MTF15
"Because DiNutzo, your buddy over there, was peacefully enjoying a romantic getaway with his girlfriend, at the Gibbs' family cabin by the lake. When Miss Sciuto and approximately twenty friends paid them a visit. She was not impressed with him." Tobias recalled grinning at his son, as he came into the room, from the comms area in the basement.
"Abby's been backsliding for a while now, Tony." Gibbs admitted in a sigh, sadly. He hated what she had become. But he couldn't deny that she had intended to and had inflicted maximum damage upon all those she had once claimed to love like family. "Since before you left, Tony. Recently, she had been terminated from her position at NCIS. But up until then, she hadn't broken any federal laws."
"Now, she's gone and done it." Tim began but stopped, just as suddenly. He gave Kelly a look, when he held her attention, he looked towards young Tali. He didn't want his niece to hear about Abby's fall from grace. Or Tali's father's reaction, because Tim already knew how Tony was going to react at the news.
"Tali, how about you and I go get something to eat?" Kelly asked the little tot, enthusiastically. "Then we can go and climb onto bed and watch a movie together. I will even let you pick the movie."
"Can we just read my books instead?" Tali asked, giving Kelly her best puppy dog eyes. "Daddy says I am a book nerd like Uncle Tim, and that he loves that about me."
"Let's go, Squirt." Kelly grinned at her, as the tot excitedly followed her Aunty Kell, out of the room, down the hall and into the room that she could just tell had been designated to her and Tim.
"Remember Edwardo Allouez?" Tim prompted and waited for Tony's reaction. Tim just hoped he didn't blow a gasket and alert Tali to his displeasure.
"What has that two-faced, lying low life, scum of the earth, done now?" Tony seethed in a low voice, looking around to make sure that Kelly had Tali, sequestered in another part of the house. Tony had first-hand experience with Edwardo Allouez.
Despite the mission eventually succeeding, first Tony had been captured by Edwardo. He had been forced to watch helplessly, as he brutally raped and murdered three women. Tony had been bound and gagged, had been forced to watch as the British citizen had forced himself on those women, repeatedly over a thirty-six-hour period before ejaculating in them from behind and slicing their throats with a sharp blade. It had been a truly traumatic case for Tony, and if it hadn't been for Tim's cyber skills in tracing and tracking, as well as the small, microchip tag that Ducky had injected into Tony, which allowed Tim to trace him so efficiently. Tony had feared that Edwardo Allouez would have eventually killed him too, if for nothing else, then to make a point.
Of course, that case had caused Tim more heartache, that had been the first case where he had seen Abby's true colours unfold. He had begun keeping track of her deviant shenanigans. It was in the same epiphany that he realised that if Abby went down, she would not hesitate to try and take him down too. Edwardo Allouez didn't learn anything about Tim's involvement in the operation until Abby broke rule 22. She burst into the interrogation room and claimed that Tim had found something on his computer in relation to the case. Only when she broke into interrogation, she used his full name "Special Agent Timothy McGee." That was her revenge for not getting control of the technical side of operation. Tim got reamed out by Gibbs. Both for Abby's rule breaking and for wasting his time when Tim told him that he didn't know what Abby was talking about.
"She didn't?" Tony asked, scarcely believing that Abby could indeed be so stupid as to get involved with a rapist and murderer like him. "What did she do?" Abby could be stupid sometimes, but this one took the cake.
"Miss Sciuto had failed to check in this morning with her supervising medical officer, under her section thirty-two court mandated treatment program. As per protocol, they searched Miss Sciuto's apartment." Tobias explained to Tony. "They found a note, left by Miss Sciuto, detailing that if she couldn't have Agent McGee, then neither could Miss Gibbs. The note went on to indicate that if Agent McGee continued to choose Miss Gibbs over Miss Sciuto, she would be forced to eliminate Agent McGee, as well as Miss Gibbs."
"She went after them, Tony." Gibbs added, making sure that Tony understood the gravity of the situation. "She took armed mercenaries with her to my cabin. Tobias and I managed to beat them with there, with three hours to spare. She had orchestrated coordinated attacks from lake and by road. We were trapped there."
"How the hell did the three of you take out twenty-two mercenaries in a coordinated attack?" Tony asked in disbelief. The odds had been against them. Even four against twenty-two, they would have still been outnumbered.
"Never mind the exact details, but we made an undetected escape through an old underground tunnel." Tim grinned at the other two, before explaining the backtrack. "After we felt and heard the explosion rip through the tunnel, we doubled back, in search of help. Eventually we made it out, the place was destroyed."
