Thanks to Kristen, and to all my reviewers.

Chapter 10: The Hired Gun

Lily squashed the urge to pace up and down in Observation. It was one of those annoying habits that she and her sister were trying to break. She knew why she did it, to burn off the energy she would otherwise use to murder whoever had infuriated her this time.

It had taken six hours the previous night, and an awful amount of threats, to get the name of the idiot responsible for blowing her up. She hadn't had the opportunity to keelhaul him yet, and she was waiting for the moment that her sister would come back to work. Only a few more hours…

In some respects, she was glad that LJ was dealing with the kidnapping. For one, she trusted him to get to the bottom of it. Moreover, it also kept him from focusing on the bombing. And away from her growing knowledge of it.

LJ was one of the few people who had ever been able to work out what she was up to. Jenny could hazard a few semi-accurate guesses, Charlie was beginning to understand how her mind worked, and LJ had discovered just how devious she could be. She dreaded to think what would happen if they all got together and tried to figure out one of her games, although she doubted they would get very far.

She almost cheered when LJ finally stormed into Interrogation. How long did it take to look at a file? She knew he liked to catch suspects off guard, but she had lost her patience since the bombing.

"You're in a lot of trouble, Jason," Gibbs warned, slamming a stack of files onto the table.

The man remained silent.

"I've got a visual identification of you by the boy you kidnapped."

The man remained silent.

"You've got five million dollars in your account that shouldn't be there."

The man remained silent.

"Who hired you?"

The man remained silent.

Gibbs stood up and knocked on the glass. "DiNozzo," he called. "Get in here and arrest Mr. Fredricks on terrorism charges."

"You can't do that!" the man protested.

"The money came from a terrorist organization," Gibbs lied. In reality, Abby and McGee were still trying to trace the money.

"Hey, I didn't know who hired me," Jason argued.

Gibbs sat back down again. "Convince me."

Jason sighed. "I was offered ten million dollars to pick up this kid, half in advance."

"Who hired you?"

"I don't know! I was told to take the kid to Australia; I was given a fake passport."

"You were given a fake passport but you don't know who hired you?"

"I found it pushed under my door one morning. I swear I don't know who hired me!"

Gibbs stared at him.

"I'll take a lie detector test! I don't know who hired me."

Lily stalked out of Observation. She was around the corner before Gibbs got up and left.

Ducky had switched the music in the lab to an old country and western radio station. He had also insisted on being in control of the volume. He did not want to have to deal with the consequences when Abigail's hearing started to go.

He had come up to visit about twenty minutes previously, and decided to stay. Abigail and McGee were frantically trying to trace some money, and they were hitting a lot of dead ends. He had stayed to attempt to raise their spirits, which were sinking faster than the Titanic.

He was very fond of the Goth. She was one of the few people that loved to hear his stories. He could also discuss much of his work with her; something that most people did not want to hear about. She enjoyed asking him questions about what he had found, and answering his own. He thought that they had a very symbiotic relationship; they both fed off the other.

Timothy was a very charming gentleman, he had discovered. He had not been surprised to learn that the younger man wrote in his spare time, although being published was another matter. He was counting down the days until the sequel was on sale; he was startlingly eager to read Rock Hollow. He suspected that Tommy and Lisa did not know when the book was due out, and he did not intend to inform them.

The relative calm was shattered by the whirlwind of impatience that was Leroy Jethro Gibbs.

"Abs! Need to know where that money came from," he demanded, setting the obligatory Caf-Pow in front of her.

She ignored it. "No time. Got to trace the money," she muttered, concentrating furiously on her task.

"You've had two hours," Gibbs pointed out.

"We might need two years," warned McGee.

Gibbs' glare was muted by the back of the younger man's head.

"Seriously, bossman. It came from a Swiss account. They won't tell us who owns the account." Abby slammed her hands down on the table. "Argh! I give up."

"McGee, get into it," Gibbs ordered.

"Not going to happen, boss," McGee told him. "Security protocol is top of the range, firewall can withstand anything we might try."

"In English."

"It's… practically impossible."

