The next little while felt like an absolute whirlwind. March and April weren't too bad, but the last week of April things took a rather abrupt turn for the worst. There was a massive fire at a United Equinox Electronics warehouse that Jethro's team got called out to after the Baltimore Fire Department discovered a classified Navy file next to a dead body after putting out the aforementioned fire.

That was just the start of a hectic next few weeks for not just Jethro's team but for all of NCIS. Tobias' team too. There was a bombing on a naval cargo ship later that exact same day. The next morning, their initial suspect, Bruce Johnson, was killed with a car bomb when the team went to arrest him.

At least that scene gave them some clue as to what was going on, making it obvious that it was connected to the faulty wiring that United Equinox had been selling. They still had no idea how it was connected to the Navy or what Aquamarine meant.

Ziva walked up and handed him a file. "Gibbs, I found this inside. The missing file from the United Equinox warehouse."

He glanced over the document inside. "Well, it's a list."

DiNozzo turned to him. "Of what?"

"Every Navy warship that contains the faulty wiring," Ziva replied.

DiNozzo seemed surprised. "They did sell it to the Navy."

"The guy from United Equinox lied to us," McGee said. "Geek bastard."

They all eyed McGee, deciding not to comment.

"What?" McGee asked.

"When Plimpton discovered the wiring was faulty," Ziva jumped back in, "he also sent a copy of his memo to the Navy."

Something finally slotted into place for Jethro. "Current Watcher Fleet's been working with the Navy to fix the problem."

"Using its top-secret code name Aquamarine," Ziva confirmed. "But..."

"But?" DiNozzo asked.

"Only a third of the fleet has been retrofitted so far," Ziva explained.

"So two-thirds are still at risk," McGee said.

His Senior afield Agent decided to get right to the crux of the matter. "Whoever hired our arsonist knows how to attack U.S. warships."

"Blackmail?" Ziva suggested. "Corporate espionage?"

Jethro shook his head. He feared something far worse. "Terrorism."

And Jethro's fears proved founded. The team pulled an all-nighter and Jethro had just got out of a major meeting in MTAC the morning when he was notified of yet another bombing. This time on the U.S.S Brewer.

A day later, Burley found an explosive device hidden on the U.S.S Benjamin Franklin while doing a port threat assessment in advance of the arrival of the aircraft carrier in Naples, Italy. Thankfully, no casualties, but Jethro did send Ziva and DiNozzo to ship out and meet with Burley.

Unfortunately, things went sideways rather quickly once they were in Naples.

Jethro walked into MTAC that afternoon to see a rather banged-up Burley in a bed in sickbay, but, thankfully, alive. Ziva and DiNozzo, to his relief, doing fine.

"Hey, Boss!" Burley said. "The Navy docs are great. I'll be okay."

He gave Burley an affectionate smile. "Well, a couple weeks R and R will help." He then spoke to his Senior Field Agent. "DiNozzo, what's the condition of the suspect?"

DiNozzo turned the camera towards Ziva. "His name is Andre Fullerton. He's a tech rep, employed by an avionics communications firm."

"Who put you up to this, Fullerton?" he questioned.

The man clearly wanted to play dumb. "Put me up to what?"

"Sabotaging a U.S. Navy ship," he stated simply. "You stabbed a federal agent."

The man tried to look unfazed. "Shouldn't someone be reading me my rights?

"You have no rights!" Jethro yelled. "You're a terrorist on a U.S. Navy ship. And we're invoking the Patriot Act."

"In an hour you're gonna be flown off this ship," DiNozzo told the moron, "escorted by Agent David and myself, to Aviano Air Base, where you're gonna board a C-37 A, and you're gonna be flown to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Once there, you're gonna be staying at a sunny little seaside resort the locals call Gitmo."

Ziva decided to chime in. "I heard a nasty rumour about what goes on down there."

"You'll never be heard from again," he added. "Your friends, your family... They won't know what happened to you. So, I'm gonna ask you again. Who hired you?"

"You're bluffing," the man said.

Ziva didn't miss a beat. "Agent Gibbs does not bluff."

That seemed to get Fullerton's attention. "Can we make some kind of deal?"

"You're in no position to negotiate," Jethro stated. "For the last time, who's behind the terrorist attacks?" The man irritatingly hesitated to answer his question. "You yank him out of that rack and you put him on a plane!"

DiNozzo and Ziva started to take off his restraints. "Hold it! hold it! I'll tell you." Good. They finally had him where they wanted him. "His name's Harper Dearing."

"Tell us about him," DiNozzo demanded.

"I don't know anything," Fullerton claimed.

"Your memory will improve once you get to Gitmo," Jethro stated.

"I never saw him," Fullerton states. "I spoke to him on the phone. He explained, after that, he'd only communicate in Korean code."

"That's it?" DiNozzo asked.

"Not good enough," he commented. "Enjoy Cuba."

Both agents went to remove the man's restraints again, scaring the man. "Wait! He had what Northerners would call a slight Southern drawl. I know. I'm from Mississippi. That's all I know."

