"It's amazing the way a group of completely different people come together in the unlikeliest of times, isn't it?" Nigel remarked, examining an M-16 for any flaws or imperfections in the base's weapon room.

Tony shook his head. "No, you know what I find amazing? I find it amazing that I'm actually standing in the middle of a room loaded with weapons, some of which I haven't even heard of," he gestured around the room where various weapons lay on metal tables, "and I can't think up the movie quote that's right on the tip of my tongue! Can you believe that? It's driving me insane!"

"That's because it's no quote, mate." Nigel said easily as placed the weapon back down. "It was a scene; Hot Fuzz, British film, 2007. The barn scene with that farmer with an accent so thick he couldn't be understood…"

"And the barn with like a hundred different automatic weapons stacked in it!" Tony finished triumphantly.

"And one gigantic sea mine that ended up blowing the police station to hell and back, don't forget."

"Forget it? That was like one of the best parts of the film! Apart from that kickass gunfight that happened just a little earlier. Man, I can't believe I forgot about that!" Tony shook his head. "I mean, who would expect something like that to happen in a little village in rural England? I mean, rural America I could understand but this…" He gestured with a hand. "This was something so out of the ordinary that it was just… perfect!"

Nigel gave a small chuckle. "Well, if things go the way we expect them to, you might find yourself in your own little shootout sooner rather than later. Not in a quiet English village, but definitely one that would rival the intensity of that scene."

Tony looked at the Australian. "You honestly think we're going into hell itself or something?"

"I don't think so, mate." Nigel returned his look. "I know so."

"And you're so confident because?" Tony prompted.

"Because we've been working on this situation for quite a while. Because we've discovered a whole lot of information that links in that direction." Nigel said evenly. "And since we've discovered that the Blood Devils are behind these mass abductions, the probability has only skyrocketed."

"I take it you think this isn't going to be a mere 'find the bad guys' secret base, swoop in and arrest them all for taking what isn't theirs'."

Nigel shook his head. "Not a chance in hell. And that's probably where we're all going when all this is all said and done."

Tony narrowed his eyes in confusion. Nigel went on, "But there's still a good deal to do before we're ready to tackle that. We have quite a few more people we need to pick up; this mission is going to be a certain bloodbath for us if we're not adequately prepared. Not that I wouldn't volunteer to be the first to take a hit for this mission, but I'd rather we have all our resources before I go and make a decision like that. Stephanie said it would be far better if we have every backup plan possible before doing what we intend to do."

Tony raised an eyebrow a fraction. "It sounds like she thinks she's the one really in charge of this op."

"She was- until this morning. Everyone in this base including me answered directly to her since the only one she reported to was Director Delcourt. Stephanie is a good CSIS operative and a very capable leader, but she's not one for having her authority or her expertise challenged. She prefers to get results the first time and she doesn't take kindly to those who question her decisions. Gibbs is a rare exception; I think even she acknowledges that he's the one who's calling the shots here now. She respects him, as we all do, but I don't think she's very happy about it."

"Yeah, I got that feeling this morning." Tony subconsciously rubbed the back of his head. "For some reason, even Gibbs' head slaps don't seem to sting as much."

"Don't take that personally. Stephanie is a very hard-line kind of person; she always has been and even I don't know the true reason for that. She made it pretty clear when I first met her a month ago that this operation is the number one priority in her mind, as it should be in everyone's, and there is no time for trying to go out of your way to be friendly. It was all business. But she's a good person as long as you're on her good side, and as long as you remain a useful asset to this mission you have nothing to worry about. I doubt that she'll do that to you again unless you do something to really piss her off, like try to seduce her or something; she won't risk her chances by doing that to one of Gibbs' top agents."

"Yeah, I don't think she's suicidal. Then again, neither am I." Tony allowed himself a small smile. "But seriously, was she always the way she was? I don't think I've ever seen her smile."

"Her smiles are few and very far between. When it does happen, it's usually a mere flash; you know- the kind that if you were to blink you'd miss it completely. I'm not going to say that she's absolutely miserable all the time, but she certainly hasn't given me the impression in the month I've known her that happiness is an emotion that comes easily to her." He looked away for brief moment. "I thought that after blowing off some steam, things would be a little different. But they weren't. And I doubt they ever will be."

