Rating: T
Disclaimer: Not mine but Stella, Margaux, Gia, Shauna and Jackie Chan are all mine :)
A/N Thanks to everyone who reviewed the last chapter and alerted or faved. Due to ongoing computer problems and accessing the internet, please excuse me if I can't respond to your reviews individually. Huge thank-you to BuckeyeGirl00000 for beta'ing this chapter. As in the past, remaining mistakes are my bad!
The next two chapters are my personal crusade to restore Tony's undercover reputation that was so savagely mauled into submission by the 'writers' and I use the term reservedly fpllowing his character assassination in Guilty Pleasure. Hands up anyone who believed that a seasoned cop that would have worked his share of vice cases, as well as bringing down the mafia in Philly could be so completely inept in the sting operation with the escort as it was written? That episode made me absolutely rabid. Anyway, Tony is back to his competent best in the next two chapters. Hope you enjoy it :)
Halloween Remembrance
Chapter 29
Special Agent Anthony DiNozzo emerged from the stairwell as his cell phone indicated that someone was trying to call him. Checking the caller ID he made a moue of distaste, realising that his very 'favourite' FBI agent was on the end of the line. It was just over a month since he'd worked with the hugely arrogant Sacks on the Hollister serial rapist case. He and Gibbs had been working exclusively with Fornell to ensure that all the I's were dotted and the T's were crossed in preparation for him going undercover to try and infiltrate Stella Thymes escort agency. Tony had been expecting Tobias to contact him to arrange for an expert in accents to coach him, so that he spoke English with an authentic Italian accent in keeping with his persona seeing he was posing as an Italian.
As he rounded the corner and headed for his cubicle, he answered with a curt, "Agent Slacks, what can I do for you?"
A long suffering sigh on the other end of the phone was the only reaction to the deliberate mangling of Special Agent Ron Sacks surname. He said his boss Fornell wanted him to pass along the information, that the voice coach would be attending NCIS at 1.30pm and would be doing so five days a week, for the next two weeks to coach him on his accent. He rang off before Tony had the opportunity to make a snappy comeback. Upon hearing who DiNozzo had been talking to, his boss and McGee both had dropped the casual pretence of not listening to a colleague's private conversation and were trying to figure out what Sacks wanted. It wasn't as if the two agents were undying buddies or anything.
Tony glanced across at Gibbs. "The voice coach will be along at 1330 for the next two weeks, Boss. I'll book the smallest conference room."
Gibbs stared daggers at McGee before replying. "Talk to Cynthia, DiNozzo."
Special Agent Timothy McGee twittered nervously, unsure why his boss was giving him the death ray glare. "Why are you seeing a voice coach Tony? Your voice is annoying to listen to I'll grant you, but I thought only actors needed voice coaches. And how come the FBI are organising it for you, anyway?"
Before Tony had a chance to respond, Supervisory Special Agent Jethro Gibbs leapt in to answer McGee's insolent inquiry.
"Well it's like this Special Agent McGee, after the spectacular failure of their undercover operation to obtain evidence on Ms Thymes, the Deputy Director of the FBI demanded the secondment of my best agent, one Anthony DiNozzo. They want him to infiltrate her organisation. He's going to have to go in undercover and this time they don't want there to be any screw ups."
McGee looked like he was going to puke by the interesting shade of green he turned at the mention of Thymes as he unconsciously started rubbing his butt. He was undoubtedly remembering the hammering he took at the hands of his boss, after he made a royal mess of a simple undercover operation to plant surveillance equipment in the office of Ms Thymes. She was the Madame of the high class escort agency catering for all the movers and shakers in Washington DC. He belatedly processed the second half of his Boss' statement.
"Wait, they demanded DiNozzo? Why would they do that?"
"That would be due to his skills and enviably reputation for successful undercover work, McGee. This woman poses a threat to National Security and the integrity of the legal system and she needs to be taken down… And it is 'our' fault that she hasn't been caught yet." Gibbs was highly ironic when it came to the phrase our fault when they all knew that the blame was McGee's and thereby as his supervisor, blame also fell upon his boss to some extent.
"So what is your cover, Tony?" Ziva David interjected curiously.
Gibbs frowned, still unimpressed with the fact that his Senior Field Agent was going to be involved in a potentially long term undercover assignment. "He's going in as an Italian owner of a male escort agency, wanting to expand to the USA."
