Chapter 21

"Tim, you must have got here very early."

Tim smiled at the librarian. "Yeah, I know. I just wanted to get a few things done before we opened."

"You angling to take over my job?"

"Not while you're alive."

The librarian laughed and headed for the front desk. Tim looked back at the pile of pages in his hands. He was done organizing it. Now, he would have to make sure it got sent out. Tonight. Yes.

After putting them away, he began to wheel the cart to the back of the library. A lot of people had returned books overnight and Tim had done nothing on Sunday.

His wristband beeped quietly at him, signaling a call from Ducky. Tim sighed but he knew he couldn't ignore it. Sometimes, he just wished that Ducky would give up on him and let him go on as best he could.

"What is it, Ducky?"

"It's not Ducky, Tim. It's Jimmy."

"What?" Tim asked, feeling a faint tendril of dread curling in his gut.

"They're arresting Uncle Don!"

"What? Who? Why?" Tim was floored. Why would Ducky be arrested? He never did anything wrong.

"I heard them from the basement. They think he's Thom the Gem!"

Tim's vision tunneled and for a moment, all he could hear was the roaring in his ears. The books he'd been in the process of shelving tumbled to the floor as he staggered against the cart and knocked it over.

"What? No!"

"I know. It's not possible, but they think it's true...and you know what will happen when they take him. We'll never see him again, even if he's proven innocent!"

Tim's mind was whirling, filled with too many thoughts, too many moments, too much.

"Timothy, it's Ducky. You can let Sarah go now. We're here to get you both out."

"I promised I wouldn't let her fall."

"And you didn't, lad. Come on."

One small part of him was actually considering the merits of letting this happen. If Ducky were taken as Thom the Gem, he would be able to operate much more freely because they wouldn't know where else to start.

In fury, Tim's hand clenched into a tight fist and he swung it, feeling a deep raging satisfaction at punching Ducky in the face, watching Ducky stagger backwards against the counter, letting him feel all the hurt that he felt every second.

"Timothy, what happened?" Ducky's reaction wasn't one of responding anger. It was fear...and concern. Concern for his ward. Tim's walls came down for a moment and he began to scream.

In revulsion, Tim forced that thought away. He could no more let Ducky take the fall for him that he could have let Sarah...than he could let any innocent person take the blame for what he had done. It was impossible. He wouldn't allow it.

"What are we going to do, Tim?" Jimmy asked, pleading for help. "If they see me...it will be even worse because I'm supposed to be dead! What do we do?"

"I'll stop them, Jimmy. I'll stop them," Tim said and he began to walk, tripping over the books littering the floor but for once ignoring them. He had to get to his private terminal.

"How? You're at the library."

"I can do it."

"Even if you can...what good will that do? They'll still think Uncle Don is Thom...and he can't be!"

"He's not," Tim agreed and almost felt like he couldn't breathe, so tight was the feeling in his chest. "He's not...and they'll stop if they have the real Thom."

"Yeah, but..."

Tim ran past the librarian who must have realized something was wrong but had the sense not to say anything.

"Jimmy, you remember how you said you had all those questions that you wanted to ask Thom?"

"Yeah."

"Well, you were right. Those are very...very important questions, ones that I do need to answer. ...and I promise...I swear that I am willing to die for the cause I've been promoting."

"You're...willing...Tim?"

"I don't want anyone to die for me, Jimmy. ...and I won't let Ducky be punished for what I've been doing. I'll stop them...and let them take me." Tim hung up and threw himself at the terminal, typing at a speed he hadn't employed since he'd been in the government's control.

The transports were electronic. Had to be. The confined nature of the caverns meant that they had to keep emissions to an absolute minimum. They were electronic and they were connected with the NIU grid. Tim hacked into it in seconds, seeing more than the lines of code, seeing the links, the reality of the digital world. He wandered through it as if he was the ruler of it. No area was closed off to him and he could hack into whatever section he wanted.

He wanted the transport system. Once he got in there, he found the one located at Ducky's house. It was easy enough. In fact, there were two transports there. With a single stroke, he shut them both down and then keyed in the restart code to his wristband. They didn't know it, but they were at his mercy for the moment.

He was nearly panting with fear. The walls were coming down and he couldn't hold back the emotions he had so desperately shunned for so much of his life. It took every ounce of strength he had to control his thoughts, keep them focused on saving Ducky. He couldn't think about what was going to happen to him once he was arrested. If he did that, he was sure that he'd lose total control of himself and wouldn't be able to do what he needed to do to save Ducky.

