For those still reading (thanks!) I've aaallmost finished the next chapter, so you get this one now. Everyone sick of the cruise yet?
Tony and Ziva spent the next two days flying as far under the radar as they possibly could. In St Croix they split away from cruise-operated activities and went kayaking and scuba diving (paid for out of their own pockets—there was no way Gibbs would sign off on activities they couldn't prove their suspects were also involved in) and ate lunch (not lobster) on white sand under a palm tree.
The following day was spent on board as the Caribbean Carnivalé sailed back to Florida. Tony decided he may as well take advantage of the facilities on board, and got Ziva to join him in rock climbing (she beat him to the top) and ice-skating. He went on the waterslide alone, but she joined him in the afternoon to lie on a double sun lounger on the deck and watch John, Martin, Sacha and Julie sit by the pool. The couples seemed to be getting along much better—united against snooping undercover federal agents, perhaps?—and they all drank and laughed together for hours. Ziva fell asleep against his chest after about hour two, which was fine with him since there was nothing going on anyway, and because he was a big fan of snuggling with her even in Caribbean heat.
His ringing cell phone woke him before dawn the morning they docked in Key West. Cracking an eye open in the dark, Tony felt a few moments of confusion and disorientation, but after more than a decade of having sleep broken by phone calls he was fully conditioned to just reach for the phone without thinking about it. He made a grab for the glowing blue light just as the weight of another person rolled onto his back.
Ziva, his brain supplied. That's Ziva. You're happy she's there. Everything is fine.
"It's mine," he told her sleepily, and brought the phone back to him. He read McGee's name on caller ID and swore under his breath before answering. "Do you have any idea what time it is?"
"Yes, I've been up for over an hour already," McGee replied, louder than was necessary, as Ziva went limp against Tony's back.
"What do you want, early bird?"
"What time do you disembark?"
Tony sighed at the question that required a detailed answer. "I guess some time after we arrive in port." Detailed answers weren't within his abilities right now.
McGee sounded annoyed. And still loud. "You're already there," he said, as if Tony should be fully aware of this even in the depths of sleep.
Tony lifted his head off the pillow to look out the window. Although the balcony obscured most of the view from the bed, he could see the tops of a few tall buildings. "Oh. You spying on us, McGee?"
Ziva lifted her head at that. "He is what?" she asked, alarmed, and started to move off him. Tony didn't have an arm free to grab her—his other was pinned beneath them—so he tried to trap one of her legs between his.
"No, it's fine," he said quietly to her. But he still said it into his cell phone, so McGee heard him.
"What's fine?"
"What? Nothing. Where are you?"
"At the passenger terminal," McGee told him as Ziva managed to free herself and roll away. "When do you disembark?"
Free from Ziva's weight (although not necessarily liking it), Tony shifted to roll onto his back and yawn. "About 8 am, I think," he said. "What time is it now?"
"Just after 5 am."
Tony opened his eyes to glare at the ceiling. "It's a cruise ship, McGee. People are on vacation. Do you really think they're going to get us up and off the ship at five frigging am?"
McGee ignored him. "Borin's going to position herself at the north end of the port," he said. "Me and Gibbs are at the south end. We'll do the close tail so that you and Ziva aren't in their faces, but we'll need you to stay nearby, especially if they lead us to Oscar McCarthy's charter boat business. And you need to give us a heads up on what they're wearing when they leave the ship."
"Fine," Tony said, feeling cranky. "But they should stick out because they'll be the two men carrying the giant stuffed animals."
"Calm down," McGee told him, sounding way too amused at Tony's mood for Tony's liking. "Or else I won't give you your gun when you get off the ship."
Tony couldn't immediately think of a good put down, so he just hung up and dropped the phone on the mattress.
"Plan?" Ziva asked.
He rolled onto his side to slide his hand over her belly and kiss her shoulder. "Gibbs and McGee will follow them closely. We'll hold back. Borin's at the other end of the port in case they go someplace else." He moved his lips to the crook of her neck. "And McGee's a pain in the butt."
She hummed, and ran her hand up his arm. "I think we will need to get used to that."
"Never," he said automatically. Then, "Why?"
"When he finds out about us, he will not pass up any opportunity to make fun," she said. "Nor will Gibbs."
He opened his eyes again and pulled his head back just enough to make looking at her comfortable. "I thought we agreed we'd keep it quiet for a while."
Ziva nodded. "Yes. But they will work it out." She looked at him. "Did you think we would successfully hide it into our 80s?"
"No. Just until Gibbs dies," he joked, and then frowned. "So, yeah, maybe our 80s."
