Thanks to my wonderful beta Kristen! There will be a brief break for Christmas coming up soon, as I will be unable to post for 9 days.
Chapter 8: Scary CIA Lady
Lily had not expected to find herself back at the lab in Norfolk any time soon. She had hoped the tech would be fairly easy to find and she would never have to go near the small, stuffy and full of computers place again.
She was wrong.
Going back to the lab had been LJ's idea. He wanted to see if anyone acted suspiciously when they were informed about Boxall's death. Lily could see his point, but didn't feel this was in her job description. Arbourne had told her she was not to investigate, and she felt this came a little close to investigating.
Nevertheless, someone could decide to break security and tell the agents about Project Indigo. To this end, she had chosen to accompany the team.
And because she was intrigued. This was a puzzling case and she wanted to know what was going on. She would prefer to be running around, causing havoc on a CIA job, but if she could get some enjoyment out of this, she would.
Ziva had been the designated driver for the journey. The girls had taken one car, while LJ and the boys took the other. Lily had enjoyed the high speeds and near-misses; she was used to driving fast for her job and liked being with another experienced driver. They had arrived a full twenty minutes before LJ, giving Lily enough time to buy a coffee and for Ziva to pick up a Berry Mango Madness.
LJ had growled some excuse about traffic being heavy, but Lily wasn't fussed. She'd driven faster in worse traffic before.
Their two remaining suspects had been rounded up and were sitting in the lab. Holland smiled at Lily again and she smiled back. She did not know if she would need to question him later, and it helped if he was still agreeable.
Trotter was a bundle of nervous energy. If he had been allowed to stand, Lily had no doubt he would have been pacing up and down, round and round, driving her insane. Instead, he was fiddling around on his chair, while she wanted to stick him in a straightjacket and scream at him.
Her patience was either like a saint, or nonexistent. She had no middle ground.
"We have some new information," LJ started.
Both suspects looked interested.
"Dexter Boxall died last night in what looks like a suicide."
Not a flicker of anything suspicious. Holland looked shocked, while Trotter looked upset and nervous. The man was permanently nervous as far as Lily was concerned. She would be more worried if he didn't look nervous.
"I'm sorry to hear that," Holland announced. He looked genuinely sorry.
"Have you recovered the tech?" Trotter queried.
LJ stared at him.
"I presume he killed himself because he thought the game was up," spluttered Trotter. "Have you found it?"
"Not yet," Lily answered. "But we're confident it's there."
Nothing like adding a little mind game to the proceedings. If one of these two had killed Boxall, feeling more confident would make them more likely to make a mistake. Lily liked mistakes.
"It might have been sold already," Ziva pointed out.
Lily nodded in agreement. McGee sneezed loudly.
Lily entered Abby's lab again, happily bobbing her head along with the music.
Ducky had finally confirmed that Boxall had not swallowed the tech, and Lily was now pretty confident it was a murder. LJ had gut feelings; she had feelings too. The suicide stank. She would have staged it much better herself. It stank of an amateur, albeit one with a little training.
She hoped that the training really was only a little. Going up against a fully trained, highly skilled person or persons was fine by her, but she didn't want to have to worry about the NCIS agents at the same time. Skill and mind games only got you so far.
Arbourne had finally found out about someone outrunning a traffic cop in his car, and had immediately called her to have a good yell. She had been expecting it and dutifully listened before telling him to leave her to do her job. He had screamed some more, until she dropped her cell phone in LJ's coffee.
Two birds with one stone.
Lily guessed she would be on toothbrush toilet cleaning duty when she returned to the CIA, but wasn't worried. She was now an expert at it. Arbourne felt the punishment was demeaning, but she didn't. It gave her a chance to think about her next game.
It also gave her a chance to think about other things, like how to get rid of the obstacle that was keeping Jenny and LJ apart. She was going to redouble her efforts and threaten everyone else to do the same. She needed a plan of action, and she would work one out when she was next cleaning.
The music made Lily bounce along to Abby's side, and she watched as the Goth tried to coax her computer.
"Abs!" she called, right into her ear.
Abby jumped. "You're as bad as Gibbs," she complained, eagerly taking the Caf-Pow from Lily's outstretched hands.
"I exist to cause havoc," Lily replied. "What are you doing?"
"I'm trying to trace the money in Boxall's account."
Lily tried to work it out. "If someone paid him to do the job, you can trace who hired him. If someone killed him and transferred the money to make us look in the wrong direction, you can find out who really stole the tech."
"Correct, scary CIA lady," Abby beamed.
"You find me scary?"
"Well, you are."
"How?"
"You shoot people, you blow things up, and you play with people's heads."
"And that makes me scary?"
"Maybe not scary scary, but still scary."
Lily thought about it. "I don't think in the same fashion as everyone else, and thus I must be labeled as scary."
"You blew yourself up," Abby reminded her.
"Something you don't tend to forget," Lily added. "I had a good reason for doing so."
"Because you wanted to catch your even scarier father."
"He needed to be caught."
"You killed him."
Lily stared at her for a moment. "How long before you trace the money?"
Abby took a little longer to catch up. "Err, not long, hopefully. But this guy is –"
Lily left before Abby could get too involved in her speech. She'd heard all she needed to hear.
The squad room was getting quiet as people left for the night. Lily bounced a small ball on the floor.
LJ had given it to her and ordered her to amuse herself. After throwing it at various agents, Jenny had appeared out of nowhere and threatened her sister with a knife. Nonplussed, Lily had begun bouncing it on the floor. If she couldn't annoy anyone directly, she would annoy them indirectly.
It was helping her to relax. The repetitive motion was very calming, and had a soothing quality to it. She knew the people living underneath her would be driven mad if she took this back to her apartment, and hoped it was having a similar affect on the people on the lower floor here. Jenny couldn't get angry over this.
Tony was finding out everything about Boxall. This mainly involved him ringing people up and asking questions. If Lily wanted information on someone, she just asked someone else to do it for her.
Ziva was busy trying to work out who could buy the tech. It would require quite a lot of money to purchase, and LJ was determined to stop the tech from leaving the country. Lily privately felt it was already gone, but kept such a depressing thought to herself. The others did not need to hear it.
McGee had left for Abby's lab, to help her trace the money in Boxall's account. This was something else that needed to be dealt with urgently, and it needed someone with specialist skills. Lily usually went to harass the techs when she wanted something traced.
It was nice being with a team. She was used to wandering all over CIA headquarters with her 'requests', and having to beg, blackmail or harass people into doing jobs for her. Here, everyone helped everyone else. They worked together, for a single objective. They helped each other when they needed help, encouraged each other and praised each other.
The CIA definitely had its advantages though. She could do what she liked, when she liked, and with virtually no one to stop her. She could do everything her way and stay in control.
She liked control.
"I have found something," Ziva proclaimed.
"Do tell," Lily answered, continuing to bounce the ball.
"A contact of mine says that if anyone was to buy the software, it would be Ben Thomas. He does not know where our target is though."
"I could ask around," Lily offered. "I've heard the name before. Maybe one of our lot is following him."
Tony slammed the phone down. "Metro didn't have a file on Boxall, boss. Said he was mugged a few days ago, someone stole his camera. Only time his name ever cropped up."
LJ glared at him.
"It was worth a try though," Tony added.
Lily rolled her eyes. "I'm going to find a few sources," she said, standing up and pocketing the ball. "I suggest you get some sleep before tomorrow. I have a feeling it's going to be a long day."