Chapter 9
4:06 p.m. EDT
RFK Stadium
Gibbs walked with Katie through the concourse, both silent, both examining their surroundings with a close eye for anything and everything – including unwanted interlopers.
Gibbs, of course, was a trained investigator who knew he was in an environment that was both familiar and alien, and he had chosen to put his natural skepticism aside to trust the girl he was walking besides. All he knew of her was she was the chief forensic scientist of this world's NCIS, and all he had was his wits, training – and his gut.
His gut told him she was trustworthy, and probably the one stranger in this environment that he needed to know.
Katie's investigative training wasn't nearly as extensive as Gibbs's was, although the agents of this world's version of the NCIS Major Case Response Team had taught her quite a bit about being an investigator. Despite being a 'lab rat' – she spent all her time in the lab and rarely went out in the field – Katie was an extrovert and had an underrated ability to read people. She could tell if someone was honest or if they weren't, and she just knew Gibbs was definitely the former.
Katie was also surprised about how nice and warm the man walking alongside her was.
On this world, Leroy Jethro Gibbs, even now, lingered as a larger-than-life figure with a reputation as a no-nonsense investigator who scared just about everyone to death who wasn't military. Only Marcus had known him, and Julie and Director Drake had met him a couple of times each, and their personal accounts backed up the legend of the hardass Marine.
Books had been written about his life, documentaries made about him and dozens of stories had been compiled on him by reporters; much about his life had long since been made a matter of public record, but there were so many mysteries that opened up whenever a story was told. Some of those mysteries were caused by unsubstantiated rumors on social media — why let the truth get in the way of a great story? — and some of them were true, their truths hidden from the public.
A few of the stories about that Gibbs told of his warmness, kindness and sense of humor – the very qualities which this man had shown to her so far.
She decided she liked this Gibbs, hoping the hardass wouldn't show his face (not to her, anyway), and spending time with him was good intel for the inevitable debriefing at the Navy Yard.
"Weather's real nice for this time of year," Gibbs said. They had stopped talking about football – she knew very little about football in general, and neither did he.
"It is," she replied. "I hope the heat and humidity stay away for awhile. Untll July, anyway." She was about to ask him about woodworking – she heard the stories about the boat in Gibbs's basement, and was curious about how much this version of Gibbs could corroborate them.
But she had to pee first, and quickly.
Katie saw a long line of women near a women's restroom, and groaned.
"Looks like you're gonna be tied up for a bit," Gibbs said. "I'll head on, but before I do, I want to level with you."
"Okay," Katie said, as it dawned on her what this man probably wanted from her. "My people and I need to get outta here."
"That doesn't surprise me," Katie replied. She understood his wanting to get out of there – she felt the same way, and she hoped her team would come through.
The line to the women's room hadn't moved and she really had to use the restroom. If she left now, she'd have enough time to flash her badge past the guards and try to get into the FEMA-controlled luxury suite section. Gibbs wouldn't follow her inside, but he wasn't going to go away either and Katie didn't want whomever was pulling the strings on this operation to know about Gibbs, or his team, or her association with him and the fact she was going to do what she could to take them with her back to NCIS.
"Come with me," she said to Gibbs, and they made their way up the stairs 50 feet away to one of the entrances to the suites. The guard started to say something to them, but Katie flashed her NCIS badge and said 'get out of my way, I gotta pee!"
"You'll have to wait here," Katie told Gibbs. "Give me ten minutes."
Inside the ladies' room, she took the nearest stall, and did her business.
While washing her hands, she heard someone from the other stall.
"So what's he like?", asked the very male voice.
Katie's head whipped around and she reached for the palm-sized stunner hidden under her shirt. When the occupant opened the stall door, she had the weapon pointed right at him; her eyebrows shot up once she recognized him, and she bit her tongue to keep from yelling at the man.
"LARRY! What in the world are you doing!?"
A short, slender, thirty-something man of Indian descent stepped out, hands held up. His name was Kartik Viswanathan and he was a special agent with the Department of Extranormal Operations who had worked with the MCRT on several occasions. Katie — and the rest of her team — called the usually well-dressed, cocky, mischievous agent by his preferred nickname Larry, and he often socialized with them off-hours. Larry sometimes got on Katie's nerves, but they were good friends — although not good enough for her to overlook his being in the ladies' room.