"By some miracle, we found our team." Gibbs finished. "Vance is leading the hunt for Abby, with Ellie and Dorney. The three of us are benched."
"But I am free to go, right?" Tony asked, but he knew it was not as simple as that. "I mean Abby's after Tim and Kelly, not me and Tali. She doesn't even know that the two of us are back in the country. We haven't seen her since the day before New Year's Eve."
"If Miss Sciuto knows that you and Tali are back in the country, she will use the two of you to lure Tim out of hiding." Fornell snapped at Tony. He couldn't believe his ears. The Tony DiNutzo he knew was a hell of lot smarter than the Tony DiNutzo that was standing before him. Where the hell had the former agent side of Tony, disappeared to? "I will not allow you to endanger Tim's life, or put your daughter in danger? Tim certainly won't want either of you in harm's way, especially Tali. Or did you conveniently forget how Edwardo Allouez treats girls?"
"Abby is colluding with Allouez now, Tony. She isn't the same person, we once knew. The woman we knew; she would never be ok, colluding with that sort of man. She would never be ok with the senseless killing of twenty-two people, Tony." Tim said, gently. He could see that his father's words had brought up some painful memories for his friend. He knew that what happened to those poor girls haunted his friend, afterwards. "Somehow, he and Abby survived the explosion at the lake. But the bottom line is that they set a bomb to go off and killed twenty-two mercenaries because we could not be found."
"I had a status update from Leon, two hours ago." Tobias announced and Gibbs glared at his friend. It would have been nice to have heard about it when Tobias had received it. "Your temp lab tech, Kasie Hines, she found blood on the trip wire of the device that exploded Gibbs. The touch DNA matched Miss Abigail Sciuto."
Gibbs let out a bunch of expletives and Tony took a step back He had never seen Gibbs that angry at Abby. Every time before this, Abby had done something this foolish and reckless, he had always blamed and punished Tim, or simply ignored Abby's actions. "Where's Sarah?" Gibbs finally asked, realising that Sarah, Megan and Emily were missing. He was fearing that with Tony and Tali safe, Abby might try to use his mom or one of his sisters, as bait to lure Tim out of hiding.
"She is safe. She has Megan and Emily with her." Tobias breathed a sigh of relief, as he made the announcement. It had not been an easy decision to send Sarah, Megan and Emily away. But he had to make sure the girls weren't scarred. Tim was an agent; he could handle it. But the girls were younger, they needed protecting. He had wanted to protect Sarah too. Her job was important, and he needed to make sure that Abby couldn't get to anyone of them. "Tim's adopted sister Sarah, she is still in Vancouver, and I have put a retired FBI agent, who is a friend of mine, on her as a precaution. I don't think Abby and Allouez will go after her. Abby knows that we will have flagged their names with border control by now."
"You didn't tell Sarah McGee, or that idiot boyfriend of hers that they had a protection detail, did you, Tobias?" Gibbs laughed at his friend. He had seen Tim put security details on Sarah in the past and it had never ended well. It was always best if this was done without her knowledge. Tim always joked that she was so oblivious to her surroundings she never noticed them, and he didn't know why he had bothered to be honest with the young woman, when they were there for her protection.
"I'm not stupid." Tobias replied to Gibbs. "Contrary to popular belief, you can teach this old dog, new tricks. Tim always says that Sarah is much more cooperative when she doesn't know what is going on around her. Plus, she is still angry at Tim, and I feel, at myself and Sarah, too. Me speaking with her, it was not going to happen."
Determined not to let walking into this mess, colour his first day of permanent residency, back in the US with Tali, Tony kept Tali occupied, with the assistance of Tim, Kelly and Gibbs. Tony had been surprised to hear the full extent of Abby's actions, including what she had done to Tim and Ellie while they were undercover and what she had done to Kelly, as well. He struggled to believe that Abby could be that selfish and endanger his former colleagues lives like that.
But the more he thought of it, the more it made a twisted sort of sense. Abby had always been happy for Tim to take the blame, if she screwed up and up until two years ago, Abby had been unable to do anything wrong in Gibbs' eyes. But Tim and Gibbs had become closer, and they had started out leaning on one another and a friendship outside of work. All of a sudden, Gibbs was backing and siding with Tim more. Tony thought it sounded like a classic first child syndrome. Where Abby had become jealous because the parental figure, namely Gibbs, had become more interested and had begun to spend more time with the younger child, namely Tim.
