Thank you for the feedback after the last chapter! This is the chapter that has a "bypass" section. The second half of this chapter gets dark and explicit, so there's a summary at the end of the chapter for those who can't stomach it so you don't miss any of the important details when you skip over it. I'd say enjoy, but don't enjoy too much! That would be more than a little disturbing…
Chapter 10
"Ned!" she practically screamed.
"Ellie?" Ned asked, immediately alarmed and on his feet. "What's wrong?"
"It's Jake! Jake is Crow!"
"What?!" Ned practically squeaked out as he turned to rush over to McGee's desk. "Where are you?"
"I don't know. I just drove. I think I'm heading back to NCIS."
"McGee," Ned said, trying hard to maintain his composure. "We have a problem."
"Hmmm?" Tim asked, looking up. "What's going on?"
"Bishop thinks her husband is Crow."
"What?!" Tim exclaimed, jumping up from his desk. "Put her on speaker."
"Ellie, it's McGee. Why do you think your husband is Crow?" Ziva joined them and they all listened to Bishop tell her story.
"I got home, and he didn't hear me come in, but he was on the phone with someone, talking in Arabic, and he…" She swallowed and took a deep breath. The three NCIS agents all looked around at each other with expressions that said that couldn't be good. "And he told them that I wasn't a bargaining chip, and that the kids- that he could make them do anything and that they'd take the fall for him when he killed his targets, and that he would keep going as long as whoever he was talking to kept depositing the money."
"Fuck," Ned said through a clenched jaw. He shook his head and looked up to find the others staring at him. "Sorry." He grimaced, then looked at the phone. "Ellie, are you safe right now? Do you want us to meet you or do you just want to come here?"
"I'll be there in about seven minutes," she said. "I just… I don't know what to do."
"We'll be waiting," Tim said.
"Don't wait!" Bishop practically yelled. "Get to work! I want you to start tying him to this as soon as possible. He's an NSA lawyer for god's sake! He's going to know how to cover his tracks."
"I'll fill Elly in. Have him call Hadley," Ned said.
"I'll start pulling phone records and finances," Tim said.
"I will meet you downstairs," Ziva said. "If he had to tell them not to threaten you then you are in danger."
"You need to get him into custody! I don't know if he saw me pulling out of the garage or not, but if he did, he's going to run."
"Ellie, listen to me," Ned said, his voice going into the confident and tactical MTAC persona that demanded attention. Everyone stopped to hear what he had to say. "You said it yourself- he's an NSA lawyer. We need to play by the rules. We have to get a warrant, find unsinkable evidence outside of your testimony, and then and only then can we drag his sorry ass in here. Our priorities right now are making sure you're safe and gathering that evidence. We need to regroup our team, and we need to put all of the players in the right positions if we're going to pull this off."
Bishop took a deep breath. "You're right. Okay. I can do this. I'm on my way in. Go call Elly."
"Do you want me to call you?" Ziva asked. "To have someone on the line with you?"
"I appreciate it, but no. I need a minute."
"Understandable. I will see you downstairs at the gate."
"Thanks, everyone." The phone beeped and Ned immediately began dialing Elly's number. He went back over to his desk and began relaying the story.
Tim picked up the phone to call Parke in. "Where the hell is Sommers?"
"I will call him," Ziva said. She picked up the phone and dialed. Before she could get an answer though the elevator doors were opening and Sommers was jogging to his desk.
"I am so sorry! I slept right through my alarms. Won't happen again. I didn't realize I was so tired."
"We know who Crow is," Ziva said. "Walk with me." She shared a look with Tim who raised an eyebrow at her, but they both went about their tasks.
Once Tim hung up with Parke he headed up the stairs to MTAC. He needed to let the Director know what was going on. He knocked on the frame but the door was open. Vance gestured for him to come in.
"We've got a big problem," he said.
"What's that, Agent McGee?" Vance said, sitting his pen down.
"Bishop's husband is Crow."
"What?" Vance asked, his eyebrows high and his jaw clenching slightly as he leaned back in his chair. "How do you know?"
"She went home for some sleep and walked in to find him on the phone with his handler. She overheard that she's possibly in danger as a target if he doesn't continue to comply, and that there's a money exchange happening. But she doesn't think he heard her come in and she took off. She's on the way here."
"Well I'll be damned," Vance said with a shake of his head. "I didn't know he was an analyst."
"He's a lawyer for the NSA. We're going to have to walk on eggshells through this one. Everything by the book."
"I'd say so," Vance said. "What's happening right now?"
"Ziva and Sommers are on the way downstairs to meet Bishop when she gets here. Dorneget called Critten who is going to call Hadley. Parke is on the way in. We're going to gather as much evidence as possible to get a warrant against him before we rely on Bishop's testimony."
"Good, because you won't be able to. There's no evidence of it."
"When we confiscate his electronic devices we should be able to place the time, length and location of the call, and if we're really lucky, track it back to the handler. And I bet that we could place Bishop in her parking garage for the short time she was there as well. All of those garages have video feed."
"Do it. We'll need all of it to get that testimony into court."
"On it," McGee said, turning to leave.
"Let me know when you have enough for the warrant. I'll call it in. We'll get it express delivered." Tim nodded. "I expect to see you again in an hour or less."
"I'm aiming for half that, sir," Tim said, then headed out the door in a confident rush that impressed Vance.
********WDYG?********
Ned was on the phone with Elly, trying not to think about how he always looked so cute and cuddly when he woke up. Elly had only been asleep about fifteen minutes, and Ned felt bad for waking him. He explained the situation and Elly's reaction matched his own.
"Fuck!"
"That's what I said."
"Really?" Elly asked as he got out of bed.
"Yeah. I wasn't really clearheaded. I still don't think I am."
"Poor Other Ellie. That blows sweaty balls."
"Yeah, it does," Ned agreed with a sigh. "I promise that if I ever decide to go off the deep end, I'll take you with me."
Elly laughed as he slipped clothes on. "That's good to know! And I'll return the favor."
"Good. I need to go start finding things to nail this bastard to the wall."
"I need to go call the Director, and then Hadley."
"I don't envy you. See you soon?"
"Yeah. If I can, I'll grab coffee. Do you need some?"
"We really don't have time for that. Can you bring me a Mountain Dew from the fridge?"
"Got it. I'll see you soon."
"Thanks!" Ned hung up, already logging into the computer.