Ziva shifted again to face him, and pushed him onto his back. His hand was happy to settle on her bare butt when she climbed aboard. "I would be surprised if they did not work it out within a month."
He pushed her hair back with his free hand and let out an involuntary but contented moan when she settled her hips into a very, very nice place. "Then we better make the most of that month," he suggested before pulling her down for a warm, lazy kiss.
Frankly, he didn't care how long it took for the others to work it out. He'd finally reached his happy place, and none of them were going to be able to pull him out of it.
…
John, green shirt, white shorts. Martin, blue shirt, tan shorts. Both carrying GIANT bears. Can't miss them.
Tony sent the text message off to McGee while they waited with about a hundred other people to disembark the ship. As nice as the last couple of days of spying, sun and sex had been (and it really, really had been), he enjoyed the little buzz he was now feeling at the idea of getting some real fieldwork done. They had a chance to bust their little cruise quartet today, or at least find out exactly what they were up to. That bit should probably come first, he conceded. It was always really embarrassing when you arrested innocent people. Although frankly, Tony wasn't sure how they were going to do that short of snatching the bears out of their hands, ripping them apart and putting whatever substances they found into a field test kit. And that might attract some attention.
His phone pinged and he looked down at the message he's received from McGee. Got it. I'm at the south gate with your weapons.
Tony nudged Ziva and showed her the message. She let out a slow breath as she nodded, and Tony could feel her relief. She'd been without a weapon—a proper one, not some everyday object she could easily MacGyver into a weapon—all week, and Tony would wager that it was the longest she'd been without one since, well, Africa. It occurred to him that he hadn't heard her mention it once, and wondered just how much self-control that had taken her. He suspected a lot, given how relaxed the news seemed to make her.
"You know you won't be able to bring it back on board, right?" he said quietly.
Ziva raised an eyebrow at him. "You think we are getting back on board?"
He frowned back at her. "You don't?"
"Why would we? If we are successful today…" She trailed off and looked around them, and Tony understood why.
"Maybe we should talk about this elsewhere."
The crowd started moving then, and Tony kept his eyes on John and Martin as they all started to disembark. He finally noticed that Sacha and Julie were both with them, having previously been obscured by the crowd, and he wondered not for the first time whether they had hands-on roles in all this. They fell into the line about six people back from the group, and when Ziva made a move to get closer he pulled her back by the hand.
"Gibbs'll be on them."
She sighed heavily, and Tony reconsidered his earlier assessment of her level of relaxation. She was clearly chomping at the bit to get the hell off the ship and straight into work.
Finally they made it into the early morning daylight, and Tony did a quick scan of the port for McGee, Gibbs or Borin. He saw none of them, but continued on down the gangway to solid ground. Almost immediately, they were faced with a decision. While John and Martin took off on foot to the south, Sacha and Julie split off and went north. Common sense told him to stick with the men, but what if the women had an important part in this?
"I'll take Sacha and Julie," Ziva told him.
Tony hesitated. "You don't have backup," he pointed out. McGee was south. McGee had their guns.
Ziva slid on her sunglasses and shot him a smile. "Yes, I do. Borin is north." She pulled out her cell phone and started dialing. "Stay in touch," she said, and then took off after the women.
Tony muttered to himself and dialed McGee as he approached the south end of the port. "The women have split off and gone north," he told McGee as soon as he answered. "Ziva's after them. She's calling Borin."
"We've got a visual on John and Martin," McGee told him. "Gibbs moving into the crowd now. Come to me. I'm at your 2 o'clock."
Tony looked around and his eyes fell on McGee standing about 20 feet away. He checked that he wasn't about to knock anyone over, and then jogged through to crowd towards him. He rolled his eyes when McGee led him into a public rest room.
"Could've picked a better location, McGee," he said when he entered the otherwise empty bathroom. His nose wrinkled at the stench of stake pee and urinal cakes.
McGee reached into the backpack he was carrying and pulled out Tony's gun. "You're welcome," he deadpanned, and then looked Tony up and down with a filthy look. "Nice tan."
Tony gave him a winning grin as he tucked his gun into the waist of his jeans in the small of his back. "Thanks," he said brightly. "I got it either when we went zip-lining or rock climbing, or maybe at one of the gorgeous beaches—"
"I swear to God, you need to shut up," McGee told him. They left the rest room and McGee dialed Gibbs. "I've got Tony," he said. "What's your location?" He listened for a moment and then looked around until he spotted what he was looking for. "Got it. We're coming."
