Big thanks to my wonderful beta, VanishingP200. Also, I don't own NUMB3RS or NCIS.

Chapter 21

"So, tell me, do you guys have any idea what is even going on with this case?" Gibbs asked just a little smugly.

"Vaguely. But it is kind of hard to catch someone who is killing Black Ops agents and consultants," Colby pointed out.

"Why?" Gibbs asked simply.

"Well, because they're smart enough to get the drop on these guys. And these aren't your average Black Ops operatives; they're the Special Ops of Black Ops. They are super elite and the best of the best," Colby explained and Gibbs studied him for a moment as he took another sip of his coffee.

"I though this stuff was all classified."

"The actual information is, I'm just giving you a general picture without specifics. But I'm considering reading some of your team in on this, given some of the recent developments," Colby explained.

"Some of my team?" Gibbs repeated suspiciously.

"Yes. You, Agent DiNozzo, Ziva and Abby," Colby said.

"Why not Agent McGee or my ME?" Gibbs asked and Colby gave him an 'are you seriously asking me that' look and sighed.

"Agent McGee seems like he would fold like a lawn chair under anything more than a casual interview, if not that as well and to be perfectly honest; Dr. Mallard does not seem to be able to resist talking about everything and anything. Not to mention I doubt that he could hold up under much interrogation, either. And it doesn't seem necessary to involve him at this point. I don't think I really even need to comment on his assistant," Colby said and both Abby and Gibbs had to concede that he had a very fair point. Particularly about McGee folding like a lawn chair.

"And Director Shepherd?" Gibbs asked, more curious than anything else, not really caring if Jenny was kept in the loop or not.

"That depends on what Amanda says about her. Apparently they're friends," Colby said, shaking his head slightly and shrugging, his hands shoved deep into his front pockets.

"Okay. Sure. When exactly would you be reading us in on this?" Gibbs asked, apparently deciding to try playing nice with others for a change.

"Uh, later this afternoon sometime. I don't really know, I just decided on this about two minutes ago," Colby said with a slight laugh. Before Gibbs could formulate a response to this, Abby's computer beeped again, signaling that they had another print match. Everyone except for Amita who hung back slightly gathered around the computer as Abby pulled the results up.

"Oh yeah. Here we go. Sacks' prints are all over the place. There are a bunch from both the door handles from the left side and the trunk as well as all over the files and a few other places. His prints are about a third of them, too," Abby told them consulting the list of locations attached to the print numbers.

"Okay, that is great. Well, not great that apparently an FBI agent is going on a Black Ops killing spree, but great that we've got a lead and some evidence. This puts him not only at the murder scene, but also trailing us like a drunken sailor on speed," Colby said and David nodded. "But we're still going to have to wait on the rest of the prints and check them out."

"Yeah, it shouldn't be too much longer," Abby assured him.

"Hey, were there any other prints besides Howe's and Sacks' on the files. Particularly the one labeled The Janus List?" Colby asked and Abby nodded and grabbed the list of what prints came from where although she looked confused.

"Um, no, Howe and Sacks are the only ones who left prints on The Janus List Folder, but there are a few others on some of the other files. Why are you so interested in this file?" she asked after checking the numbers of the prints that had come up to the ones found on the files.

"Because that's the only one with anything missing so far. And the file that's missing is mine," Colby told her grimly.

"Oh, god, you guys don't think that this psycho is coming after Colby next, do you?" she asked David, horrified.

"We don't know, but it's a distinct possibility, which is why we're making sure that someone's with him at all times. And I get to be his primary babysitter," David said smirking and Colby shot him a glare, which just made David's smirk widen.

"Whatever, man. I don't know, I don't think that Sacks could pull this off himself, I mean, that was the most obvious tail in the history of the planet earth. There is no way that he'd manage to pull it over on a bunch of seasoned Black Ops operatives. The paper pushers and math geek, maybe and the ATF agent, a slimmer maybe, hell, I could maybe even possibly see him getting luck and getting one of the Black Ops agents, but not three of them, especially when they would have been on extra high alert because of the other murders. No way," Colby said shaking his head.

"Yeah, I agree. The guy is a complete moron. Even by the FBI's standards," Gibbs said and both Colby and David glared at him.

