I HAVE FAITH pt. 1
It was mid October and the air in DC was starting to get nippy. Ziva loved this time of year, the weather in Washington was so different from what she'd grown up with. Of course it also meant that she actually had an excuse to wear jackets so she could conceal more weaponry, and that was always a good thing. She got off the elevator and froze as she heard a menacing voice say, "Seeing as how this is a Forty Four Magnum, the most powerful handgun in the world and could blow your head clean off, you gotta ask yourself one question; do I feel lucky? Well, do ya, punk?" She eased around to where she could see and there was Harris, looming over a cowering DiNozzo, but there was no gun; now Ziva was thoroughly confused.
Then she heard Tim chime in from the side, "Not bad Xander, and now that I see it, I do think Dirty Harry should have had an eye patch. It does make the whole scene more intense."
She rolled her eyes, movies again. It seemed to be the one topic that you couldn't shut either man up about. DiNozzo favored the classics while Harris tended toward the more offbeat, even drifting into Bollywood on occasion. She straightened up and walked towards her desk.
"So what do you think Ziva, was I more menacing than the original?"
"I do not know," she replied. "I have never seen the original."
"What, a cop who's never seen 'Dirty Harry', that's inconceivable."
She turned to reply but DiNozzo cut in, "You keep using that word, I do not think it means what you think it means." For some reason he was speaking in a strange accent.
To which Harris replied, "Hello, my name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father, prepare to die." Then without missing a beat he turned back to her, "How could you have lived your whole life without ever having seen 'Dirty Harry'?"
Once again, Ziva was surprised at how Harris could banter to one side with DiNozzo or McGee without losing his place in another conversation. "I never watched movies growing up, and now I have better things to do with my time."
Xander recoiled in seeming horror. "Better things to do with your time than watch movies," he gasped out. Then suddenly his right hand blurred and before she knew what was going on Harris was brandishing an elaborate cross in her face and intoning in a fake bass voice, "Renounce heretic or be damned. Recant your heresy and embrace the brilliance that is the cinematographer's art."
Ziva rolled her eyes at Xander's antics while McGee and DiNozzo were fighting hard to hold back their laughter. For his part, Xander just brandished the cross a couple more times and then stood up straight. "It's not working," he said in an almost conversational tone. He gave the cross a shake and smacked it a couple of times with his hand, "I wonder if I got a dud," he muttered. It was then that Tim lost his battle and doubled over laughing, Tony was still quiet although his face was dangerously contorted. Even Ziva was fighting to keep her face straight; she had a reputation to maintain after all.
Xander was standing there, looking at the cross when his face lit up and he gave an, "Aha," of triumph. He put the cross back in his pocket and intoned, "Now we shall banish the demon of non-moviewatcherdom"; and whipped out an incredibly tacky Star of David. It was then that Tony lost it and joined McGee in whooping gales of laughter. Ziva was dangerously on the brink of losing it herself. Partially from Xander's antics but mostly from having to view what must have been the tackiest religious symbol she'd ever seen, the thing seemed to be made entirely of Rhinestones.
"What is going on here," Gibbs asked from behind Harris.
"I'm trying to exorcise the demon of boredom that has possessed Ziva, Boss," he replied without taking his eye off of his female colleague. "I can feel it weakening," he continued. "She's almost ready to actually smile, maybe even laugh."
Gibbs was about to reply when his phone rang. As he went to answer it the others straightened up with remarkable speed and moved to get what they would need on the job. After all, when Gibbs' phone rang, it almost always meant work. They watched as he listened for a minute and then hung up the phone. He stood and without saying a word, started heading for the elevator. The others fell in behind him.
"What have we got, Boss," DiNozzo asked.
"A guy in dress blues trying to rob a bank. They're not sure if he's really navy or not so we're just there to observe for now." The door opened and they filed on. Gibbs pushed the button for the garage level and said, "Xander."
"Yeah Gibbs."
"Don't shoot anyone unless I tell you to."
"No guarantees Boss," Xander replied with a grin.
BTVS-NCIS-BTVS-NCIS
When the team got to a fairly large branch of the Commerce National Bank, the local LEO's had established a tight perimeter. The arrival of the NCIS team was not met with joy.
"You want to take over now that we've done all the work," one of the cops asked.
"We're just here to observe, Lieutenant," Gibbs replied with a pleasant; for him, growl.
"Do you all have any pictures of the suspect," McGee asked, opening his laptop. The Lieutenant, whose name was Ingram, pointed to a police tech van and McGee headed towards it.
"DiNozzo, go with him," Gibbs said. "Xander, Ziva, go keep an eye on the front line."
"And you Boss," Tony asked.
"I'll be here," he replied as everyone moved to their assigned locations.
BTVS-NCIS-BTVS-NCIS
"So what do you think," Xander asked.