They joined the crowd heading south and weaved their way through the slower walkers. Tony caught sight of Gibbs' familiar white head about 50 yards away, which gave him some measure of comfort. John and Martin hadn't gotten away just yet. But he needed to check in with Ziva. He called her as he saw and (hopefully) discretely sidestepped around Sterling and Jolene.
"I am with Borin," Ziva answered, getting straight to the point. "We are heading towards a strip of shops and restaurants."
"Got it," he said. "We've still got eyes on our guys."
"Stay in touch," she said, and then hung up.
You too, honey, he thought to himself. "Ziva's with Borin."
McGee hefted his backpack on his shoulder. "Why does she get all the fun work?" he wondered.
Tony cut him a sidelong look. "Either you're saying a week on a cruise with me is fun, which is definitely true, or else—"
"I am 100 per cent not saying that," McGee cut in.
Tony smirked, but wondered at the open hostility coming at him from the probie. He wondered what had happened in the bullpen since he and Ziva had been away.
Way over the other end of the port, Ziva and Borin threaded through their own foot traffic as they kept an eye on Sacha and Julie. Unlike McGee, Borin was a lot more interested in the details of the cruise she missed out on.
"How many pools do they have on board?"
"Four," Ziva told her. "Plus some hot tubs." She glanced back at her and shook her head. "Those are disgusting. Tony insisted, but I will never let him do that to me again."
Borin smirked. "What exactly did he do to you?" she asked teasingly.
Ziva rolled her eyes and looked up ahead. Sacha and Julie were still in view.
"So, plenty of hot tub time," Borin said.
"Once," Ziva corrected.
"And plenty of pool time."
"Never," Ziva told her.
"So, what the hell did you do?" Borin asked. "Sit around and drink cocktails?"
"Sit around, yes," Ziva said. "Unfortunately, no cocktails."
"That's a shame."
"I should have had non-alcoholic ones," Ziva said with a sigh. "People kept asking me if I was not drinking because we were having a babymoon."
Borin laughed and adjusted her sunglasses. "Maybe next year."
Ziva shot her a warning look, and Borin feigned innocence. She turned the conversation to the case.
"So, McGee said you were trying to get some product from Julie. I assume that didn't happen?"
Ziva shook her head. "I think the offer came off the table once Sacha got suspicious of us being in her room."
"And how did you manage to get in there?" Borin asked.
Ziva held up her finger. "Emergency Band-Aids."
"Ingenious."
Up ahead, Sacha and Julie stepped off the street and into a restaurant. Ziva sighed to herself. It would be difficult to keep distance from them when they were in the same room. But Borin nudged her.
"Head across the street," she said. "I'll get you a coffee."
"Black, no sugar," Ziva told her, and Borin grinned.
"Yeah, I could've guessed that."
She quickened her pace to follow Sacha and Julie, and Ziva looked both ways before she dashed across the street in a break in traffic. She leaned back against the three-foot tall stone wall that separated the street from the port area below and watched. The front wall of the restaurant was made up of glass concertina doors that had been opened right up to let in the morning breeze. Ziva could clearly see Borin standing at the counter placing her order, and Sacha and Julie sitting at a table by a wall to Borin's left. There was a handful of other diners scattered through the restaurant, all dressed in cruise casual wear that they'd accessorized with deep tans or sunburn. Ziva shook her head to herself. Hadn't these people heard of sunscreen?
Her eyes fell on a woman with ash blonde hair and round hips entering the restaurant. At first glance there was nothing remarkable at her, but when she paused at the door and looked around skittishly, Ziva knew something was up. She reached for her phone as she watched the woman approach Sacha and Julie, and the three women had a brief conversation before she and Sacha both reached into their respective handbags. Ziva glanced at Borin to make sure she was watching—she was—and then managed to snap a burst of photos of the woman handing what looked like money to Sacha in return for something. The item Sacha handed over was too small for Ziva to see, which frustrated her immensely, but she hoped that Borin had gotten a better look. Then the woman turned around and left the restaurant.
Ziva got another shot of her, one that they would hopefully be able to use to identify her, and then shot off a quick text to Borin. Can you keep them occupied? She didn't wait for a response before she ducked back across the road, trusting that Borin would find a way to distract them for as long as she needed as much as she would trust Tony with the same job. By the time she got to the restaurant, Borin had positioned herself just slightly behind Julie's shoulder, forcing Julie to turn her head away from Ziva's approach, and was talking loudly to them about the bland art on the walls.
"Do you think that sand dune is nearby?" Borin was asking. "It's kind of pretty. I'd like to see it."
"The sand dune?" Sacha repeated, as if she wasn't sure she understood why anyone would find a fairly standard-looking sand dune a tourist attraction.
