Chapter Four
Why?

Director Shepherd and the collected Admirals and officials are appalled by what they've seen. The many screens in MTAC had shown in merciless detail the annihilation of the USS Ticonderoga, had gone black with the destruction of the bridge and other vantage points. These men and women, however, are used to dealing with catastrophes.

"Get a satellite image of that area, now!" Shepherd commands, not about to listen to any explanation about how difficult establishing an immediate link might be. Fortunately, the technicians who man the MTAC boards display the efficiency for which they're justly famous, establishing satellite links before the least patient officer can demand more. In less than thirty seconds the main screen is alive again.

Now is the time for horror.

Seven successive enlargements reveal a sea ablaze with burning fuel and debris, littered with bullet riddled bodies of those men who had escaped the doomed Ticonderoga. The officers and civilians in MTAC stare at the silent devastation where lifeless bodies bob amongst charred debris. Even the most hardened needs a moment to absorb the loss.

"Where the hell is Millennium?" someone, Shepherd has no idea who, demands.

"Pull back," she commands the operators. "Find that ship."

Over and over the screen pulls back. It takes five successive stages before motion is detected in the upper right corner of the screen and the image is centered and enlarged again.
Millennium moves rapidly east by northeast, and from the wake they can tell it slices through the water at its top speed. But as they watch, the vessel moves beyond the edge of a cloud. Shepherd restrains herself from admonishing the technician not to lose the contact. The image zooms out - and out - and out. By the time the image displays the perimeter of the white barrier, it occults a distressingly large area.

"Can you get an infrared image?" one of the Admirals demands.

"We can try."

xx

"What do you mean you can't find it?" Admiral Jerrond demands twenty minutes later.

"It never came out," the technician repeats his report of the obvious. "Projections gave us an estimate of where it should have emerged. Not only hasn't it come out but the infrared shows nothing."

"How can–?"

"If it shut down or went to minimum activity," one of the other Admirals reminds him with less fire, "it might evade the search."

"Computer control has a variety of evasive programs," DePardu confirms.

"What else do those computers have?" Shepherd demands.

CNO DePardu looks like he doesn't want to answer, but must grant that he has little choice. "The most sophisticated attack and defense routines ever developed. Stealth technology renders it invisible to radar, its systems alert it to scanning and weapons locks. That's why Ballard tried to stop the Ticonderoga's crew from establishing a lock."

"Why did Millennium attack?" SECNAV Davenport demands.

"I don't know."

"Who will?"

"Ballard's team may be the only ones that have that answer," DePardu admits.

"Well why aren't they here? Get them here." He turns to Shepherd. "Somehow, someone did something. I don't want to take this to the DOD yet, it'll be a huge mess when this gets out. I have to alert the President. In the meantime, while the Navy searches for that ship," he glances to DePardu, then turns his attention back to Shepherd, "we need your best people to help figure out what went wrong."

"I couldn't agree more," Shepherd declares as she pulls her cell phone from her belt.

xx

"Drop everything," Gibbs commands as he hangs up his phone, already on his way out of the bullpen before any of his team can react to the summons. "Something just went to hell."

The five agents take the steps to the upper platform several at a time, run to the held-open door. When the men and women enter they're confronted by a room full of white and gold uniforms and universally grim faces.

"I didn't mean them," DePardu turns to confront Shepherd.

"You need my best people. Here they are."

"Agent Gibbs has a history of–"

"Conformity and the rulebook won't help us now. I suspect they're what got us into this madness." She turns her back on the outraged officer. None of the Agents wanted to see him here, none can forget his betrayal of Special Agent Mary Narz or his willingness to have the murdered woman's reputation destroyed to preserve Naval secrets.

"We have a disaster," Shepherd tells her agents. "I'm counting on you five to lead the teams that will solve it. As of now you are all Team Leaders, chosen for your skills in a multitude of disciplines."

She gives them no time to absorb this startling directive. "Special Agent Gibbs, you will have operational command." She turns to the technicians at the left wall. "Run the footage from the beginning."

x

Shepherd inserts, at appropriate intervals, a layman's summary of Millennium's abilities as they watch the successful final test of the new supership.

McGee, despite the woman's telegraphing that something had gone wrong, can't escape being enraptured by the exhibition. As impressive as Azeon's prototype car 'Otto' had been, this is light years beyond anything he'd imagined. The degree of complexity of this AI's operating software is majestic.

As he watches the exhibition unfold he stares, enraptured, longing to be aboard this marvelous vessel. Just to sail on her, to feel the control, the exquisite workmanship with which this computer controls thousands of tons of hardware, it's - it's orgasmic.

