The rest of the workweek was rather interesting. Jethro was called to the stand in order to testify at the court-martial of one of his older cases that had finally gone to court. That wasn't anything new, though. The interesting part came the next day. After a car exploded during a chase in downtown D.C one morning. Jethro's team found that they had been exposed to radioactive material that a lone terrorist group called Libertad Nueva, which had supposedly started operating in the area recently, had allegedly been using to create dirty bombs.
The timing made things challenging as this was happening at the same time that the U.S. Senate was voting on a defence bill authorizing billions in contracts. Incidentally, giving Vance plenty to complain about every time he and Jethro discussed the case. It didn't help that Jethro had Attorney M. Allison Hart back on his case.
By now, he'd sort of figured out what the game was, Tobias confirming that the woman had been having Jethro tailed, the man having had his team keep an eye on Jethro and his family for a bit after the trial.
The FBI agent and longtime friend had assured Jethro, however, that the situation had been handled and not to be overly concerned. The defence attorney had then run into Jethro when he was leaving Elaine's Diner after grabbing coffee one afternoon, and the pair had come to a bit of an understanding.
In any case, Jethro went about his usual business and focused his energy on the dirty bomb investigation. They worked the case only to find that it was all a farce, set up by an individual in order to increase funding. Once they'd figured that out, it hadn't been hard to know where to look.
A private intelligence firm hired by the government, the head of which had met with Jethro and Vance at the outset of the case, had made up the existence of the Peruvian terrorist group, Libertad Nuevo, and used a boy named Roman Vega as its pawn to send D.C. into mass hysteria so the defence bill would be pushed through.
And the plan had actually worked, until Jethro and Vance m decided that they'd bluff their way to a confession from the head of the intelligence firm, Walter Kane, himself. Jethro may have been stuck at the office for a few days, which seriously irritated him, but nobody was keeping Jethro away from the interrogations or interviews.
"Gibbs, if you're wrong about this," Vance said as they walked into the conference room, "we're putting a lot of lives in jeopardy."
"I'm not," he said, immediately taking a seat.
"I got here as quick as I could," Kane said.
"Thank you," the director said kindly. "As our resident Libertad Nueva expert, I wanted to get your take on something before I went to the Joint Chiefs." Vance paced around the room for a moment. "Next bomb's set to go off in twelve hours. To prepare, Agent Gibbs thinks that we should do nothing."
Kane looked at them incredulously. "Nothing?
"Not gonna be another bomb," he stated.
"Yeah," the director said, gesturing towards Jethro, "he says it's all for show."
"LN isn't given to making idle threats," Kane said. "What's the endgame?"
"The Senate is set to vote on a new defence bill tonight," the NCIS director proceeded to explain. "It's a terrible bill; it was never going to pass. Gave away billions in pork to defence contractors. But now, after the attacks, looks like it might go through."
Kane looked over at the director in disbelief. "What? You think Libertad Nueva is trying to influence the Senate vote?"
"No," he said bluntly, "you are."
"Did some checking," Vance told the other man. "Your company stands to make tens of millions of dollars if that bill should pass."
"You know," Jethro commented, "the funny thing about all the intel we got on Libertad Nueva is it comes from your company."
"All we could verify independently of the group was a kid with a website," the director said, starting to walk back towards them.
"Thirteen-year-old kid," he added.
"You know," Vance said, "it's not unheard of for somebody in your position to amplify things for their own personal gain."
He eyed the man. "People get scared, they make bad decisions."
"You were counting on it," Director Vance said knowingly. "You cooked the intelligence. You created a fake sleeper cell. No senator would ever vote against any defence bill at threat level red."
Kane stood up, visibly upset. "Oh, this is ridiculous."
The director eyed Kane. "Sit down." Once the man did as he ordered, Vance continued. "Our people traced the IP address that uploaded the bus station photos.
"Came from a computer in your office," Jethro added.
"You did your best to camouflage it," the NCIS director commented. "Well, I guess we just have better nerds than you do." Vance then leaned across the table. "You cop to it now, right now, you let me get this city off alert, I'll ask the Attorney General to waive the death penalty."
