A/N: Minor spoilers for Kill Ari 1&2. Thanks to all who have reviewed and shared your encouragement. Sincerest apologies for the significant delay, I promise the next chapter will not be nearly so long coming.
Chapter 11
Gibbs looked up from the file he was reading on Elliot when he heard Tony snort softly in his sleep. He regarded the sleeping agent, watching to see if the disturbance was just a momentary disruption or a precursor to a nightmare. A few moments later, Tony stilled again. Gibbs' gaze lingered, noticing the bruise that was darkening beyond the boundaries of the bandage on the younger man's cheek. It was hard to tell from this angle if a bruise was appearing yet on Tony's throat. Strangulation was tricky, sometimes it left a mark, a lot of times it didn't.
His senior field agent had been lucky. A few seconds longer, a slightly different placement of Marc's hands around his throat could have changed the outcome from relatively minor injuries to something much more sinister. Gibbs knew he didn't have to lecture DiNozzo on how lucky he had been. He knew that Tony's time in law enforcement provided all the education he needed to that point.
His cell phone rang shrilly. Gibbs snatched it off the table, trying to silence it before it woke Tony. Too late, Tony was already sitting up reaching for his own cell on the nightstand.
"Mine, DiNozzo, go back to sleep," Gibbs said as he walked towards the door, flipping the phone open. "Gibbs."
The team lead heard Tony rising behind him, despite the indirect order to the opposite. Gibbs shook his head on the way out the door. The phone call from the director wasn't entirely unexpected. The subject matter however was.
"Marcello DiNozzo's attorney has just filed a formal complaint with the Secretary of the Navy against Agent DiNozzo by extension yourself." Director Vance stated by way of greeting.
"He did what?" Gibbs replied incredulously.
"Based on your briefing following the incident this morning, Mr. DiNozzo is going to have a difficult time fighting the criminal charge against him. So his attorney is taking the next best step open to him: turning this into a civil matter. He's calling into question Agent DiNozzo's competence and your judgment."
"This is ridiculous and you know it," Gibbs snapped back angrily, "He's wasting our time. We have a case to focus on."
"I see it for what it is, Agent Gibbs. I just needed you to be aware of the game being played. I need you to keep Agent DiNozzo in line."
"He is keeping himself in line."
"That's not how Mr. DiNozzo's attorney is depicting it. I need to know every interaction you and Agent DiNozzo have had with Mr. DiNozzo."
Gibbs sighed, "I updated Mister DiNozzo on the status of the Lieutenant yesterday. Tony's only interaction with him was this morning."
"Were you openly hostile to Mr. DiNozzo?"
"Nope," Vance's question irritated him. He assumed that the lawyer had made that accusation as well.
"Can you tell me what prejudiced you against this man you've never met?"
"No," Gibbs patience was wearing out. "Do you have something case related to ask me?"
"Just answer the damn question, Gibbs. The sooner I can get this to legal, the faster it can be put to rest."
"It's not my story to tell," Gibbs responded shortly. The two men sat silently on the phone for a full minute before Gibbs finally spoke again. "Today was not the first time Mr. DiNozzo has laid hands on Tony."
There was a heavy silence before Vance spoke again, "Understood. What happened after the meeting?"
"I left to get a second rental car. When I came back to the hospital, Mr. DiNozzo had gone."
"Nothing happened on the elevator?"
"What did the lawyer say happened on the elevator?"
"That you were threatening in demeanor and would not let Mr. DiNozzo on the elevator."
"I was never on the elevator with him. He met me at the elevator. I didn't hold the door for him. That was the last I saw of him until this morning when he tried to kill one of my agents," he growled.
"I think you should consider sending Agent DiNozzo back to DC."
"No, he's needed here."
"I don't know that you can risk another encounter, Agent Gibbs."
"Tony's father is out of the way for the time being."
"Not for as long as you might think. He's posting bail. He's scheduled to be released in the next couple hours."
"I'm not sending him home," his tone challenging Vance to tell him how to run his team.
"Suit yourself, but just know that the decision may be taken out of your hands."
"It won't come to that," Gibbs stated with confidence.
"Tell McGee that I have a warrant secured for him if he needs one for the money-order company."
Gibbs snapped his phone shut.
~*~*~*~
Ziva watched Lt. JG Mason Hastings sleep. She had lost track of how many hours she had engaged in the activity, soundlessly observing the comings and goings of the medical staff and his wife. The Marines had kept to their six hour rotation. She imagined it had to be starting to wear on the men.
Something about the Lieutenant caused her to sit up, pay closer attention. There it was again. His eyelids fluttered. It looked like the young man was starting to wake up. She stood, stepping over to the side of his bed. After a couple minutes of waiting, his eyes opened. They were clear, aware. He looked slowly around, taking stock of his surroundings. His gaze finally settled on Ziva. He took note of her attire, and immediately dismissed her as a nurse. Never-the-less, he asked, "Water?"
Ziva blinked. She was almost afraid to leave him, thinking he might fall back asleep on her. But she suspected he was suffering from a parched throat and would be of no assistance until that was remedied. "I am Officer Ziva David, with NCIS," she offered him her credentials. "I will bring you some water."
