A JAG '24'
Chapter 6
Disclaimers: I don't own any of the Jag or NCIS characters. I don't own any product or label mentioned for the purposes of telling this story. Any similarities to situations or persons living or dead are purely coincidental.
Spoilers: The Season 9 episodes "Persian Gulf" and "Take It Like a Man." Though the events will not happen in the same sequence or may not have the same results. I will also be referring to a Season 1 episode of NCIS "Split Decision." I named a character that was unnamed in the episode. (fanfic writers' prerogative.)
A/N: I know I said this wasn't a cross over but it seems to be evolving into one. JAG is still the focus and I have no intention of delving into any of the NCIS character others than how they relate to my JAG characters.
A/N: Some readers may recognize a character that is totally unrelated to JAG 'walk through.' It will happen only in this chapter. I know it's off the wall but the idea of using him kept coming back to me, so I went with it. I'll credit it after, to see if any of you recognize him. (Smile)
A/N: As always. Many thanks to Karen for her excellent beta reading skills, during what I know, is a busy time for her. You're the best Karen!
Rating K+
The following takes place between the hours of
5 p.m. and 6 p.m.
Mac stood in front of her car and watched as two uniformed police officers walked toward her. Just then, Special Agent Gibbs pulled up behind her car and got out. The street had been blocked off, with all of the building's residents safely behind a makeshift barricade, a block down the street.
He stepped up beside her, "Colonel Mackenzie."
"Special Agent Gibbs." Mac glanced at him and looked back toward her building.
Before Gibbs had a chance to speak with the Colonel, the two uniformed police officers approached and spoke to her.
"Colonel Mackenzie," The taller of the two men acknowledged her.
Mac nodded and the officer then looked at Gibbs. "And you are?"
"Special Agent Gibbs, NCIS" He took out his badge and showed it to the officer.
"We've got this under control…Agent Gibbs." He smirked at him.
"This incident involves an officer in the United States Marine Corps, this falls under our jurisdiction. Has the building been cleared?" He wasn't going to get in a pissing contest with the District police, there wasn't time for this.
"Everyone is out except the building manger and she is being evacuated as we speak. The bomb squad is still inside."
They were joined by another man. He was a tall imposing figure, dressed in street clothes, wearing a long black overcoat. Both of the police officers recognized him immediately and acknowledged him. At once they said, "Chief"
He nodded toward them then turned his attention to Mac and Gibbs. He first offered his hand to Mac and she shook it.
"Jack Mannion"
Mac nodded "Sarah Mackenzie."
He then looked at Gibbs and acknowledged him. "Gibbs."
"Mannion." The Special Agent knew the District's chief of police very well.
One of the officers spoke "There seems to be a problem with jurisdiction here, Chief."
He looked at the police officer directly and answered. "There is no problem. Is the building clear?"
"Yes sir, except for the bomb squad." He answered the chief quickly, getting the message loud and clear, even before the chief spoke.
"As soon as they clear it, NCIS has jurisdiction over the crime scene itself. We'll cover the crowd control and keep the news crews out of their way."
Both men acknowledged the chief with a 'yes sir' and left the three of them standing at the front of Mac's car. At that same moment, Mrs. Ames came out of the building with another police officer carrying to two cat carriers while she held another cat in her arms.
As she walked out of the courtyard and nearer to the street, she saw Mac. "Oh my dear, I am so sorry about this. I didn't know what to do. I didn't want to be overly suspicious; he seemed like such a nice man. I'm so sorry."
Mac tried to reassure her as quickly as she could; the officer was hurrying her along away from the building. "It's alright Mrs. Ames, you couldn't have known." Mac followed Mrs. Ames for a couple of steps.
Mannion looked at Gibbs, "I think I'll follow up with patrol, make sure everyone has the word to let you finish up before we allow the residents back in."
Gibbs nodded, "Thanks."
As he walked away, he looked over his shoulder, "Hey, don't you still owe me a beer?"
"Come on over, I'm still working on my boat. We can break open a bottle over it. "
"The one in the basement? No thanks. You still drinking that rot gut out of a coffee cup?"
Gibbs didn't answer him, he just smiled.
Mannion shook his head in mock disgust and walked toward the officers who continued moving the crowd back to a safe distance from the building.
At that same moment…
Sadiq Fahd walked down the street near the night club, Shiraz. He could see Fardad, sitting at a table at the outdoor café waiting for him. Though Fardad was facing away from him, he saw that the young man was looking for him.
He slowed his pace, he had to speak with his contact, he was to make the exchange of diamonds for the permissive action link at 9 p.m. His contact was to meet him at Fardad's apartment.
