Gibbs was quiet on the way back to Pristina. Not the usual, I'm-Gibbs-and-I-don't-talk-much quiet, but the far more dangerous, angry-as-hell quiet. McGee opted for the diplomatic option and said nothing, even trying to breathe quietly, just in case. His own day had not been productive. Smithson was a popular guy around the base, but Franklin might as well not have existed. No one but Smithson seemed to be friends with him, but equally no one had a bad word to say about the man. Franklin was just someone no one noticed. An unusual choice of best friend for a man that everyone else wanted to be close to.
Their service records had held little of interest either. Franklin's was unremarkable, absolutely nothing out of the ordinary, which in itself was a little odd. Most Marines had some discipline notation, or some special skill, or had passed a specialist course. Franklin had nothing. He was the average Marine, except McGee had never met an 'average' Marine before.
Smithson was a little more interesting. He had passed a sniper course, with a record score, and also done a stint of covert operations. The file held no details about the nature of those ops, as usual, but did say that he had performed admirably, and should be considered for promotion soon. An odd pair, McGee thought. A very odd pair.
They found Tony and Kate in the hotel bar, comparing stories from the day. To McGee's surprise, Gibbs seemed to relax slightly when he saw the other agents. Just as strangely, Gibbs skipped coffee in favour of a shot of bourbon. Kate raised an eyebrow, but no one said anything. Gibbs threw himself into one of the armchairs around the table they had commandeered and took a gulp of his drink.
"Can we get Abby and Ducky on speaker phone?" Kate rang them on her phone, as Gibbs had looked blank when she tried to explain how to use the speaker phone. "Abby, get Ducky, I need to talk to you both." Abby obviously sensed Gibbs' mood across the ocean, as the ME was there in record time.
"Have you read the reports yet Duck?"
"Yes Jethro, and I must say, they are very interesting." Ducky's clipped tone came clearly over the speaker. "One of your corporals has some interesting scars; it reminded me of a case I saw in France once, where there was this spy for the French resistance, who had been captured by the Germans. Now, his back bore similar marks…"
"Not now Duck!" Gibbs snapped, patience wearing thin.
"Ah, yes of course. Well, the autopsies showed that both men died of almost identical stab wounds, both to the side of the neck, severing the jugular vein. They would have died instantly."
"That sounds more like a professional hit than a bar room brawl boss," Tony remarked, leaning forward in his chair so his voice would be heard clearly over the speaker.
"Anthony is correct, I surmise Jethro. One stab, instant death."
"Thanks Ducky," Gibbs said tiredly, rubbing his hand over his face in a rare gesture of fatigue. "Abs, I need you to do me a favour."
"Sure thing bossman."
"I need to see Jed Franklin's service record."
"Uh, boss, we've already seen it. There was nothing pertinent in it." McGee held out the copy they had been given by Colonel Hunter. Tony took the file and began leafing through it.
"McGee, I was there, remember? Abby, I need to see the real file. You'll need to do some hacking, or whatever it is you do, and you can't let anyone know you're looking for it."
"Umm, sure, but where should I start?" Abby sounded a little confused.
Tony got there before Gibbs could. "I'd start with Pentagon files Abby, this guy was working deep undercover." Kate and McGee turned to stare at him and he shrugged. "I am a detective, you know. I do this sort of thing for a living. Stop staring at me Kate!"
"DiNozzo's right. If he's not military intelligence, he's CIA."
"That might take some time. CIA's not easy to hack." As always, Abby never sounded fazed by the work Gibbs gave her. She always managed it, whatever task he set her. One day, he thought, he'd ask her something truly impossible, just to see what she said. Then again, he couldn't think of anything that Abby would find impossible.
"We don't have time Abs. You've got eight hours."
"Gibbs!" Any more of Abby's protestations were cut off as Gibbs hung up.
"What's going on Gibbs? What aren't you telling us?" Kate asked, her eyes challenging and hard.
"Franklin was working on exposing some of the old warlords who are still in hiding. Some members of the UN and NATO are apparently helping them, and the warlords are changing into drug dealers and gun-runners. He was working on finding out where they were hiding, so they could be arrested for war crimes. But he was killed before he could report back." Gibbs looked down, wondering whether any of his team would hear the lie in his voice. He wished he could tell them everything.
"So there's a leak," Kate sighed. "Who knew who he really was?"
"Colonel Hunter knew his real reason for being here, but he was the only one on the base. Franklin was sent in direct from the Pentagon."
"So if he was killed because of all this, Colonel Hunter might be our leak," she put forward.
"No." Gibbs stated it baldly, refusing to qualify his statement.
"Where does Smithson fit in?" Tony asked, looking up from Franklin's file. "He wasn't part of this op, I'm guessing."
"Smithson appears to be collateral damage. Maybe he got too close to his friend and had to be silenced as well."
"If Franklin's a spy, then that would explain why he disappeared the night he was murdered," Kate mused. "Smithson had been seen in a number of bars, but no one had seen Franklin. Perhaps he was working on a lead."
"How are we meant to find out?" McGee asked.
Tony sighed and stood up. "Until Abby gets his real file, we need to do the same thing as him Probie: investigate the warlords. I'll call Isak and Edvina."
"But where do we start?"
"Where we always start, McGee. At the beginning," Gibbs replied.