Northeaster
After the emotionally exhausting press conference, Joy stayed at the main gate until all the press crews left, and she called up reinforcements in the form of a marine unit to ensure that no one stayed at it.
Only after the last TV van left, did she thank the marines and the guards of the gate, and returned to the building.
As soon as the doors of the elevators opened in the bullpen and she left the elevator, she was surprised by a wave of applause from every single agent on the floor. She looked around and everyone was clapping, from the delivery mail boy to Gibbs, who was standing by the plasma where a recording of the press conference was on. Again.
She walks towards their desks, and she looks confused at her team-mates, "what's the occasion?"
Gibbs just smirks, while DiNozzo and Ziva simply shake their heads, astonished.
"Occasion? Joy, you strolled in there and literally held them by their balls, it was a MasterCard moment!" says Tony.
"You dealt very well with the press, Joy," says Ziva, smiling at her team-mate.
Joy looks at Gibbs, not really expecting a compliment but some reaction from him, but he simply smirked, and said, "for a moment there, I was afraid you were going to deck that first journalist."
Joy smiles at Gibbs, "I got this close," she shows her indicator and her thumb close, almost touching, "to drawing my weapon and using him for target practice."
They smile at each other.
"Agent Buchanan," Vance calls out, coming down the stairs, until he stands by the agents looking at the plasma, "I have to admit I'm impressed with your ability to handle the press, I was just informed that all vans have left."
She smiles at the director, "I think I scared them, I was tempted to use my gun on them, and they knew that."
"Would you be willing to handle all NCIS press conferences from this day onwards?" asks Vance, but he's not surprised when she shakes her head no.
"Sir, with all due respect, I'd rather deal with a room full of psychopaths." She looks at the plasma, "at least I'm legally allowed to shoot them."
"When are you leaving?" Vance asks, and Joy walks to her desk, and starts getting her coat on and putting things in her purse.
"Now, I still have to pick up Jethro at McGee's place," she smiles, "the kids will be over the moon with a dog in the house," she cringes, "Lisa will hate it, but anyway," she turns smiling at her team-mates, "I will keep you posted on anything we find in Norfolk, and we will send any evidence through the local office."
"Good, and what about the other issue?" asks Vance, at the same time the elevator dings again, announcing the arrival of someone in the bullpen. Joy is looking for something in her bag, so she doesn't see who just entered the room.
"I'm waiting for word from Hope, she has a surveillance team on the Commander's ass, if he twitches we will know."
"He did more than twitching," says a familiar voice, and everybody turns to Faith Buchanan, Head of the White Collar Crime Section of the FBI and Joy's sister, who is looking at the agents with a very worried expression on her face.
"We have a problem," she says without preamble and Gibbs just sees Joy's shoulders lower under the strain of another problem coming their way.
NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS
Joy's departure was delayed due to Faith's arrival, and the oldest Buchanan sibling insisted that they all should go to a more private setting so she could explain her findings.
So, that's why all Team Gibbs, including Abby, Palmer, and Ducky, were all sitting at the Director's conference table while Faith put in a CD with the compiled data to run.
She stood by the end of the table, beside Director Vance, and as she explained she glance at Joy, who had a deep frown on her face and was staring at the wall with a very lost expression.
She puts on a picture of a smiling beefy man, very well dressed with a very thick gold ring on his little finger of his left hand.
"That is Michael 'Mike' Murdock, don of the Cosseti, one of the cruellest mob crews in New York. He has evaded the FBI for years, as he has his own army of servants to do his deeds. We know he commands a huge web of traffic, either of people, influence, and drugs, and his main tool is blackmail and murder."
"It is rumored that he has not one, but several moles in the Judiciary System, as he's always ahead of any of our attempts against him. None of our previous warrants were able to bring us closer to his arrest, and all our witnesses who were willing to testify either died or disappeared, presumed dead."
"Why are you telling us that?" says Vance, looking at the plasma, then at Faith.
"Because our wires registered an incoming call from New York to Commander Kieran McGee, and after some creative research we were able to track it down to one of several penthouses owned by Mike's businesses. The content of the call was disturbing, but that's not the reason why I'm here." She looks at Joy, silently demanding her attention. Joy blinks, and turns to her sister.
"Exactly thirty minutes ago I received a visit from General Jonathon 'Jack' O'Neill, Brigadier General of the United States Air Force. He is one of mom's superiors on her projects in Nevada. At exactly 10:56 am this morning, they registered an organized hacking attempt to the Department of Defense archives," Joy's looking at her sister, without moving a muscle, "they were looking specifically for your file, and when they couldn't access it, they went after the family's."
