Jethro actually managed to get an okay amount of sleep that night, despite his rather late arrival on base. For lack of other options, Jethro was still wearing the same outfit from yesterday. He hadn't bothered to go back for his bag, more than willing to simply replace the lost luggage he'd left behind at the crash pad back in Tehran. At least, he hadn't needed to go dark long and the corpsman who looked at his shoulder expected it to heal fully, no permanent damage. Clothes could be replaced.
Unconcerned but rather hungry, he headed down to the chow hall for some breakfast. He downed an omelette and hot caffeine and then made his way down the base to where Lieutenant Kagen was currently working away.
Lieutenant Kagen was busy cleaning a tank gun as he walked up to the man. The man immediately glanced over to acknowledge him but continued doing what he was doing.
Not one to beat around the bush, Jethro introduce himself and explained that he had a few questions pertaining to Lieutenant McBride.
"Sure, I knew McBride!" the man replied without missing a beat. "We worked together on a few ops. He's a good guy. How's he doing?"
He shot the man a pointed look. "McBride's dead, Lieutenant." Jethro adjusted his light grey newsboy cap. "You already knew that."
"It's classified, Sir!" the lieutenant said while starting to make his way out of the tank. "I'm not supposed to say anything." The younger man was standing directly in front of Jethro now. "I heard he died, but what happened?"
He tilted his head slightly. "Well, I was kinda hoping you could tell me."
The lieutenant looked genuinely confused. "I'm sorry. I don't follow."
"His last assignment," he pressed, "how long was he here?"
The lieutenant shook his head slightly. "Twenty-four hours, tops."
He got a bad feeling in his gut again. Why would McBride be deployed for such a short amount of time? "That's not a lot of time."
"Well," the young lieutenant explained, "his mission was cancelled. He got orders to return stateside. He was jazzed; he wanted to get back to his wife." I'm familiar with the sentiment. "We all got family back home."
He eyed the man. "You see McBride board the plane to go home, Lieutenant?"
Lieutenant Kagen shook his head. "No, Sir. Just grabbed his gear and got his own ride back to the airfield. Why?"
Wrapping up the conversation with the lieutenant, Jethro marched down to one of the larger tents and cleared it, video calling NCIS headquarters. Thankfully, the MTAC tech was able to get ahold of Director Vance rather quickly. It was only 2330 back home in Washington and ever since the attack on the hotel, everyone was working overtime.
While he was waiting for the director to arrive from Interrogation, Sandy filled him in on everything that he'd missed. Apparently, a sniper had shot up DiNozzo's apartment while he and Ziva were having dinner.
That wasn't all, though. Ducky and Palmer apparently had a nasty run-in with this guy named Victor Cheng. Cheng was a former computer specialist with the FBI who'd been fired from the Bureau a couple of years prior and who had clearly decided that the money was better in the private sector.
Someone had granted Cheng access to the NCIS building and Ducky and Palmer both walked in on the young man trying to steal something - probably intel - from Ducky's laptop down in autopsy.
Jethro was just glad to hear that everyone was alright, although his SFA was going to have to do some redecorating. He had half a mind to ask for protective details for his family. If anything happens to Shannon, Kelly, or Paisley because of this case… I can't go through that again. I can't lose them.
He was pulled from his musings when the director finally walked into the room. "Leon! I heard things have been interesting."
Vance raised an eyebrow and gestured towards the sling on Jethro's arm. "It looks like I could say the same for you."
He gave a weak chuckle. "Yeah."
The director nodded. "Your family, where are they?"
"Kelly's at home in Alexandria with the grandkid," he replied. "Shannon's at home too. They're all safe, for now."
"I'd like to keep them that way," Vance said. "I want to put protective details on both your wife and daughter when they aren't at work until this is resolved."
"We're on the same page," he replied.
Vance gave a little hum. "How are things going on your end?"
"There was no mission," he explained. "Lieutenant Chad McBride was sent to Iran as a decoy. I believe McBride returned to the United States alive and well."
That comment instantly caught the director's attention. "Somebody wanted to make it look like the Iranians were responsible?"
