NCIS and SHIELD part 4 The ripple effect C3
As Sam walked off the elevator she couldn't hide the wince, that was a lot of orange as she looked around the room. Gibbs was there waiting for her waving off her escort up before leading her to where McGee, Torrez and DiNozzo were waiting all three of them did not look impressed.
"Wow the reception in here is a little chilly." Sam remarked more to herself than the others.
"You were at the warehouse?" McGee asked he and Tony had been informed about Sam and her memory loss he had to admit she looked better than the last time he saw her, she actually held his gaze.
"You're going to have to be a bit more specific." Sam stated
"You shot all those guys." Torrez stated bluntly
"Did I?" she asked in a questioning tone at this Torrez looked from McGee to Gibbs then back to Sam.
"We haven't met I am agent…"
"Nick Torrez, you replaced Ellie."
"I don't think…" he began to say but Sam turned her attention to DiNozzo.
"How is Ziva and the little one?" she asked making him tense.
"You're not here to catch up why are you here?" Gibbs asked gaining her attention as she had been staring DiNozzo down, Gibbs noticed how she smirked before turning her attention to him.
"Your case of course." Sam stated
"Are you here to tell me to back off or are you here to help?" Gibbs asked
"Both." Sam replied making him frown ever so slightly.
"How can telling us to back off be helpful?" Torrez asked he knew that he was the new guy here but the tension right now was starting to get uncomfortable.
"Noah Derlig is selling weapons…" Gibbs began but Sam interrupted him making the other three agents tense.
"Small fish."
"What?" Gibbs asked from the tone of his voice the others knew he was starting to get annoyed
"He is a small fish, there is something bigger going on then weapons smuggling Agent Gibbs." Sam stated
"Are you going to share?"
"Last I checked we worked well together, of course I am referring to Hawaii but I am also told we have worked together before am I correct?"
"You are." Gibbs stated
"You really don't remember?" McGee found himself asking but before he could say anything else Gibbs gave him a warning look, he had warned them not to bring up their previous case or anything about Garret. Gibbs could still remember the look Maria Hill gave him when she explained.
"Can't say I do." Sam stated she had thoughtful look on her face as she ran through the calculations in her head if these agents would fill in some of the blanks in her memory. Sam winced slightly as she felt Maria shut down that thought process telling her to focus on the case. "Do you have a more secure room?" Sam asked looking around noting the other agents around them. Gibbs noticed the wince wondering what that was about but before he could ask she was walking away heading for the stairs.
"Where are you going?" Gibbs asked following her
"Your secure room is up this way, no?" she asked
"You want to go to Mtac?" McGee asked
"Mtac? Has a nice ring to it." She stated indicating that they should lead the way.
"Do you have clearance for this?" Torrez asked following behind them
"My clearance is higher than yours. The question is do you have the clearance?" as they reached the top of the stairs.
"Do I?" Torrez asked her
"You are part of Gibbs team yes?"
"Yes." He agreed
"Then you have the clearance. My boss's orders loop in Gibbs team." Sam stated as they made it into Mtac they were greeted by Director Vance. There Sam brought them in on their case, filling in several missing gaps that Gibbs and his team had.
"Okay, what is an O84?" Torrez asked once she had finished
"What does Ellie have to do with this?" Gibbs asked but Sam turned to look at Torrez
"O84 is an object of unknown origins and mostly dangerous." Sam answered his question but Gibbs noticed that she did not answer his.
"What does this have to do with Ellie?" DiNozzo asked following Gibbs lead.
"She is working this case." Sam replied simply
"You could have used any other agent for this case yet you use Ellie, she hasn't even been one of your agents for six months." Gibbs stated
"Ellie is an analyst at heart, she has a cover that fits." Sam stated knowing she could not say anymore about her, she also knew that this answer was true but it was not the main reason. She looked around the room her gaze met Director Vance, he knew but he wasn't sharing this with them.
"There is more to it." Gibbs stated looking at her
"Most likely." Sam agreed
"Well?"
"Well what? What do you want me to say Gibbs?"
"The truth, the whole truth would be nice." Gibbs stated at this Sam actually smirked
"The whole truth and nothing but the truth? That is a pretty big ask." Sam stated with a huff this time looking over the monitors on the tables.
"Its easy enough." Gibbs stated
"You might not like the truth." Sam pointed out
"We are talking about Ellie." Gibbs stated "Ellie as in your sister, how can you be okay sending her into a mission like this?" Gibbs asked that was when he saw it, a look in her eyes it was only for a split second but it was there. Pain. The only question he had now was why?
"She is my sister." Sam snapped she felt her anger rise for a split second but Maria gave her a silent command and the anger disappeared. She shook her head trying to clear her head not that she could shake Maria loose. Maria had been watching her since she arrived at the Navy yard. "Because she is my sister I have not been read in on what her part is. I have been informed of what I have shared with you. My part was to watch that warehouse when I saw you two enter as if it was abandoned."