"I don't know who they have you work with from the FBI, but I hate to burst your bubble, most of them are pretty smart. At least, all the ones I work with," Amita jumped in to defend her friends and Abby beamed at her.

"Well, most of the ones they send to work with me are dumber than the average high school drop out," Gibbs shrugged, taking another gulp of his coffee.

"Well yeah, they're the ones that were too dumb to get out of having to work with you so they're obviously the dumbest of the bunch," Colby retorted and Abby laughed and high fived him while Gibbs considered the statement.

"You know, that might actually be it. Hunh," Gibbs said thoughtfully as the computer beeped once again.

"Okay, here we go, a couple more matched to Martin Smith. He works in the ATF file room. His prints were on a couple of files. Which is exactly where they belong," Abby told them and the computer beeped again. "We got a hit on the rest of the prints. They all matched prints also found at a murder in Philadelphia 10 years ago. Oh, Gibbs! Check out who the lead detective on the case was!" Abby said excitedly.

"DiNozzo," Gibbs said without even glancing at the screen.

"Yup!" Abby bounced over to where her Caff-Pow was sitting and took a long slurp of the highly caffeinated beverage. Gibbs pulled out his cell phone and pressed speed dial number one.

"Abby's lab. Now. Just you, DiNozzo," Gibbs said tersely, not allowing Tony to get a single word in and hanging up before he had any chance to respond. "Let's see what Tony remembers about this case."

"Okay, then," David said, raising his eyebrows slightly at Gibbs complete lack of phone etiquette. Tony entered the lab about a minute later, looking around curiously.

"Hey, Boss. What's up?"

"What do you remember about this case, Tony?" Gibbs asked without preamble, gesturing to the plasma that was displaying Abby's computer screen. Tony walked around Abby's desk and skimmed the case summary.

"I can tell you that we never had any chance of solving it. We never got much info on the vic; he didn't seem to exist in any database. There were no distinguishing marks and his prints came up with nada. We got a couple of prints from the scene that didn't belong to him, but we didn't get anything from them either. We never had a single lead. Why do ask, Boss?" Tony asked his curiosity and confusion increasing by the second.

"We got a match to the prints found at that scene from the ATF agent's car," Gibbs told him and Tony looked at him in shock. "Yeah, exactly. It gets better. Seems like whoever killed this guy back then is working with- wait for this one- Agent Sacks. Yes, that Agent Sacks," Tony just stared at him blankly.

"You're kidding, right? You can't possibility be serious about this," Tony said, completely stunned.

"Tony, do you think that it is even remotely possible for me to have made something this ridiculous up?"

"Well, while you are very creative, Boss, there is no way that you could make this one up. It's just way too weird," Tony admitted.

"Yeah, exactly. We don't want to spook Sacks and his accomplice, so we can't bring him in yet, because we don't really have enough to hold him, especially given that he's a federal agent. That tends to win him the benefit of the doubt."

"Yeah, Sacks clearly isn't the brains of the operation and this guy obviously isn't law enforcement, since the prints aren't in the system," Tony said, taking every opportunity to make a dig at Sacks' intelligence.

"Ah, not necessarily. If he was Black Ops his prints wouldn't be in the system. In the Black Ops world we go out of our way to make ourselves invisible. So our killer could be Black Ops. I'll talk to Ams and see if she can get someone run the prints against the Black Ops databases. We like to be invisible, but we also like to be able to identify dead agents. The other thing is that they could be a foreign operative or a terrorist or something. But somebody has to know something about this psycho. There's a learning curve on this kind of crazy and this psycho hasn't screwed up yet, so he's got to have some kind of experience," Colby said thoughtfully and both Abby and Gibbs just stared at him while David nodded, already used to Colby's creepily extensive knowledge of the spy craft.

"Okay, that makes sense. Yeah, hopefully we'll come up with something. I really want to be back in LA for Christmas. I do not like White Christmases; if I had I would have stayed in New York City," David said, glaring out the snow that was covering up most of the lab's sidewalk level windows.

"You get used to it," Abby said and Colby shuddered slightly.

"Yeah, that's exactly what I'm afraid of," he muttered, causing the others to laugh.