Chapter 12

"Cain is dead," Gibbs told Abaddon, who stared at him coldly. "I'm betting either by your hand, or by another one of your buddies. Once our medical examiner determines how, and we finish reviewing hospital footage, it's not going to go down well for you." Silence. "Who's your handler?" Silence. "You know, you managed to piss off a nurse. Now a SEAL, that's one thing. They know all about hurting people. It's kind of their job to take the bad guys out. But a nurse? No, that's a different subject."

Torres winced. "Yeah, because it's their job to make us feel better, so they know what hurts, and how it hurts, and they know it in a little more detail than we do, like how much it hurts to breath with a broken rib. They know about things like medicine and what should and shouldn't be mixed together, and what's the fastest route to the heart. Oh, and let's not forget about the whole tape-ripping-off-a-hairy-chest thing. I cringe every time."

Gibbs chuckled.

They were in an interrogation room with Abaddon, and McGee and Bishop were currently running the suspect through the system.

Cain was actually Private Charles Theodore, a former Marine who had been booted out of the Marines over one too many fights with his superiors. After his discharge, he disappeared off the radar. Palmer had received his body and was working with Kasie to determine the cause of death. Palmer had admitted though, that had Cain not been killed, he might have survived his injuries, abet with a permanent limp because of the rod through his leg.

"You don't scare me," Abaddon hissed. "I'll be out of here within the hour, and you, your buddies, and that stupid nurse, you're all dead."

"You will be, if your handler finds out you've been compromised, just like Cain was," Gibbs said.

"No, I won't. I'm his favorite. Not like Cain was," Abaddon boasted. "Cain was an idiot."

"So are you, for going after Admiral Kent's family," Torres said. "I mean, after the attack in the street, wouldn't you have expected us to be on high alert for something like that? C'mon, that's stupid!"

"I had my orders," Abaddon grumbled. "I would have prefered to have waited, but he wanted them taken care of now."

"Why?" Gibbs asked.

And here, Abaddon fell silent again. Not even threatening to bring in Mac worked.

The team regrouped.

"Meet Private Donnie Bergen, another former Marine with temper issues. He left before he could be discharged, though," Bishop said, pulling a familiar face onto the plasma.

"And there's a number on his cell phone that matches the same one from Cain's," McGee said. "And it's in the same area as Commander Avery's house. And we got a reply back from the burner. Message was; Good. Burn it."

"He's getting rid of all the evidence," Torres said.

"We were doing some more digging on Commander Avery," Bishop said. "Prior to 1965, he doesn't exist. In fact, he didn't turn up until about a year later, and we found a picture of him." Bishop threw a photo on the plasma. "His file says his face was injured in a mining accident, but I don't think those are mining injuries. In fact, I think those are face surgery scars, which could explain why no one recognized Williams."

"And he's kept a very low profile over the years, or so it looks," Sloane guessed. "If he's CIA, or any other black books operator, he would be very good at covering his tracks."

"We need to draw him out," Vance said, having joined them and been brought up to date on things. Privately, he was impressed by the gutsiness of Nurse Mackenzie, especially when he found out about the frying pan to the face. To quote Lieutenant Kent, do not mess with a frightened nurse who has seen every Home Alone movie ever made, even the ones without Kevin McCallister.

"We need to get this bastard out into the open, before he sends another one of his stooges," Gibbs said. On the way back, they had received a phone call from the fire department. The fire was out, and they had found two bodies, both of which were on the way to NCIS's morgue. Palmer and Kasie were going to be busy for a while.

"Well, our connections are the phones," Torres said. "Can't we call it up and say, 'Hey moron, guess what I got?' He already thinks Nurse Mackenzie and Lieutenant Kent are dead."

Bishop tilted her head thoughtfully. "He's right. If it is Commander Avery, then we might have an advantage over him. Especially if we made it look like Mac and Lieutenant Kent were still in the game."

"I won't put them in danger again," Gibbs said.

"They won't be, not if we're watching closely," Bishop said.

"You got an idea," Torres said, grinning.

"Ever see that movie, Captain America: The Winter Soldier?" Bishop asked.

"Yes," McGee said.

"No," Gibbs said.

"Okay, well, Captain America faces off against HYDRA, the bad guys, who had infiltrated S.H.I.E.L.D., the good guys," Bishop explained.

"I know who they are," Gibbs snapped.