He intended to have Sarah there with him by then. She would see for herself the power he had and how corrupt her own government was. Shiraz would be nothing more than a heap of ashes and she would have seen the unfaithful and their enablers die in the street before her. When his contact arrived, then she would have no choice but to believe him. The person who delivered the link would have to die too, of course, but no matter, he was a dishonorable man, as so many were, in this country.
He stepped into the night club and back to the men's room to deliver the first phase of the 'special' evening he had planned for Sarah Mackenzie.
Outside Sarah Mackenzie's apartment building…
The last of the bomb squad personnel were leaving the building when the Admiral joined Mac and Agent Gibbs. They found no trace of any explosives in the apartment building. Apparently Sadiq had only paid the Colonel a 'friendly' visit.
"Admiral Chegwidden." Gibbs acknowledged him. "We have everything under control here."
"No one said that you didn't, Agent Gibbs. The circumstances of this incident center around one of my people and a case in which the office of the Judge Advocate General is involved." The Admiral turned to look at him sharply.
Gibbs started to answer him, but the Admiral stopped him with a raised hand.
"Special Agent Gibbs, you may not have to 'sir' me, but you will not dismiss me, are we clear?" The Admiral's expression was fixed and determined.
Gibbs nodded his acquiescence, but it was clear that he was not happy about it. As they all started into the building, Gibbs stopped abruptly to answer his cell phone.
"Yeah, Gibbs" He turned away from them as he answered.
The voice on the other end of the line spoke without greeting. "He made contact, 9 p.m. tonight. At the home of Fardad Baraheri."
"We already have it under surveillance." Agent Tim McGee was well hidden in the neighborhood and had been for some time. .
"Something else, when we spoke earlier, he alluded to me that the area could be very 'chaotic' when I arrived. He said that there was no need to worry about detection, that the local law enforcement would be too busy"
Gibbs was silent for a moment. He didn't like this. It confirmed what he had suspected earlier. If there was nothing in this building then Sadiq's plans for the missing C4 had to be somewhere near Fardad's apartment.
"We picked up the background from the call, sounded like a restaurant or night club of some kind, Middle Eastern music and a lot of traffic noise from the street."
"Thanks, stay with the original plan."
"Will do."
They ended the call. He had been speaking with an undercover ATF agent, Don Williams; they had worked an undercover joint operation before. They had taken down a corrupt ATF agent about a year ago, one that unfortunately had been working with an active duty Marine to steal arms from her government and sell them to the highest bidder.
Williams was good, he had even fooled everyone on his team, until they arrested Agent Stone.
Gibbs closed his cell phone and turned again toward the Admiral and Mac as they all went into Mac's building. As they approached Mac's apartment they could hear the music filling her apartment. The seductive and familiar sound made the hair begin to stand up on the back of her neck. Involuntarily, Mac began to step ahead of the Admiral and Gibbs.
That bastard had been in –her- apartment and violated -her- space. Damn him, who did he think he was? The hatred she felt for him rose up inside her quickly, she barely felt in control of it. She stepped inside and saw a black velvet pillow on which a perfect diamond was situated. As the two men followed her back to her bedroom, they saw another black velvet pillow placed at the center of her bed, again, with a perfect diamond at its center, securely in place.
Her cell phone rang and Mac looked up at Gibbs and the Admiral. She answered it only to hear more of the music of her Middle Eastern heritage playing seductively in the background. The caller spoke in Arabic and Mac did not understand, but she would know the voice anywhere. Then he spoke in English and Gibbs stepped closer so that he could hear him; Mac held the phone slightly away from her ear.
Mac looked away, feeling embarrassed when he spoke of the weak men in her life and as he flattered her about the strength of her heart. He spoke admiringly of her, but at the same time tried to shame her about the choices she had made. Who the hell was he to tell her who she was? He was trying to draw her and she would allow it….because subconsciously, she knew that she was going to kill him or he would kill her. One way or the other, the pain that had begun in Paraguay, would end.
Sadiq ended the call abruptly, closing his eyes, knowing he had accomplished his task; he had drawn her into his plan.
Sarah would be here…soon.
The following takes place between the hours of
6 p.m. and 7p.m.
Special Agent Gibbs turned off the CD player with a gloved hand and started to close the door. At the moment he was going to close it, Clayton Webb appeared in the doorway and reached forward to stop it.
"Webb" The Admiral greeted him first. Mac stood back from them all, as though she were observing.
"Agent Webb, I thought I made myself clear this morning. You are to stay out of this case, NCIS has the lead." Gibbs did not know this man well and what he had seen so far made him glad he didn't.
"Taking care of your own?" Webb smirked at the Special Agent and glanced at, but did not acknowledge Mac. He knew she would understand: he was working and so was she.
"Is that a foreign concept for you, Webb?' The Admiral spoke up, wishing to hell he wasn't in uniform at this moment.
