Ah, Italia pt 10

A/N: Sorry for the delay in posting this. The file with the plot outline I had painstakingly detailed crashed on me Friday. So, I had to rebuild it from scratch. The good news is I thought up a few new chapters to expand the storyline.

NCIS Squad room

Naples, Italy

0700 local

Tony walked into the squad room and tossed the heavy plastic bag onto his desk. The contents of the bag banged loudly as they impacted the desk. Tony sat down in his chair and immediately noticed a cup of coffee and a bag from a nearby bakery that the team swore by. He opened the bag, a little timidly, and stopped and closed his eyes as the scent of a freshed baked cream-filled cornetto wafted from the bag. He took the pastry out of the bag and took a bite. Pure heaven. He took a sip from the coffee to wash it down. Ah. Not coffee. Cappuccino. He resolved then that he was never leaving Italy. Not if breakfast was like this every morning. He smiled as he caught movement out of the corner of his eye. "Buon giorno," he said, saluting Lisa Meier (aka Ziva David) with the cappuccino as she approached him.

"Buon giorno," she replied. Tony felt his heart beat a little faster when she sat down on the corner of his desk. She was dressed in a slick business suit and fashionable pumps. Her hair was pulled back into its usual ponytail and her makeup tastefully applied. Tony recognized her outfit immediately. He had bought it for her after losing a bet. It had cost him a pretty penny but seeing her in it made it all worthwhile.

"Does everyone always come in this late?" Lisa asked.

"It's 0700," he replied.

"At Mossad, we start at 0500," Lisa stated a touch arrogantly. The twinkle in her eyes was unmistakable. "My orders, Special Agent DiNozzo," she said as she handed him the folder with her orders.

"Special Agent In Charge," Tony corrected her. He smiled slightly as she nodded her head in apology. Tony skimmed over her orders and filed them in desk drawer. He took another sip at his cappuccino, studying her carefully. He had so many questions for her. So much to say. He idly wondered if he could somehow talk her into marrying him while she was here. It would have to be a civil wedding, he figured. The Orthodox branch of her religion did not allow interfaith marriages. That shouldn't be too hard, should it?

Her priority, though, was to stop the smuggling ring. Once that was done, he knew she would be ordered to another hot spot. He wondered what he could do to get her to be ordered here permanently."Welcome aboard, Officer Meier," he said

"Toda," she said. "The Director has agreed to modify my orders. I am to resume my duties as a Liaison Officer to NCIS effectively immediately."

"What kind of restrictions did Director David place on you?" Tony inquired.

"The safe house is off-limits to all members of your team. It is a valuable asset and the Director does not want it compromised. I am allowed to share whatever intel we have, or do, gather during the course of this investigation. If my people find out who is behind this operation, we are to contact you directly and coordinate a strike on them."

"You're not going to take direct action? That sounds a little out-of-character for Mossad," Tony noted.

Lisa shook her head. "It was not easy getting him to agree to these terms." Tony's eyebrows shot up in surprise. The Director was not the kind of person who gave up easily once his mind was set. "Since Marines do appear to be involved, he has agreed to a joint task force, as it were, to deal with this threat. Mossad and NCIS's relations are strained enough without our eliminating Americans."

Lisa stood up as Kate, Vince and Jamie walked into the squad area together. "Shalom," she greeted them. Lisa noted that Kate averted her eyes when she walked by. Vince nodded politely before walking over to his desk.

"Hey, Tony, what's going on?" Jamie asked, standing in front of Tony's desk. He looked warily at Lisa. "Mossad find something?"

Tony took a sip from his coffee before standing up. "All right, everyone. Field Officer Meier," he started, gesturing towards her, "will be joining us as a Liaison Officer until we stop this arms smuggling ring. Her primary responsibility will to coordinate our efforts with her own teams."

Lisa reached into her jacket pocket and handed Tony a flash drive. "Here is all the information we have come up with so far. Some of it you doubtless already have."

