Chapter 14

Two weeks later...

Tim kept coming back to two things about the operation. First, the bank accounts in Tony's name. He knew that they had to be newly created, but he couldn't figure out how they were made to look older. ...unless they had been in someone else's name and that name was changed to Tony. But still, that should be obvious. They should be able to find that. He should be able to find that.

Unless the person who did it had a lot of pull and could get someone who could change things around so it looked like it had always belonged to Tony.

The second thing was that he and Tony had been found at all. Tony was good at what he did. He knew how to be undercover. He knew how to detect when he was being followed. He'd been on his guard the whole time. He was cautious every time he went out of the apartment, and Tim had never left it. Even if they'd been able to track them to the building, they shouldn't have been able to figure out which apartment was theirs. Only Vance and Gibbs had known their location.

Unless someone very highly ranked was able to get that location and pass it on to whoever had invaded the apartment.

Ensign Reyes had insisted that the reason he was being so secretive and wouldn't report over the phone was because it was big. And it couldn't get big unless there was someone pulling the strings on the inside. An important someone.

Someone who had access, not only to people but also to resources. Someone who had position and clout to make the smuggling disappear. Someone who could, after the fact, use that same position to cast the blame on the law enforcement investigating it.

Someone who could have had Ensign Reyes killed...and tried to have it passed off as natural causes.

Tim could admit it was partly because he didn't like the guy, but his mind kept going back to Capt. Blaine. He kept hearing Capt. Blaine saying that nothing else made sense but that Tony was dirty. The thing was that it wasn't even close to true. There were a lot of ways to interpret what happened. Or at least what they thought happened. And someone as intelligent as Capt. Blaine was should be able to acknowledge that there were multiple possible interpretations, even if he favored one in particular.

So why?

Unless he himself was the dirty one and he was trying to cover his own tracks by putting the blame on a missing NCIS agent.

But a captain in the U.S. Navy running a smuggling ring just seemed so ridiculous. How could he have got to such a high rank and not been discovered? It wasn't that high-ranking officials couldn't be criminals, but this wasn't just a murder, crime of passion or even a determined hit. It wasn't even embezzling. If Ensign Reyes was right, then, there was a large-scale crime ring being run through the U.S. Navy, using Navy resources and, if Tim was right, being coordinated by a high-ranking official. That was something that took time to establish. Time, effort, money. How would this get through the cracks? Not even cracks. It would take a gaping hole to let this happen.

...unless he could use his influence to convince people that there was no hole there at all. Wave his hand and send them looking in another direction.

How could he prove it, though? The whole purpose of going undercover had been to find just that. While Tony had been getting information that was indicating the smuggling operation was real, they had yet to get through everything.

Unless they had and Tim had forgotten it.

It always came back to that. No matter how many times he was told it wasn't a failure, Tim still felt that it was. He was failing by not remembering what had happened. He was failing Tony, yes. But he was also failing Ensign Reyes, and if it was as big as it seemed to be, he was failing the entire U.S. Navy by not knowing what they'd found.

That was why he couldn't stop. That was why he had to keep pushing, maybe further than he should.

To mitigate that failure.

"Tim."

He looked up from his computer at Gibbs, ready to resist being stopped. He still couldn't put in a full day, much to his chagrin. He just ran out of energy too soon and when that happened, he started getting dizzy. He hated that he was still held back by his own physical limitations. But he knew he hadn't reached his limits yet today. He was prepared to do battle.

"With me."

Something about the way he said it made Tim a little worried. This wasn't the same as the usual argument. The words were the same but the tone was different.

In fact, Gibbs led him up the stairs to Vance's office instead of to the elevator. Now, Tim had no idea what was going on. Maybe Gibbs had been right and Capt. Blaine was about to start pushing his original theory that Tim was part of his imagined conspiracy.

He followed along, wondering if he should ask what was going on in advance.

He decided to chance it.

"Boss, what's going on?"

"Not out here."

Tim swallowed. Maybe he was going to be fired for what really amounted to insubordination. He was refusing to follow orders to work on other things. He knew it. Everyone knew it. They also knew why.

They were quickly admitted to Vance's office.

Vance looked up from his desk.

"You've been looking at Navy personnel files," he said with no preamble.

"Yes, Director. I have."

"Why?"

"To test a theory."

"About what? Or do I already know?"

Tim chanced a humorless smile. "There's only one case I'm working on."

"I know that."

"Then, yes, you know."

Vance raised an eyebrow.

"Why are you looking at personnel files?"

"Because I think Captain Blaine is the person behind the smuggling Ensign Reyes reported."

Vance glanced at Gibbs. Tim didn't dare look away to see what Gibbs thought of this. Tim hadn't ever said anything.

"Captain Blaine? Do you have any evidence to support this accusation?"

"None that isn't circumstantial," Tim said.

"Then, why are you convinced of it?"

"Because it makes sense."