"So why does he need a voice coach? He speaks Italian like a native. His accent is flawless, not surprising, as he learnt to speak from Italians."
"It's not my Italian that's the problem, Ziva. Thymes speaks a smattering of Italian if our Intel is correct and I'm not going to trust it either. So anyway, I need to speak English with an Italian accent, not an American one. Hence the voice coach and fair warning guys, from after my session today, I will only be speaking with an Italian accent."
Tony knew that he would need the two weeks of practise to perfect his accent but also knew that it was too dangerous to try and flip back and forth between his normal speech and his undercover language. It was too important to screw up and he wasn't about to get tripped up. He had also arranged with the FBI to forward Italian newspapers and magazines along with a compilation of pop culture music, television and movies so that he could immerse himself in the latest celebrity culture, whenever he could. While there was no indication that Stella Thymes had any Italians on her staff, he had learnt when undercover to hope for the best and prepare for the worst. It was that cynicism that had saved his butt on more than one occasion when he was undercover and without back-up.
HRHRHHRHR
Ziva nodded, understanding why Tony needed to work with a voice coach although she couldn't help but agree with Tim that Tony's voice was annoying. Actually she found his presence in general annoyed her. His perfect smile and his masculine scent were far too irritating and the way he couldn't sit still like a normal person. Not to mention how he often got right up into her personal space.
While it was something she did all the time to throw people, especially males off balance, she did not appreciate it when Tony turned the tables on her. It also annoyed her no end how she and McGee could spend hours spilling over evidence, looking for leads while Tony played around, throwing balls of paper at other people hard at work. Then he'd make some brilliant deductive jump and it would solve the case. He was irritating beyond belief.
She controlled her rebellious impulses though, because she was aware just how important this case was. Her Father was concerned about this Thymes woman and he, therefore Mossad, believed that Thymes posed a threat to the security of the Israel. That was because when the Americans' sneezed, Israel was always in danger of catching a fever too.
While Eli wasn't too fussed about this glorified gimp corrupting the justice system and local law enforcement in the US, the escort agency was becoming too influential with lawmakers, national security personnel and the military. It made Eli David extremely nervous and he had cursed his daughter's indiscretion with the FBI. He accused her of becoming a law unto herself and forgetting that she was playing in someone else's litter box.
Normally at NCIS, it didn't matter how outrageously she carried on, because Leon Vance was every bit as ambitious as his predecessor and therefore couldn't afford to offend his old friend and Director of Mossad. Unfortunately Fornell and his Director were not so impressed with playing nice with Mossad and decided to hold her accountable. That meant that she and Mossad who she represented, had ended up losing face; which made Eli turn feral. He demanded that she fix the situation immediately.
Hence Ziva was trying to keep a low profile since her return to the MCRT following her suspension. It had been ridiculous and incredibly demeaning to end up with a bunch of overeager young recruits at FLETC being instructed by individuals who just wouldn't cut the ketchup at Mossad. Hours of terminally boring instructors hammering on about probable cause, blah, blah and blah, which they'd forced her to memorise and demonstrate an understanding of, before she would be allowed to return to NCIS. Such a waste of her time and talents and she harboured a burning desire to make Fornell suffer...painfully. Very painfully.
Gibbs was still pissed with her and her father hadn't been impressed that she threatened his coveted liaison position at NCIS and all that went with having Gibbs feeling beholden to her. Eli had emphasized that they had a Mossad operative working undercover in the United States at the moment and if things went pear-shaped, he would definitely need Gibbs and Leon Vance's goodwill to smooth over any ruffled Diplomatic feathers. Of course she already knew that Michael was trying to track down terrorists because she'd been seeing him since she returned to Mossad earlier this year.
So now Ziva, under the strictest of instructions to spice favour with Gibbs. She was trying to slowly worm her way back into his affections subtly, while avoiding any controversy. At the moment, Gibbs was super protective of Tony, so she was being cautious of anything that might slap of her criticizing the senior field agent.
