Chapter 14

When he returned home, Dad was charging one of the burner phones. Tim had stopped to purchase airtime cards, paying cash and staying out of range of security cameras.

"Dad, we need to get this done fast. There are marshals over at the daycare and the preschool. I tried to convince myself that they could be there for some other witnesses, but my gut tells me no, that wasn't a false alarm and this…whatever it is…is going down soon."

"I agree. The phone's been charging for 90 minutes, is that enough?"

"Leave it a few more minutes."

"How much airtime did you get?"

"23 hours; we need to plan what we're going to tell Vance."

"First of all, he needs the DHS file, if they even opened one."

"Good point but you know Fornell would insist and why is he participating in this crap? You'd think he'd be our advocate."

"McQueen said he was the one who said neither of us would back down." Gibbs paused, "Actually he said if he was the FBI guy he was the one. Could be more than one FBI guy."

"Another good point, still I would have expected Fornell to get this done. Another thing Dad, whoever said that was dead wrong. As we said earlier, all either of us had to be told was that the kids could be in danger if we didn't back off and we would have done so immediately."

"Yeah kiddo, been thinking about that too. When it was just me I didn't care and our team could handle anything, but the babies, no way I would have continued."

Tim sighed, "All right, back to Vance. He needs the DHS file and any notes. If we can get access to Fornell, that would be good, that is if he's still involved in this. We need help as soon as possible. I don't know how these marshals will do in a stealth fight. Yeah, I know marshals are as well trained as we are but I really want our team here. I want combat gear for the two of us and how do we protect the kids?"

"You and I will be their last line of defense."

"No, I don't want them to be collateral damage. I want to take them somewhere they'll be safe."

"You're right and I think the four of us need to get to the Marshals' building."

Tim nodded, "Better security for us, the house looks empty, and the neighbors aren't scared to death or worse."

"Ok, let's talk to Vance and then pack up."

The phone was fully charged, they'd memorized Vance's burner number and now they just hoped he was still carrying it with him. Tim punched in the number; first making sure the speaker was on. He grabbed his father's hand when they heard a voice.

"Hello?"

"Director Vance, this is Tim and Jethro Gibbs. We're in trouble and need to talk, would you please engage SCIF?"

"Yes, hang on." While Vance turned to his computer, he kept talking. "Do we have a two-minute time limit?"

"No Sir, we're on a new burner phone."

"Good. Very glad to hear your voices. SCIF is on, what's happening?"

"We're still not sure what this is all about but we have a working theory. Before we get into that, we believe an attack on the four of us is imminent. We woke to an alert early this morning; the marshals were outside until daylight and then said it was a false alarm. However, there were marshals at the daycare and Ty's preschool and our guts are telling us it's not a false alarm, something's up. Marshals won't tell us and we want NCIS, our team, in on this, whatever 'it' is. We don't trust DHS and we believe part of the delay is pure politics."

"I've come to the same conclusion and how many people do you need? I'm assuming full gear?"

"Yes Sir and two extra for us, please. We have firearms but not our Sigs, nor do we have vests or helmets."

"All right, want to hang on while I get DiNozzo in on this?"

"Absolutely."

They heard him call Tony and order him to his office. While they were waiting, they told him how the kids were doing. They heard the door open and Tony's entrance.

"Agent DiNozzo, I need your team, hang on, you want them all?"

"Tony, Ellie, and Bob if he's still there. If there's anyone new on the team, we don't know him or her. Another agent we've worked with is fine. As we said, we don't trust anyone we don't know right now."

In DC, Tony was listening and trying to hold on to his emotions.

"All right, we'll add Fuller from Carter's team. Where are they going?"

Across from him, Tony was vibrating with emotion as he listened to Tim.

"Albuquerque, New Mexico, to a private airfield the Marshal's Service uses. If they fly in there we can pick them up although I'm sure we'll have marshals with us. And yeah, Fuller's a good add."

Tony cleared his throat, "Hi Tim! Boss, can you please say something and what are we doing?"

"Helping us, Tony, we're preparing for trouble; probable attack."

"Oh geez, so full gear."

"And two extra weapons would be great, we have firearms but we weren't allowed to purchase Sigs."

"All right. Director?"