Joy is breathing very slowly, trying to control her panic, and she has a very empty expression on her face.
"Did they get anything?" she says softly, but Faith shakes her head no.
"No, they caught a glimpse of the encryption levels, but they never really got in, but whoever organized the attack knows the existence of security levels on the file, and they have an idea that, whatever is in there, must be worth to peek at."
Faith looks at all sitting at the table, "mom also, just as a precaution, had flagged and ordered the increase of encryption levels on all your files, and the Pentagon registered, starting this morning at 10:30 am, several different attacks trying to access your files," Faith looks at Ziva, "expect a call from your father, Mossad voodoo is still one of the best, but not infallible, order all confidential material to be taken offline as soon as possible, as their attacks have diminished in intensity, but have not stopped since they started this morning."
"Who ordered the attacks?" asks Vance, in a controlled voice, trying to hide how deeply shaken he was inside. If this was a targeted attack, they were all in danger.
"The Pentagon immediately started their tracing, and even though they went offline very fast to cover their tracks, their white hats were able to trace it back to six different hackers who are directly employed by" she points to the screen, "the one and only 'Mike' Murdoch."
"He planned it, but why?" asks Jimmy, looking at the man at the plasma. What secrets could his life possibly have that would interest a mobster?
"Leverage," said Gibbs, looking at his team and surrogate family, "accessing our files he could study our accomplishments and in some cases," he looks at Ziva, who refuses to catch his eye, "our weaknesses and failures, and he can plan better how attack us where it hurts the most."
"But why?" insists Jimmy, "I had never even heard of this man before, never even been in New York, why would he investigate my life?"
"Because Commander Kieran McGee told him so," says Joy, softly. She looks at Faith, and stands up to look at her sister, "he contacted Mike to investigate us, to gather information so he could be better prepared to attack us, regardless of how close we are to McGee, we're all targets."
"But we're aware of his intentions, so we can prepare for whatever he throws at us. Isn't that a good thing?" asks Vance, but he sees Faith shaking her head, and Joy lifts her hands and runs shaking hands through her hair, messing up with the curls.
"Sir, there's no good side of it. You're not seeing the whole picture," says Joy, looking, frustrated, at the Director.
"Director Vance," says Faith, after she glances at her sister, who is this close the boiling point, "I think you've forgotten a very little but important detail."
"What detail?" DiNozzo pipes up, still not seeing the whole picture.
"He's Timothy's father," says Joy, defeated.
"I don't understand, would that be a problem?" says Abby, who until now had remained uncharacteristically quiet.
"Conflict of interest," says Gibbs, finally seeing the reason for Joy's despair. She turns to him and nods.
"I still don't follow, Jethro." Says Ducky.
"If we take down Commander McGee," says Faith.
"Not if, when," says Ziva, with her anger simmering on her voice.
"When we take down Commander McGee, if his connections to the Mafia become common knowledge, it will be a career killer for Timothy," says Faith.
Every single person in the Director's office shuts up, and thinks about the problem.
"It is a common rumor that Mike has connections in the law enforcement and in the DA's office, if we arrest Commander McGee due to his mafia connections, there is no big leap to assume that the Commander's son was also into it, and was working as a mole," says Faith.
"But that's a lie!" shouts Abby, defending her friend, "Timmy would never do it."
"Abby," says Joy, tiredly, "I know that, you know that, but the court won't know that. We have to prove it, and that's the tricky part, because depending how deep the dirt on Tim's father is," says Joy, just to be interrupted by her sister, "it wouldn't be difficult for them to forge incriminating evidence proving that Timothy was as involved as his father."
"If it comes to that, they will install an internal affairs committee and will question every single case worked by the team that McGee was part of, and every single piece of evidence ever presented on court by McGee will lose its value."
Gibbs rubs his face with his hands, as he thinks of the staggering effects that would have on his team and on his work.
"Our cases pending a court decision will be put on hold, until all evidence is checked and rechecked again, and they will open a possible way out for those which have already been judged, as the defense lawyers will order their cases reopened and the evidence re-examined," he says, looking at Vance, who can't control the horror from creeping onto his face.
"That would be the end of NCIS, or at least a very strong hit that we wouldn't shake it in a very long time," he says, looking at Faith and Joy, who nod in agreement.
