Artifice Part 2
Earth, USA, Washington
Washington D.C., ACIS, the Morgue
March 7th, 2195, 9:13 PM
Having long since cracked open Hirsum's sternum, both Ducky and Hamu were knee deep in the poor girl's autopsy, with the senior medical examiner doing what he normally did as he looked for any clue as to how this latest victim had lived and died in an effort to further help those that were searching for her killer. Despite the grisly sight laid out before them, Hamu seemed unperturbed by the sights and smells that greeted him as the drell offered what help he could while carrying on a pleasant, and thankfully distracting, conversation with the good doctor. "It's as you've no doubt heard by now Doctor Mallard. All drell possess an eidetic memory."
"Ah, the perfect ability to recall every detail of your life. There'd been a few times I'd have welcomed that myself during my days, in medical school." Mused an intrigued Ducky as he gingerly removed Hirsum's heart before setting it aside after giving it a once over. "Just as much a curse as it is a blessing though, I suppose."
Hamu nodded his head with a shrug of his shoulders. "It certainly can be. Especially memories I have a strong emotional connection towards which'll likely draw me in as if I were there for the first time. They're not all bad, but in this line of work, it's unlikely I'll be reminded of something cheerful."
Pausing as he was about to cut away Hirsum's digestive tract for a closer examination, Ducky looked up towards the sandy colored man before him, his head cocked to the side. "Then why not look for another job, if you don't mind me asking?"
"It's no trouble Ducky, but it's something I am at peace with." Hamu smiled and nodded his head towards the dead salarian between them, his face locked in an all too familiar determined visage. Ducky had seen similar looks on Gibbs' face, so he wasn't all that surprised to see it again now. "These people deserve justice, and I am not going to let my sensibilities or my memories stop me from seeing it done."
"That is a truly admirable mindset. You know, you actually remind me of Gibbs in a way." Ducky said as he waved the scalpel in his hand in Hamu's direction.
"I'll take that as a compliment, doctor." Hamu chuckled, a warm smile gracing his amphibious face that was mirrored by Ducky's own. "If you'll indulge me in kind, why did you become a medical examiner?"
"That is quite an interesting story actually! Uh, and I do apologize my dear, I tend to get a bit long winded." Ducky offered to Hirsum as a humorous aside before turning his attention back to Hamu. "But to answer your question, I graduated long ago from both Eton and Edinburg, it was very prestigious as you'd expect, and I've served in the British military during the Vietnam war. In all that time and all of my travels, I've collected far more stories than most people have gray hairs, myself included. Yet for all that, I once aspired for mere academia, but once I started down that path I realized how dreadfully dull such a life would have been." He finished with a chuckle before beginning to work once more. "I decided then, that my considerable talents would be better served helping people, and with my extensive background in medicine, medical examination seemed like the most logical step at the time. I apprenticed under quite the talented ME here at NCIS, when it was still called NCIS, a Doctor Walter Magnus, who taught me everything I didn't already know. Unfortunately, old age, as it does for us all at some point, forced him to retire some time ago, but before my eventful trip to this time and place, we had one last hurrah together. Despite the circumstances that brought us together, it was quite good to remember happier, simpler times."
Ducky's smile widened when Hamu's eyes widened somewhat as he processed it all. To say the drell was impressed was quite obvious, but it still felt good to hear it when Hamu said, "You've lived quite the long and fulfilling life from the sounds of it, Doctor. If nothing else, I will gladly keep these memories for as long as I live."
"And that is a sentiment I can get behind my good man, although I fear my memory won't be quite as detailed as yours. And hello, what have we here?" Ducky asked as he looked over what he'd found when he glanced down at Hirsum's right wrist. "Now how did I miss this? More importantly, how did you?" He asked, glancing up towards Hamu, but he had his answer when the drell merely smiled. "You bugger, you were waiting to see how long it'd take me to notice she has very light bruising along her wrists and I dare say, her ankles as well. The pin prick on her upper right arm, where she'd been injected, was more noticeable than the bruises since it stands out against her pale skin tone in that particular area."
