Title: Veritatem Dies Aperit (Time Discovers Truth)

Summary, Disclaimer & Spoilers: See Chapter One

A/N: Thanks to ncismom for all her help with this story! All remaining mistakes are mine.

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Chapter Three: No Time Like the Present

"He said you'd be here," a familiar voice said to his right before a glass filled with three fingers of some type of alcohol – whiskey judging from the smell – was placed in front of him.

Tony shifted his gaze from the 'rocks' glass in front of him to the man now sitting uninvited across the booth from him. Despite the opening given to him, he chose to remain silent. Since he was just a pawn in a larger game, it really wasn't up to him to get the ball rolling in the here and now.

Several long moments later, the man in front of him finally broke the silence between them with the proper Italian pronunciation of his surname.

"DiNozzo," he said in greeting. Tony watched as the expression of the man in front of him, who was once again sporting a beard, changed from indecision to determination.

"We were under orders from the top."

"I don't care," Tony replied as tonelessly and unemotionally as possible.

"He didn't have a choice," the FBI agent tried again.

"I don't care," was the highly enunciated reply which allowed some of the speaker's anger to slip through.

"It's been killing him these—"

"I don't goddamn care!" His voice exploded from his mouth in a quiet but highly menacing tone that promised damage if this line of conversation continued.

"I don't care," he repeated after taking a moment to calm down aided by a healthy swallow of the whiskey provided by his companion. "Just tell me what I'm supposed to do, Fornell."

Fornell held his hands up in surrender and nodded before beginning to read him into the situation.

"This all began about six, almost seven, months ago. Three high school buddies have a reunion after not seeing each other for nearly ten years. In the process of them catching up, they find out they are all analysts but for three separate federal agencies. Which makes a certain amount of sense given their common interests and skills back then…"

"Let me guess," interrupted Tony. "FBI, NCIS, and…. Homeland Security?"

Fornell smiled slightly, "Exactly right."

"Not long after their reunion, one of them notices an irregularity, actually several irregularities in her data. The analyst goes to her superiors knowing something's not right, but they don't agree that there could be a problem.

"Convinced she's right, but needing more data, the analyst contacts her buddies. It turned out that the three of them each had the different missing pieces to the same puzzle, which lead to—"

"Hawthorne Security."

"Yes," Fornell confirmed with a nod. "But despite all the data collected, all we have is supposition and no proof."

"So, I'm supposed to find proof of whatever the Brothers Hawthorne are doing before it further endangers national security."

"Exactly. But how do you know it threatens national security?"

"I would hope that my life wouldn't have been so thoroughly and completely screwed over if it didn't." He tossed back another drink of his whiskey. "Are you my handler for this, Toby? My go-between among the agencies?"

"I was brought in due to my past association with you since you can't be seen with anyone from NCIS."

"Good," the word slipped out before he could stop it and he rushed to cover himself. "It's good to deal with someone familiar."

Fornell doesn't say anything, but their eyes briefly meet and Tony knew the man in front of him had seen right through his words.

Deflecting attention from the awkward moment, he asked, "So what does the nerd herd and the higher-ups suspect Hawthorne Security is doing?"

Fornell launched into a debriefing of what was thought to be going on at the security firm. While he's carefully listening, a part of Tony's brain extracted and started contemplating the most pertinent information.

Hawthorne Security had apparently started out as a completely legit company that provided personal security primarily for big wigs of the business world. But over time, once Erik brought his older brother, Daniel, into the business their clientele changed.

More and more of their clients were foreigners, people known to have anti-American sympathies. Other clients were suspected of being part of domestic and international crime syndicates.

His handler continued by explaining that a three-agency task force had been set-up to investigate the allegations that Hawthorne was aiding and abetting the smuggling of contraband, criminals and terrorists into the United States. The aid was in the form of getting the people illegally entering the country passed security at various entry points and providing them with perfect IDs, visas, the whole works. Contraband of all kinds was also being smuggled into the country including conflict diamonds and, in one case, there was a rumor of some reportedly long-lost Nazi U-boat treasure being brought in by an Argentinean of German descent. There's even some evidence to suggest that the firm might also have been responsible for some high-profile assassinations over the last several years.

As Tony had already surmised, the shop's employed ranks consisted primarily of ex-military Special Forces types, but on occasion they would hire ex-federal agents though the brothers had also been known to hire suspected bent ex-cops.

