Chapter 6

Gibbs strolled out of the elevator to see Ducky. The ME had called to say that he was posting the autopsy on Lt. Caldwell and Gibbs decided to get his information sooner rather than later. Plus, it would give Ray time to come to terms with what he was going to do next. He entered to find Palmer finishing up what he was doing and Ducky was waiting for him. He asked his usual, "What do ya have for me, Duck?"

Ducky gave a nod and began, "As my preliminary findings indicate, Lt. Caldwell was killed by a single shot to the back. I sent the round up to Abby. The trajectory suggests that the round was fired from…"

"A rooftop?"

Ducky paused and looked at Gibbs. "How did you know that?"

"Ray figured it out. Found the shell casing."

Ducky nodded as it became clear to him why he had observed Ray behaving he did at the crime scene. "Extraordinary," he commented, genuinely amazed. He continued with the major findings, all pointing to the fact that their dead Navy lieutenant was a healthy adult male. But there were some anomalies that even Ducky felt warranted that Gibbs should know. He brushed a few locks of hair to show the agent, "If you look at the roots, this was not this man's natural hair color."

Gibbs took a closer look and noticed the reddish hairs near the roots. "He's a redhead. So he changed his hair color." It didn't seem significant to Gibbs.

"Yes, and he wore color contacts," Ducky replied as he pointed at the kidney dish that held the blue eye colored contacts. He peeled an eye open so Gibbs could see that it was green before moving on to what really had him curious. "And I my examination Jethro, I noticed faint scarring on certain areas of his face."

That piqued Gibbs' interest and he frowned slightly, "What about it?"

Ducky held up a chart and pointed at his notes. "There are surgical scars focusing heavily on the nose and brow region, but they encompass the whole face, suggesting heavy facial reconstruction surgery having been performed."

"Accident?" This was beginning to sound suspicious and Gibbs wondered if Vance and SECNAV's concerns were founded. Certainly Ray thought so and he was almost sweating bullets over a shell casing. He felt that familiar twinge of his gut gnawing at him.

"I checked his medical history and there is no record of Lt. Caldwell having any sort of accident or trauma that would have required facial reconstruction," Ducky countered with a serious expression, "I think this sailor is not who he led everyone to believe."

Gibbs looked at the face of the man on the table. If Ducky was right then the question was who was this man on a slab? If he was posing as someone else, then where is the real Caldwell? The only reason someone would hide their face was to hide from something or someone. It nagged into the territory of spooks and Gibbs wanted to explore all option. He asked, "Is there a way to figure out what he looked like before the operation?"

"I am not sure," Ducky began, "But we can try to figure out who Lt. Caldwell was before he became Lt. Caldwell. I have dental impressions and there are fingerprints. Of course there are the blood samples for DNA comparisons. If your man is in the system under a different name, then we'll see what we get."

Gibbs nodded in silent approval. He and Ducky had a good working relationship to the point where they could always anticipate the next set of questions or tasks ahead of them without the need to verbalize it. They just did it. He started to leave.

"Jethro," Ducky voiced to hold Gibbs back. "There is one more thing." He gestured for Gibbs to take a look.

"I did a fluoroscope and I found this tattoo." He held up the photo that he had taken. "He had it surgically removed but the ink was still there.

Gibbs peered at the image and studied the tattoo. It was unique and no doubt it would lend a hand in identifying their man. He sensed though that was not the reason Ducky held him back and that there was more. "Something on your mind, Duck?"

"Yes." Ducky checked to make sure Palmer wasn't around. It was just personally thoughts that he wanted to voice. "Why is Mr. Salazaar here?"

It was direct even for Ducky, but Gibbs knew that the man was astute enough to pick up on when something wasn't their average day at NCIS. Ray shows up and is assigned to the team as a specialist of sorts if only for this specific case. No one really knew him or remembered him. Even when he was on full status, Ray was the unassuming one, the quiet observer. Yet the man had a way of being there that sent the gut hairs tingling and Ducky was no exception. He looked at the ME and replied, "He's a special agent brought in to help."