"You, Bishop, Chalmers, and Fuller. Take your go bags, full gear, extra gear, and weapons, get over to Bolling and keep this quiet in the squad room. I'll let Carter know. I'm going to push for SecNav's jet. Rather you be over there and ready to go."

"Yes, Director. See you soon guys, love you both."

"Us too, Tony."

Tony caught Ellie's eye from the mezzanine and tilted his head toward Bob and the elevator. Tim and Jethro listened while Vance called Rick Carter and told him to send Evan Fuller to DiNozzo, that they had a combat mission for which they needed him. Rick's only comment was to ask if they needed anyone else.

Finishing the other call, Vance came back to them; they talked about the mystery case and their theories, pointing out the possibilities of a bright blue 1992 Crown Victoria belonging to someone other than Natalie McGee suddenly arriving in New Mexico.

While they talked, Vance did some research, reporting the car was registered to Annette Prospero in Tampa, Florida. He also received permission to use the Secretary's jet and sent a text to DiNozzo. Once he understood what his two exiled agents needed, they disconnected and he got to work. First, he explained the situation to the SecNav and she told him she'd help in any way. She took on the responsibility of calling Morrow to determine case status and to make immediate arrangements for the case file to be sent to NCIS. She had the backing of her superiors; no one would dare put a stop to it.

After Vance got his agents squared away, he contacted Fornell and told him what was going on. Although Tobias had gotten further on the case, he was stymied by the DHS team while FBI Director Beldon continued to get the runaround from Morrow's second in command. Unfortunately, the DHS team had figured out the FBI's play with the offer to help with the McGees' protection details and very little information was forthcoming after that.

When Secretary Porter was unable to reach Morrow, she called her boss who made the call through his office. The call was put through right away.

Within two hours of the Gibbses' phone call, help was on the way. Their team was in the air; Fornell was en route from Southern California and Rick Carter's team arrived at DHS to pick up the case files. Senior Division Chief Morrow knew he was in serious trouble and the Gibbs family, both vehicles and several suitcases were on their way to the Marshal's building.

As they approached the building, Tim called McQueen, noticing he didn't hear a ringtone. "Chief Inspector, this is Brian Hull and family. We're asking for asylum, we believe there's an imminent attack."

"I was just calling you to come in. How soon can you get here and do you want an escort?"

"We have both vehicles and are turning into your lot now; like to park underground."

"Use my code." He rattled it off and the security gate lifted.

"Come up to the office, do you have luggage?"

"Yes."

"I'll send someone down with the cart; you can have your former suite for the duration."

The kids were quiet. They knew something was wrong; their father had never pulled them out of school or daycare before. However, they still felt secure; Daddy and Poppy were carrying them and they knew this building was safe.

Up in the elevator to the office where Marshal Maggie was waiting for the children. "Thomas, Brinley, it's good to see you! Would you like to watch a movie? Your father and grandfather will be in the room with the windows again."

They looked at Daddy who nodded so they followed Marshal Maggie.

The Gibbs men stood in McQueen's office. "We know that wasn't a false alarm last night."

"Correct. We were first told it was by DHS and then that it wasn't by Albuquerque PD and they were right. What happened is that about 2330 last night, a 1992 blue Crown Victoria rolled into the county. Background on that is DHS warned us about this vehicle months ago, that particular year, color, model and we'd passed the word to local law enforcement. There's a nationwide BOLO on it, although to observe and report, not to stop or engage.

"State troopers and Sheriff's deputies saw it and reported, PD heard the report and alerted their patrols, notified us. We sent the detail to your place while the PD observed the vehicle as it entered the city limits. It drove around the city for three hours, including your neighborhood. Finally, it stopped at a hotel and we were able to get a good look at the driver. It was not the woman we expected but a man. The license plate was badly damaged and it took our techs a few hours to get the digital image cleaned up enough to read. It's the right vehicle, wrong driver.

"PD kept an eye on him anyway and when the man called for room service, one of our marshals delivered the food. He was able to take a photo and facial recognition just found the driver, Rik Krose, about forty-five minutes ago. We ran his record, which is lengthy and violent; he's a sociopath and a known associate of the woman who's been after you for the past year. I sent marshals out to bring you in and was literally calling you when you called."

Tim had a weird feeling in his gut as he asked, "May I see the photo?"

