Typically, Gibbs was the first one to recover from the shock. While the rest of the team remained dumbstruck he turned and hurried out of the lab. Fear and anger sent adrenaline pumping through his veins. Exiting the elevator, he strode quickly through the squad room and raced up the stairs to the mezzanine, taking them two at a time. He brushed past the secretary that tried to prevent him, barged through the steel clad door into Vance's office and let his momentum carry him to the desk.
"We have a potential threat to this agency" he began without preamble. He had the Director's full attention, he could see that. Even the ever present toothpick was still. "Adams was building a bomb in his basement, a big one. And Abby found plans of this building on his computer."
Alarm brought Vance to his feet. "Where is he?"
"Downstairs, in Interrogation." Gibbs replied.
Quickly Vance left the office, taking the stairs down from the mezzanine with Gibbs close behind him. Tony was hanging up his desk phone as they entered the bullpen. "I checked with Adams' CO. There's been no other report of missing munitions, at least not in the last 6 months."
"I am calling the other bases in the area, in case he got explosives from elsewhere." Ziva chimed in.
"How did he get the building plans?"
Both Tony and Ziva looked at Gibbs in silence.
"Anyone?" he demanded.
"I think I can answer that, Gibbs." The voice came from behind him. As one they turned to see Abby standing near McGee's desk.
...
"Adams is a world class hacker, Gibbs. But surprisingly, he's not real big on hiding any of the information he accesses. From what I can tell, he got the building plans the same way he got access to Lieutenant Francis' medical records. He fooled the system into thinking he was somebody else who had the clearance to get into those files. It's actually pretty neat." She looked away from her computer screen, noticing the similar expression on Gibbs and Vance's faces. "Or not. Anyway, as good as he is, he still left traces on the lockup computer. I'm betting we'd find the same traces on computer banks in Central Files." She saw Vance's scowl and knew he was considering the effects of another security breach. "It looks like he used the C4 out of the big bomb he was making in the booby trap bombs in his basement."
"He knew we were coming for him." Gibbs commented.
"How much C4 did he have?" Vance asked.
"A little under two blocks."
Vance shook his head. "It's not enough." Gibbs gave Abby a questioning look.
"The Director's right, Gibbs. That amount of C4 isn't enough to blow up a building like this one. And if you wanted to take down the building, you wouldn't make one big bomb, you'd make a bunch of little ones."
"He wasn't after the building. He was after people." Gibbs observed. They fell silent, contemplating the horror of what they'd discovered.
"You said he accessed Lieutenant Francis' medical records."
"Uh-huh. I was working on an idea McGee had. When Cassidy's team out of the Pentagon was killed, the terrorists used a text to speech program to make calls to the hotline."
Gibbs nodded. "They poured hot latex down his throat to make a model."
"That's right; except Adams needed Francis alive, so he tapped into his medical records instead. Francis reported to the base medical facilities at Quantico 2 weeks ago with persistent headaches; they did a CT scan to rule out anything hinky. I found a text to speech program on Adams' laptop. Ironically it's the same one that the terrorists used when Cassidy was killed."
"Nice work Abs." Gibbs turned to leave, and then stopped. "When did Adams access the building plans?"
She checked. "Yesterday."
"Thanks."
Vance reached past Abby and picked up the lab phone, pressing the speed dial marked 'Emergency'
"This is the Director. Initiate the emergency evacuation procedure immediately. This is not a drill."