~NCIS HQ
Bishop hung up the phone and looked up at Ziva, who was hovering and looking about nervously.
"Where is he? He knew I was leaving today," she asked as soon as Bishop replaced the receiver and looked up at her. She was confused, now that the case was over and Sahar no longer a threat, the others were curiously distant. No one seemed particularly emotional as she made her rounds and began to say her goodbyes. She was especially disappointed that Gibbs was nowhere to be found.
"Gibbs is on his way back, Ziva," Bishop replied. "He said something came up that he had to take care of."
Satisfied for the moment, Ziva checked her watch and frowned.
"Gibbs asked me earlier to take you to the airport if he doesn't get back in time," Palmer offered.
"Thank you, Jimmy," she smiled. "I wished to say goodbye to Gibbs before leaving, but I am anxious to be on my way. Tony and Tali are waiting."
Ziva missed the awkward looks the others exchanged as she thanked him.
~Earlier at Ziva's 'Office'
Gibbs waited as the door opened and Odette appeared. There was just the barest flicker of reaction on her smooth, dark face that the visitor was not who she expected. The enigmatic woman stepped aside and allowed Gibbs to enter the small room.
"I was expecting Agent Bishop," she began, her mind running through the possible reasons for Gibbs' presence.
"That was the point of having Bishop ask for the meeting," Gibbs replied. "I wasn't sure you'd see me."
"Come to take me to task for trying to lure Bishop away from NCIS?" Odette asked with a knowing smile.
"Bishop is a big girl and can make up her own mind about where she wants to be." Gibbs had to tread carefully around this mysterious woman, and her dubious loyalties. He began with misdirection. "Sahar may be dead but there are some unresolved questions. I want to be sure there's no longer a threat to my people."
Odette tilted her head and gave him an inquiring look.
"You want to know more about Ziva and Sahar?" she ventured. Gibbs simply nodded in answer.
"You think I can resolve these matters for you?"
"I'm pretty sure you can," Gibbs drawled. There were far too many incongruities in the sequence of events that Ziva portrayed to them, and Odette had at least some of the answers he wanted.
"What is it you want to know?"
"Let's start at the beginning. Ziva's farmhouse," Gibbs began. "Connect the dots between the players, and the fire."
"Oh, the beginning goes back much further than that, Agent Gibbs."
"Is that so?"
"The CIA has pursued many avenues of cooperation with Mossad over the years," Odette revealed. "Some of them involved members of the David family directly,"
"That's not a surprise," Gibbs said.
"Indeed."
"And your allegiance to the David's, specifically Ziva? Was that part of the CIA's plans?"
Odette gave a nonchalant shrug. "It was more a matter of convenience as we were both working toward the same ends."
Gibbs knew without a doubt she was understating the nature of her relationship with Ziva. Ziva seemed pretty key to Odette's machinations, but he didn't give a damn about any of that. Even though the answer was predictably vague, it still confirmed what he'd suspected. Ziva and Odette had been acquainted for a very long time. "And did your loyalties extend to Ari?"
"Hardly," Odette sniffed. "When Ari went rogue, Eli sought our help to bring down the cell he'd joined, which you now know was largely operated by Sahar. Eli compiled detailed files on Sahar's cell, its members, and their funding sources. Ari betrayed the existence and location of those files to her," Odette explained. "After Ari's death, Sahar and her group were captured and imprisoned before they could locate and obtain them. When she escaped from prison, she came looking for those files as part of her plan to rebuild the group."
"And Kort's connection?" Gibbs asked.
"Ah yes, my twisted former colleague," Odette said distastefully. "Never one to miss an opportunity to enrich himself, Kort was using Sahar's group to do some of his dirty work and Eli documented the evidence to hold over Kort's head. Sahar and Kort were both looking for Eli's hidden files for their own reasons, but she got there first. She retrieved the files and started the fire, believing it was Ziva was in the house, not the nanny. As she tried to make her escape, Kort arrived to gain the files for himself, and there was a brief confrontation between them. Sahar managed to escape undetected as the fire grew out of control, while Kort was seen leaving by Mossad operatives surveilling the house. It was that sequence of events that led Mossad to believe he'd been the one behind the attack."