McQueen handed him a 5x7 and Tim again paled under his tan.

"Tim?"

"You were right Dad; there was an attempt while I was in the hospital. Maybe more than one. This is Rev. Potter, the chaplain who told me my father and brother were dead, the one that somehow knew Natalie's name when nobody knew who I was."

McQueen frowned, "How long ago was that?"

"28 years".

"You were just a kid."

"Who'd been thrown from his father's car during a hit and run. Which is still a cold case."

"So is that what DHS has been dragging its ass on? The reason you're here?"

"We believe it's at least part of it. Is the woman who owns the car called Natalie McGee? We know it's registered in another name."

McQueen looked at a page in the file he had open, "That's one of her aliases; it's believed her real name is Svetlana Stacevyko."

Tim turned to look at his father, "If I had internet access, I bet I could find her employment records at that maternity clinic."

"Good, we can do that during clean up. Chief Inspector, this woman has been involved in my son's life literally since the day he was born. We believe she was an accomplice to his kidnapping when he was less than 24 hours old. Three years later, she attached herself to his adoptive father, faking a marriage to him. We believe she was the one who eventually killed him and Tim's brother in the hit and run, abandoning Tim and his sister. That forced them into homelessness that lasted until Tim turned 18. We don't know what else she's done although she may also be responsible for an attack on Tim when he was 12."

"However, we took action this morning. We contacted Leon Vance, Director of NCIS and our boss; he's sending an armed team to assist. They're the rest of my team, three of us worked together for 12 years and we've had hundreds of armed situations, firefights, taken out entire terrorist cells, serial killers, and gangs. Tim and I have been in firefights in Afghanistan and Iraq as well as at home. We are combat ready.

"With the new information, I believe Svetlana is not far behind Krose and this is her endgame, to finally kill Timothy McGee, as she knows him. We know our actions mean we're out of the program, we only ask for your help in bringing Svetlana Stacevyko and her accomplices to justice. Director Vance and the Secretary of the Navy have confirmed our employment as armed Federal Agents with NCIS, you should have an e-mail and fax soon. Our team is in the air, ETA is now 1 hour, 30 minutes; they're traveling in Secretary Porter's jet and will touch down at the airfield you use. Neither of us has contacted DHS, our problems with them have been bumped up to the President's Chief of Staff who has taken it to the President."

He stopped as the burner phone Tim brought with them beeped with a text. Tim read it, showed his dad and smiled grimly, "FBI Senior Agent Tobias Fornell is also on his way here from California, says he wants in on the action. His ETA is 1 hour 10 minutes via the FBI jet which will also land at that airfield."

McQueen took a deep breath, "Thank you for your candor and the information. We will, of course, work with you; it will be a pleasure to bring that monster to justice."

"One more thing, Chief Inspector."

"How she found you here?"

"Yes."

"Starting with the first report of that vehicle entering the county, three of my marshals and I have examined every piece of communication that has left this office in the last three months and they're continuing to work their way backward. So far we haven't found the leak."

"Did anyone on the DHS team know our location?"

"It's possible. It wouldn't have come from here but it is possible someone at our National headquarters updated the team leader with your location. It's not our usual protocol but it's likely they would not have thought it a risk because it was the same team that ordered your protection." He paused, "You know that whoever leaked your location to Svetlana committed an act of treason?"

Tim closed his eyes, "Yes, I did know that." He shook his head, "I'm far more likely to believe the leak came from DHS than your service. There has been so much political crap involved in this, why not add treason to the mix? The traitor may have figured Dad and I would be dead and the Marshals would be blamed."

"What kind of surveillance is Stacevyko under? And how do you expect her to arrive?"

"Every LEO in the state has been alerted to her appearance, especially the description of her eyes. Albuquerque PD has Krose in custody on an old warrant; they can keep him for another 10 hours. If NCIS or the FBI gets a warrant, you can pick him up and he can sit in our lockup."

"We don't have our badges or id. They were confiscated."

McQueen smiled, "And arrived here with you because I was told your stay would be two to three months, maximum. I wanted to get you back to your lives as quickly as possible. I did start getting suspicious when DHS first sent us a check for your expenses and then an additional one for housing. That's never happened before, not in my experience."

"Remember who they were signed by?"

"I made copies of them. Both were signed by Senior Division Chief Morrow."

