Tap12
This morning's news had shaken everyone and Gibbs had been no exception. Gibbs had turned on the ZNN news on the plasma following this morning's events, carefully. In the squad room, the only sound you could hear was the news and many agents from other desks were gathered around with him to watch the broadcast's live footage of the scene. Everyone knew about the bomb, this morning. It was all that anyone had been talking about, all morning.
There had been a bomb blast at a local high school, twelve miles from the Navy Yard and there were many casualties including students, parents and teachers. It had been the first day back of school, at the elite and prestigious academy, for the new school year and the gymnasium had been full of people.
"There's McGee." Carson called out, seeing him in his usual work jeans and the standard navy blue FBI issued jacket with the bold, yellow lettering. He was wearing an FBI ball cap too, similar to his former NCIS one and murmurs went around the squad room. No one dared to voice their true thoughts and opinions within Gibbs' presence.
"Is it just me, or does it feel strange seeing McGee in the FBI get-up?" Balboa asked in a stage whisper, but Gibbs had heard it anyway. He had felt weird, seeing his friend in the FBI clothing and not his NCIS gear.
They continued to watch, as the news footage streaming the live footage. They all watched, as the footage showed McGee rally up his team, calling them over to him and step up and take charge. Speaking to the team of agents, most likely directing them and delegating assignments. Dismissing them, he looked like his usual self, but they could see his self-confidence shining through. They watched on as he then joined in on with the task of searching the debris, grid by grid, methodically.
"Hell of a first case for him." Gibbs muttered, mostly to himself and suddenly, the news cast shifted back to the studio. The agents that had been congregated in their bullpen scattered, back to their own desk.
"He looked good out there, Gibbs. A strong, confident, forceful, Senior Field Agent material." Leon replied. He had joined the congregated agents and when they had scattered, he had remained behind.
Tim hit the ground running on his first day as Tobias' Senior Field Agent over at the FBI. By midday they were working Tim's first crime scene, as an FBI agent. Unfortunately it was a terrorist case and the terrorist had already blown up a school gymnasium, with covert, cryptic threats to keep targeting schools until he gets what he wants.
Tobias tasked him with taking control of the agents and delegating tasks. Organising the teams to work the various components of the scene. Before he left to lead the search team, searching the debris, now that they had the clearance from the fire department and the structural engineers. Tim started his search of the debris methodically, piece by piece. "Fornell" Tim called out, seeing what he had stumbled across.
Tobias had been liasoning with the school board for the sign in sheets and trying to get a definitive number on how many people were in the gymnasium at the time of the explosion. He had not long arrived back on scene, with the final count in his hand. With twenty-three deceased victims removed from the rubble so far, one hundred and nineteen people walking wounded and sixteen severely injured, there was still six people unaccounted for, of the one hundred and sixty four people whom had been in the gymnasium at the time of the explosion. "Yeah, McGee?" Tobias replied, making his way over to where his friend, turned subordinate was standing. "What have you got?"
Tim was photographing his find in the debris. "Detonator?" Tim asked, holding up his fin in his latex gloved hand. "Looks like part of an electrical detonator. That's the fuse right there. Looks like it was designed to be minimal in structural destruction and maximum human destruction."
"That's great work, McGee." Tobias grinned at him. "These all look like they will be easily traceable parts." Tobias was proud of Tim. As the Supervisory Senior Agent in Charge, Tobias had watched three agents scour that grid of the debris, before Tim did the final sweep. He was impressed with him and he was glad he helped bring Tim over to the FBI. He was proving to be the valuable asset he knew he would be. "As soon as the lab team take a look, I'll have Beck take a glance too. She's an explosives expert."
Fornell stepped back and allowed Tim to continue his search. While Tom was participating in the grid search, Tobias was working on the statement that he had to make to the press. Of course, he would have Tim beside him as his number two. He might even offer up the microphone for the younger man to field some questions, to teach him how to deal with the media. Although he had enrolled Tim in the DOD media management course already.
"I've got a trigger switch and a body here." Tim called out. Hearing Tim call out that he'd found a body was surprising. They'd already swept that grid.
By the time they had finished their entire search, they had found all six missing victims deceased, the majority of the bomb parts, as well as some gum near the trigger switch, that McGee hoped had the bombers DNA. By the time they had finished searching and cataloguing all of the evidence, the fire department had set up flood lights to assist, as they were running out of daylight fast and the team was running on empty.