He eyed his boss. "Leon, I know you've got a lot going on with the intruder, but I need you to connect the dots."
"Alright," Vance readily agreed. "I'll get Miss Sciuto on it; see if we can pinpoint where McBride was killed."
He dipped his head slightly. "I'm on the next transport home."
The director gave a curt nod. "Watch your six."
He shot the other man a small smile. "You too, Director."
Ending the video transmission, Jethro headed out of the large tent and went to confirm his transport details. He wanted to get home as quickly as possible. Unfortunately, he still had quite a few hours before the C-17 he was catching flew out.
It was a long flight, seeming to drag on just that little bit longer than his original flight out of the U.S had. Finally touching down at MCAF Quantico a little after 0930 local time was a huge relief for more than one reason.
He didn't bother going home and changing. He had work to do and the sooner that the mess was dealt with, the safer his family was.
Jethro grabbed a hot cup of joe from the coffee stand outside and then made his way through security. Running into his boss on the way upstairs, Vance quickly filled him in on the agents assigned to protect his family as well as the new intel that Tobias Fornell had provided them with earlier that morning.
The assassination attempts, the hacking, and the death of Lieutenant McBride were all linked. NCIS, SecNav and Homeland Security had been getting too close to the truth: that a new terrorist cell operating locally had made deals with several U.S. companies, with a goal of causing destruction in order to allow those exact same companies to bid on rebuilding infrastructure. MBAs and bad guys working together.
The head of the local cell, Benham Parsa, was a young extremist who had just claimed responsibility for the hotel attack that killed SecNav Jarvis. The terrorist wack-job was the son of slain parents from Karachi, Pakistan. Parsa was still a kid, ticked off, and by all accounts scary because he really didn't give a damn.
Walking into the squad room, Tobias and the MCRT team were all gathered around his Senior Field Agent's desk, all looking quite serious.
As the elevator bell dinged, Tobias turned to face him with a cheeky smile. "Well, well. How was the desert? They say it's a dry heat."
Not necessarily in the mood for his friend's teasing right then given how everything in Iran had gone down, Jethro wordlessly chucked his desert scarf at the other man.
DiNozzo eyed him. "Welcome back, Boss."
"Nice shot," Ziva drawled with a gesture towards the dessert scarf.
"What do we got?" he asked as he made his way over to his desk so that he could put both his badge and weapon into the top drawer.
"The usual," Tobias deadpanned. "World went to hell while you were gone."
"I've got sniper slugs in my living room," his Senior Field Agent added, "and the Duck man found a rat in his lab, and, uh, there's a terrorist named Parsa who..."
Jethro closed the desk drawer a little more roughly than he'd intended to, but he didn't overly care. "Yeah, I know all that, DiNozzo."
"Of course you do," his Senior Field Agent replied.
"What don't you know?" Tobias asked.
"How long has Parsa been on the FBI's radar?" he asked.
"About a year now," Tobias explained without missing a beat. "So, what'd you find out about the Iranian head games?"
"Lieutenant wasn't killed in Iran," he said. "Found out that Lieutenant McBride's orders were changed. He was given ordered to return stateside and walked into a trap." The combat veteran eyed the photo of McBride up on the plasma. "His head was mailed to his house via a Middle Eastern detour. Toss in a little radioactivity..."
Ziva shot him a pointed look. "Someone went to great lengths to make it look like Iran was responsible for this."
"Yeah," he agreed.
"So who actually killed him?" Tobias asked.
"Same people who want us dead?" DiNozzo suggested.
"Local cell," he agreed. "Guns for hire. Find them. Go." With that, he turned and made his way down to the forensics lab. Hopefully, Abby had been able to narrow down the lieutenant's place of death somewhat. They desperately needed a lead, and preferably sooner rather than later, if their investigation was going to actually go anywhere.
Given all the collateral damage at the hotel and DiNozzo's apartment getting shot up, Jethro didn't credit the local cell with being concerned about hurting civilians. If they were able to track down McBride's wife they were definitely able to track down his.
The protective details that his family had been assigned gave him some peace of mind, but he knew full well that they could only do so much. The agents would do everything they could, he had no doubt about that, but they were still human.