Tasks completed, he shut down...and locked down his terminal. No one would get into it without his say so...and he wouldn't. Then, he turned and started to run for the entrance. Having the transports shut down would delay them, but it wasn't a permanent solution. He had to get there and be arrested himself before they'd let Ducky go.

"Tim!"

The voice brought him to an abrupt halt.

"I don't have time to talk right now," Tim said, desperately. "I have to go. ...and actually, you're probably going to need to find someone else to work here. I don't...don't think I'll be back."

The librarian was looking more serious (and weirdly, younger) than Tim had ever seen him.

"Tim, listen to me for just a moment."

"What?"

"You ever have a need...or any of your friends. You can come to the library. You can be safe here. Any time. Remember that. Now...go off and do whatever you need to do."

Tim stared at him and was surprised when the librarian winked at him and jerked his head toward the door. But he didn't have time to think about the implications of what he had said. He just had to go...and go he did. He ran through the streets of Mammoth having mentally computed that it would take more time to go up, wait for the tram, ride it and get back down than it would just to run as fast as he could to Ducky's house.

He just prayed that he'd make it in time.

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

The librarian watched Tim leave and then began making calls.

"Is it time?" Kate's voice was eager...and nervous.

"No. We're putting it off. Thom the Gem is about to be arrested. We have to wait."

"Why? I thought we were using his campaign to help our own."

"Not at the expense of an innocent human being," the librarian said severely. "This movement isn't about wasting lives. It's about saving them. The only reason for the coup is to stop the destruction of the human race. Thom the Gem believes it's about getting to the surface. We believe it's about taking down the government. Either way, we don't have the right to benefit from his destruction. We're going to lie low for a couple of days and see how things pan out."

"All right. I have to admit that I'm getting scared of being found out."

"I understand that, Agent Todd, but you have to be patient. I've been waiting twenty years for this. Surely you can wait two more days."

He heard the rueful laugh and knew she had accepted it. It was hard to back down when it had been built up so much, but such was the nature of uprisings. If it was to be orderly, there had to be control in the beginning.

He disconnected and made a few other calls around the city...and the world. It was important that no one jumped the gun.

Tim was Thom the Gem. It almost surprised him. Almost, but not quite. Tim had too much bound up inside him to take the oppression they all suffered with any degree of equanimity. His coldness in life was compensation for his fire on the printed page. He smiled sadly. He had gone off to be arrested. He was the one who was an inspiration to follow. This coup was inspired by his courage. They may not agree on the solution to the problem but they were both doing what they could to fix it in their own ways.

He hoped that Tim would make it.

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

Ducky was trying very hard to look on his current situation as salvageable...although he wasn't sure how that was possible. He'd never been cuffed before and he had no desire to repeat the experience. He just couldn't believe it was happening really...so it was much better to watch the NIU agents curse and swear at their transports which had unaccountably shut down.

"Get another one here to replace these two!" Kort shouted at one of the other agents.

"I'm working on it...communications seem to be down as well."

Kort turned on Ducky. "What did you do, old man?"

"Nothing...and that refers to your charges against me and to the inoperability of your transports."

Infuriated, Kort shoved him roughly and without his hands to catch himself, Ducky landed hard on the ground. Ziva moved to him and helped him sit up, refusing to look him in the eye.

"Thank you for your assistance, Officer David."

She didn't respond. He was surprised at how ashamed she seemed to be of what was happening.

"Let him go!"

The voice was one he recognized...but the anguish he heard in it was such that he almost didn't believe it. On his knees, he leaned around Ziva and saw Tim running down the street, looking as though he had run all the way from the library at top speed.

"I said let him go! You're wrong! You've got the wrong person!" he shouted.

"Timothy, it's all right," Ducky said, recognizing that Tim was not currently in control of himself as he usually was. In fact, incredibly, he seemed...emotional.

"No, Ducky," he said, panting heavily and massaging at a stitch in his side. "No. You have to let him go!"

"He's under arrest for sedition," Kort said.

"He's not guilty of that!" Tim shouted.

"Timothy, calm down."

"Let...him...go. He's not Thom the Gem." Tears began pouring down Tim's face as he looked at Ducky.

Ducky suddenly knew what he was going to say before he said it...and he wished he could stop Tim from speaking but knew it would be as impossible as holding back the flood waters that had consumed Sub Salt.

"I'm Thom! I'm Thom the Gem! I'm the one guilty of sedition and treason!" He was still gasping for breath, but it seemed as much because of fear as anything else.