Tobias called a halt to all tasks at 1900, with still no clue when they'd finally get to make it home. Their team, plus the TAD agents crammed into the mobile command centre, which was really just a boxed semi truck trailer with mobile satellite equipment and their operational and spyware gear onboard. The first thing that Tobias had Tim do on Friday morning was configure the truck up to constant surveillance, must like the MCRT mobile command centre. Tim said that every agent needed to learn how to operate this so that it wasn't always the same people, like when he'd always get stuck manning it, when he worked for Gibbs. Tobias had agreed and Tim set up a small six hour instructional course and Tobias helped him integrete that in to their training schedule.
"Listen up." Tobias called out, into the sea of faces of the field agents that had been assisting them on this case. Tobias had received offers of help from everyone in the alphabet soup, including Gibbs at NCIS. That definitely wouldn't be happening. Tim stood beside him, as his second in command. They were waiting for the cacophony of noise to quieten down before they continued. "Our lab has isolated the bomber's DNA off the detonator. Sending you a mugshot of our suspect. She was in the system. Goes by the alias of Florence Nightingale. Responsible for a series of radicalised bombings in the seventies that took place at hospitals. Claimed she was fighting for a better standard of care. McGee?"
"Showboat. Her explosives always have more flash than bang." Tim read off his notebook. That was one thing that hadn't changed, Tim still took notes like the day he had become Gibbs' probie, all those years ago. "Here's the thing, she always plants a secondary, more rudimentary device. The fact that the parts of the bomb we found appear to be easy to trace and we managed to retrieve touch DNA, it quite likely means we haven't found the initial bomb yet. Meaning, it looks like we are going to do a second sweep. This time the whole premises, we're going to extend the perimeter out and search."
Groans could be heard around the truck and even Tobias and Tim could feel everyone's weariness. Energies were flagging. "McGee's right, we've got our K9 unit coming in to assist us, as well as our bomb squad. But first, dinner has arrived. Thank McGee, he called in a favour."
Dinner wasn't much, it was foot long subs from subway. A friend of his owned a couple of the franchises. McGee's contact had happily donated dinner to the FBI agents and emergency response personnel, which he would happily write off in his tax return as a business donation.
Gibbs was working in his basement listening to the emergency response radio police channels. He had muted ZNN, but kept it playing in the background all day. He didn't think it would hurt him as much as it had to see McGee wearing the navy blue jacket with the gold lettering on the back, as what it did. He was aware of all of the glances and hushed whispers that had been shared today, about how it was partly him to blame for the agency losing an agent of McGee's calibre. "Second sweep initialised. Tact channels two up on evens to twenty, two down on odds. Next check in, three minutes. Go dark." Tim's voice came over the emergency band and Gibbs stopped work on what he was doing, taking a seat on the stool in his basement.
"What the hell is going on over there, McGee?!" Gibbs verbalised the question, as if McGee was standing in front of him. Gibbs had been involved in enough sweeps to know that McGee had just enacted emergency protocols. When he had left the office, ZNN showed Tim had stood on the steps of the command centre, next to Tobias, as they had called for a sit-rep.
Gibbs switched on his old television set in the corner, but they were just back at the station, discussing what the FBI had shared with the media so far. Flicking through the other news stations in his basic cable package, Gibbs came to the conclusion that the FBI had managed to get an injunction to stop the media from streaming the live footage of the scene. Whether it was intentional, or they had something big that they didn't want anyone knowing about.
Gibbs took himself upstairs, his handheld radio in hand. As he started some dinner for himself, over a small fire. Looking at the t-bone steak he had prepared earlier, he found his stomach was knotted and he couldn't even bring himself to cook it. Instead he grabbed three eggs and the frying pan that lived on the stove. A plate and snagged two slices of bread from the bread box.
"Yo, Gibbs." Vance's voice called out, seeing him in the living room, as he let himself into the house. Vance held his own radio in the palm of his hand, as he let himself in. "What the hell is going on over there?"
"How the hell should I know?" Gibbs quipped, as he cracked the eggs into his pan. "I am here with you. Tobias said he couldn't talk before there was a crash and he said he had to go. McGee's phone is off. Now, they're enacting emergency protocols."
"I had dinner with Director Thomasson tonight. Thomasson reported that it seems McGee's been making an impression on them already." Vance said, as he snagged a beer from Gibbs' fridge, bringing the man himself back one too. "Seems they're enamoured with him. Gibbs, you realise the hard spot his success puts me in with Jarvis. Anyway, I digress. Reason for my visit is, I am still on good terms with McGee. I saw his father lurking around the pentagon today. Maybe it's nothing, but forewarned is forearmed, right?"
