Chapter 34
Tim headed back to NCIS, his mind racing. Jorgenson being dead wasn't the problem. Or rather, it was but it wasn't at the same time. He decided to make a call just to see if he could find out something, but because he was so wound up, he decided to pull off the road before dialing.
"Director Gellman."
"Director, this is Tim McGee."
"How did it go?"
"Levi was alive. He's in the hospital but he was pretty bad off."
"That doesn't surprise me. Jorgenson?"
"We arrested him, but he's dead now."
"How?"
Tim couldn't tell from Director Gellman's voice whether or not he was actually unaware.
"Someone killed him as NCIS as the state police were transferring him to D.C."
"I guess that's one less person for you to have to worry about, Agent McGee."
Tim hesitated and then decided just to ask.
"Did you do it?"
There was a long pause.
"No. Nor did I have any of my people do it. If I was going to have someone killed, I'd be a lot more subtle about it."
Strangely enough, that made Tim feel better, in part because Director Gellman hadn't been making a joke. He was serious. He wouldn't go this route and it made sense that the NSA wouldn't.
"Do you know who did?"
"No, but you can take your pick as to who might have wanted to and who had the clout. I won't ask why you care, but you're better off with Jorgenson dead."
"I know that. It just..."
"...doesn't seem right."
"No."
"Well, I won't argue right or wrong with you, Agent McGee, but I'd say that this is a case where you shouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth. Turn it over to someone else and let it go. I doubt you'll ever find out who did it."
"Will you?" Tim asked, finding that he could smile a little bit.
"If I do, I doubt I'll tell anyone."
There was a bit of a smile in Director Gellman's voice, too.
"Understood."
"Good. Now, Agent Bishop will be expecting you to be back to your usual antics but I'm guessing you won't be getting around to it this week."
"Not very likely. Director, can I ask why you have me working with her? She doesn't trust me."
"That's why. It's good to have someone suspicious on hand. Her main problem is that, really, she would be better suited for a more straightforward job, but she's very good at what she does so we keep her. But I know she'd probably find it easier to have a job more like yours at NCIS, one where mostly, it's not classified and mostly, it's simple investigations, not subterfuge. Letting her be the one watching you is a way to let her feel on more solid ground."
"I see," Tim said. "I need to get back to work."
"Thank you for filling me in on what's happening, Agent McGee. I like being in the know."
Now, Tim did smile.
"I never would have guessed."
Director Gellman actually chuckled and then hung up the phone. Tim didn't linger on the side of the road. He simply put his car in gear and eased back into traffic.
x.x.x.x.x.x.x
He was back at the farm, but for some reason, he felt like he was going the wrong way.
"Levi..."
He could hear her voice.
"Levi, come back."
It was coming from behind him. All that distance he'd covered, but she was now back the other way. He looked the way he was going. One more corner and he'd be there...but what was the point if Tamara wasn't there?
"Levi, please."
He turned around. It seemed like a distance much too far for him to get there. The end was much closer than the beginning.
But the beginning was where he should be.
He began to take slow, faltering steps toward Tamara's voice. The road was rough, bumpy, he kept tripping, but he had to get back.
"I'm trying," he whispered. "I'm trying to get back."
But it was just so far.
x.x.x.x.x.x.x
Tim arrived at NCIS without a hitch, and he hurried inside. As he got on the elevator, his phone rang.
"McGee."
"Tim, are you all right?"
"Zahara?"
"It was on the TV. There was a crash, they said. I saw Tony and Agent Gibbs, but I did not see you."
"I wasn't there, Zahara," Tim said. "I was at NCIS. I'm fine."
"Are you sure?"
Tim smiled as the elevator doors opened.
"Yes, I'm positive. I'm just going to see what happened."
"Will you be home tonight?"
"I can't think of any reason why I wouldn't be."
"Stay safe."
"I will. Love you."
"I love you. Bye."
"Bye."
Tim hung up and walked over to Ziva.
"What happened?" Tim asked. "How did this happen? Was anyone else hurt?"
"No one else was hurt. Not even the officer driving the car," Ziva said. "It was very well planned. This was not a random event. Someone intended to kill Jorgenson and to kill only him. The mercenary was not targeted. Someone wanted him dead, not in prison or free."
