Good Shepherd
pt. 11
He'd hated to break that promise, but when DiNozzo called, he'd had no choice. Fortunately, Stanley had been as good as his word, and he'd left Bob on guard. The big man had alternated between glowering at anyone who tried to enter and regarding his boss with such tenderness that Gibbs had given up trying to figure it out and settled for being glad he was regarded as one of the good guys. Otherwise, he suspected Bob would have no qualms about breaking every bone in his body if he so much as looked at her askance.
"He wants a deal," Ziva spat.
"Not gonna happen," Gibbs stated.
"Boss," McGee said softly, "I think you should hear him out."
He glared, but McGee didn't flinch—that, not anything they'd said, convinced him. "Fine. Get him into interrogation."
"Already done."
"DiNozzo, McGee, check with Abby. See how she's coming with the evidence from the scene." With a nod of his head, he motioned Ziva into the observation room. If he had to talk to Tanguay, he wanted someone as angry as he was behind the mirror.
"You left Gibbs alone with him? Are you crazy?" Abby punctuated her question by shaking Tony lightly. "He's going to kill him. And then we'll have to find a way to make it look like an accident, only, of course, he'll be so angry that he won't think to stage the death unless--you said Ziva was there and she's probably got a lot of experience at this sort of thing—"
"Abby!" Tony was standing only an arm's length from her but nearly had to shout to get her attention. She abruptly stopped speaking, and stood breathing hard, staring at him with wide eyes. "He isn't going to kill him. He's going to want to kill him. But he won't."
She looked between him and McGee, suspicion dawning. "What do you know that I don't?"
McGee looked up from the evidence table. "This is bigger than Tanguay, Abby. We should have seen it. Someone told him about Lodestone—they had to. He's smart, but no way is he smart enough or connected enough to figure out that Jenny Shepard had anything to do with his brother's death."
"But who? Why?"
He shrugged. "That's what Gibbs is going to find out. Meanwhile--"
"Meanwhile we have to start back the beginning." Abby was already warming to the task and keying commands into her computer. "If Tanguay's just a pawn, we've been looking at this all wrong. So we need to--"
"Go back over all the evidence from his apartment," McGee finished.
Tony rubbed his forehead wearily. "If you two are going to do that weird nerd-speak thing, I'm going to leave you to it. McPsychic, pass me some creepy crap from Tanguay's apartment. I'll see if there are any bread crumbs we can follow with good old fashioned police work."
Gibbs pulled the door shut and leaned back against it. He was in the middle of a deep breath when Ziva emerged from observation. She came to stand quietly beside him.
"We will need to inform the other agencies," she said quietly. Implicitly answering the question about Tanguay's credibility that he hadn't asked.
"I'll brief Fornell. Talk to DiNozzo and McGee. Tell them what we know." He studied her. "And Ziva, when you've done that, go home. All of you." He cut off the protest he knew was coming. "We've all been up for forty-eight hours. And it's going to take time for the FBI and the CIA to get their acts together. Lodestone is blown—and that's not our biggest problem. We may also have an active cell in our backyard."
He actually did get five straight hours of sleep—and in his bed. He had anticipated seeing Tanguay's eyes in his dreams, because he had recognized the rage in them the moment he set foot in the interrogation room. The man's need for revenge had bled off of him, and Gibbs had almost physically recoiled at both the intensity of it and his own feeling of recognition. He wondered if he had been that transparent, if when he'd left for Mexico Franks could read on his face what he'd been about to do.
Instead, when his cell rang, he couldn't remember having dreamed at all. "Gibbs," he growled into the phone.
"Sorry to wake you, Jethro."
"You don't sound that sorry, Tobias."
"I'm working on my social graces. Anyway, we have a situation, and SecNav's insisting we keep your team in the loop."
He swung his legs over the side of the bed and wrestled one-handed with a pair of pants. "Uh huh."
"The Navy was scheduled to take delivery on a shipment of weapons from ShepTech today."