She saw a flash of relief course through his eyes as he nodded. It took her only a moment to flag down a nurse and have water brought. The nurse tended to her patient, raised the head of his bed and assisted him with the water.
Before she left, she instructed in a tone that brooked no argument, "You have ten minutes. The doctor will be in shortly."
Ziva nodded her acquiescence. She knew that the hospital had gone out of its way to accommodate them and she felt she'd have the information they so desperately needed in half that time.
"What day is it?" Hastings asked in a rough voice.
"It is Sunday the eighteenth of January," she replied.
Hastings closed his eyes as he sighed, "Four days…." He opened his eyes and looked at Ziva intently, "Did you find the Fade?"
Ziva paused a moment before remembering the codename for the sub, it had been so rarely used in their conversations. "No, we were hoping that you would be able assist us. Tell me what you remember."
"It was about 1430 on the twelfth Lt. Dawson indicated some anomalous acoustics were coming from the drive system. We were at about a 150 meters depth. I started running some diagnostics and after 15 minutes determined that there was a problem with the intake. It wasn't entirely unexpected, it was her trial run and there are always bugs in the systems of a new machine. I recommended that we surface to investigate further," he paused to take another sip of water.
"I needed to get outside the boat and look at the intake. I had prepped the raft and secured the tether. Capt. Richter and Lt. Stein were helping me gear up. I was about halfway in my suit when Lt. Dawson came down the corridor and snatched Lt. Stein's sidearm. Then he just shot the Captain. There was no warning, no explanation. Albert had turned when his gun was taken and Dawson shot him too. Dawson told me to climb.
"I didn't know what else to do, I wasn't in a position I could fight back. So I climbed out. He followed me up. I could hear him behind me. I thought I might be able to gain some advantage when I got outside. He anticipated that, told me to stand on the middle rung of the rail around the hatch with my hands behind my head. He got behind me. Put the gun to my head. He gave me a choice: jump or he'd shoot. I jumped. I figured that my chances were nominally better. While I was underwater he released the raft tether.
"I almost didn't make it into the raft. I almost regretted my decision; at least being shot in the head would have been a quick death. If I was alive though, I could do something. I started paddling towards the sub, when Dawson appeared again and tossed Lt. Stein into the water. Dawson fired a shot at me, shouting at me to stay back. When he went back into the sub I tried to reach Lt. Stein. The drive system had been re-engaged. The sub was pulling away, I thought it would be safe. It took so long for me to reach Albert," he frowned at the memory, his voice becoming thick. "He was supposed to be getting married next month."
Ziva allowed him a moment to collect himself. He looked like he was fighting back tears. "By the time I got to where Albert was floating, I knew he was gone. I tried hauling his body into the raft but I couldn't get the leverage. I was already starting to shiver from the dunk in the water. I just couldn't do it. The Fade was several hundred meters away by that point. I had no hope of catching up, and Dawson dumped out the Captain. Just tossed him out the hatch like he was so much garbage."
The lieutenant's heart monitor started to beep faster. "Damn it, he was our friend. We just had a barbeque at the Captain's the week before. He had family. I did my best. I tried lashing the two of them to the raft to bring them home. But I wasn't strong enough, I had to abandon them. I had to leave them behind. We're not supposed to leave them behind, ma'am." Hastings voice broke, "I had to get back to tell the admiral what happened."
Ziva reached out and placed a hand on the Lieutenant's arm. "They made it home," she assured him, "You brought them far enough. They washed up on shore just barely a mile from where you were found."
The lieutenant swallowed hard, unable to meet Ziva's gaze. They sat quietly for a moment before Ziva continued, "I have only a few more minutes before your doctor insists I leave. I have just a few questions for you until you are feeling stronger."
The officer looked at her sadly and nodded for her to continue.
"Where was Lt. Knoll during the time Dawson was engaged with you, Lt. Stein and the Captain?"
Clearing his throat, "I don't know for sure ma'am. It was his shift driving the boat. We had all been trained to do it."
"Was there any indication that Lt. Dawson or Lt. Knoll might be planning something?"
Lt. Hastings thought for a minute before answering slowly, "No, nothing that screamed 'I'm going to go ballistic and hijack a multi-million dollar experimental submarine'. Lt. Knoll has always kept to himself, he does what he needs to do, but he's not the most personable man on the planet. He was just his usual self. Dawson seemed more withdrawn I guess, but it's nearing the anniversary of his daughter's death. We just attributed his behavior to that.
"Neither of them raised any flags. We've worked together for four and a half years on this project. I thought we all knew each other pretty well. Honestly, ma'am there was just no warning."
Ziva nodded as she jotted down some notes. She was nearly out of time. She looked at the Lieutenant. He looked like he was about ready to drift off to sleep again. "Lieutenant, were you aware that Lt. Dawson had recently come inherited a significant amount of money?"
Hastings looked at her quizzically, "No, ma'am. Knowing the doc that's just the kind of thing he'd brag about too. He probably would have used every last penny to sue our health plan."
