AN: Sorry this has taken so long... but can I share something with my pals? The two non-writing, starving hungry, rather painful days I've just spent have told me that I haven't got the dreaded big C back again. Am I allowed to jump up and down and yell? Oh, and England won tonight. Football... soccer, you guys...
The entire Four Dams area exists only in my imagination of course. And sorry, I had to make up a relevant authority, because I couldn't find out what the real one is, and anyway, I think the real one would be more alert.
Thanks to Pamsie who wasn't logged in, for her kind review. And everyone else.
Cowboy Tony Rides Again
Chapter 3
In the silence that followed Simon's words, while everyone thought over the horrible truth of what he'd said, Tony was aware of one thing over all others: Adam was looking at his father with absolute trust on his face. Dad wouldn't let this happen. OK, neither would he. The agent took a deep breath to answer, when his cell phone buzzed.
"Yeah, McGee?"
"Got some more stuff for you... shall I send it to Amos again?"
"No... wait up... Mary, I need -"
"I've got the FDA address, Tony."
The SFA was rueful. "Hey, I should have known. Yeah, send it here."
"On its way. There's an eye-opener in there..."
"Thanks. Anything to help us get the feebies in? I mean, I don't see how any way of making it our official business, but my gut says move fast. Er – have you told Gibbs?"
"Oh yeah – he's -"
Tony looked at his phone in astonishment as McGee ended on a yelp and the call was cut off. Who was that screeching in the background? He shrugged and put the offending object back in his pocket.
Ty had picked up on 'send it here', and grabbed the nearest laptop. By the time he'd booted up, the material had arrived, and they all crowded round. Tony wished for a plasma screen; he dug out the USB he'd brought from the Frames' place, and Ty added that to a new file that he headed up 'Disaster'.
"You can delete the stuff about Mary if you like," Tony told him apologetically; it's just career and stuff – it was part of what I asked Tim to hunt down when all I had was a surname."
Mary glanced at it; what was displayed was the first file of information Tim had sent. "Nothing new there," she said cheerfully, then her eyes widened. "Brew Eisley? Phil Liddell? I might have damn well known. What d'you know about them? How d'you know about them?"
Tony shrugged, even more apologetically. "Haven't had time to get to that yet," he said, and gave them the bit of information he'd left out up at New Dam. The little chestnut haired spitfire looked furious for a moment, but even as she snorted and began to subside, her deputy said reasonably, "Well, you didn't know anything about us then."
"But you do now," Mary added grudgingly.
"Well," Tony said with a grin towards Simon and Adam, "any friends of the guys are friends of mine," and thought whew, that was less painful than it could have been.
Simon looked uneasily at his son; he'd come in with Tony, and listened to everything that had been said. The big agent caught the look. "He shouldn't be involved in all this," the former Marine said softly, "It's frightening, the scale of it... he shouldn't have to deal with it."
"Does he look scared? He trusts you to do something about it, Mr Crusading Journalist, and that's good enough for him."
"Guess I'd better not let him down, then."
Tony just grinned. "We."
NCISNCISNCIS
Spread out across the back of the agency sedan, Tim struggled to save his laptop, his phone and himself as Gibbs rounded another corner on two wheels. "Boss! I know you're mad at me, but the laptop's important!"
"Not mad at you, McGee," Gibbs yelled over his shoulder. "Ya got your seat belt on, haven't ya?"
"Tony seems to have come across some trouble brewing, Boss..."
"Where the hell is DiNozzo?"
"He went to see Doris, Boss. Er... it was actually my suggestion." Tim braced himself yet again.
"He went – ah." Gibbs went from irascible to matter-of-fact in zero seconds. Then back. "What trouble?"
The young agent knew he was a poor prevaricator and didn't like doing it anyway, to anyone, least of all the Boss. He explained quickly the little that Tony had told him, and then began putting pages up on the plasma screen.
"This is what I've found so far, Boss, and I've only been looking for half an hour, so you can bet there'll be more." He pointed with the cursor. "That's the conversation Tony overheard – verbatim. And you know you can trust his memory. That last line – about acting soon... and an old, weak dam – I think Tony feels that even if it's all a huge misunderstanding, he's got to find out. Cuz if it's not, someone's got to do something. This is what I've got up to now on the names he gave me, and the plate... and this is something else I noticed..."
He put up a map of the area. "You can see that Appelt is in a three-sided hollow, with the river making up the fourth side, then you see here, it runs away through a short, deep gorge. Dodgy place to put a settlement, but apparently the farm land was good, and they decided to build the dam a bit later. They built it good – for then – and felt they were completely safe. I dare say they were, but not any more."
Gibbs frowned. "If the dam went, you think the river couldn't take it."