"You said it yourself though Doctor, you're used to working with humans, members of your own species. And there's one thing you never said but I believe you implied, even if you weren't aware of it at the time."
"You never stop learning, no matter how old you are." Ducky finished for him, chuckling much more heartily as he caught onto the drell's reasoning. Looking down to Hirsum, the good doctor could only shake his head. "If not for the invasiveness of this examination, you'd likely be chuckling yourself my dear. But if there was no obvious sign of struggle, then how is it you became bruised unless…..oh. Oh my." Both Ducky and Hamu met the other's gaze before looking down to Hirsum. "It seems the idea that salarians have little desire for sex for mere pleasure might be a bit of a slight misconception. It's good to know that, despite your age my dear, and the fact your internal organs were beginning to fail you in rapid succession, that you at least had the opportunity for one last hurrah. But that leaves us with a new piece of the puzzle, you must have known your killer."
"It's the only thing that makes the most sense." Hamu replied with a sage nod of his head before he began to stroke the bottom of his chin. "But I have to ask, what kind of person sleeps with someone, interrogates them, and then kills them?"
"I believe the term you're looking for is a black widow." Ducky answered in turn, a noticeable chill falling over both men at the implication.
Earth, USA, Washington
Washington D.C., Alliance Geological Service Headquarters
March 7th, 2195, 9:41 PM
Despite the rough ride, Ziva set the car down without incident in front of the AGeS corporate building. To look at Dax and McGee though as both men jumped out of the car, it'd be safe to say that they were grateful to be back on solid ground. "Timothy? Tell me somethin', how are ya still alive?" Panted an out of breath Dax, having been holding onto the back seat the seat as if his life had depended on it. In this case, he'd been sure that it had with the way Ziva had flown the car as if she were in the Kentucky Derby 5000.
"I ask myself that every time Ziva gets behind the wheel." McGee replied as both he and the turian let their heads drop and their hands dangle in front of them as they came down from their shared adrenaline high.
They jerked upright when Ziva slapped the back of both of their heads before walking away with a roll of her eyes and a scoff. "My driving is not that bad." She grumbled without looking at either of them as she walked towards the front door of the corporate building, her stride quick and determined more in an effort to get away from the two babies she called coworkers.
"Matter of opinion Dah-veed." Dax called out as he and McGee began to quickly stride to catch up with their irritated companion as the sliding doors of the office building opened upon sensing Ziva's presence on the threshold. "She's going to shoot me isn't she?" Dax muttered out the side of his mouth towards McGee.
"I wouldn't waste the bullets Dax." Ziva grumbled as they walked right past the front desk, with the former Mossad officer flashing her badge towards the security guard and the human woman that was stationed behind it. "Now would you two stop whinging and help me locate our disgraced officer?"
"Whining." McGee corrected her without thinking, which he immediately regretted when Ziva stopped, spun around, and just glared balefully into his face. "Moving on."
"Smart boy." The flash of a smile didn't relieve either man of their anxiety as they fell in behind her as she led the way deeper into the office complex, navigating their way between scientists, assistants, and their secretaries apparently with the number of women that they saw in almost every hallway. "I thought this was a geological study building, not a fraternity?"
"Soro-...It's a corporate office, meaning that business and science go hand in hand here." McGee rapidly explained when Ziva's veneer began to visibly darken once more when she turned to glare at him. "Business execs tend to have young, attractive women around anytime they have meetings either here or at corporate functions."
All three turned when an aquamarine skinned asari walked up, a playful smirk on her face as she swept whiskey colored eyes over all three. Wearing a purple and red styled asari dress, the 'young woman' had all three staring as she cocked a hip to the side, one delicate fingered hand falling to that same hip. "Sometimes we even have pool parties. Shi'shaa Makeburo, and trust me when I say, I'm not a mere assistant. I'm one of those business executives in question with claims a distant moon. Funny what happens when you find a rich vein of palladium on a barren rock, everyone wants to be your friend almost overnight since the ore in question is quite valuable to the right people. Luckily for me, I have friends here that are willing to pay top dollar for what my team found."
