Spoilers 5x06 "Chimera"
Tony takes the first third of the wrapper off his straw and then puts it in his mouth and blows it at Ziva who is sitting across from him working on paperwork. Kate is in the bathroom and Gibbs is nowhere to be found. He takes the rest of the wrapper and puts it back on the straw and fires again hitting his target once again. The woman gets up and starts to walk towards the other end of the squad room, saying, "Don't you have paperwork, DiNozzo?"
"What do you think I'm doing? I take the paper… and make it work," he says before firing off one more spit wad at Ziva which gets stuck in her curls.
Kate appears a second later and she gives him a look which indicates her disgust at him just sitting there.
"Yay! Tonight's the night," Abby's enthusiasm astounds him especially since he has no idea why.
"What night?" McGee asks obviously confused and Tony shares in that confusion.
"BrainMatter," Tony sees Kate's cringe and she obviously remembers what is going on even though the rest of them don't.
"BrainMatter?" Ziva fires off quickly.
"Yeah, my friend's band. Remember?" Abby is clearly disappointed in all of them.
"BrainMatter," he repeats hoping to get the concept to make sense.
"Yeah, you guys all promised you'd go with me," Tony can't help, but be horrified.
"All of us?" Tony can now see the horror and confusion on McGee's features.
"All of you," Abby repeats her annoyance obviously growing since some of them looked confused.
"Even me?" Tony asks really not believing it.
"Even you. And you… and you... and you," Abby says her gazing next falling on McGee than Kate and finally Ziva.
"Uh, I don't think I can make it tonight. I've got to… catch up on paperwork," Ziva says and he can tell she is trying to find a proper excuse.
"And I've got a very important thing and other thing," Tony can't believe he can't come up with anything.
"Sorry, Abbs, I have an old friend coming into town today and she is heading back to North Carolina in the morning," Tony glances at Kate and she is the only person who has a quality excuse that might stand up to scrutiny from Abby.
"And, uh, I-I've got…" Tony eyes narrow as McGee struggles to find an excuse.
"Some people wear these spiky things just for show. I don't," Tony finds it hilarious that Abby is threatening McGee and the man actually looks a little frightened.
"I have got nothing better to do than-than to see…" Tony can't believe he gave in that easily.
"A dead body, McGee?" Gibbs fires off as enters the bullpen.
"You read my mind, boss," McGee almost looks like he is thanking god.
"It's a quick read," Tony nods liking Gibbs poke at McGee.
"Pack up. Full kit," Gibbs throws over hand a bottle of pills to McGee.
"Motion sickness meds?" McGee says reading the pill bottle.
"Chopper's waiting at N.A.S Anacostia," Gibbs asserts.
"I'm fine on a chopper, boss," McGee argues throwing the pill bottle back to Gibbs.
Who in turn throws it back saying, "Chopper take us to the ship, McGee. USNS Chimera. Get briefed at Anacostia."
"You know, BrainMatter's playing a really late set," Abby says turning to McGee.
"That's odd. There's no Chimera on the register. Any reason why that would be? We'll get briefed at Anacostia. Okay. I'll get my gear," McGee says after having looked it up on his computer.
"I'll get Duck. Pack a toothbrush. We're going to be there a while," Gibbs says as he walks back towards the elevator to go down to Ducky's autopsy suite.
"Well, look on the bright side, Probie. Ixnay on the AinMatterbray. Really wish I could go, sorry," he adds giving Abby a bright smile as he turns
"Thanks anyway," Ziva adds and Tony walks away without a look back.
"You can tell me about it when we get back okay," Tony hears Kate says as he gets on the elevator and she rushes to catch it and he sticks a hand out to stop the metal doors from closing.
"We received word of the death this morning," Commander Skinner says as he and Gibbs come into the hanger.
"They say what killed the guy?" Gibbs asks obviously hoping that the Commander would give him something.
"Isn't that your job, Agent Gibbs? Commander Wilkinson will have you out to the Chimera by nightfall." Tony can tell there is a reason this man is skirting the issue.
"Chimera's not listed in the navy fleet," and Tony can tell that Gibbs gut is
"It's not on the books. The Chimera's a highly sophisticated, top-secret research vessel,"
"Researching what?" McGee inquires.
"That's need-to-know. And you don't." Skinner says turning back to the junior agent.
"That's the 'top secret' part, McGee," Tony turns towards Ducky surprised to hear Ducky call McGee, McGee rather than Timothy or Tim.
"Go in, get the body, come back out," the man walks by them around the table where they are preparing for their trip by chopper to the vessel.
"We've got a death to investigate," Gibbs is clearly not convinced.
"Take witness statements, do what you need to do. Just don't ask anything beyond your pay level," the Commander clearly thinks he can tell Gibbs what to do.
"We'll do our jobs, Commander," when Gibbs turns back towards them Tony can see the incredulous smile that has filled his bosses face.
"NCIS was called out because no other federal investigative agency has clearance to get on the Chimera. That said, even you guys don't have clearance to know what's on it," yeah the really don't want us to know what they are researching.
"Oh, I get it, boss. It's a black ship," the must be doing some kind of special operation aboard.
"Black sheep?" of course Ziva would hear him wrong. Kate chuckles ever so softly obviously deciding to not join the conversation.
"No, they don't exist," the ships that is not the sheep.
"Oh, I've seen black sheep," Tony can't believe the woman thinks he is talking about
"No, I said 'black ship', not sheep. Clearly the U.S. Navy is still intent on pulling the wool over the eyes of the American people. Sir," he realizes that he has just said this in front of a top Naval Commander.
"No photos," the man barks at McGee who is adjusting the zoom on one of the crime scene cameras.
"It's standard procedure," McGee argues.
"There's nothing standard about the Chimera. I don't want anyone documenting what's on that ship," and now Tony's weirdness meter is peaked as the Commander says this.
"Bring the camera, McGee," Tony notices Kate pocket her note pad out of sight of the Commander.
"I suggest you keep your inquiry focused on that body," the man is very much intent about keeping us away from whatever they are researching.
