Big thanks to my beta, VanishingP2000. I still own nothing.

Chapter 14

Gibbs practically growled in frustration as Agent Eppes told him that another body had been found and that there were a couple more agents working with them. They remained distinctly vague and unspecific about exactly which agency these new agents hailed from. The look on Ziva's face told him that she did hold that knowledge, but that he wasn't going to find out. Which just pissed him off. And he hadn't even been in a remotely good mood to begin with. The murderous look on his face actually caused McGee to literally take a step back in fear.

"So, is NCIS actually going to be included in this investigation at some point, or is the FBI and god knows who else just going to cut us out in our own damn building!" Gibbs thundered as Colby, David and Amanda entered the bullpen. David winced slightly at the volume and fury in his voice, while Colby and Amanda looked eerily serene. Sarah and Ziva also wore similar expression of varying disinterest, although Ziva was showing a slight interest in Amanda's appearance. In truth, Ziva was absolutely shocked to see Amanda alive again, but her many years of Mossad training allowed her to keep most of the surprise out of her expression.

Tony also looked largely unaffected because his extensive undercover experience and his equally extensive pissed off Gibbs experience allowed him to keep a mostly straight face as looked between the four unruffled agents. Out of all of them, Ziva was the one showing the most emotion, which was surprising as Ziva was usually the one that showed the least. If these four played poker, Ziva would probably lose. Using his keen investigative skills, Tony inferred that Agent Granger and the other two women, who were both more than beautiful, the younger looking one with light brown hair and bright blue eyes and the older with fiery red hair-too bright to be natural but not too obtrusive and deep grayish green eyes. They were hot, but apparently unavailable, judging by Agent Granger's hand resting on the red head's back and her head resting against his chest and the ring on the others left ring finger.

"Do I at least get some names for these two!" Gibbs asked, still fuming.

"Yes, but only because if you keep referring to us as 'you two' one of us will end up killing you," Amanda told him, raising her eyebrows slightly and everyone except for the ever oblivious McGee knew that it was not an idle threat. Gibbs nodded sharply and almost imperceptibly and Amanda continued. "She's Agent Sarah Rodriguez and I'm Agent Amanda Granger," she told them before nudging Colby slightly and they both turned and walked away from the NCIS team's workspace, followed closely by Sarah and David. Megan sent a curious look towards Ziva, who was watching Amanda leave with barely noticeable shock on her face, which Megan picked up on only because she, as a psychological profiler, was trained pick up on subtle changes in facial expressions. Don tapped Megan's arm lightly and they followed the rest of the group, albeit somewhat more slowly. Tony and Gibbs exchanged one of their trademark looks which Ziva had never truly understood and they both reached down and pulled open their top desk draws and retrieved their guns, clipping them to their belts before heading for the elevator on the opposite side of the bullpen from the FBI team and Ziva and McGee quickly followed the two senior agent's leads, running to catch up with them before the elevator departed. As the elevator doors opened they revealed FBI Senior Special Agent Tobias Fornell.

"Oh great. More surprises and cryptic shit from the FBI," Tony muttered sarcastically and to everyone's surprise Gibbs didn't whack the back of his head because he completely agreed with the sarcastic sentiment and underlying irritation.

"Tobias. To what do we owe the…pleasure?" Gibbs asked as Fornell looked at Tony curiously.

"What do you mean, DiNotso?" Fornell asked, mispronouncing Tony's last name as he always insisted on doing.

"What do you mean, what do I mean?" Tony shot right back, although he looked just as confused by Fornell's statement as Fornell had been by his statement.

"What do you mean by 'more surprises and cryptic shit' DiNotso?" Fornell rolled his eyes slightly at the younger man's antics.

"Wait, you're not here about our joint case with the FBI's LA office?" Gibbs asked, narrowing his eyes questioningly.

"What case? I'm here unofficially. An old friend of mine was murdered about an hour ago. His name is… was ATF Special Agent Mark Howe. He had Mockingbird carved into his back and I heard that you had a case with the same MO, I just wanted you to keep me in the loop, cause I know how you hate to share," Fornell said.

