Chapter Nine
Tony, Vance, Fornell, and Gibbs found themselves once again in his office gathered around the conference table. Even though things were going well so far, the tension and pressure to succeed were starting to take toll. Each man looked as if the long days and pressure were starting to wear them down.
"Malouf is in a Sheraton with an ankle tracker on and four FBI guards keeping an eye on her. She can call room service, watch cable TV, and use the gym. We have her buttoned down, so we don't have to worry about her now," said Fornell.
"Interrogation?" asked Vance.
"Two specialists will come in to interview her and collect intel," said Fornell.
"Three cities to deal then," said Vance. "How do we stand?"
"Callen and Hanna are headed back to LA. Their Special Ops team will back them as they look for the anthrax. The FBI, LAPD, and CIA are helping them. The CIA thinks they know where the anthrax came from," said Tony.
"Where" asked Vance.
"Syria via Iraq," was the answer.
"I'm sure glad we fight wars to keep this shit out of terrorists' hands," said Fornell.
Gibbs snorted.
"Goddamn it," said Vance. "New York and DC?"
"Gibbs along with his team sans Agent David, but with the Wonder Twins…"
Vance cut him off, "The Wonder Twins?"
"Don't you remember the Wonder Twins on Superfriends, Saturday morning cartoon?" grinned Tony.
"Who are the Wonder Twins?" asked Vance not really following what he was talking about.
"Jayna and Zan," answered Tony.
Vance rolled his eyes and then demanded, "Who are the Wonder Twins you are talking about?"
"Malachi and Liat, Mossad's best and brightest," said Tony.
"Okay, they are on Gibbs' team along with McGee, Jardine, and the FBI," said Vance.
"We'll handle DC," said Gibbs.
"New York team?" asked Vance.
"The New York team will be Morse, David, Borin, and me along with the FBI and NYPD," said Tony.
"When will you be leaving?" asked Vance.
"Tomorrow afternoon," said Tony. "I want Fornell to be in MTAC acting as the conduit we all go through. He'll be our HUB and have the best overview of what's happening and what assets need to be sent where."
"I'd rather be in the field," said Fornell.
"I know, Tobias, but it's either you or me and nothing or no one is stopping me from going to New York. You know that this is personal between me and Ullman. He wants me and I want him," said Tony.
"Don't make it too personal, DiNozzo. I need your head clear and your thinking sharp," said Vance.
"I'll be in MTAC," growled Fornell.
"Okay, inform your teams what is going to happen and then good hunting," said Vance.
"Thanks, sir," said Tony.
"Thank you, Director."
"Leon," said Gibbs.
Tony, Gibbs, and Fornell stood up and marcher out of the office.
NCISNCIS
Callen and Hanna had their team meet them in ops where Hetty already had Nell and Eric working. They were tracking a shipment of cars from Italy that came in two months ago. According to the CIA the anthrax was hidden in a car's bumper. Deeks and Kensi greeted Callen and Hanna.
"Hey, the dynamic duo is back," said Deeks.
"What have we got, Hetty?" asked Callen.
"Eric," she said.
"Three car dealers got delivers of these cars. One in Anaheim, one in Inland Empire, and one in the Valley," Eric said.
Nell took over for him when she brought a tape of two middle eastern men stealing a car out of the car lot.
"A Fiat was stolen from the dealer in the Valley. These are the men, who stole it," said Nell.
Eric brought up better images of the men and their IDs. He also brought up the CCTV feed showing them stealing the car.
"Their names are Eric Sultan and Karim Bin Abdul. They live in the San Fernando Valley. I have their address, or I should say I have Sultan's address. Nothing comes up for Karim Bin Abdul," said Eric.
"They won't be there. By now they are onto the next stage, but it will be a start," said Callen.
"These bastards are well run. This Ullman is a master planner," said Hanna. "I wouldn't be surprised if Sultan and Bin Abdul are even dead, especially if their role is done."
"Kens, Deeks, check out their address. If you get anything, call," said Callen.
Kensi and Deeks took off without another word. Hetty turned and looked at Callen and Hanna.
"Gentlemen, I suspect you are tired. You have been busy lately and doing an excellent job. It is time to get some rest," she said.
"No time to rest," said Callen.
"No rest leads to mistakes," she said. "Take a few hours to sleep and relax. We will bother if something important comes up."
Callen was about to argue when Hanna placed one of his hands on his shoulder.
"No use in arguing, G."
"I guess you are, Sam." Callen agreed.