As the crew celebrates, McGee longs to be among them. What a marvelous display of human genius, scientific ingenuity and computer con–

Attack! Madness! Destruction! Explosive death - bodies blown apart and burned - one of their own - Paul Foster - incinerated almost before their eyes as the bridge vanishes in a burst of orange flame! This can't have happened! No! Not this marvel of elegance, of–

The record ends in utter silence with the loss of Millennium behind miles of cloud cover. At Foster's death DiNozzo, already enraged, had burst forth with an epithet even few of the veteran Seamen had heard.

x

Gibbs is the only one who's not speechless, his rage is too hot. He steps in front of the SECNAV and the Naval Operations Chief. "Last month you stopped an investigation into the theft of Navy secrets. This is the secret you were trying to protect?"

"We turned the investigation over to the NSA because they were–"

"You BASTARDS!" Gibbs flashes back to the last confrontation in this room that involved a ship and secrets. The Cape Fear had, at that moment, only been threatened. These men are already dead. "How many–"

"Special Agent Gibbs!" Shepherd's voice is drowned by the outraged man's.

"men died because you wanted to keep your precious secret until the unveiling?"

"That's enough." Shepherd tries again to rein in the outraged agent.

"HOW MANY?"

"Six hundred eighty," the SECNAV tells him.

"Not counting our Special Agent Afloat?"

"That will be all!" Shepherd commands, trying to restore order. Foster's death had hit her hard, there's more to worry about. "We're not here to fix blame."

"Blame's fixed, director," Gibbs doesn't take his eyes off the two men, neither of whom back down an inch.

"Director," DePardu declares, "this operation will not succeed with this man in charge,"

"On the contrary; if this man had remained in charge of the investigation into the murder of Special Agent Mary Narz we probably wouldn't have to deal with 'this operation'."

"Be that as it may–"

Shepherd turns away from him. "Agent DiNozzo."

"Yes, director," he answers with alacrity, stepping up from the rear.

"We need that trail reopened."

"On it." He turns, very happy to leave. He and Foster had known one another for four years. He wants no company while he tries to come to terms with the man's death.

There are no terms!

x

"Officer David," Shepherd continues handing out assignments to Gibbs' team, let him damn her later, "everyone who's ever had anything to do with the operations of this ship. Agent Palmer, the team of scientists who put the damn thing together. Agent McGee, that ship is a giant computer and you're my best computer man." He's not listening, staring at the blanked screen, face bloodless. "Agent McGee!"

"Er, right, computer."

Shepherd turns to the sea of Admirals. "They're going to need complete access, particularly to the operating system and software."

"Wait a minute–" Vice Admiral Lee Hing protests, coming forward from the mob of his appalled fellows.

"Complete access."

"Those programs constitute the latest in computer control," Hing protests. "You cannot–"

"They'll get it," the CNO, his back to the huge screen, concludes the debate.

x

Shepherd turns on the infuriated Vice Admiral. "I want every line of code, not every other line, not what you feel might someday be declassified. Every line, every keystroke."

"Admiral," Hing advances on DePardu, his tone tinged with less demand than desperation, "you can't give them those programs."

"Stand down, Lee." DePardu turns to Shepherd. "You'll get them."

Hing, red faced, shaking in impotent rage, can barely hold his tongue. The loss of control is bad enough, to be overruled in front of civilians is worse.

Shepherd, if she knew his feelings, wouldn't care. She addresses her agents. "Pull everyone you need, all shifts, all disciplines. You need anyone from anywhere in the world, you pull him on my authority." No one moves. "Clock's ticking."

x

In a matter of minutes everyone is gone save Shepherd and Gibbs, who she has signaled to remain. "Jethro, when will you learn it's best not to antagonize those on your side?"

"When they come around to our side. We could've prevented this."

"Perhaps. Perhaps it was already too late. We don't know that yet and for now it doesn't matter. We have to solve this."

"We have a chance - if they come clean with the evidence and leads."

"I'm going to lean on them every minute."

"It'll help." He's sure it won't be enough.

"You could've. I wonder how long it's been since someone smacked the back of your head."

He shrugs, his anger cooling at the memory. "Palmer."

Intrigue short circuits her anger. "Which one?"

"If he'd tried it, he'd be Ducky's client."

"Michelle? That must've been something to see."

"Not really." He's grateful they'd been alone in the elevator.

"Well, you almost screwed this situation over."

"You mean worse than it is?"

"That's enough." She wishes sometimes that she'd adopted his penchant for head-slapping. "This is the time for your famous impatience."

"Got plenty of that."

"We've got a killing machine out of control somewhere on the Atlantic. We've got to bring it home. Intact."

