Author's note: This story is the final installment in a three-part series. They are meant to be read in order, so if you haven't read the first two stories, 'Turning the Page' and 'Blank Pages', you've missed a lot and might be a little lost!

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"We give the agents what they think they want. It's time we went fishing...with a lure they won't be able to resist. When they take the bait then we set a trap; one that will put an end to their interference once and for all." – LaPointe, Blank Pages

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Chapter 1: Lies of Omission

~Shanghai~

LaPointe tapped his fingers impatiently on the ornate desk in his office. The room had been thoroughly cleaned; all evidence of the violence that had taken place there hours before had been completely removed, including the body of the ill-fated Chan. Now he was waiting for Rousseau to return from searching Chan's home and accessing his computers. With the exception of Rousseau, LaPointe trusted virtually no one completely, so critical members and operatives within his new network were under periodic visual and electronic surveillance. LaPointe felt certain Rousseau would find something that would help them to determine what Chan might have been storing on the flash drive he dropped in his haste to escape the earlier raid.

Chan's loss of the flash drive was highly problematic. Their principal informant on the local police force, Officer Wei, confirmed the police had not recovered it so it was highly likely that the CIA had. Another reason to find Teague, he mused in annoyance. The woman operative who'd proven to be such a thorn in their side in the past now seemed intent on pursuing them again. He wondered what made her so driven and focused on them. Daniel had probably known this woman's motivations as well as the identity of the American agent that eventually killed him. To their detriment, his protege hadn't seen fit to keep him entirely in the loop on certain aspects of their past operations in Shanghai. That was past and in the present, it was more important that they ascertain what information fell into the CIA's hands and act quickly to mitigate any impact from potential disclosure of their operations.

Chan was one of a number of accountants employed by the Calling to manage the flow of funds from their various global operations; he also arranged to pay bribes and local informants, including some of those assigned to locate the CIA woman and her associates. The lost information was most likely damaging and he'd already made arrangements to relocate their some of their operations in Shanghai and beyond.

A tap at the door pulled LaPointe from his musings, and he looked up as Rousseau entered and took the seat opposite his desk. "Well, Emile?"

"It appears Chan was a traitor working both sides. We need to step up our monitoring of key members in the group to prevent further infiltration," Rousseau reported.

LaPointe's eyes narrowed dangerously. "What did you find?"

"I reviewed the warehouse surveillance footage for Chan's movements before and during the raid. Other than confirming the presence of the CIA woman, there was nothing telling to be seen; it appeared he could have dropped the flash drive inadvertently," Rousseau began. "However when we searched his home and laptops, we found indications he had been feeding limited information to the CIA for some time. It's highly likely he was the leak that gave up the location of the arms warehouse and may have dropped the flash drive intentionally, hoping they would find it and we would not come to learn about it."

"Do we know why he turned on us?"

"I believe so." Rousseau ventured. "His covert communications with the CIA show our mousy little accountant had no qualms about the cyberterrorism operations of our network. When it came to the chemical weapons, arms, and explosives we're stockpiling, he seems to have developed a moral objection. He's given up both warehouses here at the port."

"Well, he won't be giving up anything further, and we've made an example out of him for the others to see how we deal with those who would seek to infiltrate and betray us," LaPointe seethed. "Now, we need to act quickly to protect our assets and operations. Our plan to plant evidence and false trails for the CIA and their operatives to follow should be implemented immediately. We also need to identify who Teague is working with. Perhaps arrange some infiltration of our own, yes?"

"Yes," Rousseau agreed, "but that will take some time. We have the more immediate issue of the flash drive to deal with. As you know, we're using key logger programs to monitor activities of those in the group with access to our more sensitive information. In addition to giving up the warehouse locations, Chan appeared to be compiling other information about us to turn over to law enforcement. We should assume anything he had access to has been compromised."

"Were you able to determine exactly what he accessed?"

"Yes; some very damaging information to us. Along with the financial records held here in Shanghai, he appears to have found information tracing back to our roots in France, including funding sources. He also had locations of some of our weapons stores and regional operating cells outside Shanghai."

LaPointe furiously pounded a fist on the desk. His chair scraped noisily as he rose and paced in irritation while wishing he'd not acted so hastily in eliminating Chan. After hearing what the man had managed to hide from them, he would have liked to have spent a few days investigating Chan's pain threshold first.

Rousseau smiled at this expression of his leader's ire, their longtime association allowing him to guess exactly what the man was thinking.

"You can't torture the dead, LaPointe," he offered with a knowing smile. "Yes, it's too bad we did not have this information earlier; I so love to watch you work. But what's done is done."

