Chapter 12
-I'm Wolf Blitzer, it's almost 5 p.m. on the East Coast, 2 p.m. on the West Coast, and this is CNN's live, continuing coverage of what is being called, simply, the refugee crisis.
The crisis is all over the United States and is worldwide. Canada, Mexico, South America, Central America, the Caribbean, Europe, Asia, the Middle East, Africa, Australia, even some of the Pacific islands, and that includes Hawaii, Guam and American Samoa, all are experiencing this event.
A few hours ago, a large, bright circle appeared over tens of thousands of locations around the world, and people began pouring through—
-just over one hour until President Luthor addresses the nation. CBS News has learned, through sources inside the White House and the Pentagon, that Luthor and others knew of the event well in advance of today, and that Luthor and FEMA leaders worked in secret to prepare for the influx of tens of millions of people, perhaps in violation of—
-there still is massive gridlock on major roadways throughout London. Local and national authorities are trying to deal with what certainly is one of the greatest humanitarian crises in British history—
-the American Ambassador to Russia was briefed in Moscow, within the last hour, of Russia's detainment of so-called military and political officials of a quote 'interdimensional entity claiming to represent the Soviet Union'—
-United Nations observers are attempting to protect refugees who passed through a wormhole into the South Sudan side of the border from attack from either side of the current Sudanese conflict—
-the United Nations has called an emergency session of the General Assembly for tomorrow at 7 a.m. Eastern—
-on orders from Governor Conway, the Kentucky National Guard has taken charge of the ten FEMA refugee camps scattered throughout the state—
-numerous reports of gunfire between security forces and combined National Guard and local police at refugee camps outside of Star City and in Abilene, Texas; Helena, Montana; and Manchester, Alabama—
Washington
RFK Stadium
5 p.m.
"This wouldn't be a bad opening to a movie, McGee."
DiNozzo, as were almost everyone inside the stadium, looked up at the three military helicopters hovering about 100 feet over the middle of the field. Two SuperCobra Marine helicopters flanked a Super Stallion Naval heavy lift helicopter, and a dozen drones – all belonging to the security firm that was keeping order inside RFK – surrounded them in a circle.
"I don't like that I'm – we're – in it," McGee said.
"Me neither," added Gibbs, now back with the rest of his group, and with two new friends: Katie Yates and DEO Agent Larry. "Got some friends to help us address that."
Gibbs left everyone else to introduce themselves: DiNozzo, McGee, Kate Todd, Ziva David, Abby Sciuto, Donald 'Ducky' Mallard, Jimmy Palmer, Mrs. Victoria Mallard, Sarah McGee, Mike Franks and Stan Burley.
Katie and Larry exchanged a glance, surprised that Burley was there: hadn't they seen him just a couple of years ago? Why was he here – was he working undercover?
Both quickly turned their attention to the rest of the group, although several of them had picked up on the glance. For Gibbs, it was something else to address later, after they all got out of the stadium.
"Katie Yates. NCIS," she said, remembering what Marcus had once told her about not giving away more than you had to in situations like this. Let them know I'm with NCIS, that's enough for now.
"Kartik Viswanathan, uh, Department of Extranormal Operations," he said. "But you can call me Larry."
"What department is that?" blurted Sarah McGee, shrugging her shoulders at the incredulous looks from some of the others, including her brother; it had been agreed that Gibbs would speak for them. "I haven't heard of it. Just wanted to know."
"They investigate 'extranormal' persons and events," Gibbs said, kindly, and without the usual irritation he expressed when people spoke out of turn. "Plenty of time to find out exactly what it is they do."
Gibbs then looked at Katie. "Yates. What's the ETA now for your people to arrive?"
She looked at her phone, then up. "As soon as one of those things up there drops down."
"Grab your gear, everyone," Gibbs said.
Mrs. Mallard, sitting on a folding chair next to her son Ducky, tugged on his sleeve. "I want to go home, Donald," she said.
"We'll be leaving very shortly, Mother," Ducky said as he gave his mother a quick look-over; he wanted her in a proper doctor's office soon, due to her advanced age and her dementia.
DiNozzo looked around the stadium; he wasn't alone in noting the general and growing discontent throughout the crowd. "Somebody up there looks like they want to do something, Boss," he said, pointing to a section in the upper deck.
