"Alright folks, let's make this quick, I have to head up to Bensonhurst later to prevent a district court from throwing a misguided nineteen year-old moron in prison." Nate clapped his hands together as he started off the meeting with the team.
"You're the Secretary of State, why are you taking an interest in a case of some teenager up in New York?" Harm raised an eyebrow in suspicion.
"It's not important. In any case, I want to commend Commander Baxter, Gunny Galindez, Captain Keeter and yes, even, Agent Webb on their apprehension of Hassan Mourari, even if it did devolve into a shootout in the streets of Algiers. At least I didn't see any of you on ZNN." Nate gave Gunny a pat on the shoulder.
"What's our last target, boss?" Bax nodded at Nate from across the table.
"Gentlemen, I have good news. You won't be leaving the hemisphere for this one and you're going after Sadik Fahd. Fahd is roughly comparable to a very good freelancing agent for Al Qaeda. He can operate independent of the network, something that's not out of the ordinary for someone whose personal background as an Iranian Shia would put him in some minor ideological conflicts with the senior Al Qaeda leadership. They tolerate him however, because he's incredibly effective. He's also doing some trading in drugs and diamonds down in Panama City." Nate produced the latest intelligence reports. Have fun down in Panama, boys. Oh and for the love of God, Harm, do something to let Mac know that you're okay. I'd rather not be driven insane by a Marine on a mission who needs to know where you are." Nate chuckled to himself as he left the room.
"Congratulations, sir, I knew you'd get it right eventually." Gunny gave Harm a pat on the back.
"The Hammer finds his permanent toolbox." Bax joked.
"Bax have you grown up at all since the Academy?" Harm rolled his eyes.
"Rabb, I had to convince him not to hit on women in a Muslim country like Algeria because it was likely to end in a Samson/Delilah kind of scenario. He still tried anyway." Webb slouched in his chair.
"You scored, didn't you?" Harm looked up at his buddy.
"Twice." Bax was smiling and nodding.
"Have you checked to make sure that you still have your wallet?" Harm asked, and laughed as Bax gave the pockets of his jeans a pat down. "Isn't that a surprise?"
"He and Captain Keeter were the worst, sir. I get the feeling that you and Commander Turner kept the two of them under control in your Academy days." Gunny joked at his CO.
"Actually in our Academy days, once Keeter and I shook a bit of the parental influence off of them, the two of them really rattled a few cages. Hammer and Bubble got in more then a few jams that they couldn't handle that Jack and I had to bail them out of." Bax put a supportive hand on his old buddy's back.
"Bubble, sir? Commander Turner's nickname at Canoe U was 'Bubble'? I'm really going to have to remember that one for later, sir." Gunny laughed lightly, breaking his Marine stoicism.
"Sturgis threatened to kill us if we ever used that name again, somehow, I don't think he was kidding." Harm shook his head. "It would be fun to trot old bubble out of the closet for a nice verbal tongue lashing when we get back from Panama."
"Sturgis might kill us. Two aviators, a SEAL and a Marine; we might be able to hold him off for a while but a pissed of Preacher's kid with a right hook that split my lip a few times, that's a force to be reckoned with."
"We'll deal with it when we get back from Panama, guys, huh?" Webb stood up and moved toward the door and was soon followed by the rest of the team.
1826 ZULU
THIRD DISTRICT COURT
BROOKLYN, NEW YORK CITY
Nate dusted the lint off the lapel of his jacket. He had been too late to hear the verdict be read before lunch but he was here for sentencing. He swung open the back doors to the courtroom and went strolling in. All eyes in the court turned to face him. Mama DiPiccio was looking at him like he was the knight in shining armour here to save the day. Nate knew that he couldn't overturn a verdict but h might be able to provide testimony in mitigation and even present his sentencing suggestion to the court. "May I be heard, your honour?" Nate asked the judge at the head of the court.
"Secretary Ross, I don't know what you feel you can add to these proceedings." Judge Rita Hearn was a lifelong Democrat from Harlem and one of the most respected women in the New York Bar Association. She also went to Penn State at the same time Nate did so she was inclined to grant him a little leeway.
"Testimony in mitigation of sentencing, your honour. I believe that the defendant while no doubt misguided is a generally well-meaning kid. And as tempted as I would personally be to throw him in Riker's for a spell of two years I believe that there's a more beneficial option for the rehabilitation of Angelo DiPiccio." Nate piped up.
"Approach, Mister Secretary." Judge Hearn waved Nate up to the bench and he approached. "Alright, Nate, what's the skinny on this kid?"
"Come on, Rita, you know that the streets of New York are like, this is an Inferno…" Judge Hearn cut him off.