Tim turned to his father, "So he moves from good guy to dirtbag with a tiny bit of conscience."

"Yeah. Looks like politics ruined him."

McQueen unlocked a file cabinet drawer, sorted through a pile of plastic bags and pulled several out.

"Special Agent Timothy Gibbs, your badge and id, your Sig, your phone and uh…your iPod, iPad, and laptop. And here, we have the same model phone; I'll swap batteries with you so your phone is all set to go."

"Thanks." He immediately fastened his badge to his jeans and slipped his ID into his pocket. The marshals had kept the holster with his Sig. Tim removed the weapon from the holster, "Chief, you have someplace I can clean my weapon?"

The Chief was in the process of handing Gibbs senior his things and looked up. "Of course, Tompkins will take you to the armory. You'll need gear anyway."

Gibbs smiled, "Unless you have something we don't, we'll have our own, thanks. The team is bringing our gear and extra weapons. Any snipers in your bunch?"

"Not here, no."

"Ok, Tim and I will take those positions then, if needed. I served as a sniper in the Marines and I trained him."

"Too bad Ziva isn't here."

"Yeah." When McQueen looked curious, he explained. "Ziva David was with us for 8 years, the first 6 as a liaison between Mossad and NCIS; she was a Mossad operative. Then she left Mossad, became an American citizen and an NCIS agent. Served for two years before leaving. She was also a sniper, did a lot of wet work before coming to us."

Stan just stared at him, finally saying, "I had no idea you, your son, and team had led such interesting lives." He huffed, "No wonder you were so bored! Are you going back to the field?"

Tim shook his head, "I left it after my children came to live with me. They'd just lost their mothers, there was no way I would risk leaving them orphans. Before we were taken, I was the manager of the DC Cyber Crimes unit."

"Will you get that back?"

Tim shrugged, "Doubt it, not a position that can be left empty for long."

"I'm truly sorry."

"Not your fault, you were caught in this as much as we were."

"Thank you for your understanding. Gibbs senior, are you going back to the field?"

Gibbs winced at the 'senior', it reminded him too much of Tony's father. "No, my second in command has been leading for 9 months, I'm not going to force the issue and I know he's doing a wonderful job. Anyway, I have other things I want to do now. My first priority now is my family."

With their newly returned belongings in hand, father and son popped their heads into the 'playroom' to tell the kids they were going to stay in the same rooms they'd been in before. The kids could stay and play, Daddy and Poppy had some work to do. The kids were somewhat preoccupied with the movie and nodded, although Tyler gave his father a curious look. They kissed and hugged Tyler and Bryn before continuing on their way.

Entering the suite again felt a bit off but neither man commented. Their bags had been delivered and the food in the cooler put in the refrigerator and freezer. Tim tucked his laptop, iPod, iPad and other electronics into a sports bag and put it in the closet in the adults' bedroom. Putting the charged battery in his phone, he smiled as he called his sister.

"Tim? Oh please be you!"

"It is me, sweetie, me and Dad. And the kids but they're watching a movie upstairs."

"Are you all right? Where are you, can you say? When are you coming home? We've missed you so much and Geordie's here now too."

"We're all right, the kids are doing great; they've grown a lot. This is almost over, have some dirty work to do but Dad and I brought NCIS into it so Tony, Ellie, and the rest of the team are coming to help us finish. Don't know when we'll be home, I'll let you know as soon as we know. I'm glad Geo's there, did you send for him, how long is he staying? Where are you? I forgot to put a country code in, so you must be back in the States."

"Yes, we came back at Christmastime when Geordie showed up and yes we sent for him. We're in Alexandria; we've been living in your house with Ellie. Oh, you might not know that, she moved in here and Tony moved into Gibbs' house. Geo transferred out of Special Ops, he's stationed at Quantico. And you still haven't said where you are."

"That's great about Geordie and the house; we're in Albuquerque, New Mexico."

"Wow that actually sounds pretty cool."

"We haven't seen much outside the city. Tell you all about it when we see you. Have to go meet Tony's plane! Love you and our brothers more than I can ever express."

"And I – we – love you, the kids and Gibbs. Good luck with the dirty work, is that like what's called wet work?"

"Uh, sorta. Gotta run Sari, bye!"

