Chapter 4

The next week...

Gibbs was about to tell the team they could go for lunch when he caught Vance staring at him from the catwalk. The director jerked his head, and Gibbs knew it was time.

"With me." He looked around the bullpen. McGee looked startled for a minute, then nodded. Tony raised his eyebrows, and Gibbs glared.

"Yes, Boss," Tony said. "On it, Boss."

"Gibbs?" Ziva asked, even as she stood to follow. He shot her the same glare he'd given Tony.

As his team followed him upstairs, Gibbs wondered if this meant Vance had decided to go ahead with the long-shot plan they had discussed or if he'd already closed the case. But the director didn't speak until they were in his office, door closed.

"I have a mission for the four of you. Top secret. Need to know."

"What kind of mission, director?" Ziva asked.

"Agents McGee and DiNozzo uncovered evidence that an agent or agents are siphoning off recovered government money." Vance moved to the conference table and put up photos of three agents on the plasma. "With DiNozzo's help, McGee was able to narrow it down to these three — Agents Proctor, Richards, and Krone. But investigating more would have tipped off the agents, a risk we couldn't afford."

"You did not say anything about this," Ziva said, looking from McGee to Tony.

"We weren't keeping it a secret, Ziva," McGee said. "Well, we were, but Tony only knows because he walked in while I was digging into the discrepancies I'd found."

"Yes, McGee, I understand. Rule 4. To stay a secret, this had to stay quiet." She nodded.

"There a point to this, Leon?"

"Patience, Gibbs. I know you have it." Vance pointed to the chairs around the table and waited until they all were seated. "I need a way to get you four off the grid long enough to investigate and a way to get you access to the paper files of the potentially compromised cases. The last piece just fell into place thanks to the FBI."

"Fornell?" Gibbs said.

"He just got back from an undercover op last night, and his director decided helping us with this smokescreen was a good way to give him some time off." Vance looked around the table. "This is not something you can share. Not with Dr. Mallard or Mr. Palmer or Miss Scuito."

"Understood, Director," Gibbs said. He looked around the table as each of his agents nodded agreement.

"Getting you off the grid will require a bit of acting on your parts. When we finish here, we are going to the bullpen, where I will publicly order somebody to escort you off the Yard because the four of you are suspended from the agency pending an investigation into allegations of evidence tampering." Vance held up a finger.

"Where does Fornell come in?" Tony look at Vance. "And is Sacks involved?"

"No, just Fornell," Vance replied. "I'll announce that the FBI is investigating because of the serious nature of the allegations, so nobody will be surprised when they come in and take custody of the many boxes of evidence from past cases that need to be examined for potential tampering."

Gibbs watched his agents' faces. Ziva and DiNozzo nodded, while McGee had a slight smile on his face.

"So Fornell will take the boxes we need, then go back to his days off while we complete the actual investigation," McGee said. "And since the whole agency will be talking about this, everybody will just assume they're our cases, and nobody is likely to check which ones were taken."

"Even more than that, McGoo," DiNozzo said. "If it does spook our rogue agent to check into the confiscated cases, we'll be able to catch him with his hand in the cookie jar."

"Correct, both of you," Vance said. "I've set up a casefile in the system on the chance that somebody goes looking and sealed a number of documents so only I can access them. That will prevent anybody from discovering which cases were actually taken."

Before the director had finished speaking, McGee was shaking his head. "Not anybody, director. Abby could hack into the files."

Vance nodded. "I'm counting on it."

"You are?" DiNozzo looked from Vance to Gibbs. Gibbs just shrugged.

"We need to get Miss Scuito into the bullpen for this little scene," Vance said. "She won't believe the allegations, and she'll argue with me."

"You think?" Tony muttered so low that only Gibbs, who was sitting next to him, heard.

"Miss Scuito, I'm sure, will spend the next several hours trying to hack into the files to figure out what's going on." Vance looked at McGee, and Gibbs prepared himself not to understand anything about this next part. "I've set things up so she will find surface evidence, but the deeper she digs, the more it will appear that I set you up."

