge of what goes on within the facility.
A/N: This is the first joint story between EmyPink and Kandon Kuuson. The Australian characters in this story are all original save for Robert 'Brocky' Brock who originally appeared in NCIS: Boomerang by Kandon Kuuson.
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The heat of the day was slowly disappearing as the summer sun began to drift down behind the Mt Gillen and the McDonnell Ranges that encircled the city of Alice Springs within the Australian desert region of Central Australia. To the south of the city and out past the ranges was a site that, to the casual observer, looked like five or six oversized golf balls. This was actually the joint defence facility of the US and Australian Governments know as Pine Gap. Few knew what really went on there; rumours were as common as forty-degree days. Some call it the "space base" and others say it is where the Americans have "nuclear detection facilities."
A white Toyota Land Cruiser pulled up to the main entrance checkpoint. The Australian guard at the gate opened the barrier and the Land Cruiser drove through the gate and headed in the direction of Alice Springs. Twenty minutes later, the 4WD was passing through the Gap in the McDonnell Ranges and heading towards the industrial area of Alice Springs. The car slowed as it turned into the railway yards. The Land Cruiser slowed to a stop near a pile of empty railway containers. The driver undid his seatbelt and picked up the briefcase that sat on passenger seat. He opened the door of the Land Cruiser; the dry heat hit him full on. He let out a breath.
"I'll never get used to this heat!" he muttered in his mid-west American accent as he slid a pair of Aviator glasses on and climbed out of the Land Cruiser. "A good thing about this little arrangement."
With the briefcase in hand, he walked towards the containers. He was a tall and gaunt man in his early to mid-fifties. He carried an air of authority that suggested he could be a high-ranking officer if he wore a uniform. Like most people working out at Pine Gap, he didn't wear a uniform. It meant a terrorist, something that seemed extremely absurd to anyone who lived in Alice Springs, couldn't target you somehow. Even if they did, there were only three ways out of Alice Springs. By plane and it's hard to smuggle anything that way. By train that could be stopped anytime and searched. Alternatively by car, but it was a 1500km drive to the closest of the major cities, Darwin or Adelaide. Yet here and now, this man was meeting with a terrorist. The tall man walked closer to one of the containers.
"That's far enough!" an Indonesian appeared at the entrance of one of the containers. "Did you bring them?"
The American looked at the smaller Indonesian. "Did you bring my money?"
"Of course," the Indonesian nodded as he hefted a briefcase into view. "Are you ready to make the exchange?" The man nodded and held out the briefcase. The Indonesian did the same. Both men took the others briefcase. The Indonesian opened the case. His eyes brightened as he saw what he was after. The tall man opened his own case and cursed. His hand ran through shredded newspaper, there was not a note in sight. He looked up angrily and glared at the Indonesian. "You double-crosser! Where's my money?"
"Nowhere," the Indonesian answered quickly as he pointed a silenced revolver at the man. Suddenly, a dark blue Holden Commodore with flashing lights on the dashboard screeched into view.
The tall man turned and ran for his car, but as he did so, the Indonesian squeezed the trigger and the tall man collapsed. He was dead before he hit the ground. The Indonesian fired at the Commodore as it careered towards him. The two occupants of the car ducked as the male driver veered sharply to the left. The Indonesian fired again. The metal bullet shattered the windscreen and narrowly missed his partner's head. The driver cursed and pulled into an abrupt stop, flinging him and his partner forwards.
The terrorist made a run for it as he saw the car screeched to a stop. The man at the wheel leapt out of the car, his Glock in the ready position.
"Federal Police! Freeze!" he yelled authoritatively.
The Indonesian continued to run. The agent pulled the trigger as he lined up on the Indonesian. The Indonesian tumbled to the ground. The man smiled at his partner who had pulled her own gun out. "Not bad if I do say so myself, Cam!"
The woman rolled her eyes and gestured at the Indonesian who was getting up. "Don't count your chickens before they hatch, oh-brilliant-one!"
