Chapter 12

After another couple of hours, Tony and Ziva went back to the medical center to chat with Ducky, but Kate and Gibbs decided to check on Tim and see what progress he'd made, if any.

As they walked together toward the security center, there was no conversation. Kate felt a little awkward, but she wasn't about to admit to that, not to Gibbs, and not on the ship where anyone might hear.

"You coming back after this?"

Kate suppressed a smile. The third or fourth time someone had asked her.

"You mean after my next six months?"

"Yeah.

"That's my plan, unless you have other ideas."

"Nope."

"Good."

Another period of silence, broken only by sailors headed to and from their various posts.

"Not the same without you."

Kate couldn't help but smile this time. That was positively effusive for Gibbs.

"Is that good or bad?"

Gibbs just looked at her with a raised eyebrow.

"Well, Stan is still planning on coming back here after the next six months. So I'll be stepping aside."

"Good."

They reached the security center and found Tim hard at work...but with a bucket beside him. It didn't appear to have been used. Kate looked over at Lt. Lyons who was currently supervising the center and raised an eyebrow.

"Any problems?" she asked.

He tried not to smile but only partially succeeded.

"Not yet. He said that it would be a good idea to have it ready, just in case. Last thing he said before he started working. Haven't had a word from him since."

"No surprise there," Kate said.

Tim's eyes were flicking rapidly back and forth, apparently scanning the cameras himself as the view switched from camera to camera.

"I've seen sailors get in the zone, but this is in a different class."

"Agent McGee knows his stuff," Kate said.

She walked over and sat down beside Tim.

"How's it going, Tim?"

No response. Gibbs was clearly not feeling particularly patient. He stalked over and tapped Tim on the back of the head. Tim jumped and looked back at Gibbs and then at Kate.

"Yeah? What is it?" he asked.

"Find anything?" Kate asked.

"Not yet. I've eliminated a lot of people. Each person that's eliminated is one less face the program has to identify, but still it..."

There was a beep.

"Is that a hit?" Kate asked, eagerly.

"Maybe. It's a face that the program isn't recognizing, but it could still just be a bad angle or..."

Two more beeps.

Tim leaned farther forward and started typing. A man in uniform was currently walking through a hallway. There was a flashing square around his face every time it was toward a camera.

"What camera is this?" Kate asked.

"I'm not sure. There have been so many I've been looking at that..."

"Be sure, McGee," Gibbs said.

"Being sure, Boss," Tim said.

Then, the man went through a door and...

"Oh, no. Where is that?" Tim asked.

"Engine room," Kate said. She turned to the lieutenant. "Lt. Lyons, inform the skipper that we've spotted our stowaway and are on our way to engage. Currently, we're headed toward the engine room."

"Yes, ma'am."

The three of them hurried out of the security center.

"I hope we're not too late," Kate said.

x.x.x.x.x.x.x

Seaman Bowman sighed a little. Time passed very slowly when all one had to do was watch a bunch of dials. He didn't particularly want excitement since that would mean something was going wrong with the engines but still this wasn't very thrilling. He nodded vaguely at another sailor who came into the area and then turned back to the gauges.

Suddenly, there was an arm around his neck, holding him so tightly he almost couldn't breathe.

"If you want to live through the next five minutes, you'll do exactly as I say. Understand?" came a harsh whisper.

"I understand," Seaman Bowman said, softly.

"Good. Now, we're going to take a walk. Don't even think about trying to signal someone."

"I can't leave my post."

"You will one way or another. Know what I mean?"

Seaman Bowman felt a circle of metal press against his neck.

"Understood."

"Good. Let's go."

"Yes, sir."

As they walked, Seaman Bowman wasn't sure what to do. Was this a terrorist? He hadn't got a good look at the man, not really. If it was a terrorist, then, he shouldn't do anything that he was told to do...but at the same time, if he got killed, what would happen to to the rest of the ship?

