Apologies for the delay in parts; life decided to throw a few hurdles my way. To make up for it, here's the first of two parts I'll post tonight. Thanks, as always, for the reviews & adds.
The air in the back seat of the car felt oppressive, too heavy and too hot by far but Abby bit her tongue against asking for the air condition to be turned up. No amount of cool air would ease the light headedness she felt or help with the nausea that was rising within her.
Beside her, Charlie gave her a concerned look, opening his mouth to ask if she was okay. He closed it again when she shook her head, glancing meaningful towards the man sitting behind the wheel on the driver's side of the car.
She didn't know whether to be surprised that Stone had foregone taking advantage of the NSA's policy of having assigned drivers for its superior agents or to be amused that her new and hopefully temporary boss had issues with control and insisted on driving himself.
Hiding the flash drive in Gibbs' desk drawer had been a risk but one she hoped would prove to be worthwhile. She hated leaving her friends in the dark, hated the thought of losing them because of the NSA – because the agency who still seemed to believe owned her refused to let her go.
It was true that the National Security Agency had done a lot for her. Without her scholarship to the think-tank that had served as her school, without the money they'd paid for her college education, she wouldn't have become the woman she was. She wouldn't have had the experience or the qualifications that had impressed NCIS Director Tom Morrow, the man who had hired her almost twelve years ago, giving her the job that would bring those she loved into her life. Without the NSA's intervention in her childhood, she would never have met Ducky, Tony, McGee, Ziva or Gibbs...
Her hand rose to the necklace she wore almost subconsciously, her fingers wrapping around the dog tags. The necklace was the only tangible link she had to the man she'd left behind and she found herself hoping he would understand, hoping he'd be able to decipher the messages she'd left for him and realise that she was doing what she had to, for all of their sakes.
Agent Stone hadn't been exaggerated when he'd hinted at a leak in NCIS being responsible for the deaths of the two witnesses in Branley's case, just as Gibbs hadn't been out of place reminding the NSA agent that it wasn't a problem NCIS faced alone.
Josef Branley was a powerful man; she was only just beginning to realise how powerful. It was her job to try and find those who worked for him in both agencies and stop them, hopefully before they managed to kill anyone else.
Hopefully before they found out and tried to kill her.
The flash drive contained a folder, protected by a password and a document called 'Read me first', which was also, unhelpfully, protected by a password. McGee sat at his desk, tapping away at his keyboard, his movements growing more and more frustrated as the computer kept beeping, refusing him access.
Sometimes, Gibbs thought, Abby could be too good at what she did.
"It's a six digit password," McGee announced, his brow furrowed. "The encryptions are complicated. It'll take me a while to get passed them."
Standing with her arms folded across her chest, Ziva frowned as her teammate resumed his task. "Why would Abby leave us information we cannot access? Surely the password is something we can guess."
"Six digits," Tony mused aloud. "Could be her surname. 'Sciuto' has six digits."
There was a short pause as McGee tried it, his sigh telling them it hadn't worked even before he confirmed it. "Access denied."
"It could be 'marine'," Ziva suggested, an innocent expression on her face when Gibbs shot her a glance.
"Still denied," McGee announced.
Tony slanted a look at his boss. "What about 'Jethro'?" He shrugged at the glare he was thrown in response. "It's got to be something she thinks we'd be able to guess, boss."
Gibbs' blue eyes narrowed thoughtfully and he stood slowly, moving over to McGee's desk. The younger agent moved out of the way when his boss motioned for him to, confusion on his face. After a moment's hesitation, Gibbs typed in a six digit number as his agents looked on.
Almost as soon as he hit the return key, the text document opened on screen.
"How did you..?"
"What did you type?"
He looked up when they started to crowd around him, the expression on his face telling them to back off. "Twelve, sixteen, ninety-nine," he answered, returning his gaze to the words on screen.
It was a letter, he deduced quickly, addressed to him. It had not only the password they needed to access the encrypted folder on the flash drive and an explanation of why she suddenly seemed loyal to the NSA but also a personal message for him, a message he would prefer to keep from his agents.
"McGee." Gibbs closed the file. "Email me that file, then delete it from the flash drive." He gave his agent a look when McGee started to protest. "The password for the folder is 'leaves of grass'. No spaces, no capitals."
Getting up from McGee's desk, Gibbs returned to his own, opening his email programme and waiting impatiently for McGee to do as he'd instructed. He didn't miss the looks his agents exchanged, wasn't oblivious to the curiosity – or the concern.
"How did you know, Boss?" Tony asked again, the only one with even the confidence or stupidity to press the subject. Privately, Gibbs thought his drive to know the truth was an admirable trace in an agent but it wasn't something he would ever say. "The password?"
"Abby told us." Gibbs shrugged, clicking to open the attachment once the email arrived.
"In the document, yeah." Like a dog with a bone, Tony wasn't dropping the subject. "But how did you know what to put in to open the document?"
Gibbs sighed and looked up from the document on his screen, meeting and holding Tony's inquisitive gaze. "She told us, DiNozzo. Twelve, sixteen, ninety-nine. It's a date."
Tony's eyes narrowed, then widened as the significance of the date dawned on him. To Tony's credit, out of respect for both of his friends, he didn't say anything more on the subject, retreating to his own desk to start going through the data McGee was busy distributing amongst them from the folder he'd opened.
After a moment, Gibbs returned his attention to the text on the screen in front of him.
16th December 1999.
It was a cold Thursday in December, he remembered, a few months after he'd returned to NCIS Headquarters after his assignment in Europe but most importantly, most memorably, it was the day Abby Sciuto had first walked into his life.
'Gibbs,
First of all, I'm going to have to break one of your rules and say sorry. I'm sorry that I couldn't tell you what was going on, I'm sorry I left without saying goodbye and I'm sorry that I don't know when – I won't say if – I'm going to be able to come back to you.
You'll have gathered by now that the NSA have taken an interest in Branley's case. I've been ordered to gather all evidence NCIS has against him and give it to them. You'll find copies of all of the reports I could find at NCIS on this flash drive, as well as all of the information I could get from the NSA files without drawing too much attention to myself. The password you'll need to get into it is 'leavesofgrass', no spaces, no capitals.
I'm not going to tell you what to do with it – just please, be careful. I'm only just beginning to realise just how dangerous Branley is and he's not someone who should be treated as a minor inconvenience.
To make a long letter short, Branley has ties to several groups suspected of terrorism in the US and in parts of Europe. You'll find records of imports and exports he's had smuggled in and out of various countries in the information enclosed and not all of those goods are related to the drug deals NCIS knows about. Firearms, explosives and schematics for weapons of mass destruction as well as the material needed to build them are also high on his agenda. The NSA has apparently known or suspected for months but were reluctant to share the information with any of their sister agencies as Branley has spies everywhere, including here at NCIS.
I suspect, and Catherine agrees with me, that there are spies within the NSA, too. My official assignment is to assist Agent Stone in his investigation but my unofficial assignment is to help root out these spies, hopefully before anyone else is hurt.
Please be careful, Gibbs. I wish I could say you're safe inside NCIS but recent events have proven you might not be. Trust the team but no one else unless your trusty gut tells you it's safe to do so. If the wrong person finds out you have this data... Well, I'm trying not to think about what they might do to keep it from getting out.
I won't make a promise I'm not sure I can keep so I'll just say that I hope I can come home soon. If I don't, for whatever reason...
I love you.
Abby x'
