Chapter Two

Jessica

She woke with the blaring of the alarm clock. Reaching over she touched the button to bring the noise to a halt, then automatically she searched for his form but found the other side of the bed devoid of its occupant. She frowned slightly then remembered his leaving her in the early hours of the morning, something about a case that had come up. Sighing deeply she lay back in the bed. She was not sure if she would ever get used to the hours he worked. Rising from the bed she made her way to the bathroom to run her usual early morning bath and start her daily routine. Once she was dressed and ready for the day she went downstairs to the kitchen and put the kettle on. Sitting down at the table she dialed his number on her cell phone.

He picked up after three rings.

"Good Morning…" Jethro said softly caller ID having told him it was her on the other end of the line.

"Morning Jethro…I did not like waking up without you this morning." She pouted into the phone.

"Sorry my love but duty called…" Jethro replied. "You know I would never willingly leave you." He smiled.

"I know, I know… what time do you think you will be home tonight?" She asked getting up to switch the squealing kettle off.

"I don't know honey, this is a very complicated case and may take some time…I might not be home for a while." Jethro replied, he wanted to tell her to pack her things and get out of town, he wanted to tell her he may never be back but he could not, it was all he could do to try to keep his voice even and not to give away his absolute terror at perhaps losing her to some arbitrary terrorist who thought that detonating a nuclear bomb would solve his problems.

Jessica for her part could tell that he was hiding something and that he was afraid of something, but to her credit she did not pursue the matter. She loved him and trusted him and more times than she could count now she had been afraid for him, but that was the life she had chosen when she had taken the decision to commit herself to him.

"OK my love. You just keep safe and make sure that you DO come home to me." She said unable to keep the worry completely out of her voice.

"I will, nothing is going to keep me from doing that." Jethro promised.

The conversation ended with 'I love yous' to each other. Jessica finished her coffee, picked up her keys and left the house, headed for her job on Capitol Hill where she was an aide to one of the Senators.

NCIS

It had been seven hours since Jethro had gathered his team and some members of the other senior agents' teams in the briefing room and told them what was going on. Shock had registered on all their faces and then fear.

They had got to work looking for something, anything that could lead them to discover the whereabouts of the bomb. Each of them had their own contacts that they touched to try to gain information, of course all of them understood that they could not divulge the reason for their search for Christopher Jenkins and Abdul Ul Zak, and at times this became difficult, especially for Ziva when she contacted MOSAD and her father for help.

Finally it was Agent Tim MaGee who gave them their first lead. The computer genius had been scanning the financial records of Jenkins and had found that the man had purchased a luxury yacht that he had moored here in Washington. This it was decided that was the way he was going to leave the area once the bomb was armed and ready to detonate. Gibbs told DeNozzo and Williams, one of the team members from NSA to keep 24 hours surveillance on the yacht in case their man turned up. MaGee was instructed to continue looking for further links to Jenkins, Ziva was at the Israeli Embassy following up on some possible information that her father said he had. Gibbs and Fornell sat in the conference room along with Zimmerman and Carter discussing what leads they had and what they could do next. Hopefully they could find this Jenkins and then get Ul Zak's whereabouts from him.

Jenkins returned to his yacht four hours later. Tony and Williams were told not to approach or apprehend just to observe and tail him if he left. The four senior agents were out the door as Gibbs gave the telephonic instructions to his senior field agent. Twenty minutes later they pulled up at the marina and met with their watching crew.

"He hasn't left the yacht again boss." Special Agent Tony DeNozzo reported.

"Nor has anyone come aboard." Agent William of the NSA continued.

Gibbs thought for a moment, if he apprehended Jenkins now, Ul Zak might find out, think that his plot had been discovered and detonate the bomb. If he did not apprehend Jenkins and get Ul Zak's whereabouts out of him he may not find him in time and he detonates the bomb anyway.

"DeNozzo, Williams you two stay here, if he gets passed us stop him. We need him alive and able to talk so if you have to shoot him do it in a place that won't affect that." Gibbs said, drawing his gun and making his way as discreetly as possible towards the moored yacht. The other senior agents followed his lead walking towards the yacht guns drawn.

DeNozzo and Williams had not seen anybody get on the boat but that did not mean there was nobody onboard they could have boarded before NCIS had even found the damned thing, there might be a whole army of terrorist onboard. Not that Gibbs was afraid, well he was, he was afraid that they would have to kill Jenkins and then they would be back at square one, with no further leads. That scared him shitless.

There was no activity on board the yacht and Gibbs stepped on board carful to cover all possible angles of attack. The others followed silently. Gibbs entered the cabin scanning around the room quickly determining that nobody was in the room. He motioned the others in. At that moment they heard a noise from the bathroom area of the cabin, the door opened and Jenkins stepped out. Jenkins looked at the faces of the men before him all with guns drawn and he knew the game was up.