"I have an idea, and it's not out there, but a little crazy, given the situation." Tony whispered to Gibbs and Tobias in the kitchen, later that afternoon. "Tim's not going to like it, though. Tim and Kelly should take Tali with them. Go to Norfolk, Penny's beach house. With the three of them out of the way, we team up with the Director, Ellie and Dorney, we track and trace her. Grab Abby and have her lure Allouez out in to the open and ... we ... capture the mongrel."
"No." Gibbs declared, vehemently. "I don't want you and Tali in the firing line of Allouez, any more than I want Tim and Kelly. Your plan is half good, Tony. You and Tali, both go with Tim and Kelly to Norfolk. Tim is on good terms with the Norfolk PD and there is the NCIS satellite office there. Tobias and I will deal with Allouez and Abby. Remember, you're not an agent anymore, Tony. Your priority is to Tali."
"I hate it when you're right." Tony muttered and Tobias was happy that his friend had managed to talk some sense into the former hothead agent. Because if Gibbs had failed to talk some sense into Tony, he would have to, and Tobias honestly didn't know where to begin. He could see that Tony wanted Allouez, but he didn't want the man captured. He wanted the man dead, preferably with a shot fired from Tony. Not when Tobias wanted that shot for himself. But if anyone deserved that shot, it was his friend Gibbs. Not only was his daughter in danger, but they were also going after his agent and had blown up his holiday home.
"I don't feel comfortable sending them as far away, as Norfolk though." Tobias added. His gut had been churning. Something was off about sending the four of them, alone to Norfolk, even if they sent the FBI shadows with them, as well as the local LEO's and NCIS satellite office. "Stay here. I know it sucks and probably isn't as fun as the house by the beach. But we can send Devereaux out for some toys and activities for Tali. Both Tim and Kelly have medical check-ups and appointments here. Now either they can stay in the FBI safe house here, or Tim's apartment is like Fort Knox, especially with the new front door. Nothing or no one is getting into that place without a written invitation. We put two agents down on the security desk with the guards and two agents in the apartment, as well. Plus, we have would have eyes on the service elevator too."
"We should collect the dog from my place." Gibbs added, like Tobias' idea better. He too was feeling apprehensive about sending the four of them, so far away. "She is really sensitive to people she doesn't know, and she loves Tali. Tim's been doing a lot of work with her. If he gave her an order to protect Tali, she will. She's a good guard dog."
"I'll run it by Leon at the next status update." Tobias grinned. He felt better knowing that Kelly, Tim, Tony and Tali would be safe, holed up in Tim's apartment. Plus, he knew that Tim kept a service weapon and a back-up weapon, locked in a safe in his apartment and everyone knew that Tim and Tony could shoot if Abby and Allouez happened to get past their eyes.
Leon Vance let out a sigh, it was ten minutes until his next scheduled update with the FBI and Tobias Fornell was beginning to become a thorn in his side. Much like Gibbs was on his bad days. If it wasn't Tobias, it was Gibbs. As a father, he understood that their children were in danger, but as a director, those two agents were making his job more difficult. He was dreading the next update more, because he would have to update the Secretary of the Navy, as well, from her secure location. She was Tim's mother and that was equally terrifying. It didn't help anyone that they had no credible leads as to either Abby's or Allouez's whereabouts.
Special Agent Elanor Bishop had reported that her and Agent Dorneget had come up empty handed. Ellie hated it when she had a case and she had nothing. She could really use Gibbs and Tim's help on this, as a team, they were stronger together. But Vance's orders had been clear. Gibbs would only be allowed to be read in on the case, at his say so and Tim was to know nothing of the case at all.
Ellie had sighed, she supposed that the edicts had made sense. So, she had to respect them. That didn't mean she liked them. Dorney was following her lead and it seemed that he too, thought that Gibbs and Tim would have been a big help on the case, but unlike Ellie, he didn't understand why Tim and Gibbs couldn't be read in.
"I have an idea, Director." Dorney told the man in charge, sitting at the conference table in the centre of the Director's office. "It's out there and please, don't shut me down until I am finished."
"What is it?" Leon Vance asked. He was desperate, he didn't think he could stand to face Fornell and Gibbs at another status update and tell the men that they had nothing on a couple of people who were trying to kill their children.