"Yeah," Borin said enthusiastically. "You know, a lot of tourist places have pictures of local attractions on the walls."
Ziva smirked to herself and then took the opening Borin had given to her. Sacha's handbag was on the floor next to her feet, and Ziva deployed all her ninja powers to creep up behind her and slip her fingers inside. She pulled out a small plastic Ziploc bag with some white powder inside it, and then turned and got the hell out of there as Borin went on about how interesting sand was, and that without it none of them would have cell phones. She dashed back across the road again, and fought the urge to stare openly at the suspected Schedule II drugs in her hand. Her heart raced as she waited for Borin to exit the restaurant with two takeout cups of coffee in her hands, and they walked back towards the port on opposite sides of the street. When they were safely out of view of the restaurant, Borin crossed the road and fell into step beside Ziva.
"I just made up a bunch of outrageous facts about sand," Borin stated, making Ziva chuckle. "I hope you stole something interesting to offset my embarrassment."
Ziva took the cup Borin offered her with thanks. "Actually, I am almost certain that sand plays a role in building smart phones."
"Probably. What did you get?"
"Cocaine, I think," Ziva told her. "But we will need to test it."
"I've got a field test kit in the car," Borin told her. "You gotta be prepared when you're chasing drug smugglers, David."
Borin led her to the short stay public car park across from the passenger terminal, and unlocked a non-descript sedan that Ziva thought she'd probably taken from the local Coast Guard office. She got into the passenger seat as Borin grabbed a kit from the trunk, and then joined her. Ziva opened her hand and showed Borin the baggie.
"Nice," Borin said approvingly. "You know, with my improv skills and your pick pocket skills, we could run a semi-successful petty crime business."
"I think we may make more money from our current jobs," Ziva replied.
"Yeah, but the hours are crap," Borin joked, and prepared the kit.
Ziva opened the bag and tipped a small amount into the plastic field kit sleeve, and then Borin cracked and shook it until the powder reacted with the chemicals in the kit. It was a positive reaction: cocaine.
"Yes!" Borin yelled as Ziva broke into a smile. "Thank God! It would've killed me if it was nothing."
Ziva was sure that Vance would have killed them if it were nothing. So would Gibbs. And Sec Nav. It was a huge relief. She pulled out her cell phone again and dialed Tony.
"DiNozzo."
"Sacha Paulson is dealing cocaine out of her handbag in a restaurant," she told him.
There was a pause as he absorbed that. "Are you sure?" he asked. Although he sounded cautious, she could hear how badly he wanted it to be true in his voice.
"I managed to procure a sample," she said, glancing at Borin with a small wince over her technically illegal activity. "We tested it using a field kit. It was positive."
"How did you—" he started, but stopped abruptly. "No, I don't want to know. That is excellent news."
She heard his relief, and empathized. "Are you still trailing John and Martin?"
"Yeah, we're getting close to the small commercial boat side of the marina," he told her.
"Stay in touch," she said. "Borin and I will head back to the restaurant to keep an eye on Sacha and Julie."
"Got it," Tony said, and hung up.
Ziva turned to Borin with a triumphant smile. "He is relieved."
Borin briefly cocked her head to the side and arched an eyebrow. "No kidding," she said. "Let's go."
South of the port, Tony slipped his phone back into his pocket and grinned at McGee. "Ziva and Borin have confirmed that Sacha Paulson's dealing cocaine."
McGee's eyebrows shot up. "Yeah? How'd they confirm?"
"They tested the product."
"How did they get the—"
"Don't ask questions you don't want to know the answer to, McGee," Tony advised. "Tell Gibbs."
It took another ten minutes to reach the marina where charter and tourist boat businesses were centered. They kept following John and Martin to the far end of the marina until they slowed and veered towards a flybridge yacht with an American flag attached to the stern and the name Sunfish painted on the side. They slowed their pace and continued past the yacht and Gibbs, who had settled onto a park bench to keep up his surveillance. Tony was dismayed to see that he was still dressed in his DC office attire.
"He's supposed to be a tourist in Florida," he muttered to McGee. "Would it kill him to lose the sports coat?"
McGee shrugged. "Gibbs is gonna Gibbs."
Tony spotted a kiosk ahead just off the boardwalk that was selling dive boat tickets, and steered McGee towards it. From there, they had a clear view of John and Martin talking to two other men in front of the yacht. One of the men was Oscar McCarthy, and McGee snapped a photo.
"Any idea who the other guy is?" McGee asked him.
Tony shook his head. "No. Never seen him before." He squinted through the bright morning sunshine to try to gauge whether there was anyone else on board, but the yacht was positioned in such a way that the sunlight bounced off the handful of windows. He couldn't see anything.