"Okay, right. Well, in the movie, Captain America and his buddies kidnapped a suspected HYDRA spy. They got him out of the public by convincing him he had a laser sight on his chest, from a sniper rifle," Bishop continued. "And Falcon called him and told him to get into the car, or they were going to ruin that expensive-looking tie of his."

"I remember that part," Vance said, nodding. "What are you thinking?"

"We do the same. We send Commander Avery a message, telling him Abaddon needs to meet, and then track him. Once he gets to where he's supposed to meet Abaddon, we set Mac on him, giving us the element of surprise," Bishop said. "To convince him that she's serious, we set a laser sight on him from a rifle. Lieutenant Kent's file says he's a pretty good shot. He wouldn't have to actually shoot Commander Avery, but he might have to fire a round to convince him."

"And Mac gets him to talk," Sloane said, catching on. "Maybe gives him a little something to convince him he's having a heart attack or something."

McGee started typing. A moment later, he grinned. "Which wouldn't be too hard; Commander Avery has diabetes, which he developed over the last three years."

"And someone like Mac would know what and how to screw with that enough to make it look like he's having a heart attack, or potentially leading up to one," Sloane guessed.

A grin started crossing Torres face. "What was it that Abby did to that guy, the one she made think she'd given that chemical agent to? Roger King?"

"A couple of Caf-Pow pills," McGee confirmed. "Sent his heart racing, and with a little psychological manipulation from Abby, she had him firmly convinced she had slipped him the chemical agent."

"Nice," Sloane said, chuckling.

"And Nurse Mackenzie has shown she can play dirty," McGee said to Gibbs. "You should have seen how she handled Cain," he told the others. "She had him convinced he was going to bleed to death if she moved her hand away from his leg, unless he told her what she wanted to know. And if that wasn't enough to convince him, she had him believing Lieutenant Kent would shoot him and we wouldn't interfere."

"The guy killed someone she cared about," Sloane said. "She's not going to play by the same rules we do, not if she thinks she can get away with it."

Gibbs glanced at the time. It was nearly two in the morning. "Get some rest. Then, first thing in the morning, we call them up and see what they say," he said. "There's not much we can do right now."

"And Lieutenant Kent threatened to cut our throats in our sleep if we woke Mac up again," Sloane said conversationally. At Vance's raised eyebrow, she said, "He's a SEAL who's pretty protective of his fianceé; he would."

The next morning, they had their answer.

Cain had died as a result of a morphine overdose that had likely been introduced to his i.v. line, thanks to Abaddon, who was seen on the hospital cameras around the time of Cain's death.

"I'm in," Mac said, over the phone.

"Are you sure?" Gibbs asked. "Commander Avery may try something or he may have someone watching him, and you could get hurt."

"Then I expect you guys to have my back," Mac shot back.

"Trust me, we will," Lieutenant Kent said. "Think one of you guys can get your hands on a sniper rifle with a laser and a suppressor?"

Gibbs smirked. He knew someone, all right.

While they waited for Lieutenant Kent and Mac to get back, Gibbs called his contact.

"Callen."

"It's Gibbs. I need a favour."

"What kind?"

"The Russian kind. We're looking for a suspected former Russian spy, who was supposed to be operating in Palestine around 1965," Gibbs said. "Guy by the name of Andrei Nasonov. His name came up in a murder investigation. Was supposed to be the target of a failed SEAL mission in Palestine, but one of the survivors of that mission said he was never there, and we can't find anything, other than the fact that someone by that name was in the Soviet Union around that time. We want to know what was so important about him and if he ever existed."

"I'll see what I can find out and get back to you," Callen said.

The message was sent and over at the Pentagon, Vance watched as Commander Avery glanced at his phone.

"Problem, Commander?" Vance asked casually.

The commander grunted. "My wife nagging at me again. Wants to meet me for lunch, probably to keep an eye on what I'm eating. Damn diabetes."

"Wives. Can't live with them, can't live without them," Vance quipped, chuckling.

As Commander Avery walked away, he quickly called Gibbs.

"He bit."

"We have him," Gibbs said.

"Be safe."

Gibbs and his team followed Commander Avery to a local park and watched as he sat down at a bench.

"Everyone in place?" Gibbs asked.

"Confirmed," McGee said from a park bench just behind Commander Avery.

"Same here," Bishop said.

"Target in sight," Lieutenant Kent said, having taken up position in some bushes, within decent shooting range. Torres, who was with him, saw the smirk on his face. The bushes afforded them privacy and protection if someone started shooting. "Not seeing anyone else."

"Keep your eyes open. Mac, you're on," Gibbs said.

