After being introduced to Captain Doctor Samantha Carter, who O'Neill indicated was their secondary liaison officer, Jethro followed O'Neill out of the conference room.

"Your agent have a problem keeping secrets?" O'Neill asked as they waited for the elevator.

Forcing thoughts of Deep Six and its sister novels aside, Jethro shook his head. "He's just part of the Internet generation. Everything's available on the web - YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, that sort of thing."

O'Neill stepped into the elevator and regarded Jethro seriously. "No idea what any of those are."

Jethro chuckled. "Me, either, but McGee, DiNozzo, and Abby talk about them all the time."

O'Neill chuckled with him, and the elevator doors opened onto another corridor that looked nearly identical to the one they'd left. Jethro supposed that, like an aircraft carrier, there were designations to identify which level, section, and corridor they were in, but he hadn't yet seen enough of the base to even begin to sort those out.

After several turns, O'Neill paused in the middle of a corridor. "Thomas collapsed right here."

Given that Thomas had been found several days before, Jethro wasn't surprised the corridor was clean. A blacklight might find traces of blood or other bodily fluids, but Jethro doubted it given the hard floors and the type of cleaning solutions he expected were used in a place like this.

Still, Jethro examined the floor and walls closely, careful not to get too close to any doors - he had no need to know what might lay behind them, let alone run the risk of being slammed into if they opened too quickly. As he expected, the area was clean.

He pointed at an alphanumeric designation painted on the wall opposite him, and asked, "Anything special about right here?"

O'Neill considered the question, and Jethro couldn't help glaring at him. "We can't do our jobs if we don't have the information we need. Talk in generalities if you have to, but give us something."

O'Neill studied him for a moment. "You're familiar with black ops."

"I'm a Marine sniper," Jethro replied. "I've done my share of black ops. Don't say anything you shouldn't, but say what you can. Assuming you want justice for Majors Thomas and Morgan."

O'Neill nodded, once. He wasn't apparently offended by Jethro's last barb, and Jethro thought he might have found an officer he could like - a little - as well as respect. "Generalities."

It was another moment before O'Neill composed his thoughts enough to continue. When he did, he pointed past Jethro. "Operational ready room behind those doors. Thomas and his team came out after mission debrief, and he collapsed here."

"Who performed the autopsy?"

"Dr. Warner, our chief medical officer," O'Neill replied.

Jethro caught the man's title. "Not a medical examiner?"

"No."

"Will you let our ME looked over the autopsy results?" Jethro asked. Normally, he'd insist that Ducky be allowed access, but he knew enough of black ops to know that he had no authority to insist on anything here.

"Who's your ME?" O'Neill asked.

"Ducky - Donald Mallard," Jethro said. "Former SAS."

O'Neill's eyebrows rose. "I'll talk to the general, ask him to approve it. If so, we'll have the records sent to him ASAP."

"Thanks, Colonel." His team, Jethro reflected, would probably be surprised by how polite he was being, but this wasn't his turf. Not to mention that old military habits died slowly and were quick to return in certain circumstances.

He surveyed the area again, just to be sure. Then, "Anything unusual in the ready room? Thomas behave differently? Say anything odd?"

"I wasn't here at the time," O'Neill said. "But I'll tell Thomas's team to answer those questions."

"DiNozzo will be asking them," Jethro said absently. "He's lead on Thomas's death." With a last look around, Jethro met O'Neill's gaze once again. "Where did Major Morgan die?"

"This way."

NCIS - SG1 - NCIS

The moment Tim McGee laid eyes on Captain Carter, he had to stifle a groan. There was no way Tony wouldn't flirt with the blonde, blue-eyed woman who'd come to the conference room in response to O'Neill's call carrying an armload of files, and Tim had had enough of Tony's flirting to last a lifetime. It just reminded him how unlucky he usually was with women.

"The files you requested, Colonel," she said.

