Gibbs had to admit it: Abby was good. She had emailed him the file he had requested in only four hours. He really had to speak to the Director about getting her a pay rise.

Personnel file for Josiah Damian Franklin (DOB 23/10/74)

History:

Born in Carthage, Missouri, attended Abraham Lincoln High School, and graduated with full honours and a scholarship to Harvard.

Majored in Economics, with a special emphasis on the economics of the developing world. Minored in Politics, showed great interest in notions of security.

Noted basketball player, and was on the Harvard Crimson first team for his final year.

Was approached by recruiting officers at the start of his final year: showed promise and was employed after his graduation.

Gibbs flicked through reports on his training, and pysch evaluations, skimmed briefly over the reports of previous missions. One or two caught his eye, as he recognised the place names, but he quickly found the page he was looking for.

Operation Floodgate: briefing

In order to prevent the spread of gun-running throughout Eastern Europe, it is imperative that we ensure we have reliable information concerning the individuals involved. This will involve setting up a network of informants throughout the Balkans, but primarily concentrated in Serbia and the province of Kosovo.

It is essential that we are able to establish a presence in Kosovo before it is granted independence in order that we are better able to guarantee the security of the US from these illegal gun deals. The Muslim population of Kosovo could be susceptible to al-Qaeda, and thus it is of vital importance that we have a network already in place.

The primary aim of Operation Floodgate is to turn certain high ranking followers of the Serbian warlords into informants and to create a secure system of communication. With the military presence in Kosovo at the moment, it would seem advisable to place agents in the armies there, as this will not trigger suspicion: new personnel being posted there all the time.

Gibbs fought the urge to shoot the computer – spies had a way of making him angry. It was the way they never told the truth, even when they could. Lying was ingrained, and second nature to spies, and Gibbs hated that. Sure he could lie with the best of them when he had to, but that was different. He only lied to protect his team, or to ensure that justice was served. That was different, he assured himself, ignoring the awkward voice of conscience that pointed out spies lied under much the same conditions.

There was another email from Abby, this one read: Found a note attached to Franklin's main file. It won't show up normally, but hey…I'm brilliant. He opened the note, read it and silently agreed with Abby. She was brilliant.

The note was from the Deputy Director of the CIA (Operations branch) and read: Jed, I know I'm asking a lot, but you're our best hope. The mole must be found, and you're the only agent we have attached to this op that I trust implicitly. Be careful, there may be more than one leak. Trust no one.

Gibbs leaned back in his chair. So what he was faced with was a dead CIA agent, who had been investigating a leak in the chain of communication in a network of informants and agents, all of whom were trying to find and control the Serbian warlords, who potentially all had vast stores of weapons and ammunition. Just fantastic.

Something was tugging at his mind from the file, but he couldn't place it. It had occurred to him as odd that Isak and Edvina were automatically suspected of assisting the mole. From the Deputy Director's note, it was clear that they were not the main leak, as he obviously believed it was one of his agents. Colonel Hunter had been very specific though: Isak and Edvina were not to be trusted. A little too specific, now Gibbs came to think about it. Was he covering for someone else? And if he was, why on earth would he do that?

Gibbs shook his head – this was why he hated spies. They made him distrust everyone and everything, even old friends. The thought that had been clamouring for attention at the back of his mind suddenly surfaced: the briefing had said they would place agents in armies, plural, not just the American one. So now he was looking for a mole somewhere in the thousands of soldiers currently stationed in Kosovo. The day officially couldn't get worse.

Tony had managed to have a quiet word with Kate and McGee and warned them to be careful around the translators. Both had been as shocked as he had felt, although Kate seemed to take it especially hard. She and Edvina had become friends in the short space of time that they had known each other, and had spent a good deal of time gossiping together.

"But she told me all about her boyfriend!" Kate protested. "I mean, we talked a lot, and she seems really genuinely friendly."

"I know," McGee frowned. "Both her and Isak have done everything possible to help us. I can't believe either would do anything like this."

"Edvina has a boyfriend?"

"Tony, don't you ever think about anything except sex?" Kate looked exasperated. "Yes, she has a boyfriend, his name is Ardien, and he's a waiter."

"I think I've met him. Strange, she never mentioned that this morning." Tony changed the subject abruptly as he saw Isak come back into the room, returning from yet another cigarette break. "Are you getting anywhere with looking into Batic, Isak?"

The Kosovan shook his head. "It's as though he's disappeared. Batic has never kept a low profile before. I can't understand it." He sighed. "I think I may go home for the night. Well," he grimaced looking at his watch, "What is left of the night anyway. Perhaps when I am not so tired, something will change." Kate sympathised with him; it was 3am, and they had all been working non-stop all day. Lunch had been the closest thing she had had to a break all day.

Tony waited until Isak had left the room before slipping into his jacket as well. "And where are you going?" Kate asked, one eyebrow hitched in surprise.

"I'm following a suspect," he said, rolling his eyes. "I know this is tricky to understand, Katie, but don't you think it would be a good idea to see if Isak is up to anything?"

"By yourself? DiNozzo, that's the stupidest idea you've had in ages, which is saying something. You don't the city, you don't speak the language…you're going to get lost!"

"DiNozzos never get lost." He flashed them one of his trademark grins as he slipped out of the room. Kate and McGee could only watch through the window as he caught sight of Isak and followed him at a discrete distance, disappearing around a corner and out of sight.