"Shit…" He said loudly then sat down heavily on one of the couches. "Shit, shit, shit…how the hell did you find me?" Jenkins asked as he lay back on the luxurious piece of furniture.

He must have thought that Gibbs and the rest were rookie agents that had just picked up their first case pulling a move like he was trying to do Gibbs thought as he suddenly and quickly narrowed the gap between him and Jenkins his finger on his trigger.

"Touch that weapon and you'll be wishing you hadn't." Gibbs said harshly. Fornell had moved to the side also seeing the game that Jenkins was playing, feigning his complete disgust at being caught but at the same time trying to get his hands on the hidden weapon behind one of the throw pillows on the couch. Zimmerman had moved and was suddenly behind the scientist placing the barrel of his gun against the man's head.

"Don't tempt me, I fail really easily…" Zimmerman smirked.

"OK, OK you got me…" Jenkins said raising his hands to show them that he did not pose a threat to them. "You got me…" He said quietly realizing that his life as he had known it was over.

Jessica

It had been a long morning. Senator George Benson, the man she worked for sat on the Senate Arms Committee and they were currently in session. Her morning was spent between the committee room and her office collecting all the data the Senator asked for during the session. Her mind wondered to Jethro, she knew him well enough now to know that something was seriously worrying him. This was not a normal case he was working on. Firstly he had never been called out at 3 am for any case, they had shifts that worked the night hours and would have picked up any case that came in and secondly she had heard the veiled fear in his voice when they had spoken that morning. She had not heard from him since then and briefly contemplated calling him; however she dismissed that thought almost immediately. 'No' she said to herself 'he will call when he can' she was not going to disturb him especially as she believed that the case he had been called on must be very serious and urgent.

Her day continued uneventfully, the Senator going home as soon as the committee meetings were over leaving her to prepare his notes for the next days' sessions. At around 5pm she closed up the office and made her way home. Once there she checked if she had had any messages on her home phone, finding none she again checked her cell. Nothing, Jethro had not been in contact with her all day and now it was almost 6:30pm and still nothing. Should she call him she wondered. But again she thought better of the idea and went about making herself some dinner. As the clock ticked over to 11pm she laid her book down and reached over to turn out the light. She had been unable to stop herself from calling Jethro at about 9 but there had been no answer from him and he had still not returned her missed call. As she drifted off to sleep she wondered what kind of case could keep him from calling her even just to say goodnight.

NCIS

Jenkins sat in the interrogation room a smirk on his face as he watched Gibbs enter. He had been taken directly to NCIS headquarters once he was removed from the yacht and been placed in the room. He vaguely wondered how they were going to do this, good cop bad cop routine or had they come up with something different for him. He knew that the first thing he was going to do was ask for his lawyer and that should delay them some and then it would be his ball game once his high priced VERY good attorney arrived they would be in shit street and have to let him go.

"I want a lawyer." He said as Gibbs sat down opposite him.

"You are going to tell me were Abdul Ul Zak is and where the nuclear bomb you brought into the country is and you are going to do it now." Gibbs stated staring at the man his face dark with undisguised disgust.

"Didn't you hear me Agent Gibbs, I want a lawyer and I am not saying anything until he gets here." Jenkins said leaning forward towards Gibbs. "I am entitled to representation, and on that note, you have not read me my rights or anything." Jenkins said feeling very pleased with himself for thinking of that small technicality.

You have no rights. You are a terrorist and I don't have to let you speak to anyone EVER again. Now either you start talking or I will get the goons out there to come and fetch you to take you to your new holiday home at Guantanamo Bay." Gibbs said softly pursing his lips and shaking his head a satisfied smile appeared on his face as Jenkins registered Gibbs' words. And a small hint of fear started setting in "I have rights under the constitution…"

"You have only one hope and that is to tell us were Ul Zak is because if you don't…" Gibbs did not finish the sentence rather leaving it to the imagination of Jenkins. He could see the fear spreading, Jenkins was essentially a weak man who had always hidden behind his superior intellect, he had thought he was going to play the usual game with him, he would call his lawyer who would then talk legalese and get him released on bail and then he would skip town before Ul Zak blew the place. Now it was dawning on him that he was not in a position to dictate what happened to him using his lawyer and his rights as a platform, those were gone, he was in a game he could not win.

Fornell; Zimmerman and Carter saw this as the opportune time to enter the room, all of them armed with weapons drawn and all of them looking like they wanted to use them. Jenkins knew then for sure that he was lost; he thought for a moment and then blurted out that he had information but he needed immunity and protection if he were going to talk.

"Talk first, then we we'll see…" Gibbs said sitting back down in his chair as the other agents placed themselves around the table all of them bearing down on Jenkins.