Chapter 2

NCIS Headquarters, Washington DC

As Gibbs had continued to watch the surveillance tape of the Quantico Base, they spotted the suspicious man getting into a black SUV. Of course Mc Gee checked the plates of the car immediately but unfortunately they were faked: "Tony put a bolo out for the black Suv and Mc Gee continue to follow the car with every avaible camera because we need to find out where they drove." Gibbs said and pointed at the now frozen image of the car where this mysterious man got in, minutes after he killed or kidnapped the Lt.

"According to SGT. Miller, the head technician at his men discovered that the cameras near the base apartments had been tempered with. Someone with very good technical skills was able to remotely tap into the camera feed and a manipulate it and because of that they were able to move freely on the base without being detected." Mc Gee said, Gibbs went to his desk, took one short sip from his plastic coffee cup thought about everything that Tim had just said and then finally replied: "So that person was definitely someone from the inside and he surely wasn't working alone." This surely was getting more and more complex, but on the other hand Gibbs really loved it to be challenged by a case like that, he hated it to always be able to get done the easy way and then thought to himself: *How can we find those people, who are obviously pros at what they do, when they apparently haven't made one single mistake so far?*

"Mc Gee have a look at the base personnel files, see if anyone of them has a criminal record, even if it's only a speeding ticket or something like that." Gibbs said to Mc Gee, and then turned around to Tony and Ziva: "You two go back to the workplace of the Lt., ask his CO if anything suspicious has happened in the past, any indications that someone inside the Navy Intelligence Office has been selling information to an enemy country."

Office of Special Projects, Los Angeles

In the bullpen of the OSP Building, the rest of the team was sitting at their respective desks, talking about what they had done the past weekend. "The weekend was great guys, had a great girls night in some cool new club called "The Rising Sun".

"Was there maybe anyone with you that we know?" Deeks asked being curious as always when it considered Kensi's weekend activities. Kensi grinned a little bit, of course she had already seen that question coming and finally replied: "Actually Nell was one of the girls that partied with me almost till the next morning." Sam and Callen watched that whole scene unfold in front of them with a little bit of amusement because Deeks had to definitely think that his wildest dreams had finally come true.

The LAPD Liasion finally answered in a very non-chalant tone: "I really didn't expect the little red to be a party girl." Before Kensi could say anything in return, Nell appeared at the top of the stairs and whistled to get the attention of the team that sat down in the bullpen at their respective desks. As Deeks, Sam, Callen and Kensi turned around they were a little surprised to see her instead of Eric on top of the stairs but that was probably one of the things that had changed, since the two had become a couple. As the team had gathered up in the OPS Center Eric started the briefing for the newest case: "Three hours ago, someone hacked into the mainframe of the Naval Air Station Point Mogu, those guys were definitely pros because they could smuggle some data out of the system before being detected. Right they are still assessing the damage that has been done by the cyber-attack." Nell, having her portable pc in her hands as always then took over: "The IT Experts at Point Mogu are suspecting that they got themselves the start codes for the newest rocket prototype that has been developed at Point Mogu…"

"And in the wrong hands this one could really do some great damage, paranoid enemies could see a rogue rocket exploding on their ground as an act of war." Callen said now being very alarmed and then Sam asked Eric: "Were the guys at Point Mogu able to track down the source of the hacking?"

"Sadly no, they of course had tried to find them with a special trace program but they were able to reroute their signal the whole time." Eric answered Sam and continued to work on his portable computer.

"I did some research and looks like we have at least one trace that we can follow as a start." Nell then said, pushed some buttons on her portable computer, a photo of a young man with short dark brown hair appeared on the screen and Nell finally continued to speak: "This is Brad North, one of the most searched hackers by the FBI, which is after him since three now but every time they were close to catch he was able to slip through the net. But they were able to spot him in LA two days ago, they're guessing that he meets contacts from the hacker scene here In Los Angeles."

"Since none of the others here would be qualified for that mission, it looks like you're going on another field trip Miss Jones. Mister North was and is still a very cautious man; we can't afford to lose him out of our line of sight because he's the only hope we have right now to get closer to the hackers that threaten national security." Hetty said to Nell, who didn't really know if she should be happy about another field trip or scared.

Of course she didn't see that coming her way, but on the other hand it was really a great opportunity to get more routine into working in the field and she certainly would talk to Callen, who had become something like her mentor considering the field missions, to get some final advice before her departure to where ever she would heading to. "North actually has a good friend here in LA, Victor Mason, who hasn't got a criminal record as far as we know. Mason lives in Bakersfield, Masters Road six." Nell said and then waited what Hetty would say next:

"Mister Beale use every avavaible traffic cam to find Mister North, Miss Jones prepare yourself for your undercover assignment because you need be ready to go when we have got Mister North's location."

One Hour later

Eric was busy working in OPS when an alarm went off at his work station, he called Hetty once he had read the bolo from the colleagues in Washington DC and realized that there two cases might be connected. Deeks and Kensi where already out in the field, paying North's ex-girlfriend a visit, while Callen and Sam were hoping to get any valueable information from his best friend Victor Mason.

"This was taken at the Washington DC Airport in the afternoon, after he had been involved in a murder of a Navy Lt. in the Navy Intelligence Office, posing as a Navy Computer Technician."

"He boarded a plane to LA a few minutes after his arrival was recorded by the surveillance camera in front of the airport, the estimated arrival time is in the evening LA time and it looks like we are not the only one looking for him, the NCIS Office in Washington DC has sent out a bolo for a black suv that apparently belongs to an yet unknown associate of him." After had finally finished giving Hetty all the new information he had right now, Hetty ordered Eric to help Nell prepare a undercover identity and before she finally left the OPS, she looked one more time at Nell and said: "I know that you are a little bit nervous about this whole thing, because you're not that often in the field but I have all the faith in the world that you can pull this off Miss Jones."

AN: Thanks to- Andrew Jeeves for adding this story to his favorite stories list, story alert subscription, thanks to- fairy demon for adding this story to his/her story alert subscription.