This was mind blowing. He couldn't believe that Crow was right under their noses this whole time. He doubted that he was going to be able to get his hands on what he really wanted to, but he was going to do what he could to compile as much damning information as possible to help put Jake away once the connection to him was solidified.
Tim meanwhile was pulling Jake's phone records and financials. He did some digging, and he located an account in the Caymans that was attached to his social. He tap danced his way through the firewalls while the request for a warrant was being sent electronically for access to the NSA computer files. He knew it would be rejected, but it had to be rejected before he could take the next steps, which included getting permission from Vance to invoke the Patriot Act and demand the records.
The account in the Caymans was loaded down with cash. There were close to two million dollars in it which made Tim wonder what else Crow, or Jake, had been doing to earn that much. There were only three murders that had turned up in their jurisdiction. What others were there?
He started searching for articles and case files in the systems for others that had the nun carved into them, and he found four men and one woman with the etching. They were all in New York, and none of them had military ties. Two had ties to very liberal Christian churches and one, the woman, had her murder labelled a hate crime based on the rape involved and her ties to the gay community. The other three men were completely different from one another. The cases were already flagged by both the NSA and the FBI. Now he flagged them as well for NCIS.
The elevator dinged and Bishop was escorted out by Ziva and Sommers, Ziva up front and Sommers behind, obviously flanking her protectively even though he didn't think they realized it. Tim was kind of surprised to see Ned jump to his feet and join them on their side of the bullpen.
Bishop was surprised too when Ned embraced her, but she surprised herself even more when she leaned into it and hugged him back tightly, resting her head on his shoulder. He felt safe, like one of her brothers would've felt in that moment, and she chose not to think about that until later and just let herself soak up that feeling because right now she needed it more than anything in the world.
"We'll get him. We'll get him, and we'll nail him to the wall," Ned said quietly. Bishop just nodded before squeezing Ned back a little tighter before letting go.
"Good."
Tim and Ziva raised an eyebrow at each other, and then they shared a look with Sommers who was looking between them and the hug with a confused expression of his own.
"Elly was going to call Vance and then Hadley. He should be here soon. We'll probably all meet up in MTAC. I'm sure you'll be expected to join."
Bishop nodded, then bit her lower lip. "I don't know what to do."
"Nothing," Tim said, earning their attention. "From this point on, you are not to touch the case. Your testimony is going to be on shaky ground already. We need you to stay off the case from here on out. I know it's going to drive you insane, and you can listen in all you want, but you cannot contribute unless asked to."
"I was afraid of that," Bishop said with a sigh.
"We need to get your statement," Ned said. "Why don't you come sit down and you can write it up for us."
She nodded, sparing a glance at the others in the room, then followed Ned over to his side of the bullpen.
The rest of the team worked diligently for the next fifteen minutes, each one shouting out another connection they had and sending Tim the necessary data to add to the warrant. Elly joined them and stopped his searches to run a singular search on Jake's finances and travel. It only took a minute and soon he was staring at his computer with his jaw dropped.
"You all need to see this," he said, getting up with his laptop and coming to Tim's side of the bullpen. Ned and Bishop joined him. They all gathered around the plasma next to Gibbs' desk and Elly put up a map on the screen.
"These are all the places that Jake has travelled over the past three years. Notice in the first year there were only trips to Los Angeles and back, once to Houston. Makes sense. There's NSA offices in those locations. There was a trip to Oklahoma, but I take it that was a family visit?" he asked, raising an eyebrow at Bishop and getting a nod. "Okay, now watch all of the trips he's taken since then."
Various colored dots began appearing one after another all across the country, with multiple in New York City and Los Angeles.
"Oh, my god," Bishop said, shaking her head. "He told me that he's been working this big wiretapping case in Los Angeles. He has spent a ton of time out there and always comes back to tell me all of these things that happened on his trip."
"There have been trips to Los Angeles, but he's had a couple of days in each of these cities, or at least somewhere near them."
Bishop shook her head. "I have no idea what he was doing. The groups we're mainly concerned with are based out of New York and L.A. and a few troublemakers in Texas. None of these cities are raising a flag to me. Maybe they would've to Mark, but I don't think I've ever heard him mention any of them. I could see Chicago, but Seattle? Miami? Why would he be recruiting in those cities?"
"I don't think he's recruiting," Greg said, startling all of them from where he'd arrived silently and stood behind the group.
"Good to see you," Tim said with a sigh. "Sorry to pull you away from Tiffany again. What are you thinking?"
"Possibly meeting his handler," Greg said. "This sporadic pattern, never going to the same place twice, it's very indicative of evasive maneuvers. He's probably meeting up with his handler at these places, or at least somewhere to pick up money, or instructions, or maybe dropping off intel."
"That just gave me the chills," Bishop said softly. "Thinking about all of the intel he has access to…"
"Don't worry," Elly said. "Hadley and Vance already had his security clearance stripped, logins to file servers and email blocked, and they're retracing all of the files he's ever accessed."
There was a loud noise that came from Elly's laptop that startled all of them including Elly who almost dropped the machine. "Oh, shit," he whispered as he looked at the screen and the alarm went off again and again, a repetitive fog horn blaring. "Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit!" he whispered frantically, clicking some buttons and setting the computer on the edge of Gibbs' desk to type into it. He turned towards the group with his jaw dropped, shaking his head slowly.
"What?" Ned asked, looking towards the laptop that was facing away from everyone but Elly.
"Bishop, I… I really don't think you should see this."
"Elly, I appreciate your concern, but I just found out that my husband is a terrorist mole and a murderer that's manipulating kids and young adults to make some money. I think I can take whatever you've got there."
Elly looked pleadingly at Ned, who squeezed through the people gathered to come look at Elly's screen.
"Oh, shit," he said. He looked from Elly to Bishop, then chewed his bottom lip. "Might as well show her honey. She's going to find out eventually. Better it be with us here." He looked back at Elly, then crossed his arms and looked at Bishop sadly as Elly nodded and sighed, picking up his laptop and looking at the plasma before hitting some more buttons.
Photos began overlapping of crime scenes from each location of brutally murdered people. Most of them were hanging from chains in dark and decrepit buildings, some were tied to chairs, and a there was a rather especially disturbing one of a man tied to a table that was missing its legs.
"What the hell?" Bishop whispered, going pale. Ned was by her side immediately, and Sommers surprised them by pulling up a chair quickly to catch her as she started to collapse. The rest of them remained silent for a long moment, and then Tim shook his head.
"What search parameters located these?" he asked.
