Everything In Time
Chapter 12
AN: Yes, I know this is short. I wanted to wrap up "The Facilitator" story before I moved onto other things.
Friday, April 21, 2006
1000 Local Time
NCIS Headquarters Morgue
716 Sicard Street
Washington Navy Yard
Washington, DC, NE
Dr. Donald (Ducky) Mallard and his assistant, Jimmy Palmer were jotting notes related to the two deceased females that were laid out on the morgue tables. The two medical professionals looked up when they heard the sliding doors of the morgue entrance open as Gibbs and two females walked in.
Ducky smiled as he recognized his former patient. With open arms he went to her saying, "Carolyn Paget, how are you? It's so good to see you."
Carolyn smiled and turned so that her left side met Ducky's embrace and said, "I'm fine Ducky and it's good to see you as well. This is just a graze." She pointed to her right arm which was bandaged and held in a sling.
"Good to hear my dear. And Capt. Pike, you are looking well."
"Thank you Ducky," Meg replied shyly.
"What have you got for us Ducky?" Gibbs asked after the pleasantries were over.
Moving over to one table, Ducky began, "Well, Cmdr. Fields was killed by an impact that crushed her windpipe and spinal cord. The blow was struck at the base of the skull from the back. The mark on the back of her neck matches the heel of the boot which the other subject over there was wearing when Capt. Pike shot her. Cmdr. Fields was exsanguinated after the death blow. Because her blood was drained, we cannot determine if Cmdr. Fields was conscious when the blow was administered. We were fortunate that McGee and DiNozzo caught the refuse disposal truck and found her body therein before it got to the incinerator."
Gibbs nodded in acknowledgement as he, Ducky and the others turned to see Caroline Ravensclaw's body lying on the other examination table. There was a compact grouping of three bullet wounds near the center of her chest; courtesy of Meg's expert aim when she shot Ravensclaw before she could fire at Carolyn again.
When Meg and Carolyn had gone back to her office to get her jacket and cover to leave, Meg strapped on a shoulder holster that carried her own Smith and Wesson model Walther PPK-.380 ACP weapon. When they first entered Ravensclaw's office, Meg had the jacket unzipped so that she could quickly draw her weapon when she needed.
Now they were in the morgue after the post mortem briefing with Director Rabb of the fatal incident in the Suitland office.
During the time Meg and Carolyn were in Ravensclaw's office, Gibbs, Paris Summerskill and Mike Quinn were listening and heard the first shot. As they were rushing to the office, they heard the last three shots. When they burst in, they saw Meg standing with her weapon pointed at Ravensclaw as she lay wounded behind the desk and Carolyn on the floor with a bleeding upper arm. They saw that blood was frothing at Ravensclaw's mouth, resulting from a sucking chest wound.
Ravensclaw managed to say two words before she succumbed, "Karolina Rasmenovic…"
Ducky continued his recitation, "Lt, Cmdr. Ravensclaw, if that is her real name, died as a result of her sucking chest wound and a ruptured aorta. Two bullets impacted her left lung and the third impacted her aorta, completely disintegrating it at the point of impact. Also, when we examined her DNA to cross match with her Naval Academy medical records, we found an anomaly."
"What anomaly Duck? What did you mean "if that is her real name" – or am I missing something?" Gibbs asked.
"Well, her Naval Academy DNA records, which as we know are collected six months preadmission, showed that Caroline Ravensclaw is of Celtic and Native American descent, specifically Cherokee. The anomaly is the DNA from this subject's blood, does not match the preadmission DNA. In fact, it shows that she is of Caucasian, specifically, Eastern Caucasian or Russian descent; and given our recent dealing with Chechens, I'd guess that she was also Chechen."
"So, she was "The Facilitator" of the false operatives' pedigrees that Alhanov spoke about," Meg surmised.
"Is it possible that she stated her real name, Karolina Rasmenovic, before she died?" Carolyn asked.
"Yes, it's possible. Also, it seems that she was very well versed in the art of murder. We found these in scabbards sewn into her non regulation calf-high boots."
Ducky pointed out two ceramic knifes in sealed plastic evidence bags that were in a group of other evidence bags that contained Karolina Rasmenovic's possessions. They had been collected by the MCRT Team that performed the forensic examination of her office.