"And you and I both know that there is more to it." Ducky looked at Gibbs head on. "You and your team have handled cases similar in the past. What is so special that the director calls in an agent who just arrived and barely patched up from wherever he was last?"

Gibbs figured it was slip of the tongue that Ducky mentioned an injury. The man took doctor-patient confidentiality seriously. Then it occurred to him that it had been a slip on purpose. "We needed help. Director's call." He turned to leave since staying would more than likely get him to spill the beans on his old friend.

"I am well aware of that, Jethro." Ducky followed Gibbs a few paces before the man left the room. Like Gibbs, he didn't like being kept in the dark, but he knew enough about this job that it was done for a reason.

Ducky liked the young man that paid a visit to him earlier, asking for a checkup. He thought him to be someone that was a younger version of Gibbs but he hadn't let the hard things in life get to him. He was unassuming and yet seemed to possess a depth of knowledge that was surprising. Yet Ducky knew that there was more to this than what was being told and it worried him.

Gibbs knew that eventually he was going to have to give explanations, but he didn't have all the details himself. Eventually his friend was going to have to say something. If he had to he would press and it wasn't going to be the nice way. So far, Ray was doing his job even if he was keeping a few details to himself, but it wasn't enough to warrant a talking to. He hoped that Abby would have something for him so that he wouldn't have to press.

He found Tim seated in front of the laptop from Leland and Ray was sitting next to him on Abby's computer. Both were completely absorbed in what they were doing and would occasionally lean over to check each other's work. They were quiet and efficient and didn't even mind that music was blasting in the background; like two peas in a pod. In the meantime, Abby was working on something when she noticed him and said, "I got something for you."

Gibbs glanced at Ray and McGee and left it to them while Abby explained her findings. One thing at a time was needed and it seemed that the pair of them were in the middle of finding out something. Once Abby was finished with what she managed to get from her testing, he turned and addressed McGee, "McGee?"

"We managed to crack the encryption…"

"McGee did," Ray added quietly.

McGee cleared his throat and continued, "We cracked the encryption and this is what Ray found in the file directory." He pulled up the file that they found. "It was made to look like the others, but there were a few things that stood out. I would have missed it. Ray caught it."

Ray cleared his throat and typed a few keys to open the file. "The file itself was also encrypted. Took a little more thinking power there and this is what was in it." He swallowed slightly as he looked at the screen, looking at the material he had seen before.

Gibbs looked at the images that popped up on the screen and then at what was clearly a diagram or blueprint of something. He had no idea what he was looking at since it didn't look like anything he would recognize. "What is it?"

McGee didn't know how to answer that one. The only answer that he had was what Ray had uttered earlier when he looked completely spooked at what they found. His mouth opened slightly and he glanced at Ray who was looking at his screen but not really seeing it. He wanted to say something, but nothing came out. And he knew Gibbs was going to get impatient and start yelling.

Ray knew that he was the only one that could answer it. Reality was setting in. It had been since he first opened the file and started scouring through them. Not looking up, he answered Gibbs' question, "The next stage in warfare."

Gibbs turned to look at his friend. "What do you mean?"

"Exactly what I mean," Ray replied, finally looking up. "It's state of the art nanotechnology. From the notes that Rawlings had, they are nanites and their function is to seek, infiltrate and destroy."

"A weapon?" Gibbs frowned as he tried to understand.

"Yep." Ray made a slight face before adding, "The idea is that they can be sent and used almost like a plague. Something like what I heard about using bugs to destroy crops or something."

"Like a bug." Gibbs stared head on at Ray, ignoring the fact that McGee had jumped slightly at the mention of what his grandmother Penny had been involved with.