"Dante wouldn't buy tickets to. I know, I know, fifteen years, Nate you need some new material. But I see your point; I won't let my kids go out unless I've got the complete fact sheet. The husband and I are even talking about moving out to Westchester County." Rita placed a hand on her chin.
"Going to play tennis with all the nice Jews, are you Rita?" Nate joked.
"What's your recommendation, Nate?" Judge Hearn had a habit for cutting the crap.
"Five year enlistment in the Marines." Nate suggested and Judge Hearn looked sceptical. "Listen, Rita, a DI out at Parris Island is going to be tougher on the kid then any prison guard could hope to be. Besides, if you send him into the Marines, you've done something constructive, you've given him skills he can actually use and he'll be serving the country."
"Alright, I think I can recommend that for sentencing. Five year enlistment sounds like a real hitch for him. You really think this kid can make something of himself?" Judge Hearn pointed with a pen at Angelo who was standing at the defence table.
"I think the Marines had straightened out arrows that were more crooked then Angelo DiPiccio, your honour." Nate answered and stepped back from the bench.
"Mr. DiPiccio, due largely to the overwhelming respect that I have for Secretary Ross and the judgement that I know he possesses, I have seen fit to honour his request for mitigation of sentencing. You are to enlist in the United States Marine Corps for a period no shorter then five years by 1700 hours on Friday evening. If you should fail to do so, you will serve the maximum sentence in Riker's Island Correctional Facility for your transgression. This court is adjourned." Judge Hearn banged her gavel.
Mama DiPiccio came running down the aisle to her son. "Angelo, what do you say to Nathan for keeping you out of prison?" She began to lecture.
"Ma, he turned me into a freakin' jarhead." Angelo complained in a stereotypically immature fashion.
"There's nothing wrong with that. Your father was a Marine and a darn good one. You should be proud that the Marines would take you." She pulled on her son's cheek to illustrate her point. Then she turned to Nate. "Nathan, what do I owe you for coming down here and bailing my Angelo's cannoli out of the fire?"
"You could consent to my marrying your daughter." Nate replied, sticking his hands in the pockets of his coat.
"What?" Mama DiPiccio raised her hands to her face. "Oh my God, are you serious? You're going to marry my little Nicole." The tiny, older Italian woman wrapped her arms around Nate's rib cage. "Wait, are you Catholic?"
"Working on it." Nate replied with a quick smile.
"Working on it?" Mama DiPiccio questioned.
"Long story." Nate answered.
1516 LOCAL
CIA LOFT
PANAMA CITY, PANAMA
"Fuck, it's hot, why the hell didn't the Secretary tell us it was going to be this hot?" Bax griped as he peered through the binoculars into the loft across the street.
"Exactly what is the temperature, Gunny?" Harm asked, by now he was on his third bottle of water.
"Boiling Marine, sir." Gunny replied as he made another pot of coffee.
"Jesus, Gunny how can you drink that stuff in 112 degree Fahrenheit heat?" Harm shook the sweat off his forehead.
"Marine insulation, sir." Gunny replied.
"Galindez, we're trying to apprehend a major international terrorist. We have more important things to talk about then how good or bad your coffee is and what purpose it serves." Webb stirred on the floor.
"What's got you in such a cranky mood?" Bax lightly kicked Webb in the knee on the floor.
"Heat added to sobriety added to Galindez's coffee added to long plane ride, you happy?" Webb sat up and took a feeble swing at Bax's leg.
"Webb, if the Company can get intelligence enough to tell us where these guys are, why can't you just take them out for us and allow me to not boil in some godforsaken corner of the globe?" Harm took the binoculars from Bax.
"If the Company does it, then it's espionage and that can be traced back to the United States government. If we do it, it's bounty hunting and we may be shot but no one can trace us back to the US since both the Pentagon and Langley have no written record of our employment for them while we're out of the country on these missions." Webb reached for a bottle of water from the case that they had brought into the country.
"Guys, you may want to see this." Harm waved and everyone else came over to the window. "Does that guy look enough like the photos we were given. I remember Reid saying something about Fahd being a chameleon of sorts." Gunny picked up a picture and studied it for a few minutes, registering the facial structure in the picture before examining the man in the street below.
"I'd be about 99 sure that man is Sadik Fahd, sir." Gunny answered.
"Only one way to be sure, Gunny. Go down there and see if you can get a closer look." Bax gave Gunny a pat on the back before moving back to the cot in the room.
"Why me, sir? Why not Commander Rabb or Mister Webb?" Gunny furrowed his brow.