"Take me to the missile bays."

Seaman Bowman started to take a step in the appropriate direction, hoping that the fact that they'd go someplace with more people would get him out of this, but the man jerked him backward.

"Not those. You have an experimental missile on board this bucket. It's not going to be in with the usual artillery."

"Uh, I don't know what you're talking about, sir," Seaman Bowman said. "This is only my first deployment."

"And you're going to pretend you don't know your way around here?"

"I do, but I don't know anything about..."

He was jerked backwards again.

"Enough. I don't care what you don't know. If you can't take me where I want to go, then, I'll just kill you and get on with it. You won't be the first person to die at my hands. Got it?"

This must be the man who killed Rossi and Paulson! What now?

Still, Seaman Bowman didn't see that he had much choice at this point. He knew that there was an area that was generally restricted to most of the crew, so he started that way. If there was something secret on board, that would be the place for it. And maybe someone would be there and get him out of this. The man moved the gun down to his waist, but that didn't matter. He could still feel it poking at him.

He had got closer to the restricted area than he really wanted to be when suddenly, the arm was back around his neck and the gun was at his head.

"I can hear you!" the man said. "I've already killed twice on this ship. I'll do it again!"

Seaman Bowman was jerked around just as the NCIS Agent Afloat stepped into view, her gun raised and pointing at them both.

"Seaman, are you all right?" Kate asked.

"Yes, ma'am."

"Shut up," his captor snarled. "If you want him to stay that way..."

"If you shoot him, you're dead," Kate said, very grimly. "The only thing holding me back at the moment is your hostage. Once you've got him out of the way, I won't hesitate. You've got to decide what you want to do more. Kill or live?"

Seaman Bowman had never spoken to the NCIS agent before, but he'd never make the mistake of thinking she was soft like some of the crew did. There was nothing soft about her right now. She was scary.

Then, he heard something from behind him. There was a lot of noise down near the engine room, but he'd long since learned to filter that out, and he was sure that he'd heard someone else behind him. He looked at Agent Todd, trying to ask for something without saying anything or cluing his captor into something being different.

Kate didn't even seem to look at him.

"You're running out of time," Kate said, raising her gun slightly.

"Are you fast enough to take me down?" the man asked.

"Are you willing to risk the possibility that I am?" Kate asked.

Then, from behind them.

"Drop your weapon."

There was a minuscule loosening of the arm around his neck and the gun pulled away from his head.

"Seaman, hit the deck!" Kate shouted.

Throwing caution to the winds, Seaman Bowman threw his head back and hit his captor in the face and then pulled away and dropped to the deck, arms over his head. He might even have closed his eyes.

He heard gunfire and then felt a weight hit the deck...and his own legs.

"Got him?"

"Got him," Kate said. "Seaman, are you all right?"

Seaman Bowman was surprised to realize that he was. He pushed himself up onto his hands and knees and looked up at the agent. She was smiling now, and seemed like a totally different person, almost.

"Yes, ma'am."

"You must have a hard head then," she said.

"That's what my momma always told me."

Kate chuckled and let out a loud exhale.

He looked back and saw his captor dead on the deck. Two other NCIS agents were bent over him, checking him out.

He started to stand and then accepted Kate's hand as he stood.

"What's your name?" she asked.

"Seaman Charles Bowman, ma'am. I was on duty in the engine room."

"Yes, we know. I'm glad we weren't too late."

"He said he'd killed people already. Did he mean Rossi and Paulson?"

"Very likely. Did he say anything else? What did he want from you?"

"I was supposed to lead him to..." Then, Seaman Bowman hesitated. "He said that there was an experimental missile on board, ma'am, that it was being stored in one of the missile bays in the restricted area. Is he right?"

"So he wanted you to show him where it might be?"

"Yes, ma'am, but I don't know anything about that, ma'am."

"Need to know, Seaman Bowman...and you don't."

"Yes, ma'am. What now?"