"Crap," Brocky muttered under his breath as he trained his gun on the fleeing Indonesian again. He squeezed the trigger again, the sound of the Glock echoing off the containers and the ring of bullets ricocheting of containers.
"I'm going after him," Brocky announced to his partner as he started to run after the retreating Terrorist.
"Agent Brock!" Robert Brock's partner, Cameron Moore, shouted after him.
He ground to a halt. "What?"
"Brocky," she sighed, as if she dealt with this everyday. "Firstly, you'll never find him by yourself in there. Secondly, chances are he would blow your brains out before you even got a good angle on him. I don't fancy scraping your brains of the concrete, thank you very much. And I'd rather not have to break in a new partner." The last few of sentences had an underlying tone of concern.
"Awww, you do care, Ronnie," Brocky smiled sarcastically, annoyed by the fact she'd stoped him going after Kuwat Rashid.
"No," Cameron replied briskly as she knelt down next to the body, carefully avoiding the pool of blood that was forming. "I just got this shirt dry-cleaned. Do you know how much decent dry-cleaning costs?" Brocky rolled his eyes.
"Thirdly," Cameron continued, ignoring his eye roll, "you'd better look at this." She handed Brocky the dead man's wallet and ID card.
Brocky took one look at the ID and sighed. "Great, just great," he muttered. "This is going to be an international nightmare.
"This guy is an American Naval Captain," Cameron confirmed. "Our tip said it was an Australian who was supplying the terrorist with those Satellite images, not an American."
Robert Brock knelt down next to his partner. "Well, I could have had him and the Satellite images if you hadn't stoped me."
"I was doing you a favour," she defended herself, "and I saved you a whole lot of paperwork at HQ." Cameron looked up at her partner as she tried to conceal her smile. She didn't do a very good job. She had to admit that, even if he was overbearing, he was a damn good officer and she liked him.
"Remember we're in Alice, he's not going anywhere really quickly," Cameron determined. "Besides we need to get the Ambos out here to transport the body to the hospital mortuary."
"Always the practical one, aren't we, Cam," he smirked as Cameron turned away. "Righty-o, you call the Ambos and I'll let Georgie know that we have one dead American."
Brocky pulled his mobile phone from his trouser pocket. "You let the Police Station know and have them start putting casual road blocks up on all the entry and exit points to and from town. Then get onto the Ambos to transport the body to the Alice Springs Hospital mortuary."
"Who died and made you boss?" Cameron replied after Brocky had finished listing his list of commands.
"Who's the senior Agent here?" Brocky countered, a typical defensive measure when Cameron questioned him.
Cameron sighed. "Yes, Robert," Cameron stated mechanically, knowing that Brocky hated being called his full name.
Brocky glared at her as his mobile phone rang through to their boss, Georgia Todd. "Good girl, Ronnie," he said like he was talking to a little kid. Cameron glared at him, his own glare disappeared a few seconds later under the heat of Cameron's.
"Okay, okay, chill," he said good naturedly, arms raised in the surrender position. He heard the phone pick up on the other end.
"This better be good news, Agent Brock," Georgia said as she picked up her phone. "I was just in an important meeting."
"You're in Alice, what important people could there be?" Brocky answered cheekily.
"Brock," Georgia said warningly, her tone suggesting that she wasn't in the mood for jokes.
"Right, sorry, boss," Brocky apologised quickly. "We … err, have a slight problem …"
Cameron stifled a snort of laughter as she heard him say slight, this was more that a slight problem. He looked at Cameron who turned her laughter into a smile, his uncomfortableness clearly amusing her.
"What sort of problem, Robert?" Georgia asked warily.
Brocky took a deep breath as if he was going into major combat. "Our traitor is an American Naval Officer!"
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Senior Supervisory Federal Agent Georgia Todd placed the phone down in her temporary office in the CBD of Alice Springs, across the street from the police station. She rose from her desk, and paced the room as she thought through all the information that Brock had told her. She picked up her phone and dialled her secure and direct line to Canberra.