"We need to get our hands on those bears," McGee said.
Tony nodded, but he didn't have a clue how to do it without just running over there and snatching them. "Could really use Ziva's ninja skills right now."
"You know she's not really a ninja, right?" McGee checked. "I know you like to fantasize, but—"
"Shut up, McPerv," Tony cut in. "Stop thinking about my fantasies."
"Oh, God, kill me," McGee muttered as he shuddered.
Their chance to put Tony's brilliant 'run over and snatch the bears' plan into action was lost when John, Martin, Oscar and the fourth man turned and climbed aboard the Sunfish. In a few seconds, they'd disappeared into the cabin. Fearing that they'd miss their chance to get evidence of what was really happening, Tony smacked McGee's arm and let the shot of adrenaline that rushed through his body carry him forward.
"Time for a closer look."
They headed back down to the boardwalk and Tony nodded at Gibbs before he walked down the floating walkway that separated Oscar's boat with the one on its right. Wordlessly, McGee continued on to walk down the other side. Tony pushed his sunglasses up as he tried to peer into the windows without looking completely suspicious. He still couldn't see much through the darkened windows, not even when he crouched down closer. This was going to be tricky.
"Hey."
The voice behind him startled him, and Tony stood up and spun around. He had half a second to get a glimpse of John Paulson before pain exploded through the left side of his head and he stumbled as his vision blurred. Rough hands grabbed him, and Tony was vaguely aware that he was being dragged forward towards the yacht before he lost the fight and passed out.
North of the port, Ziva snapped a photo of the third woman she'd seen buying off Sacha and Julie. She shook her hair out of her face as a breeze lifted, and then looked down at the photo on her cell phone. "Strange that it only seems to be women buying," she said to Borin.
Borin leaned her elbows against the picnic table they'd set themselves up at and scraped her bangs out of her eyes. "Strange that two middle class women are selling in the first place," she said. "And they're not exactly being discreet."
"I wonder if the restaurant is also in on it," Ziva mused.
"How many does that make?" Borin asked. "Aside from the Paulson and Rose clans, there's also Oscar McCarthy, your crew member who might be having an affair with Sacha, Rodney and Nadine, this restaurant…"
"And at least one of the security officers on the ship," Ziva added. She pursed her lips. "That is a lot of people."
"I suspect that most of them don't know about the other players," Borin said, and then reached into her pocket for her ringing cell phone. "Borin."
Ziva swiped through the photos she had taken that morning as Borin listened to the caller. She worried that some of the shots were too blurry to get an ID.
"No, he's supposed to be with you," Borin said with an edge in her voice, and Ziva looked up at her. That did not sound good. Borin's eyes flicked in Ziva's direction, but quickly flicked away again. "Get to the point, McGee," she said, her tone hard.
Immediately, Ziva felt a knot form in her stomach. Something was wrong. Borin breathed out an expletive, and then pushed off the table.
"We're on our way." She hung up without saying goodbye, and then looked at Ziva with an expression that was all business. "DiNozzo's gone missing," she told Ziva, no nonsense. "He was checking the yacht that our group got onto and now they can't find him. He's not answering his cell."
Ziva blinked at her for a few seconds as fear burst through her chest and stopped her breath. Oh, God. Please don't let anything happen to him. Borin waited for her to work through it, and when she started breathing again she gave her a tight nod and took her cue. No nonsense, all business. "Okay."
They scrambled to their feet and then started power walking through the crowds of tourists to the south end. Although she already knew it would be futile, Ziva called Tony's cell on the way to check for herself. Perhaps he just did not want to talk to McGee. Perhaps they had a spat, and Tony was ignoring him just to spite him. It was not at all a far-fetched scenario, but when the phone rang until his voicemail picked up, Ziva knew that something far more sinister was at play.
She flashed back to a few days ago when they'd been leaving the medical bay and John Paulson had almost taken their heads off with a serving tray. She remembered the violent look in his eye, and how she'd been utterly convinced in that moment that he could kill. She thought of poor Ken Klein and the injuries he'd sustained when he'd been beaten up after seeing John Paulson do something he shouldn't. She thought of Jolene and Sterling's warnings that John and Martin weren't nice people. None of it made her feel any better about the situation. It just made her feel sick.
She quickened her already speedy pace and glanced at Borin. Her friend gave her a little nod, and then the two of them broke into a run at the same time. When she got there, she was going to kick every single ass that got in her way until she found her partner. Assuming, of course, that Tony hadn't kicked them all first.
Dun-dun-duuun! He's totally dead. (Oh, of course he's not.)