"Because neither Commander Rabb nor Webb look like a local, Gunny. The idea of sending someone down there is to get a better look at Fahd without rousing suspicions. If Fahd or any of his cronies see Harm or Webb, it would risk our cover. If you go, they won't think anything of seeing you on the street." Bax rolled toward the wall.
"Alright, sir, I'll go." Gunny nodded at Bax before heading out of the door.
"You know, you shouldn't target him just because he fits in with a bunch of local Hispanics." Harm reminded his old Academy friend.
"Gunny speaks Spanish and looks like a Panamanian local. So, if Gunny accidentally bumps into Sadik, Sadik won't think anything more of him then the fact that he's just another hombre. If I send one of you two to do it, Sadik will be immediately suspicious, your appearances scream lonely American gringo and Sadik's no moron, he's going to wonder what an American – any American – is doing in Panama and we have no idea who's working with him in this city, we don't know who has seen us and what they've seen so I'm not taking any chances." Bax raised the binoculars to his eyes and looked down into the street.
Gunny crossed the street from the building where the CIA flat was located. There always seemed to be large crowds moving along the sides of the streets in this city, so it was hard even for an experienced Navy SEAL like Bax to keep a fixed eye on Gunny in so large a crowd. Gunny walked through the crowd with his head down and his eyes firmly fixed on the street beneath his feet. He knew that Sadik and his men were headed toward him and all he had to do was get close enough to Sadik to analyze his facial features.
Gunny lifted his head too late and ended up running right into Sadik himself. Gunny stumbled for a second and looked up at Sadik and right into his eyes, making a quick five second profile of the terrorist's face. "My apologies, sir." Gunny spouted off quickly in Spanish.
"Watch where you're going." Sadik angrily answered. Gunny tipped his straw hat to the irate Iranian before ducking into a nearby alleyway. He waited there for several minutes before peering around the corner to see that Sadik's men had disappeared from view. He tipped the brow of his hat and quickly trotted across the street back to the building where the rest of the team was cooped up in the flat. He jogged up the dank, barely lit stairwell toward the flat.
Gunny opened the door and was met by Webb and Bax, both of whom were on the edge of their seat waiting for the Gunny to report. "Well, Gunny, is that our man."
"Without a doubt, sir." Gunny answered.
2151 ZULU
ROSE PIERCE'S HOME
WILLOW GROVE, PENNSYLVANIA
Nate stood at the orange door to the small bungalow style home near Naval Air Station Willow Grove. He had been having regular visits with a Catholic friend of his at St. Matthew's Cathedral back home in DC and he knew that if he wanted to marry his Nicole, he was going to have to do this. It was a necessary step. But it wasn't one that he had to do alone. His brother Steve had been on an investigation with his NCIS team at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard so he had asked him to accompany him on this visit.
Nate hung his head and tapped on the door. He stood back as he heard footsteps approach the door. His security detail was waiting on the lawn below the porch. The door opened and Nate came face to face with the woman that he had spent the better part of nine years trying to forget. "Nathan?" Rose rubbed her eyes. "Why are you here?"
"Nice to see you too." Nate's sarcasm kicked in immediately. It was almost like being married to her all over again. "I've been talking to a Catholic friend of mine and it seems that in order to get married in the Catholic Church, I have to have received an annulment of my previous marriage. I've had the papers drawn up and all they require is your signature." Nate pulled the documents out of his breast pocket and handed them to her. Rose threw her head back and chuckled.
"This is rich; all these years and you need my permission to get married to another woman." Rose took the papers and looked them over. She turned to face Stephen. "You always were one to follow him around like a dutiful little dog, always obeying the orders of your older brother. It's a wonder that you never became a Marine."
"Leave him out of this." Nate warned with clenched teeth. "Just sign the damn papers so I can get the hell out of here and get back to Washington."
"Tell me, Nathan who's the gold-digging little bimbo that decided to sink her claws into one of the nation's most powerful men? You know how I avoid the scandal sheets; I tend to not pay attention to celebrity romances." She caustically smiled at him. Nate regarded her with his coldest stare, accompanied by an absolute and definitive silence. "Do I at least know the woman?"
"Yes." Nate answered sharply.
"Well, you could at least tell me who it is, you're getting married, I'm going to find out in the Times or Newsweek anyway." She rolled her eyes at him. Nate held his silence but Steve couldn't take any more of his former sister-in-law's belittling attitude so he decided to give her a quick lesson in ego deflation.
"He's dating Peach. Has been for a while now. I don't think I've ever seen him do damn happy come to think of it." Steve shot at her almost venomously.
