Hi, sorry for the long wait, but busy with work. Hope you like this chapter enough to review! Love hearing from readers. Here in Québec, most of our snow is gone and spring has finally gotten around to warming our faces with its sun. Hope you all have lots of sunshine in your days! Here, we missed it enormously!

Chapter 7 – Getting organized!

Turning towards Sharon, Ziva said in despair, "Why me, what has this to do with my life story or more my nightmare of a life?"

Sharon winced, "Nothing with you personally, but Eyal is Jewish, Israeli and Mossad."

Tony carefully added, "Ziva, who do you reach out to when in a serious crisis?"

Ziva bit her lips and nodded that she understood. "I turn to a trusted Jewish and Israeli friend, Shmeil."

Sharon added, "Ziva, in no way do I want to offend you but it's a known fact that Israelis + Jewish + Mossad will turn for help towards their 'people' first. Mossad doesn't only have assets, it can always count on the help of Sayanim. (People abroad, recruited among the Jewish Diaspora). Mossad is the only spy agency who recruits in that way…. the only one that can because of the Israelis' love for their country. The trust in their faith is over and above most nations. Eyal is not targeting you, but seeking your help. He knows how much this is going to revive painful memories, but, at this moment, his son is his priority. Don't know the man much, but for him to use you, in this way, is making me say he must be backed in a corner with no way out."

Ziva was fighting back tears, but her expression suddenly changed.

"Sharon, your asset, when is he going to meet with Avi? You are right; our enemies must be well organized for Eyal to go to this length. It just dawned on me that we might be putting both Eyal and Avi in danger if we take the boy's cell. We'll be letting the enemy know we are on to them!"

Sharon's face went blank, "Knew I'd screw up, it was just a matter of time, damn!"

Tony calmed both, "Ladies, let's not get ahead of ourselves. Sharon, your asset, get a hold of him, now."

"Tony by this time Avi has a new phone and his old one is on a plane schedule to arrive in Washington tomorrow … no today at 0800!"

Tony sternly said, "Call him, that's an order Officer Welby."

Sharon shot him an exasperated look but obeyed.

Looking at Tony's facial expressions, Ziva knew something was up. That man could not hold a secret, he just needed to out the feeling of 'I know something you don't!'

Sharon turned towards Tony and handed him her phone. "HE wants to talk to YOU! WTF?"

Tony took the phone and asked for a debrief of what had happened. He gave instructions that Avi was to stay on ghost protection detail and that MI-6 (with Mossad's OK) would provide personnel to assist him. They discussed the surveillance plan and ended the conversation.

A smug Tony turned to see two pairs of eyes wanting to jump at him, he chuckled and said, "If looks could kill!"

Ziva spat out, "Tony, I don't need my eyes to kill, a simple twist of your neck will do! Care to read us in?"

"For my defense; had not planned on keeping the events from Sharon. Wanted it to be a learning experience, but as always when Mossad is in town, all hell breaks loose! When you girls told me you had called Eyal's son and asked for him to give us the cell, I realized that if Eyal had given his son the cell for them to stay in touch with Eyal's tracker (microchip)… it was a two-way deal. Us, trading his phone for an 'upgrade' would surely put both son and father in danger. I asked Tim to trace the call Sharon had made to her asset. Little Tony Dinozzo from NCIS was not in that asset's little black book and he did not want to talk to me, so I went over his head! Look, you two weren't available…. I decided to get Sharon's father to call that asset."

Sharon lifted her shoulder and loudly breathed out, "My father knows of my latest oops … great that means I'm going to be pulled out at any moment."

'Sharon, my turn to tell you to give yourself some slack! Yes, your father had some choice words, but I … well let's say… I might not be in front of the line for being an MI-6 recruit, gave him my American view of his reaction."

Sharon stopped breathing for a moment and said, "Tony, please tell me you didn't give my father a piece of your mind!? He's the chief of MI-6 in case you forgot."

"He's first your father and he wasn't acting as one. Sharon, I let one director's daughter down, not going to happen a second time. Those 'directors' need to realize their daughters' are trying 200% harder than regular officers because of the position of their dad. Don't worry, he admitted jumping the gun. We solved the problem with your Israeli asset: Avi is safe and, on Sharon's asset advise, was read in. Seems the apple didn't fall far from the tree; Avi is quite a trouper and playing his role perfectly. Girls all is well, do not worry, we have eyes on the Israeli home front. Mossad is leaving MI-6 the lead for Avi's surveillance not to be noticed."

