PART TWO : Memorial
Something clicked inside David's brain.
The mind log activated.
In the event I become unconscious or experience mental damage, this mind log will aid and help me.
It will not only help restore my memory and heal damaged parts of my brain, it will help me remember my mission parameters. Why I am here in the past.
Because with time travel you never know what's going to happen.
Especially when it's a form of time travel that can affect the mind.
All right, let's get on with it.
When you're an ex-spy who's a fan of NCIS and you're also a time-travel-experiment guinea pig, this is your dream assignment.
You get to go back in time and stop 6/11, the second worst terrorist attack on American soil.
An attack in which hundreds of Navy and Marine men and women, along with their children, died in a massive explosion that hit the Navy and Marine Corps Daycare Center in the Navy Yard.
Among the casualties was NCIS Senior Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs.
As a spy for her Majesty. I worked with NCIS on occasion, and they seemed like haunted broken people. They were still capable of doing their jobs but they seemed devastated, demolished in a way.
It may seem odd that I call myself a fan of NCIS. How can someone be a fan of an American government agency? One reason to be a fan is because of the work they do: they investigate crimes related to the Navy and Marine Corps. I got to know them a little bit through my MI6 associate Clayton Reeves, and I decided to learn more.
When I obtained files about NCIS, they came to me courtesy of ex-spy Michael Westen and his associate Sam Axe. (I just call him "Axe" to distinguish him from the other Sam.) They got me files with unusual personal content, almost like McGee was writing a novel. So I felt like I got to know the whole Gibbs team, the way they used to be. Before the attack. Before The Day.
The daycare center was bombed by a group called the Brotherhood of Man, an international consortium of terrorists from all races and all nationalities, united in their hate apparently. All men, of course. Some extreme feminists complained they should allow women. Fancy that. A bunch of kooks blowing people up, and these birds insist they should let the girls in. Are they buggers or just daft?
"The Brotherhood of Man." Terrible name for a terrible group. Abby complained they had ruined that Broadway song for her. Me as well, little Abby birdie.
To make matters worse, the terrorists financed their attack with stolen federal money that crossed state lines. That means the FBI got involved. In particular Gibbs' friend (and my acquaintance) FBI Agent Tobias Fornell.
These Brotherhood types are such nasty buggers they sent a boy named Jack to form a friendship with Gibbs. On the day of the attack, Jack pleaded with Gibbs to meet him at the daycare center. Gibbs, normally a cautious type, went to see Jack and got caught in the explosion.
Jack was the son of a busy single woman, a Navy commander, and so he was vulnerable to emotional manipulation by these nasty Brotherhood types.
I used to study the personal NCIS files with Eleanor Bishop. Ellie would sit on the floor with her crisps (chips to you Americans) with the files laid out before her. Had McGee been working with us, he might have brought her Nutter Butters from a vending machine.
As part of her freelance spy work, Ellie studied files about "Stargate" and "Quantum Leap" and other secret projects the Americans had shared with other nations. None of these shared secrets brought all-out war, just the usual behind-the-scenes squabbling.
In any case, I knew all about Gibbs' team at the Navy Yard. And speaking of Gibbs, there's a picture of him at the Memorial. And while he looks dead serious in most of his photos, in that one he's actually smiling. Rare for him.
I've spoken at the Memorial many times. Part of my public cover is that of a guy who makes inspiring speeches. Old enemies are less likely to off someone out in public.
Someone else who has spoken many times at the Memorial is NCIS' resident expert on forensic matters (drum roll, please) Abby Sciuto! Yay, Abby!
I know. Such cheer seems inappropriate in connection with such a tragic event.
I'm hoping when I go back, that changes.
In a half-conscious state, David thought how, whenever the mind log played in his mind, it helped him get clarity for a while. While his memory might fade later, he was able, for the moment at least, to clearly and vividly remember at least one thing.
The Memorial.
"What have you got, Abbs?"
Abby Sciuto, speaking at the Living Rocks Memorial, spoke in a deep voice that was meant to be her friend and boss Leroy Jethro Gibbs. In doing this, Abby captured the tone and attitude of Gibbs if not his actual voice.
As she acted out a conversation with Gibbs, Abby went on to talk about the DNA of turkeys and trees and other scientific matters, all in great detail. This brought smiles and nods from audience members, even more when Abby reverted back to her Gibbs voice.
"Get to the point, Abbs," she said, once again doing an exaggerated deep voice.
With a sweet grin and a tearful voice, Abby talked about how when she took her scientific findings and explained how it related to a case, it resulted in solving the case or finding the person responsible or both. When that happened, Gibbs gave her a kiss on the cheek or a Caf-POW! (Her favorite caffeinated drink!) If she was really good, she got both. In any case, Abby said, Gibbs would be very happy, or at least as happy as Gibbs could get.
Hearing this, people in the audience responded with tearful smiles, and there was even some applause. When this happened, a teary-eyed Abby just stood at the podium with a quivering sweet grin.
It was almost like Gibbs was alive again.
This was the setting where Abby paid tribute to Gibbs. The Living Rocks Memorial featured pictures of smiling happy children, children who were, sadly, no more.
There were also military-ID pictures of the Navy and Marine men and women who perished in the daycare explosion. In those ID pictures, some service members looked very serious, others grinned a little, others wore great big smiles.
Some of the smiling service members looked almost as happy as McGee when Gibbs returned after briefly resigning. McGee's teeth had been whitened too much, and when he showed off those teeth in a great big smile, they were so bright and shiny they were practically blinding.
None of the smiling service members in the pictures had teeth like that. Each one, though, was a valuable human being in his or her own right. Sadly, they were all gone now, they could smile no more.
