Mission report: 27th March, 2016.
Subject: Raid of Regiment [to be unnamed for confidentiality] operating base on undisclosed location near Iran-Syria border.
Total loss: 3 tanks, 4 tonnes of dynamite.
Description: Attackers had big artillery, our unit was immobilised due to an Improvised Explosive Device [IED].
Death count: 122.
'A regiment in Syria was attacked by some insurgents. A detainee later reported that all the firepower they had was the US military's. It wasn't made available to anybody yet. Everyone has wondered where they got everything from. No one knows.' Hetty said, staring into the large screen. 'Except Andrew McKay and Jonathan Clarke. They knew something about it.'
'So this is now an official NCIS case now?'Callen asked his boss.
'Yes, Mr. Callen, it is.'
Alice sighed and unfolded her arms. 'Who's Robin?'
'I'm sorry?' Hetty looked at her.
'The manifest that I found at Jonathan's house... and the saved drafts.'
'I'm sorry, I'm not sure I follow.'
Realisation dawned upon Alice. 'Oh, see, thing is...' Alice explained everything she'd found out in the Zac Efron ID and the flight manifests.
'Mr. Beale?' Hetty turned around to find him already focused on pulling the metadata off the mails.
'On it. Alice? The manifests?'
Alice removed the manifests, still inside The fault in our stars and gave them to Eric.
Alice grit her teeth and unclenched them. 'Guys? Since this is a flight to Syria, It'll take some time to get information on all of these people. I'll get everything to you as soon as I can.' He rotated his chair to see Alice's disappointed face. 'Till then... we can't do anything but wait.' He told her dejectedly.
'I'll see if I still have friends that can help me.' Alice went down to her work station, and took a deep breath. She might use up all of her favors in this, but she was going to bring Jonathan home. She went down and emptied her purse. Inside was a torrent of knick-knacks. A leather reminder, Jonathan's leather reminder, a copy of The fault in our stars, her phone, a camera, and of course, lots of pieces of stiff paper. Alice started sorting through the various business cards she'd exchanged at different places. There was one guy though, that Alice and Jonathan had met at a press conference. She found the business card of Syeed Yusuf, a journalist for a Middle Eastern news company.
She dialled the number carefully, and called him.
Hello, Alice?!As-salamu alaykum! It is great to talk to you. How are you doing? How is Jonathan?
'Wa'alaykumu as-salaam, Syeed. I'm alright. Jonathan... he... Ummm... Did you two speak recently?' Alice asked.
Why, yes, just a few days ago. He was planning to come to Syria, no?
'Yes, he was. Why had he called you?' Alice became increasingly curious.
Oh, he was investigating a gun smuggling incident, and he needed to talk to some people, so he called me to find them beforehand, so he didn't have to waste a lot of time searching for them. Wait. Is Jonathan OK?
'Don't worry. He will be.'
No, tell me, Alice. What happened?
'He and McKay knew too much.' Sigh.
Silence. Oh. Well, Alice, the people he asked me to find are, umm... wait, I've got that right here... Umm... Yes. Jamal Abdul and Smit Robins.
'Thanks, Syeed.'
You're welcome. Call me if I can be of any assistance. I can only hope that Jonathan and Mr. McKay come back safe and sound.
McKay is never coming back safe and sound, Alice thought. 'Bye.'
Alice heard a faint bye before the call called disconnected due to a bad signal. She ran up the stairs to Ops, panting. 'Jamal Abdul and Smit Robins. Jonathan was going to talk to them. Did you find anything else?'
'Well, Jamal Abdul is the detainee who told us about the smuggling. And Smit Robins is... a soldier deployed in Syria. That much I know. I and Nell were able to find what manifest that was. That was a plane of volunteers sent to set up refugee camps till the governments could do something else.'
'And Marco Robins?'
'Brothers. And Smit even helped out the volunteers one day, when he wasn't on duty.'
'So can we interrogate any one of them?'
'Well, we don't have anything on them so...'
Alice sprinted out of the room and down the stairs. Eric followed her, and leaned over the railings. 'Where are you going?' He yelled, as if she were standing miles apart.
'You can't talk to them. I can. I'm simply going to write a piece on Life under fire. And I need a quote, and I'm going to interview them.' She yelled back.
Nell had followed Eric out on the corridor. 'You go, Girl!'
A few years ago,
There weren't many women other than Rachel and Nico in McKay's department when Alice had joined it. Nico generally kept to herself, and everybody was scared of Rachel. Alice had been asked to cover her co-workers' shifts and expected to agree. Alice, however, being the free bird she was till then, disagreed. That didn't fit well with many of the men there; it didn't appease their ego. They'd gotten lewd, and commented, and catcalled her. McKay threatened to fire anyone who did anything like that ever again, either with her, Nico, or Rachel.
Bennett, a senior photojournalist, decided to see how much would McKay stick to his guns. The next day, a photoshopped image of Alice hung on the cafeteria notice board. They were all working on their articles, when McKay stormed into the bullpen.
'Bennett. Get out of this building, and never come back.' He yelled at him in front of everybody.
Bennett left shame faced, and she heard a chuckle on the workstation opposite to her. 'Huh. Guy like that deserved every bit of it. Wonder if I'll see his online blog by him now.'
'Why an online blog? Wouldn't he just go to another news channel?'
'Ha. Better get used to it. Everyone in the industry knows that if McKay fired a guy, he must really be worthless.' Alice laughed heartily. 'I'm Jonathan, by the way.' The man introduced himself and gave out his hand to shake.
'I'm Alice,' she said, shaking hands firmly.