"Commissioner's office, Agent Geharty speaking," said the voice on the end of the phone.
Georgia sighed as she spoke. "Oh, Barb I'm glad I've got you. I need to speak with the Commissioner right away."
"Georgie," Barbara Geharty replied, a hint of teasing in her voice. "Why do you have to go and bother him for?"
"An American has been killed in our operation up here and I need to talk to him right away," Georgia replied, slightly annoyed at the use of her nickname. Her colleagues called her this behind her back and sometimes they even called her "George" because she was in a man's job within the Australian Federal Police. Barb, as well as Agents Brock and Moore, were the only ones who regularly called her this to her face.
"All right, Georgie," Barb replied. "Let me put you through!"
Georgia waited a few minutes before the Commissioner picked up the phone. "Sam Nelson. Is that you, Georgie?"
"Yes, boss, it is," Georgia replied controlling her anger at the fact that Sam was now calling her that ridiculous nickname.
"Barb said it was urgent, so begin," Sam Nelson replied briskly on the other end of the line.
"Our operation has gone badly, I'm afraid," Georgia replied strongly, unwilling to let her superior hear her disappointment. "We received a tip-off that an Australian was transferring important satellite images of Bali and Darwin to a terrorist linked to Bin Laden's Indonesian cell. It would appear that it is an American not an Australian … a very dead American."
"Have your people made an ID yet?" Commissioner Nelson asked.
"Yes," Georgia grimaced, "we're certain he was US Navy."
"Send me through your information and I'll get in direct contact with the Foreign Office, ASIS and ASIO," Nelson replied, immediately taking control. "No Media, the last thing we need is mass hysteria over an alleged terrorist. We cannot risk with the general public knowing. This is to be kept in-house. Understood, Agent Todd?"
"Yes, sir," Georgia replied, rolling her eyes to no one in particular. Keeping this a secret in a small city of thirty thousand people would be extremely difficult especially when they noticed the road blocks Agent Moore had ordered.
"Oh, Georgie," Nelson asked.
"Yes, sir," Georgia replied, as she waited for his next statement.
"American officials will want in on this, even if …" Nelson trailed off, he didn't know the name of the dead Naval Officer.
"Darren Wade," Georgia offered.
"Right," he continued. "Even if Darren Wade was selling classified documents to hostile powers, he was still American."
"Yes, sir," Georgia replied. "Of course, sir."
"Yes, well, it will be most likely an NCIS team will be sent over, they'll be able to gain more access into the classified areas of Pine Gap than we can," he stated. "NCIS, that's …"
"Navy cops, I know," Georgia finished. "You do remember Agent Brock working with them a few months ago."
"Yes, yes, the Lieutenant Commander Michael Harrison case, nasty business," Nelson remembered. "Do you happen to have the name of the people he worked with?"
"Umm …" Georgia pondered. "I think one was called Gibbs and I'm pretty sure there was a Mossad Officer too."
"Do you think he'll wanna work with them again?" Nelson asked.
"Does he have a choice?" Georgia retorted.
"No," Nelson stated. "I'll get onto it."
"Yes, sir," Georgia repeated. "I'll let my people know."
"I'll call you when I know the details, good day, Georgie."
"You too, sir," Georgia replied before the phone cut off. She sighed. Now all she had to do was tell Brock and Moore that American Navy cops were taking over their investigation.
A/N2: Okay, so this is the beginning. What do you think? Please read and review. It would be great to hear your thoughts. If you want to know, the cast of our main original characters is listed below.
Sam Worthington as Federal Agent Robert Brock
Lisa Chappell as Federal Agent Cameron Moore
Sonia Todd as Senior Supervisory Federal Agent Georgia Todd
James Cromwell as Navy Captain Darren Wade
Shane Bourne as Commissioner Samuel Nelson