Thanks again to all who have reviewed this story and added it to their alerts/favorites. I apologize for the delay, so to make up for that, here is a longer than usual chapter. Things are going to start getting weird from here on out ;)
Title: Slow Burn
Story: NCIS crossover with a book (to be revealed in future chapters); AU for both
Rating: T/Gen
Summary: McGee's heritage catches up with him, and DiNozzo is caught in the crossfire.
Set in: mid season 6
Disclaimer: Don't own, just playing, yadda yadda
Chapter 4
Gibbs strode into the bullpen, his annoyance barely concealed. In all his years living in the D.C. area, he had never figured out just what it was about snow that turned normal drivers into complete idiots. The aggravation of driving in winter traffic, in addition to the long wait for his morning coffee had put the senior agent in a dark mood. The absence of two of his agents certainly did not help, and the third member of his team received the brunt of his wrath.
"Where the Hell are DiNozzo and McGee?" he growled as he passed Ziva's desk.
"I do not know," she replied with a slight edge to her voice. "I have not heard from either of them since last night." She glanced up at Gibbs and saw his expression. "I will call them."
Gibbs sat down at his desk and picked up the phone, but before he could dial he was interrupted by Vance.
"Special Agent Gibbs, where is the rest of your team?"
"Working on figuring that out, Leon," he answered before looking up. He paused when he saw Vance's expression. "What's going on?"
"We have had a security breach. It looks like someone looped the video feed for approximately fifteen minutes early this morning. The feed that was interrupted was for this area," he said, indicating the bullpen.
"You don't think they had anything to do with that?"
"No. But I do need to know what was affected. The network connections to this area were also blocked."
"That explains why I cannot log on," observed Ziva as she hung up the phone. "No answer from Tony, his home or cell phone." She dialed another number and listened. "McGee's cell is not working." She tried one more number and waited again. "No answer at his home phone."
"When did they leave last night?" asked Vance.
"McGee left right after Gibbs went to meet with you, Director. He said he had errands to run and wanted to finish before the weather turned bad. After McGee left, I believe Tony went to go speak to Abby and then left immediately after he returned from the lab. He did not say if he was going straight home."
"I'll need to speak with Miss Sciuto." Vance turned to leave and Gibbs rose to follow him.
"Ziva, keep trying to reach DiNozzo and McGee," Gibb called over his shoulder as he caught up with Vance. "What's going on, Leon?" he asked as they entered the elevator.
"Need to know, Gibbs."
"Hey, if it involves my people, then I need to know."
"Fine. After we speak to Miss Sciuto." Vance remained silent until they reached the lab.
When they arrived, Abby was already hard at work, pouring over results from the analyses she had run last night. She turned to them with a smile.
"Gibbs! Right on time, as usual. I just found-." She paused when she saw that Gibbs had company. "Director Vance…I was just going to tell Gibbs that-."
"Miss Sciuto," he said, cutting her off. "I understand that you spent the night in the lab."
"Uh, yes sir, I wanted to get caught up and—."
"Were you here all night?"
"Yes…I worked until midnight and then I went to bed," she said, pointing to the futon in her office.
"Was anyone else with you?"
"No. Tony stopped by earlier, but that was way before I turned in for the night."
"What did Agent DiNozzo want?"
"He, uh…" She glanced at Gibbs. "He wanted to know about Tim…Agent McGee."
"What did he want to know?"
"He wanted to know if McGee had a date or something, since he was acting…hinky."
"Do you agents have a habit of monitoring each other's social lives, Agent Gibbs?" Vance asked in an acerbic tone as he turned to the team leader.
"They're investigators, Leon. It comes with the territory."
"I see." He turned back to Abby. "What else did you discuss, Miss Scuito?"
"I, uh, showed him a program McGee wrote for me, and he wanted to track McGee to see where he went but I told him I wouldn't help so he left. That's it."
"What program?" asked Gibbs. Abby sent him an embarrassed glance.
"Just a little tracking program, so I'd know where you all were while you were at work. It's nothing big, really."
"The Marauder's Map," muttered Vance. "Quite clever of Agent McGee. Let's see it, Miss Sciuto."
"How did you…?" A worried expression crossed Abby's face before she turned and typed a few commands to bring up the Map. Now there were three dots in her lab, one in the bullpen, and two in the morgue.
"Just our team, Gibbs. That's all."
Before Gibbs could ask his next question, Vance stepped in front of the keyboard and started typing rapidly. Suddenly, several other dots appeared, some moving, and all the same color but with numbers attached. Vance nodded to himself and continued typing. Another window appeared, showing a similar picture to the first with the dots in different places. Gibbs leaned closer and saw a time and date stamp in the lower corner for the previous evening at the time he was in a meeting with Vance. He sent the director a curious look.
"Your boy isn't the only one with skills, Gibbs." Vance hit a few more keys and the time stamp started to move forward. They watched the different colored dots move through the yard. "Looks like DiNozzo left about fifteen minutes after McGee," said Vance in a low voice. "Let's hope he didn't succeed in following him."