"No promises." He takes a step away, stops. "Jen?"

"What?"

He turns, doesn't want to say it. "Ticonderoga's decommissioned. Where did they get the crew?"

This is an even sharper knife, and it twists deep in her stomach. "The former crew mostly. Most of them aren't even serving. This was an honorary mission, out and back, passing of the torch and so on."

"Six hundred eighty discharged civilians."
"For the most part," she admits. It had sounded good in the upcoming PR releases. "Get those bastards and make them pay."

xx

"All right," Gibbs declares as he strides into the bullpen, stopping in the center of the pentagon of desks "let's start with what we know about Narz/Burns."

"Special Agent Mary Narz of Pensacola CFO," DiNozzo picks up to his right, "was operating deep Undercover as a disgraced former agent. She made contact with our bad guys, who erased her past and recreated her as Navy Nurse Corps Ensign Margaret Burns."

"As 'Margaret Burns'," Ziva, at Gibbs' left, steals the narrative when DiNozzo takes a breath, "Narz was placed at Little Creek Amphibious Base, ostensibly in the Boone Clinic, but she really worked in Research and Development."

"We can now conclude," McGee, right and forward, takes over at Ziva's breath, "that what was developed was some aspect of the Millennium."

He doesn't want to report any of this. He should be reporting what a spectacular success Millennium was, a triumph of ingenuity. The ship is a tremendous example of computer control, Artificial Intelligence of a grade even an author's imagination cannot fathom. 'It just killed seven hundred people!' Gemcity's persona seems to snap at him, as though wanting no part of this debacle.

"The software controls a fully autonomous AI that's years ahead of anything Azeon has developed with Otto." Tim struggles to bury his feelings, his outrage, to hide behind bare facts. "That system allows a vehicle to drive itself; this one controls everything from navigation through complex attack / defense operations."

Gibbs continues to his desk, abandoning the central position, the better to see the surrounding agents without feeling he's watching a mixed doubles tennis match from the net. "DiNozzo, you find out what. Get down to Creek and bring everything and everyone back. Ziva, you're with him."

They quickly gather their gear, anticipating the confrontation at LCAB. The last one had ended ignominiously for NCIS. They're determined to be victorious in round two.

"McGee, you understand this damned stuff."

x

'Understand it?' he thinks, 'I wanted it! I'd've wanted to design it!' But even in this burst of covetousness, he's grateful DiNozzo is leaving before he can inject a HAL-9000 reference.

"Well, boss," he answers aloud, "the application is extremely sophisticated, involving second and third generation AI control of all shipboard systems; attack and defense systems that can not only deal with threats but actually anticipate them and instantly develop counter measures to ..." Gibbs' glare finally intrudes. "Yes."

"You understood Otto and those Azeon eggheads. One word answer, McGee."

"Yes."

"Good. Do you think any of them will be able to help?" At McGee's look, "Yes, you can use more than one word."

"I'd be surprised, considering how closely this work parallels theirs, if at least someone from that team isn't involved in Millennium. We should isolate and focus on him or her."

"When Tony and Ziva bring them in, find out. Meantime I can't spare you."

x

"Special Agent Narz," Michelle continues the report from the far left at Gibbs' break, "either completed her assignment for the enemy or confronted her handler, Master Chief Petty Officer Dale Karmichael, at the base. We never did determine definitively why she was murdered."

"Palmer, get that bastard Karmichael back here. I don't care if you have to kidnap him from whoever's holding him. Put an Assault Team together if you have to, but get him."

"I'll enlist Ducky; he did fine on the last assault team we were on," she says, recalling the 'Winged Women' case.

"Just get it done." He doesn't care what resources Palmer uses, so long as he gets another shot at 'Mr. Name, Rank and Serial Number' before the end of the day.

x

"Special Agent Mary Narz," Michelle continues the rundown, "had been reporting to former Special Agent-in-Charge Thomas Mertz of Central Field Office Pensacola until the SECNAV ordered all reports to be directed to his 'Eyes Only'. For his failure to report the undercover operation to the Director – though the SECNAV had ordered his silence – Director Shepherd demoted and reassigned him. His Deputy, Alicia Benecke, now runs that CFO. For several months, only the SECNAV knew whatever information Special Agent Narz had obtained until Special Agent Kelman and I broke Narz's code."

"There were two other members of the espionage cell," McGee reminds them unnecessarily, "both also executed near the supposed end of the operation."

Ziva then picks up with "Captain Judith Mangini had been working under Captain Jean-Paul Lubioux at Little Creek R&D until she was murdered, again for reasons unknown."

"I told you to research her."

