"I think we're ready," Abby says. The past few hours had spent with her and McGee preparing for the hacking of Eli David's system. Back ups were in place, an extra firewall had been set up and now the two computer experts were, as much as they could be, ready to try and break into a computer with unknown security and to head dive into unknown waters. They had doubled checked everything. Mistakes were rare for them but this op left no room for mistakes of any kind. Perfection was always their goal and right now perfection was necessary.
"You think?" Gibbs asks. He didn't want them almost sure, he wanted them to be positive.
Abby and McGee look at each other before staring back at Gibbs. "We're ready," McGee says.
"I've created a virtual world in case he discovers the intrusion. That will have him going all around the mull berry bush and we should be in before he manages to get through it."
"Will he find out that you're hacking in?"
"Depends," Abby tells him.
"On what?" Gibbs questions.
"If he expects us or not."
Gibbs nods and dumps the now empty coffee cup into the garbage can. "The first sign that something will go wrong and you tell me," Gibbs says in a low voice to her. His nervousness was increasing with every step closer they got to starting. It wasn't like him to be so cautious but they were risking a lot with what they were about to do. As it was he still wasn't sure if it was the right decision not to tell the director. The President's life was at stake along with hundreds of others. Maybe it would be best if they didn't handle it themselves this time. But even through all of the second guessing Gibbs knew that they were making the right decision, the necessary choice. It didn't make it any easier though.
"I will, Gibbs," Abby promises him and her and McGee give each other a defiant nod, just as they had the other day when they were playing online. McGee holds up one finger then another and then simultaneously they each press a key and soon their fingers are jumping all across the keyboards.
"I'm penetrating the firewall," McGee says and Gibbs stares not understanding the slightest bit from all the code that was flashing along the monitors.
"I'm breaking the incriptions," Abby says and Gibbs switches his vision to what she's doing. Numbers and letters that, to him, have no significance but is really Eli David's computer programming.
"Enabling the trojan...Now!" McGee yells and then jumps over to Abby's keyboard working with her as his computer finds the TCP to Eli's system.
"I think he found me!" Abby exclaims when the security breach warning comes flashing on the screen. "How much is left until the trojan is complete?"
"Um, I can start working on it now," McGee says and returns to his own computer.
"How much longer do you need?" Abby asks, not looking up from her computer for even a split second.
"His security is stronger than we thought," McGee says.
"So's his counter-hacking! He made it through the virtual world before I even thought he would be able to make a dent in it."
"Do we abort?" Gibbs asks. He may no very little about computers but he knew that what the two tech geeks were saying was not good.
"Not yet," Abby says defiantly. "McGee trade spots with me. You work on sending his computer on a different path and I'll try and hack his system." McGee doesn't question her demands but just does as she says.
"What's going on?" Gibbs questions as Abby and McGee hectically punch in keys, neither daring to loose their concentration.
"He's trying to back trace, boss."
"Is he succeeding?"
"I'm almost there McGee. I need another minute!" Abby exclaims. She was dead set on getting through and was not going to let someone beat her at her own game.
"I don't know if I can stop him, Abby."
"Do. We. Abort?" Gibbs asks again, more force than question in his voice this time around.
"I'm in!" Abby says excitedly. She joins McGee over at the other keyboard and together they erase their tracks leaving the opposing computer nothing to trace.
"And he's out," McGee says an accomplished smile on his face. Both turn to face Gibbs who stares back at them.
"Does he know we're there?" Gibbs asks. Wherever "there" is.
"No, he thinks that we shut the system down."
"He didn't retrack your signal thing?"
"Not as far as we know..." McGee says but quickly decides to change his answer when Abby punches him in the arm. "No, uh, he shouldn't have been able to."
"Good job then. Now what've we got?" he says and turns to the monitor not sure just what all the numbers and letters and diagrams mean.
"Come on, Gibbs. I'm fading, a caffeine buzz is necessary," Abby says her mind still reeling from their previous actions. She needed something to calm her.
