Chapter 10

New York

Walid broke under Hetty Lange's interrogation tactics, freely giving her information about Ari Haswari's deposit into Walid's account, that Walid subsequently transferred over to David Carlton.

Bank records recorded cash withdrawals from Carlton's account roughly a half-hour after the deposits.

Two hours later, Boston PD detectives and FBI agents observed a man of Carlton's description making a purchase of a Bravo 51 sniper rifle, with ammunition, on the street and with cash, from a known member of the Black Celtics street gang in southwest Boston.

Carlton was then followed to his south Boston home, and Boston PD's Special Operations Unit and the Boston FBI office began making plans to apprehend him.

The FBI New York office, having questions of their own for Walid, picked him up from the Manhattan NCIS field office, leaving the New York Major Case Response Team to concentrate on the Ari case.

Hetty spent just ten minutes on a conference call with Leon Vance in L.A. and Gibbs in Washington.

She was surprised that Gibbs was so willing to go along with her first-stage suggestion - using one of her agents as a guard for Kate Todd, Jane Rizzoli and Maura Isles.

So, Hetty put Paris Summerskill on a Navy plane from LaGuardia to Andrews AFB, with her tentative arrival in D.C. scheduled for 11 p.m.

Washington, D.C.
Anaconda

Tony DiNozzo, FBI agent Ron Sacks, and the Mossad agent/liaison to the FBI named Michael Rivkin remained parked outside Cosmo's Convenience Mart & Liquor.

It was just after six o'clock, and an array of characters had found their way to the store, standing at various placs along the barred front windows and in the small parking lot.

Ziva David - the alleged accomplice of Ari Haswari who DiNozzo and Sacks had been assigned to follow - still had not left the store. That's what Rivkin had persistently told the other two men in the car, despite Sacks' repeated attempts to get out of the car and walk into the store.

"If either of you walk out of this car, you will be made for certain," Rivkin said emphatically to Sacks. "She must not see us in the store nor out here."

That set off an argument between the FBI agent and the Mossad agent/alleged liaison.

"What the hell are we supposed to do, follow her around all week?" Sacks told Rivkin. "We need eyes in the back of that store."

"We do," Rivkin said, pulling a laptop out of his bag. A few minutes later, Rivkin opened a browser, showing video from cameras in front, back and on both sides of the building as well as within the building itself.

Ziva was, of all things, playing poker with a group of men in an office room.

"How'd you get that video, Rivkin?" Tony asked him.

"We have our ways, as your own agencies do," he replied. "Of course, this is in full cooperation with the FBI."

"Some joint operation, where they don't even tell their own agents about Mossad guys working undercover," Sacks said.

"Were you not told you would know what you needed to know as the operation progressed, Agent Sacks?" Rivkin.

"Well, yes-"

"And, Agent Sacks, did you not tell Agent DiNozzo your orders were to follow Ziva David and then inform Quantico?"

"Again, yes-"

"Then there is nothing to complain about. The operation is going smoothly-"

"Says you," DiNozzo interjected. "We're sitting here, in a Boyz n the Hood-esque neighborhood. I'm almost guaranteed to be made just by being the sole white guy within at least a mile. I know what I was told and what Sacks told me. But something tells me that we need to get her, soon. Sacks is right. We can't tail her forever."

"And do what with her, Agent DiNozzo? Ziva is a fully-trained, formidable agent of Mossad. I highly doubt both of you combined can apprehend her and make her go where she doesn't want to go."

"And you," DiNozzo said back to Rivkin, "said yourself that you're her handler. How do we know that you don't want her to be captured, that you aren't working with her yourself?"

"I am her handler," Rivkin said, "and I am also an agent of Mossad and its liaison to one of your top intelligence agencies. Unlike Ari Haswari, I am not a traitor to my country. I will not spit on the relationship between Israel and the United States, even for his sister, whom I have held in the highest regard."

"Have?" DiNozzo replied.

"Have, and still do," Rivkin said, "even if she is mistaken in her loyalty to a man whom we now know has threatened American citizens and murdered one of Mossad's own agents-"

"-and threatened to kill the American President and Israeli Prime Minister," DiNozzo said, glaring at Rivkin, and thinking about all Ari had inflicted on Jethro Gibbs and Kate Todd during this ordeal. "You damn well better be on our side on this. Because if you aren't, I will beat your ass down."

"That's the first thing I've agreed with you on all day, DiNozzo," Sacks said, also glaring at the Mossad agent.

Rivkin looked at DiNozzo, chuckled, then looked down, and back up at he and Sacks.

"Perhaps," he said, "but you must know that I am on 'your side'. Ari is a threat to Israel as much as he is to your own country. And yes, we will not follow Ziva David for eternity. But she must be approached carefully, and cautiously. And definitely not here."

"So we're gonna wait for her to finish her poker game," DiNozzo said, somewhat frustratedly. "I'm overdue to call Gibbs."

"And I'm overdue to call Quantico," Sacks said.

"That is not a mere poker game," Rivkin said. "It is a negotiation, with men suspected to be agents of Ari's. Here to potentially kill two of your NCIS agents and two Americans visiting from Boston."

DiNozzo was momentarily in shock over hearing that, then gathered himself. "Thanks a hell of a lot for waiting to tell us that," he shouted to Rivkin.

"You had not asked," Rivkin replied. "You can call Agent Gibbs and Quantico if you like. But we must wait."