Unreachable
Senior NCIS Field Agent Tony Dinozzo realized he had walked into a lion's den the second he turned the corner onto Mimosa Drive to slip up on the back side of the suspect's home.
Despite its residential setting and evenly spaced middle class homes, Team Gibbs had focused upon that particular neighborhood for nearly a week. Intel had hinted at a counterfeit operation and Jethro Gibbs and his team had not only substantiated the illegal activity, but had pinpointed the ringleader. The operation was masterminded by a Navy Chief Warrant Officer, Alvin Gresham, who had managed to stay out of sight any time NCIS called or rang the doorbell.
Today, though, Tony had left his teammates, Ziva and Tim, surveying the subdivision entrance from the car to thwart any chance of Gresham's escape.
Grabbing one of the two radios, he had instructed them to keep the other activated so that he could contact them, but to stay safely inside and warm in the agency's car while they monitored.
Tony's breath fogged as he left the protection of the car. Shivering, he wrapped his arms around his chest in an attempt to shield his lungs.
The day was bitterly cold with a biting wind and a temperature which would not surpass the freezing mark the entire day.
Despite the frigid atmosphere, Tony managed to navigate the neighborhood. Straight in front of him he recognized his target, Gresham, with two unidentified men beside him. As they hurried towards a dark green minivan, one stumbled under the weight of a machine the trio precariously clutched.
Tony watched as they struggled to set it inside the vehicle. It had to be part of the counterfeit money printing equipment.
Making another frenzied trip to the residence and back again, the suspects hastily threw boxes inside the automobile with an urgency that signaled they knew they were on the wrong end of some law enforcement's radar.
Well aware that the imminent danger demanded his own team's backup before proceeding, Tony retraced several steps before he activated the radio and spoke into it with an urgent tone. David and McGee sat just a couple of blocks away, and could provide almost instant reinforcement.
Help should appear within minutes.
Static answered instead of his teammates, however, and Tony felt a sense of trepidation. Why would his supporters not respond?
Their jobs straddled life and death on a daily basis and they all understood protocol and protecting each other.
Tony attempted to process the setback as he repeated his attempts to alert Ziva and Tim.
He needed them.
Desperate, he quickened his pace to better conceal himself, aware that he would prove an easy target if discovered. Three against one would guarantee the bad guys could take him down. Frantically he powered the radio again and again hoping that one of them would answer.
Still no one responded, sealing his fate with their silence.
He sucked in a breath and whispered to himself, "Flying solo, now Anthony, so get yourself out of this unsavory predicament!"
Scrambling a bit to the right, he tried to take cover in a strand of ligustrum bushes.
Instead, he tripped over an exposed root from a tremendous oak tree.
It was too late!
Gresham's head shot up and he spotted him, shouted, and began to run towards him. Tony scrambled to escape as the other two accomplices hurriedly joined the pursuit.
NCIS Special Agent Dinozzo heard the whoosh of the bullet before he felt it rip into him, and in the infitesimal moments between, understood that he was fighting for his life all by himself.
Signaling the video technician to freeze that horrifying image, NCIS director Leon Vance stepped away from the floor to ceiling MTAC screen. Motioning to include the expanse of all the room's half dozen viewers he clenched his jaw and addressed the new probationary agents, his tone deliberate and emphatic.
"This, ladies and gentlemen, exemplifies enforcement at its worst, and depicts an example of inexcusable, unprofessional agency teamwork. No government agency would tolerate leaving one of its own alone, without backup, nor would NCIS members put a colleague's life in danger that way-ever."
He paused a second to consider his words and then pointed backwards towards the screen to illustrate his evaluation. "Luckily, what you just witnessed never happened, except as a scripted lesson I set up for you recruits. Agent Dinozzo agreed to take part in my clumsily directed soap opera to demonstrate and to stress why relying upon others is crucial in our job. No agent should ever find himself alone and without backup in the field."
Smiling slightly, he pointed to the back of the room. "In fact, let me introduce you to Senior Field Agent Anthony Dinozzo, currently seated in the back row, and with his team leader, Jethro Gibbs."
Tony got to his feet and as the audience clapped politely, exchanging relieved glances that he was, in fact, alive and before them. He bowed dramatically before grinning delightedly at his Boss, who sat in the row behind him. "Look at that, I am Academy Award Oscar bound!"
Vance motioned the senior field agent, along with Gibbs, to join him at the front of the room, then waited for them to flank him before he spoke again.
"Let me open the floor for a couple of questions before I send you onto the next training presentation," Vance directed.
A muscled man in his late twenties addressed Vance from the depths of the second row. His voice rose with his concern. "Director, could something like that ever really happen, having team members deliberately turn their backs on one of the agents?"
Leon shook his head emphatically, "Absolutely not- that goes against everything that makes NCIS the agency that it is."
"No one has the right to put a fellow agent into harm's way," Gibbs contributed, raising an eyebrow and thumping the side of his coffee cup with his index finger to emphasize the words. "We protect each other here always."
Grinning, Tony added, "Besides, potential probies, what you witnessed on the big screen is nothing short of unprofessional behavior. Had something like that really happened, the backups would have found themselves fired on the spot."
"Fired and kissing any thought of obtaining another job in enforcement goodbye," Gibbs clarified. "They are weak links, and no agency- not NCIS, or the FBI, or whomever- none would tolerate them."
"Besides that, think of the personal trust destroyed between those three agents," Vance elaborated.
"Had that really happened," Tony spoke thoughtfully, "I could never work with my partners again in a professional setting, nor would I want to do so."
"I would not ask you to do that, either. That behaviour defies logical thinking and destroys any respect once given those teammates." Gibbs licked his lips. "This agency was not created to encourage or allow rogue individuals to put an agent's life in danger."
There was a collective murmur of agreement from the spectators.
"All right," Vance concluded, "you have seen agents acting disgracefully. Now you will take a trip downstairs to our forensics and autopsy departments to witness what it means to truly work together as part of a united effort."
The group of spectators rose en masse and filed towards the exit doors. A couple glanced back and smiled sympathetically in Tony's direction, still shaken at witnessing how someone else's incompetence could cause irrevocable harm.
"Good video," Gibbs conceded as he and Tony fell in behind the recruits. "What are you going to name your movie?"
Pausing a moment, Tony regarded the screen, then grinned at his boss. "Unreachable- What else could I call the Director's tragedy, Boss, but Unreachable?"