"So, you're dating her? I always knew you were screwing her when we were married. All those late nights at the office couldn't have been as innocent as you made them seem." She taunted him wickedly. Finally she just pulled the lid off the pen and signed the papers. She pushed the papers back against his chest. "Here's to the hope that I never see you again." She muttered before closing the door.
"Well, that was like pulling a tooth without Novocaine." Nate joked as they walked across the front lawn toward the waiting car that was going to take them back to Marine Four.
2108 LOCAL
CIA LOFT
PANAMA CITY, PANAMA
"We look like we're going to rob a bank. Webb, is this really necessary?" Bax plied his face with black paint.
"How would you go about getting this guy, oh wise Commander?" Webb shot sarcastically.
"I don't know, maybe just pull him off the street in the middle of the day, in broad daylight and make sure that we have the Rangers in the air so that we can get the hell out of here." Bax pulled the black cotton cap on over his hair.
"Oh yeah, I'm sure the Panamanians would love that. Then they get on the phone to call Nate and they tell him that American operatives were operating without the consent of the Panamanian government. Nate has to pretend like he knew nothing about it and he has to chew us out and make a big show of disciplining us in front of the international community, effectively ending your career and Harm's as Naval officers as well as Galindez's career in the Marines. I think for all those concerned, it's probably best that we do it this way." Webb pushed a clip into his pistol.
"Didn't Chegwidden once say that the only thing he had to worry about was you being a lousy shot?" Harm asked as he locked a magazine into the AK-47.
"Hey, I came through on that mission." Webb argued.
"First time for everything." Gunny jested as the four of them walked toward the door. "Does anybody think there's something wrong with the fact that we'll be able to walk down the street carrying firearms and no one's going to say anything about it?"
"Yeah, it's almost like living in New York." Harm joked as they moved down the hallways to the stairwell. The team exited the building and fanned out into two teams on either side of the street. Gunny was tasked with making sure that Webb didn't screw up too bad with going in the front door, while Bax and Harm went into Sadik's building via the fire escape.
"Who would have thought all those years ago at the Academy that we would be chasing major international terrorists all over the globe?" Bax remarked as he and Harm began to slowly climb the steel ladder of the fire escape.
"Back when we were kids at the Academy, the Soviets were the biggest threat; the world order sure seems to have made one hell of a change in the last decade or so." Harm contributed quietly as the two of them crouched down on the steel patio outside the window to the apartment that Webb had cased after Sadik had left earlier in the evening. With Sadik back inside, they were now nearing the end of what they had come to Panama to accomplish.
Gunny and Webb had climbed the stairs inside the building and got closer and closer to the apartment that Sadik had rented out while he was carrying out his operations in Panama. Webb placed the silencer on the end of his pistol and instructed Gunny to do the same thing. The two men peaked around the corner, down the hall where Sadik's room was, there were two men pacing the hall with the standard thug issue AK-47s. It was clear that the terrorists understood the basic reasons for the use of that weapon as well. Gunny took aim with his weapon and pulled the trigger. The bullet entered the chest of one of the guards and exited through his back, lodging itself in the wall behind him.
Just as the other guard heard his accomplice hit the ground, he turned and Webb fired his shot into the man's head. The bullet entered the man's head with such force that the exit wound created a rather large splatter effect of carnage on the wall behind him. The man slumped back against the wall; he landed in a sitting upright position. Gunny and Webb tiptoed to the door and barely nudged it open, making their way inside. Gunny and Webb cleared the entry way and worked their way down a shot hallway toward the living room.
The smell of smoke filled the room. "Drop your weapons." The voice demanded and the lights flickered on, Gunny and Webb were standing across the room from Sadik and two more of his bodyguards. The bodyguards had weapons pointed in their direction and Gunny and Webb had their weapons drawn on them in turn. "In my business, such protections are necessary, especially when one is being hunted. When you bumped into me in the street today I could tell that you were not a native, despite some very good efforts on your part to convince me otherwise. You are in fact late; I was expecting you five minutes ago."
"You sacrificed your guards out in the hall to be killed?" Webb asked with a furrowed brow.
"Some things are necessary, as I said earlier. They will be revered as martyrs for Allah in their death. You, on the other hand will die the death of an infidel." Sadik drew a pistol from his pocket and pointed it at Gunny.
Outside, Harm and Bax raised their eyes to look in the window, the second that the lights had flickered on. The two of them readied their weapons at the window. Bax kicked in the screen and a round of gunfire was exchanged. At the end of which, both of Sadik's bodyguards lay dead on the floor, wallowing and rotting in pools of their own blood. Sadik lay on the ground with a bullet in his shoulder that was causing him considerable pain.
