Chapter 4
It took them exactly five hours until McGee had found something that could help with their case. They tracked back a part of the virus which was linked and started from several computers. One of them was located at Hansberry Avenue in Norfolk. They decided to watch the apartment closely, as they had to be very discrete in this case. The stolen information seemed, according to the toil of FBI and CIA, very classified and dangerous to the nation's security. Therefore they searched an empty flat with sight on the suspected one. McGee and Gibbs were the first ones to have the honor to watch if someone entered or left the building of Hansberry Avenue 606. It has been far after midnight before someone turned up.
"Shall we intervene?" McGee asked his boss.
"No," he answered. "I wanna see how often he comes in and out, if he really lives there and how many people. When we're sure, we may take a look around there."
"Uh, so very careful today, Boss?"
"We're always careful, McGee, aren't we?"
"Yeah," he agreed and stepped back from the window. "Tony and Valentina should arrive here any moment," he mentioned.
About a second later, they heard a knock at the door. "I'll go," McGeek answered and reappeared twenty seconds later on the doorstep.
"Hey, sorry. The drive-in took longer than expected," Tony explained and gave each Tim and Gibbs a package from BK.
"Thanks, man" Gibbs answered when they packed their things.
"Er, it was actually Valentina's idea…I just agreed," Tony said and threw his jacket where McGee had just taken it away.
"Good thinking," the boss said and he and McGee left the room.
"And now we're here on our own," Tony commented and sat down on the sofa.
Valentina walked over to the window and looked through the binoculars. "There's light on," she commented.
"Someone in there?"
"Can't see from this angle."
He stood up and walked over to take a look as well. "Yeah, you're right. Well, as soon as he or whoever is in there, leaves, we'll take a closer look. But first, we haven't had midnight dinner yet."
He walked back to the couch and opened the two BK bags and put the fries and burgers on the table.
"Midnight? It's two in the morning," she mentioned but sat down next to him.
They ate together and he thought about the main differences between her and Ziva. They were both strong women, like Kate had been, too, but all they were in different ways. Kate had been the more accessible kind, Ziva the Mossad agent, daughter of the cruel director, having grown up with two siblings who died. But what made him feel so attracted to Valentina? That was a question he had asked himself too often and for too many different women.
"Hey, Tony. Still here?"
"Huh?" He looked up, obviously having been lost in thoughts.
She laughed and her smile reminded him so much on Caitlin. He shook his head. "Sorry, I was lost in thoughts. What did you say?"
"Never mind…"
There was a moment of silence. "Tell me something about you, Valentina" he finally started.
"First you."
"What do you want to know?"
"Hm…where're you from?"
"New York."
"Come on, Tony…what about your parents…"
"What has McGee already told you?"
She shrugged her shoulders and made herself sit more comfortable. She pulled up her legs to the couch and stared at him.
"My mum died when I was eight."
"I'm sorry," she muttered.
"I visited a lot of boarding schools. Don't have a splendid relationship with my daddy…what about your parents? You were born in London, weren't you?"
She nodded. "Ya. My parents sent me to a boarding school as well. They wanted me to either become a musician or a scientist. I was kicked out the school with thirteen."
"What have you done?" he laughed.
"Oh, my friend and I we were caught smoking on the toilets and flooding the basement during a heavy rain storm with opening all doors."
"What the…" he laughed and she joined.
"Well, my parents weren't that pleased…they sent me back on a normal school."
"You must have done well there. I've seen all your marks."
"Yeah, I never had problems with learning and not having the pressure to be their good child, I could be more ambitious."
"Do you still have contact with your parents?"
"No. I left home after an argument with them and I had American citizenship because my mother is from Sacramento, so I came over here. I started Police Academy actually because it was the thing they wanted me to do less. But I liked it. My mum died about a year ago and my father still works as conductor in London ."
"I'm sorry because of your mum…"
She shrugged. "I spoke to her when she was ill and the only thing she told me was how disappointed she was with me. So I'm not really sorry for her or my dad…"
"So, why did you decide to become an NCIS agent?" she changed the topic.
"There were many reasons…"
"We have the whole night."
It was about four a clock when they noticed the light of the suspect's house switching off.
"Not the usual time for a walk," Tony commented when an elderly man left the house. He looked around and then stepped into the silver car to drive away.
"Shall we risk to take a look?" she asked with her cute British accent that made Tony melt away.
He nodded and they put on their jackets for the cold November night. They walked out of the flat and down the stairs. Arriving at the street they looked around but saw nobody. They hurried over and she fumbled the door open with a piece of fence.
"You're fast," he said surprised when they entered the house in record-time. She smiled and closed the door behind them.
It was the same small flat in which they had observed this building. They walked along the small corridor and to the room where they had seen the light switched on. There was no decoration.
"Seems this flat is only functional. No personal stuff," Tony said and she nodded.
There was only one computer on the desk which showed a black screen. "It's on stand-by," Valentina whispered and sat down in front of it. She pressed a key and the computer made the noise of starting again.
Tony came over to see what it'd show. But instead of the usual desktop, silent numbers appeared. It was a countdown, the six already turning into a five.
"Out of here!" they both said together and stumbled out of the room as fast as they could. They just reached the entrance hall when everything went noisy and different-colored in front of Tony's eyes. He jumped down with Valentina and onto her to protect her from the explosion. It was loud but not that heavy.
For a few seconds they remained silent. He heard her coughing. "Valentina? Valentina, everything okay?" he asked.
"Yes," she nodded with a rough voice and he crawled down from her.
"You enjoyed that, didn't you?" she joked and he lay down and laughed. Then he looked around. The house was on fire but not yet worse and he was sure that due to the explosion, somebody must have already called police.