"So Kort was never anything but dirty, but he didn't firebomb the house and wasn't lying when he told us Ziva wasn't supposed to be there."
"She wasn't there, thanks to Adam's advance warning," Odette confirmed. "She'd already fled the house with Tali."
"Too bad they didn't see fit to warn the nanny to leave."
"The woman was an unfortunate pawn in their plan to make it appear Ziva died in the house," Odette shrugged lightly. "It was the foundation of the deep undercover Adam helped establish to protect Ziva and her daughter."
Gibbs' mind spun with the implications, and he started putting the puzzle pieces together with what Tony passed on to him from his own network of sources. Ziva and Eschel had known about the threat from Sahar since before the fire. Not only had Kort not targeted Ziva, but he also hadn't even been responsible for the fire. They'd hunted him down like a rabid dog, believing at the time he was responsible for Ziva's death.
Tony had undoubtedly discovered Sahar's role in the fire through his own investigation, which helped explain the mystery of why he'd never returned to law enforcement. Tony had always been the best of them, and to find himself cast in the role of vigilante must have been just as life-altering as being told he was Tali's father. Kort was as corrupt as they came and always had been. Still, they'd passed sentence on him for all the wrong reasons, and Tony knew it.
"And now you know the truth behind the fire. Is that all, Agent Gibbs?"
Gibbs snorted. "Not even close."
"Why should I answer any more of your questions?"
"Because Ziva isn't your only pet project," Gibbs asserted, confident he was right. "And a supposedly disgraced ex-CIA agent probably doesn't want any more attention drawn to their illicit activities."
"Is that a threat, Agent Gibbs?" Odette asked, sounding amused once again.
"Not an empty one."
Odette was reminded that while this man didn't choose to dwell in the realm of assassins and spies, he was no less dangerous in his own way. "I believe you." she smiled, unconcerned and perhaps even a little impressed. She preferred to have Gibbs as an ally rather than an adversary, if that were possible. "I could use someone like you. Have you thought about retiring from NCIS?"
Gibbs gave a small head shake at the invitation.
"Pity. What other unresolved questions do you have?"
"Did Sahar learn who really killed Ari from Eli's files? That's not common knowledge."
"She already knew that…the files only told Sahar that the order came from Eli himself."
Gibbs' jaw clenched a fraction and he viciously suppressed any further visible reaction. Odette believed she was sharing something he was already aware of. In fact, it was independent confirmation of something he'd only had Vance's word for previously, and which Ziva had repeatedly denied in the past.
"Ziva has Deena Bashan to thank for revealing she was the one who killed Ari. She admitted this to Deena and in doing so, she made an enemy out of her longtime friend."
Gibbs frowned. The name sounded familiar, but he couldn't quite place it. "Who is Deena Bashan?"
"Her family and the David's were neighbors for some time. She, Ari, and Ziva grew up together. Deena and Ari were engaged to be married when he died. Ziva didn't know about Deena and her half-brother's relationship; not until they reconnected when she left NCIS and returned to Israel for good."
Gibbs nodded in understanding. "Skip to three years later and everyone was convinced Ziva died in the farmhouse. Mossad declares her officially dead based on Eschel's false identification, her apartment reverts back to the Israeli Embassy's ownership, and all Ziva's assets are left to Eschel. Convenient, considering that's how they had the resources to relocate to Cairo and live off grid. Not to mention travel, pay her contacts, and search for Sahar."
He actually managed to get a shocked look from the former CIA operative.
"You know about all that?"
Gibbs couldn't help the smug look he knew he wore. Thankfully, he'd been able to use untraceable phones to contact and compare notes with Tony as this whole debacle unfolded. It was immensely satisfying to catch the unflappable woman off guard. "You aren't the only one with sources," he hedged. They were mostly Tony's sources, but Odette didn't need to know that.
"It would appear not," Odette answered, composed once again. "Are you sure you aren't considering retirement?"
"Don't hold your breath," Gibbs said dryly. It was time to go fishing again. "I'm guessing they followed Sahar and her people to Cairo, where Eschel managed to move up in the cell, and give Ziva someone on the inside."
"You guess correctly."