There were pictures of the parents with their children. At least one showed a couple with their two blond-haired kids, a girl and a boy, as they sat at a picnic table. All looked into the camera as they smiled so that now it looked like they were smiling out at the audience.
Other families were sitting around campfires in campgrounds. In the background were trailer-campers, pickup campers, tents and RV's.
Another family was seated together at a ball game; they all wore matching team jerseys and caps. Other were at home sitting on couches or at kitchen tables. Some happy smiling family members decorated a Christmas tree with tinsel; others beamed as they lit a menorah.
It was not only a poignant reminder of people we had lost but also a celebration of their lives and all the different ways they lived. Naturally, it was all Abby's idea: a celebration of lives lived. Living rocks! Let's be sad but let's also be glad they lived their lives.
Typical Abby, David thought as he stood among the crowd listening. So Abby.
Standing at the Memorial, Abby shared stories about Gibbs. Sniffling a little, she talked about how Gibbs loved her like a daughter. The first day they met, she gave him a fortune from a fortune cookie, and he saved it.
The fortune said:
"We never forget the ones who made a difference to us."
After sniffling a little more, Abby expressed her wish that everyone on Earth could be happy and go on a picnic together. As the audience members applauded and sniffled, a tearful Abby snatched up her parasol and walked away.
"I like the parasol," one lady commented as Abby approached her. Abby stopped to give her a hug.
David took his place at the podium. In keeping with the theme "Living Rocks," David talked about the NCIS members who were still alive. As he did, David noted people in the audience smiled and nodded, even if they were still a little tearful.
But then David started talking about Jordan Bellisarius. Known to Interpol and other terrorists simply as "Bell," the leader of the Brotherhood of Man had not been shaped by some great evil. Instead, he had been subjected to everyday evil: teasing and bullying in schools as well as emotional abuse and neglect in a series of foster homes. It chipped away at him until he decided to destroy other people and recruit other men to do the same.
David suggested that maybe if we showed a little more kindness to others we could not only honor the fallen and the deceased but we could also prevent another Bell.
When David started talking like this, the tearful smiling faces in the audience turned to stone. Some of the people got up and walked away; others glared as they marched off.
As the audience dwindled down to only two people, David thought how there was no reason to continue with stories about NCIS.
Silently, he reflected on the tragic history of NCIS following Gibbs' death. For a time, the director of NCIS attempted to also be a team leader but that proved to be too much even for the formidable Leon Vance.
Tobias Fornell was a successful team leader until it was learned he had ignored a relevant witness in an earlier case. Once he resigned from NCIS, Tobias become a struggling, and often inebriated, private investigator.
Alden Parker was a good team leader for many years; unlike Gibbs, Parker was more tech-savvy, incorporating modern technology into team communication (with mixed results). But eventually Parker, like Fornell, descended into alcoholism. A series of temporary team leaders followed with high turnovers in the agent roster.
One such agent was Ellie Bishop. Recruited from the NSA, Ellie quickly developed into a standout field agent. Eventually she left NCIS to be a freelance spy with former MI6 agent Clayton Reeves.
As he left these thoughts behind, David noted two people remained at the Memorial. One was Abby, glaring at him with piercing dark eyes. Her face said something that she had said to David many times before: I'm not normally a violent person. But I'd like to murder Bell. And I know how to do it without leaving any evidence.
David spoke in a voice that was pleading but also a little annoyed and impatient.
"Come on, Abby. You normally have compassion on people and you want to help them. Why not Bell, too?"
Abby's voice was full of bitterness.
"He killed my friend. He killed Gibbs. And he killed all those people. All those kids."
Abby narrowed her dark eyes, and it was like the old cheerful Abby that David knew from the old files, and some videos, was gone, buried.
In the years since 6/11, the terrorists had stepped up their attacks worldwide, They had also dimmed if not darkened the spirit of Abby Sciuto.
Once again, David pleaded. "You don't blame Jack for what he did, do you?"
There was no answer, just that glare before Abby turned and walked away.
Now all that remained was one man. He wore a ragged wrinkled raincoat and a dirty beat-up fedora. He was overweight and unshaven with deep dark lines under his eyes and a dead look on his face.
David knew him. Former FBI agent Tobias Fornell.
"Tobias," David said, cordial but wary.
"You just don't get it, do you, Dayan?"
"What's that?"
"The audience you're talking to. Everyone here lost someone in that attack." As he scowled, Tobias thrust a thumb at his raincoat. "I lost a friend!"
David pursed his lips. "I'm aware of that. I'm just thinking how we can create a better future."
Like Abby, Tobias glared at David.
"Focus on the past," he growled as he walked away.
David thought how it probably didn't help that Tobias, in addition to losing Gibbs in a terrorist attack, had also lost his daughter Emily to a drug overdose and his wife Diane to a terrorist assassin.
Turning his thoughts elsewhere, David reflected on how it was his research on NCIS that got him thinking about changing the world through kindness. NCIS, after all, worked to get justice for the friends and families of victims while Abby was someone who practiced kindness.
Unfortunately, such a message, changing the world through kindness, was not always well received.
David then noticed that there was someone else with him. The man had thick eyebrows, and it was almost like his eyes were closed. (Maybe he was just tired). Despite his large nose, he was almost handsome. Though he wore a light grin, he had pain in his face as he strolled forward in a casual manner.
"Here for the rest of my speech, mate? You might notice you're the only one." David sounded more bitter than he would have liked. The British accent probably only made things worse.
If the man was offended by the bitter voice or the accent, he didn't show it. Instead, he did his best to put on a smile as big as his nose.
"How do you do, Mr. Dayan? My name is Sam Becket, and I'm here to tell you that you've been chosen."