Gunny walked over and crouched near to the ground, he chuckled at Sadik. "Now, I believe you said something about me dying an infidel's death?" He coaxed before getting back on to his feet and dealing a swift kick to Sadik's ribs. "Let's get him back to the States, sir. It's getting near to Christmas time back home and I'd sure like to be there to see what Santa left under the tree for me this year."
"What did you ask him for, Gunny?" Harm asked as he and Bax pulled Sadik to his feet and slapped handcuffs on him.
"A blonde, sir. About 36-24-36?" Gunny joked as they dragged Sadik out the front door.
1123 ZULU
J & H YOUNG JEWELLERS
WASHINGTON, DC
"Would you care to remind us why we're here?" Mike asked as he walked through the store with Nate and Mac.
"Yes, the two of you are here because I'm trying to pick out a ring that I think would be perfect for Nicole and I figured that the opinion of a woman and a recently married man would probably be beneficial." Nate answered as he looked through the glass cases.
"I think that he just wants someone to blame if he screws up." Mac joked to Mike and the two of them caught a rather nasty glare from Nate. Both Mac and Mike rolled their eyes before continuing to inspect the different rings in the store. The store was reputed as one of the last family run businesses in Washington. Mister and Missus Young had run the business since the fifties and now their kids were starting to take over.
Nate wasn't one to go for the hokey sentimentality of giving a family heirloom ring to the woman he was in love with, especially since that was what he had done the first time and that marriage didn't end so well. He lightly skimmed the merchandise at the store counter when old Missus Young came walking up to him. "Is that Secretary Ross? My God, you're much more handsome in person then on TV." She put her glass on the bridge of her nose. "Henry! Come on out here, it's Secretary Ross."
A little, old hunched over man, staring through his own round-framed pair of spectacles came walking out of an office in the back of the store. "As in Nathan Ross?" The little old man asked. "Nathan, my name's Henry Young, you might not know this but I served with your grandfather on Okinawa. Old Colonel Horatio Ross turned a lot of boys into men in the Pacific during that war." Mr. Young was now standing behind the counter. "I reckon you're here to buy a ring for that nice girl that you were with at that play a few weeks back."
"I sure am, Mr. Young, is there anything that you can recommend?" Nate put his hands on the glass and looked around.
"There are things I could recommend, but it doesn't work that way. You just kind of know when you find the right one. Marriage and ring shopping are a lot alike in that sense." Mr. Young gave Nate a pat on the shoulder before turning back to the office.
"Hey, Nate, how about this one?" Mike pointed at the case and Nate looked over at what Mike was pointing at.
"Too cliché." Nate muttered before continuing his perusal.
"What about this one?" Mac pointed to a ring that was in a case on the far side of the store. Nate walked over and took a quick look at the ring.
"The diamond's too big." Nate shot quickly before heading back to the main display.
"Don't you find it a little weird that he invites us along and then shoots down any idea we come up with?" Mac shouted at Mike from across the store.
"Well he has to shoot down any ideas that you give him, if Peach finds out that you helped pick out her engagement ring, she'll make him sleep on the couch for a good six months and I'm not sure that would do wonders for his back." Mike answered as he leaned back against the merchandise case.
"I'm not sure that Peach's lack of attention would do wonders for other parts of his anatomy either." Mac joked and she and Mike shared a laugh. Nate didn't seem to move from one spot in the shop the whole time they were talking, he just stared down into the jewel case.
"That one." Nate mumbled as he pointed into the case. "That's her ring." Nate tapped on the glass.
"Now, that's a good one. That right there's a First Lady's ring." Harry Young winked at Nate and pulled the ring out of the case. "Your old grandpa used to remind me of President Truman, and you young man, sure do remind me a lot of your grandfather." Harry Young looked the ring over. "Any chance you know her size?"
"It's the same as my pinky finger." Nate wiggled the aforementioned finger in the air. His cell rang at that moment and he dipped his hand into the pocket of his coat to pick it up. "Secretary Ross."
"Nate, it's Harm, we've got Fahd and we're headed home." Harm's voice came through the other end of the phone.
"No you're not. The Company's under orders to take you to Delta. Have some fun in the Cuban sun until I get have NCIS Director Morrow send his best team down there to relieve you and take custody of Fahd, Ziyda and Mourari." Nate replied with a sarcastic smile.
"I have to spend a week at Gitmo?" Harm whined.
"Just think of all the nice senoritas you could meet. I'm sure Gunny and Bax will have a blast and I may just send Keeter down there to keep you entertained." Nate joked.
"The only women on base here are Marines." Harm replied, Nate could almost hear his brow furrowing through the phone.
"Should be right up your alley then." Nate chuckled as he closed the phone.