"It does not make sense," Ziva replied. "From what little we know, this man walked in alone and pulled a gun without any backup that we know of, with no exit strategy and in his dress blues; something that is bound to attract attention."
"A diversion perhaps," Xander said.
"For whom," Ziva wanted to know.
"Us," Xander replied, having an epiphany. "If you wanted a distraction, then just having the guy rob the bank would do it. But having it done in dress blues would insure that we would respond. Meaning that someone needs us out of NCIS; now whether that is to make us more vulnerable or to re-acquire something that we have, I can't say."
"That is assuming that this is not just some desperate cry for attention or just someone who wishes to die and cannot pull the trigger himself."
"Yeah, true enough," Xander conceded. "But there are easier ways to accomplish that. I just can't shake the feeling that this is just to draw us out for some reason."
Ziva looked at him for a minute. Her eyes were unblinking, almost as if she were trying to peer into his soul. Finally she nodded and triggered her radio, "Gibbs."
"Ziva."
"Xander has the feeling that this may be some sort of elaborate set up to get us away from our base," she paused. "I believe that he is correct. There are too many things about this situation that just don't add up."
"I was thinking something along those lines myself," Gibbs replied. "What do you all suggest?"
"Lock headquarters down now," Xander cut in; "and send me and McGee back to check everything."
"Why you two," Tony wanted to know.
"Because if there's something physical going down, then I can handle that and if it's something electronic, then Tim's the man."
"Agreed," Gibbs cut in before DiNozzo could protest. "Ziva, you stay near the front of the bank, DiNozzo, you cover the back and I'll be back up. McGee, you and Xander get out of here."
"On it Boss, Understood and two other acknowledgements went out over the radio. Then Tim cut in, "Boss."
"Yeah McGee."
"We know this guy. He's Lieutenant Bryce Armstrong."
"From when I was on the Seahawk," DiNozzo exclaimed.
"That's the guy," Tim agreed.
"Send me what you've got McGee and then get the heck back to the office."
"Right Boss," McGee replied.
BTVS-NCIS-BTVS-NCIS
Ziva found herself surprised at her colleague yet again. He was a tireless worker when it came to learning the different fighting styles that she was teaching him. At times, Harris was picking up some of the nuances of a particular form with almost unbelievable speed. When she had asked him about it, he'd simply replied that he'd seen it done before; he'd just had no idea how to get his body to do it. And now, when presented with a field situation, he'd looked beyond the obvious and examined things from angles that frankly hadn't occurred to her. His actions spoke of a very sharp intellect, which was very difficult to reconcile with the buffoon that had been waving a cross in her face earlier. Ziva grumped; he'd even had the nerve to call her boring. She straightened up and started walking towards the perimeter with a pert look on her face, she was not boring, she merely preferred less juvenile pastimes.
Her eyes narrowed as she considered the bank and the surrounding buildings. She wondered how easy it would be to ghost into the building and end things without anyone getting hurt.
Gibbs watched Harris and McGee head for the car. He'd underestimated the one yed man again and Gibbs got the feeling that that wasn't a mistake he wanted to make very often.
BTVS-NCIS-BTVS-NCIS
At first Xander thought that his 'Spidey Sense' had sent them on a wild goose chase and Vance's obvious skepticism hadn't helped. But when he was searching one of the storage lockers near the garage, he noticed something. It wasn't much, just a door fitting a bit loose in its jamb, but it set off Xander's sense that something was out of whack. "Tim, focus on the security around the garage, I've got a door here that looks like it was forced somehow."
"On it Xander, Tim replied. "What's the room number?"
"G-37," Xander replied. "I'm going in now."
"Be careful," Tim called out. As soon as he heard a muttered 'clear' over the radio he started talking again. "I've pulled up the inventory of that room, let's see what they took." Xander called out what he found and Tim checked it off, in the end, everything was there and the two were back to being confused. "How is that possible," McGee asked. "Why break in somewhere and then not take anything?"
"Maybe they needed some of the data from the computers and not the computers themselves. Or . . . ." Xander trailed off.
"Or what?"
"The purloined letter," Xander answered.
"What does that mean," McGee asked.
"It's a story by Edgar Allen Poe where they hid the letter with other letters, hiding in plain sight as it were. If you see someone walking into a room empty handed and then walking out with a laptop, you're gonna notice. But if someone walks into a room with a laptop and leaves with a laptop then you don't think anything of it."
"And who's to say that they're the same laptops," McGee concluded.
"Exactly. We need to check the security for someone walking in here with a laptop. Eliminate the ones you can and that's our pool of suspects. By the way Tim, what's in this locker anyway?"
"Most of its from when Tony was the agent afloat on the Seahawk."
"The same Seahawk that our Lieutenant served on?"
"That's the one."
"Now isn't that a coincidence," Xander mused looking around. "Meanwhile we need to clear this thing out, look for evidence and see if we can figure out what was messed with."
"That'll take a while," McGee replied.