"And we need to stop a bomb," Gibbs says but changes his mind when he sees her pleading face. "Just tell me what it is we have to work with and then you can get your Caf-Pow."
"We have his full system to mess around with so it depends on what he has stored on here to what we can do with it."
"Well what's on it?"
"These are her microphone operations," Abby says clicking on one link and then going back out to select another. "This here is her GPS. It looks like these are plans, dates and times and stuff. Um, her past actions and recordings. Whoa," Abby says and stops turning to look at Gibbs.
"What is it?" Gibbs asks and looks over her shoulder. Playing on the screen is a mock-up on how the bombing would go. Or at least how Eli wanted it to go. On the center of the screen was the president and Gibbs saw Director Vance amongst several other people who were placed randomosly around the room. Ziva was standing in the corner. The Vice-President, Head of the FBI and Homeland security were only a few of the many faces that they saw. In the one room there had to be at least a hundred people, all had faces and Gibbs was pretty sure that they were all people Eli knew or at least knew he wanted dead. Suddenly the entire screen shows an explosion and in the four seconds it took to debtinate all those mini computer people, and many more of which would not fit onto the screen, were dead.
"He must spent days making this," McGee says in shock of just how much detail had been put into the video. There were even caterers walking around with trays of crab puffs and cubed cheese.
"And now he's admiring his work," Abby says. "It says here that it has been playing on his computer screen for ten days, fourteen hours, twenty-six minutes, and thirty- one, thirty-two, thirty-three, thirty-four-"
"Abby," Gibbs says in an exasperated tone.
"Sorry."
"He's infatuated with this explosion, Gibbs," McGee says as the video starts up once again, it was on auto-play.
"No, McGee. The guy is more than just infatuated, he's obsessed."
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Abby and McGee were most likely going to be pulling an all-nighter at NCIS working on, as Gibbs had put it "Fixing the damn wires". Freedom was expected by morning and they had a plan on just how they were going to do it. Gibbs was going to call Ziva at 0600 and tell her to take the day off and he would call her if they got a case and needed her. Abby and McGee were assembling things that they could use to fill the audio in with. Book pages turning, the fridge and cupboards being opened and closed, The Sound of Music playing, Ziva snoring when she took a nap at 1614h hours, her cleaning her weapons, so on and so forth. Her GPS would say that she would be at her apartment all day and in the morning they were going to record her having a conversation with a telemarketer A.K.A. Abby to be put into place mid-afternoon. Details were important and they were making sure every track was covered. Rule number seven: Always be specific when you lie.
Gibbs was staying the night at NCIS as well and Ziva had gone home for another restless night. Tony, on the other hand, had a rather interesting night ahead of him. He was still not sure what Gibbs' reason for having Hannah stay with him. Ducky would still have her during the day while everyone else was at NCIS offices and yet Gibbs specifically chose him, Tony DiNozzo of all people, to watch the five year old girl at night. He pulled into Ducky's driveway and got out of the car. He knocked on the front hoping the Mrs. Mallard was asleep. He wasn't sure if his patience could handle the sweet but rather demented old lady tonight.
"Ah, Anthony," Ducky says when he sees the agent. "Hannah has been waiting for you." Ducky opens the door, inviting Tony in. "She is in the den. Her and mother were watching Jeopardy."
Tony follows Ducky into the den and sees why Ducky had said "were" Mrs. Mallard was asleep and snoring, just as loudly as Kate had once told him about. And he had thought she was exaggerating. Hannah sat quietly though, her focus set on the screen as some geeky guy answered a question about fossils. She turns back and looks at the two men standing in the doorway and gets up from her spot on the couch and walks over to them. Tony bends down to her level before speaking to her. It was something he had noticed Gibbs always did and when he asked him why Gibbs had told him it was to make them feel equal. The simple gesture eliminated intimidation and would make a child open up more. Having someone tower over you probably was intimidating. "Hi Hannah. I'm Special Agent Tony DiNozzo. Do you remember me?" he questioned. It had been nearly two weeks since they had originally found.