McGee nodded slowly. "That's about the only way it would work. She can get root-level access to the system, which means she would eventually see through any attempts to make the files look like they originated somewhere else."

"This has to look as real as possible, or it won't work." Vance looked toward Gibbs. "Gibbs is letting us use his basement as a base of operations. Apparently with no boat there, he has space."

DiNozzo snickered, and Gibbs smacked his head.

"I set up a high-speed line at Gibbs' house earlier this week for just this eventuality," Vance continued, ignoring the small disruption. "McGee, Fornell is going to bring over a computer with the file boxes. It has all the programs you'll need for full access and a dummy user account that I set up." He handed McGee a piece of paper, which the computer expert tucked in his pocket. "Gibbs, Fornell will go to the archives as soon as I give the signal and take all the cases you and your team needs, then deliver them to your house."

"That makes a great deal of sense," Ziva said. "It is where we met in similar cases."

Gibbs nodded. "We have a day, maybe two, to investigate before Abby realizes it's a setup."

McGee shook his head. "Not even that. Abby is going to drop everything to do this. She'll figure it out by morning."

Vance nodded. "That doesn't give you much time then."

"I still do not understand," Ziva said. "Time for what?"

"Before Miss Scuito cracks those files, you need to have a name," Vance said. "I plan to use her as part of the final stage of the plan, but we need to be ready to act right then."

"That doesn't give us much time," McGee said. "You could try disabling the Caf-Pow machine to slow her down, but that could be hazardous to everybody else."

"I am sorry to be slow, but I do not understand why Abby cannot be in on this from the beginning." Ziva frowned. "Would that not be easier?"

"Abs wouldn't be able to pull it off," Tony said. "Remember Domino?"

"Yes," Ziva said. "Abby helped Gibbs and the director set the trap and did not give up the spook beforehand, even to McGee."

"No, but I knew something was going on," McGee said.

"Exactly," Tony said. "Abs has such an expressive face, she can't hide her feelings. She has to be out of the loop so her reactions don't tip anybody off."

McGee shuddered. "I'm just glad I won't have to be the one to explain that we tricked her."

Gibbs hid his smile. He almost regretted he wouldn't be there to witness Abby's reaction when Vance explained why she had been kept out of the loop.

"You know the plan." Vance stood. "Give yourselves a few minutes to get into the mindset. Once we go through our scene in the bullpen, everyone's going to assume that I've been up here reading you the riot act and informing you that you're all being suspended. You're supposed to be pissed at me."

Gibbs bit back the remark that rose to his lips. Vance was no Morrow, but as directors went, he was one of the best since Gibbs had started working on the Yard.

"So now we just need to get Miss Scuito into the bullpen," Vance said.

McGee checked his watch, then shook his head. "No need. The three of us were supposed to go to lunch with her — she's probably down there now wondering where we are."

Gibbs nodded. "All of you, go home, grab enough gear for a few days — just in case, and meet back at my place. That should give Fornell time to deliver the files." He motioned his team toward the door.

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Vance led the way down the stairs, channeling his fury at the idiot agents who thought they could get away with stealing from the government. As he stood aside to let the MCRT walk into the bullpen, he didn't have to pretend to be pissed about what he was about to do.

"There you are." Abby stood up. "What happened to lunch?"

Vance made a point of shutting her down. "Not possible, Miss Scuito." He stood in the space between Tony and Ziva's desks and surveyed the room. "Agent Balboa."

"Yes, Director?"

"Your team will be escorting Gibbs, DiNozzo, McGee, and David off the Yard." Vance walked over to Gibbs' desk. This was the part everybody had to play right. "Badges, guns, and NCIS IDs."

Gibbs was first, setting them down on his desk. "You're making a mistake, Leon." Gibbs glared. Good. One person down, three to go.