HRHRHRHRHR
Tony was already seated at a pretentious and highly trendy upmarket Italian restaurant where generations of hearty Italian fare had been 'fused' with nouveau cuisine to create food that owed more to a construction than for actual consumption. It was where the 'Society' crowd clambered to get a table and be seen rubbing shoulders with all the other wannabe's and 'Try-Hards.' Tony hated the place, imagining all his maternal ancestors on his Italian side of the family would be rolling in their graves at the insult to their cuisine. He preferred little mom and pop establishments that served simple peasant fare in an unpretentious atmosphere, accompanied by good wines and authentic ambiance. But then that was Anthony DiNozzo, not the highly successful owner of a male escort service.
Tony had correctly assessed that Stella and her entourage, would be impressed by this 'it' place and want to flock there too. When he had suggested it as a meeting place for dinner to discuss the logistics of opening up his operation in the USA, Thymes had nodded approvingly, although she had warned that the place was hard to get into. According to her, it sometimes took weeks to get a booking and therein lies the attraction to these silly superficial people who don't even care if the food is as tasteless as shoe leather, he concluded internally. When he assured her it wouldn't be a problem, she had preened and started flirting, obviously impressed with the persona of rich and influential powerbroker he'd adopted.
Tony had been working the case for nine days now and he felt like things were proceeding as planned. They were hoping that Thymes would see fit to suggest a merger between them, as they would then be able to service clients that desired male or female high class escorts and squeeze out the competition. Stella was hooked and already making overtures about them going into business together while Tony had played extremely disinterested and hard to get. Tonight Thymes had suggested that Raphael Angelli (his cover) should meet some of her most trusted colleagues, no doubt hoping to impress him, perhaps even seduce him into merging their respective stables of escorts.
Hopefully, when he still refused to play ball, she would decide to reveal her hidden agenda in an effort to convince him to join forces. His strategically dropped hints about having highly placed politicians purporting to being heterosexual and running on family values to constituents but utilising his discreet male escorts to satisfy their true needs, was bait too tempting to resist. It was a blackmailer's wet dream and he could see Thymes' highly polished exterior slip momentarily, as she drooled at the potential millions dancing before her eyes. Of course she was also dazzled by the urbane Italian who oozed money and influence, right from the stylish Italian designer clothes he wore to the arrogance and power he exuded, so effortlessly.
He recalled the attention to detail that had been used to craft his undercover identity. The FBI had been working around the clock and Gibbs had insisted that Abby, Ducky, Tony and himself all have input into ensuring that his cover was a flawless as possible. Profilers and Ducky had worked out various scenarios and the best way to manoeuvre Stella Thymes into revealing who she was passing the incriminating evidence on to.
Tony had arrived at the eatery about twenty minutes earlier than the agreed upon time, to scope out the place and see if he could spot any of Thymes hired guns. He straight away spotted Agents Shauna Jameson and Daniel Chan, already seated and sipping drinks as they waited to order. Outside in a surveillance van his other backup included Gibbs, Fornell, Sacks and a very grumpy McGeek.
He wasn't sure exactly what the McGeek's problem was; if he was pissed at having to work with Sacks on the mission he had blown or if it was because he wasn't the one undercover. Sure he'd been holed up in a five star hotel and living the high life trying to sell his cover to Thymes and whoever was behind the operation but there was always a price to be paid for the adrenaline rush and thrill of the chase. These were dangerous people and hopefully they had bought his cover.
It was one reason why Gibbs had insisted that his cover be so meticulously crafted by not just the best Fibbies but NCIS as well. It was why he'd practised so diligently with the voice coach and lightened his hair to a honey blonde sun-streaked colour and worn coloured contacts to change his eye colour to a deep cobalt blue. He had spent the last six weeks pumping iron to bulk up his upper body to further change his appearance and was wearing boots with a heel and lifts to increase his height almost two inches.
While all the changes were fairly subtle, when combined they contributed to changing his appearance enough that any casual acquaintance would hopefully not recognise him. Of course, the changes in personality from the seemingly dumb party boy to what was, in reality, far closer to his real temperament of a serious, intelligent, and driven individual would further convince casual acquaintances that any similarities were coincidental.
The best laid plans however were not infallible and as Tony observed Stella Thymes enter the establishment with two gorgeous women by her side, Tony realised that they were in trouble. He began speaking softly into the mic carefully concealed under the table where he'd planted it when he sat down. He was going to find out exactly how convincing his cover and acting skills really were, because Thymes had someone with her who used to know Detective Anthony DiNozzo.
Next chapter: Mind games and an unexpected support.
