I am quite flattered (but surprised too ^^) to see that so many people are following the story! (50 people have put the story on "alert", and there are at least half a dozen regular reviewers too :)). As promised, this chapter is the meeting of both teams. I hope you'll like the way they meet; I didn't want to go for an "immediate trust" approach because I thought it would be a bit naive. But they'll learn to know each other in the coming chapters, don't worry! As I said in the summary, the focus remains on NCIS, though, so you'll only know the point of view of our NCIS friends. :-)
Chapter five
Two o'clock found Gibbs's entire team in Director Shepard's office. The team sent by the Air Force -SG-1, as they had called themselves - was, if anything, atypical. Their leader, Colonel Jack O'Neill ("two 'L's", he had insisted), was a man around Gibbs' age with an unusually laid-back attitude for a man in his position. His second-in-command was Major Samantha Carter, a rather impressive woman - both physically and, from what Gibbs could tell so far, intellectually. Then there were the two civilian consultants. A doctor Jackson, who looked nothing like a military guy, and another guy introduced to them as Mister Murray, who was a mountain of muscles and apparently did never leave his hat, even when inside the office of the Director of NCIS.
The four of them formed a curious mix, one that even Gibbs had trouble figuring out completely. Just as he had trouble figuring out what they had been talking about for about half an hour now to explain what they thought had happened back at Colonel Makepeace's house. "They" being essentially Major Carter, although there were occasional interruptions from Doctor Jackson. What Gibbs understood was that ther was something about top-secret tests and laws of scientific disciplines he personally had never heard about - not even in Abby's lab, as far as he could remember anyway. In essence, there was this theory that had been applied to develop some classified technology gizmos; the Air Force and the Navy had conducted a joint classified research project; Colonel Makepeace -this was classified- had stolen (classified) things from the classified project; they had arrested him and gotten back the classified gizmos. Or so they thought... apparently he had left one behind, which explained the whole McGee-clone-apparition in his house. And oh yeah, it was all classified. Confidential. Top-secret. Bla, bla, bla.
And now the Major was giving this nice cover story a little scientific background, probably hoping to drown them all.
And she was almost successful, as a quick look at the rest of the group revealed: Jenny had her serious face, pretending to be listening (but she could never fool him with that expression); Ziva was frowning hard, trying to focus on the report and failing; Tony was not concentrating on the speech but on the speaker (or, more precisely, on the speaker's legs). Only problem in this plan, McGee -
McGee, who was listening intently, his eyes showing a fascination that was almost funny.
Gibbs resisted the urge to smile triumphantly when his own personal science genius gently interrupted, wondering if he could ask a question. Gibbs had no idea of what exactly McGee had asked, but he could tell that his youngest agent did not buy the Major's explanation either. As for Carter, she was good at this, Gibbs noted. She had only appeared slightly taken aback by the precision of the question. Her small hesitation before she replied to McGee would have gone unnoticed to most people, but it had spoken volumes to a trained investigator like Gibbs (and, he was pleased to say, to his senior agent as well, since Tony's glance had suddenly shifted from the legs to the eyes of the Major).
This gave Gibbs the confirmation of what he had been feeling ever since the meeting had started : everything they had been told so far was b.s. and nothing more.
O'Neill surprised them all by interrupting the Major at that point, acting like he was about to put them all out of this over-technical misery. Gibbs raised an eyebrow: he had not expected the Colonel to be this subtle. Now he understood what O'Neill was doing in the team.
"Carter," the Colonel said, "As fascinating as this is, I am sure that you and Special Agent Mac- umm-"
"-McGee, Sir."
"Special Agent McGee can discuss the technical subtleties later - as long as it is not confidential information, of course. Daniel ?"
Doctor Jackson cleared his throat. "Um, yes. The... reason we have been sent here is to ask for your cooperation regarding this case. We are fully aware that this is not Air Force jurisdiction but it is important, for reasons of security, that we take part in the investigation."
"Of course," Jenny replied. "You will have full access to the investigation reports and conclusions, as well as the evidence -"
Jackson smiled politely, but Gibbs could tell that they had been expecting that exact reaction. "With all due respect, Director Shepard, by 'taking part' I meant a little more than that. I meant-"
"Yeah, he meant that we actually be a part of this, " cut O'Neill. "As in, we work with your team on this."
Jenny pursed her lips and gave Gibbs a worried glance. A look that said, "I bet you're not going to like that, Jethro, but I have no choice". He surprised her (and, from what he could tell, the rest of his team) by simply nodding in agreement. "Sure. I have no problem with that, Colonel O'Neill. As long as we agree that my team is leading the investigation and you guys are just helping."
