a/n - It's a double dip day. The second chapter should be up in about eight hours. Enjoy.
No matter how much they expected it, sitting still when the evacuation alarm sounded was harder than it looked. Both Fornell and Myers jumped when the ventilation system shut down and even Gibbs kept track of where the emergency door release was when the lights went out, to be replaced with the red lights run by the backup generators. Only the computers in the War Room still had normal power, but the odd, flickering light from the screens as the decryption programs ran did nothing to relieve the tension.
Twenty minutes without a fresh source of air really wasn't enough to deplete the oxygen levels in the hidden underground wing, but it was enough to raise both the temperature and the tempers.
"What in the hell is going on, DiNozzo? Is your Director trying to pull something?" Ron Sacks tugged at his shirt as he marched back and forth in front of the vault like door.
DiNozzo just shrugged as he stripped down to his t-shirt. "Don't ask me. I'm not his favorite person, never have been."
"If he's sitting up in his air conditioned office having a good laugh with Moore…"
"He's not." Tim was a miserable as the rest of them, but they hadn't had time to look at the big picture in regards to Moore. In unison the two men turned on him, but he held his ground. "Doesn't matter how important Vance is, he doesn't fit Moore's vision of his perfect world and neither do you, Ron. Moore wants people that think like him and look like him, haven't you noticed?" He waved his hand at the pictures tacked on the wall. Of the twenty different people they'd tied to Moore, all were of European decent, in addition to having his strict, twisted beliefs.
Myers brought over the rapidly cooling pot of coffee and divided it between the cups on the table as he gave his own interpretation of the man they were after. "Moore's one sick puppy. He's got his own warped views and he's deranged enough to kill off everyone who doesn't agree with him."
The mention of Vance had caught Gibbs' attention, but it was the lure of the remaining coffee that pulled him in. DiNozzo looked to him for reassurance.
"There's a reason this is taking so long, right Boss?"
"DiNozzo, it's only been twenty minutes. Twenty minutes to issue the alarm, evacuate the entire building, lock down every section and every outside door, wait for the crowds to disperse so they don't see what's going on, do whatever is needed to get the emergency responders to leave, and reactivate the systems in secure lock-down mode."
Tony cringed when he thought about what was involved. "I guess we should give the man some time."
"Ya' think?"
Before Tony could think of a snappy come back, the power and ventilation systems came back on. Almost immediately Ziva walked in with a steaming cup of coffee. When she saw them staring, she smiled. "Mildred made a pot on a Bunsen burner."
---NCIS---
Despite the whining, or perhaps because of it, the building was secure and theirs alone within an hour. The only lighting available in the main building was still the emergency lights and what fading daylight came through the skylights, but it was enough to get them safely from their downstairs haven up to the primary MTAC. DiNozzo and Myers were once again grunt labor as the two networks were linked together. They returned downstairs to continue with their own research while McGee chose to monitor his work on the encryption from upstairs, enjoying the momentary peace.
After four hours of no McGee, Gibbs went to find him, Ducky in tow. As expected, the young man was slumped in a chair, studying the screens, his head resting on his fist. Gibbs motioned for Ducky to stay back while he quietly sat next to McGee and waited. As he expected, it took a few seconds for McGee to notice Gibbs and Ducky, who stood behind him.
"Hey, Boss."
"Hey, McGee." He waited and watched while the younger man continued to work the computers. "Do you have better access to the information you need up here?" He waved his hands at the bank of monitors.
McGee had to smile at the question. "Nah, I've got it set up so I can work at either one, it's just a little quieter up here." As soon as he said it, Tim was worried about how Gibbs would interpret it, so he quickly clarified his comment. "Who would have guessed Sacks and DiNozzo would bond over sports trivia?"
Privately, Gibbs thought it was their mutual concern for a tired and bruised geek that had brought the two polar opposites together, but for now he agreed with him. "That one surprised Fornell too." He waited, sensing McGee was working up to ask him something.
"Boss, umm, I asked Tony and Ziva both, but they wouldn't tell me anything. What's going on with Abby? Is she in trouble because of me?"
The last thing Gibbs wanted was for Tim to blame himself for her situation. "No, McGee, she's in trouble because she lost sight of what it is to be a team player. She let her personal feeling override her responsibilities. It's not the first time it's happened, you know that." He waited until he received a nod of understanding before continuing. "I've let it slide before, but this time her behavior and refusal to follow orders put people in danger."
"So, what happens now?" Other than the one nod, McGee had not looked up at Gibbs since the conversation started.
Gibbs rested his hand on Tim's shoulder as he explained. "She's on a two week suspension for now. I can't tell you the details of what she has to do, but Vance laid out a course of expectations and goals she has to meet before she can return to work. I know she realizes now what damage she could have done and she working very hard to accomplish what she needs to do to come back to work."
McGee nodded again and entered another set of commands into the network while Gibbs watched him, debating.
"Tim?"
McGee turned at the tone of voice he'd never heard from the older man.
"When Marcie called to say that she had sent the records…"
"My dad's medical records." McGee hoped his clarification would ease the other man's mind, but he saw no relief on the face so carefully watching him.
Gibbs continued on. "She said that they still expect to see you in their office. What, exactly, does that mean?"
Tim slumped down as he realized that he could no longer avoid this conversation. "My dad's condition was genetic."
"And fatal?"
"Yeah." Tim could see the question on Ducky's face as clearly as if it were one of Abby's tattoos. "My dad had GSS; a lot of the men in our family eventually die of it."
Ducky closed his eyes for a moment. "Oh, Timothy."
Gibbs looked over his shoulder at Ducky, seeing his pain for the young man, and then looked back at McGee, waiting for him to continue. Knowing his boss wouldn't want it sugar-coated, he was very blunt.
"GSS is short for Gerstmann-Straussler-Scheinker disease. The body develops rogue proteins that attack the brain and nervous system. There's no real treatment and there's no cure.
"How long before…" Gibbs couldn't even ask the question, but McGee understood it anyways.
"My dad was in his mid forties when he started showing symptoms. If I develop GSS, it will show up at a younger age than it did for my dad."
"If? So it's not a certainty that you will get this?" He leaned forward, searching the young man's face for answers.
"Not a certainty, no, but my grandfather and great-grandfather also died of GSS. Of course, that far back they didn't have a name for it."
Ducky broke in before the silence could become too uncomfortable. "Timothy, refresh my memory please. What are the earliest symptoms?" McGee didn't look away from the screen as he typed.
"The earliest symptom is usually clumsiness." This time he looked at his companions with a quick grin before turning serious again. "Yeah, I know. Maybe you better use the later symptoms as a better gauge, so that would be slurred speech and then muscle spasms, maybe blindness."
"You seem very calm about such a death sentence."
"It's not like I don't know what's coming." Suddenly, he straightened up and stared at the screen as it began to change and cascading letters and numbers seemed to fall into place. "And now I know what Moore is up to. Call the team and Vance; I've broken through the last layer of encryption."