"Yes. You and Agent McGee were putting chairs into your car. You smashed your finger, the scar is still on your finger," she tells him and sure enough when Tony looked at his hand there was still a marking from when Probie had pushed the chair into the car. The chair along with Tony's finger.
"You've got a good memory."
"Toh da," she says.
"This is Hannah's bag," Ducky says and lifts a purple backpack with red hearts covering it. "It isn't much. Just her pajamas and a change of clothes."
"Thanks, Ducky. I'll see you tomorrow," Tony says and stands up taking Hannah's bag.
"You have fun at Anthony's, Hannah."
"Yes, Ducky," she says and the doctor smiles at her. He is the one to now bend down to her level and extend his arms towards her.
"I will see you tomorrow."
Hannah pulls away from the hug offering the doctor a smile to show she was okay. Tony places a hand on her back leading her towards the front door. "Are you hungry? We could stop at McDonalds on the way back to my apartment," Tony says once they have gotten outside. He opens the door to the back seat of his car and she climbs in. He may not know much about kids but he knew they couldn't sit in the front seat.
"I already eat, Agent DiNozzo. Thank you though," she tells him, remembering her manners. Not only had she already eaten but she wasn't quite sure what McDonalds was. She sat quietly, looking out the window. America was much different from Israel. Things were not so scary here, everyone was so nice. Even the lady from the bank that she did not know who gave her candy for no reason! Things were very colorful here and snow covered the grass. She had never seen snow before and Hannah had decided that she liked it.
"You can call me Tony. Agent DiNozzo is to formal," he tells her. Another stranger thing about America, in Israel you called all of your elders by their professional names. She stayed quiet for the rest of the ride. Tony figured she was most likely tired. She had been having very long days and it was nearly nine at night, rather late for a five year old. He pulled into an empty parking spot outside of the apartment complex and put the car in park. He got out of the car taking Hannah's bag with him. The small girl followed behind him up to the steps before the door. "Careful here it's icy," Tony warns and let's her go in front of him. She takes one step up and was caught off guard at how slippery it was. Hannah flails her arms out in front of her trying to grab onto something before falling head first onto the sidewalk. "Easy," Tony says as he lifts her into his arms. Her breathing was heavy and her heartbeat quick. She was glad Israel did not have ice on the ground. "You'd think they'd do something about that," Tony says as he walks up the stairs, Hannah securely in his arms. He sets her down once they are inside and the two of them walk upstairs to the third floor where Tony's apartment was. "It's not much," Tony says, opening the door revealing his one bedroom apartment.
Hannah follows Tony into the apartment cautiously taking in her surroundings. He was not very neat but that was okay, neither was she if she did not have to be. He had a very large television and lots of movies. Ducky and her had watched a movie. Cinderella it was called, when he asked her if she liked she said that she didn't. Cinderella should have saved herself. It didn't make sense that she would wait there for someone to save her when she could have just left by herself. All those animals liked her a lot so they would have taken good care of her. Hannah would hate it if she grew up like Cinderella.
"You can take your coat off," Tony tells her and Hannah pulls the zipper down and slips the puffy pink coat off. She looked around, curious as to where she should put it when Tony comes over and offers to take it from her hand. "I'm gonna put on the chair with your bag, okay?" he asks and she nods. She liked that he asked her instead of just taking it. Hannah's eye catches on a photograph on the table next to the couch. It had a lot of people she knew. Abby and Ducky, Gibbs, McGee and Tony. There was another man next to Ducky who had glasses on and reminded her a little of a guy who had been on Jeopardy tonight. There was a red headed lady who she also did not know and then there was one more woman who stood next to Tony. She had curly hair just like Hannah. Tony sees where Hannah's eyes are directed and wonders if she had been informed that Ziva was her father's sister. "That's your aunt."
Hannah furrows her eyebrows together in confusion. "Like the bug?"
