1.5 Karats (TW)
It was Tuesday, and Trent was returning the company car he had borrowed on Thursday out of necessity. Being called several times by the squirrely CIA staffer attached to his department was annoying and useless. Perhaps it was his only job to keep tabs on Kort; the guy was incredibly nosy and almost impossible to avoid during the day.
"Yeah, I'll get the car right back to the garage. No, I haven't filled it up yet. Will you leave off nagging and let me do my job? Oh, right…I'm at a desk again."
"But Mr. Kort, you are needed at Quantico!"
"Yeah, right. And who authorized you to make this call? My lunch break is an hour."
"No, Mr. Kort, our division manager allotted you thirty minutes from now until December. You must report to the Navy yard."
"What for?"
"NCIS, Mr. Kort. The request was phoned in by an agent on the team of Special Agent Lerory Jethro Gibbs."
"Ah, shit." Maybe he wouldn't be hauled up before Vance for giving out Gibbs' number. Kort pulled his weapon out of its holster at his hip and stuck it in his belt, feeling murderous but oddly relieved. At least he wouldn't be pencil pushing this afternoon.
Meanwhile, Gibbs' team was dealing with a full case load. Stacks of file folders littered the desktops, yet nothing real was happening. It was one of those days when a call-out wasn't warranted for any particular crime, and Ziva, McGee and DiNozzo were fishing. The international drug ring in DC had been taken over by the DEA and was off the table for the moment. Nobody knew where Gibbs was, but McGee pointed out that he was probably as bored as everyone else.
"So, now what?" Ziva had been up particularly late the night before and was impatient with the whole situation.
"Well, I am looking at different flags that have gone up since we traced the call to the boss' cell. Turns out, I talked to the parents of the girl who called looking for Trent. Looks like she's stayed on campus all day, but there has been some suspicious activity on her bank statements. Take a look." Ziva and Tony stood in front of the plasma, joined by Gibbs and Vance.
"And? What about her that is so special? What did her mom say?" Ziva persisted.
"Her mom's great-aunt became some kind of millionaire late in her life. Some kind of investment. She left a lot of money to Zel, but it's in a trust fund and not available to the girl until she's either twenty-five or both her parents are dead." He clicked the remote again to freeze the screen. "Her parents live in Columbus."
"Well, McGee, turns out we're not the only ones looking at Zel Harris and her family." Vance handed a paper to Gibbs. "Moreover, seems as though more than one federal agency has been investigating at her patron, Salle Silver. Take a look at this." He pointed to a paragraph. "She was a person of interest, or someone with her name and fitting her description, during the Red Scare in the communist era. The CIA."
Gibbs looked at Vance, then at McGee.
"What the hell? That was in the sixties! McGee, I want her found. Hold her. And don't call the CIA until I say so. Trent Kort is on his way here, to explain." Gibbs glared at Vance.
"Remember, Gibbs, I don't want that piece of slimy shark bait in my house. Whatever it is that you're doing, do it discreetly. I don't want any coverage, especially from the press, and I sure as hell don't want a cover up. One whiff of this leaked to the media and SecNav would have me out of my office before the week is up." Vance turned to leave and thought better of it.
"Keep in mind Gibbs, that if you bring in Kort, you have no suspicion of wrongdoing. Do not interrogate him. Do not detain him. Do not breathe on him. We need him back to Langley before the end of the day. And don't let him get comfy. This is not the time or the place." He left, but not before glancing at Tony.
"What did I do to deserve that?"
Ziva enlightened him. "He knows you are a media hordeand live for attention. Talking loosely about something like this would be right up your way."
"Alley," Tony muttered.
McGee tutted. "She's right, Tony. Best keep this between us."
"Correction. Let's keep this quiet." Gibbs was unmoved. "Silently."
Everyone took the hint and the only sound was keyboards and Tony's quiet, "D'oh!" when he stapled his desk. Finally the soft ding! heralded the arrival of the CIA ex-operative to the squadroom.
Kort strolled up to Gibbs and halted before his desk. "Here I am, what do you want?"
"I want nothing, Kort, except why you gave my number to that girl who called me. What possessed you to even do that?"
"Oh, I don't know Gibbs. I was bored, I was drunk, and I was looking for some cheap fun. I was behind your van in a company car on Saturday and saw some girls and DiNozzo and thought it might be a little fun to take one of them out for a bit. She knew someone who wanted my number and I thought it might be a little fun to mess with you."
Tony turned pale. "You…a college girl…at night? I let you get away with that?"
"Hell yeah, DiNozzo. Don't worry your pretty little head, nothing happened. I just dropped her back off at the hotel."
"Which hotel?" Gibbs was writing in his notepad.
"Dunno," Trent said carelessly. "Didn't know if it was the right one, but who cares? She thought I was good looking, that's all."
Ziva snorted. "And she said that. To you."
Tony stared at Trent, saucer-eyed. "And you didn't drug her. Nothing."
"Well, a little shot of…"
Gibbs stood up. "I don't wanna hear any more of this nonsense, Trent. I want to know about the woman who wanted yours."
Trent also drew himself to his full height. "What I want to know is what you do know. I figure I'm never going to find her on my own. My security clearance has been temporarily suspended."
"So you're using us to meet girls." McGee looked at Trent over his monitor.
"Shut up, McGee. Nobody asked you."
Gibbs pointed towards the door and gave Kort the stare.
"All right, I'm gonna go. Just saying, if you find out anything, you'll let me know, right?"
There was a resounding "No."
"Whatever."
As soon as Kort left, Tony burst into laughter. "If he thinks it's some kind of beach babe who's supposed to be calling him, he's in for a surprise. Salle Silver must be at least 70."
"I need to see Abby and Duck. Something's not right. And I don't like it." Gibbs made a beeline for Abby's lab.
"No. Salle Silver is maybe twenty five, twenty seven at the most." Abby and Ducky had reached the same conclusion.
"Jethro, as a student of anatomy, I can tell you that Salle Silver is under thirty years old. There has to be another Salle Silver, or it could be a family name or indicator of a certain line of business. Gibbs, she cannot be the same person. I am sure of it."
"But you're not fully convinced."
"Jethro, there are things in this world that are not easily understood. Don't get too deeply involved. There's no reason to delve further into this."
"What are you afraid of, Duck? Why be so cautious?"
"Because, Jethro, I am also a student of history and can tell you that throughout time there have always been whispers of these sort of peculiarity. Take Oxford, for instance. Some of the old dons, if I correctly understand it, are over two hundred years old. Of course, no one has actually seen them in years, but a lot of rumors are that several of them never left campus since the eighteenth century, alive or dead."
"No, Duck. I look at the file and bring her in, whoever she is. She knows something. My gut tells me that she's trying to get to the CIA, and here we found her right in our lap. If the CIA gets ahold of her, no one will ever hear from her again. I need to know what she knows."
Ducky pursued Gibbs. "What you think she knows! Jethro, there is no way to turn back the past! Stop this at once!"
Gibbs paused at the elevator. "Ducky, you know I'm not superstitious. But this isn't just for me. This might be the conspiracy of our lifetime, and I don't want to be left in the dark. If this can teach us anything about the future, we'll be the first to find out. Coordinate with Abby. Start a profile."
Author's Note: I am not going to give you any TRUE spoilers, but I will say that A. This is not about vampires or witches or mutants and B. This is going to have a supernatural lean. Get used to it. Also, Trent Kort will not be a prominent love interest. This may be fleshed out later in the plotline. R/R, Please?