"Chimera, Lady 8-0-6 approaching your deck for landing. Over. Chimera, do you copy? Over. The ship's LZ is obstructed. We'll hold above deck in a hover," the pilot says load enough for the rest of them to hear.
"We still can't raise any of the crew on the radio, sir," the co-pilot says opening the chopper's door so they can get out.
"Alert Commander Skinner," Gibbs orders as he jumps out of the chopper.
"Will do," the Naval pilot says as Tony follows behind Ducky who has jumped out after Ziva. Tony turns and notices Kate jumps out just before McGee who is obviously the most hesitant to be on
"Where's the welcoming committee?" Tony asks because normally there is at least one crew member around.
"The deck lights are on," Ziva notes the obvious.
"Nobody's home," Gibbs comments.
"This is most unusual, Jethro," Ducky is correct.
"It is creepy," Tony notices Kate nod.
"Gibbs, there is something wrong here," Kate states glancing around at the empty deck.
"It's a ghost ship," Tony comments noticing no form of human life on the deck of the ship.
"Agent Gibbs, we have minimum fuel we need to know if you are staying, sir," the co-pilot says over the walkie-talkie.
"Boss, I've got to tell you… I don't have a real good feeling about this," Tony will have to agree completely with McGee on this one.
"We're staying," Gibbs says into his walkie-talkie.
"So this is the highly sophisticated, top secret ship?" Ziva says from in front of her as they descend a set of stairs.
"Looks more like an old tramp steamer. I suppose they were trying to look inconspicuous, hoping to be left alone," Kate nods because it doesn't look like any of the Naval ships she has been on in the past.
"Can you get any more alone than this?" Kate turns back to McGee and shrugs biting back her words.
"I am really curious what they hell they are researching on this thing," Kate says as they begin opening doors and finding all of the rooms empty.
"Every room is empty," McGee asserts as they enter a bunk room.
"It's like the entire crew disappeared," Ziva is right, but it seems more likely that they abandoned ship.
"Welcome aboard the USNS Houdini," of course Tony would find the correct reference for this moment.
"It's still playing," McGee says showing the white iPod sitting on the table to Tony.
"Oh, hey, it's your favorite, McGee: BrainMatter," Tony says putting the ear bud in. Kate chuckles.
"Thanks. I feel bad enough already, okay?" Kate gives Tony a glare because McGee had been the only one nice enough to think about going with Abby to her friend's band's show.
"Take another pill. Sorry," Tony says and obviously regrets it.
"Wait a second, this doesn't make any sense," Kate glances over her shoulder to see Tony looking at the obvious abandoned poker game.
"Something suspicious?" Kate asks glancing at a bunk across from the one Ziva's looking at.
"Absolutely. This guy had a full house. Why would he fold?" Kate is surprised because Tony makes a good point.
"Dear Mary Beth. Good news. 'Overheard the captain say they had a good dive last night. 'If they found what they were looking for, we could be heading home any day. I can't tell you much about the mission, but…" Ziva starts to read a letter laying on the bunk she had been searching.
"But…?" Tony questions and she goes to Ziva's side and sees that the note
"It stops there," Ziva asserts and Kate is surprised at the quality of penmanship displayed by the Naval crewman that wrote it.
"I am not having a good feeling about this, guys," Kate says and both her companions nod.
"Five minutes. You owe me ten bucks," Kate smirks wondering why Ziva would even take that bet.
"That's why I didn't bet him, Ziva, McGee is as much of a wuss when it comes to motion sickness as when he first joined the team," Kate says with a smirk
"Where's McGee?"
" Calling Earl. Shouting groceries. Making street pizza. Technicolor yawn," as Tony finishes Gibbs pushes open the door and McGee appears looking still nauseated.
"I found something," McGee says as takes a long gulp.
"Lost something, too," Tony's smirk doesn't go unnoticed.
"Lost many things is more like it," Kate says and humored grins fill Tony, Ziva, and Ducky's faces.
"Hmm… I guess you can't judge a black ship by its wool," Tony adds as they all catch sight of the lab.
"It looks even nicer than, Abby's lab in here," Kate says looking around.
"What are they researching, Duck?" Gibbs says and Kate can't help, but notice that is a question that probably goes above his pay level.
"Something to do with rats, it I were to guess from these empty cages," Kate walks towad where Ducky is standing and she is surprised that the cages are empty especially if the crew abandoned ship.
"Skinner seemed pretty paranoid. Guessing the mission wasn't purely humanitarian," McGee raises a good point. The government could be doing research on a Naval ship to keep it a secret.
"I doubt it's even human. Thermosalinographs, flurometer, carbon analyzer… Whatever it is, it's not visible to the naked eye," Kate only knows what those things are because Abby's her best friend.
"Could they be testing or making some kind of chemical, Ducky?" Kate asks glancing around at the many bottles all over the shelves.
"It's possible Caitlin, but I don't think they would be doing it on a ship even if it was marine biology related," just as Ducky finishes they hear a loud rumble from overhead.
"What was that?" Ziva says the only person not looking up towards where the rumbling is coming from.
"Could be the metal of the ship contracting in the cool of the evening? Or not," McGee says and Gibbs tilts his head clearly unconvinced.
"Sounded as if it was coming from the cargo hold above us," Tony says and that had been a place they had only down a brief sweep of.
"Duck, you're with me. Check out the cargo hold," Gibbs says exiting the lab with Ducky on his heels.
"I was afraid you were going to say that," Kate wonders what Tony would be so afraid of.
"Is Tony scared of some rats?" Kate says in a babying voice as McGee closes the door of the lab behind them as they exit out into the hallway.
"Baa baa, black ship. Have you any wool? Yes, sir, Yes, sir…But in order to see it, you're gonna need top secret clearance…" Tony's song is so silly, but at the very least it keeps all four of them entertained while the make their way into the cargo holds.
"Someone or something's on the ship with us. I can feel it," Kate can't help, but give an incredulous look at Ziva's implication that there are ghosts on the ship.