Ziva's expression turns wooden. The case had been ripped from them by the Joint Chiefs but obviously she'd been expected to ignore that. Taking this public reprimand as an expression of the stress they're all under, she continues with what she does know.

"MCPO Karmichael, in his position in Personnel, falsified the records to show Captain Mangini had been reassigned. Her right arm was subsequently found in the shipping crates that belonged to Lt. Kay Effox when she was reassigned to Camp Pendleton." To Ziva, it's a horrible situation soon to grow worse as she continues.

"We never did find the rest of Captain Mangini. Her arm had been placed in the luggage by Cynthia Devlin, a member of the espionage cell before she was murdered on Highway One, Maryland prior to our investigation into the unrelated murder of Corporal Kevin Sollecito." This only serves to show how long matters have been playing out, unnoticed by them. "Presumably Master Chief Karmichael has answers to these questions."

x

"This doesn't sound any better the second time around," Gibbs declares as the outrageous litany winds to a close. He detests it when they fail an investigation; it's a personal affront. It galls him more that they'd never had the chance to succeed. Control had been snatched from NCIS by order of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, in the persons of Marine Corps Commandant May and the Chief of Naval Operations DePardu and given to the National Security Agency - who had presumably done nothing.

Now that the CNO has had a change of heart after this disaster, they may actually be able to make some progress.

"DiNozzo, tell me about those scrambled eggs."

"Millennium is headed by several of them," the Senior Agent reports crisply. "Vice Admiral Lee Hing supervised software, the man's a McGeek according to his record. Hardware was headed up by Admiral Karl Cervelli; according to the poop sheet he could be your second toughest obstacle after Hing. Blueprints one can read, it'll take McNomic here to translate the geekspeak. Neither Hing nor Cervell are going to want you crawling around the innards of their baby."

"Their baby just sent seven hundred man to their deaths," Gibbs retorts.

"There is that. I'd say they're surprised enough that you could shake a few things loose."

x

Palmer hangs up her phone, gratified to have something positive to report - no matter how odd it is. "Sir, Master Chief Karmichael is in the stockade at Fort Dix, New Jersey."

"That's an–" Gibbs stops himself, decides he shouldn't be surprised that a Navy officer is being held in an Army base, it only serves to highlight the confusion that typifies this entire fiasco. He decides he could as easily have to retrieve the prisoner from Gitmo. "Get him here on the CNO's authority."

"Yes, sir."

"McGee, have you got that computer stuff yet?"

"It's coming in as we speak."

"Can you break their code?"

"Code isn't the issue," McGee says, knowing better than to address Gibbs' depth of computer savvy. "I expect the information to be in standard programming language. This issue is the volume of code."

"Thousands of lines?"

Then again, Gibbs' depth of perception never ceases to amaze him. "Millions."

xxx

"Director," Cynthia Sumner's voice comes over the intercom on Shepherd's desk, "Special Agent Melanie Kelman is here to see you."

"Thank you, Cynthia," Shepherd acknowledges and puts down the file folder. It contains what amounts to a press release on Millennium, utterly useless.

The tall brunette woman enters and steps up to the desk. "Have a seat," Shepherd directs. When Kelman does so, Shepherd removes her glasses, deposits them on the desk and goes to the point of the summons. "You've seen the footage of the attack."

"Yes, Director. I'm sorry to say I–"

"You never had the chance to complete your assignment. You couldn't have prevented this."

Less than a month ago, when control of the investigation into the murder of Special Agent Narz had been ripped from NCIS' hands and placed into those of the NSA, Shepherd had assigned Kelman to continue the investigation, but covertly. Not even Kelman's team knew about the assignment.

However, by the time the order had been given, they'd had indications that it was already too late. The quarry already had what they sought and had scattered to the four winds.

"Nonetheless, it hurts," Kelman admits. "What little progress I made is meaningless."

"I want you to work with McGee and Abby, together with Cyber Crimes. This case will hinge on the software controlling Millennium. Did someone hack in, or did they have someone inside from the beginning?

"However, I don't want anyone to drop from exhaustion or miss a code buried in a million lines. You're to go to sleep, starting now, and meet with McGee and Abby at fifteen hundred. You'll work with Beta Shift Cyber, I'm splitting them into three units rather than two, Koczetti can decide who works when."

"Then I'll head up to four and pull up a few chairs in the lounge. I'll let you know the instant I find something."

Shepherd can easily hear the young woman's determination. This time Kelman intends to find answers, answers that eluded her last time that had now caused over six hundred eighty deaths. Shepherd knows it's wrong to focus on any one, but she particularly feels Agent Foster's loss.

She only hopes they can solve this before someone else dies.