"Congralutations on your windfall, Ms. Makesburo." Both Dax and Timothy shared a look when Ziva smiled without the earlier annoyance and frustration that had been there moments ago.
"Shi'shaa, please, and you are quite beautiful Miss….?" The asari trailed off as she held out a hand to Ziva.
"Special Agent Ziva David, and are you always so forward?" Asked a curiously amused Ziva as Shi'shaa chuckled low in her throat as they shook the other's hands, her brown eyes holding a hint of what she was likely thinking.
"Only when I meet a woman I wouldn't mind getting to know Miss David, or do you prefer Ziva?"
"Okay, what the hell is goin' on here?" Dax asked McGee, more than a little confused by Ziva's uncharacteristic behavior. In the few days he'd known her, she usually wasn't this….smitten.
"I honestly have no idea." McGee replied, having known Ziva a lot longer and he was a little weirded out by what they were witnessing as Shi'shaa got a laugh out of the agent slash spy slash assassin in record time. "Excuse me uh Ziva, but can we move on with our reason for being here?"
"Huh? Oh yes, yes of course." Ziva replied as she shook her head and blinked, a sheepish smile tugging at her lips as she turned back to the asari. "I'm sorry, but I must go-"
"Don't apologize Ziva. Go go, but look me up when you get a chance, just don't keep a girl waiting too long." The sultry wink and the throaty, borderline sensual laugh that poured out of her mouth had heat pooling in Ziva's cheeks as the asari walked away with a noticeable spring in her step.
Ziva, once the asari was out of eyesight, looked to Dax and McGee who were giving her strange looks, could only stare back. "What? I do have a life outside of the office. Is it so surprising that I'd find a successful woman attractive?"
"Do you want to answer that or should I?" Dax asked, although he wasn't in any hurry to stick his foot on that particular verbal landmine.
"Hey now, I'm not touching that with a ten foot pole." Replied an equally worried McGee.
"Babies. I'm surrounded by grown man sized babies." Ziva grumbled in disbelief as they once more began to make for Hernandez's office. "God, you two are worse than Tony."
"No, he'd be fantasizing about you and that asari by now and making no secrets about it. We're just trying to process the fact you went from wanting to shoot us to salivating at the mouth in record time." Countered McGee as they finally found Hernandez's office. Seeing a shadow pass in front of the window, both men got behind Ziva as she opened the door. "Mr. Alleron?" McGee asked as he followed just ahead of their turian friend.
The crew cut, gray haired older man sighed as he held up a finger before saying to the comms device attached to his ear. "And you tell them that if they don't get back to work, I'll fire them all for breaking with their contracts and have them sued back to the Stone Age. Now if you'll excuse me I have some federal jackasses to deal with." With an angry jab of his finger, he turned off the ear piece before tossing it aside. "And you three are as mismatched as they come, but I've seen enough investigation teams since my withdrawal from the field to know what you're here for. You found Hirsum?" The hopeful note in his voice didn't go unnoticed by any of them as Ziva none too gently shut the door behind her once Dax and McGee had entered the large office.
"Yes, we did Mr. Alleron." McGee stated as Ziva pulled up a picture of Hirsum on Ducky's autopsy table.
"It'd be safer to say what's left of her." Ziva intoned as Hernandez's face paled and he fell back into his seat, all of his previous anger and irritation leaving his body in a rush.
"She...she's dead?" He stammered, disbelieving yet slowly coming to the realization that she wasn't merely sleeping on that cold metal slab. Wiping a hand across his mouth, Hernandez could barely keep his voice from trembling as he said, "God I knew we should have come to the police when she found out that people were being kidnapped right out from under our noses but I had hoped….I had hoped it was merely a clerical error."
