Chapter: 1
When Two Agencies Meet
When Horatio asked Ryan to access Renee's restricted military personnel file, it had sent up a red flag to the NCIS office in Washington DC as well as Renee's commanding officer in Afghanistan.
Her CO contacted the Director of NCIS Leon Vance, asking him if they are the ones trying to access the highly restricted personnel file of Staff Sergeant Renee Hope Kerrigan.
Vance has no personal knowledge of what the CO was talking about, so he calls Senior Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs in to ask him.
Now Gibbs has no idea what his boss and the CO in Afghanistan are going on about but said he'll have Agent Timothy McGee look into it.
McGee being the excellent computer hacker he is, he easily found out who is looking at the file. He very quickly tells Gibbs that it is an officer with the Miami Dade Police Department crime lab that is trying to read the restricted personnel file.
McGee goes on to tell Gibbs that the file is that of a Marine. She was captured and tortured to get information in Afghanistan twice. The first time she was rescued by the SEALS. The second time she was held for months until she escaped and found her way back to base.
She was a canine handler and trainer before her capture. When she escaped, her captors put a massive price on her head dead or alive after she had killed about sixty Taliban terrorists.
They only knew about the sixty Taliban terrorists because she had set up a massive explosion. Her base was able to see the massive cloud of thick black smoke. It was no longer safe for her to stay in the country.
She was shipped back to the states where she joined Border Patrol as a canine trainer and handler in South East Texas. She was so good at her job that the local drug cartels put a price on her head.
That caused her to move to the Miami-Dade Police Department, where she was attacked, abducted, tortured, and killed by Serbian Mercenaries. The Miami-Dade crime lab still had no idea who hired Serbian Mercenaries.
Working with Gibbs for seventeen years, McGee knows what his boss is thinking. McGee is spot on with what his boss is thinking when Gibbs, wordlessly goes into Vance's office to talk the director into letting them help Miami-Dade in capturing the person responsible for the kidnapping, torture, and murder of a United States Marine.
Since Gibbs is also a Marine, Vance knows that he will not take no for an answer, so he relents saying, "Let me call Miami-Dade and ask if they can use any help."
"Lieutenant Caine, you have a phone call from the Director of NCIS in DC. It's about your sister's case," is what Horatio hears from the lab's receptionist.
"I'll take it in my office," is how he responds.
"This is Lieutenant Horatio Caine, Director, how can I help you."
"I have an agent here who is a former Marine Corps Gunnery Sergeant, who is determined to help since they never leave a man behind."
"We would have come sooner, but we just became aware of the case when you attempted to access her restricted file. NCIS usually will investigate whenever military personnel is involved."
"If you can use a little help, maybe some fresh eyes and more resources, I can send you two agents. They will assist you with the case of your officer's assault and murder. You, of course, will be in charge. My Agent only wants to help a fellow Marine."
"I certainly can use some fresh eyes since we hit a roadblock and have not made any progress in quite a while," Horatio's response surprises him.
He usually doesn't ask for, nor does he ever accept help from outside agencies.
"My Agents can be wheels up in twenty minutes. They will be touching down at the Miami-Dade International Airport in two and a half hours. The agents will be former Marine Corps Gunnery Sergeant Gibbs, and Special Agent Timothy McGee. They will meet you at the airport."
"I'll send an officer to pick them up and bring them to the lab. Thank you for the offer of assistance."
Hanging up the phone, Horatio can't help but think that had been the strangest phone call that he has taken in a long time.
Back in DC, Vance calls Gibbs in to give him the go-ahead. Gibbs has permission to take Tim McGee with him and help with the case in any way that they can.
When Gibbs has got the go-ahead, he tells McGee, "Wheels up in twenty, McGee we have an assault and murder of a Marine Corps Staff Sergeant in Miami. Everyone else is staying here."
McGee is caught off guard, but he was ready since he always kept a go-bag in his car. Gibbs and McGee manage to catch a flight to Miami with a Navy SEALS team that is flying down to Miami for a training mission.
A SEAL on the team recognizes Gibbs as the Agent who saved his kid brother from a terrorist cell in DC.
In a move of gratitude, the SEAL takes out his dive knife and presents it to Gibbs as a gift.
When the two NCIS agents arrive at the Miami Dade International Airport, they are met by Detective Frank Tripp. Tripp had been sent to pick them up by Lieutenant Horatio Caine.
In classic Tripp style, Frank introduces himself to these new agents in his gruff Texan voice.