"You know how we operate, the way we have to operate; I'm not going to apologize for doing my job. If we had been allowed to proceed as planned this morning, we might have Sadiq Fahd in custody right now."
"Or Commander Rabb and Colonel Mackenzie would be dead, along with anyone else that came between Sadiq and his 'mission.'"
Gibbs had very little patience for this man; he wanted him the hell out of here. He had orders from his superiors to bring Admiral Chegwidden and Colonel Mackenzie up to speed on what was happening, and he couldn't do that while Webb was still here.
'Webb, you're leaving, now."
"You have no authority…" Webb began
"I've got all the authority I need; Vice Admiral Brown went all the way up the chain of command to the SecDef after he learned of your little operation at Bethesda this morning. If you have not spoken with your boss Webb, I think you should." Gibbs paused for just a moment and looked at Webb directly. "Get out."
Webb looked at Mac for a moment, hoping she would say something to intervene, but she could only think that she didn't even know this man. Who the hell was he? At this moment she really didn't know. She looked away from him, this was no place to try and figure this out.
Webb stepped back and Gibbs closed the door.
Gibbs turned to look at them. "I have Director Morrow's permission to bring you into this case. Colonel Mackenzie we will need your help. This began as a way to get Sadiq Fahd and whoever his contacts are in the area, now we seem to be racing against the clock. We believe he is possession of C4 that came up missing from White Oak, sometime in the last 24 hours; we need to get inside and find out where he intends to use it. He seems focused on you and we would like to use that to our advantage."
Mac listened; she didn't even look at the Admiral but answered. "I'm in."
Gibbs looked at the Admiral and he nodded his acquiescence.
Gibbs began, "We are also not sure that Sadiq doesn't have another contact inside the Company. There are investigations ongoing that are dealing with that."
"Is Van Duyn's secretary still with the Company?" Mac was sure she would be able to shed some light on this situation.
"Apparently she is missing as well." Gibbs looked at her questioning. "Why do you ask?"
"Just something I remembered today. When we spoke in January, while I was following up some information I had on the Marvalis case, I complained to Van Duyn about my inability to get any information about Clay from his secretary. When he answered me, he said something about what a 'good' secretary did. It made me wonder what she knew about Van Duyn's contacts outside the Company."
Mac had a strong suspicion that the secretary was dead along with any information she could have given them. It seemed Sadiq Fahd left a path of death and destruction everywhere he went…all in the name of Allah.
"They don't suspect Agent Webb or Deputy Director Kershaw, do they?" This mission seemed to unraveling everything Mac believed to be true since she returned from Paraguay.
"No one is exempt in an investigation like this Colonel, you should know that."
Gibbs didn't care for the time being, he just wanted Webb out of his way. The scuttlebutt was that there were concerns expressed all the way from the White House about how things were being run in the Company and that it would be under new management, soon. It seemed to him that if Webb's 'friends' at JAG were lucky, Webb wouldn't be a problem to any of them for much longer.
At that same moment….
Sadiq stepped over the body of Fardad Baraheri. He laid on the floor, in front of the mirror in which he watched himself die. To Sadiq it seemed fitting way for a man such as he was, to die. Sadiq glanced at himself in that mirror. He turned his head from side to side, congratulating himself on his ability to change his appearance. He observed his now blue eyes and smiled broadly at himself. What had Fardad called him, a chameleon? He would agree with that…praise be to Allah.
Sarah would not recognize him, he would be able to get close enough to speak with her and when he did, she would be unable to flee from him. Not without being shot and Sarah was too smart for that.
It was just a matter of time now.
Enroute to Harm's apartment….
As Mac neared Harm's apartment she went over every detail of what she had discussed with Special Agent Gibbs before they left her apartment. She was dressed in winter white, conservatively by American standards. However, she was sure anything other than an abaya would be an affront to Sadiq. Her wire was already in place. Special Agent Gibbs and a number of other NCIS agents would be stationed around Shiraz and the apartment of Fardad Baraheri.
It was Mac's mission to bring out in conversation, when and how Sadiq Fahd would use the C4. After the conversation Gibbs had with Williams, he had been sure Sadiq was in possession of it and intended to use it, tonight.
Mac's adrenaline was already pumping and she was ready to get on with this, but she needed to see Harm once more. Harm's apartment was on her way to the small Middle Eastern district of D.C., so she would stop for just a moment. He was her friend, at least and she knew he cared about her. If anything happened to her tonight, she just wanted to see him, once more. She had long since given up on talking with Webb and given the conversation between Gibbs and Webb, she didn't think she should be speaking with him. Who knew where he was now?
She had believed Webb was her friend and something more, but now she just didn't know and it was too complicated to dwell on now. The Admiral had asked her if she were going to be able to keep Webb out of this. She had answered that it would not be a problem.