Mac, who had been hiding with Gibbs, started walking towards Commander Avery, her borrowed Navy pea coat swishing as she moved. It had originally belonged to Admiral Kent, and Lieutenant Kent had found it while doing a quick inventory check at his grandfather's house, rightfully thinking Mac might like it.

"Light him up," Gibbs said.

Lieutenant Kent pressed a button on the scope and a red beam of light lanced out, hitting Commander Avery in the chest, where his heart was. "Lights on."

"Good day, Commander," Mac said, as she got closer.

"Who are you, miss?" Commander Avery asked.

Mac smiled as she sat down next to the commander, putting an elbow on the back of the bench and propping her jaw against her hand. "You know who I am, Commander. That idiot you sent after us? He was a lot more scared of me and my boyfriend than he was of you, especially once I got ahold of a frying pan and a fishing knife."

"I have no idea what you're talking about," Commander Avery snapped, getting up to leave.

Mac smiled at the commander. "That's a nice suit you're wearing. Would be a pity if blood got on it," she said sweetly. The commander looked down at his chest and saw the red dot. He froze and slowly sat back down.

"You're bluffing," Commander Avery said coldly.

"Tom?" Mac asked.

A moment later, the back of the bench exploded as a rifle round went through it, missing Commander Avery by inches. No one moved, as the rifle had been equipped with a sound suppressor, and there were a bunch of sparrows on a feeding frenzy nearby, creating a bit of a ruckus. The commander stared at her, his eyes going a little wide. "Yeah. I think I have your attention now."

"What do you want?" he snarled.

"I want to beat your miserable ass into the ground for killing someone I cared about dearly." Then her other hand moved, and Commander Avery jumped as she suddenly stabbed him with a needle full of clear fluid, making it look like she was just patting his leg. "But I'll take you having a heart attack as a start."

With the red dot square on his chest, Commander Avery didn't dare move. "What the hell did you give me?" he hissed, rubbing his leg.

"A very, very high dose of potassium. You have diabetes problems, and as a nurse, I know what will and will not clash with your body," Mac said, smiling coldly, as she thumbed the needle safety cover back on and put it back in her pocket. "By the time I leave, you son of a bitch, you will be in the process of a major heart failure. Poor old man, dead of a heart attack. Really should have retired all those years ago." She clicked her tongue. "However, I do have the stuff to reverse it." She took out another needle, also filled with a clear fluid, but had a piece of tape wrapped around the top, and waggled it at him, before putting it back in her pocket.

"What do you want?" Commander Avery hissed. "Money? I have plenty."

"I don't want your blood money, you walking piece of maggot cheese. ("Walking piece of maggot cheese? Damn, man, your girlfriend has some colorful expressions," Torres quipped.) "Besides your death, I want to know why you felt it was so imperative that you kill a harmless old man, just because he wrote a book about a mission that should have never happened," Mac shot back, ignoring Lieutenant Kent's chuckle in her ear. "NCIS let slip a few things to me, like how you're really Petty Officer Williams, the SEAL who got blown up during the mission, and how CIA agent Jones' body was found a few days later." She watched as Commander Avery's face blanched. "Yeah, I know all about that. And so does NCIS. Now, the only reason I'm here and they're not, is because I'm madder than they are." She leaned close, and whispered softly, "And meaner. So, why did you have Admiral Kent killed? Tell me, now, and I will give you the counter agent to the potassium. You don't, and you're dead."

"I'm a dead man anyway," Commander Avery said, starting to sweat. "If my superiors found out I'd screwed up that misson years ago, I'm just as dead as Cain or anyone else who fails. They don't take failure lightly."

"Who's they?" Mac coaxed. "Someone within the CIA? Maybe a black ops that the government doesn't like to talk about?"

Commander Avery smirked. "Trump and his Republicans aren't the one running the government; we are. Trump's just too stupid to realize it."

Mac stared at him. "So you're saying you murdered an old man, who didn't have much time left anyway, to cover up your screw up. And then you went after another old man and his daughter and son-in-law. And me and my fiancé too? How stupid can you get? All you had to do was have Admiral Kent's hard drive erased. Then the book would never have been published."

"Couldn't take the risk that he'd already printed the damn thing up," Commander Avery hissed. "He wasn't as stupid as he looked."

"You got that right," Mac said.

"And once NCIS started investigating, because of you, I had to get rid of you and anyone associated with him," Commander Avery continued, starting to pant.

