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Chapter 4

Time passed by and cases were solved. Tony was winning back confidence with the time and started to keep his life together for Kathleen and make a stable environment where she was supposed to grow up possible. Marissa grew into the team – more or less, considering what happened to the last two team members who had been working with McGee and Tony.

It was raining that afternoon when the director of NCIS received a phone call. Burdened with bad news that urged to be made public among the agents, he headed down the stairs and made the agents gather around him by whistling loudly. The new director, only working for a few months for NCIS now, was younger than his predecessors had been and much more energetic.

With only few words he explained what had happened, "I just received a call from the CIA deputy of Norfolk. They had received an anonymous warning about a planned attack at three different targets in the city. Military forces are already out there to secure the areas but another call was answered, the same anonymous person claiming that additional two targets have been proposed since the military had been alarmed. We cannot trust the caller but as among these targets are the naval base and headquarters, a kindergarten and two school complexes, we have to take it seriously.

"FBI forces have been told to evacuate the buildings but they are not sure to make it in time. They asked for assistance by NCIS special agents to help to prevent chaos and panic in Norfolk itself. We take along that the attack will be happening within the next three hours. More detailed information will be given through on communication channels five and seven as soon as you've put on your gear. So move, move, move!"

More hectically than agents should behave, they all ran down to the locker rooms and put on body armour, headsets and other stuff that would probably be needed. "If that's another hoax call..." Tony cursed since another one had made a police station in Baltimore panic only four days ago.

"Stop talking, and get into the cars. It's quite a drive to Norfolk and we're immediately needed," the deputy director said when he was standing right behind them. He walked away before any agent could answer. Within ten minutes, McGee, Tony and Marissa sat in one of the NCIS vans, fully armoured and armed. Gibbs had stayed behind to fill in a commanding post coordinating the troops.

New information was told through the communication channels, talking about a possible terroristic threat as no demands had been made so far. It was repeatedly pointed out that this was no training and that they were only there to support the military forces. However, they did not know who would attack, what would be attack and how the attack would be conducted – not even if anything was about to happen at all.

Only fifteen minutes later the agents arrived in downtown Norfolk. Most of the roads had already been blocked and military officers were running around. The operation leader divided the agents into different parties and Tony, McGee and Marissa were supposed to help evacuating a school complex, consisting of an elementary school, a Junior High and a High School. They jumped out of the van and ran over to some CIA agents wearing protective armour as well.

"The anonymous caller said that this building would be one of the targets. We do not know how the attack – if one does exist – will be performed. Either they already have explosion devices inside the building or it will come to an air attack. We're observing the air and most of the roads towards downtown have been blocked. FBI and Home Security are calming down the people as nothing has been released to the press yet," the agent in charge explained.

After further five minutes of instruction, about an hour left until the attack would probably start, the agents stormed into the building. The pupils had already been informed and stood ready in rows of two in the class rooms. Tony opened one of the doors of Junior High School and looked directly into the faces of twenty scared teenagers.

My daughter shall never experience this kind of fear, he thought and saw that the teacher was heading towards him. "You all go out into the corridor and put yourselves into rows of four with your school mates from the opposite room. There you wait until we leave the school building altogether, alright?" he said and when the children started moving, he headed to the next classroom. After only three minutes the corridor was filled with babbling children and sweating teachers.

"Alright, everyone shut up please!" Tony shouted as loud as he could. McGee, Marissa and an FBI officer were standing next to him. "We're now slowly walking out of the building. Nobody runs, nobody shouts or screams. Everything will be alright. As soon as we're out of the gate, you assemble yourselves in the huge area where you will be safe. All teachers please follow Special Agents Jones and Korsak," he added, pointing to the agents to his left and right. Then he turned around and let the way out of the building. Tension fell and he began to breathe more slowly when they left the building complex and entered the play area outside. They had to walk further and finally he stopped to guard the children out of the gate and the unsecure area.

The CIA officer in charge came over to the agents who had led the evacuation. "No news from our anonymous caller. Nothing else in sight, neither road nor air way. We'll have to search the area for explosion devices," he explained. "Both of you will search the third and fourth floor. The attack is supposed to start at four or later so I want you out of there at quarter to, no risks this time, you understand?"

Tony and McGee nodded and headed back to the building. With adrenaline flowing back into his blood, Tony jumped up the stairs, watching the other officers searching the lower floors. "Do you think this is a real threat?" McGee asked when they reached third floor.

"I don't know. But five targets all over Norfolk, especially schools and kindergartens shouldn't be taken as hoax calls immediately," Tony mentioned. "And I feel much safer since the children are out of here."

"But think about it. Who would dare to threaten this federal state, in such an extent? Someone really wants to piss of the government."

"In case you're proposing Israel, the situation has calmed down again. The old foes are our enemies again, Iran, Iraq, Saudi-Arabia and China," Tony muttered and they started looking under tables and into cupboards. "What the hell do they expect us to find? This school is huge!"

