The breakroom
"How did you get that job?"
Phyllis's opening question to Kate opened the floodgates, and before she knew it she was inundated with questions:
"What have you done to Michael? Is it permanent? Can you make him give us raises?"
"Are you proficient in hypnosis?"
"Is that thing in his office really a rat?"
"Are you a Christian? Do you like cats?"
"Are your mental abilities legal in Pennsylvania? When will you release your hold on Michael's mind?"
"Shut up Dwight!"
"Everybody, let's lay off Kate, give her some breathing room-"
"Shut up Toby!"
"Why didn't you go to an Ivy League school, like Cornell, instead of a state school like Southern Cal?"
Tony walked in, phone in one ear and a burrito in the other, saw what was going on and sat down in the corner to watch. His arrival was noticed by just three people - Kate, Pam and Jim - and only when Kate acknowledged his raised hand did the others notice him.
"Hey! The other new person has a question. What would you like to ask me, Tony?"
"I have only one."
"Yes?"
"Were you ever in any wet T-shirt contests in college? And, do you have pictures you can share with us?"
"I was-" Kate stopped before she incriminated herself, then narrowed her eyes and gave Tony a withering stare that made him feel like his spine had iced over. Fortunately for Tony, the others went back to peppering her with questions; he went back to watching the spectacle until Jim and Pam bailed Kate out a short time later.
The warehouse
While Carol did the grunt work and handled the hazing given to new warehouse hires, she looked around for anything that might be out of place. Until the NCIS director was more forthcoming about the threat, Ziva figured she had to look for the haystack with the hidden needle.
Here she was in the haystack, all she had to do was find the needle.
She found a corner where she was out of earshot and adjusted her earpiece. "Gibbs I am reporting in."
"Anything out of place, Ziva?" replied Gibbs, set up in the black van parked near the office park.
"Nothing. It looks like a warehouse," she said. "It would help if Jenny told us what I am to look for."
The black van
"Watch the people, Ziva," Gibbs said. "Check back in an hour."
Gibbs took a drink of coffee and looked over McGee's shoulder at the feeds from the secret cameras installed throughout the park, then turned to the other man inside the van.
"You know, Ziva's right," Gibbs said. "It WOULD help if Jenny gave us more info. Or if your director gave us more info to go on, Tobias."
Tobias Fornell, a veteran FBI agent and friend and ally of Gibbs, took a bite of his Chicken King Royal Nuggets.
"They're obviously in collusion, Jethro, to make our jobs harder than they have to be," Fornell quipped. "I don't like being in the dark any more than you."
"Can't you get anything out of your director?"
"Can't YOU get anything out of Jenny?"
Both men sat in silence while McGee monitored the feeds.
"I'll talk to Jenny and you talk to your people," Gibbs said a minute later. "We need answers, Tobias."
"We might have better luck convincing Diane" - the ex-wife of both Fornell and Gibbs - "to stop taking our alimony payments," Fornell joked.
"I'll get something outta Jenny before that happens," Gibbs replied. "Anything unusual McGee?"
The junior NCIS agent scanned each monitor. "No, Boss."
Fornell poured himself a fresh cup of coffee from Gibbs's thermos. "You guys only do this nine hours a day? No overnight surveillance?"
"The cameras operate 24/7 and they're scattered all over the park," McGee answered. "We can monitor remotely from-"
McGee caught Gibbs's eye, read it as a glare and prepared himself for a headslap.
"From what, McGee?" Gibbs said.
"From, uh, anywhere, including here. 24/7. Boss."
McGee quickly turned back to the monitors and to his laptop. Fornell stared at Gibbs.
"What, Tobias?!"
"You really would sit here 24/7, Jethro, wouldn't you...never mind, you would."
"Part of the job, Tobias. You volunteering?"
"No. I figured you'd make DiNozzo, Todd or David take the night shift...with you and McGee here with them."
McGee whistled but kept his eyes on the monitors; Gibbs glanced at Fornell, then McGee, and chuckled.