NCISNCIS
The weather in New York was a combination of rain and snow, sleet. This cast a grey pall over the citizen. Tony and Morse entered their Midtown Hilton hotel room. They dropped their stuff then Morse collapsed on the bed, while Tony started to make phone calls. As he made the calls, there was a knock on the door. Morse answered it. Ziva and Borin were there. Both women wore jeans, shirt sweaters, and overcoats. They were ready for work.
"Come in, ladies," said Morse.
Morse was still in the clothes he wore on the plane, which was cargo pants, safari shirt, and leather jacket. Tony was dressed similarly.
"He's on the phone again," said Borin.
"All the way on the plane and now before he even unpacks," said Ziva.
"He takes his job seriously," Morse said.
Tony hung up his smartphone; put it in his back pocket, and then he ran his hands over his face.
"Homeland Security has vans in DC and New York with sniffers sampling the air for radiological and radiation. If they pick up anything they will let us know and we can follow the trail," he said.
"If they don't pick up anything, what does that mean?" Morse asked.
"Then he isn't in the city yet with the bomb. He is somewhere close by with his bomb maker," said Tony.
"Have we picked up anything on Nazar yet? TSA or has some agency catch a glimpse of him yet?" asked Borin.
Tony looked at the red haired woman and shrugged.
"Not yet. I'm still hoping on that one," said Tony
"We get anymore intel yet from the CIA?" asked Borin.
"No," Tony replied. "The FBI will be here in twenty, give or take five minutes. I want Morse and Borin to join them downtown drawing up search plans. We can't be passive on this, so I want you to start arranging surveillances of suspected terrorists and raiding spots the FBI think cell work out of. We might as well disrupt as much as we can."
"Boo, hiss," said Morse. "I don't want to play with the FBI. They're boring."
Tony gave him a glare which made him Morse smile.
"Ziva and I will check our local contacts and I'll talk to the NYPD," said Tony.
Morse looked over at Ziva and said, "Make sure you don't let him out of your sight. Ullman wants him dead and he has a way of getting into trouble."
"I have his six," she said then she looked over at Tony and gave him a teasing smile.
"We'll meet back here, right?" said Borin.
"Eventually," said Tony.
NCISNCIS
Gibbs sent Malachi and Liat out to work their local contacts in DC. He knew that they had plenty of local contacts and through the embassy they'd have even more. Getting intel from other foreign agencies would be appreciated. He hated being in the dark.
While the Mossad Wonder Twins worked their connections, he had Abby, Moss, and McGee hacking into important CCTV areas of DC and facial recognition software searching for a match for Nazar. Find Nazar and you would know which city the damned dirty bomb was going to be used in. He also had Fornell running facial recognition software at the airports, train station, and even bus station. Jardine was working closely with every intel source looking for hints and clues as to what Ullman had in store for DC.
With fresh cups of coffee in both hands he headed into MTAC, where Fornell was acting as the hub for all the ops. He let himself into MTAC then h walked down and handed Fornell a cup of coffee. Fornell gave him a knowing smirk. He knew how much Gibbs hated waited for a clue to work. The man wanted to be in the field hunting down either a clue or suspect.
"Thanks," Fornell said then he sampled the coffee. "Good coffee."
"Only the best, Tobias," said Gibbs then he took a sip of his coffee.
"Things are too quiet, Jethro."
"I know, Tobias. It reminds me of my least favorite part of being a sniper – waiting."
Fornell sipped his coffee then chuckled.
"You worried?"
"Should I be?" asked Gibbs.
"There's a lot of moving parts out there right now. LA has to track down anthrax, either NYC or DC is getting a dirty bomb, and who knows what the loser of the dirty bomb lottery gets," said Tobias.
"We have good people out there doing their jobs, Tobias," said Gibbs. "All we have to do us is trust that they do the right thing."
"I hope you're right, Jethro."
Fornell took another sip of his coffee then he looked at Gibbs.
"Good to have your boy back and working with you?" he asked.
"My boy?"
"DiNutso," said Fornell.
"He is his own man, Tobias. He's not my boy."
"Sure, Jethro, sure."
Fornell knew not to argue with Gibbs. It would be like arguing with a barn door. No matter how persuasive you were the barn door would remain a barn door, but he knew that Gibbs liked having DiNozzo back.
NCISNCIS
Ziva followed along with Tony to One Police Plaza, where Tony met with the commissioner as well as the head of the anti-terrorism group. The NYPD was less than thrilled that they were getting such short notice on a potential terrorist act in their city. He explained the situation to them in detail, as well as what the risk was for New Year's Eve. The mention of a dirty bomb turned their faces white. It was a less than happy group of police officers that Tony and Ziva left behind. They got into their borrowed NCIS New York office car. Tony drove, as Ziva got on her smartphone and made calls.