"Why would John McGee be lurking around the pentagon? I thought he stayed on the West Coast." Gibbs muttered to himself, before he picked up his cell and made a quick call to his contact. A contact the he had out west in the area. His contact had been keeping tabs on his agent's father since they met Tim McGee on the dock in Norfolk. Other than a few grunts and aha's, Gibbs didn't form any other sounds. Flipping his cell closed, he looked at the Director. "The nature of the trip is classified above my pay grade, but he made mention that his aide did not book accommodation for the Admiral, claiming his son would put him up for a night or two."
"His son, has not spoken to the man in over seven years, Gibbs." Gibbs raised his eyebrows in surprise at Leon's intimate knowledge of the workings within the McGee family. "Dr Penelope Langston is a regular financial backer and political supporter of Secretary Jarvis."
"Dr Penelope Langston is?" Gibbs asked, amused.
"McGee's paternal grandmother." Vance stated.
"Bet there's a story why she doesn't use the McGee family name." Gibbs chuckled, picturing a little, old helpless lady.
"Don't be fooled, Gibbs." Vance warned him with a chuckle of his own. "Dr Penelope Langston is hardly a woman you want to cross. Don't let her sweet sounding name fool you into a false sense of security. She is a force to be reckoned with. Wife of an Admiral, mother of an Admiral, Grandmother to a seasoned former NCIS agent turned FBI agent, travelling collegiate professor of international women's studies and a take no prisoners attitude. She's ballsy, Gibbs."
"Not to mention Sarah McGee. I've heard good things about the grandmother from McGee. I didn't know her name, though." Gibbs supplied, looking at Vance. Gibbs wondered if Vance had of had personal dealings with her before. He seemed weary of her and it seemed more than just idle scuttlebutt weariness.
"Rumour has it, she's in town too. A McGee family reunion. Apparently, neither of them know he moved or that he is no longer employed by NCIS. Brace yourself, Gibbs. If they show up at the yard, it's going to be a long day."
Tim let himself in to his house. It was late and he had t seen Pete since Friday night. He got called into work and went dark, no doubt he's working on something highly classified and Tim won't hear from him until he's done.
Tim locked the door behind him and went to the bathroom, stripping off along the way and locking his sig away, too. Running his eyes, he could not believe how late it was. What an official first day. Something was bothering him about this case and usually on the drive home he could decompress, but tonight, he found himself struggling to do so.
Climbing under the water, Tim ran the day over in his head. They hadn't found the secondary device and it was late. They secured the scene and put local LEO's and night staff FBI manpower on it. While his team went home and rested, but not before a two hour debrief, in which Tim had left, feeling like he had been personally reamed out by Director Thomasson for wasting time. He hadn't been actually scolded, but Tim felt like he had been.
Tim was certain that he was right. There was a secondary device there. When he had done the explosives five day seminar at FLETC in San Diego last year, they'd studied the Florence Nightingale bomber, there was always a second device. As he slipped in between the fresh sheets, he recalled that whole section of the seminar, pertinent to that particular signature.
Throwing his duvet back, he looked around for some clean clothes. He had to go into the office. Throwing on some old jeans and boots, his new FBI hoodie, he grabbed his gear and headed in.
As he passed the security desk, Abe looked at him funny. "I guess it's true what they say around these parts, those NCIS folk never sleep. You're FBI now, why aren't you in bed, McGee?" he said, as he signed Tim in. Tim just laughed at good ole Abe. Abe had been working security at the Hoover Building for thirty years, possibly more. He was still sharp as a tact and he always knew the names of the faces he saw. Even the rare visitors. "I know that look. That's a look many agents before you have had. You've got something. Good luck."
Tobias was just finishing up in his office when he heard a noise, he looked up and he saw Tim come back in, exhausted, but freshly showered. "What the heck are you doing here? I sent you home two and a half hours ago." Tobias asked, from his office doorway, seeing Tim fire up his computer.
"I had a thought, some things about this whole case are bugging me." Tim told and Tobias muttered something unintelligible. It sounded like a curse, but Tim just smiled at him. "I went out to San Diego last year on that DOJ seminar for female serial killers. We spent a day on Nightingale at that seminar.
Only law enforcement ever knew about the secondary rudimentary devices. So it stands to reason we're looking for the same woman. DNA is a match. But we didn't find a secondary device.