"You got anything better to do," Xander asked.
It didn't take as long as the pair thought that it would. Especially once they shanghaied Abby and Jimmy Palmer to help out. Abby dusted everywhere for prints and Jimmy just lugged stuff around. By the time they were done, the rest of the team had returned with Lieutenant Armstrong in custody. Apparently Ziva managed to sneak into the building and get the drop on the guy where she had tased him into submission. Xander wished he could have been there. They were gathered in the bullpen while Armstrong was doing a good imitation of a clam in the interrogation room.
"What have we got," Gibbs asked.
"Lieutenant Bryce Armstrong," Tony started. "We ran into him five years ago when he was on the Seahawk. He was transferred from the Seahawk to the Pentagon three years ago where he works as a logistical specialist in the Operations section. He's seemingly well liked, doesn't have any black marks on his sheet and is slated to make Captain in the next year. He's married and has a daughter who's four.
"He didn't say much in the bank," Ziva took up the narrative when Tony finished. "Apparently he simply walked in, pulled a gun and announced that he was robbing the bank. Despite that announcement, he made no move for either the money drawers or the vault; he fired no shots and made no demands of the police negotiators. When I observed him, he seemed to just be pacing and looking at his watch."
"That fits the scenario that we've come up with," Tim cut in.
"You mean your 'Diversion' scenario," Gibbs asked.
"Yeah boss," Tim responded. "I was checking the security feeds and we had some failures with our security cameras and I've found evidence that at least one loop was played on the live feeds."
"Loop," Ziva asked, confused by the terminology.
"Like in the movies Ziva," Tony replied. "The robber takes a video of an empty hallway and then breaks into the security feed and plays it back on a loop so that all the monitor shows is an empty hallway while they can walk around without being seen."
"Which works great in the movies, but in reality it leaves traces that we can find," Tim cut in again. I've got some diagnostic stuff running right now to try and pinpoint where whoever it was compromised the security systems and how they did it. Once we get an idea of their methods, it tells us where they got their training and gives us a better idea of who to look at."
"While Tim was looking at the electronic side, I did a little walkabout," Xander started with his part of the story. "One of the storage lockers had been tampered with and so we did an inventory. Surprisingly everything that was supposed to be there was there, even though it had been forced open. We cleaned it out and are going to go over it more thoroughly because I believe that whoever broke in replaced whatever they took with a lookalike. What makes this really interesting is that the locker held items that were taken as evidence from the Seahawk incident." Everyone's eyes went up with that little nugget. "Abby dusted the whole place in hopes that someone was either stupid or arrogant enough to not wear gloves. She's also looking for trace evidence in the hallway that was shown in the security loop. We figured they had to have come in that way because of the loop thingy."
"Thingy," Ziva asked.
"It's an industry term." Xander replied flippantly. Then he looked at Gibbs, "One thing I don't understand."
"Yeah?"
"The Seahawk incident was five years ago, why were you all still holding evidence from it."
"Standard procedure there probie," Tony replied. "Personal items are returned after the situation is resolved, but items like computers that ultimately belong to Uncle Sam are kept for seven years and then refurbished and reissued."
"So if you take someone's computer, do you reload their files on a new one or are they expected to do that themselves?"
"They do that themselves," Gibbs replied. "There are some pretty strict regulations about unauthorized uses of Government property."
"Even things like family photos and that kind of thing?"
"There's a bit of leeway built due to the superior's discretion, put personal touches like that are discouraged."
"So if someone had something unauthorized on his computer and you all took it, they'd be in trouble if you searched the thing and found whatever it was?"
"Probably, what are you getting at?"
"Well, I'm just wondering about the timing. I mean it's been five years, why break in now. The case is closed and if something was gonna come out; it already would have done so. And if you were worried about unauthorized things on your machine, it would all be blanked out when the thing was reformatted. So why go to all this trouble, staging robbery just to get us away from the building and then the Mission Impossible style ops just to take care of something that either wasn't a problem or wouldn't be in two years?"
Gibbs stood there for a second, thinking about what Xander had asked, the silence got a little awkward but then he turned to Tim. "McGee, you go through every computer that was in here and see if anything was done to them recently so we can narrow down whose machine was taken or tampered with, get Abby to help if she's got the time." Then he turned to Ziva, "Take Xander with you and go talk to the wife, she might be able to shed a little light on the whole thing."
"What about me boss," Tony asked.
"You get to help me play 'bad cop, worse cop' and see if we can get the Lieutenant to open up."
"I love that game," Tony said.
"I'm driving," Ziva called out.
"You sure, you could ride on the bike behind me, I've got an extra helmet."
"It's raining," Ziva pointed out.
"So what's your point," Xander asked with a grin.
Ziva just rolled her eyes and wondered about the flexible maturity of her new team-mate as she dangled a set of keys and walked out of the room. With a grin, Xander followed her.