Title: Unexpected Discoveries, Part 11

Disclaimers and other info in prologue.

"Welcome to the Marine Corps, Lieutenant." Mac smiled and stood.

The man in front of her desk came to attention. "Thank you, ma'am."

"Here are your orders and your new background. I suggest you commit it to memory ASAP." She handed the new lieutenant a thick folder. "Dismissed."

"Aye, aye, ma'am." He did an about-face and left the office.

Mac smiled. This job wasn't so bad after all.

She sobered as she glanced over at the board along one wall. She walked over to it and removed the Confundus Charm.

She sighed as she studied the faces once more. They had to find that bastard. They just had to.

A blast of cold materialized behind her. "Hello, Clay," she said tiredly.

"Sarah," the familiar voice greeted her. Clay floated up beside her and stared at the board. "So these are the people?"

"Yeah." Mac slumped into a chair. Clay kept studying the board. "We can't find a pattern. At least, none that's obvious."

An achingly familiar smirk crossed Clay's face. "Yeah, well, let me give it a shot."

Mac rolled her eyes. "Have a ball." She stood and walked over to her desk. "Olivia!"

"Yes, Auror?" the perky blonde said, appearing in the doorway.

"File the information for Auror--Lieutenant Greene, please. And get the NYPD commissioner for me. When you're done with that, you can go home."

"Yes, ma'am."

"Hello... what's this?" Clay murmured, his ghostly form leaning closer to the board.

"Did you find something?" Mac asked.

"I think so. Write this down for me..." He rattled off a series of numbers. Mac scrambled for a quill and parchment.

Clay led her through a series of increasingly complex Arithmantic equations. Mac tried to follow his train of thought, but Arithmancy had never been her strong point. However, Clay had excelled at it, resulting in his placement as a codebreaker with the NSA.

Finally, the ghost fell silent. Mac took the opportunity to massage her cramped hand. "That son-of-a-bitch," Clay muttered.

"What?" Mac asked. The look on Clay's face wasn't a pleasant one. It was a mixture of anger... and nervousness.

"Sarah," he said gently. "We've found the pattern. He's going backward through school years at Salem."

Fear gripped Mac's heart. "And...?"

"And the next year is AJ's." Mac paled. "But he's not going for AJ, Sarah, so don't go dashing off on a Rabb mission to save him."

"Then who..." Mac trailed off. "No."

Clay nodded. "Yeah."

"But he never..."

"I have the feeling that whoever this is, he--or she--doesn't care."

"Shit!" Mac took a deep breath to calm herself. "Olivia!" she yelled. Her assistant stuck her head through the doorway. "Contact the Aurory and MLE. Tell them that we need a team put together for..." She started rifling through the papers on her desk.

"I have the address, ma'am," Olivia said, halting her frantic search. "Should I tell his colleagues, as well?"

Suddenly, a plaque on Mac's wall began to glow brightly. It was one she had charmed to let her know when the NCIS team was trying to call her. She shook her head. "I have the feeling they already know," she replied. She turned to Clay. "Get back to JAG. Tell AJ to clear everyone out--I'm going to Apparate directly into his office."

Clay nodded and vanished.

"Showtime," Mac whispered grimly. She disappeared with a pop.

To be continued...