Gibbs looked through his binoculars at the section in question, seeing the people arguing with security. He then handed the binoculars to DiNozzo. "Tony, those people look familiar to you?"
DiNozzo looked through the binoculars and focused on the most agitated civilians, then recognized them. "Last year. La Vida Mala. Nice to see they made it through, Boss," DiNozzo cracked.
Gibbs took back the binoculars and looked at the scene. "Yeah. Wonder who else 'made it through'?"
Katie overheard the conversation and thought back to her first case after she became her NCIS's youngest chief forensics scientist over 11 years ago: the case Julie nicknamed 'Iced', when a dead Marine discovered underneath a frozen pond turned out to be connected to the La Vida Mala gang. Every member of Marcus and Julie's team - Katie included - were nearly killed in a foolhardy attack on the Navy Yard that left the ringleader dead. La Vida Mala hadn't presented any kind of problem since, and there were bigger issues than them at the moment.
The foremost issue, of course, was getting out of the stadium. Their escape was hovering above them, but who else might decide this was their ride out of here? She assumed Marcus and Julie had a plan for that, too.
Her phone rang. She picked up, ignoring Larry glancing at her (while talking to his superiors on his own phone), and Gibbs and his people looking at her. "This is Katie Yates."
"You ready to get out of there, Booger?"
"You bet, Marcus," she said to Stewart, who leaned out the open door of the Super Stallion and waved. She waved back. "How much longer you gonna hang up there?"
"Is that Gibbs near you?"
"Yeah," she said. A Gibbs. Not the one you knew, but I'm sure you're well aware of that. "Right here."
"Give him your phone. I want to talk to him before we descend."
Katie turned to her right and walked a few feet to Gibbs, handing him her phone. "My boss – one of my bosses – wants to talk to you."
"He your Director?"
"He's you. I mean, he has your job here."
Gibbs took the phone and put it to his ear. "This is Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs, NCIS. Who am I talking to?"
"Marcus Stewart, Special Agent in Charge, Major Case Response Team, NCIS, Washington, D.C. My team's with me, including my SAC Julie Todd, and Special Agents Brooke Conners, Carlton Long and Ned Dorneget."
"I have 12 in my group, including myself, not counting your agent and her fellow agent from the DEO with us," Gibbs said, his curiosity heightened at the mention of Julie. "You're heading down now?"
"Affirmative, Agent Gibbs. Ms. Yates fill you in on where you're at and who we are?"
"She gave me the sitrep. It's no less unbelievable than how we got here."
"I bet it's a hell of a story. Looking forward to hearing it, when we talk in person at the Navy Yard."
"Agent Stewart, I do want to talk to your director, but I want to know my people will be taken care of. We have civilians with us, too, one elderly. I want to make sure she's taken care of."
"Would that be Mrs. Victoria Mallard?"
"Yeah." Gibbs glanced over at Ducky's mother, noting the hint of regret in Stewart's voice. "You in the SuperStallion?"
"We are."
"The two civilians with my group go first, Agent Stewart. Then my team and your agents, then me."
"Copy that, Agent Gibbs. We've got a harness for Mrs. Mallard and anyone else who needs it, and a ladder for those who can climb. We're coming down now."
The Super Stallion descended towards their position, while one of the SuperCobras peeled off and headed towards the section of the upper deck where La Vida Mala were in a standoff with the security forces. The other SuperCobra moved to the center of the stadium, maintaining a 100-foot height.
WE ARE THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA NAVY AND MARINE CORPS, said one of the Marines, speaking from the SuperCobra hovering over the field via a loudhailer easily heard outside the stadium. WE ARE AWARE OF YOUR SITUATION. AS FELLOW AMERICANS YOU WILL NOT BE FORGOTTEN AND YOU WILL BE CARED FOR.
"Kind of thing a President should say, don't you think, Jethro?", Franks said.
"Yeah, Mike."
"Makes you wonder what the hell the feds are doing."
Gibbs agreed with his mentor and friend, as they watched several 'volunteers' in the distance talking frantically in their cell phones and walkie-talkies. They wouldn't be their problem in a few minutes, though.
The Super Stallion lowered to within 10 feet of the field, and a ladder and a light chair-like device both lowered from the helicopter. Gibbs noticed several people nearby elbowing their way towards his position. He looked up at the helicopter, and the agent who stuck her head out the open door definitely did not look like someone named Marcus Stewart to him.
