Bones – NCIS
vol 4.
Angela had been working on the flash drive for an hour, before she was finally able to crack it's code. She found a few pictures and a video on the gadget. There was a ginger woman on the pictures, which were taken from a very far point of view. It seemed like the woman was being followed. And the follower? It easily could have been the Corporal. Angela printed out the pictures, put them into a white folder with the Jeffersonian's logo on it, and continued working. She decided to deliver the pictures to Brennan after she finished watching the video. The video was about the same ginger woman, it was filmed again from a far point of view and whoever was taking it had a shaky hand. It had a woman going into a Café, going shopping, then there was a house. Angela assumed that it was the woman's home so she saved a bunch of screencaps, printed them out and then went to Brennan's office.
Abby Sciuto was working on the Corporal's laptop, since Gibbs asked McGee to help him trace a cell phone. Abby had finished breaking the laptop's coding at the same time as Angela had in the other side of the city. She found the same ginger woman on pictures and videos. She decided to call the Jeffersonian. She searched for the number Brennan gave her in her pocket and called the number from her cell phone.
"Dr. Brennan" came Brennan's voice from the other side.
"I'm Abby Sciuto. I have some news."
Brennan was in her office, and Angela was showing her the pictures found on the flash drive. Brennan was glad to hear that Abby had found something too.
"Abby, what did you find?"
"I cracked the Corporal's laptop, finally. I found a great amount of pictures and some videos. How's your analyst doing with the flash drive Sarah gave you?"
"Angela finished working with the flash drive a few minutes ago. She found 15 pictures taken from a great distance and a 10 minutes long video. On every picture we found the same ginger woman, 20 to 25 years old, Caucasian."
"I think we have the same woman! It would be great to do a comparison. Is there any way to connect via video-phone?"
"From Angela's office, yes." they went to Angie's office and put up a video conversation then Brennan put away her phone.
"Hi, I'm Abby Sciuto." Abby waved smiling.
"Angela Montenegro." Angela smiled back.
"So, Abby, could we see the pictures you found?" Brennan asked eager to find some answers.
"Sure." Abby pressed a few keys on her keyboard then a picture appeared. Angela also put up a picture from the ones she found on the gadget. Anyone could see that the woman was the same on both pictures.
"Same girl" Angela and Abby nodded at the same time.
"Can you ID her?" Brennan asked.
"We could both start a face-recognition search, but I think Abby could be more successful. Maybe this woman was also a marine."
"Great idea!" Abby agreed, then after a few minutes both Angela and Brennan could see the software running, matching different pictures of women to the possible victim's face.
Sarah, Booth and DiNozzo arrived at the Norfolk Naval Base at the same time. They went in together and finished interrogating the marines within an hour. Unfortunately they didn't get more information than they already had about the corporal. They started to walk back towards their cars.
During this hour Abby and Angela had managed to get a hit on the ginger woman's face in one of the databases. After 50 minutes of failed hits, a computer happily announced a 99,9% match. Abby brought up the matching picture to the screen.
"Lieutenant Sophia Dullen." Brennan read from the screen.
"I'll call Sarah and tell her what we've found. Maybe they know something about Lieutenant Dullen."
They all said goodbye and disconnected. Brennan decided to tell Angela about Taffet's escape. After all she deserved to know too.
Meanwhile Abby pulled out her phone from her pocket and dialled Sarah's number.
"Bryce."
"Abby here..."
"You found something, Abby?" Sarah asked excited.
"We found something." Abby said, going to the other side of her lab from where she could see if Gibbs was coming down "I teamed up with Angela Montenegro and Dr. Brennan from the Jeffersonian and we found some interesting evidence."
"That's great." Sarah said smiling, looking up at Booth and Tony, who were walking next to her.
"We found a great amount of pictures and videos on both the Corporal's laptop and his flash drive. The Corporal was following a woman. We managed to ID her a few minutes ago and her name is Lieutenant Sophia Dullen." while Abby told Sarah the name, she put the name into one of her search engines, which suddenly announced a hit.
"Sarah, I don't like this. We have a file about Sophia Dullen, but I don't have access to it."
"She was a marine, how could we not have access to her file?"
Sarah could feel Tony's and Booth's eyes on her.
"I don't know. McGee might be able to get us the file, but that way Gibbs could figure it out..."
Sarah tried to think through all the possible scenarios in her head:
#1: Abby and McGee hack into the database and download the file, Gibbs realizes that she acted behind his back because the flash drive is not at NCIS. Failure.
#2: They take the flash drive from the Jeffersonian, give it to Abby who quickly copies the files onto her hard drive and runs a search again. Possible to get away with it.
Sarah went with plan B.
"Abbs, I'll get the flash drive from the Jeffersonian and I'm at NCIS in...15 minutes. You copy the pictures and the video to your HD. You run the search and identify her again and try to access her file..."