"Tobias—"
"The shipment's been hijacked."
"Shit."
"It's gotta be related to Tanguay. What did he tell you?"
"Everything he knows--which isn't much. He didn't know the name of the man who contacted him and never saw any faces. We're still processing the evidence from his place, but so far whoever they are, they're a lot more careful than Tanguay."
Fornell gave a long sigh and then turned and relayed the information to someone else. "Listen, Jethro, I know you don't like playing with others—"
"Just tell me what you need."
"There had to be someone on the inside, either at ShepTech or in the Navy. Can you work that end? You've turned that company inside out in the last few days. If there's anything there, you're in the best position to find it."
"I'll check in on the hour."
An hour and thirty minutes later, having left DiNozzo and David at the scene of the hijacking, he was standing by Jenny Shepard's hospital bed with two cups of coffee debating the best way to wake her.
"Mmmm. Is that for me?"
He wafted one cup in front of her nose and smiled as her eyes finally opened. "Can you keep a secret?"
"For coffee, I'll keep any secret you like." She raised the head of the bed and reached eagerly for the cup. "So, apart from feeding my vices, what brings you here, Agent Gibbs?"
"Jethro."
"No," she countered. "You're wearing your Agent Gibbs look. I should know."
He settled into the chair by her bed. "There've been some… developments."
She paused from her eager intake of caffeine and stared intently at him. "Developments?"
"ShepTech was scheduled to deliver some weapons to the Navy today."
"That's right. The first generation of our new inertial guidance system was scheduled to head to Norfolk today. I spoke to Brian, my deputy, and the Secretary yesterday and everything was on track." She sat forward and he felt a frisson of electricity as her green eyes locked on his. "Did something happen with the delivery?"
"You could say that. It's been hijacked."
"What? By whom?"
"We're trying to find that out. What are you doing?" She had thrown back the covers on the hospital bed and looked to be about to swing her legs over.
"We need to go." She levered herself up with her good hand. Alarmed, he reached out, and therefore he was already in position to catch her when her knees buckled.
"You're in no shape to go anywhere," he grunted. She weighed next to nothing, but trying to hold her up without putting pressure on her injured shoulder or torso was logistically difficult.
"Cut the crap," she snapped back. "My weapons are out there, in the hands of god knows who. I don't have time to lie around and be ill."
"You make it sound like you got the vapors, Jenny. I hardly think recovering from a gunshot wound is a mere inconvenience."
"You can help me or you can watch. Actually, no, you can't watch," she amended. "This gown doesn't close in the back. But either way, I have to get out of here now."
Her urgency convinced him. As much as he wanted to continue to protest, he wasn't her keeper and didn't think he'd win the argument, anyway. "I'll get the doctor. You'll have to sign out AMA."
"Thanks. Can I borrow your phone?"
He looked at her quizzically.
"Your people took mine into evidence."
"Sure," he said, leaving his cell on the bed as he moved toward the door. "Who are you calling?"
"The Chief of Naval Operations. And then his boss, the Secretary of the Navy. I'm going to find those weapons." She swayed slightly on her feet as she said it, but her voice didn't waiver.
"I'll bring the car around."
He was surprised but grateful to see that she had acceded to the standard hospital wheelchair requirement. She slipped into the car beside him while DiNozzo recounted their progress.
"Boss, Abby found a fingerprint on the documents from Tanguay's apartment that matches Abu'l Fida. He's on the watchlist, but there's no record of him entering the country, so we have no way of knowing where he is now—but we're working on it," he added, hurriedly, no doubt anticipating the next question. "McGee has tweaked his number-cruncher and we're looking for anything the computer kicks out, but so far nothing—"
"Hang on, DiNozzo." He glanced over at his companion, who was breathing shallowly.
"You okay?"
"Fine," she hissed through gritted teeth. "Even if I weren't doped up, I don't think my stomach and your driving exactly go well together."