"So how'd ya find out there was a problem?" Dax asked as he leaned against the door to the man's office.
"Hirsum did, but salarians are notorious for their bookkeeping, it's why I hired her despite knowing how old she was. That was seven years ago, not long after my court martial hearing that ruled my disappearing act reasonable grounds for a dishonorable discharge."
"Can't imagine why, given the fact you turned yella and ran." Dax stated, his dual flanged voice holding more than a hint of his anger at the man before them for leaving his men to die just to save his own skin.
"Say what you like, but you weren't there." Some of his earlier anger returned as Hernandez pulled up a document on his personal terminal before flipping the display so the trio could read it. "The output for our arrivals at their destinations was drastically lower than our input on this end, meaning that once they left Hirsum's office, they were intercepted before they got to where they were supposed to be."
Ziva leaned over the desk and spread her hands across the surface, her stare probing the depths of the man's face. "So how do you fit into this?"
"We had a deal. Hirsum would send her refugees to planets and moons where AGeS was planning to survey. Whatever was found as colonies and homes were established would fuel their fledgling economies, and they'd give us access to the raw ores they uncovered for a nice sum of money. Everyone benefited."
"More so yourselves since you probably sold the ore for a premium to the highest bidder." Dax retorted, unamused with the obvious greed being put on display for all to see.
"You know turian, you can shove your selfless service and sacrifice bullshit up your scaly ass. I do what I have to do to get ahead in this galaxy, just like any sapient being with half a working brain would do in my place. Yes, I've profited, as have countless other people in the Alliance and the AGeS alike, which keeps people like you and your buddies employed, but I also helped Hirsum help countless refugees left behind by the war I fled by giving them jobs, places to put up their feet, and most importantly, hope."
"I'll be sure to tell the families of the folks that're missing that, provided we find them before they end up dead, or worse." Dax retorted as he joined Ziva in leaning his weight down on the edge of Hernandez's desk. "So why don'tcha tell us why one of your vans was seen flyin' down a road in front of the Twins Jazz club just a few hours ago."
"Vans go out all the time and I don't keep track of their whereabouts, not with workers striking on one of Saturn's moons, a pirate attack that left dozens of my men dead on a mineral rich asteroid in the Skyllian Verge, and-"
"Yes we get it. You're a busy man, but surely there's someone that keeps a reco-"
Ziva was interrupted as Hernandez stood up abruptly, his large, beefy hands balled up into fists at his side. "Ziva, get back." Dax and McGee both shouted as they drew their sidearms just as she noticed the dark energy that had begun to pour off of Hernandez's large, muscular form.
Earth, USA, Washington
Washington D.C. Hirusm Olbana's apartment
March 7th, 2195, 9:47 PM
Shutting his omni-tool off once Ducky had passed on what he and Hamu had discovered, Gibbs turned to see Tony trying to work a set of lockpicks into the locking mechanism on the apartment door they were in front of. "Ducky called, said Hirsum was restrained but not for the interrogation."
"Huh, sounds to me like she had a bit of fun before having her head popped open." Gibbs could only roll his eyes since Tony had picked up right on what Ducky had discovered without him having to explain it. No surprise, considering the kind of man Tony was, but Gibbs knew he'd changed despite the immature antics he still exhibited nearly every day at the office.
That aside, he waited as Tony attempted to pick the lock on Hirsum's door, but it seemed that it wasn't as easy as Tony would have liked. For one, it was an electronic lock, which made his physical lockpicks useless, and two, there were no windows in the hallway he and Gibbs were currently standing in, which meant he couldn't simply throw a rock through one or bash his elbow into the pane. Either way, Tony could only scratch his head as he glanced between the door and an increasingly impatient Gibbs. "This is gonna be a problem, shoulda brought McGee with us boss. He'd have likely pulled out a workaround by now." Gibbs' answer was to pull out his sidearm and put the barrel against the electronic lock. Tony hurriedly backed away as he pulled the trigger. The lock, instead of simply being blown off, was shorted out as bolts of electricity arced between Gibbs' gun and the metal wall. When the door slid partially along its track, Tony could only make a thoughtful noise in response. "Huh. Our friendly Admiral show you that by chance? Either way, I suppose that works too, but someone probably heard that."