"Why the hell not, Leon?" asked Gibbs, allowing his anger to show. "What have you gotten my agent involved in now?"
Vance ignored him and continued to watch the map as it sped through to midnight. The black dot in the lab moved to the office and remained still. As the time stamp ticked forward towards morning, nothing else moved. Then, as the time ticked over to 0200, a bright red dot appeared. Vance stiffened as it moved over to McGee's desk and stayed.
"Who is that, Director?" asked Abby. "I don't remember any of us getting that particular color."
"It's a burn phone. The program picks up unregistered numbers and records them."
"How did they get inside in the first place?"
"Let's find out." He typed in a few commands and a number appeared beside the phone. He quickly jotted it down. "Tracking chip in a low-level employee ID: a janitor, most likely. Someone is giving him instructions over the phone."
"Instructions for what?"
"We need to find out. Follow me. And bring the electronic scene kit, Miss Sciuto." He turned and started for the elevator while Abby dashed to her office and grabbed a black case before following Vance. Gibbs took one last look at the strange map before following them.
"I'm asking you again, Leon. What the hell is going on?"
"A security breach, Agent Gibbs. It looks like the target was McGee's workstation."
"But why?"
"Any number of things. He is, after all, a well known computer forensics expert. Someone had a need to know what he's been doing."
"Don't give me that crap, Leon. You're using one of my team for one of your projects again. What was he working on for you this time?"
Vance was silent for several minutes. Finally, he responded. "Pest control."
"Wait…you think we have another mole? Don't tell me you suspect DiNozzo."
"No, I don't, but I'm afraid he may have compromised McGee's status."
"How?"
Before he could answer the doors opened and Vance exited the elevator. He made his way over to McGee's desk and turned to Abby.
"Find out what was done here."
Abby set up the equipment for live data capture, donned a pair of latex gloves and bent over McGee's keyboard. After a few minutes she stood up with a distressed look on her face. "It's wiped clean, Director. Everything is gone."
Vance pulled out his cell phone and quickly dialed a number. "Call the CyberCrime unit and have them trace all network traffic for last night and this morning, starting at 1800. Yes, I know how long that will take. Just do it." He turned to Ziva. "Office David, please track down this employee and bring him to interrogation as soon as you find him." He handed her the number he had written down earlier. "Miss Sciuto, see if there is any possible way to recover the data from McGee's computer." He opened his cell and dialed another number. "It's Vance. My office, now." He shut the phone and finally turned to Gibbs. "It's time to read you in, Agent Gibbs. Follow me."
Fuming, Gibbs followed the director to his office and slammed the door behind him. Before he could begin his intended tirade, Vance's phone rang and he held up a hand to silence Gibbs before answering.
"Director Vance. Hello, Sheriff Morgan. Yes, we do. Why?" He listened and slowly sank into his chair, the anxiety in his expression growing the longer the person on the other end spoke. Finally he responded. "I want everything packed up as it was found and sent here ASAP. We're taking over jurisdiction in this case. Yes, I'll send the paperwork immediately. Make sure everything is intact. Nothing left behind, do you understand? Good." He hung up the phone and rubbed a hand roughly over his face before looking at Gibbs.
The senior agent felt a chill in the pit of his stomach. "What case, Leon?"
The director did not immediately respond, but after a few minutes he sighed. "It looks like Agent DiNozzo was successful in following Agent McGee last night. It also appears that he managed to get both himself and your other agent killed."
DiNozzo opened his eyes and blinked as he waited to adjust to the low light, then took in his surroundings. The ceiling above him was rough and appeared to be made of stone, and the walls curved downward towards an uneven packed dirt floor. It took him a few moments, but when he realized he was actually in a cave, he tried to sit up. The sudden attempted movement forced a low groan from his throat and he sank back to ground.
"Tony?"
He turned opened his eyes to see McGee leaning over him, concern etched in his features.
"How are you feeling?"
"Bad enough to know I'm still alive. What happened?"
A flash of guilt crossed the younger agent's face. "Those guys that were shooting at us chased us in your car. You got shot…again, and drove your car off the road into the river."
"My car…crap. My insurance is going to go through the roof." He heard McGee chuckle softly. "So how did we…you got us out? Where are we?"
"Yeah. Someplace safe. Best I could do, under the circumstances."
"What is this place? It looks like a cave."
"It's an old hideout, once used by the Underground Railroad, later by moonshiners during Prohibition. This cave system is pretty extensive, but the obvious entrances have all been blocked off. Damn near impossible for someone to stumble on it if they don't know about it to begin with."
DiNozzo noticed that the younger man's voice sounded hoarse during the short explanation and he finally took a good look at McGee. "You look like Hell, Probie."
McGee was pale, with dark circles under his eyes, and he had a nasty-looking scrape over his right eye.
"Yeah, well, you should see the other guy. I, uh, patched you up the best I could. It's not…as bad as you probably think, but I really couldn't do much about the blood loss. That's probably why you feel so bad. It's going to take some time for you to get your strength back."