"Is that Director Shepard, Boss? Tell her we're all thinking about her."
"DiNozzo. The weapons."
"Right. Ziva and I talked to Stanley. The Navy assumes responsibility for the weapons at the point of delivery, which was ShepTech headquarters. As you know, they let the shipment get out of the building and a few miles into Virginia before they hit it. Which means—"
"The inside job is likely on our end," Gibbs finished.
"Right. Ducky says the Senior Chief is critical but stable. He's not going to be telling us what happened anytime soon, though." Gibbs thought back to the scene, which had essentially just been three bloody bodies by the side of the road and one who had at least survived to the hospital.
"Anything else?"
"We're working on it." He could hear the gloom in DiNozzo's voice and knew that their investigation was unlikely to produce the results they needed. "The FBI is battening down the hatches at the ports and airfields." That wasn't going to help if they didn't intend to get the weapons out of the country, but he didn't need to point that out.
"Are you heading back, Boss?"
"No, we're going to the Pentagon." He looked across at his passenger, who confirmed their destination with a small nod. "Call me when you have something."
He hung up on DiNozzo's acknowledgment. Jenny didn't say anything, but he could feel her questions. He realized that he hadn't actually told her anything beyond the bare details.
"They hit the shipment after the transfer, about ten miles into Virginia. Killed three men, left one for dead. He may make it, but he isn't up to talking."
"And you don't know who they are?" Normally he would have bristled at such a comment, but he knew she wasn't accusing him or impugning his team.
"No. Tanguay never knew—"
"Wait. He's involved in this? What aren't you telling me, Jethro?" He heard the slight tremor in her voice that she was trying to suppress.
"There's no way Tanguay could have figured out your involvement with Lodestone. He was tipped off that you were connected to his brother's death. He couldn't identify the informant, but they told him all about the failed surveillance op."
"And you think they're responsible for hijacking the weapons. Have you considered that it could be a coincidence?"
"I don't believe in coincidences." Out of the corner of his eye, he saw her smile at his blunt pronouncement.
"In this case, neither do I. You think him…" she paused, groping for a word, "attacking me was a diversion? So ShepTech's attention would be focused elsewhere?"
"And ours," he confirmed. "Whoever they are, they had to know that targeting you would spark the interest of the agencies running Lodestone."
"Super," she stated flatly. They hadn't talked at all about what had happened in the hours while she'd been Tanguay's captive, and they weren't going to have the chance just now, but he caught a glimpse of her left hand clenching into a fist.
He swung into the Pentagon by flashing his badge. It was clear someone knew they were coming because he was motioned through the restricted lanes and an officer in dress blues met them before he could kill the engine. "Who is that, Jenny?"
"The Vice Chief of Naval Operations. He's here to escort me through security. Your team also confiscated all my ID," she explained as she reached across herself to open the door with her free arm.
"Sir," an unsmiling Marine held up a hand as he exited. "I'm sorry, but you can't park here."
"But I—"
"Agent Gibbs?" The Under Secretary's hand was hovering over the small of Jenny Shepard's back and he gritted his teeth when he saw her stiffen as it brushed back of her jacket. "Thank you very much for bringing Director Shepard. We'll take good care of her."
She shot him an apologetic look.
"Let me guess. Need to know?" he ventured.
"Need to know," the other man confirmed.
He studied Jenny. She was paper-white and there were dark circles under her eyes. She held her body rigid, and he wondered whether her agreement to the painkillers had been a one-time thing. But she was wearing her arm strapped to her body over a grey suit and a green silk blouse, and she stood rock steady on the impossibly high heels she favored.
"Jethro," she said quietly, not quite meeting his eyes, "I have to make this right."
He slid back into the car, a look of relief that crossing the Marine's face, and turned for the Navy Yard.
End 11
Disclaimers in pt. 11
A/N: Sorry the updates have been slow. I'm traveling-- but I promise to be steady in my slowness.