"Then we better get a move on." Gibbs said as he holstered his weapon and grabbed hold of the door. It slid aside with only a little resistance. "Tony!" Gibbs called out once he was inside.
He soon realized why when he saw the mess on the other side of the door. "Someone needs to get a maid." Even as the words left his mouth, Tony could see that someone had been looking for something and they hadn't been subtle about it from the smashed and thrown items all over the apartment. Walking properly into the apartment, Tony whistled when his eyes fell on a partially open bedroom door some distance away. Gingerly pushing the door aside, Tony grimaced at the mess his eyes fell upon. "Yeah, I'd say this is where Hirsum was murdered." The bedspread was splattered with blood and what he could only assume were the contents of the salarian's skull.
"You think DiNozzo?" Gibbs muttered as he knelt down, spotting something that had grabbed his attention. The omni-cuffs that had been left behind on the bed, along with the mess on the sheets itself, made Gibbs wonder if he really wanted to know what had happened. Knowing Abby, she'd likely make a joke of their dead salarian having a fetish or two that had clearly gone horribly wrong for her. Directing his attention elsewhere before his mind could wander further down that particular rabbit hole, Gibbs picked up a picture frame that showed Hirsum standing among a crowd of her fellows from what he assumed was a graduating class. Pressing one gloved finger to the surface, Gibbs raised an eyebrow when the picture changed to a new one.
"Probably has a few more stored on its internal hard drive boss. A frame like that, you could save ten, fifteen tops depending on how big your memory reserve is." Tony explained as Gibbs flipped through the various pictures, and set it aside once he'd gone through all of them. Standing to his feet, Tony shrugged when Gibbs sighed. "Think they found what they were looking for?"
"Maybe you should look around and find out." Gibbs replied as he stepped out of the bedroom, but not without putting a finger to his ear. Tony got the subtle hint as he began to noisily search about the room while Gibbs slipped behind the kitchen counter that faced towards the front door, gun drawn. The sound of heavy black combat boots making their way into the trashed apartment soon followed, with Gibbs waiting just long enough for their unknown person to make their way into the bedroom. He stepped out from behind the counter and leveled his gun at their nosy investigator's back. "Turn around, very slowly."
"That won't be necessary." The woman, he soon realized, replied as she sighed and removed the black balaclava she had pulled low over her face. Even with the cloth mask though, both men recognized the high crest of an asari as the woman slowly turned around, hands raised. "I guess you found out I've been lying." Adri stated as she nodded her head towards the picture frame that Gibbs had been looking at not minutes ago. One of the pictures showed her and Hirsum standing side by side together in front of a sun covered cafe.
"Which makes me wonder, how's a sexy jazz singer get into such a fancy get up like yours?" Tony asked as he too kept his gun trained on the asari's back now that she was no longer facing in his direction. The armored, skintight leather commando outfit she wore was kind of a dead giveaway to her leanings, but when the surface of the outfit changed colors, changing to appear as if she were merely wearing an asari styled robe that revealed little of her otherwise beautiful figure, his estimates of who she was working for went up considerably as it changed back with the twitch of her fingers on her left hand. "Neat trick."
"Thanks, and to answer your question, it's because my authority goes well above your entire department." Slowly reaching for her omni-tool, Adri tapped in a sequence before displaying a badge, one that left even Gibbs momentarily stunned. The white wings and circle at the bottom of the badge on a dark blue background, was highlighted by the name of her rank, Special Tactics and Reconnaissance, and the motto, Forged in the Fires of Service and Battle. "But unlike our former rogue agent, Saren Arterius, I'm not here to make your life difficult."
