Gibbs looked up at the plasma his eyes far away as he looked at Ducky's photo, half covered by Kuryakin's.
Tobias looked through the one-way mirror at Ducky, who was sitting quietly as he waited to be questioned. "How long are you going to let him sit for?"
"Long enough to make him worried. What do you know about him?" the agent in charge, Kelly DeForest asked.
Fornell shifted his attention to her. "I know enough that he's not going to get worried anytime soon. And that your treatment of him when we picked him up put Gibbs in a bad mood."
"I'm not interested in Gibbs; I'm interested in Mallard," DeForest said, opening a file.
Tobias noticed that the file was thin for something that was supposed to be about a Russian spy from fifty years ago. "I didn't say you should be interested in Gibbs, just that you put him in a bad mood."
"Would you rather take over this case, Agent Fornell?" DeForest asked, looking at him with a raised eyebrow.
Fornell grimaced at the low blow as he remembered how the higher ups threatened to force him to go on vacation if he took another case from an agent that wasn't specifically assigned to him.
After a moment, she turned her attention back to the file looking at a page almost completely covered in censored words. "What do you know about Mallard?"
"He knows his stuff," Tobias said, thinking back to all the times he worked with Ducky. "I sometimes think that he missed his calling as a history teacher or something. But if he really is this Russian spy, then I guess I know a lot less than I thought I did.
"Explain to me why you let the FBI has taken our Medical Examiner into custody," Vance demanded, glaring from behind his desk.
"I didn't let them take Ducky," Gibbs said shortly.
"You didn't stop them either," Vance said. "Which Agent DeForset will take as evidence that you believe the claim."
"That Ducky's spying for the Russians?" Gibbs scoffed.
"That Kuryakin did and that he became Doctor Mallard."
Gibbs rolled his eyes. "Leon, when Kuryakin was active there was a Soviet Union. USSR's long gone."
"But their ghost still exists," Vance pointed out. "A ghost that a lot of people worry is still very much part of the Russian government. I've read your file, Agent Gibbs. That you spent six months in the USSR; if anyone knows how ruthless they were it should be you."
This was not part of the plan. Gibbs shot Jenny a look as the KGB operative told them to follow him.
Just go where they say, and do what they want. If they didn't want the microfilm being found following orders was the only way that they could get out of this. For now.
The operative lead them to a room. A big wig behind the desk gestured for them to stand over by the wall; window dressing. They were there to be window dressing to intimidate someone.
There was a man tied to a chair off to the side, a sack over his head. Jenny looked stern, not happy at the turn of events.
Another man in a Soviet Uniform entered the room, his eyes taking in what was going on.
The big wig laid a loaded gun on the desk. "Shoot that man."
The Uniform took the gun and turned to the tied up man, his eyes widening as a KGB ripped off the bag.
A Loyalty Test.
"Yeah, I do," Gibbs admitted.
"Then you know how the FBI will take this. They'll dig up our yard to find something that isn't there. So until this blows over, your investigations are suspended. After all, Doctor Mallard is the ME on all your cases; don't want to give the FBI even more ammo," Vance said.
"You've suspended his clearance?" Gibbs demanded.
"Had to," Vance said.
"Damn it, Leon, if you don't want to give the FBI more ammo, stand by him."
"Like you did?" Vance asked.
"Like I am," Gibbs corrected. "You want to know what I learned from the USSR?" he said, stalking to the door. "That loyalty is the strongest thing in the world."
"And Doctor Mallard has earned your loyalty?"
"Yes."
"Even if he turns out to be Kuryakin?" Vance asked.
Gibbs shot Vance a look and didn't dignify the question with a response.
"I just heard; Ducky's been arrested? For what?" Abby said, hurrying into the bullpen. "Where's Palmer? No, where's Gibbs? What happened? Does anyone know how much bail is?"
"Abby, breathe!" Ziva said.
"I can't be bothered by breathing! Ducky's in trouble! And not in trouble like medical trouble where all I can do is stand on the side and hope he gets better but like real arrested trouble where forensics can save him like it did with Tony and I need to get to work analyzing or at least going around with a jar collecting bail-"
"Abby, breathe and we will tell you what we know!" Tony snapped.
Abby took several theatrical gasps of air, looking calmer with each breath.
"Are you good?" Tony asked.
"Yes," Abby said, more calmly.
"Alright so, here's what we've got: Ducky has been arrested under suspicion of being a Russian spy named 'Eli Carry-on-kin'." Tony said pulling up the picture from Ducky's NCIS file side by side of a picture from the Sixties of a younger blond man, clearly from a passport as the writing that was not quite cropped out was in Russian.
"Illya Kuryakin," Ziva corrected, her tone short, "rumor says he performed hundreds of successful ops all of which are still top secret to this day! The man is a legend."
"Can't be a very good spy if he's a legend," McGee noted, from his desk.
"James Bond is a legend and no one questions his credentials," Tony countered.
"James Bond is fictional and yes, they do." McGee pointed out.
"No one asked you, Probie," Tony said.
"He is a legend because there are only five confirmed photos of Kuryakin out of decades of work," Ziva said, getting the conversation back on track by taking the remote from Tony and pushing a button to pull up four new pictures.
"Wow, these are garbage." Abby said, wrinkling her nose at the photos all of which had some kind of visual noise on them, be it scratches or snow.
The first one was the only one in color; Kuryakin sitting behind the wheel of a Royals Royce, the right half his face hidden in shadow, his attention on something unseen; the amount of car in the shot showing that it had been taken by some long lenses.
