Consequences of Love and War: Chapter 4
A/N: Thanks to everyone who has been reading and reviewing; I definitely appreciate the comments. Since I'm writing this one so slowly (I can usually crank out a chapter in an hour or two; lately, it's been taking me two or three days to get one written. RL can suck sometimes, especially when staying awake all night, every third night, to make sure patients don't crash), it's a little harder for me to figure out if things flow well and still make sense. So if there's anything you're not following, don't hesitate to ask. I'll try to clear things up.
Tony DiNozzo's eyes went from one of the other occupants of the bullpen to the other. "Seriously, you two," he said in a mock-scolding voice. "How can you not be curious about who the hell this guy is?" Both glanced up at him briefly before returning their attention to their own work.
"We know who he is, Tony," McGee said calmly, reading something on his computer screen. "Peter Kirkan."
"Otherwise known as Gregory Aachen," Ziva chimed in, her phone cradled between her ear and her shoulder, on hold with someone either half a world away or just down the street. With Ziva and her contacts, there was no way to know which it could be. Not even the language she spoke gave any answers away there.
"Husband to Lt. Alyse Aachen in the Navy Medical Corps," McGee continued.
"Who has not been seen since approximately 0800 this morning at Camp Phoenix," Ziva concluded. "Thank you," she said into the phone before hanging up. She looked over at DiNozzo and smirked. "That is who we should be focused on."
"I know how to—"
"McGee!" All three agents snapped their heads up at Gibbs' sharp tone, seeing their boss striding into the bullpen, Peter Kirkan still in tow. "Why aren't you in Abby's lab?"
"Uh, dropped the video off, Boss," the junior agent said quickly. "Abby wanted to work on it alone. We, uh, watched through it once first, didn't really see anything. Dr. Aachen was alone in the office, which means—"
"No witnesses," Gibbs interrupted impatiently. "Do you have anything, McGee?"
"The abductor was wearing a hood. Abby says she might have access to a computer program at the FBI that could help determine physical parameters." At Gibbs' blank look, he continued, "Things like height, weight, uh, depending on the angle of the camera and the quality of the video, maybe even facial features—"
"Keep me posted." Gibbs didn't give him a chance to say anything further before turning to DiNozzo and Ziva. "Tell me you two have something for me."
"I spoke with the commanding officer of Dr. Aachen's clinic," Ziva informed him. "He told me that Dr. Aachen was on-call last night and responded to an attack on a convoy at 0340. She followed the patients into the hospital and logged onto the hospital's computer system at 0513. She logged off at 0642 and logged onto the system from the clinic office at 0657. She completed twelve patient records before logging off again at 0820 and immediately logged onto Skype to call Mr. Kirkan." She nodded toward the writer, who nodded in return. "The conversation lasted less than ten minutes before it was terminated from Dr. Aachen's end."
"I'm impressed," McGee blurted out before he could stop himself. "I didn't know you knew how to do computer searches."
"She's been working around you for almost six years, Probie. Had to pick up something in that time," DiNozzo said dryly. He caught the amused look on Ziva's face; McGee had still been in Abby's lab when she had been talking to Dr. Aachen's commanding officer and missed the fact that the commander had done all the searching from the clinic's computer and read it back to her over the phone. What McGee didn't know about his co-workers' searching techniques couldn't hurt him.
He turned to Gibbs as he rose from his chair and turned on the plasma screen to display Dr. Aachen's official Department of the Navy photo and the first page of her personnel file. "Lt. Alyse Aachen, MD," he began. "Direct commission into the Medical Corps ten years ago, spent four years as an ensign on inactive ready reserve status—education delay. Graduated from the University of Washington School of Medicine almost six years ago, was recommissioned as a lieutenant and stationed at NNMC in Bethesda. Spent a year there, then—"
"Flight surgeon aboard the Vinson, then back to Bethesda to finish residency," Gibbs interrupted impatiently. "Know that already, DiNozzo. Fast forward to the deployment."
"Right. Arrived at Camp Phoenix about six months ago in a professional filler position. She took over for a Lt. Commander Jason Loyd, joining Lt. Commander Amy Rodeback and Lt. Spencer Walters as the third Navy internist at the camp. They had a rotation schedule—one week in the hospital, two weeks in the clinic. Then, four months ago, an Army internist, Lt. Colonel Samuel Davis, ended his tour and went back home, which meant that they needed a new physician at the camp's detainment center."
"Detainees?" Kirkan asked with a frown. They all turned their attention to the writer to see him shaking his head slowly. "She never said anything about there being detainees at Camp Phoenix."
"Ever since Gitmo closed, detainee camps outside the continental United States have been kept strictly need-to-know," DiNozzo explained. "And I'm guessing there aren't very many reporters on that particular need-to-know list." He turned back to Gibbs. "Dr. Aachen lobbied pretty hard for the position, and Naval Intelligence looked just as hard to find a reason to disqualify her. Quite a few security checks into her background, most of which are classified, but apparently came up clean, 'cause she got the job. According to her CO, she spent her mornings at the detainee center and afternoons in the clinic and continued to split call with the other internists, which is why she responded to the attack on the convoy."
"Find anything on the detainees?" Gibbs asked. DiNozzo snorted.
"Couldn't even find anyone other than Aachen's CO to admit that there is a detainee center," he replied. His sarcastic grin fell abruptly at Gibbs' glare. "Still working on it, Boss. Put in a request for information to everyone from the most junior MP at the camp to the SecNav, still waiting for NI and JAG approval." He frowned slightly and idly played with the remote to the plasma. "There are two basic theories when it comes to holding detainees at medical facilities in theater: you either get them to the first hospital after picking them up, or you make sure they're far away from their buddies and anyone with the ability to get them out." He glanced quickly over at Ziva before turning his attention back to Gibbs. "If they keep them close to home, the primary Taliban cell in the Kabul area is run by Mullah Ahmad Khan. If they spread them out through CENTCOM, there are a few cells with the resources to pull an abduction like this off."
"Find out," Gibbs demanded.
"I don't know if you heard me, Boss, but nobody's talking."
"Then find someone who is." He stared pointedly at Ziva, who just stared back. DiNozzo didn't have to wonder what that was about; since her liaison duties with Mossad had changed a year and a half before, Gibbs hadn't been timid about letting her—and the rest of the office—know what he thought about the fact that calls in MTAC took priority over investigating crime scenes. Tony knew that she wasn't any happier about that fact than their boss was, but she covered it up by arguing with him about it just as vehemently as he argued with her. Sometimes it was nice not being the focus of Ziva's frustrations. Of course, sometimes being the focus of Ziva's frustrations meant--
"I will talk to my contacts," she said simply, cutting off DiNozzo's line of thought. He frowned slightly at the fact that she didn't add any of the usual sarcastic snippets she usually did.
"All I ask," Gibbs replied.
"So you do think this is a terrorism thing?" All the agents turned to Kirkan, who still looked slightly overwhelmed at the whole scenario.
"We're looking into everything," Gibbs replied, the same answer he gave him before. He turned back to DiNozzo. "Get me the contact information for Colonel Davis."
"Boss?"
"Doctors handle information differently than other military officers, DiNozzo," he said as he headed toward the stairs. He waved for Kirkan to follow before returning his attention to his senior field agent. "You want to know what kind of detainees they're holding there, you ask the doctors treating them." DiNozzo was about to point out that doctors still followed doctor-patient confidentiality when the patients were detainees, but Gibbs had disappeared inside Vance's office before he had the chance. He shrugged and returned to his chair. Sometimes it was easier to do what Gibbs asked than to argue with him.