Chapter 18 – Test of Loyalty

Tim McGee

Mid-September 1932

He paced their apartment, waiting for Tony to return. He glanced at the nearest clock and sighed. It could still be hours before Tony returned home. He hated not knowing how their plan was playing out and not for the first time, he cursed the fact that he was now a 'valuable asset' that couldn't be risked.

Tonight was the night. After two weeks of meticulously planning, all the pieces were in place. Gibbs had put the plan into motion earlier this afternoon and now he was forced to wait in their apartment until Tony came home.

They had gotten word to Fornell that there was supposed to be a bureau raid on Quicksilver for tonight and they had given him a location to meet under the guise of a staging location for the raid. If Fornell showed, Gibbs and Tony would pick him up. But if Fornell notified Napolitano about the raid, then they'd pick him up for tipping off Napolitano. Either way, they would find out what a G-man was doing on Napolitano's payroll tonight.

Abby was at Quicksilver, tending to her club but he couldn't afford to be seen by any of Napolitano's men without Tony. To give him a good reason for not being at Quicksilver on a Friday night, he had been pretending to catch a cold. And that had culminated with a spectacular performance earlier that day. After coughing for most of the morning, Napolitano had burst through the door that separated their offices and told him to stop hacking or go home.

He had managed to tone down his coughing only because he had to know whether or not Fornell warned Napolitano. But the afternoon passed and he hadn't any inclination that Fornell had warned Naps. When Naps left the office at four-thirty, he stopped in Tim's office and instructed him to stay home tonight.

"Are you my father now?" he had asked, his voice rough from all his fake coughing.

"No," Napolitano had retorted. "I'm your Boss and I don't want you getting me sick." Jimmy looked at him pointedly. "And I don't need you getting worse off because you want to spend more time with that weird bird that runs Quicksilver."

"Abby?" he asked as he repressed a cough.

"Yeah, her," Jimmy agreed. "The woman you've been seeing these last five months in case you've forgotten."

"I haven't forgotten. Do you have a problem with me seeing her?" he asked cautiously.

"After all this time?" Jimmy asked. "You don't think I'd have said something before now if I had?"

"I don't know," Tim replied. "I suppose you would have."

"Like I said, I'm not your Papa. If I was, I might have a few words to say on your choice of dames." Napolitano laughed suddenly. "I think you've got strange taste in women." Tim chuckled and coughed lightly into his handkerchief. "And since I'm not your father, I say good for you. She must be something in the sack eh?"

He clammed up.

"Being a gentleman?" Napolitano asked when he didn't reply. "Good for you, my boy. Good for you. Go home. Get some rest. I don't want to hear you coughing again on Monday."

"Of course, Mr. Napolitano. Have a good weekend," he said as he returned his attention to his books. He had a few more entries to make before he could leave.

If Napolitano knew that Quicksilver was targeted, he would have warned him to stay away more directly. The last thing Jimmy needed was to have his money man caught up in a wide net cast by the Bureau and he wouldn't want to risk him going to the club even if he wasn't sick.

Not to mention, if Jimmy had known that Quicksilver was going to be raided, Jimmy would have said something to Abby. Abby's club had more than made up for the reduced revenues of the re-opened Tin Angel's. Even though the club was open again, it wasn't nearly as popular as it once had been. Even Jimmy had taken to visiting Quicksilver instead of the Tin Angel and he wasn't going to risk losing the crown jewel of his social clubs.

And as of an hour before opening, Abby hadn't been warned either and he wasn't sure how she was going to take it. They had to go through with a raid to truly test Fornell. He had to pray that her security measures worked as they had been designed. The fact that he hadn't received a scathing phone call from Abby had him worried though.

Which left him to pace their apartment, alone.

He glanced at the clock. It was almost two in the morning. Tony should be back by now. He hoped that nothing had gone wrong. After all, Fornell was an armed Federal Agent.

Suddenly he heard a key rattle in the door. Unconsciously, he moved to a safer location and reached for his weapon. He watched as the door opened and a shadowy figured slipped into the apartment. He slipped off the safety with a light click.

"Easy McGee," Tony said. "It's just me."

He let out the breath he had been holding. "Damn, Tony. You nearly gave me a heart attack," he said as he replaced the safety on his pistol and turned on a light. "Why didn't you knock?"

"On my own apartment door?" Tony asked as he shut the door.

He frowned as he realized that didn't make sense to him either. But that wasn't the point. "Where have you been?" he demanded. "I thought you'd be back hours ago."

"So did we. But it took longer than expected to get Fornell to talk," Tony replied. "He couldn't exactly see us, which spooked him."