"Oh, yeah, I can see it," McGee says pointing and Kate starts cracking up when Tony freaks out at the rat.
"Scared much, DiNozzo?" she asks trying to pull herself together after watching him freak out over a single little rat.
"He looked like he was going to pee himself," McGee says through chuckles and Kate turns to him with a smile and a nod.
"Stuff it, McBarf Bag," that is the best comeback she has heard in a while.
"It's just a cute little rat. Why the irrational fear?" Ziva asks and Kate doesn't think she would go as far to say cute, harmless, maybe.
"It's not cute. It's not little. And it's not irrational," Kate isn't buying it at all.
"What's the worst it could do to you, Tony?" Kate asks and Tony gives her a raised eyebrow.
"Cowardly then," Ziva adds and Kate nods turning to her and then turning back to Tony.
"Not if you're, uh, someone who survived a bout of pneumonic plague, thank you very much. Rats are a known carrier. I used to love rats before the plague. I was regular Willard," only Tony would know that rats are a carrier of plague.
"What is a Willard?" Kate does love Ziva's questions.
"It's a movie," this statement receives a scoff from Kate and Ziva as McGee walks the opposite direction of Tony and she walks beside Ziva.
"Willard had a pet rat named Ben. Social misfit. Made fun of by his coworkers. He had a creepy boss," Kate remembers the movie.
"No wonder you related," Ziva adds and Kate lets go of the fact that her words are a little wrong, but her meaning come across rather clear.
"You think Gibbs is creepy?" Kate wouldn't say yes or no because he is Gibbs, but once upon a time she had gotten him to say please.
"I think she meant the social misfit, made fun of part," McGee corrects.
"It is a spot on description of DiNozzo," Kate nods from behind them and tilts her head when Ziva shushes them.
"Did you hear that?" Ziva inquires glancing up.
"No," McGee fires off first.
"No," Kate glances back at Tony and sees he looks unconvinced.
"Maybe," Kate whispers.
"There's something aboard. Other than a rat," Kate is against Ziva assertion. It seems unlikely that there wouldn't be at least one crew member aboard.
"What do you astute ninja Mossad senses tell you it is?" Tony calling Ziva ninja is almost priceless.
"The Mossad part of the training is to be open to things you cannot see. Or even understand," Kate wonders how much of her Jewish upbringing also factors into that.
"You mean the supernatural?" McGee questions and Kate still isn't convinced.
"Call it what you want. Not everything can be explained by the laws of the natural world," Ziva is making a pretty good case for herself.
"You believe in ghosts?" Tony asks unconvinced and honestly after everything that they have seen why not.
"I do not not believe in ghosts. Or demons. Or monsters. We are on a ship called the Chimera," Kate thinks she knows what Ziva is referring to, but her knowledge of mythology is a little rusty. Kate follows closely behind Ziva as they travel down the hallways hoping to find the source of the noise.
"I thought Chimera meant delusion or fantasy," McGee inquires.
"In Greek mythology, a Chimera is a monster with a lion's head, a goat's body, and a dragon's tail," that's it, now that Ziva says it she remembers the story.
"So you think they named this ship the Chimera because there's a monster onboard?" of course Tony would jump to monster instead of something more realistic.
"They did not name it the Puppy," Ziva choice of puppy humors her.
"I have to go with McGee's logic and think they meant it be named for delusion because I mean come on the crew just jumped ship," Kate says and her eyes narrow at the distant rumbling as Ziva reaches from the handle of the door in front of them. When Gibbs appears after having swung the door open she lets out a relieved breath.
"Boo. Get in here," when Tony lets out a chuckle she gives him a raised eyebrow indicating that she didn't believe he wasn't scared just a moment ago.
"Well, whatever's on this boat must be pretty damn scary if it got them to ditch this delicious-looking… what is this stuff?" Kate can see the horrified expression on Tony's face.
"Don't ask me. That's not a request, it's a command," Kate can't even picture answering to McGee.
"It looks like split pea soup except in stew form, I hate it and god that looks revolting," Kate lets out a disgusted breath as shiver runs up her spine. She looks over at McGee and notices he goes a little green in the face at the mention of food.
"Sorry, Tim," he gives her a shaky nod.
"Ooh… the plot sickens," Kate sees what he means and honestly the vomit doesn't look any different than the stuff on the plate.
"This is our crime scene," Ducky says kneeling to closer inspect the pile of vomit on the floor.
"If there was a crime," Gibbs is correct this is thus far just a accidental death investigation.
"Well, you see these little flecks of brown in the blood? Coffee-ground emesis— usually a sign of alcoholism. But you can get it from severe gastrointestinal distress," McGee begins to take pictures and he is obviously getting nauseous as he accidently takes a picture of Gibbs.
"Steady, Probie," Tony adds sort of catching Tim by the arm as he leans up against a coffee maker.
"Tell that to my stomach," Kate wouldn't be surprised if McGee keels over and vomits again.
"Steady, Probie's stomach," Kate eyes narrow as Tony leans down and says this to McGee's abdomen.
"I would not stand there if I were you," Zia says more to Tony, but she is till glancing at the sickened McGee. Kate walks by the two men and heads towards Ziva.
"That's a good point. You don't want to compromise the crime scene," Kate thinks they need to get McGee a bucket and stick him a corner until they finish the investigation.
"Gibbs," Ziva says and Kate follows Gibbs eyes towards her.
"Partial footprint," Gibbs says and she shines her light along with his towards the boot print.
"In blood. They lead out of here. In here," she follows close behind Gibbs waving her flashlight around as they pass a pot that is still on the stove with a tin foil sort of lid on it. Kate notes all the packages of corn thrown on the ground as Gibbs opens the walk-in freezer.
"Should have seen that one coming," Kate says looking at Gibbs remembering when they had been on the submarine and the crew had stored the body in the freezer.
"You were right, Ziva. Someone is on board with us," Ducky adds looking down at the bagged body.
"Not him," the Israeli woman asserts and Kate wonders how long the woman is going to be going on about ghosts and monsters. Kate wonders if it is because Tony had called the Chimera a black ship.
