Prologue
Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs descended into his basement with a sigh. It was good to see his boat.
It had been a long week at NCIS for the Major Crimes Unit. The murdered body of marine dictated that jurisdiction fell to NCIS; however, the body being found at the gates to the White House made Secret Service more than a problem for Gibbs and his team. Working with the Secret Service also brought up painful memories of Kate Todd, putting all of the NCIS agents on edge. Well, everyone except Ziva; she'd never known Kate and wasn't distracted by painful memories. It was because she was so much more alert than the rest of the team that she noticed how suspicious one of Secret Service agents, Agent Powell, assigned to help them had been acting. He was all too willing to assist NCIS and made sure that every shred of information he provided pointed to a newer Secret Service agent, some Agent Taft or Tact. In his distraction, Gibbs allowed himself to be lured away from his agents to a supposed Secret Service storage facility. Realizing the fallacies in Powell's information and Gibbs' absence, Ziva rushed to Gibbs' aid. She managed to burst in just as Powell was about to shoot him in the back with a silenced Glock. After a tussle, Gibbs and Ziva walked away from a dead agent Powell, Ziva with cuts and bruises and Gibbs frustrated with himself for dropping his guard.
Gibbs had a hand on his boat and was thinking about the events of the past weak when there was a soft click behind him. He spun around just in time to catch a feathered dart in the chest.
As Gibbs' vision went blurry, he weakly asked the figure walking towards him, "Wha-at is th-this …about?"
A light tenor voice with a faint Middle Eastern accent answered, "Why, Leroy, this is about you."