"Tim." Dorney stated, as he begun explaining his plan. "Tim is the smartest man that I know, I think we can all agree on that point." Dorney stood up and walked over to the plasma. He had never theorized an idea before to solve a case and he felt like now was a monumental moment in his career as an NCIS field agent. "Tim is the best hacker we have. He can run circles around our CCU and almost every other white hat hacker in the civilized world. Abby doesn't have a stick of Tim's talents. But we have an advantage. We all know Abby and we know her well. Her favourite band is The Killing Machine. They are hosting a private concert tomorrow night at the ENYO. I have an in with the leader of the band, Myer. I won't say how, let's just say he owes me a big favour. What if we had him put a call to arms out on their social media platforms, awarding one ticket holder and a guest, the chance to hang backstage during the concert and a personal meet and greet with the band, after the performance. Abby never misses a chance to try and meet them. When Abby responds and we know she will, she will have to use an electronic device and we can have Tim ready to ping her location. But here's the kicker. I'll tee it up with my friend to have Abby win. She has never met them, and they have been elusive to her for a reason. My friend knows of her reputation and how she treats people. But I know she will do anything to meet them."
"How can you be sure that she will go for it and bring Allouez along? Especially since she knows that we are looking for her." Ellie asked and waited a moment. "Abby isn't dumb and she had been working criminal cases with us for years. She knows just about every trick in the book. She knows them because she used to help us pull stunts like this off, all the time."
"She does and she is incredibly smart." Dorney agreed and smiled at them. "But ... Something I have never shared with anyone before is that I run in the same social circles as Abby does. Did you know that? We like the same music and hang at the same clubs, have a lot of mutual friends. Her friends are my friends. But compared to me, she is new on the goth scene. She joined the scene ten years ago. I grew up on the scene. My grandparents were music promoters, the best in the business. My side hustle is managing bands and booking gigs for all those bands Abby loves. Abby is obsessed with Myer. Like borderline crazy, psycho-stalker, obsessed. She will do anything to make it happen. That is why, I never told her that I know Myer or that he owes me a thousand favours. Because she will have done anything to meet him."
"It is a good plan, in theory and we don't have anything else going for us at the moment. But what makes you so sure that Allouez will be with her?" Vance asked. He was surprised that the probie agent had such contacts, especially since the man didn't give off the slightest inkling that he was anyway involved with that world in his day-to-day interactions.
"Abby has to have something over Allouez as well, or he would have never trusted her, to team up with him, in the beginning." Ellie added, theorizing her theory about how the two of them managed to get together and strike in the first place. "Tim said, they met in the course of the investigation. So, he knew, she worked for NCIS. He would be suspicious of her and her motives. Even though, she has now been terminated from her position here. If anything, he is going go with her to the concert, just to make sure that she isn't selling him out to NCIS or the FBI. Or even the CIA. Ducky's psych evaluation of Allouez is not for the faint hearted. He is paranoid."
"Abby will have her tech protected with the best there is, especially because she is on the run." Dorney added and could see Ellie and Vance in agreement with him. "I am talking the strictest protocols, almost impenetrable. But Tim can hack the impossible, I have seen him do it. Director, we both know only a fraction of what the man is truly capable of. You think his computer here at the navy yard is a sight to behold, his home computer is in a class all of his own."
"Fair point, Director." Ellie agreed, beaming at Dorney. She was proud of the probie agent for voicing his idea and of his suggestion. He was right about Tim, too. His home computer was possibly one of the most secure computers on the eastern seaboard and Tim had skills that basic hackers and white hats like her and Dorney could only dream of. "Tim has to be the one to do it. He knows more than the three of us in this room combined when it comes to white hat hacking."
"I have something to add." Leon said hesitantly. "We can use his paranoia to our advantage. First, we will need a bot attack on the site, ensuring it doesn't get overrun with other desperate fans, just like her. We will need her handle and possibly Allouez's as well. We want only them to believe that it is a real competition. We are talking PsyOps level stuff here. As much as Gibbs is going to hate me for this, we may need to bring PsyOps in on this.
Ellie groaned, the last thing she wanted to deal with was Dr Samantha Ryan. That woman made her skin crawl. She made Tim's skin crawl; she had made Tony's skin crawl too and she was like a lecherous octopus with Gibbs. "Gibbs will kill you, he hates that woman." Ellie reminded the Director. "Do you remember the last time she was in this building? Gibbs had to pull his gun on her, to get her to back off."