"I was running the keywords "torture" and "murder" through news articles and then secondary searches to the FBI database once those were pinged based on the cities located for each NSA member's travel itinerary." Elly's voice was subdued and he couldn't look anyone in the eye, nor could he look up at the screen.
Bishop was trying to rein in her emotions, but it was barely working. She looked up at Ned with red eyes, her arms crossed around her stomach to keep from getting sick. "Go get that sick bastard. Go get him, and you bring him in here where he can look me in the eyes and tell me for himself that he did this. And if you have to take him out, don't hesitate."
"I have to be in MTAC," Ned said. "But you can trust these guys to get him, Ellie. We've got your back."
"I think we have enough information here. Send it to me and Vance," Tim said, looking at Elly. "Now."
Tim went behind his desk and there were frantic keys clacking from both Elly and Tim as they sent data to Vance.
"Elly, go get the team geared up. I'm going to talk to Vance about our warrant and then we're heading out. Parke, Ned, I want the two of you commed and in our ears the entire time."
"We can do one better," Elly said as he stood up and closed his laptop, swooping it up off the desk. "We've got the new body cams synced up to MTAC now, remember? We can give them a good test run."
"Perfect," Tim said, coming around his desk to head towards the stairs. "Five minutes!"
Everyone took off running other than Ned who knelt down in front of Bishop. "Ellie? What can we do for you?"
"Just…" she looked up at him. "Just keep me involved. I want to be involved."
Ned looked her in the eyes and then nodded. "Come with me."
He led her down to the garage and when he reached for a second earpiece after inserting his, Elly looked at him suspiciously, but handed it to him. He turned around and handed it off to Bishop who slipped it into her ear.
"She knows him, can help predict his next move."
"I don't feel like I know him at all right now," Bishop said with a shake of her head.
"You know him better than us," Elly said with a raised eyebrow. "Could be all we need."
Tim joined them in the garage. "We're stopping at the courthouse on the way. Vance said that the judge will have the warrant waiting with a messenger on the front steps."
"Damn, that's fast," Sommers said as they piled into two cars. Ned, Greg and Bishop all headed upstairs. They checked their coms and could hear everyone's conversations like a bunch of babble.
"Folks, I need you to limit your talking," Greg said. "I can't hear myself think."
"Understood," Elly said, looking at Tim in the driver's seat next to him. Ziva and Sommers had taken the other car, and Ziva soon echoed their understanding as well.
"Let's go over the plan," Ned said as they stopped in the bullpen for the files and things they wanted to take to MTAC with them.
Tim's voice came through the coms, an edge to it that none of them were used to hearing from him. "We're stopping at the courthouse to pick up the arrest warrant and then driving straight to Bishop's apartment. Ziva and Sommers will park their car in front of the garage to prevent anyone from leaving, and then we'll enter the building."
"There's two entrances other than the basement entrance in the garage," Bishop chimed in. "The building is on the corner. One door on each street-facing side, one north, one west."
"Ziva and Sommers, take the entrance closest to the garage entry. Elly and I will take the other one."
"There's stairwells at the four corners of the building," Bishop informed. "There's also an elevator on the North and South sides."
"We'll take the stairs up."
"We're on the second floor, dead center of the westward facing hallway."
They were interrupted by the sound of the cars coming to a halt and a window going down.
"Agent McGee?" a young male voice asked.
"That's me," Tim responded.
"Your warrant," the voice said.
"Got it," Elly said, rolling the window up as they sped off towards Bishop's. They were all silent. They didn't have to go through the exact takedown process.
"We're now in MTAC," Ned informed. "Please activate your body cams so we can adjust."
Greg was standing next to him, remembering the first time he'd been with Ned in MTAC and was just as impressed by his sudden level of control and dominance in the room. Bishop was on Ned's other side, and Evelyn was thankfully at the controls again.
"Evelyn? Can you zoom in on each camera to test its lens strength and clarity? We're going to give this a good hard run."
Ned looked at Evelyn as he spoke and saw that she was practically bubbling to play with their new tech. It was completely controlled by her boards and he saw just how in her element she was as the screens flickered back and forth between the four windows, toggling to give each one a large view, zooming in and out, then toggling back out.
"Here we go," Bishop said as she could see them turning down her block.
Vance suddenly appeared next to her, and she was startled. He laid a calming hand on her shoulder for a brief moment, then dropped it again as he gave her a nod.
They watched in silence as they approached the building, each pair going in their own entrance.
"Go right," Bishop said. "The staircases you'll come to will flank my unit."
They ascended the steps silently, guns drawn. They came out into the hallway at approximately the same time and moved together into the center of the building to stand in front of apartment 2D.
Tim and Elly each took a side of the door. Sommers stood next to Ziva, prepared to enter first as soon as she kicked it in. They all exchanged glances, then Tim held up to fingers, gesturing for Ziva to proceed. She gave the door a hard kick near the doorknob and it broke immediately, flinging open.
*******WDYG?********
Crow: X, listen to me carefully. I have no idea how, but they know about me. I just tried to log into my email and I've been blocked. The same with all of my other accesses.
UntamedFury: Fuck! You've got to get out of there! You've got to run!
Crow: It's too late. There isn't enough time. They're probably going to be here any minute. I'm activating plan B. Do me proud, X. You're everything I could've asked for. I'm going to destroy my phone so they can't trace it back to you.
UntamedFury: I'm so sorry, Crow. You're everything I could've asked for as well.
Crow: Don't try to visit me. Don't try to save me. I won't let them get to you. I promise.
Jake took his phone and dropped it directly into the pot of boiling water on the stove. He waited only a minute before taking it out and taking a hammer to it on the counter until it smashed into a million different pieces. He fed his frustration and anger into it. Next was his computer. He smashed it, using the claw of the hammer and tore it apart. He pulled the harddrive out and smashed it multiple times before dropping it into the boiling water. He took whatever other small parts looked important out and dropped them in as well. They were melting and coming apart nicely. He scooped the harddrive out and continued to beat on it some more, then put it back in the water. He was finally satisfied that he'd destroyed all of the evidence that would tie back to X when the front door was kicked in.
"NCIS! Freeze!" Elly shouted, his weapon, along with everyone else's trained on the man standing in the small kitchen.
Jake turned to face four agents wearing vests and NCIS jackets. He felt somewhat chagrinned that it was this second-rate organization that was finally bringing an end to his chaotic ride, but he knew that this meant he'd have access to Ellie, and that was well worth the degradation of being thwarted by lessers.