"Hold on a second." Tony narrowed his eyes. "Blowing off steam?"

Nigel cleared his throat. "Yeah well, you know… a way of releasing stress."

Tony's eyebrows suddenly rose high up. "Hold on a second here, my friend from Down Under! Are you saying that you and Officer Ice Queen…" He paused but his interested, wide-eyed expression spelled out perfectly what it was that he was implying.

"Only once." Nigel replied with just a bit of extra effort.

"But I thought you just said that she wasn't thinking about anything but the mission!"

"It didn't happen under any special or unique circumstances, Agent DiNozzo." Nigel responded. "No night of unbridled, lustful passion, no drunken stupor that lead to certain nocturnal activities. The stress of trying to track down leads on the disappearances of the Navy personnel was getting to us; we each needed to blow off some steam and get rid of the stress that was mounting on us. One night, it just so happened we were in the same frustrated mood at the same time in the same locked room; an hour later, we each had had our release and were in better shape to concentrate on the mission at hand."

Tony stared. "An hour?"

"There had been a lot of stress built up over the course of a couple of weeks. We needed some way to deal with that and we did- there's nothing more to it. We both knew what it was and we both knew what it wasn't; that made it easier. Besides, even if it was something more than that for me, it wouldn't have mattered."

"Why not?"

Nigel stared at Tony. "Stephanie's a very unique woman; there's nothing standard or regular about her. If she ever was looking for something more then she'd have to find someone who can offer it to her." He looked away and when he spoke again it was slightly lower than usual. "She… needs someone who can give her what she needs and wants. She's not going to get that from me."

He turned back to Tony. "But that's beside the point. What matters is that we need to stop these naval personnel from being abducted and to do that we need to be at the top of our game."

"You're really devoted to this op, aren't you?" Tony asked interestedly. He wanted to know what was inside the mind of the Australian; it might come in useful to know what kind of people they were fighting alongside of.

"Bloody right I am." Nigel responded firmly. "The Blood Devils have struck Australian bases and abducted Australian Navy personnel. I'm not going to rest until I either get them back or else make sure the same thing doesn't happen to any more. That's why I'm glad I joined up with ASIS; if I hadn't then I wouldn't be here and I wouldn't be a part of this."

"You'll forgive me for being slightly less than worldly on issues such as these," Tony said, "but what exactly is ASIS and what did they do to make so loyal to them?"

"Off the record background checks, is it?" Nigel smirked. "Fine then, if it'll make you happy. Well, for starters I sure as hell didn't plan on joining ASIS when I was growing up. In fact, if you were to ask my mum what I was doing back in the day when kids are supposed to be making decisions about what they're going to be doing for the rest of their lives, she'd have told you I wasn't doing anything but living in the moment and not giving a damn about what happened the next day. And she probably would have been right, considering the way a typical day for me consisted of surfing, snorkelling and generally telling the people trying to tell me what I should be doing with my life to go fuck themselves."

"Seriously?"

"Bloody serious! Protecting national security couldn't have been further down on the list! I was a wild kid who loved living on the wild side and the hell with the consequences!"

Tony grinned. He was starting to really like the Australian; he could already see a lot of his younger (and current) self in him. "Bet it must have been some ride! Surfing all day, partying all night. Checking out all the hot babes on the beach."

"Australia's are the hottest in the world!" Nigel proclaimed proudly. "And they can drink. Hell, I've known some women who can out-drink the biggest men in the whole country! Yeah, I saw that as basically my whole life until I reached twenty-one."

"Why? What happened then?"

"I was snorkelling over the reef just north of Queensland when I became… acquainted with an infamous local affliction." He tilted his head back just a little. "Irukandji syndrome."

"Iroo- what?"

"Irukandji syndrome. It's an affliction brought on by the sting of a very tiny jellyfish called the Irukandji. And by small I mean small. Seriously- the little bastard's no bigger than your baby fingernail and virtually impossible to see in the water. You barely feel anything at first and unfortunately most people who get stung by it don't take it to mean anything. Until about ten or fifteen minutes later when your head starts to ache, your muscles cramp up and you begin to have uncontrollable spasms. I was lucky enough to be near my boat when it occurred. Another fifteen minutes or so when the syndrome really sets in and I would've been one dead bastard."

"What exactly is this…Irukandji syndrome?"

