Gibbs stood on deck, shielding his eyes from the sun and the down draught from the helicopter as Melvin was airlifted off the ship. He smiled a little remembering how the man had crooked his finger at him and promised to hunt him down if Jen got hurt on his watch. He looked over at Jen for a moment. He was almost sure that the eyes hidden behind those large glasses were filled with tears, but she didn't say anything. And neither did he.
Together they watched the helicopter disappear into the sky.
Gibbs' gut was working overtime. Somebody had made two attempts on Jen's life now and all responsibility for her had fallen squarely on his shoulders. He was on a boat full of marines and his faithful St Bernard was at his side, but whoever wanted her dead was on the ship with them. He looked round him. Four and and a half acres of flight deck alone. It was a logistical nightmare. The ship floated twenty stories above water and it was just over a thousand feet long. Whoever was trying to take her out could be anywhere, and they were unlikely to discover him – or her – in the twenty-four hours that were left.
Jen shifted from one foot to the other at his side, and then turned on her heel and started to walk away slowly.
"Boss..." Tony appeared at his side. "Got you Abby's phone conference as you asked."
Gibbs indicated Jen's retreating form, and Tony nodded and fell into step behind her.
"What was the powder, Abby?" he asked when he stood in her presence.
Ducky hovered in the background.
"White, with a hint of tan" she replied.
"Abs ..."
Gibbs' tone alerted her to the fact that he was not to be trifled with.
"I need more time Gibbs."
"We don't have more time. This summit ends in twenty-four hours. I need to know what I'm dealing with here."
"I'm auto-sampling for anthrax, botulism, cholera ... all those nasty little bio-buggers."
A machine beeped.
"Ah!" she said. "You are in luck" she said as she walked over to it.
He saw her look at Ducky and step aside as she placed a sample under the microscope and let him take a look.
"This is bad, Gibbs" she said.
"How bad?"
"Very bad, Jethro" the medical examiner said, his eyes cutting to his.
"The powder in both envelopes was Y. Pestis."
"Which is Latin for what?"
"Plague" said Ducky, fear in his eyes.
"The powder in that envelope carries bubonic plague?"
Ducky shook his head.
"Pneumonic is more likely."
"There's more than one?"
"Oh there are three actually. But pneumonic is by far the most dangerous since it can be spread by simply breathing the Y. Pestis particles."
"The tech breathed it in" Gibbs said. "He wasn't wearing a suit."
"It may not be alive" Abby said. "Y. Pestis needs a host or moisture for it to survive more than a few hours. So if the envelope wasn't opened immediately .."
When nobody said anything she started to tap away at her keyboard. But Ducky shared a concerned look across the monitor with Gibbs while she did.
"I'll narrow my search to pneumonic Y. Pestis" she continued. "If I can isolate the strain then the hospital can hit it with a specific antibiotic."
"Duck?" Gibbs called – noting the anxiety in the medical examiner's stance.
"Whoever did this may have thought about that, Jethro" he said. "If the ..."
He was cut short by Abby's hand clamping down on his arm.
"Oh this is not good" she said.
"Abs?"
"This is genetically altered Y.Pestis. Whoever did this ..."
"Has rendered it impervious to antimicrobials" Ducky finished off.
Fear rose in his eyes again.
"Was the lab negatively pressurised, Jethro?"
"I'll find out" Gibbs replied. "Why?"
"These are airborne pathogens. If they contaminated the rest of the ..."
Gibbs' forehead creased as he understood the implications.
"Was Tony there when the envelope was opened?" Ducky asked.
"Negative. But he's up on protocols anyway. Been scrubbed, sanitised. For all I know sterilised."
Back out on deck, Gibbs stood beside Jen's helicopter with a sense of unease that rivalled the unease over the dead body in the ship's morgue.
He'd met the medical examiner that had been flown in to conduct the autopsy, and briefed the agents that had arrived from the closest field office. And yet he was torn. Torn between getting to the bottom of this as quickly as possible, and staying close to Jen as per his orders. Security around her and the summit overall had been elevated to the point where another attempt should be impossible – but he was still unsure that he was making the right decision. And that in itself unsettled him. This was a lot more personal than it should under the circumstances.