"Yes, Emile. You're right of course." LaPointe took his seat again with a sigh. The fanatical light was gone from his eyes and his aristocratic features were now composed again, as if a switch had been thrown. "We need to move quickly to transfer funds and relocate weapons stores. Fortunately our operating cells are already designed to be mobile. It will not be a difficult matter to relocate them."

"I've already begun those arrangements to move," Rousseau began, "the men are prepared, we just need to transmit the new locations."

"Good. We'll finish setting up the new location outside the city first. Perhaps that will buy us some time away from the CIA's prying eyes here within Shanghai. In the meantime…perhaps in death, our traitor can be of some use. I think his betrayal can be turned to our advantage."

"I don't see how," Rousseau ventured.

"The flash drive could present an opportunity to wait for our pursuers to reveal themselves to us." LaPointe explained. "The CIA will suspect we know about the loss of the drive and that we will act to make the information obsolete. Even so," he continued, "they will still investigate the information. We keep all the locations Chan gave up under surveillance, watch covertly as they carry out their work. Perhaps we can identify their operatives and the extent of their reach. We plant evidence to mislead them and we'll leave just enough bread crumbs that are accurate to avoid raising their suspicions."

Rousseau nodded, pleased with the spur-of-the-moment plan LaPointe formulated. "That could work very well for us," he agreed. "The information on the flash drive will lead them to France…and almost certainly back here. Our informants in the police department will ascertain where Teague and her operatives are based in Shanghai. Our people at the airport will track her travel."

"Yes, perfect," LaPointe said. "It's nearly time to shift some of our operations to the United States. Eventually we will learn where they are based. Once we do, the American government and their allies will learn we will not be defeated so easily this time. And they will learn it at great cost."

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~Seattle, two days later~

Joanna walked alone through the nearly empty corridors of Sentinel Security Systems or 'S3', as they often referred to their headquarters. The false front company behind which the task force concealed their domestic and overseas counterterrorism work kept a skeleton crew on at night, gathering intelligence and coordinating with offices in other far away time zones. She'd chosen an after-hours meeting to minimize the number of personnel around when the rest of the team arrived for the debriefing on The Calling.

Joanna intended to keep the agreement she'd made with Tony to read in the rest of the task force on the first case and the disturbing information they'd discovered in that recent raid in Shanghai. She'd agreed to disclose the background of her previous confrontation with The Calling as part of the NCIS-led investigation, and everything about why it tied in to their current efforts.

Well, almost everything. Tony was still resistant to the idea of continuing to keep his true 'Tony DiNozzo' identity a secret from his team, predicting it would cause future problems and questions of trust.

She sensed Tony was under a great deal of stress maintaining the cover, and increasingly resentful at having to do so though he hadn't specifically spoken to her about it. Still…The Calling had somehow gotten an early warning about the raid and all but two of their people in the warehouse had escaped. Until they identified who was feeding The Calling information, she was adamant that they take no unnecessary risks with his safety. At this point they had no idea if the new leak was someone here or in Shanghai, so he'd reluctantly agreed.

Joanna entered the S3 secure conference room and was surprised to see Tony already there, organizing stacks of files. "You're early, Nick. What's up?"

"Hey Joanna. Shut the door and lock it, would you?"

Joanna raised a questioning eyebrow, but complied and then took a seat at the table. "So, what's going on?" she asked, mystified by his request.

"I've got the CIA file copies you provided on The Calling, but they're heavily redacted," Nick began. "The NCIS case files are more detailed. Before I resigned, I copied my own case files and everything we had on The Calling." Nick explained. "I've gone through them with a fine-tooth comb and removed any references to my name. I've got copies for the team. They'll help give us a place to start while Lena and Melanie work on decrypting the flash drive files."

"Ah, excellent," Joanna nodded, pleased Tony thought to bring the NCIS files with him when he came onboard the task force. That meant they could avoid any potentially awkward questions raised by making official requests to NCIS for the information. The last thing they needed was NCIS involvement. "Anything else before I open the door?"

"They aren't going to be happy about not getting the old case files sooner, especially Matt and Gary. Lena and Melanie are among the best out there in computer forensics. They are going to eventually figure out that you've given them an altered flash drive and not the original copy." Nick pointed out. "I'm assuming the files with my face are now missing?" he asked.

Joanna nodded. "Yes," she confirmed. "I left all the files that showed me in them. I had someone I trust at HQ edit the security video footage from the raid to remove the parts where you appeared."

"I hope you've thought about how you're going to handle that, and the issue of sharing the case files this late in the game. I can't help much since 'Nick' isn't supposed to know about them either." he said, making finger quotes around the name. "Other than that, I think we're ready to go."

"Just in time, too," Joanna said as she opened the door. "Here they come now."

Once everyone was seated, Joanna began her briefing.