"One more question, did Lt. Dawson ever talk about his family, his extended family in particular?"
"Nothing specific that I can remember. Most of the talk about his family was about his wife and daughter. He adored them," he yawned mightily just as the doctor entered the room.
"I think that is a good indication this interview is over," the doctor said sternly.
Ziva stood, "I agree. Thank you, Lieutenant. We may have some follow-up questions for you. I am sorry for your loss."
She started to exit the room when a haunted voice followed, "Why did he let me go?"
Ziva paused a moment before she turned around. She met the lieutenant's eyes, "Truthfully, I don't believe he thought he was letting you go. I don't believe he expected you to survive."
~*~*~*~
Tony sipped gingerly at the hot tea that Gibbs had brought back with him. He listened with one ear to the ZNN reports while he perused the files that Agent Torgeson had brought along with her. In somber tones the brunette on the TV reported that seven kids ranging in age from twelve to fifteen had gone missing along with the priest that had taken them on retreat. Theories had been flying for the past quarter-hour, everything from their van going off the road in the nor'easter to the priest kidnapping the children for illicit purposes. DiNozzo scowled at the TV as they showed an image of St. Jerome's Haven in Boston. He normally didn't watch the cable news outlets because of their tendency to jump the gun on stories. This one appeared to be no different. The one thing they were good for was getting the pulse of the media and so far there had been nary a word about the missing sub or what had happened to its crew. For now, that was all he was concerned about.
He glanced over to where Torgeson was hunched over the table with Gibbs, pointing out various locations on a map that indicated properties Elliot Dawson had owned. Normally the FBI agent would have been a prime target for his usual flirtatious advances. The agent was tall, blond and shapely with strong Scandinavian features. Right now, all he saw was a means to an end to solve this case and get the hell off the Island.
He flipped through the next couple pages of art transactions. Tony didn't recognize the vast majority of artists or their works but he did understand the values next to them. He also recognized a few of the names the pieces were bought and sold from, names that had been of interest in previous cases involving drugs and terrorism. He read through page after page of transactions. He found himself wishing McGeek were there to feed this information through one of his programs. Tony knew there was a pattern here.
Gibbs' phone rang. Tony barely listened as his boss conversed with Ziva. He heard enough to know that the Lieutenant had finally awoken long enough to tell his tale. DiNozzo inwardly cheered. Maybe that meant they could go back to DC to finish working the case or at least to the Newport Field Office. His conversation with Gibbs about his father's latest deed kept running through the back of his mind. He knew why Gibbs told him, he'd have found out eventually. He knew it was probably too much to hope that his father would let it drop once the team closed the case and went home.
A title of a painting caught his eye: Darkness of 47 by Pyotr, no last name, sold for $6 million 12/14/2005. He flipped back several pages, scanning the titles. There it was, same painting, same price, only purchased by Elliot a year prior. He scanned backwards through the pages found the same painting nine months earlier still. It had been sold by Elliot for $6 million.
Tony grabbed a couple highlighters from his backpack. Back and forth through the report he marked specific transactions. An hour later he cracked his neck, confident he had found enough to start to outline the pattern. He glanced at the clock. 1755, nearly time for dinner and their reconvene with the rest of the team. His stomach growled. Gibbs and Torgeson looked over to him, hearing the noise over the low volume of the TV. Apparently, DiNozzo was hungry. He shrugged.
~*~*~*~
McGee closed the lid of the laptop, frowning that he still had no response from the money order company. Gibbs was not going to be happy. Ziva had been on the phone with several people since she had left the Lieutenant's room. Only one conversation had been in English.
Abby was busy converting Dawson's music files into a format her new analytics server could ingest. She had the idea that maybe he had hid his correspondence in the audio files. She was confident that if there was anything there, her new program could find it.
As McGee packed up the computer and gathered the papers scattered about the table he asked Ziva, "Do you think Ria was his sister?"
Ziva knitted her eyebrows. She wasn't sure how to answer the question. She knew the answer. She just didn't know how much she should reveal she knew. Although, at this point she wasn't really telling, she was merely confirming.
"She was," she said with quiet certainty.
"When did he tell you?" he asked in a tone that was both accusing and curious.
"He didn't," she said simply.
McGee stared at her dumbly for a moment. Then she saw understanding in his eyes. "Your dossiers," he responded softly.
Ziva grabbed the bag carrying the notebooks and papers and swept the room for anything they might have forgotten. As they walked out the door McGee continued, "He joked with Kate all the time about how he wished he had a sister. He's never done that since you came."
"He probably knew that I knew and didn't want me to bring up something that he had chosen not to share."
She had given Tony the opportunity to share with her. She had opened the door that rainy night in front of the hotel when she had told him about her own sister. Her motives had been different then. Now, she understood his reaction to her pushing yesterday. Her dossier had not been complete regarding the estrangement between father and son, matter of fact there had been no information about there being an estrangement. She found that very curious.
"Do you know what happened?" McGee ventured, curiosity piqued.
Ziva met his eyes over the roof of the car. "I do, but that is Tony's story to tell."