"Why did you do it?" he asked.

"Money," the man admitted. "Lots of money."

He'd got as much as he was going to get from the man. "DiNozzo."

DiNozzo turned the camera back on himself. "Yeah, Boss?"

"Put him on suicide watch," he ordered. The bastard wasn't getting off easy. "I want to make sure he gets back here for trial."

His Senior Field Agent nodded. "You got it."

McGee got down to work and swiftly located seven Harper Dearings in the U.S. Four of whom were currently residing or born in the South. There was a housewife, a priest, a second-grader, and a CEO of a multinational venture capital group that specialized in technology companies. The sixty-one-year-old man was currently residing in Sterling, Virginia where his VC group Dorado Hills Investments was headquartered.

"No criminal or military record?" he inquired.

The younger agent shook his head. "Neither."

They were still missing something. Something just didn't sit right about all of it. "Why would a corporate executive be terrorizing U.S. Navy vessels?

"Doesn't make sense," McGee agreed.

This case was giving him a migraine. All this was going on and the director was gone and attending a NATO conference. "Get his name down to Abby," he ordered. "She's got a DNA sample from the envelope. See if she can match it to him."

"And if she can't," McGee said, "maybe he's got a close relative whose DNA is on file."

Jethro worked for another hour before sending McGee home for the night and heading home himself. They weren't any good running on fumes.

It was one o'clock in the morning when he finally walked through the front door of his home, immediately spotting Shannon at the table playing a game of solitaire over a cup of what looked to be green tea.

Jethro walked over to her and kissed her, quickly finding himself wrapped up in a bear hug when their lips parted. "Any closer to solving this thing?"

He shook his head a bit sadly. "We finally got a name, but it looks like this thing is just getting started, Shan."

She sighed. "Well, I'm just glad you actually made it home tonight."

He gave her a hopefully warmer smile. "I love you."

"I love you too," she replied as Jethro gently pulled her in for a deep kiss.

Jethro loved his job, he really did, but sometimes… What were the words to that Terry Kelly song? 'There's a price to be paid if you go, if you stay. Freedom's fought for and won in numerous ways.' Those words felt quite apropos right at that moment.

Jethro and Shannon didn't stay up too much longer after he got home, given the hour, but it was nice to spend some time with her. Something that he hadn't had enough of lately. Thank God, his wife was as understanding as she was.

Jethro felt bad about having next to no time for her that week. Not guilty, as he knew that the work was important, but bad, nonetheless.

As for the following morning, Abby arrived at work first thing to find Jethro already in her lab. He was cleaning his weapon in the back while he waited for her.

"Gibbs?" she asked softly. "What are you doing?"

"Cleaning my weapon," he replied. "Waiting for you to get in."

She walked up to him. "How's Burley?"

"He's fine," he assured her. "McGee said Dearing had a son that was in the Navy. Did you get a DNA match?"

"I've had people working in the lab all night," she said. "Let me check my e-mail." The goth started walking across the room to her computer. "I'm having them compare the DNA from the envelope that was found in Abbott's quarters to the DNA of Dearing's son, Evan." She pulled up an email. "Okay, it's here." He walked over to her. "They found a familial match." Abby glance up at him as he picked up his weapon. "There is 99.9 percent probability that Harper Dearing is your guy."

That was all Jethro needed to hear. He, McGee, and the REACT team quickly stormed Dorado Hills Investments. Vincent Maple, the president of the VC group, said that he had absolutely no idea where Harper Dearing was. Maple also claimed that he hadn't seen or heard from the CEO in over a year and had no way to contact him. The man was wanted for terrorism and four counts of murder, so Jethro wasn't sure if he fully believed the guy. Maple did seem sincere enough. Regardless, he didn't think that the guy was going to be much help to them.

They had a lot of work ahead of them if they were going to locate Harper Dearing and get to the bottom of the terrorist threat.

Things at that point really started to move quite rapidly. Jethro got Ziva, DiNozzo, and Burley on the next transport home and then spent the next several hours in and out of meetings with SecNav, SecDef, Admiral Theodore Tully - who was serving as the Chief of Naval Operations, and several other higher-ups.

Aware of when his three field agents were due back at the Navy Yard, Jethro mobilized all locally stationed NCIS personnel in the squad room before calling Director Vance at the NATO conference and briefing him.

Walking into the squad room after his chat with Vance, NCIS agents were everywhere. The stairs were covered and there wasn't a spot in the squad room that didn't have a man or woman standing there. Good. They'd listened.

Projecting his voice so that he could be heard easily, Jethro swiftly got the rather large group's attention. "Listen up." Their gazes followed Jethro as he started walking across the squad room towards the agency's large Most Wanted wall. "For attacks against the United States Navy…" He slapped a photo of their suspect over the x-ed out photo of Osama Bin Laden on the wall and pinned it there. "Harper Dearing." He turned back towards the group. "Let's go. Got work to do."

The NCIS personnel all dispersed, joining in on the manhunt that had just become top priority for the agency. With any luck, they'd manage to find Dearing before things got any worse than they already had.