"More or less from my initial outlook," Ray admitted. He typed in a few more key strokes and more windows opened on the larger screen. "I can see why Leland was contracted to develop this. They specialize in biotech, meaning that its tech made to work on things on a biological level. DigiCom was working with them on developing some of the latest developments in prosthetics using robotics and communication signals. We had a successful trial with an amputee veteran." He gave more of sad smile at that.

It sounded really heavy duty stuff. Gibbs typically wasn't patient with technology even if it was something he made the effort to learn. McGee and Abby though were more tech minded and could follow through on the implications. Abby was the one that clarified things for Gibbs, "So this nanotechnology, these nanites, can function within an organism and do whatever it is programmed to do?"

"Judging from this," Ray gestured at the screen, "Best guess is yes. They can be programmed to do anything from infusing vitamins to inducing a heart attack or a brain aneurism. Maybe even induce chemical warfare." He turned to look at his audience.

From that alone, it looked like they could be walking into something that could cause trouble. Gibbs looked at what was on the screen and at Ray and McGee. There had to be more and he asked, "Anything else."

McGee went to work, "Yeah. We found a series of communication, emails and memos between Rawlings and Caldwell. General chatter, but the bulk seem to be centered on work related to this file, DZ-01425. They kept going on about a demo tape and a code."

Ray added tiredly, "It sounds like babble."

"But," McGee held up a finger, not noticing the tired expression on Ray's face. He typed a few keys ad brought up the emails. "They keep talking about a setup; that 'they' shouldn't have died. Mostly it was on Rawlings' end. Caldwell was trying to keep it from blowing up in their faces, like they should report their findings and shut up about it."

Gibbs listened and watched Ray. It occurred to him that this was entering in on that op. They discovered the connection and it involved his old friend. How much was still the answer he wanted to know. "Any idea about the setup?"

"No, but it looked like Rawlings was the one that was into revealing the truth at the beginning and then Caldwell seemed to have a change of heart." McGee frowned as he typed some more on the laptop. "They started planning on gathering evidence and bringing it up with their superiors. In fact, the last email transaction talked about calling someone by the name JJ Rook."

It was hitting around eight o'clock by the time Gibbs was ready to start shooing out his agents. They were a good team and were troopers when made to stay late into the night or over the weekend on particular cases. This time around, they could be let go since it had been a busy day and there were a few things that still needed time to be sifted through. It was like letting the percolator on the coffee run on a timer. The other part was that he figured Ray could use a break after answering questions as best as he could regarding the files that McGee cracked open. There were plenty of holes and it looked like his old probie didn't know what to do about it even though he knew the man was good at making the decision and executing it.

Ray came to him as an undercover after they met on a case that involved drug and black market smuggling and murder. Gibbs thought him to be an insubordinate Petty Officer. They ended up exchanging a couple of blows until it was revealed that they were both on the same team. They had a laugh about it afterwards and Ray even saved his life. After that, it was a matter of pulling strings and getting the kid on the team.

After what happened, Gibbs inquired and was ready to be a character witness but Ray wouldn't let him. It was that line regarding covert operations and Ray couldn't really tell Gibbs without the threat of consequences. The refusal made Gibbs proud because of what Ray said, but also made him sad, not that he would ever admit that out loud. But, even though they were no longer together as a team, Gibbs always felt that his old probie had an eye on things in one form or another. That much was clear when Vance authorized him, DiNozzo and McGee on the op to rescue Ziva. It had him curious to know, but didn't press.

He found Ray sitting at the desk he had been assigned with nothing but the desk light on, hunched over his laptop, typing away at something. More likely it was his report for the day. It was one thing that Gibbs liked about him since he could do other agent's paperwork and his own without breaking a sweat. He hoped that DiNozzo hadn't discovered that or there would be trouble.

Looking around, Gibbs could see that everyone else had taken off for the night. It had him give a wry grin as he walked quietly up to Ray. "Working kind of late, aren't you?"

