Children of the Covenant

They stopped him at the door. His swipe card refusing him entry

"Sorry Sir, you are not allowed in, I have strict instructions from the Director………Sir"

He shook his head, it was not going well. He sat on the wall opposite looking at the building. He looked up at the Directors office. He took out his phone and called………..

"Jethro…….go away, go home……no I won't." as he heard the line go dead. He wondered what he done now. He knew he was a maverick. Had Tobias said something. He called Tony.

"Boss…..can't talk." he looked at Ziva she shook her head, "She won't either……..got to go"

He called Abby

"Hi Gibbs, bye Gibbs" as they line again died. He wondered what he had really done.

He walked to the quay and looked across the river. It was November. The water dirty, dark and decidedly choppy. The wind whipping up the waves and the silt making the water murky. Murky? Something in his murky past? The rain began to fall. He pulled his collar up over his neck, like some private eye from some fifties serial, and walked back to the parking lot and his car.. He went home.

****

He changed, went to the basement and started to plane the boat. It was so therapeutic. The skimming the surface. The shavings falling like butter curls to the floor. Tony liked the shredder. He said it was so therapeutic watching the words tear up, like in the Gremlins.. He pushed harder…………he threw the plane at the wall, his brain working overtime. What cases had he been working on? Who wanted him out the way? He slipped his jacket on, and went to find Tobias.

****

"Ok Tobias. FBI……… what you got on me?" he asked as he drank the coffee.

"That's the problem Gibbs………..nothing…….you're too squeaky clean. Director wants some dirt."

"She knows me." thinking how she didn't really.

"CIA want something too. Iraq, Paris………Marseilles. Illegal aliens………and I don't mean the little green ones."

"Tobias I was a Gunny, I had Commanding Officers and men under me. Who we talking about…..?" he now asked, no questioned.

"Colonel Nelson Boscawen?" Fornell ventured.

"He was one of my Captains', young guy straight out of the Academy. Green behind the gills. Bit of a mummys' boy. Always had to wipe his butt or his nose come to think of it. How he ever became a Colonel, god only knows." Gibbs replied.

"That Jethro is what we have to find out." Fornell replied, now finishing his coffee.

****

He left. Went to the park to think. If he had been Faith or Hollis or even Kate he would have gone for a run to think. The gym to work out against the boxing weight. But he was locked out. Even the boat did not interest him. He sat at the band stand. No, he went to the Barracks, he still had friends there.

****

"Jethro……….not much to tell. He was good………….."

"Nesbit you say was………."

"Figure of speech………no.. done well in Iraq….after you came back. Sorry Jethro."

"It's ok it's was long time ago. Yes….. I think of them but as they were, not as they might have been. So what did Nelson do in Iraq?"

"You know bit of this bit of that. He seemed to get through with help from others. Whenever anything went wrong, he managed to come up smelling of roses."

"So made his way up…" as Gibbs sipped the coffee pulling a face, "Barrack coffee doesn't get any better does it?"

"Nope" Nesbit replied. "Kuwait to Germany, did a tour there and then home here 1995. Did a few other tours, worked hard……… exams and promotion. Married a German Frau, I heard, nice girl, father had ties with the Government…………Father also had place in Switzerland, so I heard………..somewhere near the Austrian border. Hey Jethro, seem to remember girl was a Jew…………nothing against Jews Gibbs, just was thinking…………..during the war did they, the Jews I mean, not get their artefacts out of Germany via Switzerland?"

Gibbs thanked Nesbit, he needed to talk to Ziva, but how.

****

"Ziva I need to talk to you." he asked down the phone. "Ok your place or mine………..I thought that, ok, see you then.

****

He was sanding the boat when she appeared at the top of the stair.

"Gibbs?" she questioned.

"You're late."

"I was followed."

"Thought as much………Fornell? Or CIA?"

Ziva shrugged her shoulders, "I was thinking more Interpol, they were not very good."