"Here's the real beauty of bringing PsyOps in, Dr. Ryan doesn't work PsyOps anymore. Dr. Melissa Tait is in charge now, and she is a much more agreeable woman." Leon announced, almost in glee, just to watch the relief flood over Ellie's face. Yes, when they had worked with Dr. Ryan in the past, he had to practically bolt the door from the inside. That woman would come on to anything that moved, over the age of forty. She had no morals or scruples, unless it came to the protection of her son.
Leon had worked with the now, Dr. Melissa Tait on various top-secret ops in Europe in the late 90's and early 2000's. Back when she had been an analyst for NCIS. Before she left NCIS and joined the Department of Homeland Security. She was a sturdy, happily married woman. A woman with a no-nonsense demeanour and he had knowledge that she had worked with Gibbs on similar operations too in the mid 90's. Gibbs had personally written her a letter of reference, when she had chosen to join Homeland. So, Leon knew that Gibbs would approve of bringing her in.
"I'll brief Gibbs and Fornell, before I brief SecNav." Leon announced to the two of them. "Bishop, you and Dorneget speak their tech language. Go and brief the CCU SSAIC, tell him I want all three shifts of people on this and to bring in his counterpart at the FBI. I will smooth it over with their director. But Tim will do his hacking from his home. It is too risky to bring him into the yard. That point is non-negotiable."
Gibbs sat with Tobias in the comms room of the FBI safe house. It wasn't that Gibbs didn't trust the FBI, but he wasn't ready to trust them, by themselves just yet. Not when his people needed him. Kelly, Tim, Tony and Tali. They were his people. His family. Although, the FBI had redeemed themselves, recently. They had stuffed up too many ops in the prior years gone by, to be fully trusted yet.
"What do you think Leon's next move will be?" Tobias asked Gibbs, as they sat by the screen, eagerly awaiting the next scheduled update. He had hoped that Leon Vance would have had a game plan by now. He had worked enough ops to know that NCIS always had a plan, and they had executed some crazy plans over the years.
"I bet it involves Tim and something on the computer." Gibbs grinned at his friend. His friend's son was a good man, naturally talented and skilled with computers and science. A handy man to have on the team. Gibbs made a mental note to tell Tim, more often, just how proud and impressed that he was with those awful machines. Seeing the screen pinging them, Tobias ran the embedded safety scan to ensure the authenticity of the call, before answering it. "I guess we're about to find out." Gibbs sighed, looking at his friend.
After quick greetings were exchanged, Leon went into the elaborate plan and what it entailed. Before Tobias and Gibbs could make heads or tails of what was being said, Tobias' director was conferenced into the call. He was praising the ingenuity of the plan, saying that the FBI wishes that they had someone like McGee's caliber of expertise on their team.
Tobias couldn't help but feel like his skin was crawling when his boss referred to his son as a McGee. He wanted the correct the man, he longed to correct the man. But Tim wasn't telling anyone until the legal name change came through and he and Sarah Porter could tell the world that they were back together.
"Wow!" Gibbs exclaimed, impressed that they had managed to connive such a plan and so quickly. The last status update they had nothing, and no plan at all. "Was this Bishop's plan? It could work."
"Dorneget's actually." Leon grinned at the MCRT team leader, as he whistled in his reply. "Yes, I know. I was impressed too. Looks like Tim's training and influence has been rubbing off on him."
"I do have one problem, Leon." Tobias spoke up. It seemed that Gibbs had once again forgotten this little detail. "We; Sarah, Gibbs, yourself and I, took a very long time to convince Tim to stand down from this investigation. We managed to finally get it through his thick, stubborn head about who he is and isn't responsible for. Now you want us to convince him to help you bring Abby in?"
"He will not be going anywhere near her, Allouez, here, or the Hoover Building. That edict still remains." Leon reminded the father of the agent in question. He was glad to see that Tobias' parental lion was wide awake. "But I think we can all reluctantly admit that Tim had cyber skills that an extremely select few people in the whole world can rival, Tobias. In any room, at any given time, he has more talent in his pinky finger, than all of us combined do when it comes to what he does. We are just lucky he is on our side and not a bad guy."
"That's for sure." The FBI director muttered in relief and Tobias had to resist grinning hard. He had never felt prouder of Tim before, than what he did in this very moment.
"I guess, we are in, then." Gibbs said, looking at his friend for confirmation. "We will move the protection detail to Tim's apartment and get set up on this end."
"When Tim has everything in place, I want him to brief both, the FBI and NCIS CCU as well as the other cyber agents we have working on this case. When it comes to this case, we can't afford to stuff it up. Abby and Allouez need to be caught. It is now our number one priority."