Deep Lacerations: Chapter 10

For the first time since she joined the team, Agent Sonja Gracy wasn't waiting in the bullpen when Agent Tony DiNozzo arrived for work, a good ten minutes later than he should have. "Gracy around?" he asked Officer Ziva David, already at her desk and hanging up the phone.

"I have not seen her today," she replied, not meeting his gaze as her attention switched to the computer screen. DiNozzo groaned.

"You killed her and stuffed her body in the dumpster out back, didn't you?" he asked in mock exasperation. "This reminds me of The Avengers, TV show from 1961-1969. Emma Peel, played by Diana Rigg—"

"Shut up, Tony," Ziva interrupted. "I have not seen Agent Gracy, and I did not kill her or stuff her in a dumpster. Maybe she is just late."

"Or maybe Gibbs sent her back to CID," DiNozzo said thoughtfully. "He did seem rather upset—." He stopped talking abruptly as a harried looking Gracy stepped out of the elevator, her still-damp hair in a quick French braid, her bag slung over her shoulder. "Hair dryer not working this morning, Agent Gracy?" he asked with a slight smirk.

She glowered briefly at him. "It was just one of those mornings," she replied shortly, sliding her CAC into the computer to log in. "I went on my usual morning swim—"

"What've you got?" Agent Gibbs asked as he strode into the bullpen, not a minute after Gracy. Ziva was the first to speak up.

"Abby has identified the victim as Captain Spencer Hawke. He was a Marine Intelligence officer stationed at Quantico. I left his a message with his CO's secretary to call me as soon as he gets in."

"No prior record," DiNozzo jumped in. "One speeding ticket from five months ago, two days after he got back from Iraq, but other than that, our vic was clean. Everyone seemed to like the guy, nobody can think of anybody who would want him dead."

"Maybe it was something from work. Any idea what he was working on?" Gibbs asked.

"I was planning on asking his CO when he called back," Ziva stated.

"Calypso," Gracy said quietly, getting the attention of the other three agents. She looked up in surprise, unaware she had spoken aloud. "At least, that's what he was working on fifteen months ago in Iraq."

"And that is?" Gibbs asked. She shook her head slightly, as if trying to focus her thoughts.

"It was a tri-service intelligence operation and it had to do with computers or satellites or something. That's all I know. I wasn't privy to details."

"You knew Captain Hawke?" Tony asked in surprise. She shook her head again.

"No, not really," she admitted. "I've heard his name a couple of times, that's about it." She frowned, trying to remember, hearing snippets of conversations in her head.

"They treating you alright over there?" she asked with a laugh.

"You kidding?" he scoffed. She could hear the grin in his voice through the phone. "I get three squares a day, sleep in an air-conditioned trailer with someone who doesn't snore—"

"I don't snore!"

"I know, I'm just messing with you," he replied, that teasing tone she loved in his voice. "We got a new kid in the unit the other day, a Marine captain fresh out of Intelligence training."

"Kid?" she echoed with a laugh. "You're a thirty-two year old major. You're not exactly ancient."

"Yeah, well, Hawke's a kid. A little bit green, and I'm not referring to the color of his uniform. He does know his way around the computer programs, though."

"He joined Calypso about sixteen months ago," she said, trying to keep the pain of the memory from her voice. "He, um, hadn't been with Intelligence long. Some of the other guys liked to mess with him, you know, standard hazing stuff. I have no idea what he's been up to for the last year. I don't even know if he's still with Calypso."

The other agents were still staring at her in shock. "How did you know that?" DiNozzo asked in wonder. Gibbs smacked the younger agent in the back of the head.

"Work smarter, not harder, DiNozzo. She showed up late and got all that. You checked his criminal record." He smirked slightly. "Not bad, Gracy. Ziva, when you talk to Hawke's CO, find out what he's been working on since getting back from Iraq. DiNozzo, keep working on Hawke's personal life, track down everyone who knew him. If anyone even thought about killing him, I want to know about it. Gracy, my office."

She frowned as the supervisory agent headed toward the elevator. "His office?" she asked the remaining agents.

"Better hurry," Tony replied. "Don't the elevator doors close." Still confused, she nonetheless jumped up and followed her new boss into the elevator.

Almost as soon as the doors closed behind Gracy, Gibbs hit the emergency stop. "What the hell?" she asked angrily. He turned toward her and didn't respond.

"I need to know everything you know about Calypso," he finally said. She blinked in surprise before shaking her head.

"The extent of my knowledge is pretty much everything I just said in there. Like I said, I wasn't privy to details."

"You knew some of the personnel," he pointed out. She took a deep breath and looked away, shaking her head slightly, more in disbelief at the topic of conversation than denial. "Where did Major Scott Gracy fit in?" Gibbs pressed.

Her eyes flew open, her expression filled with surprise as she turned back to face him. "How did—?" She cut herself off when she remembered that as a trained investigator, the first thing Gibbs would have done would be to check her service record. "Colonel Lars Hauser was the CO," she said softly. "Scott was the XO. It was a really good posting for him: an O-5 posting a couple of years after he made O-4, the type of thing that leads to a promotion below the zone." She bit her lower lip, her gaze focused up toward the ceiling of the elevator, trying to hold back tears. "As XO, he, uh, spent a lot of time on base, but he still went outside the wire with the men when he felt he needed to. I used to tease him about it." Her voice caught, and she had to swallow back the lump in her throat. "I reminded him that he's not a kid anymore, but I knew that's what he loved. He was a computer engineering major at Texas A&M, but he didn't go into the Army to sit behind a desk."

He gave her a moment to compose herself. "Do you think Captain Hawke's death could have had something with Calypso?"

"I don't know," she said honestly, shaking her head again. "Like I said, I don't know enough about Calypso. I don't know what they were working on. I always assumed that Scott's death was an Iraq thing, caught by the wrong insurgent or something, and that that would be the end of it, but," she paused. "I saw the body. Captain Hawke's body. I didn't examine it, I just saw it while I was working the scene. He had these cuts all of his body, which was just like Scott, and since, I can't help but remember—." She broke off suddenly, shaking her head. "What if Scott's death wasn't just an Iraq thing?" she asked, meeting Gibbs' eye.

Gibbs reached over and flipped the elevator switch, turning it back on. "Find out everything you can about Calypso," he finally said as the doors opened on their floor. "I want to know everyone who was even remotely involved with the project and what they were working on."

"It's not going to be easy," she warned him. She saw the look on his face and nodded. "Right. On it."