Sharon went to Tony and gave him a hug and a friendly kiss.

"Thanks for cleaning up my mess and giving me a second chance."

"Sharon, you don't need a second chance. We all make mistakes. Hell, if Gibbs would have grounded me for all of mines, I'd be permanently glued to my desk. Mrs. … you were not alone in erring, our own special NCIS ex-Mossad agent was by your side and didn't pick up on the 'oops'. You girls are so tied up in the action and stressed out on the need to perform/succeed that you forget some 'essentials'."

Ziva nodded and agreed with Tony, "Sharon, with Tony, Gibbs and the rest of my NCIS team, I learned/accepted that I am more an investigator that a spy. You, on the other hand, are the same as Eyal, 100% spy. I'm giving you the best advice Gibbs and Tony gave me; accept that you can make errors that you are not expected to be perfect and that you can't make all that is bad, good."

"Still my shortcoming could have killed Eyal and Avi, that's a fact!"

Tony upped his tone, "Sharon Welby, you work with a team, we help/cover each other! I was with Quinn when you stumbled upon Eyal's son being implicated. Had I been present, I would have picked you up on your error. It was presented to me after the facts. Experience my little Grasshoppers, you'll get to where I am, do not worry! Let me give you my version of what happened; Tim drilled down, triangulate the three missions for clues and came up with a possibility. You girls verified McHacker's theory by calling Avi. That is where, both of you, put your 'mommies' emotions to on and forgot the basis of protecting a witness. Tim, I will need to talk with, he has no excuse … except maybe being impressed by our visiting spies! Girls, am I wrong?"

Both Sharon and Ziva rolled their eyes at him, but admitted, "Bull's eye, Tony."

Tim winced and admitted, "Yes, I consider Sharon and Eyal … even Ziva well above my skill level on these 'spy mission' matters."

Tony shook his index at Tim and replied, "Well let this be a learning experience; nobody is above making a mistake and as a teammate you should/could have pointed it out."

He continued, "Now, back to the case. Sharon, you're up with the missing co…. well co … something.

Tim added, "comorbidity, Tony!"

"Yes, McDic, Comorbidity. By the way … what does it mean?"

Tim mockingly replied, "Big and complicated word meaning the simultaneous presence of two chronic diseases or conditions in a patient. Like the comorbidity of anxiety and depression in Parkinson's disease"

"Thanks Tim, I'll sleep better tonight knowing that. No, I won't! Sharon care to expose why we aren't going to get some sleep tonight."

"Look, now that I had time to think of it and with what I just learned, I'm having doubts..."

Tim replied in a stern voice, startling Tony, "Never second guest yourself because you are still shaken from a previous wrongdoing!"

Sharon breathed hard and said, "It might be better to wait for Eyal to give us the real picture. Mine could hurt people… Ziva…"

Ziva replied, "Sharon, I can handle it. I prefer we err and act than wait and err … deadly! I'm with you, Eyal's clues are targeting me, well not me, but my troubled family. There's a reason."

"OK, here goes; A person knew to drill down on Avi and most important had the secret codes to control Eyal's devise. I trust Ziva did not let the secret of the microchip slip. Eyal's charades are pointing us to 'who did it'. It can only be somebody very close to Ziva, Eyal, or a person close to Eli David (Ziva's father)."

Ziva felt she needed to add, "Not my side of the family, they are all dead; Eli, Tali, Ari, Rivka (Ziva's mom not Eyal's boss) and Hasmia Haswari. On Eyal's side, his twin, Ilan Bodnar is dead leaving Eyal's adopted parents, they are not involved believe me! Normal people and must be 75-80 years old. Eyal's ex., Hanna, can't even see a gun without breaking out in hives and hates and I mean HATES the Mossad. Plus, she would never implicate Avi in some sort of revenge on Eyal, to dangerous. Sorry, Sharon, dead end!"

Sharon twisted her lips and said, "Maybe not. The file I was given, by MI-6, to prepare to meet this NCIS team, mentioned Ziva replaced a certain Kate Todd. Sadly, the story that had gotten Ziva to NCIS was well documented in that file. What can I say; MI-6 goes deep when documenting a mission. It was written that Kate, at one point, could have killed Ari Haswari. She was stopped by the sadness in his eyes. MI-6 had a couple of photos of Ari and there was no sadness or empathy in that man's eyes."

Nobody was following Sharon, especially Ziva, "Sharon, what does Kate and Ari have to do with Eyal and Avi's situation!?"