"Captain Doctor Samantha Carter," O'Neill said, then gestured to Tim and his companions in turn. "Agents Jethro Gibbs, Tony DiNozzo, Tim McGee, of NCIS."

Each man nodded in turn, and O'Neill continued, "McGee needs a workstation."

The captain glanced at Tim before looking at the colonel once more. "Access?"

"HR files, plus Thomas and Morgan's LESs and personal information," O'Neill said. "Anything else, check with me or Hammond."

The captain barely had time to acknowledge the order before O'Neill turned to Gibbs. "This way, Agent Gibbs."

With a polite, "Ma'am," Gibbs followed O'Neill from the room, and Tim waited for the flirting to begin.

To his surprise, Tony simply took the files from Captain Carter. "Do you prefer Captain or Doctor?"

She blinked once, then gave a small smile. "Captain."

"Pleasure to meet you, Captain." Tony didn't even smile, and Tim wondered if his fellow agent was feeling all right. When didn't Tony flirt?

"You understand you need to be escorted if you leave this room?" she asked.

Now Tony did smile. "Pretty sure the sergeant outside will make sure I stay here, or go with me if I need to leave."

Tim flicked a startled glance at the door and, yes, an armed sergeant stood outside the door. When had he arrived and why hadn't Tim noticed?

Now Tim hurried to keep up with Captain Carter as she strode through one gray corridor after another. He still couldn't believe Tony hadn't flirted with her, but Tim wouldn't pass up the chance and sought a good topic of conversation.

"What's your doctorate in?"

Her pace slowed just a little, and when she looked at him, it was almost a challenge. "Theoretical physics."

Tim cheered inwardly - there was no way someone with a doctorate in theoretical physics would be interested in a guy like Tony.

What he said aloud was, "Cool. Where from?"

"MIT."

"Really?" Now Tim grinned. "That's where I got my masters. Computer Forensics. I also have a biomedical engineering degree from Johns Hopkins."

Captain Carter - he wanted to think of her as Samantha - gave him an assessing look, but all she said was, "Interesting."

Tim floundered for something to say in response, but before he found it, she led him into a small, almost cramped, office with two computer workstations set up. Two very large, very antiquated-looking computer workstations, Tim corrected with a silent groan. The keyboards were putty colored, for crying out loud.

"All set, Lieutenant?" Captain - Samantha - asked.

The dark-skinned man sitting at the nearer workstation looked up at her question. "Yes, ma'am, per the colonel's instructions."

"Agent McGee, Lieutenant Stovall. He'll answer any questions you have."

"Er - thank you, Captain," Tim said. "I'll see you later."

But she was already gone. Tim shoved disappointment down deep - he'd hoped Samantha would be the one to help him - and took a seat at the empty workstation.

Then he saw the screen in front of him and almost groaned aloud when he saw a green rectangular cursor blinking against a black background.

"You guys are on DOS?"

Lieutenant Stovall shrugged. "It does what we need it to."

"This is gonna take forever," Tim muttered, but set to work.

NCIS - SG1 - NCIS

Tony knew, understood, and accepted all the ramifications of being read in on a project like - well, like whatever this one that had brought him to an Air Force installation in Colorado was. Even so, he felt the tiniest tremor of nerves as he reached for the file on Major Lou Thomas.

Of course it was redacted, but not nearly as much as he'd expected. The only things that had been blacked out had to do with this project, so Tony skimmed over previous postings - Thomas had been a front-line guy in Afghanistan and Iraq - and the medals he'd earned - Air Force Distinguished Service Medal, Purple Heart, Air Force Combat Commendation Medal, and a handful of campaign medals. Major Thomas had been dedicated to his career, and his country, if his file were anything to go by.

"Sir."

Tony looked up to see a lieutenant in BDU standing at attention in the doorway. The man had sandy hair and … freckles. Tony hoped he hadn't been hazed too badly.

Tony checked the man's name and waved him inside. "Have a seat, Lieutenant Calloway."

