"So, can someone please inform me how we're supposed to work an undercover joint case with the BAU in a school?" Tony asked.
Gibbs shook his head. "I don't have a clue, but they're supposed to be sending some doctor over to get us ready, whatever that means."
In half an hour, Dr. Lindsey Clark arrived and told the team to get into the van she had brought. Once the team did as she asked, she drove them to hotel where they checked in to a large room on the fourth floor. She handed them each a file and stood in front of where they were perched on chairs and on the edges of the beds.
"This undercover operation is… tricky," she started. "We've managed to create an illusion devise, the AADD, which creates the physical illusion an adult is a child of any age the device is programmed with."
"How are we going to work the case if we look like we're kids?" McGee asked.
"You'll gather information once you're settled into the school," she responded. "You'll report back to me and I will handle it from there."
"So basically we're your puppets?" Gibbs growled. The doctor's eyes narrowed.
"You will be crucial to the case, and stopping whoever is preying on the children of Navy personal whom attend this school," she announced.
"Why did you bring Abigail and I along?" Ducky questioned. "She is a forensic scientist and I am a medical examiner, neither of us is a field agent.
"The school is for gifted children and children who exhibit advanced abilities that will assist them in a particular career," Dr. Clark said. "You'll be attending as career students because you have already perfected your abilities over a number of years." She glanced at her watch. "And now if there are no more questions we need to get you each suited up with your AADDs and go meet the BAU team. Who's going first?"
"I will go," Ziva volunteered.
The doctor attached a metal cuff to her left wrist, entered a series of commands through a number pad, gave her an injection, and handed her a stack of clothing before telling her to shower and get dressed. She left the room and took McGee into the other bathroom repeating the process and then doing the same with Abby, Ducky, Gibbs, and Tony.
"Ha!" McGee laughed. "Tony's looks like he's eight!"
"I do not!" Tony replied angrily. "And I'm still senior field agent so-" Tony stuck his tongue out, but then retracted it, slightly appalled by the involuntary juvenile reaction.
"Also a reminder, while you still are adults mentally, you will occasionally have juvenile impulses," the doctor said, sensing DiNozzo's discomfort. "This is actually a good thing, it adds to the illusion that your children."
"So how am I?" Abby asked, looking at her smaller than usual hands.
"Thirteen," Dr. Lindsey said. "Gibbs is seventeen, DiNozzo is eleven, David is fifteen, McGee is fourteen, and Donald is eighteen."
"Why do I have to be the youngest?" Tony asked.
"Three of the kidnappings have been from the sixth grade group," Lindsey answered. "I wanted a good agent to be in that area." That answer seemed to please Tony, being as he shot a "Ha on you, Probie," look at McGee.
There was a knock on the door and another doctor entered with six kids aged from eighteen to around twelve. They looked a little bit uncomfortable with themselves, so Team Gibbs guessed that they were the BAU team and had recently became children as well.
"I'm Dr. James Wither," the doctor introduced himself to the federal children. Then he turned the other doctor. "I did as you suggested and had hem wait to read their files until we were all together."
The agents were finally allowed to read the fine that had their undercover backgrounds and families included within it. They were grouped into 'families' which were Spencer, Jethro, Tony, Garcia, and Abby Stone; Aaron, Jason, and Tim Smythe; Morgan, Emily, and JJ Philips; and Garcia and Ducky Malden. They were all Navy brats and their fathers were all being transferred to the same area, which explained four different families moving to one place at once.
"Won't it look suspicious for so many kids in each family to be gifted?" Ziva asked.
"Actually, intellectual giftedness rarely exists in a vacuum," Spencer answered. "It's common for siblings to have IQs within ten points of each other."
Tony nodded. "Three fourths of the time a child will be within thirteen or less points of their siblings IQ. Luckily none of us are going undercover as twins because the older twin is more likely to be gifted that the younger," he said.
"So, did you see a movie about gifted kids or are you making this up?" McGee asked. Tony glared.
"Actually, he's right," Dr. Wither said. "If my memory serves me correctly, I remember from his file that Tony was in his schools' gifted education programs."
"So when do we start school?" Tony asked, changing the subject.
"In a week," Dr. Clark answered. "Until then, we want you to get accustomed with your roles, your families, the home we'll all be moving into, and being kids."
The Drakkon School for the Intellectually Gifted and Academically Advanced accepted all kinds of students. They had a multitude of trouble makers, goody two shoes, navy brats, city slickers, country hicks, kids who dressed like they were from the eighteen hundreds and kids who never went without at least three different colors in their hair. The oldest kids in the school were eighteen and the youngest were barely eleven. They had trust fund babies and kids who had gotten in on scholarships. The school accepted everyone on one condition.
You had to be brilliant.
If you were a career student who wanted to be a doctor, you had better know the names of majority of the bones and muscles in the human body. If you wanted to be an author you had better have a manuscript finished by the end of your first school year there. If you were a gifted kid, you had better have an IQ higher than most adults ever will.
As a result, the school had only six hundred and five students. The school had opened in January of 2004 after being created by the extremely wealthy scientist, Thaddeus Drakkon. He equipped the Career students with supplies and the GATE (Gifted and Talented Education) and A-GATE (Advanced Gifted and Talented Education) with laptops. The school also had small rooms so that if a student had a project that needed to be monitored overnight they could see if a room was available.
The students knew that they were very lucky to attend a school that encouraged their abilities so much, and put forth so much effort to help them on their way to adulthood. But they were also very unlucky, because not one of them knew the killer that lurked just outside the gates.