"Get any sleep?" Pride asked as Chris walked back into the office.
"Not much." Chris admitted. "You?"
"Not much." Pride echoed. "You speak to Brody?"
"No. She was asleep."
"That's good."
"Yeah."
"Something on your mind?" Pride pressed.
"It's just that I –" Chris started only to be interrupted by Pride's phone.
"It's Sebastian." Pride said checking caller ID before answering. "What do you have?" Chris watched as Pride listened wondering what was being said to cause Pride to relax. Finally Pride said. "Nice work Sebastian." With that he hung up and looked at Chris.
"Sebastian managed to pull prints from Brody's phone, they are a match to our third suspect."
"You want to break the good news to the trio?" LaSalle asked.
"I do, but I have a meeting with Director Vance." Pride said. "I'll leave you to do what is needed."
"With pleasure."
-00-
"Director, Gibbs." Pride greeted as Vance and Gibbs appeared on the screen.
"Agent Pride." Vance nodded. "Where are you with the investigation?"
"We have evidence tying three members of Semper Fortis to the attack on Brody. LaSalle is charging them as we speak. We are still working on who hired them."
"That's good news. Good work on the investigation." Vance said.
"But?" Pride asked, sensing something was wrong.
"But it's over." Vance said.
"What do you mean over? Have you caught the people responsible?"
"I mean it is over. You are to cease all investigations and hand over everything you have. That is an order." Vance said.
"But we haven't finished our investigation." Pride said.
"Yes you have." Vance replied sternly. "If you need any more information on Agent Brody's attack you may question those responsible. However, you may not ask them anything about the disk, the serial numbers or counterfeiting or who hired them to attack Agent Brody."
"Why?" Pride asked, feeling frustrated and angry.
"All I can say is this goes higher than expected." Vance said. Sensing another protest he added. "If you are unable to comply with these instructions I notice you have had no vacation for awhile. I am sure two weeks away would do you some good." Taking the lack of response from Pride as agreement Vance went on. "I am glad you understand. Rest assured Agent Pride, when the situation is resolved we will do all we can to help take out the remaining members of the Semper Fortis group."
"Anything else?" Pride ground out through a clenched jaw.
"Yeah, how's Agent Brody?" Gibbs asked.
"She's okay." Pride said, too angry to expand.
"Do you feel she needs any extra time off to recover from….the stress of the situation?" Vance asked.
"Something else the two of you don't want to tell me?" Pride asked, causing a wry smile from Gibbs who said.
"Just keep an eye on her. And tell her I am still looking."
Before Pride had a chance to respond Vance said.
"You have your orders Agent Pride. I expect you to comply immediately. Failure to do so will result in your removal and Agent Brody's relocation." With that the video screen went black.
-00-
"You think he will back off?" Vance asked Gibbs.
"For now."
"How can you be so sure?"
"You threatened his family. He will do anything to protect them." Gibbs shrugged. "Of course he will hold this against you."
"Not you as well?"
"Apart from asking about Agent Brody I didn't say anything."
"No, you were just the man who told me to threaten to relocate Agent Brody."
"Yeah, but he doesn't know that." Gibbs pointed out.
"For a man who hates politics you would be very good at it." Vance pointed out.
"That hurt." Gibbs smiled, before sobering and reminding Vance. "You were the one who didn't want to bring him on this."
"You know we can't. We have spent two years trying to find the mole. We can't jeopardise the operation now."
"You can trust him." Gibbs said.
"But I can't trust his team. There are too many people down there not under our control." Vance argued. "We have to stop the intel leak. We got lucky that four of those files contained payroll information. If they hadn't Pride's team may have caught on to what is really happening and could have blown everything."
"Fortunately it didn't." Gibbs said, "And in the end this may work to our advantage?"
"How so?"
"Pride will drop the investigation for now, but he will go back to it. When he does he will focus on a non existent counterfeiting operation. It'll make our mole think they are in the clear."
"I hope you are right." Vance said. "Well you better go catch our bad guys before Agent Pride comes for me. SecNav briefing in two hours."
"Already on it." Gibbs assured him.
"One more thing Gibbs, are you sure we don't need to release Brody's full file to Pride?"
"I'm sure. If she wants it passed on she'll ask."
-00-
"From your expression I'm guessing that did not go well." LaSalle said trying to remember a time when Pride had looked so angry.
"We have been ordered to end the investigation."
"What? Why?"
"No reason given. I was just told to send them everything we have and not to pursue it further."
"That is BS." Chris said as Patton said.
"I may know why. And technically I found out before you were told to stop so I guess you can be told without getting into trouble."
"What's the reason?" Pride asked.
"The files that Wallis obtained had some metadata attached to them. That metadata shows a trail of where the file has been in terms of who has edited it and when. Focusing on the four files with the bank note serial numbers, as I have no idea what the other files are, two different three-stars read and saved those files."
"You are saying that two three-star Admirals are involved?" Pride asked.
"Looks that way. One of them is in line for a big promotion."
"So have we been removed so we don't tip them off or so this whole thing can be swept under the carpet?" LaSalle asked.
"Gibbs is running the investigation. He would not be involved in a cover up. So my guess is so we don't tip anyone off."
"Couldn't they have just said that?" LaSalle questioned. "Are you complying?"
"For now. It is in the team's best interests."
"That sounds ominous." Patton pointed out.
"Out of interest what are you going to tell Brody and her parents?" LaSalle asked.
"A watered down version of the truth." Pride said.
TBC
A/N: Thanks for reading and reviewing. Final chapter up tomorrow.