Calloway sat and Tony glanced at another file he'd been given to refresh his memory. "You were Major Thomas's second in command?"

"Yes, sir."

"Tell me about him." Tony leaned back in his seat and gave his attention to the other man. From this angle, Tony saw the unit patch on Calloway's right shoulder. The colors were muted enough that he couldn't make out details, but he saw the letters SG and the number 5 clearly enough.

"Good man, good commander," Calloway said, and that seemed to be that.

"You hang out with him off duty?" Tony asked.

"Sometimes - he'd take us out for a beer on our birthdays, that kind of thing." Calloway met Tony's gaze steadily. "Why not ask what you really want to know?"

Well, with an opening like that, there was only one question Tony could ask. "Did you kill him?"

"No." Calloway looked horrified at the question - or maybe the implications, because his next words were, "Do you think somebody did?"

"I think he collapsed after mission debrief, and nobody knows why," Tony said. He sat forward. "NCIS investigates all suicides and questionable deaths as if they were homicides. OSI does the same thing, or else why was Major Morgan looking into his death?"

"Because we're -" Calloway broke off, and Tony could see his expression closing down around security concerns.

"Part of a black ops unit," Tony finished. "I get it. I'm just saying, if it were natural causes, they'd already know. Could it have anything to do with your last mission?"

Calloway's expression closed off even further. "Why do you ask?"

"Because he collapsed right outside your -" Tony checked his notes. "Colonel O'Neill called it the operational ready room. Tell me what you saw, heard."

Calloway considered that for a long moment, then said, "We'd just gotten back, and we were heading out for showers and to hit the sack. I was behind him, and he'd barely cleared the door before he … fell. Not a word, not a gesture, just fell. I was closest, so I went to help - first aid, CPR, whatever I could do - and someone, maybe Kingston, yelled for a medic. But he was gone already. We couldn't bring him back."

Calloway swallowed at the end, and Tony gentled his tone for his next question. "So your team is Major Thomas, you, and Kingston?"

Calloway nodded. "And Doctor Brown."

"Was that routine? Get back, head for showers and the sack?" Tony asked.

"Yeah, as much as anything's routine here."

"Everyone on the team get along?"

"Just like any group, we have our quirks, but yeah, we get along. Nobody had a grudge against the major that I know of."

"Would you?"

To his credit, Calloway thought about the question. "If it was here, yeah - have to, to watch his six, you know?"

Tony grinned. "I know."

"Personally - I'm not sure I would."

"What about Doctor Brown?"

"Brown?" Calloway shrugged. "Typical egghead. Gets lost in the clouds sometimes, you know?"

"The Air Force does spend a lot of time in the clouds," Tony quipped, and Calloway chuckled, then looked surprised that he'd done it. Good - the man was relaxing a little. Maybe Tony could finally start getting answers.

"Everyone acted normally on your last few missions?" Tony deliberately made the question more inclusive, hoping it might jog something loose in Calloway's memory. "Any changes that you noticed?"

"No, sir. They've been fairly routine - as routine as anything gets around here, anyway."

"You were together the whole time you were away? Anyone go off alone?" Tony prompted.

"We stick together," Calloway said. "'Cept for taking a dump, and even then we're within earshot."

So it was possible - however unlikely - that something had happened to Thomas on mission and his team hadn't known. Tony filed that tidbit away.

"And on the way back from Peterson?"

"Peterson?" Calloway blinked, and for a moment Tony thought the other man didn't know what he was talking about. Then Calloway resumed his normal expression. "Nothing unusual, sir."

Tony noted the hesitation, but had no idea what it meant. "I think that's all for now, Lieutenant."

"Sir." Calloway stood, straightened to attention for just a moment, then left the room, leaving Tony wondering just what was so unusual about referring to the drive back from Peterson.

Whatever it was, he was sure he'd figure it out - after he interviewed Doctor Brown.