Movement behind him told him that she'd arrived.
She stood in front of him and he knew the conflict was written all over his face.
"I'll be fine" she said as she indicated the three agents milling around her.
Gibbs nodded and saw her into the helicopter. As he closed the door his eyes fell on her hands. They weren't clenched together. He wondered for a moment if she were putting on an act for his benefit.
"Boss ..."
Tony stood at his shoulders a few moments after the helicopter was gone.
"Yeah ... Di Nozzo .."
Commander Harris stood next to him.
"Medical examiner's done" Tony said.
"What've we got?" Gibbs asked, casting one last look at the aircraft in the distance. Still not convinced he'd made the right decision.
"Blunt force trauma to the head."
"No exposure to anything then?" Gibbs asked.
Tony shook his head.
"We got an ID yet?"
"Delegate from Somalia. Aziza Awaale Bahdoon."
"What do we know?" the older agent asked as they walked inside.
"It's a mess, Boss. The Somali situation is a hot potato at the moment. The Gulf of Aden is a hive of illegal activity. Gunrunning, drug smuggling. You name it. Since the attack in 2000 .."
"The USS Cole ..." mused Gibbs running a hand across his face. "Al-Qaeda .."
Harris chose this moment to pitch in.
"Insurance rates have gone up tenfold. If ships avoid the Gulf of Aden and go around Africa's southern tip instead, we're faced with the scenario of pirates becoming tools of terrorists, Agent Gibbs. Some ransom piracy proceeds are believed to go to al-Shabab - a Somali militia that the U.S. accuses of harbouring the terrorists who attacked U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998."
Gibbs closed his eyes for a moment.
"There have been seventy-three attacks in the Gulf of Aden this year alone. Twenty-nine ships have been hijacked. That's twice as many as last year" Harris continued.
"So ... what ... we're all sitting down to try and find a solution to who is going to take responsibility if the pirates are caught?" Gibbs asked acerbically.
Harris shrugged.
"I told you – it's a nightmare scenario. It started with complaints about illegal fishing and dumping of toxic waste, and it's escalated to this. Yesterday's talks were supposed to address the issue. They've been postponed till today. You don't think ..."
Gibbs' anxiety rose a notch and his eyes were drawn out to sea.
He was just about to say something when his phone went off.
"Agent Gibbs ..." a voice at the other end said.
Gibbs felt his blood run cold.
"We have a hostage situation. It's Dr. Shepard."
Time seemed to slow around Gibbs as he absorbed what the agent was telling him. A hundred thoughts ran through his mind. he wanted to reach down the phone line and pull the information out of the man; he wanted to tell Harris to get him on a helicopter; he wanted to direct negotiations from the deck of the Reagan. Anything to assuage the feeling that she was in danger because he had ignored his gut.
But he did none of these things - knowing that if he distracted the agents on the carrier now the consequences could be fatal. He was so caught up in his thoughts that he almost missed it.
"It's over" the agent said suddenly.
"Get her back here now!" Gibbs thundered.
He heard conversation in the background, and a moment later Jen's voice came down the line.
"The situation has been neutralised, Agent Gibbs, and as much as I appreciate your concern I do have a session to chair. It can't be postponed any longer - especially in view of what just happened. I will see you in a few hours."
She had handed the phone back to the agent.
"What the hell happened?" Gibbs shouted.
The agent hesitated for a second.
"A woman followed Dr Shepard into the ladies' room, Sir."
"Where were you?"
"Outside" the agent said, and it took Gibbs a moment to realise why.
"Everything ..." he said, his tone only a bit softer.
"Dr. Shepard talked her down" the other man replied, awe creeping into his tone.
"Dr. Shepard okay?"
"On her way to the session. Fritz and Calhoun are with her."
Gibbs snapped his phone shut and turned to the others.
"Agent Gibbs?" Commander Harris asked.
Gibbs ignored him as he barked orders out to Tony.
"Di Nozzo .. I need everything on that delegate. Check who she was travelling with, what company she kept on board. Commander ... I need a list of everyone who got on and off this vessel in the past twenty-four hours."
Sorry for the delay...more will be coming soon.
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