"What's going to happen now?" Tim asked.
"I do not know. The FBI was going to take custody. Maybe that is what will happen now."
"Maybe. How long do you think it will take for Gibbs and Tony to get back here?"
"I think they will stay until everything is settled."
"You're probably right."
Tim took a deep breath, walked back to his desk and sat down, letting the air out in a whoosh. This was just not what he had expected from today.
"I guess I could start writing up my report. This was my case, after all."
Ziva smiled. "We will all do our best to make sure our reports meet your standards."
Tim smiled back. "I won't be as bad as Gibbs."
"I am not sure of that."
Tim laughed. "I couldn't possibly be worse than Gibbs."
Ziva smiled and didn't reply. Tim didn't know if that was because it was obviously true or if Ziva didn't believe him. Either way, it lightened the mood a little bit and that was good. He started to work on his report. Even if NCIS didn't have jurisdiction, it had obviously been involved and an accounting of time and resources devoted to finding Levi would need to be made.
For about half an hour, it was relatively silent as both he and Ziva worked on their reports.
Then, his desk phone rang.
"McGee."
"Agent McGee, I need you in MTAC. Right now."
"Yes, Director."
There was a click. He looked at Ziva.
"What is it?" she asked.
"I don't know. Director Shepard said I needed to get into MTAC and then she hung up."
"I would not delay."
"No."
Tim stood and hurried up to MTAC. When he got inside, Jenny was there, looking very grave.
"What is it?" he asked.
"A message. An anonymous message."
"About what?"
Jenny looked at one of the technicians. "Put it on the screen."
"Yes, ma'am."
"This was sent to us about twenty minutes ago. We've been trying to figure out where it came from."
"Us?"
"NCIS, specifically, to MTAC with no indication of who or how it was done," Jenny said.
Then, there was a video on the screen. It was very short. Only a few seconds. But what it showed was very obvious. It was a recording of Jorgenson's death...with a camera obviously attached to the gun being used. There was no sound.
Until the very end.
A robotic, computer-generated voice came in over the video.
"This is a gift, Agent McGee. You would never be safe with him out there. None of us would be safe with him out there."
Tim felt his mouth drop open.
"Do you have any idea who this is, Agent McGee?" Jenny asked.
"No, ma'am," Tim said, softly, staring at the now-blank screen. "I have no idea."
"Are you sure of that?"
Tim forced himself to look at her. "Positive. The only person I could think of who might view this as a gift is Levi Carew, but he's in no position to do it or to order someone else to do it. When I stopped at the hospital last night, he was unconscious and his wife told me he was only speaking in Hebrew. Beyond him, I really don't know who would have done this, still less as a favor to me. It...kind of... bothers me that someone would think this is what I want."
Jenny's stern expression softened a bit and she appeared to relent.
"All right. I've got our people working on trying to figure out where it came from, but whoever sent it seems to be a master. It doesn't seem to have any point of origin, masked or otherwise. If you think of something, please tell me."
"Yes, ma'am."
"You're dismissed."
"Thank you, Director."
Tim walked out of MTAC and, as soon as he stepped out of the room, he had a thought. Would Lawrence and his crew do something like this? If he was honest, he could see it happening, but he couldn't see them sending this message. They were focused on being anonymous, and even if they had killed Jorgenson as a favor, they wouldn't gloat about it. Gladly, Tim rejected the idea and walked down to his desk.
"What was it?" Ziva asked.
"Someone sent a message, telling me that Jorgenson's death was a gift."
Ziva's eyes widened considerably, but she said nothing. Instead, got up and walked over to him. Then, she crouched down in front of his desk.
"Are you all right?" she asked.
Tim smiled a little.
"I don't know, really. I mean...I'm... I have to be honest and I'm glad that Jorgenson is dead, but the way he died... I don't know."
"No matter what else, Jorgenson's death is not on your head. You did not kill him. You did not ask anyone to kill him. What you did was save a life, not take one. Remember that."
Ziva reached out and grabbed his hand. Her sleeve pulled up, revealing the scars on her wrist. Tim squeezed her hand and then moved his fingers to rub her wrist. Neither of them said anything for a few seconds. Then, Ziva pulled her hand back.
"Thanks, Ziva."
Ziva stood up and then walked around the desk and kissed Tim on the top of his head. He felt his face warm a little bit.