"My name is Sergeant Frank Tripp. Lieutenant Caine sent me," Tripp extends his hand to shake hands with the new agents.
After pleasantries are exchanged, Gibbs and McGee are very interested in getting to the lab. They want to catch the person responsible for the killing of a Marine. With Renee being a fellow Marine, Gibbs is determined to solve her assault and murder.
Gibbs and McGee had thought that Renee was killed. That is how the lab has been processing the case.
Horatio is not willing to risk his sister's life. He knew that whoever it was that hired the mercenaries will try again if they think that she survived the assault.
Horatio meets the agents at the front of the building to escort them inside. Once in the elevator, Horatio pulls a move straight from Gibbs's playbook. He stops the elevator between floors to talk to the new agents about the case. He doesn't want to risk someone else hearing the information.
Horatio tells them that Renee is alive, but they are treating it as a homicide to keep the victim safe, going on to say that the victim is also his half-sister.
When Gibbs sees someone pulling one of his patented moves, he knows something is up. He can't have imagined that the information he is about to hear would be what it is.
When Gibbs hears Marine Corps Staff Sergeant Renee Kerrigan is alive, he is very relieved. Gibbs, now wants to ask her some questions.
"If Staff Sergeant Kerrigan is alive, then I need to ask her a few questions about her attack," Gibbs says to Horatio.
Horatio is not sure he wants to put his sister through another interview, but he ultimately relents and leads the two federal agents into his office.
Renee is busy entering information about closed cases into the database on her brother's desktop computer in his office. Horatio just reminds himself that once you're a Marine, you will always be a Marine.
Addressing her at her rank, Gibbs knows that she will feel more comfortable. He knows that she will open up more and be much more relaxed. Gibbs calls it, and Renee jumps to her feet at attention.
"Staff Sergeant Kerrigan, I'm Gunnery Sergeant Gibbs, Senior Field Agent for the NCIS field office in Washington, DC. They sent us to help investigate your assault and attempted murder. At ease, Staff Sergeant, Marines take care of their own," Gibbs says, winking at her.
Asking his fellow Marine, "What can you remember about your attack at your house. Can you remember anything that you might have forgotten when your brother talked to you."
Renee quickly does feel at ease since this person understood what she had gone through. She knows that this fellow Marine has her back and will help Horatio realize what it is to be a Marine.
"I think that I remember a few new details, but I'm not certain, sir," she tells her superior officer.
Renee might have left the Marine Corps, but she still respects the Marine Corps hierarchy and the Marine Corps motto "Semper fi" Always Faithful. That motto she takes very seriously.
"I remember one of my attackers telling me that he doesn't care how long it takes for him to break me because he was going to break me no matter what."
"I'm a Marine and a canine officer I would sooner die than give up my dog, and that was exactly what he was asking me to do. Echo and Charlie are my partners who would gladly die to protect me, so I owe them as much.
In a way, my canines are stronger Marines than a lot of human Marines that I know. I trust my dogs more than I trust most people. Present company excepted, of course."
The case is a bizarre, and complicated one by any standards. Gibbs and Horatio both see different things when they look at Renee.
When Horatio looks at his sister, he sees a vulnerable woman. He sees a person who, a few months ago, was barely alive but fought to live. A person who a few days ago was declared dead, but she fought to stay in the land of the living.
When Gibbs looks at her, he sees a Marine. From what he could see, she is a strong, resilient woman who can kick ass. Gibbs never saw Renee as the victim. He is indeed fresh eyes since he never saw her laying there on life support, or heard her heart flat-lining.
McGee and Benton work very well together to follow the electronic bread crumbs to find the person who had hired the Serbian Mercenaries to question and kill Renee.
The email that sent the Serbian's money went all over the world, bouncing around like a pinball machine.
When Gibbs and Horatio come into the AV lab, Benton starts to tell them what they find. When he begins to talk technical talk, McGee stops him. He knows his boss has little patience for technology, and McGee needs to dumb it down for Gibbs.
"We were able to follow the email to a house out in Hialeah." McGee is able to translate tech speak so Gibbs can understand.
Horatio is halfway to the elevator when he remembers about Gibbs. "Are you coming?" he asks the Agent.
Without saying anything, Gibbs runs right behind Horatio. Benton and McGee give their bosses the address of the person they suspect hired the Serbian Mercenaries who had attempted to question and kill Renee.