"Sorry, babe," Larry said with a smile and a wink. "I'm on the job—"
"That's not part of your job!", she said, thrusting her forefinger at the stall he had stepped out from. "What on Earth are you doing in there?"
"Watching your back," he said, and she then noticed he was dressed in the same FEMA collared shirt and khakis she and the other 'volunteers' were dressed in. "There's some crazy shit going down—"
Katie stormed over to Larry, grabbed him by his collar and — over his protests — pushed him back into the stall, then locked the door behind her.
"Whoa now, Kates," he said, using a portmanteau of her first and last names. "I swear I'm on the job—"
"You better be, buddy," she shot back, although she figured by then he was telling the truth. "You couldn't talk to me outside? And watch your mouth."
"Sorry," he said, and she let go of his collar. "They've got eyes all over this place," he said.
"'They'?"
"Yup."
Katie rolled her eyes; she made sure he would never live this incident down in either of their lifetimes. "And who are 'they'?"
"Uh…"
"Uh what?"
"Uh, as in, we, as in the DEO, don't know who they are. Yet."
Katie glared at him for several moments, then thought of Gibbs and the possibility the old man might be outside right then or sending for someone like Kate Todd — or maybe Ziva David — to make sure she didn't get lost. "So they, whoever they are, are watching us—"
"You, the people. Gibbs. Look, Kates, we heard chatter about something like today going down, and some group trying to round up people without anyone hearing about it. The media, the feds like us, the military, the Justice League, we weren't sure who or what. That got blown all to hell today, so now we think they're working on their Plan B."
"Any idea what that might be?"
"No, not yet, but Mr. B said if we have anyone of interest cross over, get to them before 'they' do." Katie knew 'Mr. B' as the DEO Director, Mr. Bones, whom she once called a 'living, icky skeleton' due to the man's skeleton being the only visible thing about him besides the suits he wore (along with the cigarettes he always smoked). "Mr. B knows Gibbs are here, and said to assume other people do, too."
"You think 'they' are super villains? Russians? Chinese? Khunds? Terrorists?" Larry shrugged his shoulders. "Government?"
Larry didn't shrug his shoulders. "Maybe. The bugs I found are ones that used to be used by the CIA back in the day. Got one in an evidence bag in my pocket. We're gonna look at it when I get back."
"Okay, I believe you. But why on Earth couldn't you talk to me outside," she sighed.
"One, if that guy is like the Gibbs I read about, he'd be worse to get through than Batman. Two, whoever 'they' are, they didn't have time to put bugs everywhere. They didn't bug the restrooms — we don't think they did anyway. This is the safest place to talk to you."
"You think this was a rush job?", she asked. "That entire operation outside had to take months to organize—"
"Yeah, but the bugs are scattered, like someone had hours notice and put them wherever."
"Definitely a rush job…darn it!" She remembered who was waiting on her, and really hoped he had actually stayed put. "I gotta get back out there. You-know-who's waiting – and his 'Buggy-sense' probably is on override."
"It's his gut, Katie. Same thing Julie talks about all the time. I'd thought you had known that—"
"I know what a gut is, Larry," she said, rolling her eyes. "Mine is telling me he's losing his mind by now. Just get behind me, I'll tell him you're with me, and we'll work on the plan I'm about to propose to him."
"Which is?"
"Wait for Marcus and Julie."
"Just tell me where the explosion is so I can hide behind the furthest wall."
"Oh my gosh! It was the freakin' Clock King, Larry."
Elsewhere in the stands, a man in FEMA clothing watched the crowd with a pair of binoculars; two minutes later, he saw Katie, Larry and Gibbs step back outside and make their way down towards the field.
He pulled out a smartphone and dialed a number; "Targets are on the move," he said.
"The window of opportunity is closing fast," said a woman on the other line. "Whatever you're going to do, get it done. The NCIS people are on the premises."
"Copy that," the man said.