He took a moment to even out his breathing; he couldn't believe he'd just spoken with his baby sister! Calloused hands rubbed his shoulders and he leaned into them.

"We have to finish this, she has to be stopped, let us live our lives."

"Agreed. The kids are playing, no rooftop for them today. Your gut telling you anything more?"

"That's she's close by. Not here yet. I don't understand why - never mind, DHS can just go to hell with her."

"C'mon, let's go get reacquainted with our Sigs, then it'll be time to pick up Tobias and our team."

Agreeing, Tim followed his father to the armory where they found Tompkins waiting for them. They cleaned their weapons and inspected the sniper rifles he showed them. They could handle them, would handle them if the situation called for it. They looked at the combat gear and noticed the add-ons to protect the area where the vests stopped, leaving the undersides of arms, clavicles and necks unprotected. Each add-on had maximum strength hook and loop fasteners.

They each tried a vest on, agreeing it felt fine; Tompkins helped them attach the add-ons and Gibbs nodded at his son. "You're wearing those and yes, so will I. Tompkins, how many extras of these add-ons do you have on hand?"

"We have 20 marshals stationed here and 30 sets of combat gear, including packs of those add-ons."

"May we borrow 7 of them, for the two of us and our team coming in?"

"Of course. Chief Inspector said to make sure you saw them."

Keeping the vests on, they made sure the extra pieces were secure. They tried on sturdy boots from the extras and each found a pair that fit well enough. For Gibbs, slipping his holstered weapon onto his belt felt good, almost like he was complete again. They declined the helmets, each preferring to wait and wear his own. Knowing his father's penchant for replacing his helmet with his NCIS swoop cap, Tim extracted a promise from him to wear the helmet for this mission.

From the armory, they went to the garage, climbed into a Chevy Suburban with Mary and Marsh and departed for the airfield, another SUV following them.

The FBI jet was just landing as they arrived and Fornell deplaned with his phone planted on his ear. Disconnecting he walked to the Gibbses and then wrapped his arms as far as he could around them. After returning the hug, they pulled back, introducing him to Shepherd, Miller and Davis who'd driven the other SUV. He nodded to them and then launched into an update. The Bureau had satellite imagery of a car believed to be driven by Svetlana leaving Lubbock, heading west. "It's 319 miles from Lubbock to Albuquerque; the image is about an hour old so we have roughly four hours to get ready."

"How do they know it's her?"

"Because, son of my ex-wife's ex-husband, the FBI is finally able to work on this with NCIS; I'm up to date and your boss asked me to update you and your friends. Rick and Dorneget are working with Intel Analysts scouring security footage of the roadways between here and Tampa. Dorneget found a rusty older vehicle at a gas station in Lubbock. Plates were out of state. He kept his eyes on the car and in minutes an older dark-haired woman emerged from the restroom; he headed to MTAC and got a satellite image clear enough to see her small eyes. Small mean eyes. They got the plate number and it is registered to an alias of none other than your boy in lockup, Krose. And oh yeah, the image of Svetlana matched the others that DHS has been sitting on for 9 months. By the way, anything you're thinking about them is true. The spooks at Langley look like Boy Scouts next to those idiots."

They stopped talking and moved away from the FBI jet as it rolled down the runway to a hanger. At their questioning looks, Tobias shrugged, "Yeah, I get to keep it until we're done here."

"Wow." Miller could have bitten his tongue off, it had been a spontaneous remark; he'd had no idea the Hulls/Gibbses had friends in such high places or maybe they'd been in those high places themselves.

Whatever else Fornell might have said was lost to the noise generated by another sleek jet making a landing. The Gibbses grinned at each other, "The cavalry's all here now!"

Once the gangway lowered, the hatch opened and Tony DiNozzo nearly jumped down the steps. "Boss, Tim!" It was an incongruous sight: the three men in their fierce looking combat gear, hugging like a family who'd been separated for too long. There were a few tears surreptitiously wiped away but nobody said a word. Then Tim looked toward the jet and Mary cursed quietly at the look on his face. A man in a trance, he moved toward the agent hurrying down the gangway.

"Ellie!"

She touched his face and said his name as he pulled her into his arms. Mary made a noise as her former witness passionately kissed the other agent. Beside her, Miller murmured something sympathetic; his partner had the worst luck!