"I'm sure it couldn't. Not fast enough. And the water would be bounced back by the rising land on the far side of the town. If the dam really is weak, and so far I've only got what the voice in the dark said... but if it is, it's a disaster waiting to happen."
"What's the motive? Why would anyone want to make it happen?"
"Those names, Boss. Except Lesniak – she's the dam boss. Bit young for the job, has to be a story there... One's the name Tony heard, the other's the registered owner of the truck. They both own manufacturing businesses... up on the high land beyond the town. Safe. There was a third guy Tony heard up at the dam, nothing yet on him – there are three more businesses on that high ground, one's a national franchise, so possibly not the boss of that one, that's Harvey Eames... but maybe one of these two. Thalia Vakis's firm doesn't manufacture, it wholesales sports equipment. And it was another male voice he heard. Scott Milner has a food processing plant. Going to look into him next."
"What are the other two factories?"
"Philip Liddell runs a micro-brewery, Brewster Eisley doesn't, in spite of his name. Mass produced cheap recycled glassware – possibly the bottles for the beer? Beyond that, I don't know yet. I'm still looking; Tony's talking to people there." He looked Gibbs in the eyes. "My gut's following Tony's, Boss. He went looking for a bit of peace -"
"But it is not what he found," Ziva said in a more conciliatory tone than previously. "I can join Tim in seeking for more information if you wish."
"Sure," Gibbs said dryly. "If you're any good at working a laptop in a car. Let's go."
Nobody asked him where to.
NCISNCISNCIS
They looked at the first file Tim had sent. Nobody needed to explain the flood trap to Tony; it was clear with one glance at the map.
"I envy you being able to get hold of this so quickly, Tony," Mary said thoughtfully. "I'd love to be able to turn up information on that lot."
"This has to be McGee's work," Simon said just as thoughtfully.
"You knew a lot of it already," Tony said cheerfully. "Now we've got to start enlarging on it. What do you know?" He looked at the list of names that Tim had shown Gibbs. "You know these two and you're not surprised. Why's that?"
Mary smiled thinly. "It takes ten pints of water to produce one pint of beer. Phil's beer's gaining popularity – "
"It's good," Joel grinned.
"Well... yeah. So he wants to produce more. But he'd have to pay for more water. Brewster... he hates paying for the electricity it takes to run his factory, so he wants to build his own hydro-electric plant. Same problem. Remember that valve you saw on New Dam? It brings a large volume of water down to Old Dam if needed – it's faster than opening the right hand sluice and letting it come down the rive, because the outlet is lower down the dam face, so there's a lot of pressure behind it. It was originally put there in case the businesses had a sudden high demand, but now it's permanently closed, because the last thing we want right now up there – " she jerked her thumb in the direction of the earth bank – "is a large volume of water."
"How do they get the water for their businesses, then?" Tony asked.
Ty pointed to a spot on the map as he answered. "We release a measured flow into the river, that's picked up by a pumping station at the foot of the escarpment, where we pump it up to the industries up there, meter it, and charge accordingly. It's easier to let the river do it than build another pipeline." Now it was Ty's turn to grin. "It's the least expensive water in the whole of Virginia," he said wryly. "But those cheapskates still don't like paying."
"They want a new dam," Simon said harshly. "They want a big lake, with its own hydro-electric plant, made by a narrow, deep dam at the end of the gorge. They've been plaguing Congress and anyone else who'd listen about it for years, but they've been told 'no' repeatedly. Nobody in authority's going to contemplate clearing out an entire town for it. Fortunately. If the Old Dam becomes too dangerous, it can be emptied and rebuilt, like Mary said. But if it were to fail 'accidentally' and destroy the town anyway..." He glanced across at his son and thought of two schools full of unsuspecting young people.
Tony nodded. "There's more," he said flatly. "This is where McDigger comes into his own. Don't ask me how he came up with this – it's just something he does." He brought up the next piece of information Tim had sent him – it was an eye-opener, as he'd said. A holding company was busily buying up land all around the valley sides – all at a particular height.
Ty swore, then apologised to Adam, who shot a wicked look at Simon. "I've heard Dad say that," he said cheekily.
"That's the level the lake would be if they built the gorge dam," Ty said furiously, stopping any denial Simon might have made.
"That's what Tim thought," Tony said.
Mary looked at them both. "I won't ask if you're certain of that," she said slowly. Tony looked a bit puzzled. "Hey, I'm an engineer... but my background's systems engineering... didn't know the first thing about hydrodynamics when I came here. Ty's taught me everything I know. He should be chief, but the State wouldn't accept anyone without a degree, and Ty learned his subject in the army. If he says something's so, I believe him."