Gibbs smiled and finished the bit on the boat. He turned, "Thought so. So Ziva……..Jewish artefacts stolen during the war………….know of a buyer?"

"We want the ones the Vatican have……..but there were many that went over the borders before Hitler really advanced. I know of a collector in New Jersey. And a lot of artefacts were not stolen or looted but sent for safe keeping."

"I need you to find out for me."

"Of course Gibbs. I'd better go." she turned and left the way she had arrived.

He slipped out after her. Yes he saw the courting couple………..he smiled………He kept Ziva in sight. He knew they would follow her, and she knew he would track them.

****

The next morning was bright for November. He woke from under the boat. Why did he do that? The coffee cold. The growth on his chin………he smelt like………..no he needed to shower and shave. His cell rang, he looked at the ID and smiled.

"Jethro……….thought I told you to stay away……."

"Jen, if I'm bait I need to know……….."

"Gibbs……..you're on a need to know basis…………."

"As always ….eh Jen, Ma'am." as he shut the phone down. Ok he was on his own. He was being used to draw out Colonel Boscawen………….but did Ziva know or even realise.

****

She rang from a payphone.

"Gibbs…..no listen…..you're being bugged…..2 choices and it better "B" the best oK. 11.15." the emphasis on the B's and K.

He smiled and tried to think. There were only two places a Jew would visit in Washington. He knew which he'd choose. He slipped his coat on and left the house.

****

The B'nai B'rith Klutznick Museum, why had she picked this instead of the Holocaust Museum. What did she have to tell him. He walked through the museum. Looking at the artefacts……….torah covers, silver amulets and intricately crafted spice boxes, all displaying twenty centuries of Jewish daily, religious and cultural life. The rituals of life described in artworks, and documents. Oh yes he could see why the Jews wanted the Vatican to return.

"Gibbs." as she quietly walked up to him, "I have found what you need to know. But what do you know of our B'nai B'rith.?"

"Not a lot Ziva………It was founded in 1843. And this was of three buildings seized by gunmen in 1977, it was the Hanafi Siege." he answered "I just hadn't finished reading up when you arrived."

Ziva smiled, "So I have free range to tell you about the organisation.?"

"Yep, but just don't go on like Ducky"

"Ok, the B'nai B'rith, are an international organisation…… they assist in a wide variety of community service and welfare activities……………assisting hospitals and victims of natural disasters. They award scholarships to Jewish college students. They help the aged……..and give medical care."

"Where do they get their money?" Gibbs questioned.

"Donations."

"Why do I suddenly feel I know where this is going." he asked Ziva, now turning and looking at her.

"The B'nai B'rith International also stows various recognitions and awards, including its Presidential Gold Medal every few years………. to honour a recipient's commitment to the Jewish people." she replied.

****

They arrived at the Colonels door. They knocked. He answered.

"Colonel? Gunnery Sergeant Gibbs……… Sir."

"Jethro…….nice to see you. Wondered how long it would take for you too work it out. Come in please." as he opened the door further.

Over coffee the Colonel tried to explain his actions, and how he had attracted the attention of Interpol, the FBI and the CIA. It had become known that the B'nai B'rith were going to award a medal, and the Government wanted to know how a person on a Colonels' salary was being given such recognition. Nelson went on to explain that his wife's family had smuggled artefacts out of Germany. His wife and he had had a daughter………she had died of leukaemia…his wife had never got over it. She blamed the artefacts for all the heartache. Her Grandparents dying in Auschwitz. Her fathers ill health due to the conditions in another death camp. She blamed the genes she had inherited, on their daughters illness. She had died of a broken heart. He had inherited the artefacts through his wife's will and had over the years, sold them off, giving the proceeds to the charity. Was the B'nai B'rith not also called the "Children of the Covenant" he gave the money to save children. There were tears in his eyes when he had finished talking. Gibbs looked at Ziva, if he wasn't mistaken she too was crying.

The End