He sighed and put his hands behind his head. Ziva, Sommers, and McGee approached him aggressively while Elly went to clear the apartment.
"Jacob Bishop, you have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law…" McGee began.
Ziva grabbed him by the back of the shirt and started pushing him towards the countertop but stopped herself short of slamming him into the formica, reminding herself that he was a lawyer and would use any excuse possible to get their arrest thrown out in court. Sommers assisted in pulling Jake's hands from his head as Ziva cuffed him.
"Shit," Elly said, looking at the scraps on the counter behind them now that he'd returned.
"Is that what I think it is?" Sommers asked, looking from Elly to Tim.
"Yeah, it is," Tim said with a blaze of fury in his eyes.
"That looks like his laptop," Bishop said softly in their ears as the camera zoomed in on the remnants on the counter. "Was he boiling it?"
"Looks like it was boiled," Tim said to confirm, trying not to give away that there were other people on their earwigs.
"He's too calm," Greg said. "He knew we were coming."
"What tipped you off?" Elly said, grabbing Jake and spinning him around somewhat forcefully. "How in the hell did you know we were coming for you?"
"My access was suddenly denied to my email and other files. I knew that my time was up." Jake's calm voice was eerie to all of them.
"This isn't good," Greg said quietly.
"No, it isn't," Ned said.
"Why?" Bishop asked, looking for a quick moment at them before looking back at the screen.
"If he knew that we were coming he had time to warn the others. To notify them. They'll go under," Ned said.
"Or worse," Greg said. "We could've just sped up the countdown for something."
"You find out that we're coming and the first thing you decide to do is smash your computer?" Sommers asked with a scoff. "Must have some disturbing taste in porn." He snapped on a glove before starting to pick up pieces to slip into a large evidence bag. "Didn't want your wife to find out, huh?"
Elly and Tim were looking at Sommers with confused disbelief, but Ziva was reminded of Tony in that moment, and how he had always known just the most ridiculous ways to prod a suspect into giving them information. She smirked at Tim briefly and he saw. He suddenly realized what Sommers was doing as well. Elly was still clueless.
"If you're anything like me though," Sommers continued as he filled the bag carefully, "you probably have backups of your favorites saved to disc, or USB drive, maybe even an SD card. Something small that a girlfriend wouldn't find."
Ziva watched Jake's face as Sommers listed off the types of memory devices to see which one he reacted to. The SD card caused him to blanch, and she realized that was it.
"SD card then? Now, let's see," she began as she headed towards the bookcase. "Where would you have hidden an SD card?"
"Check taped under things," Bishop guided. "He likes to think he's sneaky by taping things to the undersides of drawers and shelves." Ziva casually started groping around the bookshelves, and Elly joined her, searching through the kitchen, then moving to the bedroom as Tim took over holding tightly to Jake.
"Check the bedroom closet," Bishop said. Elly and Ziva started turning the apartment upside down for the tiny card.
Elly finally announced his triumph from the closet. He came out of the bedroom, and as he entered the living room again he pulled an SD card from the inside of a shoe, taped to the underside of the tongue.
"He always hated those shoes," Bishop murmured.
"Can't wait to see what's on here," Elly said with a smirk as he dropped it into an evidence bag.
"See what you can do about determining what his next steps would've been, or what he did before he destroyed his tech," Greg guided.
"I betcha don't want Ellie to see what's on that," Sommers said with a chuckle and an elbow to Jake's arm rather chummily. "What is it? Big booty mamas? I mean, Ellie's kinda hot for a skinny chick, but I can see how you'd need a little thickness in your life occasionally."
Elly raised his eyes to the ceiling, still not sure he understood why they let Sommers keep talking.
"Or wait-" Sommers stopped and looked at Jake with disgust. "You're not, like a pedophile or something, are you? I mean, I know you hang out with kids and all, but that's not like, a sexual thing or something is it?"
"No!" Jake suddenly blurted out. "I haven't been sleeping with any children."
"Oh, but you've been sleeping with someone," Sommers said, crossing his arms. "I know that look. I've mastered that look. Damn, son! I mean, being a traitor and an underground terrorist and murderer is pretty bad, but you're also a cheater? How low can you get?!"
Sommers took the cap off the marker in his pocket with his teeth and wrote on his evidence bag as he shook his head. He snapped the cap back on and slipped it back in his pocket. He looked at the smoldering look that Jake was giving him and shrugged.
"I'm no angel. I've cheated before. A number of times. But I wasn't married to any of them, and my wife wasn't Ellie Bishop. If my wife was an NSA agent being trained to join the CIA I wouldn't be stupid enough to cheat on her. You, jackass, are a fucking moron."
The reaction he got was uncomfortable for everyone watching, both in person and on camera. Jake calmed suddenly to a cool exterior with a smirk that made the hairs stand up on the backs of more than one neck. Sommers didn't let it show that it creeped him the fuck out though.
"That's okay. A pretty guy like you is going to get all sorts of action in prison." When the smirk barely slipped, Sommers took his last dig. "Dude! You're looking forward to that! Have you been fucking a guy?! I mean, no judgement or anything, to each their own, but damn! How will your terrorist friends like finding out that you're butt-buddies with someone?"
Jake dropped the smirk and just stared at Sommers with wide eyes suddenly full of a violent mixture of rage and fear.
"That's what I thought," Sommers said with a solemn nod.
"He's afraid of his handler finding out about his lover. He must be a part of the group." Greg shook his head.
Bishop's voice was tight and crackled as she spoke. "When I overheard Jake on the phone earlier he told his handler that someone would do anything for him, that they were practically in love with him. I couldn't catch the name though. It sounded like he'd just said S or X or F. His handler knows about him already."
"He's probably been able to protect him. He's not going to be there to protect him now." Greg took in Ellie's haggard expression.
"Okay," Ned said. "Grab what you can and bring him in. The FBI will be in soon to really scrub it for evidence so take what you can."
"Let's go," Tim said, then jerked Jake towards the door. Elly did one more pass through the apartment and picked up Jake's briefcase, then followed the others out of the unit.
********WDYG?********
Ned looked up as he heard voices coming from the elevator. He saw Hadley being escorted by Elly into the bullpen. He glanced at Bishop to see her expression. It was far from happy. He felt a protectiveness come over him. He felt like he'd made a true friend in Bishop. He'd been less than impressed with Hadley's handling of the case and wasn't looking forward to the interaction. He was however impressed with the way Elly was handling their guest. He was being the perfect host. He led Hadley to Tim first, showing the appropriate respect to give priority to leadership. He could hear them talking for a couple of minutes but tuned them out.