During Ducky's recitation, Gibbs' cellphone rang. The caller ID stated, "Yeah Abbey, what do you have? ~ Okay that's answered that."
When Gibbs closed his phone, he responded to the questioning looks with, "There was blood in the shower drain in the Women's restroom at Suitland."
"That indicates that Rasmenovic performed the exsanguination of Cmdr. Fields there. Diabolical," Ducky said in disgust.
"Yeah diabolical," Meg replied in agreement. She finished with, "Well Ducky, we have more information than before. We still have to do some more digging."
"Yes, well I'll let you carry on then. I will call Director Rabb to give her this information as well," Ducky said in farewell.
The group left the morgue and went upstairs to Diane's office. Cynthia led them in while Diane was on the phone with Ducky, receiving the same information that they just did. Diane waved them in to sit at the sofa in her meeting area.
Diane ended the call with, "Thanks Ducky. Keep me apprised of anything else that you come up with please."
She got up and sat with the others to say, "Ducky told me about what he found out about our Lt. Cmdr. Ravensclaw or rather Rasmenovic. I have some more news from our friend Falcon in Russia, via John Marshall, that confirms Ducky's DNA conclusion. It seems that a rogue Chechen in the GRU named Major Nikolai Sachakov was running Rasmenovic as a deep sleeper agent, getting her to kill and impersonate the actual Naval Academy candidate, Caroline Ravensclaw in her hometown in Indiana. Also, Falcon believes that Sachakov was covering up Rasmenovic's time as a serial killer of Russian officers in Chechnya during their war in the Nineties. There's another kicker about Sachakov. He was mentored by our other friend, Colonel Mikhail "Misha" Parlovsky and is the nephew of the Russian arms dealer, Vladimir Kadashev, who was arrested by Sokol for attempting to sell the nuclear tipped missiles we were after during our time in Russia looking for Harm's father."
"Holy crap that answers a lot of questions about motive and why you Rabbs and Marshalls were being targeted. I'll bet Sachakov was motivated by revenge for Harm & John killing Parlovsky," Meg exclaimed.
"Yes, it does. We have another forensics team searching Rasmenovic's apartment at the DC Waterfront. They called me earlier to tell me that they have her personal computer. They're going to get into it and call the NSA to help getting any data on cyber-chats and emails that it contains. No doubt it will yield beaucoup information."
"So now what?" Carolyn asked.
"Well, you can go rehab your wounded arm and back to working with my husband. I don't think we have any more spies in his LSO to worry about. I'm sure you're glad that you can leave all this excitement behind and just work at being a lawyer."
Carolyn smiled at Diane's humor and rose saying, "Well in that case I'll leave you all to get to it. I'll see you all around."
Everyone got up to wish her well as she left. When the door closed, Diane said, "Now we go after the Chechens on the list we found in Khalid's friends' apartment and anyone else that are on Rasmenovic's computer and the Suitland server that Cmdr. Fields found out about. Meg I already spoke with John Marshall, he wants you and Kate Pike to work with Gibbs and his team to root them out. Start with the garbage truck driver, Yevgeny Kozyreva and his wife. It's not a coincidence that they moved to DC from the same town in Indiana that Ravensclaw/Rasmenovic came from and took up the same jobs they had in Indiana at the same time she started working here"
"You got it Diane," Meg acknowledged.
"Also, Jethro you're getting a new probationary agent for your team, Emma Gardner. She used to work as Sarah's Yeoman at JAG HQ. Sarah sent her out a lot of times with the attorneys, so she is a skilled investigator. She passed FLETC with very high marks and just came off a month-long fill-in-for-illness-agent-afloat assignment on the Seahawk. So, she should be an asset for you and your team. After dealing with her brother, I have no interest in having Ziva David joining our team, because I can't trust her. I let Mossad have her back."
"When does Gardner start?"
"Today, we just had our orientation interview after she went through building orientation earlier this morning while you were dealing with this other case. I already brought her down to Kate Todd's desk and told her to settle in. Meg, you can go with Gibbs to catch up with Emma."
"Works for me director," Meg acknowledged with a smile.
"Okay, with me too. I'll make sure DiNozzo and McGee don't gang up on her," Gibbs said with his usual grin.
At that Gibbs and Meg shook hands with Diane and left the office.