Mac put two fingers to his cartieroid artery and glanced at her watch. "Tsk. You're really going there, aren't you, old man? So what's next, the publishing company?"

"If I had to. Bombs in the mail, with a little hate mail? Thanks to Trump and him going after reporters, it wouldn't be inconceivable for someone to go after a publishing company. Or even have a gas line explosion. These things happen all the time," Commander Avery said, smiling coldly.

"Hey Mac? That should do it," Gibbs said.

"Good. Because I'm about to punch this guy in the face," Mac said easily, smiling at the distressed commander. Lieutenant Kent was still out of sight, putting his rifle away. "You are a joke and an insult to that uniform," she said as Gibbs and his team approached them. "I hope you live long and suffer, and when you finally die, I hope you suffer the agonies of Hell for what you did," she hissed, standing up.

"But you promised me the counter-agent to the potassium you gave me," Commander Avery snarled as Gibbs and McGee pulled him up, and put cuffs on him.

"Oh that? You're not the only one who can play the dirty game," Mac said, smiling widely. "That wasn't potassium; that was a high dosage of caffeine pills, just enough to get your heart going, along with a little mental screwing and coaching from a bug in my ear. It'll wear off, in a bit. And the other stuff? That was just water. Unlike you, you filthy animal, there are some lines I won't cross. Much."

"And the asshole who shot at me?" Commander Avery snarled.

"Turns out Lieutenant Kent is as good a shot as he said he was, and according to him, that was an easy shot," McGee said. "You're lucky he didn't follow up on his threat to put one through your chest if he thought you were going to hurt his favorite nurse."

"Let's go. I'm sure there's a few people who would love to talk to you," Gibbs said.

Lieutenant Kent joined them, his rifle in a harmless-looking duffle bag, and put his arm around his fiancee. "Now that this shit is over and done with, there are things we have to do, like plan Granddad's funeral and get a marriage license," he said.

"And Gibbs? You need to press your best suit, because you're going to be the one walking me down the aisle to the judge," Mac said easily, as they escorted the commander to their cars.

Commander Avery smirked. "Good luck getting there. Accidents happen, you know."

Everyone started mentally cringing and groaning when they saw the cold look come into Mac's eyes. Then the commander was down on the ground, trying not to throw up.

"I don't take kindly to being threatened by an old fart like you," she hissed.

"Haven't you done enough damage with that mouth of yours already?" Bishop asked. "If you're not careful, she'll put you in hospital, and she knows how to make it look like an accident too, better than Cain did."

Gibbs later caught up to Vance. "Well, Commander Avery is being watched closely, and as soon as possible, he's being transferred to the nearest supermax prison," Vance said.

Gibbs nodded. "Once he realized we had his handler, Abaddon confessed to everything he knew. McGee and Bishop are leading a cyberteam to go through Commander Avery's life with a lice comb. Might take us a while, but we'll find out who was at the top."

"And Nurse Mackenzie and Lieutenant Kent?"

"Getting married at the end of the week. I'm giving her away, which means I have to send my best suit to the cleaners," Gibbs said, smirking.

"What about her own family?"

"She stopped talking to them after her parents tried to convince her to forgive her fiance for cheating on her, a month before the wedding, saying all men do that. Except Mac wasn't so forgiving of him, or her parents, especially when she found out her dad expected her to give up her nursing career once she got married, and settle down and have babies," Gibbs said. Vance's eyebrows shot up. "Yeah. She told them where to go and how to get there, on no uncertain terms, and hasn't spoken to them since, and isn't about to start any time soon."

"I can't really say I blame her."

Gibbs phone rang: it was Callen.

"Did some chatting with a friend of mine who has ties to the Russian mob. Turns out Andrei Nasonov was a cover name for a fake spy around that time, one the KGB used to play cat-and-mouse games with, with the CIA," Callen said. "Create a fake spy, make it seem like he was doing stuff, and see who bites."

"Makes sense," Gibbs said.

"According to Arkady, he should have been discontinued when the Soviet Union fell," Callen said. "I told him his name came up in a murder investigation, and he said something about how the past never really leaves us."

Gibbs grunted. "Thanks, Callen. I owe you one," he said, before he hung up. "Andrei Nasonov was a fake KGB spy set out as a carrot for the CIA," he said to Vance. "When Jones bit, he caught the attention of the KGB, and when he failed the mission, because Andrei Nasonov never really existed, he was removed, and Williams took over."

"That was some costly mistake," Vance said, eyes a bit wide.

"And we're still cleaning them up today," Gibbs said, walking out of the office.