Ch. 8 Hunting Revelations
Abby was running on pure Caf- Pow. Much to her dismay, she'd been swamped with forensic evidence to process and so to avoid suspicion, she hadn't been able to start her search for Ziva. It frustrated her to no end. It was already five in the afternoon when she'd started to look for Ziva.
"Where to start first." Abby sat in her spinning chair, revolving in a small circle. Finally, after pondering all the possible areas for her to start, a thought creped into her mind. Ziva's emails with Rivkin. While they may not pertain at all to Rivkin's actions, at the very least they might provide insight as to what news Ziva might have received from Rivkin about Mossad.
Using her best Gibbs voice Abby spoke aloud to herself.
"Assuming Ziva is safe, the first place to look would be Mossad. So find out what the Mossad agent said to her."
Pulling up the emails, Abby was reminded that they were in Hebrew. Painstakingly, she began to run the emails through the translator program. After about ten minutes, the first email came back. I was dated four weeks before the trip to Israel. Abby began to read through the emails, looking for clues or any mention of Mossad. She found them, but they weren't what she was hoping for.
The emails between Michael and Ziva were nothing short of normal. They talked like old friends. They talked about Mossad, but mostly in reference to things that had happened in the past old missions, old friends they'd both know. Michael told her about who'd gotten married, who'd had kids, who'd died on mission.
They had been friends. The further along the emails she went, the more Michael's tone began to change. He spoke of how much he missed her company and how hard it was to trust the people of Mossad. He complained about the politics and how they seemed to be the things dictating the decisions made by Mossad. Rather than agreeing with him, Ziva continued to assert that orders were orders and one had to follow them, so long as they weren't costing innocent lives. Michael seemed unwilling to agree with her. Finally in an email dated about three days before Michael arrived in DC caught Abby's attention as it mentioned NCIS.
Do you not get frustrated with those you work with? Have you never wanted take things into your own hands? The desire to escape Mossad's idiotic policies grows in me everyday.
No. There are times when I disagree with my superiors, but I have never wanted to do things on my own. I trust them Michael, to do the right thing. In the end, that is usually what happens. I am sorry that you have to be around the bureaucrats, but truly, I am happy to be at NCIS where I can escape it all. Just do your job and let the politicians do theirs.
Just then, Tony came into the lab.
"Hey Abby, how's it coming?"
"I just got through with Ziva's and Rivkin's emails. There's nothing here! They don't give any specifics about Mossad or any big ops that Michael may have been involved in. It's just friends talking, back and forth." Abby sat in her chair with a huff, resuming her slow spin.
"I want to try to break into Mossad's network next. It's possible that her father sent her on a mission and she's not allowed to make outside contact."
"What kind of father sends their daughter on a mission when they are an emotional mess?" asked Tony in disgust, coming to look at the screen Abby had pulled up.
"The kind of father who also happens to be the director of Mossad, Tony. She's an agent to him, not his daughter. At least, not when she's completely under his jurisdiction again." Replied Abby as Tony read. A wide grin spread across his face.
"Abby this is great." Abby was confused and looked at him.
"Abby, this confirms that Ziva didn't know what was going on. She didn't know why Rivkin was here." Tony felt as if a large weight had been removed from his shoulders.
"Tony, we still didn't get anything useful from them."
"Yes, but Abby, this means that no matter why Ziva decided to stay in Israel, she was always loyal to NCIS. Is still loyal. And, it also proves that Rivkin had some less them warm feelings toward his boss. He didn't tell her anything and she wasn't in contact with her father." He took another look at the screen.
"Abby, what's this in the corner?" indicating to a small box that seemed to be relaying a video feed.
Abby blushed slightly.
"Well, I know how we're not supposed to let anyone know what we're up to. I've been paranoid all day, so I tapped into the feed to the camera outside my lab. That way, if anyone less than pleasant was coming to pay me a visit, I would be able to minimize any windows on the screen that would raise suspicion."
"That's very cool Abby."
"And look, here it is working it's magic now. Looks like McGee's got something."
A moment later, McGee burst through the lab doors.
"Guys, I've got something."
"Spill Probie." stated Tony, inviting McGee to speak.
"I was able to get a good look at Abin Tabel's computer. This terrorist camp is bad news. They seem to be the big middle man for illegal arms deals. I also found a list of what I think are Sleepers. There are thirty five names on the list, all the names generic American ones. Something else too. While I was down there, Vance showed up. He wanted the evidence box I was working in. He got real nasty with the agent, who wouldn't let him into the garage. I didn't get a chance to look through the rest of the evidence, but there's something in the box that Vance wants." Tony pondered McGee's words, his curiosity about Vance spiking.
"Well, Gibbs left for the night. It sounded like he had plans. He told be not to call him at all and that he'd fill me in later. It's what, about six now. We should head home." Abby and McGee's mouths dropped. They'd never imagine that Tony would be the one to call of the search for the night.
"Look guys, I want to work straight through the night too, but if we're going to keep this on the down low, we have to go home. Everyone knows we're not working a big case." Slowly, McGee and Abby nodded their heads. Tony turned his heel to leave when McGee spoke again.
"Tony, I think you should know now and then I think we need to tell Gibbs first thing tomorrow: there was a copy made of all the information on Tabel's computer. The fried computer still had it history log saved. The computer that the copy was made onto was licensed to the Israeli Embassy. Someone at the Embassy knew what Tabel was up to."
"Do you know who McGee?" Tony's voice was calm, but inside, his mind was roaring. Whatever they had missed ran deeper than originally supposed.
"No, not yet. That's going to require us to go to the Embassy to find out. Oh, and I also found a letter in Arabic. It needs to be translated."
"Tomorrow. Translate it tomorrow while you help Abby hack Mossad's network. Go home and get rest, because I have a gut feeling that we won't have the luxury for much longer."