"Whatever," Ty said without grudge. "Now I'm really worried. Someone out there's convinced it's going to happen."
"Convinced enough to be speculating," Joel said. "Lakeside land would be sought after; there'd be building... hotels, houses, roads, never mind the impact on the environment."
"I might have said the State wouldn't let that happen," Simon said, "but in my 'long' career as a journalist, I've grown cynical. It would be nice to know who owns the holding company."
"If Tim knew he'd have told us, but he won't give up until he does know-" which was the cue for his phone to buzz.
"Just talking about you, McFerret... you've impressed a few people down here... you have? How did you find – no, don't tell me, I won't be able to explain it to anyone else -"
"No need," Gibbs said, striding in. "He can tell them himself." Tim and Ziva followed him in, McGee with his phone still in one hand. Both younger agents carried laptops; both looked slightly dishevelled.(Well, Tony thought, that explained the screeching he'd heard.) "Got any coffee?" the Marine added hopefully.
"Boss!" Tony exclaimed happily. "You taking a day off to see the beautiful scenery round here? Cuz I can't imagine you've managed to get jurisdiction on this."
"Nah," Gibbs said casually. "That'll go to the FBI... when the Director lets them know."
"Which will be when?"
"Oh," the Senior Agent answered, still in a very relaxed tone, "She'll get round to it some time."
Tony thought of Jenny Shepard and his gleeful mood evaporated. He suppressed a sigh and made the introductions while Simon and Adam fixed drinks for everyone. "So, McSuperferret, tell everyone what you just told me. It's another eye-opener, folks," he said, and only Gibbs, who'd been pleased to see the delight at the arrival of his team and not so pleased at the collapse of the good mood, saw the valiant effort his SFA made to get it back.
"Tony asked me to get everything I could on the Four Dams region," Tim made his own valiant effort – to be succinct. "When I got into – er, when I looked at the files of the Virginia Regional Land Authority, and discovered how much land was being bought up, I wondered if anything existed... provision for change of use in unusual circumstances, so I er... wandered around in their files for a bit." He was setting up his laptop as he spoke.
"You hacked..." Mary said in a delighted, awed tone.
"I wish you worked for me,"Simon added wryly.
"I found this straight away..."
They all peered at the newspaper article, taken from a statewide paper, that appeared on the screen. It was an interview with the new head of the Authority, who'd taken over just four weeks previously.
My own feeling, Tim had highlighted, is that 'foot in the door' situations should not be encouraged in the region. Not allowed, if you prefer. Miss Lisa Campitelli warmed to her subject. My duty, and my passion, having grown up here, is that the area should remain unspoilt. Any new construction, of any description, will have to pass the most Draconian of tests, and be proved to be of benefit to the whole region, community and State, not just to one group of citizens.
"So when I found these," Tim went on, after giving them time to take it in, "I thought Miss Campitelli doesn't know everything that's going on in her department. To be fair, it was buried rather deeply for anyone who's only been in the job a month to find it."
The documents were an application for a survey of possibilities if the Old Dam at Appelt were to become unuseable, (carefully worded to make no mention of accidental failure,)a completed survey with options, and a letter from the deputy director in charge of the region, giving provisional approval for a new dam rather than the reconstruction of what was lost. The official didn't seem to grasp that 'what was lost' included a whole township.
After a long silence, Simon said quietly, "You're the investigators... but if Miss Campitelli isn't aware of this, I think she should be made aware immediately. Anyone object to me going to Richmond?"
There were head-shakes, and Ziva said suddenly, "I will come with you. I am good at assessing whether or not someone is telling the truth. We will know from her reaction whether we have an ally or not. If pains have been taken to conceal this from her, and if she is sincere in her sentiments, once she is aware of it I believe it will make the building of a dam in the gorge impossible. She will not approve it under any circumstances."
She looked at Gibbs for permission, and found herself also looking at Tony for approval. Tim was already phoning to make an appointment, and Ty was making a printout of the sheaf of documents.
Neither Gibbs nor Tony said a word, but Ziva smiled, and took the documents.
"I'll stay here and keep you posted, Dad," Adam said, and Simon smiled. Three hours in a car wasn't to his live-wire son's liking, ankle cast or not.
"Sure, son..." and Tony noticed with an internal grin how the former Marine looked at Mary for her approval... a few moments later, the Denali rumbled away.
"The problem is,"Mary said worriedly, "Will they believe it?"
"Not a problem, Ms Lesniak," Gibbs said calmly. "We're not going to let them do this anyway."
AN: Sorry, no action again, but we're getting to the end of the setting up. Shorter than I like to put out, but the last two days have been a bit of a strain, (moan moan,) I'm happy but running out of steam, and I wanted to get something posted.