Tina Montenegro is a twin. Her sister Chloe was radicalised when she was, but her parents discovered her sooner and had her seek a deradicalisation program. What if she faked it? Chloe is her identical twin, so they share the same DNA. They may be twins but they hate one other, too.
Tina allegedly blew up Chloe's house and killed Chloe's husband and newborn son. That was the explosion that we caught the DNA break in the case. Hear me out because this is the crazy part. Tina was the nurse. What if she was never the real bomber?
Chloe is a high powered attorney with a love for everything high octane. She thought she was queen bee. But this was all triggered by the death of their grandparents in 1969 in Belfast.
What if the hospital bombs and this one is. Chloe's attempt to frame Tina. Tina only got released from prison last week. The school bombing took longer to plan and execute than a week. Heck, I checked in with Beck and she said it would have taken them about ten days to build that bomb, based on the components we found. Tina was still in prison."
"That's a hell of a theory, Tim." Tobias murmured at him, "Let's run through it, again. Slowly."
The two men settled in at Tim's desk. While they ran through it again, slowly. Tim started discreetly running Chloe Montenegro's contacts, financial records and work clients, as the two of them worked through what results they had so far.
The following morning Tim was still typing away at his desk, researching his lead, when Director Thomasson passed through the bull pen, looking for Tobias. But he was asleep on Agent Mac's desk, the desk opposite Tim's. It was barely 7am and most of the agents didn't start until 8am at the FBI. "McGee?" He asked, surprised to see the newly transferred agent dressed so casually at his desk, before his start time. "Casual Tuesday?"
"No Sir." Tim answered and nudged Tobias with his foot. "Parts of the case don't add up, Tobias and I spent the night running with the case."
"We got something, well McGee got something." Tobias said, through a yawn and rubbing his eyes. It had barely been half an hour since he had closed them.
Tobias and Tim ran through the entire theory and their evidence to support the theory. "Plus, after Tina Montenegro's arrest, Chloe Montenegro paid her sister two million dollars into an offshore account. I traced the money and it originated from her law firm's slush fund. It was transferred into an account in her sisters name. The same account that Tina Montenegro accessed the day after she was released from prison. Tina was tried and convicted of killing her brother in law and nephew, Chloe's husband and son."
"You figured all that out, yourself, McGee?" Director Thomasson asked, surprised.
"Bounced the theory off Fornell, and followed the evidence." Tim answered bashfully.
"He also pieced it all together." Tobias said, proudly. "Gibbs used to call him his puzzle guy, before he learnt McGee's name."
"That's great work, let's take it to our federal prosecutors and see what they think." Thomasson agreed. "Go grab some sleep in the cribs. Hope you bought a tie, McGee because you will be meeting with them and explaining it all."
"Always carry a spare suit and tie." Tim quipped to him. "It's in my locker, ready to go."
"Good man." Thomasson told Tim.
Tobias sleepily led Tim down into the deepest part of the sub basement where the crib was. It was a small, dorm style room with beds lined up against either walls, barracks style. "Sleep Tim." Tobias said, as he pulled a pillow and blanket from the storage closet and passed them to the younger man. Before he took a set for himself and crashed on the nearest bed.
It was late, very late for the Director. He had been at a budget meeting all day and a counter-terrorism banquet that evening, when he arrived back at the Navy Yard. He had been desperate to go home, but he had to fly to Pearl Harbour for two days before, hoping for a long weekend. He planned the long weekend, only if he could get through the very last of his paperwork tonight.
He noticed that the new MCRT team were long gone, but Gibbs was watching ZNN on closed captions, as the night shift arrived to start work. "What's going on?" Leon Vance asked, looking at the screen. The news cast showed Tim escorting a handcuffed Chloe Montenegro out of her law firm, flanked by Fornell and another agent Gibbs recognised as a member of Fornell's team. Tim was reading her her rights and she was proclaiming her innocence.
"Looks like they caught their bomber and the original Florence Nightingale bomber." Gibbs murmured, as he increased the volume a little. "What's the bet that Tim pieced that together for them?"
"I don't doubt it." Leon muttered, as he bid Gibbs a good night. The paperwork could wait, he wanted to congratulate and warn the young man about his father.
Tim was sitting at his desk, as he finished the last of his paperwork. His desk mate Agent Mac had been on cloud nine that they had closed the case so quickly. He had been due to go on leave while his wife had a baby and was afraid he'd miss the birth of his first child over this case.