He glanced down at his watch. "You got ten seconds."
"After that," Vance told Kane, "you can start thinking about which vein you want us to shut you off with."
Jethro glanced back down at his watch. "Five seconds."
There was a tense pause before Kane spoke. "I'll need to talk to my lawyers first."
"Oh, yeah," Jethro retorted, "I bet you do."
Ziva then entered the conference room and informed them that the team had finally traced the bus photos to a computer in Kane's office. The man then realized that both Jethro and Vance had been bluffing, but it was a little too late.
Vance eyed Ziva. "Cuff him."
That was just before 1400 that Friday afternoon, and after a quick chat with Vance, he made his way down to the squad room to get some work done on his reports, DiNozzo and McGee both doing likewise, while Ziva booked Walter Kane on multiple charges. It looked like, pending a new case, of course, they might actually get out of there before dinnertime for once.
And Jethro was right, by 1600 he'd dismissed his field agents, Abby needing to stay at the forensic lab a bit longer to finish running something for Agent Olson's REACT team, and headed out of the Navy Yard after a nine-hour shift.
Shannon, of course, was thrilled when Jethro walked into the house quite a bit earlier than he usually did, allowing them to actually spend the afternoon together.
As it was quite nice out, the weather having warmed up quite a bit the last week or so, Jethro quickly changed out of his work clothes and then he and Shannon both headed to the back yard, taking a couple of drinks out with them.
He shifted in his chair slightly, facing his wife. "How's work going?" Shannon had two weeks left until she was off for Spring Break, so he knew that she was trying to wrap up some of the bigger projects and units before they went on break.
"Pretty well," she replied with a smile. "We watched a movie in science today and one of the kids that's really been struggling with the math unit seems to have caught on."
"That's good to hear," he replied, taking a sip of his coffee. "Kelly confirm yet if she's coming with us to the cabin or not?" Jethro couldn't take the full break off of work, but they were going to go to his no their cabin in the Virginia Mountains for a weekend to get away and do some fishing. The lake near the cabin was great for fishing for trout and quite a few other types of fish.
"Yeah," his wife informed him happily, "she's coming with. Her boss told her today that she got the time off."
"Great," he replied with a grin. He'd been hoping that their daughter would be able to go with them, so was quite pleased to hear that.
His wife gave him a look. "I thought so too."
He and Shannon lounged around the backyard for a while, simply enjoying the fresh air and each other's company, until it started to cool down slightly and they both headed back inside to make something for dinner.
"There's nothing here that I want," his wife commented with a sigh as she rummaged through the fridge and cupboards. The grocery shopping for the week hadn't happened yet, not that it was really an issue.
Jethro gave a little snort, getting to his feet. "I'll do a quick grocery run. Is there anything in particular you want?"
She gave a little shrug. "No idea."
"Alright," Jethro said, wracking his brain for something easy that he could make the both of them. After a moment, he settled on philly cheesesteaks. "How much cheese do we still have?"
"Not much." she replied, "I used most of it on the lasagna the other day."
"Okay," he said. "I can grab some cheese while I'm out." He eyed her. "Cheesesteaks?"
"Works for me," Shannon agreed. "Provolone. Without." Cheesesteaks with provolone cheese and no onions.
Jethro nodded and then walked over to his wife to give her a quick kiss before going to grab his wallet and keys off of their coffee table.
He heard his wife call out from behind him. "Thank you!"
Jethro raised his right hand, truck and house keys in hand, in acknowledgment as he headed to the entranceway to throw his shoes on and head to Glebe Market. The store was one of the closest to them so Jethro closed the front door behind him and hopped into his old pickup.
The store was only a five-minute drive so it wasn't long before he was back home and after dinner he and Shannon headed downstairs to the basement, his wife helping with some of the sanding on the bookshelf while Jethro did some measuring and cutting for a couple of the actual shelves, the pair chatting all the while, his wife, not for the first time, bringing up the prospect of them getting a dog.