"Be careful. Zahara might get jealous," he said.
Ziva just smiled and walked back to her desk. Then, Tim suddenly remembered another time when Ziva had kissed him. When he had been in a hospital bed in Riyadh, just before having surgery on his eye. She had kissed him on the forehead, saying it was from Abby. And for a fleeting few seconds, he had been able to relax beneath the gentleness of that kiss. There was nothing romantic in it. It was kind of along the lines of the way that Daniel's Berber friend, Yedder, had kissed him, both in greeting and in farewell. He cherished his friendship with Ziva. She had been a lifeline for him during his atropine overdose as well. All through these years, he'd had friends watching out for him, but Ziva had been different.
"Ziva?"
She looked up. "Yes?"
"Thank you," he said.
She didn't ask what he meant. She just smiled.
"You are welcome."
Then, they got back to work without interruption for another hour when Gibbs and Tony finally arrived.
The elevator doors dinged opened and Tim looked up. He felt a deep relief at seeing Gibbs and Tony. He had known they were okay, but it was good just to see that it was true.
"FBI took control," Tony said succinctly. "We're glad to be washing our hands of it."
"Any clue as to who it was?" Tim asked.
"None," Tony said. "The officer said that he didn't get a good look. The windows were tinted and he had a blowout and so he was more focused on making sure he didn't get in an accident."
"You see anything, McGee?" Gibbs asked.
Tim shook his head.
"No, but whoever did it apparently did it for me."
"Huh?" Tony asked. "I know you're important, Tim, but that seems like..."
"Someone sent a video to MTAC. It's a video of the shooting and a voice says that they did it as a gift for me."
Gibbs looked him in the eye and raised an eyebrow. Tim just shrugged a little. It bothered him, but what could he say?
"Huh," Tony said. "I'm not sure I'd like having that kind of gift."
"I know I don't like it," Tim said. "I just wish I knew what the real motivation was. I have a hard time believing it was truly altruistic."
"Doesn't matter," Gibbs said. "What matters is that it's over for us."
"Yeah," Tim said. "But I might not have an easy time believing that."
Gibbs smiled. "You can work on it."
"Yeah," Tim said and smiled. "Ziva and I have been working on our reports."
"Oh, yeah. I always forget about those things," Tony said, as Gibbs went up the stairs, probably to report in to Jenny.
"Well, don't forget this time," Tim said. "I want to make sure that we have all the details we need since we shouldn't have been doing this in the first place."
"Now, you admit it," Tony said, but not really sounding very irritated.
"I couldn't admit it before. You would have used that as an excuse," Tim said.
"Uh-huh," Tony said.
They all sat down again. It was silent for a few minutes.
"Are you okay, Tim?" Tony asked suddenly.
Tim looked up, but he was glad to see just a general concern, not the worried, guilt-ridden concern that Tony often felt.
He shrugged. "Yeah...mostly. But if whoever it was really wanted to be helping me, this is an epic failure. I would have been uncertain enough about Jorgenson being dead...without knowing that it was done for me."
"Maybe it was done for you," Tony said. "No matter how important you are, I have my doubts that if it was just you, this would have happened. I think whoever it was used it as an excuse."
"It's just so surreal. Director Shepard said that they had no idea where the message came from. It's so well disguised that it seems to have no point of origin. There should be something, even if it's jumping around or masked. But nothing at all?"
"Maybe it was the NSA or the CIA. It's not like they haven't been involved in some shady stuff."
"No," Ziva said, to Tim's surprise. "This was far too blatant based on what we have seen. The CIA does not have permission to operate in the U.S. They would not do it so obviously and risk exposure, and NSA is not the kind of organization that operates so publicly. How many years was their existence completely denied? I do not think it was either of them."
"Yeah, you're right. I still don't really like not knowing, but I'm glad he's dead."
"Me, too," Tim admitted. "I just wish it wasn't like this."
"What's a good way?"
"In a fire fight or an execution after being convicted. Not just gunned down."
"Yeah, that'd be better," Tony agreed. "Well, we can't control that, so..."
"So we just have to hope it is finished," Ziva said.
"I can hope for that," Tim said, although a part of him wondered if it really would be.
Could it ever truly be finished?
He doubted it.