Driving to the address, Horatio calls Tripp for police backup. Pulling into the driveway, the pair is out of the Hummer immediately after Horatio puts the vehicle into park. Tripp arrives right after Horatio and Gibbs got out of the Hummer H-2.
Quickly the three of them begin to clear the house. They search the house for anyone, but there is nobody there.
Horatio touches the back of the computer to see if they just missed the suspect. He notices that the laptop is still warm, so he puts on a pair of latex gloves that he keeps in a capsule inside his pants pocket. He proceeds to open the laptop.
What is revealed is beyond shocking. He opens it up only to see a received email that reads. "Staff Sergeant Kerrigan is alive, and she is staying at 2359 North East 117th Street, Biscayne Park."
Horatio is horrified, quickly turning to face his friend to frantically ask Tripp, "Please tell me that Renee had not been dropped off at my house yet."
Tripp nods, yes, "I dropped her off on my way here, why?"
"He knows she's alive and where she is," Horatio yells, all while running back to the Hummer.
He is not going to lose her again. Gibbs is right behind Horatio when he gets to his vehicle.
They leave Tripp to secure the crime scene and to stay at the scene for Horatio's team to process the house for fingerprints.
On the other side of town, Renee is outside the house by the swimming pool, getting ready to do her nightly swim. She had fed the dogs and secured them for the night in their crates in her room.
The crates were custom made to make them bulletproof for up to 30 ought 6 Springfield. She replaced the doorknob with a deadbolt, and she placed a kick panel on the actual door and frame by herself to make her room as secure as she can.
Her dogs are always secured in the bedroom, or they are with her. Every night she swims, then goes to bed.
She is standing at the deep end, getting ready to dive in when a noise manages to get her attention. Hearing the sound makes the hair on the back of her neck stand up. Everything in her tells her she is being watched.
There is a loud bang, and she suddenly feels intense pain in her right shoulder. Looking down, she sees her blue bikini swimsuit turn red with her blood as well as a hole in her shoulder. She was shot again. This time Renee was shot in the back.
If the gunshot was not a through and through, Renee would never have even felt it. Falling to her knees, she doesn't have enough strength to stand up. Her body just hurt so much, and she is just so tired.
She must have passed out, since the next thing she knows, she's tied up to a chair. Someone who sounds oh so familiar to her is talking at her. For the life of her, she just can't place
him.
This person never asks her any questions directly, but he instead simply talks at her… not to her.
It isn't until he brings out his tools of torture that she is able to place him. This is the same person who had tortured her in Afghanistan.
He is also the main person who tortured her inside the warehouse in Miami a few months before trying to get information. This person is the one who had used Sodium Pentothal and electrocution on her.
Renee doesn't know how, but somehow, he found her both times. She is going to die, and she knows it.
No one is coming to save her as far as she knows. Her brother Horatio will find her when he gets home later that night since she easily recognized that she is still in his yard.
A few miles away, her brother is trying to get home. She hopes and prays that by some miracle, he will get there in time.
Horatio doesn't want to let her attackers know that he is coming, so he drives with the sirens off, but the lights on. This causes some people who are driving to take a while to see their lights. That means the drive took a little bit longer than he liked.
Renee's captors never say anything directly to her. He just starts to torture her almost for the fun of it. First, he breaks some of her fingers but gets bored with that quickly. He starts to burn her with cigarettes for the sheer pleasure of it. Renee never cries out due to the pain.
Her torturer burned her for several minutes before he callously asks, "Aren't you going to beg for your life?" All while he takes out a cattle prod.
Being the Marine she is, Renee spits on him. This is the wrong thing to do since he just responds by electrocuting her with the jacked-up cattle prod.
Renee stifles back a scream of pain. She is not going to give this monster the satisfaction of hearing her scream.
By this time, Horatio is only a block away, but she doesn't know that he is that close. She isn't sure she can fight any longer because she is just so tired, and it hurts so bad.
By now, her torturer is done with her. He is busy getting ready to push her into the pool. She is still tied to the chair, so her attacker has to know that she will drown.
Her attacker never hears Horatio pull up in the Hummer until he hears someone kicking down the front door. Horatio doesn't want to waste time unlocking the front door and opening it. He will just replace the door later.
In a panic, her attacker kicks Renee's chair backward, causing her to hit the back of her head on the concrete hard. He pushes her into the pool with her still tied up to the chair. That makes her sink to the bottom of the pool very quickly.
Gibbs and Horatio hear a splash when they are clearing the house. That causes the two of them to run to the open sliding glass door.