"But then they might see the fact that we tried to open it once already!" Abby interrupted her.
"We'll tell them that we first ran the search based on the pictures found on the laptop. Then we ran the little gadget too."
"It's gonna work with me, the CIA and the FBI or any other office. But with Gibbs? I don't think so."
"We gotta do something Abbs." Sarah said then they hung up and she put away her phone into her jacket's pocket.
"What happened?" Booth asked looking a bit worried.
"We might have some problems in the not so distant future... Wayhne or someone was following a woman, Abby and Angela ID'ed her. There were hundreds of pictures on the Corporal's laptop and flash drive about her, all taken from a very far point of view."
"So, who is she?" Tony asked excited.
"Her name is Lieutenant Sohpia Dullen."
"So we have to go back in there?" Booth asked pointing at the base behind them. He had a gut feeling that something was not right with this case.
"No. Abby found Dullen's file but it was restricted. And that's the interesting part, Dullen is a marine, we have clearance to view every marine's file at NCIS."
"CIA?" asked Tony "Or FBI?"
"If it's us then it's easy to find that out." Booth nodded. He pulled out his phone and called Tobias Fornell's number. After what felt like hours the man finally answered his phone.
"Agent Fornell."
"Fornell, its Booth. I've got a question for you."
"I'm listening Booth, but be quick."
"Have we restricted a file from NCIS?"
"What file are you talking about?"
"Lieutenant Sophia Dullen's file." said Booth, without realizing he could endanger Sarah's whole plan of getting away with acting behind Gibbs' back.
"No, we didn't restrict her file. Actually, we don't have the clearance to view it either. That's interesting..."
"Thanks Fornell, that's all I wanted."
"And you don't even want to know who restricted it, Booth?"
"Do you know, Fornell?"
"One thing I know, it wasn't the CIA or I'd know about that." with that Fornell hung up on him. Booth put away his phone with a surprised expression on his face.
"I can't believe you told him her name!" Sarah said angrily.
"What could I do? He would never give me a straight answer without asking him a straight question!"
"And what about the file?" interrupted Tony.
"I'm guessing we just got into a really awkward situation" Booth sighed. "The Lieutenant's files are restricted from the FBI too. Fornell also mentioned that it wasn't the CIA either or he would know about that."
"Then who the hell did it?" Tony asked.
"Something's really wrong here" Sarah shook her head. "Let's continue working according to our plan."
"What plan?" Booth looked surprised.
"I need to go to the Jeffersonian to get back the flash drive from Ms. Montenegro, because I have to give it to Abby in time, so she can run a new search on it. That way Gibbs won't find out that we are working together with you guys."
"Do you honestly think that is going to work, Sarah? I mean, we are playing behind Gibbs' back and you know that he finds out about everything, sooner or later" said Tony, stating the obvious. Sarah knew he was right, but she had to follow her plan. She quickly said goodbye, got into her car and drove straight to the Jeffersonian Institute.
"And what do we do know?" Booth asked as he watched Sarah driving away.
"Yeah, she forgot to mention that part of her plan." Tony nodded when his phone started to ring. He picked it up, spoke for a few minutes then looked at Booth.
"Well, Agent Booth, I'm going to a crime scene, NCIS's got a new body. Have a nice day." with a handshake they parted ways. Tony got into his car and went straight to the location he received via phone a few seconds ago. Booth decided to get back to the Jeffersonian. He still had to speak with Bones about Taffet's escape. He wanted to keep her safe.
DiNozzo was on his way to a new crime scene, Soapstone Valley Park. Not far away from Rock Creek Park where the previous body had been found. After a good 15 minutes of driving he got out of his car, and remembering one of Gibbs' possibly most important rules, he pulled on gloves. Took out his crime scene kit from the trunk and picked up a portable fingerprint-scanner from the glove compartment. Ducky and his assistant Jimmy Palmer were already examining the body.
"Ducky, Palmer" DiNozzo nodded as a greeting "What do we have?"
"Don't be Gibbs, Anthony" Ducky said smiling then turned back to the dead body. "Young woman, probably in her late twenties. According to her clothes she's a marine, a Lieutenant if I'm right."
Tony scanned her fingerprints and waited for the little gadget to pop up with a name. Palmer measured the liver temperature while the search was running. A few minutes later the little gadget announced a hit. Tony read the name on the file. The name frightened him.
"Lieutenant Sophia Dullen." he stuttered. 'Damn it' he thought. He couldn't believe to his own eyes. The woman they were looking for was lying dead in front of him.
Sarah arrived at the Jeffersonian in 5 minutes, way ahead of Booth. She thanked the squints for their help, picked up the flash drive and went back to NCIS. She was running upstairs when she bumped into McGee at the elevator.
"McGee! Thank God! Where did you find this flash drive?"
"What?" McGee looked puzzled.