"I can't imagine why," he said sarcastically.

Tony sighed as he sank onto the couch. He seemed too tired to retort. "It took two hours just to convince him we weren't Napolitano's men." He looked at Tony incredulously. "I know. It's a lot tougher when you actually are one of Napolitano's men. He thought that Naps had put a hit out on him. He thought that we were the goons sent to kill him. Add in the fact that we were hiding in the shadows to keep him from seeing our faces…"

"I see what you mean. No wonder it took so long to convince him otherwise," he replied as he walked over to their small liquor cabinet. But on second thought, he turned his steps to the kitchen and poured a couple glasses of water. He returned to the living room and handed one of the glasses to Tony before he sat down in one of their chairs.

"Thanks," Tony said gratefully as he sipped his water. "Everything went according to plan," Tony said. "He arrived at the meeting point and our people separated him before the raid. They brought Fornell to an abandoned building where Gibbs and I were waiting."

"That couldn't have sat well with Fornell," he said.

Tony snorted. "Of course not," Tony retorted. "What would you think if you were taken to an abandoned building and met with two guys who stayed in the shadows?"

"That I was about to be bumped off," he replied.

"Yeah," Tony replied. "We had a heck of a time convincing him that we were good guys," Tony said as he sipped his water. "And once we did, he clammed up again," Tony said.

"Let me guess, he thought he was being arrested for tipping off Naps," he said as he sipped his drink.

Tony nodded. "Right in one, McGee. He kept asking for a lawyer. He didn't want to say anything incriminating. We kept telling him we weren't arresting him."

"We don't have the power to arrest anyone," Tim retorted.

"I know that," Tony replied. "But we couldn't tell him that. It didn't help that we couldn't give him any information about who we were or why he ought to trust us. We had to be careful. It was obvious from the start that he was sharp as a tack."

"You didn't want to give him enough information to figure out you were undercover because we don't want him investigating us," he inferred.

"Yeah," Tony replied. "For a while he thought we were Grenouille's goons trying to turn him. It took a few choice words about Kort convinced him otherwise." He chuckled. "But that's why it took five hours to get him to talk to us. I'm still not sure he trusts us, but it's a start."

He smiled and sipped his drink. "Pretty impressive considering all the cloak and dagger stuff you had to go through just to talk to him. He never saw your faces?"

Tony shook his head. "He saw a couple of trustworthy navy boys that Morrow handpicked. They're sworn to secrecy and they're shipping out in a few hours. They won't even be able to mail a postcard for the next two months."

"What about Gibbs? Is he convinced that Fornell isn't the mole?" he asked.

Tony shrugged. "I think he's coming around." Tim looked at him, puzzled. "Let's put it this way. Fornell confirmed he isn't high enough in the Bureau food chain to have access to the information that led to that witness getting whacked."

"Like I told you," he said.

"Yeah, yeah, I know McSmartypants," Tony muttered as he sipped his drink.

"Is he going to help us?" he asked.

Tony looked up at him and replied, "Yeah. He is. Like you said, he's only working for Napolitano because his Ex got into money trouble. She was trying to live a high life and took out a loan from one of Napolitano's sharks. When she couldn't repay in time, Napolitano sent some goons to bust up her place. Scared her so bad, she went to Fornell for help." Tony sipped his water. "I'm not so sure that Fornell would have been so quick to act if not for their daughter. He'd do anything to protect her."

"That confirms what I had suspected," he said as he sipped his water.

"I still can't believe that Jimmy is threatening a little girl," Tony said. "That seems low, even for him."

"I know," Tim mused. "I don't think he wants to do it. Jimmy does have a code of honor." Tony looked at him incredulously. "His definition of honor is different than most people's but he still has a code, Tony. His rules aren't numbered like Gibbs' but he's got rules that he won't break."

"So what's that mean?" Tony asked. "It's a hollow threat?"

"No," he replied as he stood up and started to pace. "Naps does not make hollow threats," he said firmly. "I don't think he'd intentionally harm Fornell's daughter but that doesn't mean he still can't use her as leverage, which is why I think that Fornell has been working with him." He shook his head. "But it's a fine line. If something happens to Fornell's daughter, Naps knows it would backfire on him."

"Fornell wouldn't have anything left to lose," Tony said. He stopped pacing and nodded. "You've talked to Jimmy about this?"

"No," he replied. "As far as I know, he doesn't know I've fully decoded the ledgers. But I've worked next to the man for six months. He might be crass, he might be brutal at times, but he isn't a fool. James Napolitano doesn't make a decision without considering the consequences. And just from the two times I've encountered Fornell, I get the feeling that he's only playing along with Napolitano because he has to. If something happens to his daughter, Fornell will go after Napolitano and he wouldn't wait for a warrant."