"There's something alive. I can feel it," Kate wonders exactly how she can feel it.
"A lion-headed dragon goat?" that seems likely, yeah right.
"Maybe," Kate can't believe Ziva is almost serious when she says this, but Kate can tell she says it too scary Tony.
"Hmm," Kate doesn't understand what there is to contemplate about that.
"Well, someone tossed a month's supply of creamed corn to make room for him," Tony adds seeing the bags outside the door.
"Please don't say that again," Kate can hear the sickly feeling in McGee's voice and really wishes she wasn't standing this close to him on his left side.
"Tossed?" Tony questions and Kate wonders how the man missed that man got queasy when she mentioned food.
"No. Creamed corn," Kate gives him a pat on the back.
"Ah," Kate gives him an eye roll.
"There's significant petechial hemorrhaging in the eyes. These little pinpoints of blood. It's often a sign of asphyxia. Well, we won't know for sure until we conduct some tests," Ducky says going over outward signs of death.
Kate leans down to Ducky's level and questions, "Do you think that whatever made him vomit shut off his ability to breathe?"
"It's possible, but like I said we need to run some tests, my dear," Kate is satisfied with his answer.
"McGee, get me a satellite link," Gibbs orders to the computer savy agent in the room.
"Primitive conditions, Duck," Tony looks around in the lab for the right tools and he can hear Gibbs playing with saw.
"Primitive? You remember that tiny thatched cottage I used as an examination room in Namibia? Yes of course then I was working on Pygmies," Tony is sure there is more to the story than that, but knowing Ducky he could go on for hours and they would never get any results.
"You know what killed him?" Gibbs asks obviously looking over the now open body.
"Well, if Dr. Takada was a bit too fond of his Scotch, what I'm seeing here is esophageal varices, and this tear caused blood to enter his esophagus, causing him to vomit blood. Or, Dr. Takada could have had a severe gastrointestinal infection, that produced a Mallory-Weiss tear. In which case, the vomiting would have come first. Neither diagnosis is inconsistent with hemorrhagic fever," Tony is struggling to figure out what the machines do.
"And if we were exposed?" hearing Gibbs say that makes it not sound good.
"Well, I'm… hampered from prognosticating further until Dr. DiNozzo gives me a proper blood analysis," Tony waves off Ducky hoping to get to it in a second.
"Abby, where's the gas chromato-thinga?" He can't help, but be a little frustrated.
"It's the, uh, boxy-looking thing with the, um, circular door-like thing on the front," he holds his hands up praying to find the right piece of machinery.
"Oh. I got it," he says and realizes it is right in front of him.
"Okay, good. Now, um, put the sample in the circular rack-like thing at the top," Tony quickly places the sample in the wrack and throws up his hands.
"Got it."
"Okay, press the blue start button. It's-it's blue-ish and square-ish. It's on a tower on the top, Tony. The tower-like thing," her peers at the machine as if it is an abstract painting.
When he get the button he can't help the smile that fills his face as he says, "Got it."
"While we're waiting for the analysis, let's get the blood count. So place a small amount of blood on your slide. It's amazing what you can learn from blood, even before it's analyzed, the color, the texture, the smell. Okay, um, now take out the dropper of methylene blue. It's blue-ish and its dropper-like," Tony goes about getting the sample ready as Abby continues to explain.
"Got it," he says brining the dropper bottle closer.
"Okay, now place two drops of the methylene blue on your slide," he pulls out the dropper on the bottle as she says this.
"We are good," he brings the slide to eye level and ever so carefully drops two drops onto the sample.
"Of course, blood that's passed through someone's GI tract has a very particular smell. But since this guy may have died of a highly contagious virus, whatever you do, do not inhale it," oh shit, Tony realizes his mistake too late after having taken a few long second smelling the sample.
"We're not good," he sees his life passing before his eyes.
"Hey, you okay, DiNozzo?" Gibbs asks turning back towards him.
"Not for long," he says a frown setting on his features realizing he will be dead sooner than later.
"Where's my blood analysis, DiNozzo?" the medical examiner says walking towards him.
"I'm working on it, Ducky. May be the last thing I do," he says peering now into the microscope.
"Let's hope not. May I?" the man says almost pushing him out of the way to look under the microscope.
"There's definitely an increased white blood count, with an absolute increase in lymphocytes having an atypical appearance," Tony tries to peer over Ducky's shoulder to see something.
"That would be consistent with an acute viral infection," Abby says over the satellite link and Tony peers over his shoulder worried at the outcome.
"I have located three rodent bites on Takada's body. Perhaps he contracted the virus from a diseased rat," of course it was a rat, pesky little buggers.
"That would be bad," Ducky nods.
"Maybe the top-secret whatever-it-was that Takada is studying is what killed," Abby says talking with her hands.
"In which case it would be airborne," Ducky says and Tony realizes how bad it is.
"That would be really, really bad," he quickly gets flashes of them all dying alone on this ship before sunrise.
"Boss, I've got a feed from MTAC with Director Shepard and Commander Skinner. They want you and Ducky patched in right away," McGee says after opening the door.
Once the other men leave, he beings to check his throat for signs that the virus is starting to spread, "Ah… Ah…Ah…"
"We've been through almost every room on the ship," Ziva says as they all look over plans of the ship.
"Almost' only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades," Gibbs says and once again a distance rumbling can be heard from up above.
"Could be a rat," or multiple rats.
"Have to be an awfully big one," Kate chuckles because that is true.
"Or a ghost," Kate sees Tony eye Ziva suspiciously.
"Or a monster," Kate adds with a smirk.
"Are you done?" Gibbs says directing his question to the two of them.
"Done searching the ship?" Tony lets out before she can say anything.
"We could always search it again," it is amazing how much Tony is still afraid of Gibbs.
"I could stay here with Ducky. Just so he's not left alone," McGee is obviously scared.
"I've got Takada to keep me company," only Ducky could find that comforting.