The shrill ringing of his personal cell phone interrupted his train if thought and he declined the call, seeing that the caller was Vance. That call he would return when he wasn't at the office. He could not wait to get out of here. Pete was back from his duty assignment and the two of them had plans. They hadn't seen each other in four days and Tim had missed him. Tim assumed that he didn't reach out, due to the nature of the when he was NCIS, Pete and Tim didn't discuss work much. Even the parts that they could.
Vance left a succinct voice message to phone him back, ASAP.
As soon as he had his paperwork done, he handed them into Tobias. "Close the door, McGee." Tobias requested, leaving the two of them sequestered away in his office. "Hell of a first case for you. Yet without you, we'd have charged the wrong sister. How are you feeling?"
"Tired." Tim told him with a smile. "But that will have to wait. Pete's back from assignment and he's already called for a date. Some Mama Mia's carry out and home."
"Well, let's not keep your sailor waiting." Tobias quipped. "Take care of you and I'll see you in the morning."
"0600?" Tim asked. He and Tobias had made plans to meet for a workout before work at the Bureau gym.
"See you then." Tobias grinned at his young friend.
With his gear packed, Tim wasted no time leaving his desk. Nodding goodbye to his new team, he was out the door as fast as those lanky legs of his would take him.
When he reached the rented Camaro, he dialled Leon Vance's cell back. But no answer. With no answer, Tim left him a message simply stating he was "Returning the call."
As he approached his favourite Italian place to get carry out, Tim noticed he was being followed by a white Ford sedan. The kind that hundreds of rental agencies across the country, stock and use on a daily basis. Tim turned into Mamamia's parking lot and switched off the car. Seeing the white car, follow him in, he quickly darted inside, ordered their favourites and nodded to Mamamia as he headed past the side kitchen and out the back to the men's room.
It was unlike Tim not to take Pete's calls, especially if Tim was late for plans with Pete or something came up. It was unlike Pete to worry about Tim. Pete knew that Tim could take care of himself. Hell when they had worked out together in the past, Tim could hold his own against Pete. Plus, Tim carried a gun and was a hell of a shot.
A text to Tobias, wondering if Tim had of been tied up at the office went unanswered. Which was not unusual, Tobias never replied while he was on the clock. Pete didn't have a key to Tim's house, but at times like this, he wished he did. He didn't dare break in, he knew that his boyfriend had a top of the line, security system installed. He knew, because he watched his genius boyfriend build and install it, himself.
"Finally Tobias, what the hell is going on over there?!" Pete desperately demanded when Tobias answered his cell. He was getting beyond worried.
"What the hell are you doing calling me?" Tobias retorted. "You should be making up for lost time. He left here over two hours ago."
"He's not with you?" Pete asked, getting concerned. "He never arrived here. I don't know what he was picking up for dinner."
"I do and I was planning to stop there for dinner myself." Tobias lied, as he grabbed his own gear. He didn't want to worry Tim's boyfriend, but Tobias felt that something was off. "Call me, if Tim shows up and I'll call if I see him. There's probably a wait for the food and Tim's left his cell in the car." Another lie, Tim never went anywhere with out his cell.
"OK." Pete said, as he disconnected the call. Pete knew that Tobias was lying to him and being deliberately vague. He even knew that he had done it out of respect for Tim and his privacy.
Pete just hated to wait and worry like this, especially when knew Tim either answered or replied frequently to text messages.
Tobias pulled up out the front of Mamamia's, their favourite Italian place and he spotted Tim's black sporty rental immediately. He looked in and around the vehicle. Nothing looked out of place. Tobias grimaced to himself when he didn't see the cell phone laying on the passenger seat.
Making a decision, he would head inside and ask. Seeing it was Nico at the door, he asked "Yo, Nico where's Timmo?"
"Mr Timmo, he order food and go bathroom. Mama keep food hot, but he be gone long time." Nico replied in his usual broken English.
Tobias gave him a little nod and a pat on the back, as he passed Nico and headed down the long corridor to the back of the restaurant, where the bathroom was. Seeing a trail of bloody footprints, leading from the men's room, Tobias ran.
As he turned the corner, careful not to contaminate the bloody footprints, there was Tim laying in a small pool of blood and a gash to his forehead.
Tobias reached down to check his friend's pulse. It was there, it was thready, but it was there. As he dialled 911, all he could think was; Tim is still alive!
