NCIS HEADQUARTERS, WASHINGTON D.C.
The next morning, the team gathered, Tony munching on another chocolate bar, which earned him a stare from Kate. McGee had also arrived, and Gibbs, as per usual, came in sipping from a large cup of coffee.
"DiNozzo," he called for his senior field agent. "Anything from the lieutenant's house?"
"Yes, boss," Tony started. "We found the whole place turned upside down. Obviously somebody has been looking for something. All closets and drawers were emptied, everything scattered over the floor... Couch ripped apart, pictures cut out of their frames..."
"The place had been thoroughly searched through, boss," McGee filled in.
"And they've found what they were looking for," Gibbs guessed with a nod in McGee's direction.
"Err, yes," McGee said with a surprised frown. "We've found a secret hiding place, built inside the wall, behind the fireplace. It was cleverly hidden."
"But they've found it anyway, 'cause it was ripped open. And empty," Tony quickly interrupted McGee. "How did you guess, boss?"
"Well, DiNozzo," Gibbs answered, "usually they torture you for information. People who use torture techniques are clever enough to inflict extreme pain without killing the victim."
"Oh," nodded McGee.
"Our lieutenant turned up dead, so he must have given them what they wanted," Tony concluded. He pulled a face, trying to imagine what the Marine had gone through. "It must have been really bad."
"You think, DiNozzo?" Gibbs replied, his voice showing some irritation. "Anything else from the house?"
"No," McGee continued. "Nothing unusual, we've found nothing that could point us to the reason why they've captured him in the first place. There's no indication he was into things like drugs or smuggling."
"He was hiding something and they killed him for it," Gibbs growled. "Look harder, McGee. Kate? What have you got on our Air Force Colonel?"
Kate flipped the image of Colonel O'Neill on the big screen. "He's one big mystery, Gibbs," she started. "And one tough guy. Joined the Air Force at a young age, had the usual reprimands before his career started to take a more serious turn. He married a woman called Sara in the mid-eighties and they had a son together, named Charlie. Joined the Special Forces, and from that point there's not much listed in his file, most of it probably being classified. He was severely injured during one particular mission to the Middle East, which is listed as a parachute mishap...."
Kate flipped through her notes before looking back up, "From what I've discovered he landed on the wrong side of the border in Iran and crawled out on his own.... took him nine days. Skull fracture, broken bones... recovery period was close to four months and he was promoted to captain directly after that mission."
"Wow," Tony commented.
"Several other missions, all to hostile areas, no details. Classified... everything is listed as classified. It's a wonder McGee managed to get me these details... There's a record of Gulf War I. The captain has been there as well, and here it gets real interesting. He was captured by the Iraqi's and was a POW for four months. Got promoted to major, straight after his return to the States. Took him close to six months to get back to active duty."
"Six months?" McGee asked in surprise.
"Well, McGee," Gibbs looked hard at the younger man. "You think the Iraqis treated him well during those four months?"
"Apparently not," McGee said, looking annoyed with himself for not thinking of that.
"How does one survive that?" Tony wondered.
"You forget it happened and get back to work, DiNozzo," Gibbs snapped. There were just some things an ex-military man couldn't explain to younger civilians.
"Well," Kate continued, looking uncomfortable. "That's not all. In '94, his then eight years old son Charlie accidentally shot himself, with the gun O'Neill kept in a drawer in his bedroom. O'Neill, a colonel by then already with many medals and successful classified missions, left the Air Force. His marriage ended and he was depressed.."
"Which is perfectly understandable," Tony said with a slight shiver. "How did he get back on active duty?"
"The Air Force reinstated him in '96. From then on, he's been assigned to Cheyenne Mountain, first serving under a General West. General West retired in '97, and was replaced by Major-General George Hammond, who's still in charge today. Whatever the colonel has been doing there..." Kate looked back at her notes, "must be pretty important as well. I mean.... there are a lot of commendations, he's got an impressive set of ribbons and medals and even received a medal from the President himself."
Looking back up, Kate continued, "That. And his medical record, at least the part that McGee managed to get, is thicker that any I've ever seen, and they are all listed as training accidents. So either he's one pretty clumsy guy..."
"Or deep space telemetry is a crappy cover story for something else," Gibbs nodded in agreement.
"Sounds like a pretty important guy to me," Tony concluded. "What does he have to do with one dead Marine lieutenant though?"
"He would be capable of torturing somebody," McGee said, his voice making it more a question then a statement.
Gibbs looked at Kate, expecting her to answer.
Kate gave a short nod. "Definitely. Special Forces trained, I'm sure this man has more ways to kill somebody with his bare hands then we all can come up with. He's tougher than your average Marine," she glanced at Gibbs, expecting him to comment to that.
However, Gibbs remained quiet, so she continued, "he has proven that. Dominant, intelligent, -he's got several degrees-, he wrote some excellent papers on tactical warfare. He's a highly skilled officer. Although he can get depressed to a level that it can become a serious problem, I think he has a great sense of humor. Once you've earned his respect, he'll be on your side forever. If you don't, I think he can completely ignore you, or block you out," she shivered slightly, "his anger can reach such depths that you really don't want to be the one he's directing that anger at. He's extremely loyal to the Air Force and too honorable to kill without a very, very good reason. I'm convinced that he would disobey a direct order to kill -or any order at that- if he doesn't agree with the reason why."
She paused to look up and see if they were all still listening. "Did he kill our l ieutenant? I don't know... it depends on what the man has done. I'd rather think Colonel O'Neill is just involved somehow..."
At that moment, the phone on Gibbs' desk rang. He turned to pick up the receiver and listened. "I'll be right up," he answered and threw the receiver back down.
Getting up, he looked at his team. "We'll find out soon enough. A General Hammond from Cheyenne Mountain is calling, asking why we've been doing research on Colonel O'Neill." He headed for the stairs, calling, "What are you waiting for? Come on!"
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