Smiling Sharon added, "Because Ari's photos jotted my memory! A couple of years ago, on a mission, I had met up with a very handsome Mossad officer posing, like I, as a Hamas mole. He and I, well…. we hit it off for a couple of weeks. His name was Nathan. He looked very much like, the now dead, Ari Haswari. I was intrigued enough to compare the photos of both men. I concluded that they looked alike but that it couldn't be the same person. Ari was dead when I met Nathan. Plus my Nathan was 'likable', Ari Haswari looked like a deranged Svengali. Didn't make anything out of it at the time, just that the resemblance was striking. Summed it up to the fact that to non-natives, many Israelis look alike. Tim's words made me 'rewind' my observation and look at the resemblance of Nathan and Ari in a different way … well … see for yourself; Tim can you put the pictures I have in my iPod on screen?"

Tony glared, "Sharon, you were told to give all phones to Quinn!"

"Not a phone… iPod."

A smiling Tim explained, "She's right, it's like a game console. You can play apps or listen to music. You can have access to the internet, but no calls! She did not 'disobey', it's not a phone!"

Sharon added, "Quinn and Gibbs asked for our phones, not our gadgets. I'm a Bond's girl … we love our gadgets and always have many on us! Tim, can you put the photos up on screen?"

Tony warned his troupe. "Guys, be careful, we are in the open. Quinn or Eyal could join us at any time. Tim can you rapidly erase any trace if you pull those up on screen."

"Not a problem, Boss … euh Tony… Boss…"

Tony smiled, "Loved that you called me Boss, but prefer that be left for Gibbs's. Tony is fine with me!"

Tim put up multiple pictures of Nathan and Ari.

Ziva's eyes were tearing up prompting Tony to put his arm around her shoulders. To his surprise, she leaned on him. Suddenly, she shot up,

"Sharon, damn … you are right; there are two Ari's. Those pictures are not of the same man, but the resemblance is ….. The clues and the NCIS missions Eyal threw at us, they all pointed towards families, father-daughter-son relationships, darkness, lies, deaths. Ilan, Eyal's twin did try to warm me of me not seeing the whole picture but I only wanted him dead… I should have listened. Eyal is also trying to tell me the same thing; Comorbidity. It could mean; Ari and Sharon's Nathan, another set of good and bad twins, like Eyal and Ilan. That meaning I still have one brother that is alive. This is chilling my blood and I've seen and live through a lot!"

Tim interrupted, "Sharon, you didn't know the details of those missions. How could you have deduced that long time dead Ari was involved? I admit you spies are impressive, but I don't believe you have a crystal ball mind!"

Sharon smiled and explained, "You, when you mentioned that Eyal and I had medical training. It struck me that those three missions involved rogue doctors; Dr. Elain Burns, Dr. Harper Dearing (didn't practice but Ziva mentioned he was a screwed badass that had a doctorate in phycology), Eli David studied as a doctor and was undercover as one when Ari was conceived. Tim, your words got me thinking of my first impression of Ari versus the Nathan I knew…. they were also both doctors… Like Mr. Gibbs says 'There is no such thing as a coincidence!' Eyal's word 'comorbidity' sealed it all and it hit me; Nathan could be Ari's twin!"

Ziva responded, "Sharon … that means I killed your Nathan."

Sharon quickly corrected, "He was never my Nathan. Found him cute and we shared a safe house on a common mission. We hit it off but went our separate ways once the mission was over. Didn't hear of him again and didn't expect to."

Ziva continued, "So many questions are turning around in my head and sadly some old questions are finding answers. Wish my father was still alive!"

Tony asked, "Ziva, do you know of a friend, a family member or just someone that could confirm this MOS (mother of secrets)?"

"No, but the more I think of it, the more I'm certain this is my father's doing. He drilled into me to always, always have a backup plan. When Ari went rogue on him, he made certain he'd be disposed of. Didn't matter … he had the other one as a backup!"

Tony replied, "OK, if it makes sense to Ziva, I'll go along with the idea of twin Aris'. Eyal's tracker, Ziva, do you think both Aris' could have the codes?"

Ziva winced, "Yes, my brother was Eli's 'second in command' on this microchip plan. I'm concluding, Ari 2 would have had access to the codes as Ari 1 had. I'm now guessing, 7 people, not 6, were carrying those chips. If Ari2 still has his chip, he, with the right codes, can control Eyal and I'm guessing Avi, Eyal's son, is a hostage, to secure Eyal's collaboration."

