Chapter 1
He went to work as he did every day. He liked his work and already looked forward to Dr. Mallard's long stories about any subject that had to do with the body in the most uncommon way. Yesterday they had found two dead Islamic terrorists in a naval uniform in the woods near Norfolk. They should do autopsy today. The elevator doors opened and he stepped into basements floor. The automatic doors opened and he entered the cold, dark room. He turned on lights and was surprised not to see the doctor inside. Perhaps he is late today, Mr. Palmer thought and put off his jacket.
He quickly has changed into his working robe and washed his hands twice. Dr. Mallard still hasn't showed up. Palmer went to his jacket and took his cell phone. 'One new text message', he read out loudly, then turned around to get reassured that he was alone in the room and read the message: 'will come later; do already start'. No one to tell me a fascinating story, Palmer thought and put the cell phone back into his pocket. 'Alright', he said aloud again and started to do autopsy.
The first thing Abby did, when she entered her lab, was turning on the music, as she did today. Then she started her computer, her mass spectrometer and her gas chromatograph. 'Welcome back in life, my honey', she told her monitor when she turned it on. The Windows logo appeared and vanished. Abby checked her e-mails and then turned around to deal with the boxes on her table. 'What did we get today?', she rhetorically asked the forensic evidences and started packing them out and sorting them on the table. 'I need a bigger table', she was just saying to herself when her phone rang. She put it on loud speakers to deal with the evidences while talking. 'So early dealing with our friend the terrorist, Palmer?', she said just opening a plastic bag with five little nine millimeter bullets in it. She took them in her hands with her white gloves and looked at them in the light. The first one already had blood on it, telling her that this shot had been a through-and-through. 'Well, yes, Abby', Palmer stammered. 'I just started autopsy and I…and…I need all the evidence back. Including the blood', he sounded very nervous. 'Hey, Palmer, everything okay?', Abby worried. He sounded even more nervous than he already usually was. 'Yeah, it's just…Dr. Mallard isn't here yet and he told me to start autopsy…and I…we…I think he is infectious and that is the reason why I need all the evidence back. And those from his searched room, too.' 'But how do you know he is infectious when I haven't even started my blood tests yet?', Abby asked confused. 'Just a hypothesis', Palmer answered after a longer pause. 'Listen, Abby. Just bring me all evidence down, will you? I can't come myself because I am occupied with preparing the autopsy.' 'You haven't even started?', now Abby was completely lost. When he hasn't even started conducting the body how did he knew then that it was infectious? 'Everything okay?', she asked again. His behavior was really strange. 'Just get it down here!', he suddenly called and was already gone. Abby hang up her phone, too.
She just finished packing the evidences back into the box when Tony came in. 'Hey, look what I've brought you, Abbs. Even more evidence', he said cheerily. 'Packing everything back again?', he asked looking confused. 'Palmer wants all the evidence back. So weird', Abby said just putting the last plastic bag into the transparent box. Tony put down his box on the table, too. 'Get autopsy on the plasma, Abby!', he suddenly said in a very harsh tone. 'What?', she asked looking even more confused than he just did. 'Autopsy, TV, now!', he said going to the big plasma screen at the wall. Abby did as she was told but the TV remained black and white. 'All I'm getting is snow', she said hacking wildly into her computer keys to get a better picture. 'Abby, just remember last time when we did only get snow from autopsy's video camera", he reminded her. 'Not good', she said slowly clearly remembering the days when Gibbs was obsessed with hunting down the terrorist Ari Haswari who shot at him and Gerald, later shot Kate and also had tried to kill McGee and Abby herself. She now looked frightened on the big, empty screen. 'Tell me that I don't have a déjà vu, Tony', she whispered. Thinking of Caitlin made her feel bad. Kate had been her best friend and of course, she still missed her. 'Ari is dead, Kate. It must be something else', he calmed her down, came back to her and hugged her deeply. 'Or someone else', she said. 'Let's find out', he answered.