She talked away in Hebrew. Tony listened to her conversations as she attempted to get some intel from her local contacts. The last conversation was in German.
"I know you got nothing with all the calls. I'm not sure of the last one, though," he said.
"How do you know?" she asked.
She looked at him as if he had two heads.
"I understood the Hebrew conversations," he smiled. "I speak Hebrew, some, Pashtun, Arabic, and understand some Turkish."
"I forget you spent the last three years in the Middle East," she said.
"Yeah, good old Tony is gone. I've spent my time working my ass off and learning," he said. "I always thought Gibbs would be able to get me home, but Vance wanted me to swim on my own. His reasoning was that if I swam and succeeded he'd have another Gibbs. Well, he got what he wanted."
"You are not like Gibbs," said Ziva.
"Ducky always used to say that he and I were a lot alike. I didn't see it until recently. I've become about the job and the job only. Yeah, Gibbs has turned his team into his family, and I've Morse, a fun loving recon marine."
He smiled. Ziva noticed it was a sad smile.
"Now, the last call was in German, which I don't speak so I have no idea if you got good news or bad news. Did that contact have anything for you?"
Ziva looked at Tony and realized how great a price he had paid the last few years. He was always in search of family and when Gibbs couldn't bring him back, he lost his family. He had hardened himself because of that.
"My contact is with the BND. He said that chatter was increasing. Terrorists were saying that something big was coming," she said.
"Yeah, anthrax, a dirty bomb, and something in DC – yeah something really big is coming," he said.
Ziva nodded in agreement. They had the mother of all New Year's Eves coming up unless they stopped it.
"You hungry?" he asked.
"I could eat."
"Then let's eat," he said. "We can eat and brainstorm. Sound good?"
"I won't say no."
NCISNCIS
Deeks and Kensi arrived at the apartment building. It was a quiet little neighborhood. Parking the car, they got out and made their way to the apartment. When they got there the door was unlocked, so they drew their weapons and entered the apartment. Checking the rooms they found the body of Sultan in his kitchen. He'd been shot in the back of the head, so he brains were now on all over the refrigerator.
There was no sign of his partner. Karim Bin Abdul was in the wind. A search of the apartment told them that Abdul had packed a bag and left. They also found the paperwork showing that he had recently bought a car. It was a blue 2010 Kia Optima.
"Eric," Deeks called him on his smartphone. "Karim Bin Abdul recently bought a blue Kia Optima. It probably has false plates on it."
"Bolo?" he asked.
"Yeah. And see if you can get a picture of him in it with the plates. There are a few CCTVs around here. Let's hope he passed one of them," he said.
"I'll try," said Eric.
Deeks hung up and looked at his partner.
"At least it something," she said.
"Yeah, something," he said.
NCISNCIS
Gibbs was like an animal stalking prey, except he wasn't sure what the prey was. Everyone was tasked with some job, but they still hadn't got anything yet. He needed a lead, even the smallest lead, so that he could run it down and work it. Everyone made mistakes. They just had to find the mistake.
He stood up and looked at McGee.
"I'm going to get a coffee," he declared.
"Okay, Boss," said McGee.
"Call me if you get anything," he said.
Grabbing his overcoat, he headed off leaving McGee and Jardine.
"He's definitely not in a good mood," she said.
"I know," McGee agreed.
"You getting anything?"
"Not so far," answered McGee.
Jardine sighed then said, "We are getting nowhere fast."
"Keep working, Nikki. We will come up with something," said McGee.
Before he could get back to work, McGee heard the elevator ding and within seconds a bouncing Abby was standing in front of his desk. McGee smiled and sat back in his chair.
"What is it, Abs?" he asked.
"We got a hit on Nazar," she smiled.
McGee felt his adrenaline kick in. They finally had something.
"Okay, Abs, where is he?" he asked.
"At Ronald Reagan airport. Two days ago," she said then she moved from in front of his desk to behind it. "Let me use your computer."
He stood up and got out of the way. Abby brought up a photo of Nazar at a terminal.
"Tell me more, Abs," said McGee.
"The terminal handles shuttles to New York," she smiled. "He went to New York."
"Which means he did what he had to do here and now he's in New York somewhere building a bomb," growled McGee.
Abby came up beside him and McGee leaned over and kissed her cheek. She smiled.
"Well done, Abs," he said. "I have to let Gibbs and Tony know about this."
"Gibbs is going to want us to backtrack Nazar to where he was staying in DC," said Abs.
"Can you do that?" asked McGee.
"Already started, Timmy," smiled Abby.