It wasn't long before the three of them joined him, Greg and Bishop on their side of the bullpen. Elly reintroduced Hadley to the group, more for Hadley's sake than anything. Hadley smiled but when he looked at Ned, Ned found a sick glee in seeing the nervous apprehension in his eyes. The older man nodded at him, and he nodded back. He wasn't really the type of person to hold a grudge, but he was thinking about becoming one.
Hadley then went up to Bishop. "I don't know what to say, Ellie. I never would've guessed that it was Jake. I can't imagine what you're going through right now."
Bishop gave him an extremely tight and impersonal half-smile. "You need to be here to interrogate him. All we have so far is what I heard and what we've found."
"I'll do what I can," Hadley replied. "Whatever you need."
Ned couldn't help himself. "Before we go in there, is there anything else you'd like to tell us?"
Hadley looked at Ned leerily. "No sir, it's all out there."
"Good," Ned said, no humor on his face.
Elly wanted to glare at Ned for making his job harder, but he couldn't. Ned was too damned hot at the moment, and no matter how much harder that kind of animosity made his temporary role, the hot factor would always win. A confident Ned was sexy.
The entire group got up to head towards interrogation, including Ziva and Sommers. When they got there they found Vance waiting with a sound tech.
"Director," Elly said, surprised to see him there. "NSA Hadley is here."
The two older men shook hands and greeted one another. "Your man is a piece of work," Vance said, unable to rein in the tension completely.
"Apparently," Hadley said with a sigh. "Though I wouldn't call him our man anymore."
"Yeah, I'm sure you wouldn't," Ned said with a challenging eyebrow raised, conveying what Vance had wanted to but politically couldn't. As Hadley turned towards the two-way glass Vance shot Ned a smirk.
"How do you want to do this, Director?" Tim asked.
"I've been thinking about it, and I think we should ear piece Hadley and Dorneget and send them in with Parke in their ears."
"You want me to go in there?" Ned asked with both disbelief and attitude in his voice.
"You've studied his message board posts. You've been in his head from the beginning. And you obviously care about Bishop. All good reasons for you to go in. You understand what makes him tick, and you're least likely to hurt him knowing Bishop is watching."
"I'm not sure that's entirely true," Ned said coldly, sparing a glance at the man through the window.
"Yeah it is," Elly said, putting a hand on Ned's shoulder. "You should do this," he added quietly when Ned's eyes met his.
"Fine. Give me the earwig," he said, reaching out his palm.
He had no idea what he was doing. He pulled out his tiny notebook and pen from inside of his jacket pocket and sat down in a folding chair for a minute as he outlined his questions. Hadley stood next to him, unsure of what his role was going to be.
"Here," Ned said. "Look at these and tell me if you think I'm missing something."
Hadley took the tiny memo pad and read over the list of scribbled questions. He was impressed. They were extensive and covered things he hadn't thought about. "That definitely covers it."
"Alright," Ned said, getting to his feet and taking the notebook back. "Let's get this over with."
Greg followed them out to the hallway and waited for the door to close behind them. "I have a feeling if you give him the chance, he's going to talk. He knows he's caught. If my suspicions are correct you'll just have to give him the opportunity and he'll tell you everything you want to know and plenty you don't. Let him. He'll dig himself a hole straight to the death penalty."
"This is going to suck, isn't it?" Ned asked with a resigned sigh.
"Oh, if I'm right it's going to go beyond "suck". Stay strong, listen to me, and don't hesitate when I tell you what to do."
Ned nodded. "Why do I have a feeling you and I will be talking after this?"
"Because we will."
Ned swallowed and Hadley looked back and forth between them in confusion. He'd been torn apart by the man next to him, and to see him look so uncertain for even that brief moment made him deeply uncomfortable. He gave Greg a brief nod, and then followed Ned into the interrogation room, unsure of what he was really walking into, and anxious to find out.
Greg returned to the observation room to find the entire team had found places to sit or stand and got as comfy as they could be when knowing they were looking at a traitorous murderer. Bishop, Vance and Greg lined up in front of the window, each needing a clear view. Tim, Elly, Sommers and Ziva took chairs behind them, able to see between them somewhat, and Tim motioned for the sound tech to turn up the speaker volume.
Ned and Hadley walked into the room and Ned sat down across from Jake who was surprisingly calm.
"Where's Ellie?" he asked.
Ned felt himself stiffen at the use of her first name, thinking for the briefest of moments that he was referring to his Elly. "She's on the other side of the glass," Ned said. Jake motioned to get up, looking at the glass and began to speak. Ned cut him off. "She leaves if you address her." Jake settled again, hesitantly looking between Ned and the glass.
"I don't understand how this has happened," Jake said, shaking his head.
"You mean catching you?" Ned asked. "Well, it's simple. Your loving, amazing wife came home this evening to get a little sleep. You see, she's been exhausted because of how much hard work she's been putting in trying to catch a killer. A killer that ended up being you. And when she got there she overheard your conversation with your handler explaining how you had The Children eating out of the palm of your hands. She escaped, fearing for her life, fearing you, and ran back to the people she's learned she can really trust- us."
Ned heard Greg's voice in his ear. "Careful, Ned. A little jealousy can be good. A lot can shut him down." Ned nodded almost imperceptibly.
Jake's expression though was saying plenty. His jaw was dropped and his eyes were wide, and he kept looking from Ned to the window and back.
"She… she what?" he asked, barely a whisper.
"She discovered your dirty secret and ran away from you," Ned said.
"I never meant for you-" Ned glared at him, raising his chin. "I mean, I never meant for her to find out that way."
"What the hell, Jake?" Hadley said softly, shaking his head. "We trusted you." Jake turned his attention on Hadley. "We trusted you and now you're one of them?"
"Not really. I've never believed anything about them or their cause."
"Then why?" Hadley asked, taking a seat finally next to Ned.
"It's a long story," Jake said with a sigh and a tired expression.
"I'm sure it is," Ned said, a cold edge to his voice no one would trust. "But we have time. Start from the beginning."
"I don't want her to see this. I don't want her to know," Jake said, shaking his head, pleading with his eyes.
"Gently!" Parke said softly. "Walk gently here, Ned."
"She deserves to," Ned said quietly, a little less anger to his voice, trying to follow Greg's guidance but finding it hard.
