8
As usual I have thanked everyone personally who enabled me to do so. Gail and earthdragon, my sincere thanks for your very different, but equally welcome reviews!
Tony launched himself at Cantwell and it took the combined efforts of Gibbs and Borin to hold him back.
"Let me…he's lying, there has to be something."
Gibbs pulled him aside. "Tony, stand down, this won't help. God knows if I thought it would help I'd beat him to a pulp myself." He loosened his grip slightly. "Can I trust you to keep your hands off him?"
Gritting his teeth, Tony nodded once. "He has to be lying Boss, they'd never do something like that without an antidote."
"Agent DiNozzo is right Mr Cantwell." Borin decided to try a little good cop. "It hardly seems likely you'd put your own employees at risk by developing toxins and not having an antidote to hand."
"It might not seem likely, however, it's true; and we weren't developing toxins."
"Vince, I think you should stop talking, you don't have to tell them anything."
"Don't worry Owen, I'm proud of what we do, and it's about time more people knew about the cutting edge work we're doing."
"What if they bring charges?"
Cantwell patted his friend on the shoulder. "If they're stupid enough to do that, I have friends who'll make it go away. Now Agent…sorry I don't think I got your name."
"Special Agent Borin, US Coast Guard."
"Of course, as I said we're not developing toxins, we're working on delivering something much more sophisticated; a…well I suppose you'd call it a biological time bomb. My scientists have been working on a way to use the body's defence mechanisms to work against itself by altering enzymes and factors in the blood. It was such an obvious way of delivering a biological weapon, all we have to do is some fine-tuning and we'll be able to present it to potential buyers."
"You'd sell to the highest bidder?"
"No! I'm no terrorist Agent Gibbs, our product will help in our fight against the people who want to bring our great nation to its knees."
"By killing US citizens?"
"There's always a price to pay for leaps in science, these people, they were helping in a great cause."
"But they didn't know Cantwell, you never gave them a choice."
"Oh yes I did; if they weren't on the streets, begging for food, leeching off society, they'd never have eaten the modified food. All they had to do was live as useful members of society and they'd never have come within a mile of a food truck."
It was too much for Tony, he went for Cantwell and before Gibbs or Borin could intervene he had him by the throat. "You want a useful member of society, how about a federal agent?"
"Tony! DiNozzo, stand down!"
"Boss…"
"Let him go Tony, this isn't the time. He'll get what's coming to him, right now we need him to talk."
"I can assure you Agent Gibbs, my client will not be saying another word, and we'll be pressing charges." Owen Fahy was on his feet, pointing animatedly at Tony. "He's not going to get away with assault."
Cantwell rubbed his throat lightly; he seemed remarkably unconcerned by Tony's attack, he picked up his wine glass and took a sip. "Owen please, you're getting overexcited. Agent DiNozzo, before your…outburst, I believe there was a question?"
"You really don't care do you?" Tony was struggling to comprehend how a man could be so unconcerned by the grief he'd caused. "You've let people die because you want to make more money?"
"I must stop you there; it was never about money, I want to protect the country I love."
Gibbs stepped forward, his face a mask of supressed rage. "What about the people who served this country, who put their lives on the line? You've killed men who fought for you."
"They were on the streets?"
Gibbs nodded.
"Then they were weak, like the others, if they'd been true military men they wouldn't have fallen so low. They were prepared to live with the scum of the earth, they should have been prepared to die with them."
"How about an NCIS agent. You think he should be prepared to die too?"
Cantwell put his glass down on the table, but not before they'd noticed the slight tremor in his hand. "NCIS? Why would one of your agents be on the streets with them?"
"Because we were investigating the murder of a Marine, and he went undercover with the homeless. Slept on the street, ate with them too." Gibbs could see he'd finally hit home, Cantwell's studied indifference was being replaced by the first vague inkling that maybe his friends on The Hill wouldn't be able to help him wriggle out of this hole. "He…he was in the wrong place, they're useless don't you see? Clogging up our streets, living in their own filth, I thought…testing on them, I thought no one would care."
Gibbs lifted him up out of his chair, pulled his arms behind his back and fastened the handcuffs as tight as he could. "Unless you're going to tell me you were lying about the antidote you might want to shut up, because if one more word come out of your mouth about homeless people being expendable, you're going overboard."
"This is outrageous!" Owen Fahy was on his feet, gesturing at the crew members who'd gathered to watch. "There are witnesses Agent Gibbs, if you do anything to harm my client I'll not only have your badge, you'll end up in prison."
Gibbs pushed Cantwell toward Tony. "Get him on the UTB." He looked at Fahy with such intensity the lawyer took a step back and almost stumbled. "You're threatening me with jail time? Listen to me; if my man dies, I'll be coming for Cantwell and whoever worked with him on this…if I go to prison, I'd do my time with a smile on my face."
"We should be getting back Gibbs, the skipper says there's a storm coming in." Borin didn't think Gibbs would harm Cantwell or Fahy, not when Cantwell might still have information that could help McGee, she just figured the sooner they were back on dry land, away from the confines of the yacht, the better things would be.
NCIS NCIS
The trip back to Norfolk had been tense, the roar of the engines and the increasing force of the wind made conversation impossible. Gibbs and Tony wanted one more try at Cantwell; there had to be more he could tell them. If not, they'd search the lab, Cantwell's home, offices, anywhere they might find something to help Tim and the others.
Vance had once again arranged helicopter transport and Gibbs thanked Borin for her help as she walked with him to the helipad.
