Gibbs wasted little time on the minor details. Grabbing the pile of room keys he quickly tossed one to each of his team and another to the NCIS bomb expert. The man quickly disappeared into his own hotel room and Gibbs was left to conclude that the forensics man was not one for small talk and socializing.
With only an hour to clean up after the international flight and prepare themselves for the devastation of the bombing scenes, Gibbs was quickly left to himself as the rest of his team disappeared into their respective suites. As the door closed the silver-haired boss caught a glimpse of a number of Australian Federal Police escorting his team to their rooms where, he presumed, the Feds would go room by room and clear each suite before allowing any of his team to be left alone.
Tony showered and changed in record time for a man usually so concerned about his appearance and was halfway out the door of his suite with the intention of checking on Ziva when he noticed the armada-size collection of protective service federal agents in the hallway. Like the US Secret Service these men exuded efficiency and confidence that would have put even the most jittery witness at ease, but unlike their United States counterpart, the men and women were friendly too, and Tony chatted pleasantly with them for a few brief minutes before continuing his wander into Ziva's suite.
The shower was running and so Tony made himself comfortable on the couch in front of the TV. Flipping it on he quickly found a newscast on the terrorist attack. From what the background behind the reporter revealed, the devastation was immense. Burned car hulks littered the street and many buildings were unrecognizable blackened structures. The shower stopped but Tony didn't hear it; immersed in the news report and watching as investigators picked their way through the rubble at a scene he would be visiting shortly.
DiNozzo suddenly sensed he was being watched and turned around to see Ziva behind him, her eyes frozen on the screen also, her hair still wet from the shower, she was dressed in her usual cargo pants and top. The look in the Mossad assassin's eyes made him wonder how many times she had seen a similar picture. She silently came around the couch and sat next to Tony, her shoulder resting against his as he automatically put his arm around her. Surprisingly, she did not threaten him with death or bodily harm, but rather just leaned into his arm as though for support.
Confirming Tony's suspicions, Ziva sighed wearily and spoke, "No matter how many times you see it, you never quite get used to it. The destruction, the waste of life and the fear in the public that lives on for many weeks, months, even years."
Neither partner spoke again and just sat in silence alongside each other as they watched the news report the body count as reaching 522 people and climbing.
Dunn had had possibly the worst half-hour of his life. Immediately after leaving the NCIS team to settle in, he had attended an emergency conference called by his superiors, which largely consisted of them covering ass and largely assigning the blame squarely with the exhausted agent. The Federal Police Commissioner had sat in on the meeting and watched as the responsibility for the situation was placed entirely on Roland. Without saying a word, the Commissioner left the room before the conclusion of the assembly. That the respected head of the Federal Police had not even stuck around to hear Dunn voice his position de-motivated the man even further.
Racing back to pick up the American investigative team, Roland nearly had three separate accidents from fatigue alone, as he struggled not to fall asleep behind the wheel. Promising himself that he would get some sleep before midnight, he brought the car to a stop at the rear entrance where the rest of the convoy was still parked and radioed his men to bring the team down.
Gibbs was just about to leave his room to meet the rest of his team on their way down to the convoy when a young Federal Agent stepped into his way. They were alone in the corridor and Gibbs' eyes tightened as the agent reached into an attaché case at her side but he relaxed when the agent brought out a folder containing a sheath of papers. This folder was promptly passed to Gibbs who stared at the agent for a short time before asking, "What is this?"
"Just something I think you should see before you jump to your own conclusions about Roland." She said, almost defensively.
Without saying another word, Gibbs flipped through the pages in the folder, his eyes rapidly scanning as he picked up the desperation in the official reports written by the Federal Agent to his superiors requesting more agents be assigned to the threats against the Reagan, that the threats be considered more seriously and the alert levels should be changed to reflect this. The dates on the documents ranged from three days to 6 hours before the attacks.
Almost as if she needed to fill the silence, she spoke again, "He has barely slept since the threats came in, and in fact none of us have. Do not think that he didn't try to get the warning out – it just seemed no one higher up wanted to listen." Reaching out her hand, she took the folder back from Gibbs once he had finished reading the documents and hid it away in her attaché case again.
Gibbs was silent for the ride down to the ground floor and didn't speak for the car journey to the scene.