He had tried to talk to her, briefly, about the situation, "Look Mac, this is none of my business…"
Mac had uncharacteristically interrupted him. "With respect, sir. No…it's not."
Shaking off the thought, she pulled into the parking space in front of Harm's apartment, glancing into her rearview mirror. Getting out of the car she looked up at the windows and saw Harm looking down at her, as though he had been waiting for her.
He walked away from the window already heading for the door; his knees were almost weak from relief. Opening the door to his apartment, he waited and in moments Mac opened the elevator door. She looked so beautiful, but she also looked as though she were on a mission. Something was up, he could see it in her eyes and he was sure he was not going to like it.
"Hey" He wished he could just cross the hallway and pull her into his arms.
"Hey yourself, where's Mattie?" She smiled at him as though nothing out of the ordinary had happened today; Harm knew the look, she was retreating behind her wall again.
"She's finishing up the last of her homework; her teacher was nice enough to send today's class work, via e mail." All the while he was speaking; he wanted her to tell him what was going on.
Mac smiled, relieved to be talking for a moment about something as simple as homework. "Bet she loved that."
"Not really." Harm returned her smile. "Come in." He stepped back from the doorway allowing her to walk in.
As he closed the door behind her, she walked over to the dining room table and sat down. Harm followed her and sat in the chair nearest to her.
"What happened today, Mac? The news reports called it a bomb threat, and then said it was a false alarm, an over-reaction because of the increased threat level." He kept his voice calm and his tone even. His hearing had almost returned to normal, though his balance was still off, due to his inner ear problem.
"My apartment manger was fooled by a man who said he was a 'distant cousin' of mine, it turns out that it was Sadiq, he left a few calling cards for me."
"Calling cards?" That would explain the bomb squad. It also seemed a diversionary tactic to allow Sadiq to move more freely during the increased alert level, Harm knew.
"Two of the 19 missing diamonds. He called me on my cell; he seems to know a great deal more about me than I thought."
"He's seducing you Mac." Harm leaned forward and tried to convey his warning as plainly as he could.
"What are you talking about?" His direct look made her uncomfortable. When he spoke of her and seduction in the same sentence she could not hold his gaze, she looked away.
"He knows where you live, he knows your cell phone number…He's trying to make you think about him."
Mac continued to look away from him. She could not tell him what had to be done tonight; there was nothing he could do.
"He's not seducing me Harm." She got up and walked to the window, looking out at the city, toward Union Station.
"He's trying to draw you in." He stood and walked unsteadily over to where she stood. "Something's going on tonight…Talk to me, Mac."
She turned to look at him, standing directly in front of him. "You know I can't talk to you about it."
He nodded his understand, looking down, now he was the one unable to look into her eyes. "I hate this. I should be with you."
"It's not possible Harm; you're not well enough yet. I'm not doing this alone."
He looked up at her then. 'Was Webb in on this?' he wondered.
Mac could see the question in his eyes. She could not answer him directly but she reassured him with. "I'll be with people who will watch my back, don't worry."
Harm knew then that it couldn't be Webb and he felt some sense of relief, but he still didn't like the idea of her taking this risk alone.
Mac reached down, took Harm's hand, and squeezed it. "I came to tell you to be careful, Sadiq seems focused on us both, it was a miracle he didn't get to you last night."
"Hey, I had a great body guard." He gave her a sly grin. "I'll be fine, YOU be careful." Harm said, feeling a bit amazed that she would even worry about him now. She was the one going out tonight, knowing that she would be luring Sadiq to come out in the open. He didn't know the details of her mission, but it seemed obvious to him that that was what was intended.
Mac smiled and looked up into his eyes and Harm lifted the hand holding his to his chest.
"Mac…I" Harm began.
Just then Mattie burst into the door. "I'm finished! Are you ready to be beaten again at Scrabble?" She gave Harm a mischievous grin.
Both Harm and Mac startled and stepped back from each other. Mac glanced back up at him. "I should go."
Mattie looked at her curiously. "Can't you stay Mac? Wouldn't you like to see me annialate Harm. I beat him every time."
"I'll take a rain check, Mattie" Mac walked toward the door and turned and looked at Mattie again. "Remember what you said you'd do for me this morning?"
Harm did not speak but his eyes followed her longingly as she was walking away.
"Yes, I remember."
"I'll hold you to it." And without another word and a last look at Harm, Mac slipped out of the door.
TBC
A/N: I used the character of Jack Mannion from the CBS show "The District." I didn't watch regularly but I did catch it occasionally and I liked Craig T Nelson's characterization of the chief of police in Washington D.C. As with the Jag and NCIS characters, I don't own any of them, they belong to their creators and CBS.