Chapter Six
Schemes and schemes
"So you think because your aunt's secret is out, you'd be killed."
"Just like turning off a light bulb. But not for any deception, it's for what I may know. They think aunt Ziva confides in me what she may hear when I'm not there to 'interpret'. The French don't care, it's not a matter of their pride. They can't hit her, not without risking war or retribution from the Empire; but me, I'm cannon fodder."
"David knows this?"
"We've known for years, she and I. This playact has been long in the making, since before she relieved my great uncle Eli of his position. She plays the prideful one, unwilling to learn any other language. Anyone who wishes to speak to her will learn our language or work through me. But we suspected the secret was out, and your Grand Inquisitor just proved it."
"And you don't want to stay? Take the chance your secret's not out until it is?"
"There's loyalty, then there's stupidity."
"Careful, I still haven't decided where you stand on that." She sees a first flare of anger from the girl.
"I don't want to leave my family and everyone and everything I know. But the choice is to wait for the day when someone puts a bullet in my head; or worse, blows up my car with my family inside it. I had to use what contacts I had to survive. I had to come to you."
"INCIS ordered me to kill you."
"I never said it was a perfect plan."
x
Jennifer Shepherd reflects upon the capriciousness of fate. She'd been away on assignment when two of her contacts had been captured, though once they were it was impossible to save Timothy McGee or James Palmer from their fates. By the time she'd returned, they and Michelle Lee were dead, Kaitlyn Todd was a prisoner and initially she'd feared her own cover had been destroyed. It took several days of tense bluffing to assure her that her position was secure. Then came this assignment.
Does Gibbs know? Does he suspect?
No. If he suspected her she'd be dead. Gibbs doesn't hesitate on such things. To him to suspect is to act. If he knew, she'd be dead, so he doesn't know.
But he'd ordered her to kill someone who now, in the eyes of the INCIS and possibly the Mossad, is a potential traitor. And she must fulfill her mission, for if she does not, she will die.
The simplest move is to break her Oath, be true to INCIS and put a bullet through the girl's head. It's also the right thing to do, perhaps the only smart thing to do. It is certainly the INCIS thing to do.
She can allay any suspicions some people might have and secure her position. Just draw the gun, aim and fire. Done.
But does that make her better than the force she's sworn to fight? Not defeat, for she doesn't believe it can be defeated, but it can be fought.
It's a question she has asked herself thousands of times over the years, and she's still no closer to an answer.
x
She's foresworn. She has always been. She'd sworn an Oath to the INCIS, to the Empire, and to the Brotherhood. Since the day she'd joined the Brotherhood she was foresworn.
Now she is more so, and by her own hand, for she must choose again.
Actually, she realizes that the circumstances have actually made it easier for her. Her assignment is to kill Goldbloom. She and the other Inquisitors have been ordered to accompany their charges wherever they go, not to hold them anywhere. They are escorts, not jailers. What better way than to accompany Goldbloom out of this hotel, take her to some spot, kill her and blame the French, as had originally been planned?
Instead she decides she'll take her to a safe location where they can meet someone to take her out of the area. Gibbs never said come back with a body, just to kill her and implicate the French. Yes, it could work.
Admittedly, a thousand things could go wrong, but when has she not faced that risk?
x
The Israeli plot is now so obvious that she hates herself for not seeing it as soon as she found out about Goldbloom's parentage. France has assassinated the niece of the Mossad Director on American soil and the Israelis will want revenge, but the Emperor has forbidden Israel and France, indeed every country under his rule, to go to war so the revenge will be surgical – and the patient, whomever he or she may be – need not worry about any lengthy recovery time.
x
"All right, this is what we're going to do. I have a safe place several miles from here, one that's constantly watched. I'll take you there because I'm ordered to go with you where you will and you're not restricted while you're here, especially now that you're useless." She watches the word sting. "There I'll 'kill' you, bring back evidence of your death, and there you'll meet someone who will take you out of the city and hand you off. Give me, or anyone else, the slightest suspicion that you're working against us and you will die."
"I understand."
"No, I don't think you do. Why did Gibbs assign me to kill you, then betray your secret to a roomful of Inquisitors, guards, et cetera? Doing so put your life at risk from the French and who knows who else? It doesn't make any sense, not when relations between our countries need to be stable. This conference is not that urgent, but it is useful."
"I've found politics sometimes doesn't make sense." An instant later Goldbloom is on her back again, Shepherd rubbing the pain from her knuckles.
"Politics always makes sense to the ones making their plans and you are either naïve or stupid! You can't have worked Internationally with Mossad and not know that. You're lying. Tell me what's going on."
"I don't know." Shepherd draws her gun, her decision made. "I don't know!"
"What don't you know?"
"I DON'T KNOW ANYTHING!"
Shepherd takes careful aim at the girl's heart but holds, willing to hear this version. "Explain. Fast!"
"I used to know everything. I was privy to all plans, all schemes. I had to be. I couldn't work the scheme if I wasn't. Then, a few weeks ago, things started happening that were catching me by surprise. New personnel, troop deployments, changes within the Mossad that I wasn't in the loop for. My inquiries came to nothing, replies didn't pan out."
"They were moving you out. They weren't afraid of the plan falling apart, you were being edged out. It's not the French or anyone else you have to be afraid of, it's your own family and friends."
"They can't dispose of me in Israel. Aunt Ziva won't allow even a hint that the Mossad killed one of their own. It goes against everything she would have the world know. Even a hint that my death was unwarranted would reduce her standing in the government."
"But if you're killed on foreign soil, by authorities that so conveniently provide proof it was the French that assassinated you..."
"Mossad's hands are clean."
"Why didn't you tell me everything the first time?"
"I've spent most of my life in covert operations. It's a habit you don't break out of."
x
Shepherd turns away, thinking hard. Obligations are one thing, but there's too much uncertainty here, far too much double dealing. Goldbloom lied, and that lie makes every word that comes out of her mouth suspect, even this story. Gibbs has to know that this is going to happen, he's too good not to know. Is there even a real conference, or is everything orchestrated for the simple purpose of ridding an ally of an inconvenience?
What to do? Take her to the safe transfer point, fulfill one obligation; or take her elsewhere and put a bullet through her head? Follow the obligations of the Brotherhood - there's a vast amount that her superiors could learn from this girl - or do the smart thing and follow her orders as an INCIS Inquisitor?
She'd often wondered when she'd reached the point in her life where mercy and compassion took second place to Duty. She knows when mercy and compassion have reestablished their places in her life, but have they done well by her?
For years she's walked along a very sharp spike fence, fulfilling INCIS duties at some times, acting as an Agent of the Brotherhood when called upon, saving others when it was asked of her.
In traversing those blades for so long has she finally reached the point where she can't decide on which side to step down? Duty and common sense dictate her response; mercy and compassion are powerful motivators and should be damned.
x
But this girl on the floor, still in her teens, has also lived her life by duty and is being sold out by people who won't risk the political status quo by killing her themselves. Gibbs has given them the means for removing an inconvenience and winning a point in their eternal struggle with the French.
If it can be proven - and she's to provide that proof - that the French have acted in the very heart of the Empire, in the shadow of the Imperial Palace, Israel will not only be free to strike back against this insult but will incur Imperial support. The Emperor might well intercede. No, strike that, the Emperor will lose face by this incident; he will be angry and he will act.
And what of the Level One Inquisitor who allowed her charge to die, offended the Israelis, humiliated the INCIS and embarrassed the Emperor?
Jennifer Shepherd closes her eyes, says a final, forbidden prayer and says goodbye to all she has ever known.
"Come with me. We're both leaving - and neither of us is coming back."