Suddenly their walkie-talkies cracked. "5-0-1 to all units. Explosion devices found at St. Bartholomew's kindergarten. Experts are on the way. Area will be secured within five minutes. 5-0-1 to all units, I repeat, explosion devices found. Keep your eyes open!"

"A kindergarten? They couldn't have seriously considered that!" Tony shouted and kicked over a table in frustration.

"Tony, calm down!"

"How? Were they really planning to blow up small, little children?"

"Perhaps they never planned that," McGee said and walked into the next classroom.

"What do you mean?" Tony wanted to know and followed him.

"Perhaps they called CIA themselves. They wanted us to panic and to evacuate all areas. They never wanted to hurt anyone, just create chaos."

"Nobody panics when things go "according to plan." If, tomorrow, I tell the press that someone will get shot, or a truckload of soldiers will be blown up, nobody panics, because it's all "part of the plan". But when I say that one little old mayor will die, well then everyone loses their minds!"

"Sounds like the Joker. 1989?" McGee asked.

"No, the newer version with Heath Ledgers," Tony commented. "We aren't going to find anything. Probably the kindergarten was the only target and the other ones were just distraction."

"I can't believe they wanted to blow up a kindergarten while it's full of innocent children."

"I doubt that as well. I think you're first theory was right," Tony said and didn't notice how surprised McGee was that they agreed on one thing. One never notices the changes happening to oneself.

"3-0-8 to Northern School Complex officers. We arrested a suspicious person. He says that there are explosion devices in the gym. Please answer," a voice said through the communications.

"That's us. Shall we check?" Tony asked.

"We got someone in the gym. Let's continue here," McGee decided. "There could still be something up here," he added while both agents climbed up to floor number four.

"The arrest was very quickly."

"Probably someone who wanted to see what he wanted to do," McGee said. "Another corridor. We got fifteen minutes left. We should be able to work through that when one takes the left side and the other one the right–"

McGee was not supposed to finish his sentence. The ground under their feet trembled, the quake becoming more intense and only then did they hear the loud 'bang'. It was a single noise, but loud and intense that their ears started hurting immediately. Instinctively, both agents let themselves fall to the ground, covering their heads with their hands and closing their eyes. Dust was trickling down. Plastering was dropping from the walls and they heard the cracking of fundament and the dumb noise of stones hitting the earth. Then it was silent for a moment, before the creaking started again.

As soon as they noticed that nothing was happening to the building they were in, both Tony and McGee stood up, looked at each other and without a word they headed to the classroom to their right, running towards the window. And it was exactly what they thought it would be. Where once had been the gymnasium, there was only a huge fungus-shaped cloud of dust and debris floating through the air as if gravity did not exist anymore.

"Holy shit," Tony muttered. When the air became clearer again, they could see the rubble sinking into the earth, where a crater-shaped hole indicated the former fitness hall. The huge building was only a pile of dirt, stones and wood anymore, the green grass area around it covered with light brown dust. People were brown as their surrounding, coughing, gasping for breath in the thick air.

Trying to either run away from the disaster or towards it to help. Ambulances had appeared out of nowhere, doctors and medical assistances were running all over the area, holding tissues in front of their mouths, but also started coughing. Agents in charge shouted at each other, ordering not to enter the collapsed building as it was too unstable and that the medical staff should wait for the firemen to secure the surroundings.

But despite all the noises, shouts and screams for help, no one talked into their walkie-talkies, no one thought about pressing the button and speaking. And not even the agents ordered to other areas in the city spoke, because they had all heard the explosion and they all knew what happened. And they knew that they would be informed as soon as the agents there had time to speak, time to think. And so it came that despite all the noise and voices down there, the fourth floor of the Junior High building was so silent that you could hear a pin drop meters away.

Finally realising what had just happened, Tony stumbled backwards and sank down onto one of the tables. He dropped his rucksack to the floor and opened his bullet-proof vest to better breathe. McGee leaned against a wall and closed his eyes, slowly sinking to the ground. It took a while until they started looking at each other, both exhausted, both sitting in the upper floor of the school.

"It was done on purpose I think," Tony finally said, still heavily sighing.

"This guy who had been arrested told the agents to search the gym. Only then it blew off. Before it's time," McGee agreed and looked at his watch. "It wasn't supposed to start before four o'clock."

"How late?"

"It's three-fifty-five."

"Damn shit," Tony muttered. Then they kept silence again, only interrupted by loudly breathing once in a while. Finally, their communication devices cracked again. You could hear someone sigh. Then saying, "seven agents missing, three in critical condition." There was a pause. "Five officer down." And then there was silence again.

Not only in the fourth floor, not only down on the ground where medical officers were running like hell, every agent became silent, at every target in Norfolk. Everyone seemed to fall silent because everyone could read the faces of the officers. And only the agent in charge, the Washington deputy director of CIA spoke to every single police officer out there, "we will get them. And we will punish them. For America."

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