"Let's get out of here," she suggested and helped him up.
"Good idea," he answered and they ran down the staircase and out of the building.
Outside, already a crowd has gathered and they heard the sound of the coming fire brigade.
"Well, I don't know yet how exactly the bomb worked, but you must have been very lucky," Abby greeted Tony, Valentina and Gibbs arriving in her lab. It was early morning and she had slept over with on the floor with her sleeping bag and hippo.
"Then tell us what you know, Abs" Gibbs ordered and gave her a big Caf-Pow. She smiled and sipped it first. Then she started showing a 3D-animation of the room and the explosion on her computer.
"The bomb was activated with pressing any key on the board," she started and a 3D-animated figure pressed any key. "Then the countdown from six downward started and it blew of. I looked inside and it was a normal bomb with activate-and-time trigger. But you were lucky to get out in time."
"Keep going, Abs" Gibbs said and left the room, leaving Tony and the two girls alone there.
"This was a damned trap," Tony finally said.
"Uh…it's so dangerous out there," Abby mentioned and looked at them with pity. Suddenly there was a beep-tone and she turned back to her little computer-baby.
"Oh" she made happily.
"What is it?" Valentina asked and tried to have a look on the screen.
"A match with DNA. Well, seems someone has been careless," she explained and opened the file.
"John Smith," she read out. "Well, that's not going to be a great help. I'll try with facial recognition, perhaps we have more luck with that."
The agents nodded and left the lab again. In the elevator, Tony turned off the power. Valentina looked over to him and he sighed under the pressure of expectation.
"What?" she asked.
"Listen, I need to talk to you. I haven't done this with both Kate and Ziva and I want to be honest this time. I can't afford to lose this time." He didn't know how to say it.
"We know each other for a very short time, I know it…but I developed feelings for you which I can't deny…" He tried to be tactful and hoped that it worked. Her face didn't show any reactions or thoughts.
"You mean, like with all female colleagues you have had yet?"
"No…it's not like that," he said and was surprised over her answer. "What did McGee tell you? Whatever he told you, it's not like he said…it's different…you're different…than all the other agents…"
He waited a second, but she didn't respond. Then, suddenly, she stepped forward and gave him a long kiss on his mouth. First, he was overwhelmed but then found himself again and embraced her and responded that kiss.
"Why did it take so long?" she whispered and he pushed her on the wall of the elevator.
After a while, they stared at each other and Tony switched on electricity again. He hesitated but then said: "Dinner at my house right after work?"
"Yes," she answered neutrally sounding when the doors opened.
"What took it so long? You turned off power or what, Tony?" they encountered an angry McGee.
Without a word, the two were passing by, exchanging looks and then going back to work at the office.
It didn't take ten minutes until Tony got a phone call of Abby. "She got a match, his name is Lee Carter but there isn't more information about him. His file is classified by FBI."
"I…I don't think they'll provide us access to their information," Valentina stammered but then caught herself: "And is it worth trying with our current status at FBI?"
"I'll have a try," Tony decided and already dialed the number. So he didn't catch the worried look of Valentina who was staring at his desk.
"They gave us all information. I just received the email with his current address," Tony informed Valentina when she came back from toilet. She put her cell phone unobtrusively back into her pocket.
"Then let's go," said Gibbs who arrived at the office right now.
They all grabbed their gear and left the NCIS building, with, of course, FBI backup.
They drove to North-West of the town where Lee Carter's residence was. It was a small house near a forest and it seemed as if he didn't want any visitors. They all hushed forward, trying not to make any sound.
"Clear!" "Clear!" You heard the agents shout.
"Damn it!" Gibbs finally cursed when they gathered in the living room. Everything was empty already except for the furniture. "He must have been warned." He looked around and then addressed the FBI agent in charge: "Will you now bother to explain who this Lee Carter was?"
"I'm sorry but not even I know. I got my orders from Fornell and he told me that we've been searching this man for nearly a decade now."
"And how do you explain that he's gone so fast?" Gibbs hissed.
"He isn't gone for long," Tony said when he entered the living room. "There's dinner in the microwave and it's still warm. He must have known we were coming so that he had had time to pack his things."
"But we still find any traces of his DNA or perhaps other DNA here," McGee answered.
"Just one question," Valentina suddenly asked. "If you had to flee and hadn't time to cover up all traces, would you be so sloppy to run away without erasing all DNA tracks?"
"What do you mean?" McGee asked surprised.
"She means, that somewhere here a bomb is hidden," Gibbs answered and started looking around. The other agents did the same until the FBI man suddenly screamed out loudly. "Fuck!"
"What?"
Gibbs was already looking under that kitchen table. "Out of here, fast!"
They all ran out of the doors and windows and if someone watched from outside, it must have been really funny, over a dozen agents of both NCIS and FBI jumping out of windows.
The team was just out for a few milliseconds when something like a loud thunder sounded all around them. Another nanosecond later Tony found himself flying through the air and hard landing on the NCIS car. He fell on the ground and looked around.
The house was standing in flames, burning brightly. Next to him, McGee was lying. His shoulder was wounded and it didn't looked that nice. Tony sat up and saw Valentina lying about two meters away from him. She had been faster and seemed not to be hurt.
"Everything alright?" Gibbs asked and looked at the agents. They nodded, except for McGee who was leaned against the car and didn't dare to watch his shoulder. "Everything's gonna alright, Tim."
A few minutes later, ambulance arrived and carried the injured agents to a hospital. The other gathered around to watch the brigade extinguishing the burning fire. Please review.
