Chapter 48
Artemis was taken to the hospital with two of Wagner's agents. Wagner and Gibbs's team continued searching the river, calling for help.
In the satellite image, they could not see where he had went, the water in the river was too cold and deep for them to see.
When one entire day had passed without any sign of Palmer, Gibbs knew they wouldn't find him anymore. Wagner's team thought that he had died in the river.
Abby was inconsolable, her lab was quiet, a photo of Palmer as screen saver on her computer. She refused to believe he was a bad person. All she cared about was that he asked Artemis not to harm them, for her, that proved that he was innocent.
Ducky was taking it hard, he cared for the young man. And yet, he hated to admit, he never payed much attention to him. He blamed himself for not seeing it, and blamed his former assistant for lying.
He also worried for him, diving in the cold river, while injured. Running from some secret organization that wanted him dead.
And, the old ME couldn't help but second guess every decision of his. How could he not have seen it?
Gibbs and Shepard's main concern was the organization called ' The Order '. They asked, but no one had ever heard of any group by that name. Who ever they were, they knew how to stay under wraps, and had to be active for a long time too, for Palmer to be able to be raised by them from birth.
Tony, drowned his doubts and hurt in women and booze. Tim, just focussed on work, more than usual. Ziva, started practicing harder than usual, working harder than she was used to, and tried not to think of the similarities of her's and Palmer's lives, though she admitted his situation was far worse. Somewhere in the world, children were being raised as killing machines. And they had no way to help them.
Artemis was unconscious for three days. By the morning of the fourth day, they found out that she had fled the hospital. Like Palmer, they couldn't find her either. Friends of her victims never got to see the case on trial, no one was ever arrested for the deaths of 5 adults and 3 children. Somehow, days later, NCIS had a break in, all pertaining to the case disappeared or was destroyed beyond repair. Including the records of Artemis finger prints, DNA and photo. Everything was gone. And no cameras caught the person that did this. No witnesses either.
As time passed, and cases came, Palmer and ' The Order ' were put on the side. Life continued. They never forgot, but they had other priorities.
Ducky, after three months, eventually hired another assistant, a young woman named Jessica Moore. She had to go thru the background check and evaluations three times to be hired. No one was taking any chances.
They never found out anything official about ' The Order '. Though Ziva, eventually found a senile old man in a hospital in Egypt. He said something about ' The Order ' being beyond country and race. They answered to no one, and existed for as long as humanity existed. They controlled the world with an invisible hand. And that they were old enough to already have had been around when the Roman Empire was still around. They could not be stopped because they were the ones to have builded the world.
No man in his right mind would believe that story. The man was old and delusional after all.
The next year, a gift wrapped box appeared on the autopsy room on Ducky's birthday. No one had seen where it came from or from whom it was. Inside there was a new blue bow tie, with a note that said: Happy Birthday Dr Mallard. I hope you enjoy this gift.
Ducky had Abby look at it to see if she could find out where it came from. And who had sent it.
She found out that it was specially made in New York. It was sold in a store called Palmer's Clothing for Gentlemen. The owner Jimmy, remembered the sale. He remembered talking to the costumer, that said the gift was to very special friend, that had given him a very special gift once, and he wanted to show his gratitude. When asked to describe the costumer, he said he was a young man with dark curly hair and bright green eyes.
They never found any footage of the said costumer. No clues to lead them to him.
Ducky would keep the present on his desk drawer, a reminder of the young man who once worked for him.