Nigel gave a rather grim smile. "Imagine the worst pain you've ever experienced coursing through your entire body. Now multiply that pain by ten and imagine it continuing for over twenty-four hours." He nodded. "That's the beginning of Irukandji syndrome."

Tony stared. "The beginning?"

"Yeah. Not very pleasant. There's no antivenin and you can't be put under because the doctors need to know what's coming next to treat your symptoms as they come. Whether or not you survive depends on your body's ability to handle the pressure. I was in hospital for three days- the longest damn three days of my life- and wasn't completely recovered from it for another two weeks. But I'm still alive, so it's all good. And it convinced me that I needed to get off my arse and actually do something with my life!"

"So you joined ASIS?"

"Not at first. I applied to the Australian Defence Force and joined the army a few months after I recovered. Served two tours of duty in Iraq and then one in Afghanistan. Saw some things that I never thought I would up close and personal. But I enjoyed the action and quickly got into it. After I got back home, I was told that ASIS was interested in recruiting someone with combat experience; my CO had recommended me to their office in Canberra. I was looking for something that interested me and this was it; I accepted."

"And you joined Her Majesty's Secret Service of the Outback." Tony said in a light-hearted mock British tone.

Nigel smirked. "It's hardly played up like that in the media, but it offers at least some sense of satisfaction- to me anyway. ASIS is, as Gibbs has already correctly pointed out, Australia's external intelligence service. It's basically the Australian counterpart of the CIA or MI6. We assess any threats to Australia's national security or interests and act to stop them."

"And that means hunting down those who try to strike at the world's largest island?" Tony asked jokingly.

Nigel chuckled. "Hardly. We're not the widespread, assassination types like the CIA or Mossad are. Our job mainly involves gathering info, sorting through countless pieces of information and passing them on to other authorities who take steps; in that respect we operate very much like CSIS does for Canada. It's only on very important operations like this one do they send experienced personnel into the field. Works fine for me; I'm definitely not the desk type."

"You and me both." Tony agreed. "So what has your special position granted you?"

"Mostly small time stuff. There are occasional threats of strikes against Australia by extremist groups like al-Qaeda for our support for the War on Terror in Iraq and Afghanistan. One of my first jobs involved finding and locating a home-grown radicalized terrorist group in Sydney. My involvement in breaking it up was rather small compared to others but I did what I needed to do and we got the job done. And I'm sure you were listening when I explained to Gibbs about the op in East Timor."

Tony nodded. "Something about assisting civilians to escape a hotel."

"Dead on. I don't know how closely you follow international events but there was a flare up of instability in the country a couple of years ago. A band of rebel soldiers disloyal to the government seized control of a hotel in Dili popular with both wealthy locals and tourists, including a large number of Australians. I was part of the ASIS group sent in to rescue them."

"And you also said things didn't go according to plan."

Nigel shook his head. "The op was supposed to be simple: get in and extract the hostages using minimal bloodshed. We were only supposed to kill if we had no other option. Unfortunately things went to hell pretty quick; one of the maids managed to break away from the group she was being held in and ran straight towards where our team was holed up and assessing the best course of action to take. The soldier who was pursuing her caught sight of us and opened fire; we had no choice but to directly engage. The whole hotel degenerated into chaos and we were forced into moving at a much faster pace than we were planning to secure the scene. The end result was officially good; no civilians were killed and our actions allowed the government troops to retake the hotel with more ease. They got the credit of course, but that was fine; you know the best work gets done behind the scenes and is not publicized. Still, I really wish it had gone better and since then I've been hoping for a chance to do things right the first time."

"You're hoping this mission will provide you with that opportunity?" Tony asked.

Nigel gave an amused chuckle. "This mission? No. This mission isn't about personal glory. No mission should be but especially not this one. This operation is for the soul purpose of putting an end to the countless attacks on naval bases once and for all. To do that, we need to be prepared for anything. We need to be prepared to do anything, even if that costs us everything."

"You talk like this is a suicide mission." Tony said, chuckling slightly.

Nigel shook his head and picked up an M-16, examining the brilliant shine of the barrel.

"Mate, you have no idea how right you are about that…"

A/N: Well, what do you think? Please review! I'm much more motivated to write and update when I get people's feedback! Constructive criticism is also welcome!