"Only until quitting time is sounded," Ray answered, not once looking up. His eyes were fixed to the screen as he kept typing.

"Well it just did. So get out," Gibbs replied in a slight teasing fashion, but also indicating that it was an order that should be obeyed. "And I don't want to hear how you camped out here all night."

Ray rolled his eye slightly and made a slight sound in his throat. Somehow Gibbs would be the one to figure out how he camped out at operations building for the NCIS undercover unit in Los Angeles. The how was probably the right questions without revealing his purpose. He replied, "I still have some work to do. I was given access to the AARs and I'm trying to recall best I can. Thing with Leland has me bugged."

"And you've been sidestepping or avoiding giving more about it especially with your old call sign."

"No rest for the weary, boss." Ray had folded his arms on the desk in front of him and looked up at Gibbs. "It's what I do."

"And you're on my team, meaning my rules," Gibbs countered. "And I'm giving you an order, Skipper. Call it a night."

Ray looked like he was going to defy Gibbs. It really wasn't a big deal. He wanted to find out why his old op was being used and to put it to bed without getting anyone neck deep in the whole thing. Gibbs was right though and he was being given an order. He knew Gibbs wouldn't report him to Vance, but there was no point in agitating an already awkward situation. He may be back in, but he was far from being just an ordinary NCIS agent.

Deciding to play fair, and in all honesty, he still had to pick up Callisto, he replied, "Ten minutes tops and I'm done."

"Five." Gibbs held up his hand to emphasize it before turning and heading towards the elevator. He called back, "Call it a night, Salazaar."

That held the implied threat and Ray got it loud and clear. He gave a mock salute to Gibbs' retreating form and turned back to finish what he was doing before calling it a night. There was no way he was going to risk having Gibbs chew him out. It was only his first day after all. He finished in record time and was in the elevator when his five minutes were up. If he were honest, he was relieved that Gibbs did pull rank and ordered him to head for home.

His lip had to twitch when his car came in view. He had another preferred mode of transportation but since he had to pick up Callisto, he had the car. It had him grin since he could afford the more affluent looking cars. He was the owner and CEO of DigiCom, but he didn't live like a rich man. He had his own tastes and would have had some of the affluent senators on the hill looking at him like he was craziest person alive.

It was nondescript, but it ran. And he had a preference for jeeps. He could almost imagine people wondering who it belonged to since he noticed everyone else seemed to have a vehicle that was what was considered typical for a federal agent. They hadn't met Sam Hanna. The thought put Ray in a good mood as he wondered how things were back in LA. It was on his mind as he pulled out of the lot, drawing a look from the on duty security guard and had him laugh.

The drive to his friend's place was a nice length to unwind. He knew his friend would have checked out his dog from the kennel. He had called when he realized that he was going to be doing other things. It just turned out more than he expected. But his friend was a good one. They went through BUD/s together and had been assigned to a team together after graduating from SEAL school.

From there, things took a different turn. His friend ended up with a good team and he was tapped to go to JSOC and the famous SEAL Team Six. It was the one that made all the movies and the video games. It actually had people believe it was the only team. Little did they realize that there were multiple teams, half on the east coast and half on the west. The SEALs were developed when it was realized that a new type of warfare was needed in World War II and it started the first basic underwater demolitions teams. The history was fascinating if it was your thing. Ray preferred to have a sense of pride as a SEAL, so he read the history and became the walking encyclopedia for his team.

There were some good times in between the jobs they had to do. And he would occasionally meet up with his friend when their leaves coincided and catch up. No matter what, Ray knew he could count on Parker Flynn for just about anything. They were brothers in arms and were like brothers especially after what happened to his own blood brother. In their line of work, you needed at least one person.

Ray pulled in to where his friend lived on the base apartments. He sighed when he realized how late it was. He really owed Flynn big time and not just for the money for Callisto's board. He prepared for the good natured ribbing that greeted him at the door when Flynn opened the door saying, "Now I know you didn't get rusty on approach, Raymundo."