"Agent Gibbs?", Julie shouted. "Grab your gear and start climbing. You too, Katie and Larry. Mrs. Mallard goes first, in the chair. Don't worry, it's sturdy and she'll be safe."
With a nod from Ducky, Burley and Palmer picked Mrs. Mallard up and rushed her towards the chair, then put her in it and secured her with a seatbelt. Sarah, then Palmer, began climbing the ladder.
Julie then scanned the crowd and stopped when she locked eyes with Kate. Julie froze for just a moment, seeing someone who looked exactly like her dead twin sister. Kate was momentarily taken aback that someone was staring at her, then shocked upon realizing the blonde woman looked like she could be her twin.
Gibbs watched the chair being raised into the cabin, and two Marines gently help Mrs. Mallard out of it and into one of the passenger seats. He saw another ladder lower from the cabin and nodded towards Katie and Larry to start climbing. As the chair harness descended again (for Ducky), he told the others in their group to start climbing.
Only then did he turn towards the crowd. "We are federal agents with the Naval Criminal Investigative Service," he yelled. "We are going to our headquarters at the Navy Yard to get answers, for ourselves and for you all."
As he began to turn towards the ladder, he saw DiNozzo looking at the crowd behind Gibbs. "Go, DiNozzo," he ordered, and turned to look at what his senior agent was seeing: two armed bikers pushing their way through the crowd, a dozen feet from their position and closing.
"YOU TAKE US UP NOW OR NONE OF YOU GO," one of the bikers said, armed with an AK-47. A moment later, the biker was hit by a blip of light – that was the only way Gibbs could process it – and fell down.
The other biker raised his sidearm to shoot, and a moment later was felled by another blip of light. Gibbs looked up and saw a Marine, armed with a semiautomatic of some kind; he didn't know what the hell kind of ammunition that Marine's weapon had, just that he and DiNozzo both needed to get in that cabin now.
"Tony! Climb!", he yelled to the still-standing DiNozzo, who did as he was ordered. Both of them got on the ladder just as other people began to rush their positions.
"Don't leave us!"
"Where are you going!"
"Take us with you!"
"Please! Take my child."
Gibbs ignored the pain in his knee and climbed as quickly as he could, glancing at DiNozzo to his right; the younger agent was way ahead of him and would make it into the cabin several seconds of himself.
Then Gibbs saw the civilians climbing that ladder and felt a hand on his ankle. He looked down and saw a teenager trying to grab it.
Gibbs looked down, and out at the crowd, and recognized the same look of desperation that he saw in the insurgents in Yemen fleeing the so-called Red Surge back in '92.
As the teenager loosened her grip, Gibbs kept climbing. Then he felt a hand on his ankle with a vice-like grip, pulling him down harder than he could pull himself up.
In a moment, Gibbs made his decision.
"Go!", he yelled up to the cabin, letting go of the ladder with his right hand, still holding on to it with his left.
"No way, Gibbs!". He thought that was Kate yelling at him. Or was it the other woman? "No one left behind!"
"She's right," yelled Stewart, who jumped out of the cabin, without a parachute, and Gibbs was sure the man was about to die.
Then, Gibbs thought he was hallucinating. What other way was there to describe the sight of Stewart floating – flying – to the teenager pulling Gibbs down, and making the teen loosen her grip?
"Go!", Stewart yelled to Gibbs, as he lowered the teen to the ground.
"Come on!", he heard several people yelling from the cabin. Gibbs climbed his way up and was helped in by two Marines; as he turned to sit in his seat, he saw Stewart talking with the teen and several other people. About a minute later, he saw Stewart fly back into the cabin and walk to him.
"Hell of an introduction, Stewart," Gibbs said as they shook hands. "People fly on this…in this place?"
"Just some of them," Stewart said. "I can do it only because of this" – he pointed to the 22-millimeter ring on his left hand – "experimental device. Nth Metal. Hell of a story behind it, and if you ever get cleared to hear it, I'll be happy to tell it."
Another mystery, Gibbs thought. "I'd be happy to get to the Navy Yard."
"We all would," Stewart said, turning to the cockpit. "Lieutenant. Let's head out."
"Roger that," said the pilot, as the SuperStallion began to ascend. As they got level with the canopy atop the stadium, the entire sky turned green.