"Now, we clean up this mess. You give a report and then you can brag to your buddies that you helped bring down a stowaway and murderer."

"Did I do that, ma'am?"

Kate smiled. "Yes, you did."

"Wow." Then, he realized that his post was still vacant. "I should get back to my post, ma'am."

"Very true, Seaman Bowman, but only until we can get someone there to take your place. We'll need you to make a full report both to me and to the skipper."

"Of course, ma'am."

"All right. Return to your post."

"Yes, ma'am."

Seaman Bowman walked back to his post and stood there for a few seconds. He'd only been gone for a few minutes.

The gauges hadn't moved at all.

x.x.x.x.x.x.x

"That was good work, Kate," Tony said. "Talk about quick planning."

"Had to be," Kate said. "If he'd already killed twice, I didn't want him to have a chance to make it an uneven three."

"Too bad he's dead, though," Tim said. "I mean, we had to shoot him, but now, we won't be able to ask who he was working for."

Tony waved his hand in the air at that.

"Eh, you'll do some magic computer voodoo and come up with his whole history, down to the name of his pet raccoon in third grade."

"Raccoon?" Tim repeated.

"He's a weird guy. What can I say?"

Tim groaned.

Suddenly, Kate grinned. "It'll be just like on dry land. We can get Ducky down here to check out the body."

"Well, we know what happened to this guy," Tony said.

"Still need to document it, DiNozzo," Gibbs said.

And they did. It was pretty simple, but it was thorough. Seaman Bowman gave his full report and was also enjoying his fifteen minutes of fame because of his part in stopping the killer. Commander Wood helped get their killer's body stored until they could get it transferred back to land. They sent what they could to Abby so she could start the processing of figuring out who he was. Kate and Gibbs briefed the skipper on what had happened, detailing all the decisions that had led to confrontation. Tim had started feeling nauseous again, but with the seas beginning to calm, his usual dramamine made him drowsy but kept him from throwing up. In fact, he had missed most of the reporting on everything because Ducky had intervened and forced Tim to take a rest after his long hours without any sleep and he had fallen asleep as soon as he lay down in their quarters.

But then, it was just a matter of waiting until the seas calmed enough that they could get the C-2 to transport them back.

x.x.x.x.x.x.x

"So, what's the bottom line on Rossi and Paulson?" Captain Jones asked.

"They were almost certainly involved in getting the killer on board," Kate said. "There's little question of that, given the arguments they were having and the manner in which they were killed. But it's possible that they were having second thoughts and that's what the argument was about. If that's the case, then, they were deciding what to do and when the killer heard them, he decided to get rid of them and get off the ship himself."

The skipper nodded. "And it's also possible that they were just arguing about how much money they were going to get."

"True. But since all three are dead, we have no way of verifying that."

"That being the case, I see no reason to ruin their reputations or hurt their families by bringing it up. It's bad enough that they were murdered."

"I agree," Kate said.

"Good. Then, we'll have the official reports with NCIS, but as far as the media is concerned, the focus will be on the man himself and I hope he gets identified soon."

"I hope so, too," Kate said. "When will the C-2 be getting here?"

"Tomorrow at 0700 hours. The bodies and all the evidence will be transported along with the NCIS team. Hopefully, we can get back to normal."

"Yes," Kate said, but she did feel an unexpected pang of homesickness that she'd not had the entire time she'd been aboard. There was a part of her that wanted to stow away on the transport and go back to D.C.

"Planning on joining them, Agent Todd?"

Kate grinned. "No. Not seriously anyway. I have six more months and you'll get my best work. No less."

"Glad to hear it. Dismissed."

"Yes, sir," Kate said.

She left the skipper to his work while she headed to her office to check through the tasks that she should have been doing if it hadn't been for the deaths of Rossi and Paulson.

It was nearly the end of the case and with that end, her friends would be leaving the group and things really would get back to normal aboard ship.