Jake looked resigned and pained. He looked at the window, then down at the table and his hands. When he looked back up he shifted his eyes from Ned to Hadley and back. "It's almost a relief, actually," he finally said after a long minute. He whisper-chuckled a mirthless laugh. "I don't know where to begin." His eyes shifted around the room as he looked at nothing, then stared straight ahead, unseeing as he began his account.
"It all started two years ago. I'd come across a case file of a tortured man that was part of the data located on a deep web site by an analyst. We were investigating the integrity of the data to take the site owner to court. The crime itself had taken place in France, but the site was hosted out of the U.S. so we were prosecuting.
"The video was in the file. It was the actual torturing of the victim. I was alone in my office when I hit play, and… I was entranced. I was both appalled and mesmerized. I had such a visceral reaction to it. I found myself aroused- incredibly aroused- and when the killer finally took the last slice across the throat…" He shook his head. "I orgasmed so hard that I saw stars."
Ned wanted to stop him. Wanted to keep not only Bishop from hearing the rest of this, but himself as well. He could hear Greg in his ear whispering, "Oh, shit. This is going to get ugly. Don't show any reactions. If he's been awakened to a sadistic personality disorder he'll feed off of your reactions."
Jake continued through it. "I was disgusted with myself, but I couldn't help it. I watched the video over and over again. It became my obsession. I'd watch it daily, multiple times a day. And I felt horrible afterwards. I'd feel ashamed and honestly terrified at how much I… enjoyed watching it." He choked on the word "enjoyed". He cleared his throat and shook his head a little, looking into Ned's eyes.
Ned had a hard time with that. Up until that point he was just listening to Jake talk. Now, with eye contact, it became a conversation. An interaction. He listened to Greg in his ear. "Try to look bored with him. He's not getting a reaction from you. I want to see if boredom causes him to talk more; to push the limits."
Ned sighed, then started picking at a nail as he casually looked up at Jake, then back at the nail.
"I felt too guilty to sleep with Ellie for weeks. Eventually, I gave in, and while we were making love I felt normal again. I told myself I would stop. I deleted my copy of the video, and I focused on Ellie. She was good. She was my salvation. She was light, and innocence, and beauty. And I tried so hard to concentrate on her and forget the video and the things it made me feel."
Ned tried to maintain his bored expression. He picked up the pen in front of him and began lightly tracing the tip across the top of the case folder with the point retracted, not looking at anything in particular before stealing a look at Hadley. He noticed that he wasn't doing so well with the looking bored thing. He looked like every muscle in his face was slack, almost as if he were about to get sick. His dark skin was going ashen, and after the split-second glance Ned focused on Jake, trying to take the bastard's attention away from Hadley.
"Keep going," he said nonchalantly. He wished that he could mind-speak with Greg and tell him how Hadley looked. It was going to become even more uncomfortable in the room if he had to keep interrogating Jake through the smell of vomit.
"About a month later, we were making love when I started having flashes go through my mind of the video. It played through my brain with such clarity, and in the heat of things, I couldn't make it stop. We made love all night, and the entire time I was thinking about that man being sliced, and stabbed, and broken, begging for it to stop. I remembered ever scream and wail and plea, and it fed the intensity.
"The next day I started searching for more videos. I used the data from the case file to track down a list of sites that led to more sites, that eventually lead me to the videos I was seeking. It was a treasure trove. It became part of the thrill that I had snuck my way into a world of people who enjoyed this sickness like me. There were so many videos, and people would comment on them in ways that fed the darkness I'd uncovered inside of me.
"I was on the site more and more. I eventually got brave enough to post a comment of my own. That was a defining moment for me. Before it was just a spectator sport. Now, I was an active participant in this world. And the world welcomed me in. People replied to my comment. They encouraged the darkness, and I knew it was wrong. I knew that this was something completely sick inside of me, but it was powerful, and it made me feel powerful.
"I tried to back away. I'd go a few days, try to lose myself in Ellie and work and whatever else I could. I tried to follow her back to sanity. To a love that was safe and real and beautiful. I teetered back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. I'd spend days away from the sites, and then when I had the chance… I'd binge. If Ellie was out of town for something, I'd take the day off and spend it alone in bed with my laptop and the videos."
Ned prayed that Bishop had been removed from interrogation by now. He couldn't imagine what she must be feeling. He tried not to think about what he'd be feeling if the tables were turned and they found out Elly was caving to a sadistic craving like this.
"I received a message one day, and things changed. It was an invite to a live feed of a torture in progress. I didn't even think twice about clicking it.
"The man torturing the other man on the screen was taking requests from the chatroom associated with the feed. People were telling him what he should do next, and if he liked it, he'd fulfill their requests. I couldn't turn away. This was a whole other level. Before it was like a TV show, a recording that a part of me had felt wasn't real, but this… this was very real. I'd never felt anything like that before. The rush, the exquisite pain being demonstrated, the way the darkness engulfed me and welcomed me. By the end of the feed I'd submitted my own requests and watched them be carried out.
"I started getting all sorts of invites and messages. I found that I preferred watching men be tortured. I'd watch women, but definitely preferred men. But the torturer always had to be male. Somewhere in me the ideal of femininity being pure had to be maintained. The goodness I associated with Ellie couldn't be tainted. I needed her to come back to like a home base. But it wasn't working anymore.
"During a live feed one day, I received a message from a man who said he enjoyed watching my suggestions come to life on the screen, and he asked if I wanted to torture a man with him. To host a live feed of our own. I told him that I couldn't, but after a few weeks, it was all I could think about. It became an obsessive thought. Nothing, and I mean nothing could get me to stop thinking about it, dreaming about it, craving it.
"Even being with Ellie couldn't push away the desires I suddenly had to give in to those evil urges. I had to take this man up on his offer. I caved. He invited me to Los Angeles and we met. I thought it would be a planning session, but after a brief cup of coffee, he took me to a warehouse where everything was already in place. A man was hanging from the ceiling by his wrists, and I felt that darkness consume every single part of me. There was nothing good left.
"We tortured that man live in front of a hundred or more people on our site. I felt power like I've never felt before. That first cut was timid, but after that I had no hesitation. The viewers egged me on. And I loved every minute of it.
"Afterwards, the man I met up with begged me to fuck him under the dripping carcass, and I did and reveled in it. Covered in the stranger's blood- a stranger that I had just helped kill- was intoxicating. Once we took his body down, we took turns violating it further." Jake's expression was no longer pained. Now he was brighter than a sunny day, and it made Ned sick.