Tony smiles at her, "No um, she's your Aba's sister," he tells her. Unaware of the Hebrew word for sister.
Hannah's face still has an expression of confusion but she nods in understanding anyways. They mentioned her father a lot here. In Israel she was never to speak of her father. If she was she would be punished and her Ima was never hesitant to punish her. "You'll like her. She's a lot like you actually." Hannah nods her head again but instead of replying back walks over to the corner that had his very full DVD bookcase. "You like movies?" Tony questions. He was always willing to watch a movie. Once again the small girl's head moves up and down and her eyes scan over the shiny boxes. "I think that you'll like this one," Tony says and takes Mission Impossible from off of the shelf. "Why don't you go get in your PJs and we can watch it."
"PJs?" she questions.
"Ya know, PJs," Tony says as though it's totally obvious to every child in the world as to what PJs are. "Pajamas," he clarifies.
"They are called PJs?"
"Sometimes, yeah."
"Oh," she says and gets her back pack pulling out her penguin pajamas. Ducky had let her pick out what she wanted when they went shopping and that had been the only thing that was not pink or a night gown. She also took out her toothbrush and toothpaste and floss. Ducky had found a yummy flavor of floss so she liked to use it. While Hannah was getting in her pajamas and such Tony started a bag of popcorn in the microwave and poured her a glass of juice, himself soda. He puts the movie in and the previews start playing. He grabbed the blanket he had bought earlier that day. It had the Little Mermaid on it and Tony thought that Hannah may like it. Something to make the couch a bit nicer for her. She came out and sat down on the couch and watched as Tony carried out a giant bowl of popcorn and drinks. Hannah smiled as he sat down and handed her her cup and then started the movie. It hadn't even started and she was having fun. Hannah liked it when she could have fun.
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Two hours later Tony was surprised that Hannah was still awake, wide awake infact. Tony looks at the clock and saw that it was 2300. He'd better get her to bed. "I'm going to bed. You should get some sleep too," Tony tells her and she nods her head and lays down on the couch. Tony covers her with the blanket and can already see the effects of exhaustion playing out on her face. He switches the light off along with the TV. "Goodnight Hannah," Tony says.
"Lailah tov, Tony," she says in a drowsy voice. Tony smiles, maybe kids weren't so scary after all. Tony lays down in bed and closes his eyes. It would not take long to fall asleep tonight, he was as tired as Hannah. In only mere minutes he has dosed off but was awoken not long after when he feels a slight shift in the weight of the bed. He turns over to see Hannah's small body curled up on the very edge of the bed. She seems to be shaking, it couldn't be that cold in the apartment could it? "Hannah?" Tony asks and sits up. She looks up at him and throws her arms around him, "Mitzta'eret," she mutters and Tony recognizes it as the Hebrew word for "sorry". Caught off guard and confused Tony can't think of anything to say. She was fine when he had left her right? What happened? Did he upset her? Ducky had mentioned that she had had a few moments such as these but had been fine at his house. Maybe he should take her back there. "Do you want to go back to Ducky's, Hannah?"
"No," she says and buries her head deeper into his shirt. All these people being nice made her weak. Ima and Savta would not approve at all.
"Okay, go back to sleep Hannah," Tony says but just let's the little girl continue to cling to him. She seemed so sad and from what Ducky had told him this sounded very similar to what had happened before at NCIS. What could she have possibly of gone through to make her so sad? Eventually he hears her even breathing signifying that she had been pulled back into sleep. Tony stills hold onto her though, he liked the warmth he felt from her and the way she just made his heart melt. Tony got it now. This is why Gibbs was having Hannah stay with him. She needed some comfort as much as Tony had needed it through the past couple weeks. Maybe they could each give a little of that to the other.
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So sorry that it's taken me so long to update! I was going to update Saturday but ended up writing something else. Those darn plot bunnies again. Anyways the chapter's a little longer than usual to help make up for it though. I'm not sure about how I feel about this chapter but hopefully it was okay. Please review and tell me what you thought! Have a good day :)