"Duck," Gibbs shows off the walkie-talkie to Ducky before setting it down on the lab table in front of them.
"Got it. So, Takada, as one doctor to another…" that's all she hears as they all exit the lab keen on searching the ship again for the source of the rustling.
"Anyone else feeling itchy? Maybe that's a bug bite," Kate turns back to Tony with an incredulous look because they are in the middle of the sea where are bugs going to come from especially since the only bugs the boat could get were fruit flies from rotten food.
"Or a rat bite," Kate looks at McGee over Tony's shoulder with a nod.
"No, no, no, look at that spot," Tony argues and Kate rolls her eyes.
"It's a freckle or a sun spot," Kate says with a smile barely glancing at his hand.
"It's not a freckle," yeah Tony is just sounding a little paranoid.
"Totally a freckle, DiNozzo," she says descending the stairs as the man puts the fist closer to her view.
"Never had a freckle there," Tony sounds so sure of himself that it almost makes her want to burst into laughter.
"You've always had that freckle there," Kate says even more unconvinced than before.
"How would you know whether I had a freckle or didn't have a freckle? And by the way, I have never had that freckle! Have you been anywhere near by hands as of late, Kate!" Kate turns and looks at Ziva with a raised eyebrow at the fact that Tony is yelling.
"Ducky?" Kate turns to Gibbs with the walkie-talkie.
"Yes, Jethro," she can hear the man's voice coming from the walkie-talkie that Gibbs has pressed to his ear.
"Give me the symptoms for hemorrhagic fever," Gibbs says before heading towards Tony who is still meandering over the one spot on his right hand.
"Well, initially, one might experience a feeling of paranoia and a growing sense of dread," Kate crosses her arms over her chest still unconvinced as Tony takes the walkie-talkie from Gibbs.
"Then, more obvious physiological symptoms would manifest themselves," Ducky sounds oddly stoic even though they may all have been infected.
"Such as?" Tony holds the walkie-talkie close hoping to find reassurances.
"Such as the appearance of atopic melansomes," so Tony's freckle could not be a freckle.
"Come again?" yeah only Tony wouldn't know what that meant.
"Spots. Possible itchy," Tony raises his hand clearly thinking he has the viral fever as Gibbs grabs the walkie-talkie back.
"Then, a fast-rising fever, of course," he glances away before slamming his foot down hard.
"I knew it. I'm gonna die. I inhaled it. God!" Tony lets out a heavy hearted sigh and Kate feels bad for him. She is in love with him and she doesn't really want to see him die. She doesn't know if she could handle watching him die from some horrible disease again especially after watching him so close to death with pneumonic plague. "Definitely didn't picture my demise like this. I always figured I'd go out like Cagney in White Heat. Fiery explosion. Or Redford and Newman in Butch Cassidy— hail of bullets," only Tony would equate his death to some action movie.
"Or Charlie Chaplin in The Gold Rush," Kate understands where Gibbs is going with that reference.
"How did he die?"she thought Tony was a movie expert.
"Silently," Kate gives a smile and an eyebrow raise.
"At the very least get shot by Kate for some stupid comment," stupid comment, she thinks she has a pretty good grip on her anger these days. It would take a lot for her shoot him. Though she notices the saddened expression on his features and she wonders what that is about.
"There is still time, DiNozzo," she says with a wink hoping to lighten the mood.
She hears the sounds of something else and then she sees out of the corner of her eye Ziva take off and in a flash of motion she begins to run after her as does Gibbs who screams, "Ziva!"
"Didn't you see that?" Kate's eyes narrow and honestly she didn't.
"See what?" Gibbs questions as they round the corner and see Ziva looking around with harried expression on her face.
"Someone, something was running. Surely I'm not the only one who saw that," Kate shrugs because honestly she was more focused on Tony's ridiculous over reaction.
"The Chimera?" only Tony can go from nearly thinking he is going to die to teasing Ziva.
"I swear, there was something there," Ziva conviction is clear as day.
"I believe you, Ziva," she says wondering if she had been over by Ziva if she would have seen it too.
"It's not here now," Gibbs says obviously not believing Ziva.
"It ran down the passageway, it made a right here and then it…" so that's why Ziva stopped running she lost track of whatever took off down the passageway.
"And then?" Tony question obviously thinking that Ziva saw something else.
"It disappeared. I know there was something there," she says glancing between the four of them.
"Like my freckle that Kate doesn't think is there!" Tony says and Kate rolls her eyes as the man turns left instead of straight where Ziva was looking a second ago.
"Uh, boss? Biohazard. Sounds inviting," she follows the other two men and sees that the handle is a passcode lock.
"McGee?" Gibbs questions.
"Looks like some kind of cyber-lock with a bar code and touch memory," sounds like a lot of work to crack it.
"It's right up your alley, McGeek," Tony can't even lay off the jokes while he is supposedly dying.
"It's going to take time," McGee says looking at Gibbs.
"We're not going anywhere," Gibbs says turning away.
"Okay," McGee says getting ready to somehow break through the lock.
"Thought you said you weren't going anywhere," poor McGee all alone.
"Tim, you will be fine just take a deep breath," she says sending him a thumbs up before following the other three agents up the corridor.
"If you want, Kate, I can check you for spots," she turns back to him giving him a look saying no way in hell.
"I'm sure you've got hot spots and warm spots…" she is about to stop and elbow him in the ribs, but Gibbs cuts him off.
"DiNozzo. Get this to Ducky," Kate cringes at seeing the bleeding rat that Gibbs makes clear by flashing his flashlight.
"Me?" Tony looks horrified.
"That's a dead, diseased… rat… Which is why it may aid Dr. Mallard in his investigation. Which is why I'd be pleased as punch to walk back through this ship with a dead, diseased rat," she hears him say as she begins to follow Gibbs and Ziva down the corridor.
"You can show Ducky your supposed freckle," she says stopping at the closest stairwell and turning back towards him.
In turn the man loudly puts on his glove.
Tony can't help, but wince, "Ooh, you stinky, stinky." He groans as he know has the rat at eye level. He hears the flickering of the lights around him.
