Chapter 3- Not a team anymore
All the agents gathered at the MTAC to be informed about the new evidence. Finally, they had found something useful.
"The marine owed money to a drug dealer." Gibbs began. "And then the drug dealer made Clark work for him when Clark said he didn't have the money."
"The criminal, however, was disappointed, because the people Clark took the money from were beginning to put more and more pressure on him. Sismond was a trained spy and had started to suspect that something was wrong. In an attempt to destroy the evidence, the drug dealer had one of his men kill the marine." Reese continued.
"This man was Charles Smith. Once the drug dealer saw that we were about to get to him, he asked someone to kill Smith. The problem is, we don't know who the drug dealer is."
"How will we find out?" Dinozzo asked.
"We'll start from the scientists. Smith didn't have access to the lab, so he must have had help from someone who has." Reese answered.
"Wait, didn't Smith tell you who gave him the poison?" McGee wondered, confused.
"Look, agent McGee, it's one of those organizations where people don't ever get to see the one they're working for. Smith just met with someone who gave him orders and said they were from the boss. That someone gave him the poison, but he didn't get it himself."
"Can't we find that person and interrogate him?"
"Smith couldn't remember enough details in order to describe him to us. The only thing we have is interrogating the scientists." Gibbs said. "We'll ask the head scientist to call all of his co-workers at the conference room of the factory, and say that he wants to talk to them about something random. Then we'll close the doors and we'll have a crazy night interrogating about five hundred people."
The head scientist offered to help them without thinking twice. He was a nice man that understood their need to find a solution to this riddle, so he didn't want to make things even more difficult for the four agents.
The three NCIS agents and the director of the CIA were waiting at the factory for everyone to gather, but it seemed to be taking forever.
"What's going on? Weren't they supposed to be here an hour ago?" Dinozzo asked. He was annoyed because everyone was there except for the head scientist.
Gibbs and Reese looked into each other's eyes for a minute, thinking about Dinozzo's question. Then, at the same time, they ran towards the exit. The other two agents tried to follow them, but they couldn't, because their boss and the director of the CIA had already left, taking the car with them.
Reese called her people from the CIA and asked them to tell her the scientist's location. "He's at the airport, his flight is in half an hour." she reported when she hung up. "We can barely make it there."
"Where is he going?"
"Egypt."
They reached the airport and got out of the car in a hurry. They ran towards the enterance and quickly showed their badges to the guards. Once they were in, they ran up the stairs to the second floor, only to see that the plane the scientist was in had just taken off.
They looked at each other, tired from running and disappointed for losing. They said nothing. After some minutes of desparately looking for something to say or do, they gave up and just got in the car and drove back to the NCIS headquarters.
Gibbs called Abby and asked her to take care of everything. She booked the tickets for the next flight to Cairo and informed Vance that an agent was going to go in a different country for a mission.
He got in the elevator and Reese followed right behind him. When he saw her, he pressed the button and the elevator stopped.
"What are you doing?" she asked.
"What are you doing?"
"Exactly what are you talking about?"
"I'm talking about you coming with me."
"What is that supposed to mean?"
"Means that I'll not have you around me in this one. We go on separate ways from now."
"You know that I could go to Vance right now and he'd get you to accept me, but you damn well know I'd prefer to work on my own, too. And so do you, regardless of rule number 15. Do you remember, Gibbs, we used to work as a team long ago."
"I don't need you to teach me my own rules. Now turn around and go away. I have my own business to do."
He pressed the button again and the elevator started moving. She got out, leaving him on his own to go to Abby's lab. Gibbs gathered his team members and they got ready for the mission. Reese returned to the CIA headquarters, more than happy for finally getting rid of Gibbs. That didn't mean that she was abandoning the case, however. There was a danerous american drug dealer in another country, and it was her job to go after him. And she also wanted to prove Gibbs what she was worth.
"Hey, boss, where is Sara Reese?" Dinozzo asked when he realized she was not there.
"I told her to leave. We're going on an undercover mission overseas. I don't want her telling us what we do wrong all the time. We'll do it our way, she'll do it her way."
"You mean that she's going to go after the criminal, too?"
"I'm sure about that. She'll go only so that she can do better and then laugh at us for failing. But we're not going to do her the favor and let her do better."
He was determined to prove to her that she wasn't always right. That comment she had made about working together, didn't touch him. He didn't care. After all, the last time they worked together was a long time ago. It didn't matter anymore.
Did it?