A/N: As promised, here's another chapter. I'm running out of completed chapters, but I'll try to get a chapter up at least once every second day! F.
"Abby."
The touch on her shoulder brought her awake with a jump. She looked up to see Tony standing over her, trying to keep a grip on two computers. The laptop was in danger of sliding off the top of the desktop tower. She rescued it, laying it down on the bench next to where she'd been sleeping.
"Adams' computers; Gibbs said you needed them." Tony explained. "Where do you want this one?"
She pointed to the stainless steel evidence table, taking in the cuts and grazes that covered his arms and face. "What happened to you?"
"Another bomb."
Instantly concerned, she threw her arms around him in typical Abby fashion, letting him go when he winced a little.
"Oh my God Tony, are you ok? How did this happen?"
"I'm ok Abs. It was a booby trap. Keating found a tripwire." The look he gave her told her volumes about exactly how Keating had found the wire. "He's downstairs trying to avoid Gibbs. Ziva should be here soon-" They both heard the elevator ding. Tony finished his sentence as Ziva entered the lab. "With the remnants of the bomb. "
Ziva placed the crate she was carrying down next to the computer Tony had deposited and handed Abby a memory card from her camera. "Gibbs wants to know if there are any more bombs out there. And he says that if you need help with the computers to ask Cybercrimes."
"Keating?" Abby asked.
"Gibbs is looking for him." Ziva confirmed.
"This I gotta see." Tony and Ziva headed out of the lab, Tony walking stiffly. Abby turned her attention to the evidence she'd been given. She had two equally important tasks in front of her. She decided to concentrate on the bomb residue first; the computers couldn't kill people. Inserting the memory card into her computer, she brought the photos up on the screen, a little amazed at the amount of damage done to the house. The whole back left hand corner had sagged into the pit created by the bomb blast. Her first impression was that Adams had used a lot more C4 this time; from the damage it looked like overkill. She cycled through the photos on the card; as she suspected, not much was left intact of the basement or the back of the house. There appeared to be four areas where the damage was at its worst. Interesting. She set to work reconstructing the explosion from the photographs.
Slowly the picture became clearer. This is why she loved her work. Piecing together the evidence to figure out what had happened; it was like the world's best jigsaw puzzle every time. Adams had rigged multiple bombs in his basement that much was certain. But Tony had mentioned one tripwire. Why one? And why along the side of the house? It seemed like a strange place; not many people walked along the side of a house, they went to the front or rear doors.
She had the 'how', now she needed the 'what'. She moved on to the pieces of material that Ziva had brought in. Sorting this out was going to be more difficult. She needed more Caf-Pow.
...
Gibbs returned from a coffee run to find Keating seated at his temporary desk in the bullpen. Not for the first time he wondered how Keating and McGee could be so alike and yet so different. Both expensively educated, academically brilliant, technologically adept. But Keating displayed none of the qualities that made McGee a valued and important member of his team. No instinct, no real passion for the job. And while McGee had made the occasional blunder, he'd never endangered another member of the team out of sheer stupidity. His anger rising, he snapped out orders as he entered the bullpen.
"DiNozzo. Find out if Lieutenant Francis ever had a head CT scan done. David, help DiNozzo. Keating." He paused for a moment. "Grab your trash." He jerked his head towards the elevators meaningfully. Red faced, the junior agent collected his things and walked through the centre of the team's desks. Gibbs followed him to the elevators, noting Keating's surprise when he entered the elevator with him. Gibbs reached out and punched the button for the floor above before Keating could react, then snapped the emergency stop switch to on.
Keating was the first to speak.
"I really blew it today, didn't I sir?"
Gibbs wasn't about to deny that. "Yep."
"Am I being fired?"
Gibbs snapped the emergency stop back off. He just wanted this irritant gone.
"You damn near killed another NCIS agent today." As the elevator arrived at the executive mezzanine he continued "Report to the Director for reassignment."
After Keating scurried out of the elevator, Gibbs hit the button for Abby's lab. Hopefully she had something useful. Adams was still in a holding cell.
...
Abby's music was turned up to a level he recognised as her trying to keep herself awake. He walked straight past her and turned the music down, knowing she'd protest.
"Gibbs" she complained.
The look he gave her let her know he wasn't in the mood for her games.
"What d'ya got, Abby?"
"Right. Well there was more than one bomb, Gibbs. I found four areas where the blast damage is really bad. I've reconstructed part of two different bombs, both with different trigger mechanisms. This one is the one that Keating activated with the tripwire, and this one had a pressure plate like the one in the storage locker."
"He really wanted at least one to go off."
"Yeah. And he used a heap of explosive, Gibbs. It looks like he used the rest of the C4 just in his basement."
"Anything else?"
"The workmanship is different; it's sloppier, less meticulous than the first bomb."
"Different maker?"
"No, it's the same maker Gibbs. It's more like he was rushed this time."
"We spooked him."
"Yeah. But what I don't get, Gibbs, is why he used so much explosive this time. He could have booby trapped that basement with way less, like he did with the storage locker."
"I dunno Abs; guess that's what we've gotta figure out."
On his way out he called over his shoulder "Go home Abs. Get some sleep."