"Great…"
McGee moved out of DiNozzo's line of sight for a minute before returning with a cup. "Here, this should help a little." He put his hand behind DiNozzo's neck and helped him raise his head so he could drink. He sputtered at the strange taste.
"What the hell is that?"
"Just tea. You need to get some fluids in you."
He took a few more sips and laid his head back down and turned towards McGee. It had made him feel better, despite his protest. "Thanks."
McGee just nodded before moving over to what looked like an old-fashioned hearth to retrieve his own cup of tea and returning to sit cross-legged next to DiNozzo. He avoided the older agent's gaze for several minutes before finally raising his head.
"I'm sorry, Tony. I guess I should have just told you I had a date or something so you wouldn't have followed me. I never meant for you to get involved."
DiNozzo let out a humorless chuckle. "Yeah, like that would have worked. You know you can't lie worth a damn, McGee." He looked up at his partner and was startled to see true anger in his expression.
"If that's true, then why did you think I was a spy? And seriously, how could you even think I would purposefully do anything to hurt my team? Just because I was acting 'hinky'…"
"It wasn't just the way you were acting. It was…damn it, after all the crap that has gone down in the last few months, how could you go behind our backs and-."
"And what? What did I do to make you think I had betrayed you?"
"That damn map…thing. That you made for Abby."
"The Marauder's Map? That's what this is about? It's just a harmless-."
"It's not harmless, McGee. Think what would happen if someone got a hold of it. They'd know exactly where we were if they wanted to take us out."
McGee shook his head. "Don't you think I would have thought of that? If anyone besides the three people who have approved access to it tries to use it, the program shuts down completely, and…"
"And what?"
McGee smirked slightly. "It insults the person who tried to use it."
"Great, and pisses them off more. Wait…three people? Who else has access to it besides you and Abby?"
"Director Vance."
"Oh…why him?"
"There's a little more to it than Abby knows about. Vance can use it to track people in case of a security breach. It was his idea, actually."
"And you're working for him, now. Which brings us back to the original problem: what are you involved in?"
"It doesn't have anything to do with our team. Seriously, you don't believe I can lie, you should know I'd never do anything to harm anyone on our team, especially Gibbs."
"And yet you're working with Trent Kort. How in the Hell could you ever work with someone like him? You know what he's like."
"He…it's different this time, Tony. He has a personal interest in the project. We all do: Kort, Vance, and I."
DiNozzo's eyes widened in surprise. "What kind of project is this?"
"It's…it's a long story."
"Well I don't think I'm going anywhere."
McGee shook his head. "No, I guess not." He stopped, apparently lost in thought and it was several minutes before he began to speak.
"Officially, we are tracking interest in a drug that was supposedly developed by the CIA back in the 1960's. Information about its potential has been 'leaked' and we're using this as bait to catch certain terrorist groups. Vance is organizing the project, I do the computer work, and Kort is running interference for the CIA."
"How is that of personal interest to any of you?"
"As I said, 'officially'. The truth is the drug was not developed by the CIA, but by a smaller, lesser known organization within the government. The project was brought under fire in the early 1980's and disbanded. Unfortunately, the group is making a comeback and they want to start developing and testing the same type of drug again. We intend to stop them. Permanently."
"Still not seeing the connection here, Probie."
McGee sighed. "When the original work was done, the first human trials were not done within the organization. They used college students, under the guise that it was part of a harmless drug trial. The students were told that they were to be given a mild hallucinogen, and half would receive a placebo. All of them were given the drug."
"And?"
"All of them died as a result of the study."
"Wait. All of them? What the hell was this drug?"
"It was designed to increase certain mental abilities-."
"They killed those kids trying to make them smarter? Seriously?"
"No, not smarter. I could show you the documentation…well, if I ever get back to where it's hidden…but they were trying to promote psi abilities in the subjects."
"Psi…you mean psychic? Telepathy, stuff like that?"
"Yes, and other abilities. They wanted to create soldiers with the power to fight with their minds. Look, I know it sounds crazy, but it's true. I've seen the proof, Tony. That group of students was murdered by their own government for the sake of this project."
"Damn…"
"Vance, Kort, and myself all had relatives in that group. Our family. Even though it happened a long time ago, we still remember. And to know that it could happen again…"
"I think I understand. And...I'm sorry."
McGee nodded in acknowledgment and lasped into silence. DiNozzo, despite the weirdness of the whole situation, found himself truly interested. He wanted to know more. He turned to McGee catching his attention.
"So, this evil organization? What was it called?"
A strange, almost haunted look crossed McGee's face before he answered.
"It was called 'The Shop', and the drug was known as Lot Six."
A/N: Not really a cliffhanger, but the final key to the crossover. For those of you who are familiar with the book, this story is AU for it as well. For those of you who are not, the title will be posted with the next chapter, and a plot summary will be given as part of the story (with the AU elements included).
Thanks for reading. All reviews, even if I don't get to answer them personally, are greatly appreciated. Please let me know what you think of the story so far.
BTW, I grew up in the D.C. area. I know how bad y'all drive in the snow ;)