"Her pursuit of Sahar never took her outside the Middle East?" Gibbs asked, suspecting he knew the answer, but hoping he was wrong.
"Not until she learned from Eschel that Sahar had relocated to the U.S. in order to oversee the surveillance on you."
Gibbs flinched inwardly as the implications of Odette's statement hit home.
"And that's when you both set up shop here to keep an eye on me?" he asked in a toneless voice.
"Yes, among other jobs." Odette gave another small nod and frowned at his reaction, suspecting she'd revealed something unfortunate.
Gibbs supposed she'd meant that to be reassuring. It wasn't.
"Is that all you wanted to know, Agent Gibbs?"
Oh yeah, he'd heard enough. The callous actions of these people astounded him, and Ziva herself was one of them. It was time to give them a taste of their own back.
"You aren't the one who can answer the rest of my questions, Odette."
Odette gave him an infuriatingly smug smile. "You delay much longer and you won't get the chance to pose them to her."
He looked forward to wiping that smug smile off her face. "That's right, Ziva's flight to Paris. Where Tony and Tali are waiting?"
Odette smiled indulgently and nodded.
"Interesting thing about Paris…," Gibbs began, seeing that the leading statement had piqued her curiosity.
Odette tilted her head and raised an elegant eyebrow in question.
"As much as you know about her and us, and as much as Ziva asserts she's been in contact with Tony, neither of you seem to be aware Paris is not where she'll find them."
The pleased look melted away into surprise and confusion, then that stony expression crossed the dark features again.
Gibbs ignored her reaction and rose to leave. As he reached the door, Odette protested. "Wait…" she demanded as Gibbs opened the door and started to step outside. "What do you mean, they aren't there?"
Gibbs turned back giving her a pointed look. "We aren't the only ones Ziva has lied to, Odette," he answered. "And Ziva is far from the only one who's capable of being a little creative with the truth," he said, the parting shot delivered with a sly smile.
~.~
A wave of emotions washed over Gibbs as he drove away from Odette's place. Disillusionment and despair took their turns along with the all too familiar sensations of guilt and anger. There was also regret that his chosen family had been irrevocably changed by the recently revealed actions of just one of them. As much as he'd hoped it would turn out differently, as far as Ziva was concerned, there was simply no getting back to where they'd been before.
He made one last call to Tony and then headed back to NCIS, driving with the flow of traffic instead of trying to outpace it as he usually did. Odette had provided the final pieces of the puzzle he was assembling and he needed time to think. Time to come to grips with everything he'd learned from Odette, Tony and his own investigation, then draw the logical, painful conclusions. He wasn't looking forward to the conversation to come, but knew it had to happen. There were too many questionable actions and inconsistencies in her portrayal of events to not confront Ziva about them himself.
He thought back to the day Tony showed up in his basement after more than two years out of the country. He'd appeared out of the blue to tell Gibbs he'd returned to DC, and to explain why. Now he'd had a small taste of the hurt and betrayal Tony must have felt on finding out the truth behind Ziva's 'death'. The righteous anger he felt morphed into regret and sadness as he realized Tony had been right in everything he'd said about Ziva that day.
Tony had tried to warn him and while Gibbs believed what he was told, he'd been determined to give Ziva the benefit of the doubt anyway. He'd allowed a sense of obligation and his affection for her to cloud his judgement; exactly what Tony tried to warn him against. All it had taken to pull him in completely was another tearful accusation of abandonment. She'd also lied about her hour-too-late rescue attempt in Paraguay, and injuries supposedly sustained making sure no one came after him and McGee. Blinders firmly back in place, he'd been guilt ridden and compelled to feel an obligation to her.
His relationship with the woman who'd held the place of a daughter in his heart had been forever changed, though Ziva didn't realize it yet. Everything Ziva had done since the fire, and even earlier, was coldly calculating and it worked.
It had been three years since he'd endured the grief and pain of Ziva's loss. Ultimately, she was no less lost to them now than she'd been when they'd all believed she was dead. She was alive, yes, but she bore little resemblance to the woman they thought they knew once.
Now that the threat and object of Ziva's single-minded focus had been eliminated, it was time for her to face the far-reaching impact of her actions and decisions.
~.~.~.~