"As you all know, we've recently received intelligence that's given us our first solid leads on a terrorist organization based in Shanghai. They refer to themselves as The Calling," Joanna began. "We recovered a flash drive during the raid Nick and I conducted in Shanghai two days ago. Most of the files are encrypted but a few weren't. Those files present a new wrinkle in this investigation that the rest of the team needs to be read in on."

Joanna paused, walked around the table and passed out copies of the case files. "We're turning over all other open investigations to the FBI and Homeland in DC. The CIA HQ at Langley will handle any loose ends overseas. For the time being, we'll be putting everything we have into pursuing this new lead on The Calling."

"Hey, wait a damn minute!" Gary, the quick-tempered ATF agent on Nick's team objected strenuously. "We've been working a couple of these cases for most of the year. Now that we've almost got them closed, we're just supposed to turn everything we have over?"

"Right," Matt chimed in. "And why are we devoting all our resources to one fledgling group?"

Nick and Joanna's eyes met briefly, and he gave her a slight nod.

"They aren't a fledgling group," Joanna said. "I've dealt with them before and if past history is any indication, they are as ruthless and dangerous as ever."

As Joanna explained the highlights of the CIA's involvement in the NCIS-led investigation the previous year, the questions came fast and furious from Nick's team. After several minutes of fielding the team's questions, she finally got the one Nick warned her to expect.

"So you didn't tell us about this until now because…?" Matt queried as he and the others looked at Nick accusingly.

"It was my call," Joanna said in a hard tone that didn't invite argument. "We had no clear reason to believe we were dealing with anyone involved with the group previously, simply a new group inspired by their actions and successes before we managed to shut them down. Now we know differently."

"How so?" Lena asked.

"During the recent raid in Shanghai, we uncovered evidence they are again dealing in cyberterrorism as a means to fund their more conventional operations…"

"We know all that already," Gary interrupted.

"Yes, but in raiding that warehouse, we found a significant weapons cache and learned some things about the new operation," Joanna stated. "We also found they've become involved in illegal arms trade including chemical weapons. They're doing business with some of the world's most prolific and dangerous arms dealers."

"What has that got to do with why we're finding out about all this now?" Matt asked.

At Nick's urging, Joanna also disclosed the suspicious deaths of operatives, witnesses, and informants connected with the old case two years earlier, ending with the fact the she was also most likely being targeted for assassination as confirmed by the flash drive they'd recovered. She left out nothing, except Tony's name.

"So you see," Joanna summarized, "with the confirmation that I'm a target, by association all of you could become targets as well. Certainly by proximity, if the complete disregard they've shown for collateral damage is any sign."

The team glanced at each other uncomfortably as Nick took up the conversation. "We need to work as quickly as possible to decrypt and assess the contents of the drive," he continued. "They probably know we have it and will act to mitigate the damage from anything it might reveal."

"What about these files?" Matt asked, glancing up from his copy. "Why have they been redacted?"

"It's not uncommon when the CIA shares information with other agencies; often done to protect operatives and sensitive overseas work" Lena added. "It does seem highly irregular for NCIS files. We could be missing key information here."

Nick spoke up as Joanna seemed hesitant to answer. "You aren't missing anything pertinent. The files are redacted to protect the identity of the NCIS agent who killed The Calling's last leader, Daniel Budd."

"Where is this agent now?" Gary asked. "He could be a big help to us."

Nick took a moment to appreciate that little bit of irony before he answered. "He's no longer with NCIS; he resigned from the agency sometime last year," Nick explained, feeling a little strange talking about himself in the third person.

"Is he aware he's a target?"

"He is, and measures have been taken to protect him," Joanna said firmly. She went on with barely a pause; cutting off any further questions along those lines. "Now…let's clear out for tonight and get some rest. We'll get back on it in the morning,"

Nick's team rose and filed out of the conference room. He followed more slowly, stopping in the doorway and turning back to Joanna.

"They're too sharp to let it go, you know. They'll bring it up again if they feel it's warranted," Nick warned.

Joanna sighed tiredly. "I know. We'll deal with it when the time comes."

Nick just nodded doubtfully and followed his team down the corridor.

Joanna shook her head as she gathered the files she used for her briefing. The conversation hadn't gone as well as she hoped. Nick had been correct in predicting his team's reaction. No; they definitely were not happy at being left out of the loop for so long. Hopefully, the flash drive encryption would be broken soon, then they'd have new information to work with. They needed new leads that would serve to divert attention away from the redacted case files before they could raise even more uncomfortable questions from the others. Questions she'd rather not be forced into answering for the time being.

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Next up: How is Gibbs handling mandatory counseling? Yeah, about like you'd expect. Chapter two coming soon!