'What do you want?', Palmer asked. He was scared. He couldn't think clearly. He even had problems with not trembling. The man in front of him just smiled. 'I just want you to perform an autopsy', he said clearly and nodded to the body lying on the table next to them. 'Alright', Palmer stammered and bent over the dead terrorist. He looked over to the other table where the body bag was now empty. The man who had been hiding in there now stood behind him watching everything he did.
As he just wanted to cut into the dead body, the phone suddenly rang. It made Palmer nearly have a heart attack but he caught back himself. 'Answer the phone', the man behind him said. Palmer put down the knife and went to the telephone. The man pressed the loudspeaker button before Palmer could even think about taking the receiver. 'Palmer', he stammered and at the same time he thought: I have to stop stammering. It makes them all laugh about me.
'Hey, is Duckey down there?', a familiar voice asked. 'Gibbs!', Palmer said out a bit too loudly and a bit too enthusiastically because the man next to him raised an eyebrow. 'E…no, Duckey isn't here yet', Palmer added. 'How far are you with autopsy? I'd like to come down.'
'Come down? No, sorry…that can't work. I think this body is infectious. Abby should have already brought me down the evidences. There could be an infection or a virus.'
'Why do you think so?', Gibbs asked. Palmer didn't notice in his voice that Gibbs already knew that something was wrong.
'Just…a theory. Difficult to explain. Very difficult. I will call you back when I found out something more specific. As soon as I got the evidence from Abby.'
'Do you need it stat?', Gibbs suddenly asked.
'What? Yeah, it would be helpful if she did it fast. I want to test my theory.'
'Ah, Palmer. You still haven't handed me the report for the abduction by the Port-to-Port killer. I need it soon to close the file.'
Palmer was surprised. He already had given him the file a week ago. Then he began to understand. It was a trick. Gibbs knew that something was wrong. He just wanted to know what was wrong. Now Palmer was supposed to do something. However, he didn't know what. He had to give Gibbs a hint like telling him wrong information, which he knew that was wrong.
'Yes, you are right. I already finished the report but I forgot it in Abby's lab when I brought the evidences upstairs yesterday. I already wanted to give it to you yesterday. Completely forgot about it.' Palmer tried to laugh. 'It is right beneath Abby's picture of the Southern Pearly-Eye Bat. There you'll find it.' With that words the man hang up the receiver. 'The Southern Pearly-Eye Bat?', he said unbelievable. 'And you think I believe you that?'
'Well, we talked about that picture yesterday. Abby and I, I mean.' Palmer was surprised how well he could lie in such a situation.
'The Southern Pearly-Eye Bat?', Gibbs repeated in disbelief. 'What is that supposed to tell us? You don't have such a picture, do you, Abby?' She shook her head. 'But', Abby said. 'The Southern Pearly-Eye is not a bat. It is a type of butterfly.' Ziva, McGee and Tony stared at her. 'Don't ask me why I know', Abby added. 'A butterfly? Why the hell is he talking about butterflies? It's not even a codename.' Gibbs got loud.
'Well, that's because he doesn't know any code names', Ziva mentioned. 'He's just a forensic scientist, like me', Abby supported her. 'But what could a butterfly mean?', McGee asked. 'Oh, that's what we're supposed to find out, McPearly-Eye!', Tony said in his typical Tony-tone. 'Actually, butterfly could mean anything', Ziva suggested. 'Thank you for your optimism', Tony said. 'Any better idea?', Gibbs asked. 'In a matter of fact, I do. You all know what this situation remembers us to. Even if you haven't been in the team at this time', Tony looked first at McGee then at Ziva. 'But', he continued. 'We all know someone who was scared of butterflies.'
'Ari's dead, Tony', McGee reminded Tony.
'He wants us to think that he's dead, Mc-I-believe-everything!', Tony said gruffly. 'Or someone wants us to believe that he's down there and we have a hostage situation but with another hijacker who knew Ari very well. Any idea, Ziva?', Gibbs asked. 'Well, no. Not that spontaneous, Gibbs. But I could make a few calls to find out what his earlier friends are doing now', she said and hurried back to her desk.