Getting to the opening five minutes after they hear the splash.
It is a classic shootout situation, but her attacker is going to die, whether it is by Horatio's hand or by Gibbs's.
Horatio is looking all around the pool area. He desperately searched for his sister. Finally, he notices something at the bottom of the pool. When he realizes that what he is seeing is blood, his heart sinks.
With fear in his eyes, he nods to Gibbs as he dives in only to find his sister tied to her pool chair. They make eye contact, and they both nod to each other.
His sister is clearly struggling to stay conscious. He can see that both her head and her shoulder are bleeding rather profusely. His clean pool is quickly turning red with his sister's blood.
Horatio knows that Renee can hold her breath for a long time; he just doesn't know how long she has been down there.
He learned his sister could hold her breath for a long time the hard way. On more than one occasion he found his sister at the bottom of the pool. She was not moving so he dove in. Renee was in a deep meditative state and didn't even realize what was happening. Her brother pulled his sister out of the pool and immediately started doing CPR. She gasped for air but was never in real danger. Eventually she told her brother, "Unless I am tied to a chair or bleeding don't worry about me.
In this situation he could clearly see his sister was both bleeding and tied. This was an obvious Horatio is also not sure if his sister is going into shock.
Surfacing in the pool, Horatio sees that Gibbs had already put two bullets into the attacker's chest and one into his head as per protocol.
"Knife… I need a knife," he pleas with Gibbs for help with cutting his sister free from her chair.
Horatio doesn't know Gibbs rule #9, Never go anywhere without a knife. Gibbs tosses the M-Tech pocket knife that he always keeps in his back pocket to his new friend. His only other knife is a fixed blade, and he can't throw that one since it will cut Horatio fairly deep.
Horatio goes back down to the bottom as he cuts his sister loose. Getting back to the bottom of the pool, Horatio notices that his sister is no longer conscious.
Renee has already gone into shock. The bullet wound to her shoulder and her head wound both caused massive blood loss.
Gibbs dives down to help Horatio cut Renee loose using the dive knife that the SEAL had given him.
They finally get Renee loose, so they both grab her from her armpits and swim to the surface. Once at the surface, the two men swim as fast as they can to take her to the stairs.
They need to get Renee out of the pool. Her head is bleeding rather profusely from hitting her head on the concrete. Her shoulder is also still bleeding from the gunshot wound.
The two gently place Renee's body on the concrete when Horatio desperately checks his sister's Carotid Artery for a pulse. He does feel a very weak heartbeat, so at least she is alive.
When he loses her pulse, Horatio just panics. He has to get her heart beating again. He just can't lose her... Not like this... Starting CPR, he doesn't stop until the medics arrive at the scene.
He knows that if CPR is still being performed when the paramedics get to the scene, the medics will have to continue providing it until they get to the hospital.
He is not willing to give up. The paramedics have a portable defibrillator in the ambulance. The medics shock her heart once at two hundred fifty joules but get no response.
Charging it to three hundred joules, they try again but still get no response. Finally, when they charge it to three hundred sixty joules, and shock her heart, they get a steady heartbeat.
The paramedics had already managed to get the water out of her lungs. They had fed a long and thin tube, called a suction catheter, down her windpipe to the water, and sucked it out. This got her breathing on her own.
She might be breathing on her own, and she might have a steady pulse, but she will not open her eyes or respond in any other way.
Horatio tries to get her awake by shaking her gently and patting her face. "Nae… Nae… Open your eyes, sweetheart… Come on, open your eyes," he pleas with his sister.
He remembers thinking to himself, "My God… Nae… why do these things always seem to happen to you? This is your third coma in four months."
Part of him is glad she is in a coma since she could use the time to heal. His baby sister overworks herself, and it had almost killed her. Renee needs to rest, but she doesn't do still.
Gibbs wants to stay to make sure she is okay, but he sent McGee home since he is married and has two small children.
Sitting in her room watching her sleep, the duo's attention is suddenly drawn to Renee as she sleeps.
Her eyes are darting all over the place under her eyelids. She is twitching and jerking like crazy. Gibbs looks over at Horatio to see him completely focusing on his sister.
He asks Horatio, "Does she do this often?"
"Only when she sleeps. She rarely sleeps more than two to four hours a night, and even when she sleeps, she only does it like one hour at a time. At least she's asleep," Horatio responds.
Renee continues to twitch and jerk in her sleep. While she is in the coma, Gibbs allows Horatio to read his sister's full and completely unredacted military personnel file.