O'Neill raised his hands slightly. "Sounds fair."
"Director?" Gibbs said. He knew he would have her agreement on that, but they had to play the game until the end.
"I agree," replied Jenny. She then turned towards DiNozzo, David and McGee and dismissed them: "Thank you, special agents DiNozzo and McGee, Officer David. Special Agent Gibbs will let you in on the details of our cooperation."
The three of them nodded and rose from their chair. Gibbs smiled to himself when he saw the look in DiNozzo's eyes before he closed the door behind them. He would do what was necessary.
------
Tony spoke as soon as they were out of Cynthia's office. He knew that they did not have much time. "Guys, fancy a campfire?"
"I am tired," said Ziva, as though she hadn't heard him. "Let's take the elevator."
"I agree," said McGee.
Tony smiled.
Once in the elevator, Ziva flipped the switch.
"All right, I suppose you both understood what this was all about," Tony began.
McGee chuckled. "A whole lot of crap," he replied. "Nicely and cleverly thought-up crap, but crap nonetheless."
"A brilliant cover story," added Ziva, nodding. "Major Carter was good, but I could nonetheless tell she was lying."
"I know! I'm no specialist of quantum physics, but what I know for sure is that there is no way they could power such a machine with our current knowledge of generators. This is science-fiction, pure and simple! Just to restore entropy you would need-"
"-all right, all right. I just wanted to make sure that we all got it. We don't have much time," cut Tony. "They're hiding something, and we have to find out what. You know why Gibbs agreed to cooperate."
Ziva smiled. "So we can keep an eye on them."
"So what do we do?" asked McGee.
"Well, quite simple. They're four, and so are we."
"Gibbs will want to follow the Colonel," stated Ziva.
"Exactly. McGee- it pains me to say this, because she's really hot, but you're going to be in charge of the chi-"
Ziva had taken a step towards Tony, who suddenly felt oppressed.
"- I mean, the woman. You're probably the only one who can get what she's talking about and judge if it makes any sense."
McGee nodded, and Tony couldn't help noticing the slight blush on his face. "Ok. Ziva, that doctor Jackson seems to know a hell of a lot more than he tells. Think you can work your little ninja-spy interrogating magic on him and figure out what he knows?"
Ziva let out a small laugh. "I can. I will."
Tony felt that he needed to make a clarification. "Don't kill him, 're not enemies, just secretive... people."
"I was not planning on killing him, Tony. There are lots of other ways to extract information, you know." The expression on her face when she said that sent chills down Tony's spine.
"Ok, fine. I'll be in charge of that Murray guy. He's suspicious. "
"Has not said a word or moved a muscle through the whole meeting," agreed Ziva.
"Well, that, but most importantly, who still wears that kind of hats nowadays? Hello, this is not 1953 anymore!" commented Tony.
Both McGee and Ziva rolled their eyes at that.
"Ok. We don't have much time left, and we need a plan. We have two things to discuss. First, we need to find a way to share our information. They're going to be keeping an eye on us just as much as we keep an eye on them."
"E-mail is the safest," said McGee thoughtfully. "I can give you a small coding program so we can exchange encrypted information without them knowing."
"No way. It would take too much time. Besides, do you really think that Gibbs will know how to use an e-mail?" remarked Tony.
Ziva and McGee could not disagree with that.
"I have an idea, actually..." said Tony, grinning. It did not take more than a minute for him to explain it.
Once they had all agreed, Tony flipped the switch again.
"Umm Tony?"
"Yes, McSci-Fi?"
"Wasn't there another thing we needed to discuss? You said there were two."
Tony clasped his hands. "Too right you are, Probie! I nearly forgot!"
"Shall I block the elevator again? We are almost there," said Ziva.
"No need. This is not really confidential," assured Tony. They walked out of the elevator and into the squad room.
"What was it, then?"
"Patience, patience, Probie! Here it is." He got closer to Ziva and McGee and whispered conspiratorially. "These guys have a team name - SG-1, sounds pretty cool. So... what should ours be? I propose.... The G-team. Like the A-Team, but with 'G' for Gibbs-"
A head-slap put a premature end to this conversation and signalled that the head of the 'G-Team' had arrived.
"I take it you've had the time to discuss a plan, Mister T. We have two minutes before Jenny and the Air Force guys arrive, so you'd better start explaining now," he said.
"Yes boss. See, it is pretty simple..."