"You should have said something! Stopped us!" Torrez shouted
"I did do something, I saved your lives." Sam stated looking at Torrez he looked angry and annoyed, McGee had remained silent this whole time, but he never once looked away from Sam. "My job was to watch the warehouse." Sam repeated at this Gibbs picked up on what she was not saying. She was never meant to enter the warehouse. She went against orders when she saved his people. Gibbs met her gaze and an understanding passed between them.
"What about the other two who worked with Noah? Do you know who they are?" Tony asked breaking the tension that had grown in the room. Sam looked away from Gibbs to look at Tony.
"His accomplices…do you not have their names?"
"It is why we want to talk to Noah." Gibbs stated with a frown she was holding back. "Do you?"
"Do I…?" Sam asked herself moving over to one of the computers she looked at the Director. "May I?" Vance nodded as she claimed the computer McGee tried to follow along with what she was doing but she was typing so fast he couldn't keep up. In a matter of seconds she pulled up several documents and placing them on the screen including several photos.
"Surveillance." Gibbs stated looking over the files she was sharing with them.
"Are you meant to be showing us this?" McGee asked as he read over what was in front of him.
"They said to bring you in, so here it is." Sam showed them the photos of Noah with three other men storing the weapons in a container, other photos of them moving the products to the warehouse. Business deals, bank statements everything they would need for their case.
"Are you giving these to us?" McGee asked
"No, once I walk out of here these files will be gone." Sam informed him
"I thought you were here to help us."
"I am." Sam showed them a different file, this one was about Lieutenant Flinn Gounder. There was evidence of his documenting the stolen weapons as destroyed. "This guy you can go after, he is the one that falsified the documents."
"Why can't we go after the whole ring? He might have falsified the docs but the four others were the ones to steal the weapons."
"Because the other four have found themselves in something much bigger. You go after them we lose our case."
"You're saying your case is more important than ours?" Torrez asked although the anger in his tone was clear.
"It is, these men will lead us to alien artifacts, artifacts much more dangerous then a few missing guns and ammo." Sam told them
"How dangerous?" McGee asked
"Enough for us to ask you to wait. We are so close to figuring out who the mastermind is, give us a week then this information will be yours." Sam stated indicating the files and photos. She looked over at Director Vance hoping he would accept it, then again it wasn't him she needed to convince but Agent Gibbs. Gibbs was looking at her but she could not tell what he was thinking.
"One week." Gibbs agreed after getting a nod from Vance. Torrez and Tony looked like they wanted to protest but kept their mouths shut and Sam could feel McGee was watching her. She turned to look at him but he didn't look away their was something in his eyes that had her confused it almost looked like sorrow or was it guilt?
'Sam time to wrap it up.' Maria informed her over the link Sam sighed but with a few clicks of the kyes all the documents she showed them disappeared she knew that they might try to recover what she did but she also knew that her code was better then NCIS the only people that she knew could bet it was Stark and a select few agents from SHIELD but that would take them days if not weeks. By then she would be sent an alert and she could send AIMEE in to discourage them. She made her way into the elevator not surprised that Gibbs was the one to escort her down she had hoped to get McGee so she could ask him questions. Gibbs ended up stopping the elevator surprising Sam as she turned to look at him.
"You didn't want Ellie going in." He stated
"You let her go." Sam told him, she still remembered the hurt Ellie felt of how easy he let her go.
"She wanted to go." Gibbs retorted
"You let her go." Sam repeated looking back at the door waiting for him to push the button but he didn't.
"How safe is she?" He asked
"She has good people watching her back."
"But not you?" Gibbs asked at this Sam looked down, she had wanted to but things right now were stiff amongst the pack and she knew it had something to do with her. Maria was keeping her close, the only ones she let her interact with are Bobbie, Natasha and herself. She is not to interact with any of the other pack member other then doing business if she needed to. When she was around the rest of her pack Natasha or Maria keeps an annoyingly close eye on her, she finds her link with the others are closely monitored or blocked if Maria is busy. She had wanted to be there for Ellie but Maria played the sister card, she was too close to her. Sam had wanted to shout BS because of the pack link they were all close even closer than family but they still did missions together but that protest died once Maria growled at her with her protest gone so was her anger. Sam clenched her jaw as Gibbs was waiting for a response.
"Like I said she's my sister." Sam stated although she could tell Gibbs did not buy what she was trying to sell. "One week and it will all be explained." Sam tried, Gibbs was not the easiest man to convince he was stubborn a lot like Maria when it came to pack members.
"Sam…" He began to speak but seemed to stop, he sighed before pushing the button letting the elevator go down. They remained in silence right up until he walked her out the front door. "One week." He stated as his goodbye, Sam acknowledged it with a wave before walking off to her car. Maria wanted her back at the house. As Sam climbed into her car she turned some music on, right now so many thoughts were flying through her head all to distract her from what was coming next.