"Well then you are here about the LA FBI's case," Tony told him as they all piled on the elevator, more cramped than usual because they were squishing five people in the elevator along with all of the team's gear.

"What the hell are you on about DiNotso? Are you just trying to be dense and irritating or are you actually oblivious?" Fornell asked in irritation and Tony rolled his eyes.

"The FBI is working with us on this. They had six bodies back in LA with the exact same MO. And they've totally taken over the case, even though it was kinda technically theirs to begin with, but anyway, they've totally shut us out of the case completely and we have absolutely no idea what is even going on," Tony said dryly and Fornell stared at him.

"Wait, Gibbs let the FBI shut NCIS out of the investigation? That has got to be a first," Fornell said, raising his eyebrows and looking over at Gibbs.

"I didn't let them do anything, Tobias. They've got spies coming out of the woodwork not to mention a damn traitor on the team," Gibbs growled, fuming.

"What do you mean 'spies'? As in plural, multiple spies?" Fornell asked and McGee's look of confusion increased. He had no idea what the three senior agents were talking about. Ziva also remained silent up to that point, although she was watching the conversation with interest and following it closely.

"Yes, spies. Two female spies, Agent Amanda Granger and Agent Sarah Rodriguez. Very elite, if my extensive experience with spies is any judge. They show absolutely no emotion and Sarah, the younger one does not appear to be much older than college age. The older one, Amanda, is around 30. Both very young for their apparent skill levels." Ziva summarized quickly and succinctly in an extremely matter of fact voice, causing the rest of the elevator's occupants, except for Tony who had come to the same conclusions as she had, to stare at her in awe. "What? I am a spy; it is my job to assess the skill levels of those around me. I can't not do it," she defended. She did not mention that she knew for a fact that Amanda was 30 and high level Black Ops. Not to mention supposedly dead for over 7 years. Than again, being dead do make for an extremely good cover.

"You know, Gibbs, sometimes Officer David is scary as hell. Not to mention that fact that apparently DiNotso doesn't find her observations odd, which is also rather frightening and Agent McGee looks like he's going to pass out. Seriously, Jethro, have you ever considered just how freaky your people are," Tobias commented wryly and Gibbs smirked while McGee looked slightly insulted and Ziva and Tony grinned at each other before giving each other a jubilant high five, indicating that they were extremely proud of their scariness.

"Yep. That's how I train them, well, except for McGee. His comes naturally and I'm still trying to beat it out of him," Gibbs told him.

"I guess that having so many spies around him scares him a little. Particularly several spies that are scarier than our dear Officer David," Tony smirked and McGee blushed slightly while Ziva gave him one of her small, slightly dangerous smiles.

"Okay, moving away from the terror that my team inspires in the hearts of FBI agents and back to why you're here. Why don't you take a stab at getting the LA FBI team to tell you something, because they basically hate me because I went off on Granger and called him a traitor. I'm fairly certain that Agent Sinclair honestly wants to kill me," Gibbs said with his usual sly 'I've pissed someone off' grin.

"Absolutely shocking. You always did have a special gift of pissing the hell out of FBI agents. So out of the FBI agents, who should I try to hit up for information?"

"Well, Granger's a definite no; he is way too good at keeping secrets, obviously. Sinclair will follow Granger's lead when it comes to this stuff, so asking him will be no good. I get the feeling that he other two will also follow Granger's lead, but perhaps not as staunchly. Eppes or Reeves might tell you in the spirit of cooperation or because they feel bad about your friend, but I don't know. I have not seen enough of them to know. However, try Eppes first because if you try to go around him, Reeves will tell him and then neither of them will give you anything," Ziva said, causing Fornell to look at her warily once again.

"Seriously, I'm not sure if she's scarier when she silent or when she's talking," Fornell said, causing Tony to snort slightly and Ziva to send him a death glare, which he promptly ignored. "But thank you for your character analysis Officer David. I think that I will try Agent Eppes first."

"Well, that's good Tobias. But now, if you'll excuse us, we have a murder to investigate," Gibbs said with his usual irritation when someone was holding him up during an investigation as the elevator doors opened and he swept out of it, the rest of the team hot on his heels.