Tim asked, "Ziva, if this is real, do you think your brothers' knew about each other?"

Ziva closed her eyes, "Not sure they both knew of each other but at least one knew of the other."

Tony and Tim's faces were a greyish color. Tony closed his eyes and said,

"I need to send this to Gibbs. We can't be going gun hoe into the night with only presumptions! Girls wait here. Tim keep that iPod and come with me. If we meet someone; you have a touch of the stomach flu. I'm helping you 'walk it off'. We clear?"

"Yes!"

Sharon asked, "Tony are we sure no eyes and ears are one us?"

"Don't worry. FBI and NCIS assured me that this place is more than clean. It's the only place they can guarantee so don't want you discussing the case in your quarters. FBI searched our quarters but cannot guarantee 100% that they are not bugged. This and my next location, they can."

Tim asked, "And where would that be?"

"The throne room!"

Tim whispered, "You secured a communication line in the bathrooms!"

"What can I say; I used my head or in this case the head!"

All rolled their eyes at Tony.

An hour later, Tony and Tim were back. 'Girls, Gibbs and Ducky want me to tell you, 'one hell of a profiling job.' We can't be certain of your theory but Ducky is sold to it. For him it explains a lot; one Ari had a soft spot for Kate and the other Ari couldn't care less for Kate. Couldn't transfer them the pictures, the transfer could not be 100% secured. Meaning Abby can't analyse the photos of the two Aris'. Gibbs concluded that if one Ari is alive, we have a hell of a problem; the man is in for a gigantic coup! Ziva, were you, at one point, read-in on his last mission, be it Mossad or Hamas!?"

"Sorry, no. We're working completely blind. Can't even say if he's attached to a terrorist cell!"

Tony said, "Like Sharon just did, going to out my thoughts; he's on his own. Eight years ago, the man had a mother of a plan and was willing to have his own brother killed for it to succeed. Gibbs was marked to kill Ari 1 but the fact that it was Ziva that pulled the kill shot, made his plan abort. Don't know why or how, but his big 'score' could no longer happen. It must be personal, lucrative, rewarding and a worthwhile 'projet'! No terrorist cell would wait that long to strike again. Plus, I always thought that Ari went way overboard with making our team's life miserable by targeting Abby, Duchy, Gerald and in the end killing Kate only because Gibbs, in Ari's eyes, reminded him of Eli David! Make Gibbs suffer to revenge himself from his father … something just wasn't right. Today, we might be seeing tiny parts of the real iceberg!"

Ziva outed, "Why now, why leave 8 years pass. We should wait for Eyal's explanations with the fluorescent powder in Sharon's book."

Sharon looked defeated, "Eyal, doesn't know. If he did, he would have given us clues of the 'What' and not the 'Who'. Standard spy protocol, Mrs. David–get to the point using the shortest 'line' possible! Sadly, you can forget about my plan. It was doomed from the start; Ari #1 and # 2 were very capable snippers…."

Ziva interrupted, "Shit… if he's watching from a building nearby with a snipper's rifle powerful scope, we're f_cked. Such a scope can read ultraviolet powder!"

Sharon added. "That's why Eyal got a bit personal with me. He made for the message I had written on my neck to be hidden from a possible snipper on the lookout. Damn, he must think I'm clueless, better an idiot!"

Ziva consoled Sharon, "We are facing a very intelligent born again Mossad/Hamas/Al-Qaeda terrorist. Ari was all of that and more! Sharon, you are right; Eyal is as stuck as we are and will not think a spy who is working blind and trying to help is an idiot! We need to stop getting down on ourselves and live up to this challenge. My brother … more brothers had a Jekyll and Hyde personality and were very intelligent. To beat the last remaining Ari, we will need to outfox a very prepared jackal!"

Sharon's face shot up, "Ziva, your glasses, shades whatever…. They can spot a snipper's laser pointer?"

Ziva's dark eyes glowed, "Yes, but you gave them to Eyal. We can't very well drop in and fetch them … don't know if you noticed, but it's late or early morning!"

Tony stood up, "Ziva is right; people, we need to thread carefully here. This team is supposed to be sleeping … hard and stressful work tomorrow. It won't seem 'natural' to an onlooker if we chitchat all night. A diversion is needed, preferable one that will make it look natural for Sharon to drop by Eyal and fetch the wanted shades!"

Ziva snickered at Sharon, "Girl, you might very well get up and personal with Eyal…. that he wants it or not!"

To be continued,