"Yes, Alex, I'll take 'Horror Films That Take Place on Ships' for $500. Thank you. Oh, goodie. Double Jeopardy!" he says climbing the stairs with the rat in hand just as the list switch off.
Kate follows closely behind Gibbs and Ziva and she feels a little better when a light turns on finally probably from a back-up generator.
"I don't suppose either of you hear footsteps?" Ziva asks.
"Yeah, I hear 'em," Kate in turn gives Ziva small nod pressing a finger to her lips signaling to be quiet.
She un-holsters her gun as do the others as they shine their flashlights to the ground and they begin to walk slowly towards where the noise is coming from.
"It's just me. And Ben," Kate lets out a sigh of relief at seeing Tony with the rat.
"DiNozzo, bag that thing," Gibbs orders and Kate agrees especially since it might have the hemorrhagic fever.
"Ziva?" the other woman pulls out an evidence bag.
"Thanks. Well, this moment is almost perfect. All we need is a storm," with any luck thanks to DiNozzo it will happen.
They all turn sharply at the very loud rumbling.
"McGee?" Gibbs says and she can see the man down on the floor.
"Yeah," ouch that doesn't look comfortable.
"You all right?" Tony asks as he Gibbs hall the younger male agent up.
"Oh! I've had better days, boss. Tripped over a barrel. Made this kind of…" McGee is obviously still trying to get his bearings.
"Bangy, crashy sound, like thunder?" so it was McGee that made the noise.
"Yeah," he eyes them suspiciously.
"You crack the lock?" Gibbs says and Kate wonders if that is possible they left McGee like three minutes ago at the most.
"No, no, not yet. The touch screen—it's a bit… I'm working on it," Kate doesn't even question that because she has picked locks before, but never electrical locks without a gadget from Eric.
"Why don't you work on turning the lights back on?" Tony asks and Kate wonders why he doesn't.
"I think we just passed the electrical room," Ziva says motioning for them to follow her back the way three of them had come from.
"It's like Aliens numero uno. Ripley, light in hand, moving through endless corridors searching for a hideous monster. You ever see Run Silent, Run Deep?" he knows what Gibbs is going to say in return.
"The 'run silent' part sounds good," she turns back to him with a playful smile on her lips because Gibbs is right not having a running commentary would be nice.
"The electrical room should be… right here," Ziva swings open the door and Kate eyes widen when a man charges out at her, drawing her gun in the process ready to pursue if necessary.
He lets her go and tries to run away, but Ziva is smarter and she quickly pins him to a wall with her gun at his throat and her light shining in his face.
"Let me out of here!" the man screams almost deranged.
"Here's the crew list. He's the cook," Ziva says and Kate shines her light in the same place as Gibbs.
"Get these shackles off of me!" the man is obviously crazed for some reason.
"Why were you hiding?" Gibbs asks sternly.
"Why did you attack us?" Kate speaks first off as they surround him where he is cuffed to a stairwell.
"Why'd the crew abandon ship?" Gibbs asks hoping the man will calm down.
"What happened to Takada?" the man screams.
"You asking me?" Gibbs asks clearly not believing that the man doesn't know.
"It was that thing, wasn't it," thing is kind of vague.
"What thing? I knew there was a thing," Kate turns and looks at Ziva. Again with the ghosts and/or monsters.
"What thing?" Gibbs obviously thinks it more of a what.
"They brought something out of the water. Takada was studying it. That's what killed him. Isn't it?" so it does have something to do with marine life.
"Don't know," Ziva answers honestly.
"Don't lie to me! It's killing me too, isn't it?!" this guy should be showing more signs them just paranoia at this point.
"You know what? If I don't kill you first. Sit down and tell us what happened here," Gibbs rushes at the man and brings him up from his hunched over position and shines the light in his face.
"What happened to the crew?" Kate asks softer trying to get him to calm down.
"They abandoned ship," that was obvious, but at least they know for sure now.
"Why?" Gibbs asks.
"They thought whatever killed Takada was contagious. The captain forced me to stay behind. He thought that I had already been exposed from all the blood, and he puked on me," it seems they crew was right about one thing.
"Nobody sent a Mayday," Gibbs says and she remembers seeing the communication office empty earlier.
"The radio operator was supposed to. He was the last to leave the ship," Mitas says.
"So you were left here alone?" Ziva inquiries.
"I thought I was. And then someone hit me," it wasn't one of them. It seems unlikely that there is anyone else on this ship.
"Who?" Gibbs says.
"I don't know. They hit me from behind," and left him in the electrical room where he was sure to be found, that sounds unlikely, but still possible.
"Maybe they did, maybe they didn't," Ziva says spitefully.
"Why would I lie?" Kate will give him that, but there is a reason he is paranoid.
"Why were you hiding?" Gibbs says eyeing the man still closely.
"Why did you run?" Kate fires off remembering him trying to run away from Ziva.
"I thought you were the one that hit me. There's someone else on this ship," the guy is definitely deranged.
"What's in the biohazard room?" he could know.
"Don't ask me. I'm just the cook," the man is hard to read because he is so scared.
"Oh, come on! You never overheard one conversation, one argument about what's locked up in there?" Ziva is obviously feeling the effects of the electricity being turned off as the heat is definitely rising in the big metal box they are in.
"That area was off limits to me!" the man is like a dog with rabies except for no foaming at the mouth.
"Sit down! You live with these people, you sleep with these people, you work with these people for months, and you can't tell me what's in that room?!" when Gibbs brings the man closer Kate pulls out her gun in warning so the man will settle down.
"That's where it is. The bug," it seems unlikely, but maybe it is a codename for something else.
"I don't get it. The breakers aren't tripped, the conduits are fine. Tony, check behind this panel over here," Tony follow McGee light towards a huge panel that McGee walks towards.
"Tony?" Tony feels like he is really warm.
"Feel my head," he knows what a fever feels like and this is definitely one.
"Why?" McGee should just do what he asks.
"Just feel it," he is almost begging now.