Ray made a face at his given name. Flynn liked saying it, stressing the faint hints of Irish lilt in his voice. He growled, "Come on, Flynn. You know I don't go by that."

"I know," Flynn replied as he let his friend in. "I just like making ya wince." He stressed his accent more to sound like those actors in the movies.

Ray narrowed his eyes playfully at his friend. Last he heard, he went in full officer's training and now was an LT. He replied, "Yeah and I still outrank you, Lieutenant."

"You have to pull rank?" Flynn mocked whined at that and put a hand over his heart like he was wounded. It didn't last as he gave Ray a hug and welcomed his back. "So, are ya here to stay?"

"More or less. Thanks for taking care of Callisto."

Flynn knew that the change meant that he shouldn't push. He knew about Ray's thing with NCIS. "Hey, she's a doll. And don't worry about the fee."

Ray moaned, "Come on. Take it." He held out the fee to repay his friend. "Don't make me pull rank."

Flynn groused and took it. He pocketed it and stared at his friend. "You wanna crash here?"

"Nah. I better get home. Thanks again, Flynn. I'll call you."

It was how it always was. They didn't always say much in words but their expressions and actions spoke volumes. Flynn nodded and gave a wave as he showed Ray out. He watched with amusement as Callisto jumped into the passenger side of the jeep and shook his head. It was one of the few things that spoke more than the straight-laced persona Ray gave to most people in general.

Ray gave a final wave before pulling out and started heading back home. He rubbed Callisto's head, knowing that she had a good time. He had done his research on local kennels after getting her since he knew that he might have to pack up and travel. She was trained like the trained K9 units so he could take her on the job and she served another function.

Callisto panted happily as the wind rippled through her fur. She was a Belgian Malinois and was graceful and lithe. He made sure she got plenty of exercise and she loved going on runs with him. She was fiercely protective of him and friendly when children would come up and ask if they could pet her. Ray liked her personality. It had him wonder how Gibbs would take it if he brought her to work with him. She was fully trained.

Right now though, he was feeling the exhaustion from air travel to his reinstatement and then going out on a case. A lot had been crammed into the day and he was feeling it. He rotated his shoulder since it was achy, but Ducky had cleaned it and it felt a little better. He did have his post treatment all squared away. At this moment he was ready to just hit the sack, but more likely he would be waylaid by his landlady since she fussed over him like a mother.

He was in luck. She was asleep or watching her favorite television program and too busy to bother with him as he made his way up the stairs. Calisto's nails clicked on the wooden floorboards. Her relaxed manner told Ray that he didn't have to worry about an intruder. He didn't have to since he was way out of the way and very few people knew where he lived. Still, he was cautious.

He let himself and the dog in and sighed as he dropped his keys in the bowl and Callisto raced over to her bed. Flynn made sure she was fed so Ray didn't have to bother with it at the moment. Right now, he was tired and it showed as he dropped his bag beside the couch and draped his blazer on the back.

"You're late."

Ray straightened up and turned to look at his visitor. His lip twitched since Callisto would have known someone was there and decided not to do anything. The little traitor. He looked at his visitor and replied, "Work. And Callisto. Sorry about that Ziv."

Ziva stepped out of the shadows from where she had been waiting. She gave a brief pat to the dog as she walked to stand in front of Ray and stared at him. He stared back with the same intensity he gave everything else even though he was tired. He said softly, "I was called. I came."

"I know."

Ray studied her. Before he knew it, she had his head between her hands as she pulled him in for a kiss. He waited until she broke it off before replying with a slight smirk, "I guess I better make you antsy or upset more often. I like this."

Ziva snorted at that before pulling him in for another kiss. He chuckled as he accepted the kiss. He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her in close.

A/N: Gibbs and Ducky have a talk and looks like there is more to Ziva's knowledge of Ray. Stay tuned for next time.