Greg's voice came through the earpiece, and Ned was grateful. "Calm down. You look like you're going to kill him."
I am! Ned thought.
"Ellie has left the room," Greg said calmly. "Ziva went with her. Don't tell him. I know this is really weird, but can you shift your legs to the left? I'm trying to see if I can tell if he's aroused."
Ned tried not to react to the embarrassing request and tried to focus on Jake as he turned in his chair, crossing his legs to the left of him as he reattempted to look bored.
Jake's dialogue had continued. "Later that week I received a proposition. I was sent a message from a man with the screenname DevilsKiss999. He told me he had the ability to put me in a position where I'd be a part of an organization that would pay me to torture and kill people, and that I'd be able to hide within the organization, blaming the murders on it as a whole. I was intrigued. I'd had my first fix and I wanted more. Needed more.
"They offered me a sample. A trial run. I went to New York, though I told Ellie that I was going back to L.A. for work. When I got there, I was offered an assortment of delicacies. A buffet really. There were four people, all mine to kill, and all I had to do as part of it was brand each one with a local gang's signet. That way the gang took the fall. Make it look like it was gang-related activity and no one would suspect anything else.
"I spent the next four days taking my time with them. Each one was different, and each one had something to offer. Three men, one woman. Different ages, different races. Their reactions were spectacular. And branding each one of them made me feel like I was marking each of them as mine. Like I was signing my work. It was exhilarating.
"The next week I was contacted again. I was ready. They asked me if I had enjoyed myself and if I wanted more. I could barely keep myself from begging for more. Begging to be given another feast like that. I thought I'd get to keep blaming the gang, and I was ready to do that. But I was told that the gang was just a test.
"I was told I'd be running an up and coming homegrown terrorist organization made up of these young adults. All I had to do was become a guiding hand for their leader and feed them information that could help keep them from being discovered. The group called themselves The Children of the Prophet. I had second-guesses about that. I was told that some of these so-called terrorists were children, and children were off limits to me. They were back in the world of good things with Ellie, and I no longer belonged in that world.
"They threatened me. They said that if I didn't succumb to their orders they would send the link of the videos of the four I'd tortured and violated to Ellie and I couldn't let them do that. They told me I'd be rewarded for my compliance. I'd have the chance to practice my dark love, and they'd pay me. I couldn't say no.
"So, I became an expert as quickly as possible on running a jihad. I didn't have to be too convincing. I was working with kids that didn't feel like they fit in anywhere and had just happened to have been convinced by someone that this was the cause they should put their time towards. I fed that belief, and soon that was intoxicating as well. I'd travel every month, always telling Ellie it was to Los Angeles, though it never was. I'd get to host live feed tortures and murders, and someone else would always take the fall. I didn't know who set them up, and I didn't care. I got my fix, and my new secret bank account was racking up. It was perfect."
"Then I was given a protégé. He was only 20 years old, and just as dark as me. He only went by X. Seemed a little childish at first, but I got used to it. We began torturing people together, and then we'd fuck like rabbits in the blood of our victims. He helped me organize The Children, and it was his idea to start carving the signature into the victims we'd talk these kids into killing. We had our own sick fantasy of turning each one of them into us. Most of them were actually in their late teens or early twenties, but they were so lost and angry that they seemed much younger, and there was suddenly something about that that seemed so much more delicious.
"We were given small assignments to carry out to prepare for the upcoming larger mission, something my handler referred to as the Bright Jihad. I found the name ironic. So, did X. His hero worship fed me as much as the rest of the darkness, and he became my pet. He started going out to Los Angeles to work with new recruits out there for an upcoming organization called "Only". It was easier for him to travel without excuses needing to be made, and it worked out. We'd still meet up now and then to torture whoever we'd find waiting for us, and meanwhile the assignments continued.
"A few months ago I received a message from my handler saying that they needed me to use my contacts at the NSA to track down some information for them. There was a group of women that were taken from an Iraqi school to be trained as spies. These women were meant to come to the States to be trained as some kind of elite taskforce within Iraqi intelligence. I was told to find them.
"I was taken aback. They'd never once alluded to my work, and I'd never once mentioned where I worked. Not even to X. But the threats came that Ellie would get the videos of all of the murders if I didn't cooperate. I thought about just coming clean, but then I realized X was on the videos with me now, and I couldn't take him down with me. So, I started digging.
"I'd gotten as far as the CIA when I was led back to this guy named Devon that I'd seen around the office. He liked to hang out with Hadley here. I was reporting this back to my handler, as they required an update every day as to what I'd done to attempt to move forward with finding the information. I was given the directive to take X with me, capture Devon, and get the information out of him that we needed."
Their earpieces buzzed, and Greg directed Hadley to play it cool. Ned struggled not to look at the older man next to him, but he could imagine what the expression he wore would look like at hearing that his friend was going to be captured and murdered.
"We'd never had to capture our own prey before, but it was a great new dynamic. We got him coming out of his car. We drove up next to him, and I told him that Hadley had sent me to give him a message, and he climbed in. X drove while I jabbed Devon with a needle of tranquilizer.
"I'd dreamed of this for so long. I had a dream place that I'd wanted to torture someone up in Baltimore. It was an old substation I'd seen next to some abandoned train tracks a year before that had stuck with me. I'd taken a drive up there the day before and prepared. We couldn't hang him from the ceiling, but that was okay. We tied him to a counter, eventually nailing his feet and hands down when he was alert enough to feel the extent of the pain."
Greg sighed. "This sick fuck is getting off on all of the details, but he's telling us everything we need to know. I'm sorry guys, but keep going. He's going to fry for this."
"He held up for a long time. He was our biggest challenge yet. Let's just say that he wasn't a stranger to pain, and we had to walk the fine line between extreme pain and killing him so that we could get the required information. It took cutting off his legs, but eventually he told us about a man named Jessup Carmichael in the Bronx. He'd impregnated one of the women at the school while deployed, and he'd been trying to get her location from his friend in the Marines that knew where the women were going. A man named Raphael Davis who lived in Norfolk.
"What surprised me the most was that our very own Mark Piper was working with them. Of all people." Jake shook his head and sat back, making eye contact with Ned for a moment then Hadley, turning his attentions to the older man and his former coworker. "Mark was a part time CIA agent. And you were trying to get my wife into that fucked up game as well. My Ellie."