"I don't want to. It's all sweaty," thank you McGee for noticing the obvious.
"Exactly. I got the frickin' fever. I'm burning up, man," he knows he is almost sweating through his shirt.
"The ventilation is off, Tony. We're all burning up," that is true, but it isn't the same.
"This is different. I'm dying, McGee," he takes a deep breath trying to accept his fate.
"You know, the last time you were dying of a horrible disease, you were a little bit more stoic about the whole thing, ask Kate," Tony doesn't want to have relive that horrible day of being stuck in the isolation room as he died and back then he didn't know how he felt.
"I was younger then, carefree," he is admittedly a little different.
"It was two years ago," a long two years at that.
"The last time I almost died, someone blew up my car, so I've almost died twice, and this is the third time, and bad stuff happens in threes, and I'm out of almost. I'm telling you, man, this time I'm dying. I know it," Tony can't help, but know the end is near. He should find Kate and tell her how he feels before he expires in some awful way.
"Okay. But until you are actually dead…" McGee looks pretty serious.
"Yeah," he is interested to know what McGee has to say.
"…Can you please help me fix this thing?"
"Yeah," McGee is right getting the lights and the ventilation on would be a big help.
"Okay, go take a look behind that panel over there, see if one of the leads maybe got fried," sounds simple enough.
"Okay. Thanks," and Tony really means it because doing something monotonous at a time like this will stop him from panicking.
He lets out a long sigh and find the panel and notices the door handle is stuck so he kicks it so the panel can open. "Oh, hey. I think I found the problem, assuming this ship runs on tiny little batteries," he says pulling out the bag full of batteries.
"Lithium. Like camera batteries. Odd. Someone must have hidden them in there. Transponders," Tony see the orange thing in McGee's hand.
"From what?" where would those come from because he should know, but he doesn't.
"Well my guess—EPIRBS," yeah because he know what those are.
"Oh. That's my guess, too. What are EPIRBS again?" Tony says turning the orange device over in his hand inspecting it carefully.
"What's that?" the cooks asks Gibbs who has pulled out the transponders from the bag he had brought in.
"Transponders you took off the life jacket," so he can now say it was the cook who did it.
"Why would I do that?" isn't that obvious.
"You didn't want the crew located once they abandoned ship," makes sense especially if what they were working on was classified.
"I didn't sabotage any life jackets," yeah right.
"There's no one else on the ship," Tony asserts.
"There has to be," Tony is losing his patience very quickly considering he is going to die.
"You were in the electrical room when the power went out," Gibbs is looking less than pleased.
"I wouldn't even know how to shut off the damn power. I told you, I'm just the cook!" this guy is being a little repetitive.
"Just the cook? Yeah that's what Steven Seagal said in Under Siege, and look at the havoc he wrecked, huh? What about The Hunt for Red October? The saboteur...was the cook. I'm sorry, boss. I'm just saying, that, you know, just 'cause he says he's the cook doesn't mean he's any less potentially guilty. He could have slipped poison into Takada's food," about as simple as just putting a few drops into the Dr's portion.
"I swear, I didn't kill Takada!" Tony doesn't believe it.
"Not with poison, at least. The good news is I've confirmed beyond a doubt that Takada did indeed die of hemorrhagic fever," that doesn't sound any better.
"That's great news, Ducky," he can't help, but be a little doubtful as says this.
"However, the virus was injected into him—it was not airborne. I've also examined the dead rat that Tony so heroically brought to me. Ironically it died from having bit Takada," this is sounding better every moment.
"So I'm not gonna die?" he can already feel himself getting better.
"Well, the bottom line is there was no outbreak on the ship," Tony can't help, but feel better and now all he wants to do is go find Kate and give her a kiss because he isn't going to die.
"He was injected without knowing it," it makes sense, but the question is when was he injected.
"If I could do a proper and thorough toxicology, I think we'd find that he had first been drugged. Takada was murdered," it seems like they had come to the right place.
"Why would someone do that?" there are so many answered questions.
"To scare everyone off the ship," Gibbs asserts and he nods because it makes sense.
"But why? I mean what's so valuable on this ship that someone would kill for it?"
"Yeah. About time, McGee," Gibbs says and Tony has to agree.
"Boss, I had nothing to do with it. Someone's messing with us," that doesn't sound good.
"Maybe Mitas is right. Someone else is aboard," it seems plausible it isn't a small ship.
They hear the sound of a hatch opening and the Ziva screams, "Gibbs, up here!"
He runs after Gibbs and McGee and what they find is Kate and Ziva up on stairs above the deck glancing down at the deck.
"I saw something running on deck," Ziva sounds completely certain now and even though Tony can see Kate tilting her heading to where they had been looking obviously still question what she saw, Tony almost believes the Mossad Officer.
"Only I saw it briefly, but Ziva is definitely not seeing things," Kate argues leaning a little over the railing to look at something that Tony himself could not see.
"Something or someone?" Tony still isn't convinced there is monster on board.
"I don't know, it was moving fast," to fast for Ziva or Kate to catch full site of it that doesn't sound good.
"It or him?" he asks because there might be another crew member on board.
"I don't know, I have lost it," that deserves a perfect comeback.
"I'll say," and Tony smiles when Kate chuckles slight before throwing Ziva an apologetic look.
"Gibbs, I swear—" Ziva says before being cut off.
"I believe you, Ziva," he does why? Because Ziva has been talking about ghost, monsters, and demons the entire time they have been on the ship.
"See? Someone else who believes in what they cannot see," Tony doesn't even remotely want to go there.
"No, I believe what I can see wasn't there before," that makes sense as Gibbs shines his light on the wet deck.
"Someone's sending a signal," McGee says as they all peer over the edge and see the blinking light below.
He glances around and then he hears clicking and rattling and when he looks up he sees cargo starting to fall on him, "Whoa! Aah!" He jumps out of the way landing flat on his stomach a few feet away.
"Okay, okay, I believe you," Tony says now as he starts to get back up and everyone runs towards the figure back by the way they came.