The analysts had discovered what they thought was a correlation between the dates of new hires and changes to national security protocols. The working theory was that the brothers hired the most recent of ex-feds in order to get, through coercion or cooperation of some sort, information they couldn't get any other way. Information only certain federal and state agencies were supposed to know about. The last major change of protocols had been just before Tony was fired, and he's the only one in the last two months to have been let go from his job under questionable circumstances.

Due to the fact that NCIS wasn't as well known among the federal agencies, Tony, with his record of excellence was chosen to be the one to go undercover. His mission was to get in tight with the brothers and get the evidence of their wrongdoings including how complicit all the employees were in the firm's unscrupulous dealings.

"Any questions?" Fornell asked concluding his briefing.

"Just one," Tony replied then hesitated. Finally he asked, "Was any of what I was accused of real?"

"What do you mean?"

"I know I didn't misplace, steal," he flung up a hand in frustration, "whatever…the money, but did I really lose or damage evidence critical to any of NICS' cases? Please don't tell me that I'm going to be responsible for letting killers go free."

A brief look of sadness, pity, concern or some combination of the three passed over Fornell's face, but it's gone by the time he gently answered, "No, Tony. You don't have to worry about that. No killers are going to go free. You're in the clear. It was all a set-up as part of your cover."

Relief washed over him because the idea that several murderers were going to go free because of something he'd done had been a frequent source of nightmares since this whole ordeal had begun. But as quickly as the feeling of relief had come, it was just as quickly overcome by the anger and bitterness of the fact it had all been a set-up.

All of this had been done without his permission and with no guarantee that he would be the right bait to lure the Hawthornes into the Feds' nets.

"Check-ins will be handled by a go-between that's already in place."

"Grace," Tony involuntarily whispered, closing his eyes and lowering his head.

"How did—? Never mind," he said shaking his head with a sly smile. "Your continued patronage to the diner will serve as a means for you to regularly check-in. Grace will serve as our intermediary, help set-up meets, act as an information drop, etc. Are you clear on what your mission is?"

"Crystal," Tony snapped before lifting his head to lock eyes with his handler. "Just one more question, Toby. What would've happened to me if the Hawthornes hadn't taken the bait?"

"They did and that's all that matters, Tony."

Fornell got up from the booth and started to leave, but then he turned back towards Tony. He lifted a hand to Tony's shoulder, causing the ex-NCIS agent to look up.

"He didn't have a choice, kid," the FBI agent said then sighed removing his hand. "None of us did."

"I still don't care, Fornell." He looked down at the last swallow of whiskey in his glass and continued to speak. "Can you pass a message on for me to whoever is in charge?"

The bearded man shrugged and answered, "Sure. Don't know if they'll listen, but…"

"Great. Tell them that I'll do my job to the best of my ability and when, not if, the bad guys are taken down, I want my record wiped so clean I can see my reflection in it. I also want my back pay plus expenses for the time between I was fired and the end of this mission. Hazard pay would be nice, but I'm not holding my breath over that one.

"And when this is finally over, I want either: a transfer to a federal agency of my choice with no hassles and my pay grade and benefits intact or an early, full retirement from NCIS. Dealer's choice. Right now it doesn't really matter which."

"I'll pass along your message," Fornell stated with a barely concealed look of shock at Tony's words.

"Until next time, Toby," was the flat-voiced reply.

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Once he was sure Fornell was long gone from the bar, Tony, who had been in perfect control just seconds ago, simply wilted like a flower that had been in the full summer sun for far too long. He put his hands over his face and as much as the table would let him, he curled in on himself and let his head drop down with a loud thunk. Then he lifted his a little and let it hit the table again with an equally loud thunk before straightening up and forcing himself to regain control.

It was said in the heat of the moment and without really considering the consequences of his ultimatum, but it felt right to have said it at the time.

He was done being manipulated and sacrificed for the greater good.

When this was over, he was done with NCIS, done with being a federal agent, done with D.C.

It was time for him to move on and see if he could beat his record of ten years somewhere else.

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To be continued…

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A/N: Kudos to all those who guessed Fornell was the owner of the mystery voice from the previous chapter! :D

As for the next chapter, the best I can do is to guarantee is that a new one will be out next Thursday at the latest.

Thanks for reading!