a/n: I truly apologize for the delay in posting this. ff dot net simply kept kicking me out the whole week.

Chapter 25: New allies

It was a battle fought through optical fibers, zeros and ones in endless sequences. Thousands of megabytes of information being thrown into the World Wide Web as two masterminds collided. Yet Gibbs had lost track of time and had no idea of what was happening as he watched McGee mutter under his breath as he typed in rapid sequence trying to fend the invader of his computer.

"What's going on, McGee?"

McGee's sigh was filled with exasperation.

"This little creep has just hacked my computer and he's trying to download my hard drive. But I've written a program to protect my system specifically from this type of invasions and I'm hijacking his signal back to the source until I… get …" McGee bit his lower lip and clicked enter, making the image of a room flicker in his screen. "Gotcha, you bastard."

NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS

"Let's see… let's see." Sant'Anna kept typing, a number two pencil between his teeth being slowly chewed as he studied the info on his screen from behind his glasses.

"Ah… that's interesting. His name is Timothy McGee, he's an NCIS agent. Fairly decent education. Good income. Seems to be a decent guy." Sant'Anna spoke to someone by his side, his pale blue eyes flickering to a hack he did on Timothy's bank savings. "Not bad for a Fed. Here says that he's made a couple of purchases in his credit card very familiar to us. Dog food, dog shampoo, Alpo, right by the time our little friend disappeared… what do you think, Newton?" the hacker turned to his right at the exact moment a big dog head appeared by his side, its eyes also looking curious at the screen. "Do you think he has our Freckles?"

The big mutt – a mix of German shepherd and Labrador from the same litter Freckles was born - whined a little before letting a long howl, apparently giving his opinion to the lanky man. The dog then lowered its head and touched the man's hand, pushing the mouse slightly to the left. The man smiled, moving the hand to scratch the dog between the ears. "Well, I think it's worth the investigation."

"I couldn't agree more," a young voice came out of the speakers, startling Sant'Anna and making him look around spooked.

"Who's there?"

"I'm the man who's going to take you down, you creep." The screens flickered for a moment before finally going black. The only screen still working had the Blue Screen of Death showing that the system had frozen with a couple of words splattering in it, making the hacker attack his keyboard trying desperately to overcome the invasion.

"I don't know who you think you are, kid, but you will be nothing but a memory in the digital world when I'm done with you: no credit cards, no savings, no social security number. You will be just…"

There was a maniac laugh coming from the speakers, with absolutely on joy in it. "Sure, I'm so worried about your puny threats. I have questions and I expect answers, otherwise your nice little setup will be just tech junk after I wipe it all out." That caught the hacker's attention, making him stare at screen flabbergasted.

Sant'Anna finally realized the voice was coming from the computer, making him look with wide opened eyes to the small camera on the top of his middle screen.

"You wouldn't dare."

"Try me, buster."

A small smile appeared on Sant'Anna's lips as he pushed his glasses over the bridge, his blue eyes staring into the camera aware that the kid had a perfect image of him in his computer. "How did you hack me, kid? Nobody has ever done that since that chick from Austria double dared me to help her hack the MI6 files on her father."

"I don't want to hear from your exploits, I want to know where my dog is."

Sant'Anna frowned at that, turning to look at his own dog before glaring at the camera. "What… are you telling me that you don't have Freckles with you?"

The other hacker, that Sant'Anna now knew was the very NCIS agent he had been invading his system, stayed in silence for a moment, before his voice came back again.

"I have two people dead, one traumatized kid, my living room became a crime scene, my own dog took two bullets in his chest and might not survive the night just because he tried to protect Freckles and her litter, my girlfriend is freaking out and she could have been killed if her assistant's murderer had decided to wait for her. So stop! Stop playing games with me 'cause my patience is almost at its end! Where is Freckles?"

"Hot damn, kid. Are you telling me that they've found you already?"

"Who … what… Who found me? What are you talking about?"

"Listen kid, this is worse than what we were expecting. If they've found you and didn't think twice of breaking into your home, despite the fact you are obviously a Fed, then we're in deep shit. Do you know the dog park at the south exit of Rock Creek park?"

"Yeah, I've been there before."

"Good. Listen, be there in… let's say… one hour. One of us is going to meet you and explain everything."

"One of you?"

"Yeah, one of the Watchers. Everything will be explained, just be there."

"How can I be sure that you're not pulling my leg? How can I be sure you're not involved with whoever killed two people already and stole my dog and her puppies?"

Sant'Anna sat back on his chair, a hand going up to his goatee and scratching it lightly. "Kid, you can't. What you can do is get your butt to the park and meet Lemuel when he arrives there."

"Lemuel? As in dark Lemuel?" There was a clear tremor in the kid's voice, making Sant'Anna realize that whether he realized or not he was already one of them.

One the Watchers.

"Kid, there's a lot to do and little time to get it done. Go to the park, meet Lemuel, he will explain everything to you. I hacked your system because I needed answers on little Freckles but if you don't have her, there's no point in pestering you on this. We're not enemies, we've never been, but you've stuck your nose into something too big to be mentioned in a fragile connection like ours here."

"Will this Lemuel explain everything?"

"Yes, he will."

The connection was restored, making the led screens flicker again and come back online. Sant'Anna couldn't help a delighted smile as his main screen showed a young man's face with piercing green eyes staring back at him.

Aparently, this Special Agent McGee was willing to put all his cards on the table.

"How will I recognize Lemuel?"

"Son, you don't have to recognize him." Sant'anna hit printscreen saving the image and immediately opened an email to send it to the ex-NSA agent in DC. "He will recognize you."