He runs after them and he catches up with Gibbs. As Kate, McGee and Ziva cuts off the fleeing suspect and as Gibbs punches the guy in the face.
"Mitas was telling the truth," McGee says after a long moment catching his breath.
"He's not exactly a ghost, but he's got a certain 'B horror flick' thing going," Tony says leaning against the wall as Ziva cuffs him.
"You have no idea what you're dealing with," that is a cheesy threat after everything they have seen today.
"Oh, I think we do… Lieutenant Ferris. Communications Officer," Gibbs says pulling out the man's dog tags.
"Who failed to communicate that his crewmates abandoned ship," McGee says and everything is starting to make sense.
"You're not very good at you job," Ziva spats out as she starts to lead him deeper into the ship.
"You're wasting your time," the man grumbles out.
"No. I think we're wasting yours. The navy's on its way. You're going to the brig," Kate gives him a nod.
"You'll be dead before they arrive," yeah right.
"Save it. We know about the virus," McGee fires off.
"Outbreak was a hoax," Gibbs asserts.
"It's not the virus that'll kill you," the man says with an evil laugh and that doesn't sound good.
"Gibbs!" Ziva shouts and as she and Kate round the corner.
"We've spotted the assault craft," Kate fires off hands at her hips.
"Five minutes, maybe less," this isn't going to end well.
"There are six of us and we have six guns, we should be okay," Kate states with a curt nod trying to stay strong in the situation. Gibbs nods and Kate isn't surprised that he knows because he is Gibbs.
"Six guns?" asks McGee with a raised eyebrow. Kate leans down and pulls up her left pant leg revealing the revolver she had holstered to the outside of her leg because she is able to shoot with her left hand.
"When did you become such a gun nut?" asks Tony and Kate rolls her eyes before handing it to the Scottish doctor.
"Caitlin, I trust you and team to get us out of here," she places it in his palm anyway.
"Ducky, don't argue with me take the gun," she had never used such a forceful tone before with the medical examiner who she holds so dear to her heart.
Gibbs signals to her and the team to follow him out into the hallway while Ducky concocts the fake blood.
"Wow, Katie, I never knew that was there," when Tony flashes a charming smile, it does nothing, but makes her roll her eyes because it had been just a short while ago that the man had thought he was going to die from hemorrhagic fever.
"Well, you're not a very good detective then, DiNozzo and no offense, but I have right to be a little paranoid after what I've gone through. That revolver has come in handy more times than I can count," Kate wants to scream at herself because what she has just said is so mean and she has revealed too much. She can't be vulnerable or bring up anything that happened after the shooting because it would not only raise too many questions. It would also bring up a time in her life that she didn't like. She was basically in solitary and she couldn't contact any of her family or anyone from her old life and she couldn't even do the one thing she was good which was being a highly regarded federal agent
No one speaks as they go about their different duties readying themselves for the onslaught of pirates or marauders. Kate loads her gun and gives Ziva a nod as they head for the stairs out onto the upper level of the deck,
Kate hides on the walkway just above Ziva ready for the men who are about to board the phantom Navy ship. She gives Ziva a nod as the woman has an opening to walk down onto the deck. And Kate grins when Ziva easily takes out the man with the machine gun with a firm kick and an elbow to the back and she comes out of her hiding place with her gun drawn ready for anything. Ziva gives her a nod and they begin to creep down and get into the small assault vessel and ready it to take off. Not a moment later do Ducky, Gibbs, McGee, Mitas, and Tony appear and the men climb into the boat. Gibbs takes the wheel and quickly they are speeding away from the Chimera.
"Ducky, how long before Ferris wakes up?" McGee asks and Tony glances back at McGee with a smile.
"A couple of hours. It's take him considerably longer to wipe off the fake blood," only Ducky would know how to make fake blood that stains everything.
"How'd you disable the ship, McGee? Spew all over the engine?" Tony asks laughing now that they are okay and off the dreaded ghost ship.
"Steering has several nonlinear effects— saturation, dead-zone, rate-limiting… Bottom line is, ships' still able— able to sail in one big circle," sounds like a good thing.
"Russian," he says glancing at the documents he has just found.
"Yeah. Orders from the Russian Navy," Gibbs clearly knows something the rest of them don't, Tony surmises as he pulls away the documents to look at them.
"They weren't pirates?" Kate asks from her position holding onto the frame of the assault vessel next to Ziva.
"Soviet state-sponsored pirates," clearly Ducky knows as well.
"But why?" he is still doesn't understand.
"McGee?" Gibbs commands looking straight forward as he maneuvers the ship farther and farther away from the Chimera. Tony glances back and sees the warhead.
"Russian nuclear warhead?" now Tony is surprised.
"There's your ghost, Ziva. The ghost of Soviet Project K-629," that it is.
"So, this whole thing was a Russian black ops mission to recover their nuke," Ducky asserts and Tony wonders if Ducky would ever considering offering a helping hand in solving cases other than medical insight.
"So, pirates that weren't really pirates, but were actually Russian sailors were on a covert mission to steal a navy research ship that wasn't actually a navy research ship in order to get back nuclear weapons that we thought they didn't think we had retrieved?" Tony is surprised that all makes sense, but it does.
"Uh-uh," it is kind of mind blowing.
"Okay," McGee sounds satisfied.
"Perhaps we should call the navy. Tell them that we're on the Russian black ship, and the Russians are on theirs." Ducky's words are articulated when a missile hits the Chimera and it explodes.
"I guess the navy didn't want anyone to know their black ship ever existed," McGee asks with an incredulous laugh.
"How did they know we were off the ship?" Ziva asks and Kate glances over with a raised eyebrow.
"Don't think they did," Tony cringes at hearing this, but at least they are alive.
"How are you feeling, McGee?" Tony tilts his head as he glances between the older brunette and the junior agent.
"I'm good, Kate. Really good," they all laugh and Tony knows it is going to be a long ride back to shore or to the support vessel that was on the way to the Chimera.
Last Fill Chapter! The next two Chapters move the story forward in a big way!