"But that's years of our work," says Tony, looking horrified from Gibbs to Vance, then to Faith, "They can't do that, can they?"
"They can, and they would," says Faith, "I've seen that done before, too many good men taken down by a sleazy bastard just because they happened to share the same DNA. Even if we in the end prove it that he had no connections to his father's deeds, the process and the doubt will crush him and he would never be the same, and probably wouldn't be able to hold a position in any Federal Agency ever again. The shame and the cloud of doubt would always follow him, wherever he goes."
"And," says Joy, staring fixedly at the floor, trying to control her breathing, "that would destroy him, he loves being a Fed, he loves NCIS, it would kill him, slowly, deeply and painfully," she lifts her eyes, and looks at her sister, "that's exactly the kind of problem that he doesn't need right now."
"Then we have to do something," says Abby, defending her resident geek, "we can't let his father stroll into his life and turn everything upside down."
"Indeed, my dear Abby," says Ducky, patting Abby's twitching hand over the table, "but whatever we do," he looks at Gibbs, "we must be extremely careful not to create repercussions that might endanger either Timothy's or anyone else's career."
Faith nods, and they all stay in silence once again, trying to find a way out of the deep well they all found themselves in.
"It's never easy, is it, sis?" says Faith looking at Joy, who is staring blankly ahead deep in thought, her brilliant mind working different scenarios and possibilities.
"Has anyone told mom about this yet?"
"No, still under lock and key in Norad."
Joy frowns, and asks, "What is Uncle Jack's take on this?"
Faith sighs, "he dispatched marine units to the hacker's last known locations, and they have orders to locate and terminate."
Vance frowns at that order, "is that really necessary?"
Faith shakes her head, "With all due respect, Director, they tried to hack the Pentagon, they accessed highly sensitive material on the Department of Defense servers and then attacked your personnel files, yours included. Do you really want to let these guys walk?"
Vance frowns, thinking about what could be found on his file, "I agree with the need to locate them, but perhaps…"
"No buts, Director," says Joy, firmly, "the work we do at NCIS is important, no questions about it, but the work that our mom does is…" she glances at Faith, then at Vance again, "sir, my mom's work is for presidential eyes only, General O'Neill is personal councillor of the Joint Chiefs, we can't afford for this type of information to fall in the wrong hands."
She shakes her head, and whispers, "we can't."
"I still do not agree with the General's decision of sending a tactical team to NY," says Vance.
"Oh, please Director," says Joy, as she turns to stare him in the eye, "you didn't arrive at the desk you have today by being nice. I'm sure that there are plenty of incidents in your personal file that you'd rather never have them see the light of the day, and neither to be exposed to the eyes of any of us in this room. Now imagine it, a mobster from NY was sniffing around it, and he wants to use it against you. He won't stop on the first attempt, now that his curiosity has been aroused, he will continue until some breach is found. And then," she stand right in front of him, looking at him, "your secrets will be his. Are you really willing to let that happen?"
Vance stared at his agent's face for one very long minute, considering his options and his own past. She was right, there were several circumstances in his file that he'd rather bury as deep as possible, and the possibility of someone sniffing around was chilling, to say the least. But to take such drastic measures, he was the Director of NCIS, for Christ's sake!
He turns to Faith, and says, "tell your General that I want to be kept in the loop of the operation he's commanding, and I want to receive a report of the acts done."
"We can tell him that, but I can't guarantee that he will tell you anything he doesn't want you to know," says Faith. She looks at Joy, "he will handle the problem in the best possible way on his side, the cyber attacks and the mob connection, but he expects us to plug the problem on our end, we have to deal with the commander."
"What, the General had no suggestions?" asks Ziva, interrupting the sisters. She studies both Buchanans, "he seems to be very proactive in his thinking, certainly he would have a contingency plan on how we should deal with the Commander."
Faith smiles at the Israeli, "he has several plans," then turns to Joy, studying her sister, who is frozen in the middle of the room staring at the picture on the plasma, "but he told me that he would interfere only if we couldn't deal with the Commander, as he's OUR problem, not his. The possibility of someone accessing our flagged files he can handle and crush, but he thinks that we would like to have something to sink our claws into. That's why he told me to come talk to all of you and consult Joy."
Joy blinks, and turns to her sister, "me?" Faith nods, "why me?"
Joy smiles at her younger sister, "you, of all of us, are the one closest in mindset to Mom. He said that your strategic thinking is better than several Generals he met in his work, and he damn well wished you'd heard him when you were younger and had opted for the Air Force, not the FBI. He said you would have become a colonel in no time at all, and a General some years later."