At Ducky's side, Ziva suddenly rose to her feet and Ducky chanced a glance at her face. She seemed stunned.

"I can give you the details of every publication for the last ten years! I can recite every word I've written and published since I started!"

Ducky was shocked himself, but it wasn't at the knowledge that Tim was the subversive revolutionary. It was that he was displaying such a lack of control of himself and of his emotions. He was letting them out for the first time since Sarah had died...and for the first time since his breakdown at MIT.

"Let him go!" Tim shouted again. "Let him go or..."

"Timothy, no," Ducky said, understanding just how far Tim was willing to go to secure his freedom. He struggled to his feet. "No, Timothy."

"They have to let you go, Ducky. They have to!"

"Not at this expense. I will not allow you to kill for me."

Tim was unarmed...at least to the NIU agents, but for some reason, they recognized the danger in Tim's stance. Ducky, for his part, knew that there was a lot more danger in the fact that Tim was wearing a wristband than in anything his fists could do.

"Let him go," Tim said again. "I mean it. Let him go."

"Timothy, stand down."

"I won't let them blame you for what I did, Ducky," Tim said. Almost sobbing, he shook his head. "I won't...let them take away the..." He stopped and swallowed. "I won't let them take away the last member of my family. Everyone else is dead. I won't let you die for me...not when you're not at fault." He wiped away his tears and looked fiercely at the NIU agents. "I am surrendering...but you have to let him go!"

Kort looked at Tim for a long moment, obviously weighing whether or not it was worth seeing just what Tim thought he could do...and decided it wasn't worth it. He nodded to Ziva who gladly removed Ducky's cuffs.

"Tim McGee, you are under arrest for the grave crimes of sedition and treason, of attempting to overthrow our leaders and destabilize the government." He nodded to Ziva to replace the cuffs on Tim. She approached and saw that the emotion was almost entirely gone in the face of this next step...except for his eyes. He was terrified...and she couldn't look in his eyes for very long.

Ducky stood, unsure of what to do for a moment, but then, he put his brain back in gear. He couldn't do anything that might render Tim's sacrifice a waste...for sacrifice it most definitely was. Tim was giving up his life for Ducky, and such a debt could not be paid by reckless actions.

"May I...speak with him...just for a moment?" Ducky asked, looking at them all in turn, hoping for one sympathetic face. Interestingly, he found it in the expression of Ziva David.

"Yes, you may," she said before Kort could reject the request.

Ducky stumbled across the space between them and hugged Tim tightly, feeling Tim's trembling. He was so very afraid.

"Oh, Timothy...of all the times you could pick to..."

"I'm so sorry, Ducky," Tim said in a rough whisper. "I thought I was being so careful, that no one else would come under suspicion. ...and I'm so...I'm so sorry for how I treated you all these years."

"It doesn't matter, lad. It doesn't matter."

"Yes, it does. I've been trying to pretend that I didn't care because...because I was so afraid of losing someone else. You've been my family, Ducky, for so many years...and I'm so sorry I didn't tell you before how much it meant that you were there...for me and for Sarah. I'm sorry."

Under Ducky's arms, he felt Tim shift a little bit and over his shoulder, he saw Tim type a few letters into his wristband. Suddenly, the transports came back on. Ducky pulled back and looked Tim in the eye.

He actually smiled a bit mischievously. "I had to stop them from taking you...and I can only run so fast."

Ducky hugged him one more time, afraid it would be the last. "You are a wonderful man, Timothy McGee. I didn't need you to tell me anything. It was my privilege to be your guardian. I'm only sorry it has to end...and in this way."

"Come on! Time to go!"

Rough hands pulled Tim away toward the transports and Ducky watched as they loaded Tim in and drove off. Ziva lingered for a moment.

"I am sorry, Dr. Mallard. It must be a shock," she said.

"You think so?" Ducky asked, staring after the disappearing transport which carried a man he thought of as his son. "You don't know Timothy very well, then. He could have killed every man here if he had wished to and he didn't. He could have called for a bloody revolution and got it. He didn't. No, my dear, all that shocks me is that the NIU could think that I had the strength needed to carry out a decade-long attempt to open the eyes of the people in this place. If you really knew Timothy, you would never have thought that I was Thom. What you have done here today is not stopped a revolutionary. You have not only destroyed a good man but you have also brought mankind one step closer to extinction. Timothy is not the only one who has seen those statistics." He turned and walked away.