The second picture was a profile, up close and from behind. A crowd of people, mostly young women with sixties hair styles, gathered around something unseen, Kuryakin's attention on it. No one's faces were fully shown at all.
Another long lensed photo was third showing the Russian in shorts and a polo shirt crouched down on the end of a dock, his left hand holding a rope while the right fiddling with something just over the edge. He had looked up but not at the picture taker, more likely he had been scanning the roof tops or windows and the photographer had been lucky.
The last had Kuryakin looking at the camera almost surprised that it was there, his hand half raised in a fist. He was in a tuxedo, though the background was of stripped canvas and there were poles as though he was in a tent of some kind. Behind Kuryakin was a man with his back was to the camera, who also in a tux holding what looked like an award so perhaps Kuryakin was playing bodyguard at some outdoor charity event.
"You know in that last one he looks kind of like Mark Hamill," Tony said, tilting his head to the side. "Imagine if Ducky really was this guy:" Tony dropped his voice into an impression of Alec Guinness, "'Carry-on-kin' Now that's a name I haven't heard since-oh before you were born."
"That's not funny, Tony! Why does the FBI think that Ducky is him?" Abby demanded pointing at the screen.
McGee spoke up, moving so he could look at the plasma too. "Apparently, the FBI ran facial recognition on the pictures and Ducky came back as a match."
"By how much?" Abby asked.
"By enough," Tony said, still looking at the pictures.
"No, until we know the number; that is suspect. We have to re-run it! And find a control picture of one where Ducky was younger and run it against that!"
"Way ahead of you, Abby," Palmer said, barely missing the wall of Ziva's cubical as he rounded the corner. "I ran over to Doctor Mallard's house and got this before the FBI showed up and threatened to arrest me."
"They threatened to arrest you?" Ziva repeated, as Palmer handed Abby an envelope.
"On what grounds?" McGee asked.
"Something about conspiracy and maybe tampering with evidence, which I did not do, because one: Doctor Mallard's house is not a crime scene and two: he did nothing wrong so I'm not an accomplice," Palmer smiled brightly and waved a hand showing he wasn't worried.
The three field agents looked at him.
Palmer's smile dimmed. "Right?"
"Did you at least wear gloves?" Tony asked.
"I-"
"Jimmy, this is perfect!" Abby said, enveloping the now worried assistant ME in a hug and then stepped back to show the others.
It was a black and white picture, much better than any of the other's on the screen; Ducky was reading what looked like a German newspaper. He was well dressed, leaning against a pole on a train platform, the tracks behind him, looking at the camera like someone had call his name and he looked up in time for his picture to be snapped. It was classic Ducky, right down to the round glasses and hat.
"Wow, Ducky was quite the looker," McGee said, raising an eyebrow.
"What do you mean 'was', I still find him quite attractive," Ziva said, with a small smirk.
"It's from a day-trip he took to Germany back in 1962," Palmer said, still looking worried.
"And you know this how?" McGee asked.
"Uh, it's written on the back of the picture," Palmer pointed at the back. "So…could they arrest me-?"
"Huh, Ducky looks kinda like Lieutenant-Commander Ashely-Pitt," Everyone looked at Tony blankly. "You know the guy who figured out how to get the dirt out of the tunnels in The Great Escape." No one made a move of understanding. "The Great Escape released in 1963, about the POWs who dug a tunnel out of a German Prison camp?" Everyone shook their heads slightly. "OH, come on! It's a classic! You've at least know of the scene that they reference everywhere where Steve McQueen is bouncing a baseball against the wall of the 'cooler'!" Tony pantomimed throwing a baseball.
"I'm more interested in getting our ME out of the FBI's 'cooler'," Gibbs said, gliding by the group with a fresh cup of coffee in his hands.
"Us too, Boss," Tony said, letting his hand drop.
"Good, because until Doctor Mallard is cleared, Vance has all of our other investigations put on hold."
"Gibbs, do you know how much bail is?" Abby demanded.
"Nope. No bail; because he's not under arrest," Gibbs explained.
"Then why are all of our cases suspended?" McGee asked.
"Because, McGee, the FBI takes espionage very seriously," Gibbs replied, and then looked at the group.
"Right, I'll call my contacts and see what I can find out about Kuryakin," Ziva said.
"Dibs on Ducky's old friends and colleges," Tony said, nearly leaping over his own desk.
"I'll get his papers, passport, immigration," McGee said, typing on his computer before he even sat down.
"Re-running facial recognition on Ducky's pics!" Abby said, nearly running to the elevator.
"And I'll…" Palmer looked around confused. "I-I don't know what, what to do."
"Palmer," Gibbs said, looking back up at the Assistant ME, "Why don't you go get a jump start on you and Doctor Mallard's reports."
"Right," Palmer nodded running after Abby before the elevator closed.
The elevator dinged signaling its descent and Tony slapped his forehead. "Should have asked Palmer for a list of Ducky's friends." He looked over to Gibbs desk. "Hey boss, you're his friend, how'd you meet Ducky?"
There was a dead naval officer on the floor and the new ME had already arrived, rattling off numbers and notes to the assistant. Gibbs was a little surprised by the British accent.
"What do you got?" Gibbs asked, towering over the crime.
The ME looked up, pushing his glasses up with the back of his hand.
The two looked at each other for a moment, each weighing the other before professionalism won out and Doctor Mallard explained what he had at the moment.
"Same way I meet everyone it seems: On the job," Gibbs looked up at the plasma his eyes far away as he looked at Ducky's photo, half covered by Kuryakin's.
Pictures used as reference found on Rose of Pollux's tumblr
Picture used as reference of the Great Escape found on Saniir's tumblr