Tony looked at him as he thought. He watched silently as his partner thought back to his own encounter with Fornell.

"I don't think you're wrong," Tony said. "And that's concerning. Fornell could be more of a wild card than we had anticipated."

He nodded. "So what's next?"

"For now?" Tony asked. "Nothing. We need to make sure he doesn't go to Napolitano. And we need to know if he goes to his boss at the Bureau. Either one of those could blow up our plan." He nodded. "Once we're sure he's square, we'll move onto the next part of the plan. But we don't need to rush this."

"Why start now?" he asked dryly. "We've been on this mission for a year and a half now."

"We knew this was going to be a long one when we took the job, Tim," Tony said.

"I know," he replied as he retook his seat. He sighed. "I guess I was just beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel, you know? I've decoded the ledgers, we know the scope of Jimmy's businesses and I can personally testify about his money laundering and racketeering. But if it isn't Fornell, we don't have the mole that's been protecting Jimmy."

"He's off book," Tony said. He nodded seriously. "We're going to have to systematically test Jimmy's network to figure out who this other mole is."

"That's what I was thinking," Tim replied. "Just like Fornell. We raid his illicit businesses, put a pinch on his bootleggers, and raid his clubs until we figure out who's helping him."

He looked at Tony questioningly.

"Just ask, will you?" Tony asked as he finished his glass of water.

"What happened to Quicksilver?" he asked. "You did check in on them before coming here right?"

Tony nodded. "Of course I did. Blue's guys sighted the cops before they got to the factory. They pulled the pin and kept the patrons in the club until it was all clear. Of course, since they were our boys from the Navy Yard and not real cops, they didn't look too hard for the place."

He nodded knowing that the raid had been a charade but Fornell, Abby and most importantly, Napolitano had to think it was real.

Since the Frog's failed attempt to kidnap him, Abby had put in place extra security. They decided to use that to their advantage to foil a potential raid. It made Abby look good and it also prevented any real damage from being done to one of Napolitano's clubs over an op that was meant to catch Fornell.

"Abby was pissed though." Tony said as he looked at him meaningfully. "She gave everyone a round on the house to make up for their troubles. She's out a lot of good liquor and she didn't even get raided."

"I can only imagine how upset she was, once she realized Quicksilver was safe," he said as he finished his water. "I take it, she realized I wasn't sick."

"Yeah," Tony said snorting.

"Is she pissed because of the liquor or because I didn't warn her about the raid?" he asked. It was a tossup as to which one would make her angrier.

"Both," Tony replied as he finished his drink. "You might want to claim ignorance."

"You're kidding, right?" he asked. "I can't lie to Abby. I've tried. She calls me on it every time. She's almost as good as Gibbs."

"Well then, you're in trouble, Probie," Tony said starting to stand.

"Wait," he said. "Does she know the raid wasn't real?"

"We didn't want to tell her," Tony replied. "Not with a crowd." He closed his eyes and looked toward the ceiling. He was going to be in for it when he finally told Abby the truth. "Yeah," Tony said as he patted his shoulder sympathetically. "You're screwed."

"Yeah," he agreed. "And not in the good way."

"You know, I miss the time where I didn't know anything about your sex life," Tony said.

Opening his eyes, he stared at Tony incredulously. "Oh, like you're one to complain? For five years, I had to listen to you gloat about every Spanish señorita, French mademoiselle, or Italian signorina you slept with! You can dish it out but you can't take it!"

Tony tried to deny it but no words came out of his mouth, just unintelligible sounds.

"You know, I don't need to defend myself to you," Tony said finally. He looked at his partner triumphantly. "Good night, McGee," Tony said pointedly.

"Night, Tony," he said with a smile, pleased that he had finally got one over on his partner.

Tony walked to his room but paused in the doorway. "Tim, if I were you, I would plan one heck of an apology if you ever want to dance the horizontal tango with Abby again."

"What if the horizontal tango is my apology?" he asked.

"Ick," Tony said sourly. "And I'm going to bed," Tony said as he shut his door.

Laughing lightly at his partner, he shut the light off and returned to his room. Tony was right, he would have to plan a special apology. And he'd have to warn Abby that this likely wasn't going to be the last time that they targeted Quicksilver.

If they were going to be targeting Napolitano's network to find the mole, they couldn't leave out Quicksilver without it being conspicuous. This was going to be a test of their friendship just as much as anything.