"I only see one badge. There should be four of them." He looked first at McGee, then Tony, then Ziva. McGee was the one he was least sure of. But the agent took his gun from his lockbox and walked over, setting it down. He unclipped his badge, almost slamming it down on the desk, then went to stand by Gibbs. Vance was impressed. If he didn't know better, he'd think McGee was seriously pissed at him. DiNozzo and David followed suit, until Vance faced a solid MCRT wall. Good thing this wasn't for real. Vance didn't run from fights, but these four were enough to intimidate a platoon full of Marines.

"Gibbs. McGee. DiNozzo. David. You are hereby suspended from NCIS pending a complete investigation into the allegations of evidence-tampering." Vance pitched his voice to carry, but he didn't need to — the squad room had gone silent after his instructions to Balboa. "You are not to have contact with any staff member of this agency for any reason until the investigation is complete."

Now for the tricky part of the scene they were staging. He turned to face Abby, who had her mouth open. "I said any staff member, Miss Scuito. That includes you. No phone calls, e-mails, text messages, visits, or any other form of communication or contact." Vance surveyed the room. "This applies to each of you. Violations will be punished with immediate suspension and a written reprimand in the offender's personnel file." He saw surprise on many faces and smirks on others, but nothing from any of their suspects that might help them crack this case.

"Agent Balboa, escort them out." Vance stayed in the bullpen, waiting.

"Director, there's been a mistake."

Vance was glad she was following the cues, even if she didn't have a copy of the script they were working from. "No mistake, Miss Scuito. Not on my part. And when the investigation bears out the accusations, you will see that. The only mistake made was by the agents who thought they could get away with breaking the law."

"But... But it's Gibbs. Gibbs! And the rest of them... They would never tamper with evidence. You know that, Director. They would never-" She was practically vibrating, and her expression was a mix of worry and anger. Vance hoped McGee was right about how quickly she would crack this, because he did not want the scientist as an enemy.

"Miss Scuito." He stepped up to face her. "Go down to your lab. Work on the cases that are your responsibility. Leave this one to me." He paused. "DO NOT think you can get around the no-contact restriction on this. I will be watching." He watched as she looked like she was about to say something. Instead, she turned and hurried out of the bullpen.

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They couldn't take agency cars, so when Tony parked in front of Gibbs' house, his Mustang joined an eclectic assortment that reflected his teammates. Looked as though even McGee had beaten him there — but Tony figured his being last would be forgiven when they saw the coffee and tea he carried. Gibbs would never turn down more coffee, and McGee and Ziva would just be glad to get something they could stomach. With enough milk and sugar, Tony could handle the tar Gibbs called coffee, but the other two, not so much.

He walked in and headed right down to the basement. Sure enough, the rest of the team was set up down there, along with what looked like a few hundred boxes of evidence.

"Good thing the boat's gone, Boss," he said as he set the tray down on the workbench, slinging his kit on the floor. "No room otherwise."

"Ya think, DiNozzo?" Gibbs looked up from the end of the stack of boxes. "Fornell just left."

"So how do we divide this up?" he asked, pulling out a sawhorse to sit on. "If our resident Abby expert is right, we don't have much time before Phase 2."

McGee looked up just long enough to stick out his tongue, then went back to the computer that looked out of place in the room full of hand tools.

"OK, here's the plan," Gibbs said. "DiNozzo, when did each of our suspects join the team?"

Tony thought back. "Krone's only been team lead for a few years — I think he got promoted while you were on your margarita safari." He winced as Gibbs glared at him. "But he moved up — he was senior agent on the team before that, along with Proctor. Richards joined the team around the same time."

"Ziva, start with cases more than five years old," Gibbs said. "See if you can find numbers that don't add up on cases before Richards joined the team. DiNozzo-"

"Start investigating the three men and see if there's anything that might indicate which one did this. On it, Boss."

Gibbs nodded. "McGee-"

"Already digging into their bank records, Boss." He didn't even look up from the computer, and Tony just shook his head and reached for the phone. He'd use Gibbs' phone so nobody could track his cell GPS. Just in case.