"Anything for a friend Gibbs, I hope…"
"Yeah, me too."
"Will you call…with news?"
"When we know something for certain." Gibbs seemed to have more lines on his face than when they'd sailed out to the Primera Sangre, a deep frown he'd had ever since Cantwell told them there was no antidote. She rested her hand on his arm and tried to smile. "Tony says he's going to make it."
"From his lips to God's ears. I should get aboard before Tony rips Cantwell's head off." With that he turned on his heel and ran for the chopper, he was fast, but not so fast Borin didn't see the watery brightness in his eyes.
They'd got back to NCIS to find the team hard at work, all except Ducky. "He's back at the hospital; Dr Henley wanted to discuss McGee's treatment options." Vance was standing with them in the observation room, watching Cantwell being led into interrogation. "The search warrants for Cantwell's properties will be ready within the hour."
Gibbs whistled low. "On a weekend? How did you manage that?"
"Not me, SecNav. One of her oldest friends is a Deputy Presiding Judge in the Criminal Division of the DC Superior Court."
"Now that's what I call a friend in a very useful place. I'll take one more crack at him, if we get nothing we'll join the search teams."
NCIS NCIS
It seemed as if Cantwell had decided to finally heed his attorney's advice and keep his mouth shut, but after having Gibbs stare at him for a while he'd started talking again. "You're not getting any more from me, there's nothing to give. I've already said too much, I know you people, you don't understand what we're doing and you'll take everything I've said and twist it to make me sound like some kind of evil monster."
"Oh believe me Cantwell, we won't have to do any twisting, you're one sick bastard and soon everyone will know it."
"What people will know is that I'm a visionary; I see things no one else can see, do things no one else is prepared to do. Do you really think our military leaders will care how the bioweapon was tested so long as it works and kills the maniacs out to destroy our way of life?"
Gibbs leaned menacingly over the table. "They'll care Cantwell, because I'll make sure they understand exactly what you did to the five former service personnel we know about, if there are others it will be even worse for you…and the NCIS agent you put in the hospital, did I tell you his father's a Navy Admiral?" Cantwell blanched as Gibbs leaned closer. "You think the Navy's going to buy your filth when they killed the son of one of their own?"
The door opened and an expensively suited, well-groomed man strode into the room. "Step away from the table Agent Gibbs; I'm Reece Griffith, here on behalf of Mr Fahy and he's warned me about your strong-arm tactics. You cannot harass our client like this, if you're not prepared to charge him I'm leaving with him right now."
Gibbs straightened up, an icy smile on his face. "Believe me Mr Griffith, we're more than ready to charge your client; how does twenty-three counts of negligent homicide sound for starters? Most likely there'll be conspiracy charges to come, maybe terrorist charges too. You might want to send out for dinner, you're going to be here for a while."
Feeling as if he was suffocating in the confined space of the interrogation room Gibbs left without another word; he got into the corridor eager to breathe air that wasn't contaminated by Cantwell's presence and the frustrations of the day crashed in on him. He raised his fist, ready to hit the wall as hard as he could. "Don't do it Boss, you want to hit something, hit me, less likely to break your hand that way."
He didn't hit Tony, but he leaned against him, gulping in air like a drowning man. "He's so…he doesn't see it, he killed twenty-three innocent people and he doesn't care."
"Twenty-five…two of the men being treated at United Medical Center died this afternoon."
"Damn it! We have to stop this Tony, not just for Tim's sake, we can't let any more people die."
They worked on into the night, assisting the search teams at the lab, supplying Abby with CafPow as she worked ceaselessly with Jimmy and Ducky on the samples they had retrieved. They interviewed Cantwell's lab team, dragging them out of bed if necessary; but whatever they did and whoever they talked with the outcome was the same. Cantwell hadn't been lying, there really was no antidote, he'd ordered his scientists to concentrate on the disease, not the cure.
Dr Craig Boulter, Medical Director of Aborah LabTech had co-operated fully, he'd become increasingly uncomfortable with the way test results were coming back to him, and incredibly frustrated that Vincent Cantwell treated him like some kind of indentured servant. He'd held on so long because the lab facilities were second to none, and he believed that America had to fight fire with fire, and hit their enemies in their own homes. "We have to get them before they get us, but not like this…I never knew…"
"Where did you think he was getting the results, volunteers?" Tony couldn't keep the biting sarcasm out of his voice, this guy was supposed to be a brilliant scientist and he'd never once asked where Cantwell was finding 'subjects' for their tests.
"I…guess I didn't want to know, if I stayed out of it I could concentrate on the science, and it's a brilliant concept, altering the genetic make-up of blood factors…" His voice tailed off as Boulter realised the mistake he'd made, talking about scientific breakthroughs when people were dying. "I'm sorry, that was…let me work with your doctors, if there's any way we can reverse the process we have to work right back to the source material."
"Can it work?" Gibbs turned to Ducky, the first glimmer of a distant hope in his eyes. Ducky sighed. "I wish…Jethro I wish I could say yes, but I very much fear Timothy has run out of time, even if we find a way to reverse this, he's so weak I'm afraid we're too late."
"Doctor…" Jimmy had entered the conference room unnoticed. He looked about as exhausted as the rest of them, but there was something about the way he was walking, there wasn't a spring in his step, things were way too serious for that, but he wasn't here to pass the time of day that was for sure. "There may be a way we can help him, the others too, it…it's not a cure, but it will buy us some time."