"Or you're here to cover up a murder, Spectre Adri." Gibbs countered as he kept his gun trained on the woman's face as she let her hands pull apart before putting them up at eye level on either side of her head.
"Then why would I come back to the scene of the crime?" Adri asked, but it was far from the first time they'd heard such claims.
"Maybe you were trying to find whatever it was you killed Hirsum for?" Tony chimed in, not buying the woman's excuse anymore than Gibbs was. "Gotta admit, it takes a cold kind of person to interrogate someone after you've had yourself a good time with them."
"You'd be mistaken since Hirsum had a taste for human over asari. Or calamari, if you're feeling offensive." Adri chose that moment to disappear in a flash of biotic power that put her just behind Agent Gibbs with a thunderous boom when she rematerialized. The wave of energy that hit the wall in front of her was strong enough to dent the metal, bulging it away from her point of emergence. While both men adjusted their aim to compensate for the sudden movement, Gibbs, to Tony's surprise, lowered his gun once the room grew still and quiet once more. "You're perceptive." Adri stated, one eye ridge upraised in pleasant surprise.
"Tony, lower your gun. If she wanted us dead, we'd already be on the floor." Holstering his side arm, Gibbs walked right up to Adri's face so they were practically nose to nose. "So, enlighten us, what's this all about?"
"I'll tell you everything you want to know, and you can even put it on record if it makes you feel better."
"That's strange, I thought you guys were above us mere plebs." Tony snarked at Adri's back.
She rolled her eyes and threw over her shoulder, "Because I don't abuse my authority Agent DiNozzo, not like many of my colleagues would have done so by now."
"Well you better get to talking then, or I might shoot you for contaminating a crime scene with your theatrics." Gibbs softly growled out, his gray steel eyes unblinking as they stared daggers into Adri's face.
If she were bothered by the glare though, she didn't show it as she stared unerringly back. "Can you talk and search for an OSD drive at the same time? I'm hoping to find out where dozens of missing refugees have gone, and Hirsum was my only remaining lead." The quiet guilt and shame that filled her pretty eyes was not what Gibbs had been expecting as she added, "And while I didn't kill her, it's my fault she got involved in this mess in the first place. I asked her to investigate since if I had gone to her office at AGeS, it'd have raised suspicions on the spot. I want this son of a bitch, Agent Gibbs, more than you."
"Oh I don't doubt it." Gibbs replied even as he kept one eye on Adri while looking through the apartment once more. "So, missing refugees." He stated, leading the conversation back to the matter at hand while Tony went back to the bedroom to photograph and sketch everything.
Adri sighed but nodded her head as she knelt down to scan over the wreckage that had once been Hirsum's living room. "Hirsum came to me a few days ago, not hours after our group's shuttle landed, and told me something was happening. Something she knew involved the refugees she helped on the side, helping to ensure they were able to start new lives on distant systems. What started as her simply needing a friend to talk to turned into me revealing that I was a Spectre, an intelligence agent rather than a combat oriented one like Commander Shepard, and that I was already following a similar trail of leads that just so happened to be along the route we were taking through the galaxy during our tour."
"Your idea I imagine." Gibbs muttered as he gingerly moved aside a large picture frame on the wall, showing a white sandy beach with crystal blue waves crashing against the shore.
"My 'asshole manager' is a retired, asari huntress, a dear friend of mine, and also my former CO from when I was still a huntress myself. Before the war, she often talked about going into the music industry, and once it was over, she wasted no time in doing so. She helped organized our 'tour' so that I'd be able to investigate along the way. She's the one that recognized my exceptional ability during the war, and she's the one that put my name forward for Spectre candidacy. I was assigned to another Spectre who became my mentor six months later, and it was only a few years ago that I was given full autonomy to operate on my own terms. As to what leads I was following, I've discovered what looks like a slave ring, at least on the surface. Entire shuttles worth of people just gone, no distress calls, yet there were clear signs of struggle from what I saw in a few of them. Only one dead merc from seven shuttles, that we know about, so whoever these guys are, they're well organized and well trained."