"Agent McGee, that is no more satisfactory than Capt. Blaine's attempt to blame you without anything more than circumstantial evidence, and quite frankly, neither has your performance been satisfactory over the last month."

"I know that, Director," Tim said. "If you feel you have to fire me, I understand, but until we find Tony, I'm not stopping. If I have to do it as a private citizen, I will. Nothing you can say will change my mind. Nothing Gibbs has said has changed my mind, either."

"If you feel that way, then..."

"Can I talk to you for a minute, Director?" Gibbs suddenly interjected, interrupting what Tim was sure had been a dismissal.

"Very well. Wait outside, Agent McGee."

"Yes, sir."

Tim stepped out of the office and sat down, wondering if he was about to lose his job. If so, well then, so be it. He could lie and pretend that anything else mattered to him, but nothing else did. He didn't care about himself. He was fine, but Tony wasn't. No matter the situation, Tony wasn't fine. If he was fine, he'd be here.

Because he wasn't, Tim needed to find him. To be his backup as he had failed to be before.

He was halfway tempted just to leave and get on with it. He knew he didn't deserve to be at NCIS. His current attitude and his past failures made that a certainty, but he still couldn't quite give it up ever since Gibbs had stopped him before. So he sat where he was and waited.

After a few minutes, the door to Vance's office opened and Gibbs stood there, his expression unreadable.

"Come back in, Agent McGee," he said.

Did that mean that he was fired? Or that he wasn't? Gibbs never called him by his title. Never. Tim stood up and walked back into the office.

"Agent McGee, have a seat," Vance said, gesturing to a chair at the table.

Tim sat down.

"Now, Agent Gibbs has persuaded me not to fire you."

"Thank you, sir," Tim said, not sure who he was really speaking to at the moment.

"This is not a permanent situation," Vance said, sternly. "I want Agent DiNozzo found and this case solved. However, the lack of headway due to what happened when Agent DiNozzo disappeared and you were injured has made that very difficult, as I know you are aware."

"Yes, sir."

"I'm giving you the chance to work on this exclusively, to pursue it as you see fit. ...for one month. Not one day more. If you have nothing to show for it, you'll have to make a choice. Do you understand?"

"Yes, sir."

"Good. Then, get to it."

"Yes, sir."

Tim stood up, ready to get right to work. He turned and strode to the door.

"Agent McGee," Vance said.

Tim turned around.

"Good luck."

Something about the way he said it, Tim knew that Vance genuinely meant that. While his words were stern (and deserved, Tim could admit), he did want Tim to succeed. That gave him enough confidence to nod and then walk out, knowing that Gibbs would stop him from getting very far.

"McGee."

He stopped.

"Your office?"

"No."

Tim turned around and saw an expression on Gibbs' face that he never expected to see.

Worry.

"What are you going to do?" he asked.

"Start over."

"You're not going undercover again."

Tim smiled and shook his head. "No. I'm going to figure out where Tony went from the apartment. I'm starting over from square one and I'm going to find out every step he took. Every moment until I find out where he is."

"How?"

"I'm going to ask every person I see if they saw him back then. If I find one person who saw him, I'm going to follow as far as that person saw him. Then, I'm going to ask everyone I see at the next place if they saw him."

"That'll take more than a month."

"Then, I'll take more than a month. Vance only said he'd fire me if I had nothing to show. If I have something..."

Gibbs walked over and grabbed Tim by the shoulders. He shook him a little bit.

"Tim, you don't need to do it this way."

"Yes, I do. Nothing else is working. It's been five months. Tony has been missing for five months. Vance is letting me do it, so I'm doing it. I can't do anything else, Boss."

Gibbs sighed. "I know," he said.

There was a moment when they were staring at each other in complete silence. Tim was ramrod straight, noticing as he had on occasion, that he was actually a little taller than Gibbs was. At least an inch. Maybe two.

"We'll look into Blaine as quietly as we can. You keep in contact. Check in, every day. To me. Got it?"

"Yeah, Boss."

"Good. If I think you're overdoing it, I'll pull you out of there myself. Physically, if I have to. Clear?"

"Clear."

Then, Tim walked down to his desk and got his bag. He could see Ellie staring at him. He looked over.

"I'm going to start looking again."

"With permission?"

"Grudging."

Ellie smiled a little, but she looked worried.

"Should you be doing this alone?"

"I'll be checking in with Gibbs."

"Should you be doing this alone?" she repeated.

"Probably not, but I think it might work best. People might be more willing to talk."

"But if you're right about the smuggling, they might be watching for someone to start asking questions."

"I won't be asking about the smuggling. Only about Tony, and if everyone is right and he's dead, then that won't matter. If I'm right and he's alive, well, then, they obviously don't know where he is."

Ellie walked over to him. "I'm not Abby, but..." She hugged him tightly. "Be careful, okay? I know you have to think of Tony as still alive, but whether he is or not, you still are. Don't change that."

Tim smiled. "I'll try not to."

Then, he left, determined to find out where Tony was and ready to follow any trail, no matter where it led him.