"Find a way," Gibbs commanded. "Abs, embassy bombing. How's it going?"

She jumped in surprise. "I completely forgot! I was so busy helping McGee that I forgot to check the security footage."

"Check it." He walked out.

Ducky watched as the Goth skipped over to the pile of video tapes she needed to watch.

"Old school," McGee noted, taking his eyes from the screen for a moment.

"Really old school," she agreed. "Ducky! How is Jasper? I forgot to ask when you came in."

He smiled warmly. "Master Thompson is fine, if a little shaken by recent events. I am positive that he will make a full recovery."

"He's so sweet," Abby grinned. "He asked me if I had a little sister, nearer to his age."

"I'm sure he wouldn't mind if you stayed in touch with him," Ducky encouraged.

"I'm going to buy him some flowers," she decided. "After I've watched these tapes."

Gibbs was enjoying the relative peace of the squad room. No Lily – she had retreated to her sister's office a while ago, presumably catching up with some of the paperwork that seemed to appear out of thin air. No McGee – he was still with Abby, attempting to trace the money. The only problems he had were bickering in the corner.

DiNozzo and David. The two of them made squabbling an Olympic sport. Nothing was off limits, from bodily functions to supercars. He wondered what would happen if he asked Lily to referee one of their arguments. He had the brief image of Ziva and Lily fighting to the death while Tony's lifeless form was splayed on the ground, and quashed it.

He inwardly sighed. They were supposed to be locating Jasper's next of kin, not arguing over who should pay for dinner.

"Oi!" he yelled, breaking it up. "From the noise you're making, you must have found something."

They both looked decidedly nervous. Tony spoke up first. "No trace of next of kin, boss."

"What have you been doing for the last hour?"

"Yeah, but…"

"Jasper Thompson appeared out of nowhere at six months old when he was enrolled in the school," Ziva piped up.

"He has no pediatrician, no dentist –" Tony continued.

"No relatives," Ziva finished, glaring at her partner.

"What are our options?" Gibbs demanded.

"According to Legal, we hand him back to the school," Ziva told him.

Gibbs wondered if he should ask Lily to trace him. Or, better still, ask Jenny to ask Lily. She could come back with a classified answer, but even that would be an improvement.

"Gibbs!" Abby called as she charged in. "I found something!"

He treated her to a smile. "You got into the account?"

"No, but I got something hinky. Really hinky. Really really hinky –"

"We get the image, Abby," Ziva spoke up.

"Picture, Zee-vah," Tony corrected automatically.

"Whatever," the Goth told them. "The point is, I watched the security tapes. Did anyone else watch them? It was glaring at me."

"Today, Abs," Gibbs warned.

"The Director walked towards the bomb, right?"

"Yes," he recalled. "But she didn't know that it was there."

"I think she did."

There was a shocked silence.

"Okay, she gets the phone call and she heads straight for this particular floral arrangement," Abby informed them, starting the tape. "Not quite what I would have chosen. Black roses are much prettier than yellow –"

"Abs," Gibbs growled.

"Right, notice how she's looking around at everyone."

"It's a busy place," Tony pointed out. "She's making sure that she doesn't bump into anyone."

"I see it," Ziva announced. "She is checking that the area is clear."

"Exactly," Abby grinned triumphantly. "And when the area is clear, she walks right up to the bomb."

"Her phone call triggered the bomb," Ziva recollected.

"And therefore, the Director herself triggered the bomb that blew her up!"

Gibbs felt his stomach hit his shoes. He should have guessed. Any time Lily was involved, it was never a coincidence.

"We were looking at it the wrong way!" Abby continued. "The bomb could have been much worse if those two wires were the other way round, but they were deliberately put that way round. Whoever built the bomb didn't want to destroy the building, they just wanted to make us think that they did."

Gibbs headed for the Director's office, debating how to handle this.

Abby bounced up and down in delight.

"Why would the Director blow herself up though?" Tony questioned.

"Another operation?" Ziva suggested.

"To take a few sick days?" Abby offered.

They stared at her.

"What?! I would."