Joy smiles, "I don't think the Air Force could deal with a Buchanan as a Colonel, much less as a General. They already have to deal with mom on a daily basis." Both sisters grin at each other, but Joy turns to stare again at the plasma again.
"Tell me about Commander McGee," she says, and Faith starts spilling all that her research and Hope's surveillance team were able to dig up.
"Commander Kieran McGee, second generation navy, first wife was Marianne McGee, who divorced him after fourteen years of an unhappy marriage. Two children were born during this period, Timothy, and nine years later Sarah. Parallel to that, he collected a very long line of lovers, culminating in Irene McGee, nee Lee Hugues, who married the Commander a mere six months after his divorce. By then, they had already had a child, four year old James Lee McGee. James grew up to follow in his father's footsteps, joining the Navy as soon as he graduated from High School. He's currently assigned to USS Paul Hamilton, in Pearl Harbour, Hawaii."
She clicks her remote, and another picture of Kieran McGee comes up on the plasma, "he's known as a hard taskmaster. His tendency to harshly reprimand lower ranking officers lead him to receive the nickname of 'Terminator', as several of his subalterns either quit the Navy, or requested transfer to some other department, after just a few months of his supervision."
"The second marriage also did not last long, as Irene McGee requested the divorce after five years, and requested and was granted custody of their only son."
"That's why he's so insistent on having Sarah back," says Ducky, and everyone turns to him, "he lost his only puppet, he needs someone on which he can enforce his need of control and manipulation, and it was taken from him."
"But we won't give him the chance to have it back, not Sarah," says Joy, frowning at the picture, "what else?"
"He is fond of Scotch, sixteen year old malt, straight, no ice, and he's very passionate about his Orchidaceae collection."
Joy frowns at Faith, and Vance asks, "How did you access that information?"
Faith smiles at the NCIS director, "Don't ask, but Hope has her ways, we're better off not knowing how."
Vance looks at the plasma, and says to Joy, "after this nightmare is over, remind me to offer a position in our counterintelligence unit to your sister, she would be a great addition to us."
Joy snickers, and Faith shakes her head, "good luck in trying to pry her out of the FBI, they will put up a hell of a fight, now," Faith's smile gets bigger, "do you want to know the color of his PJs, or can we continue?"
"I'd rather plan how to nip this cancer in the bud," says Gibbs, standing up and starting to pace in Vance's office, "we have to take him down but still not put in danger McGee's or our careers," he stops and stares at his team-mates, "we can't let him win on this."
"He won't," says Ziva, "if you wish, I could go have a talk to him and convince him that he's much better off keeping his claws away from McGee."
"No," says Joy, "regardless of how efficient your abilities might be, he knows who you are, he knows you are Mossad, he would be expecting such reaction and he might use it to his advantage."
"We need someone he has never met, but enticing enough to catch his eye and use as bait," says Faith.
Both sisters freeze, then slowly turn to each other and grin, "Hope!" they say at the same time.
"What are you planning?" Tony wants to know, and he's fascinated to see the Buchanan sisters working together.
Joy turns to glare at the plasma, where Kieran's picture is still on, "fetch Hope on him, tell her to give him rope, lots of rope, and when he's deep enough under her spell," she turns to look at Gibbs, who can see the fury burning bright in his agent, "hang him and leash him, and make it clear that we won't tolerate him making threats to anyone of our family, neither our extended family and if he dares come near to any of us, well," she takes a deep breath, trying to calm down.
"That's blackmail, Agent Buchanan," says the Director.
"No, Director, that's survival," says Joy, turning her hands into tight fists, "I will not stand by while someone threatens me or any of mine, and if he dares hurt Timothy again, there will be no hole in this entire world where he might hide, because I will find him, and he will pay for that."
Everyone stares at Joy, who after her passionate speech looks around at the astonished faces of those present, and at the smirks both in Gibbs' and Faith's faces.
"Damn, you sound like Maggie," says Gibbs, with a huge smile on his face.
"I have to agree with him, for a moment I thought mom was in the room," says Faith.
"So," Tony stands up from his chair and looks from one sister to the other, "now that we have decided what to do, what will we here," he points to the team, Ziva, Ducky, Abby and Palmer, "do while Hope ropes the Commander in?"
Both sisters look at each other, and grin, "prepare for battle, of course," says Faith.