"Assuming any of that's true, it's more like they're just cowards, going after soft targets." Tony called out from the bedroom.
"The thought had crossed my mind, and something about all this doesn't feel like your typical slaver attacks anyway. There's usually a lot more damage involved, both to property and people, but these seem too clean, too methodical for your random slave ring of scumbags. I'd almost say it looked like they were invited into the shuttles." Adri said as she and Gibbs began flipping the few mattresses that were left on the black leather couch. Finding nothing, the asari turned her attention to Hirsum's work desk while he went to look through a bookshelf that was nearby. The fact she had actual, physical books on her shelf was an oddity given everything he'd seen of this time period's love for all things digital.
"Inside job?" Tony asked, the slight amazement in his voice audibly evident as he stuck his head out of the bedroom.
While Gibbs looked through her collection of reading material, Adri gave Hirsum's personal terminal a thorough once over. "Since every shuttle comes from the same service, I'd say you'd be right, but I haven't been able to get a crew manifest, at least not without flaunting my rank and file, setting off solar flares wherever I go. Not only would I likely tip the bad guys off once I flashed my badge at the shuttle service's door, but my cover would be blown to Hell and back."
"Which means you need us to do your dirty work." DiNozzo countered as he went back to sketching the room. "Are you asking for our help? It kinda sounds like you're asking for our help."
"You know I can shoot you, and get away with it?" Adri countered without looking up from the salarian's terminal.
"You'd have to get in line." Gibbs chimed in next as he pulled down a heavy thesaurus, and paused when he felt something shift between the pages of the thick leather volume. Opening it, he began flipping through when he saw a large section of pages had been cut away, a hidden data device lying within. "Got something here." When he handed it over to Adri who reached out to take it, Gibbs grasped her wrist after letting the heavy book hit the floor. "Go slow." It wasn't a suggestion, and Adri only nodded her head as she plugged it into the terminal.
"I know I'm a suspect to you until proven otherwise, especially given what I am, but I really am on your side Agent Gibbs." Still, Adri typed with exaggerated speed for Gibbs' benefit as she navigated her way through the new icon and the files contained within that appeared on Hirsum's desktop.
"Funny, I seem to recall you threatening to sic your lawyer on us." Tony called out before he walked out of the bedroom, having finished going over everything.
"I do have a public image to maintain, but in your case I'd sue you for sexual harassment with the way you can't stop drooling, provided I didn't just shoot you and save myself the trouble of a drawn out trial." Gibbs chuckled as Adri verbally cut Tony down at the knees without ever letting her eyes waver from the screen in front of her. She frowned though when she opened up a map program, with a single waypoint already set with exact coordinates and the shortest distance to get there. "That's odd. Why does Hirsum have directions to a location in the middle of a DZ near the old nation's capital?"
"DZ?" Gibbs asked as he hovered over Adri's right shoulder.
"Dead zone. It's….it's where we've not been able to rebuild since the Reaper War." Adri replied as she scratched the back of her crest before shaking her head. "This is not making any sense. We need to get down there, assuming we can get through the roving gangs and the crazies that tend to congregate in the ruins of every city on every world."
"I guess we better be careful then." Gibbs stated, making it abundantly clear to them both that he wasn't about to be deterred from following this trail to the bitter end.
End Notes: I sincerely hope all this is connecting properly. I had a lot more trouble with this one than I'd like to admit, I had to rewrite entire sections from the ground up, and even with this version, I'm not entirely sure I got everything the way I wanted. Still, what I have is at least good enough for what I need, and I'm happy to put it up for you folks. At any rate, thank you for bearing through my clumsy attempts to write a mystery crime thriller such as this. You guys on both AO3 and Fanfiction Net are awesome. I'm actually pleasantly surprised with how many people are reading this.