Tony accepted the flash disk and then handed it to Jamie. "Copy this to our system, Jamie," Tony instructed. "In the spirit of international cooperation, put all our info on a disk. Maybe they'll spot something we've missed."

"Boss," Jamie said. "I don't think this is such a good idea." He hesitated when he saw Kate give him a sharp look. "We've worked with Mossad a couple of times before. Those guys make up the rules as they go and don't bother to follow them."

"Jamie," Kate said in a cautioning tone.

"Come on, Kate," Jamie protested.

"That's enough, you two," Tony said, stopping any further arguments. "Your opinion is noted, Jamie. However, this is a matter of national security for both the U.S. and Israel. Mossad has already shown their willingness to cooperate in this. NCIS is going to do the same. Is that understood?"

Jamie flushed, embarrassed at being taken to task in front of the others by his new boss. "Yes, sir."

"Good. Now, get started on copying those files," Tony ordered. "Theirs and ours."

"Yes, sir," Jamie said, sullenly. He walked back to his desk and began copying the files from the flash drive. He occasionally looked suspiciously over at Lisa but said nothing.

"All right, let's move on," Tony said. "Officer Meier, tell us what you know about the smuggling ring, please."

"Well, what I can tell you," Lisa said, with an apologetic shrug, "is that six months ago, shipments of U.S.-made weapons and ammunition began appearing in Hamas weapons caches. At first, we thought they were weapons lost in Iraq or Afghanistan but when we ran the serial numbers on some of the weapons, they were traced back here to the Marine Corps depot in Naples. Director David assembled a team with myself as its lead to investigate and stop the flow of weapons. We have, unfortunately, been unable to determine who is responsible. Our efforts to gather intel have been stymied."

"How did Sergeant Goldman fit into this?" asked Jamie.

"He was our 'inside' man, as it were. His job was to keep an eye out for any suspicious activity," Lisa informed them. "He was not to take action of any kind. Just let his controller know of anything he found."

"So what got him killed?" asked Kate.

"That, I do not know," Lisa admitted. "Mossad owes it to him to avenge him." She caught Tony's curious expression at her comment.

"Why did he do it?" asked Jamie. "How did you get him to turn on his country?"

"He wasn't betraying his country, in the strictest sense," Lisa said, shaking her head. "The sergeant has family in Israel. Some of his cousins were killed or badly injured in last years rocket attacks. We were able to use his anger to convince him to help us. I want it understood that he in no way compromised base security while he was working for us."

"So you say," Jamie said.

"Jamie," Tony said in a cautioning tone. "That's enough. The sergeant's just another victim in this case."

Jamie grumbled and continued his work. A moment later, he removed the flash drive from his computer and handed it back to Lisa. "Ok," he said, "Here's all the reports and notes we have so far."

"Toda," Lisa said, placing the drive back in her pocket."

Tony shook his head. "I'm impressed Director David agreed to share intel with us. That couldn't have been an easy sell, Lisa."

"It was not," Lisa agreed, giving Tony a stern look. He shrugged but said nothing else. "Dealing with this smuggling ring is of greater importance. Too many of my fellow Israelis are being killed by these weapons. I will do what I must to stop that."

"All right," Tony said. "Vince, I want you to go back to the depot and interview the Sergeant's co-workers. Build a timeline of his activities for the last 72 hours. Check his email, phone logs, the works. Kate, keep working the Hutchens/Daniels angle. Jamie, assist Kate in her investigation. Do deep background checks on both of them, their friends and family. Officer Meier, you and I will go over all the notes and see what else we can find."

Lisa smiled as Tony gave everyone their instructions. He was shaping up into a team leader that Gibbs would be proud of. Her attention turned back to Tony as his cellphone started ringing.

"Ok. Kate, Officer Meier, with me. That was Doc. He's got the autopsy results. Let's go."