"Where did you find the flash drive, Tim?" Sarah asked, urging him to answer.
"There was a post office box registered to Wayhne's name at the Howard University. It was inside the box."
"Great. I've got to tell Gibbs where we found it and why I'm getting it down to Abby now."
McGee just nodded, they all agreed to help Sarah, even if this was meant going behind Gibbs' back, not to mention, Vance ordered a joint investigation.
"Speaking about Gibbs, where is he?" Sarah asked looking around in the bullpen "And where's everyone else?"
"Gibbs is down at Abby's lab, Ziva's on a coffee break and I haven't heard from Tony since he went to interview the Corporal's superiors."
Sarah just nodded, thanked McGee, then ran down straight to Abby. She changed the evidence bag in her car so it was her name on the bag instead of McGee's. She stepped into Abby's lab smiling, like nothing had happened at all.
"Abby, I've got you something!" she showed the flash drive smiling noticing Gibbs next to Abby "Hey Boss, didn't know you were here too." Sarah nodded at her boss. It was Gibbs' rule, when you have to lie, do it good. Sarah did the exact same thing, she was specific.
"What did you bring me?" Abby asked quickly.
"We found a post office box registered to Corporal James Wayhne's name at the Howard University, not too far away from Rock Creek Park. I went out and this is was inside. A flash drive." Sarah gave the gadget to Abby who unpacked it and loaded it into her computer.
"Hah, got ya! He used the same coding to lock the flash drive as he used on his computer." Abby smiled at Sarah and Gibbs.
"Great Abbs, but what's on that thing?" Gibbs asked impatiently. Abby quickly run a search on the flash drive, opening up the photos, one at a time, then they watched the video together.
"It's the same woman I found on the laptop Gibbs!" Abby pointed it out.
"I know Abbs, but who is she?"
Abby clicked a few on her keyboard and she tried to open her case file again "Her name is Lieutenant Sophia Dullen. But I can't get into her file."
"Why?"
"Someone restricted it from us. Maybe the FBI, or the CIA..."
"Get McGee to hack the file, we need to know who she really was." Gibbs said and started to leave, turning back from the elevator's door "Bryce, you're with me."
Sarah went through a complete emotional crisis within 5 seconds. 'Wasn't I specific enough when I lied? Or did Fornell tell Gibbs? It must have been Fornell! Damn the FBI!'' Sarah shook her head then ran to the elevator and jumped into it before its doors closed. Gibbs didn't say a thing through the elevator ride, and when he got out at the squadroom's floor he barely looked at Sarah when he mentioned the most heartbreaking thing that Sarah had ever heard.
"Bryce, rule number 7." with that he was gone. Sarah got out of the elevator and stopped. Rule number 7? Always be specific when you lie. So Gibbs knew about what Sarah did! Sarah went straight to her desk and right before sitting down she noticed Gibbs going into Vance's office. She knew she was busted. She sat down and tried not to cry. She was all alone in the bullpen, McGee was down with Abby trying to hack that case file they needed, Ziva was at the break room and Tony hadn't come back yet. The bullpen seemed really quiet, although behind her at other desks other NCIS agents were working really hard to catch other killers and close their own cases. She wanted to start with her paperwork when her phone rang in her pocket. Picking it out from her pocket she checked the screen. Tony DiNozzo. What did he want? She answered anyway.
"Bryce."
"DiNozzo here. We've got a bit of a problem."
"Spit it out, nothing can get worse. Gibbs knows..." Sarah said, fighting with her tears.
"I would not bet on that" Tony said slowly.
"What's wrong?"
"We've got another body. A young woman, a Lieutenant to be exact..." Sarah's heart was racing in her chest "her name is... "
"Sophia Dullen." Sarah interrupted him.
"Exactly." Tony nodded while he watched Ducky and Palmer putting the young lady's body into their van.
"Damn it! Ugh... Gibbs is going to fire me!"
"You know he can't do that!" Tony tried to calm her down, but he couldn't help at all.
"Yes he can! You know that very well, Tony. And he will do it! He'll talk Vance into it and I'll be spending tonight at home and I won't have to come in from tomorrow, just for my stuff... not like I don't deserve it for going behind his back..." the cell phone was shaking in Sarah's hand. Before she could say anything more Gibbs walked out from Vance's office and went straight to the elevator that went down to Autopsy. And in that moment Sarah's phone started to ring on her desk, the caller ID showed Vance's assistant's number.
"Sarah, everything's okay?" Tony asked after an awkwardly long pause.
"No, nothing is okay. Vance's assistant is calling me." Sarah said then hung up on Tony without saying a word and answered her other phone.
"Agent Bryce."
"Director Vance wants to speak to you, Agent Bryce." Sarah heard Cynthia Summers' voice from the other side of the line.
"I'm on my way, Cynthia." with that they both hung up and Sarah went straight to Vance's office, feeling like it was going to be her own execution.