"Ned! Don't!" Greg almost barked as Ned started to break his cool composure suddenly and Ned caught himself, turning to cross his legs in the other direction to cover his sudden movements. "It's okay Hadley, you can do this. Don't give him the reaction. He's poking you. Don't let him see it's affecting you. We need him to keep talking. We're almost there."
"I knew it would hurt Ellie if he died, and for the first time ever, the idea of Ellie being in some kind of pain turned me on. Before last week she had been off limits. When I had Mark in front of me though, that knife in my hand, every slice I put into his body made me think of Ellie. She was no longer safe."
"Shit," Greg said. "We need to get him back on Mark and Davis, not on Ellie."
"So, you tortured Mark to get to Ellie?" Ned asked casually. "Did you get the information you were looking for?"
"Eventually, but we had to get creative. He wasn't going to give it up if we just tortured him. We took turns torturing him, Jessup and Raphael for a week. X was getting off on breaking the bones of Raphael. It was his thing, and to be able to do it to such a tough guy had him ecstatic." Jake smiled and shook his head as if endeared by the memory. "We were instructed to cut off the feet of one of them to send as a gift, and X was getting a little too excited about it. Jessup was still alive when we did it, and he screamed for us. Oh, he screamed. When one of the kids that came along after kidnapping them came running up, screaming at us to stop, X put a bullet in his head."
"How'd you feel about that?" Ned asked under Greg's direction since Jake had stopped talking.
Jake shrugged. "It was fine. I would've preferred to take my time with him, but it was done to send a message to the rest of the group members that interfering wouldn't be tolerated, and it got the desired effect."
Ned shrugged casually and blinked once. "How'd you finally get them to talk?"
Jake smiled a sinister smile, then explained in great detail about how he'd sliced up Carmichael as emotional torture for Mark and Davis before they cut off his feet.
"He's devolved completely. He's gone from a voyeur sadist to an emotional sadist who is probably right now fantasizing about killing his wife after emotionally torturing her. This needs to end." Greg put his hand on his stomach as he tried to cope with the nausea he had been feeling for a while now.
Ned was grateful to hear that it was time to wrap this up. "So, Carmichael didn't know where they were, but Mark finally gave them up?"
"Raphael gave up the location that they were sent, and Mark told us what the plans were that he was supposed to exchange with Milaj Hahmar about where they were going to go. We relayed this information back to our handler, and they sent X to California to start heavy recruiting efforts with Only, while I was supposed to prepare The Children."
"For what?" Ned asked.
"The Bright Jihad is beginning apparently."
"What does that mean?" Hadley asked, a sharp edge to his voice.
"Calm down," Greg instructed through the headpiece.
"I have no idea, and I don't really care. All I know is that I was supposed to go out to Los Angeles to meet up with X and we were going to get to torture a man named George Craft. He is an arms dealer that has a shipment of something hidden that my handler's people want, and we were going to find out where it was. X was supposed to get the punks from Only to help him kidnap him before I got there."
"Then why aren't you there?" Ned asked.
"Apparently one of their kids killed an FBI agent. I found out while I was in the airport in Chicago, and caught a plane home instead. I knew we were coming to the end of our run, and I had one more thing to do before we were all caught."
"Which was?" Ned asked.
"Doesn't matter. I didn't get to do it. A dream that will die. You caught me first."
Ned thought back to his list of questions in his pocket and tried to remember which ones weren't explicitly answered. "Where did you torture Mark, Davis, and Carmichael?" he asked.
"A company warehouse building. Henderson's."
"And did you and this X kill everyone you tortured?"
"Definitely," Jake replied with a wicked smirk.
"What's the name of the kid that shot the FBI agent?" Ned took out his notebook to write it down.
"Maxx, but you don't have to worry about him. He's dead. I watched the feed a few hours before your people busted down my door."
"Who killed him?"
"X trained a new recruit in our techniques. I'm so proud of him."
"And DevilsKiss999 is your handler?" Ned asked, ignoring the attempt to elicit some kind of emotion from him.
"He was who arranged things for me originally. Once I was picked up by the jihadists, which I later discovered with part of a branch of ISIS, I started getting orders from a man at a phone number. I was never given his name."
"Where did the feet get sent?"
Jake shook his head. "I won't tell you that. It was X's responsibility to deliver them, and I promised him I would keep him safe."
"Does X really mean that much to you that you'd take the entire fall all by yourself?" Ned asked.
"I figured that if we weren't caught, I'd eventually let X torture me as a penance for my final kill."
"Which was going to be Ellie," Ned said, his voice cold as he put the pieces together.
Jake didn't answer the question, just smiled that sickening smirk. "I'm done talking now."
Ned handed him the pen and opened the folder. He pulled out the report he'd need Jake to write his confession on, and then handed him a blank sheet of paper.
"Good. Then write down all of the names you can remember from The Children of the Prophet's little gang, beginning with the ones involved directly with the murders of Davis, Piper and Carmichael, and where we can find them. And I don't want to hear another word out of you."
[BYPASS NOTES]
Jake unlocked a sadistic personality disorder after reviewing the film for a case that showed a man torturing someone. He became a part of an underground digital world on the dark web of people who tortured and killed people and shared the videos. He eventually was invited to torture people with the promise of getting away by hiding as a part of an organization, then was told he'd be running The Children of the Prophet. He was both blackmailed and compensated in the form of cash and people to torture.
He was given a protégé to train in his dark addiction, and they were in a sexual relationship. This young man went by X. Together they tortured and killed many people. They were given the assignment to locate the women that had been a part of the school in Iraq, that were intended to be trained as spies for the Iraqi Intelligence Agency.
They began by capturing Devon, Hadley's CIA friend, who they tortured to the point they dismembered him. Devon gave up Carmichael and told them that the Marine had impregnated one of the women and he'd been trying to get Davis to give him the location so he could bring her and their baby home.
They used the Children to capture Carmichael, Davis, and Mark, and then tortured them to find out where the women were and what the plans were. Jake devolved completely to the point that he was excited to use emotional torture on them, taking turns for a week to torture each of them as a way to elicit information from the others. He started fantasizing about how Ellie would feel watching Mark get sliced up, and he realized he wanted to torture and kill Ellie.
They eventually got the information they needed by cutting off Carmichael's feet, though he wouldn't give up the location they were being sent because X was responsible for it, and his allegiance lies with X. He eventually says that he was going to let X kill him as a penance for his final kill, which Ned states was going to be Ellie, but Jake refused to confirm.