Disclaimer: no legal rights to NCIS, no money being made.

Beta: Mike91848. So all mistakes are mine.

DETERMINED TO HOLD

Chapter Six, Taken at face value

Tony made the trip to the elevator and down to the lab on autopilot. The outdated cellphone was burning a hole in his pocket and an itch in his mind as anxious as he was to get it analyzed and the users names sorted out.

Because whoever had made that call to his obsolete cell was someone he knew in the past or was somehow related to something he had done in the past. So what did he have? A woman, assuming it was a woman and not a man disguised as a woman with a foreign accent, makes a phone call. To him! That is if he was to take anything at face value that came out of Senior's mouth or anything he had to say without a grain of salt.

The dire call warning about a nefarious plot to cause large-scale murder and mayhem and nothing else that was helpful was not a whole lot to go on especially since Senior had sat on the information for who knew how long.

And why had he sat on the information for so long? Because he knew when the money would become available and showed up just in time to claim it with the cell phone message as an incentive for quick resolution on NCIS' part? Tony wouldn't put it past the man, his wants would always come first before anyone else's needs or safety, including the Nations security.

Another question had Tony pondering. Who at NCIS was Senior paying to be his stool pigeon and why? An inside informer to spy on him? It wasn't that farfetched, Senior had done it before, but why? And why was he feeling he was missing something?

Tony reached the lab engrossed in his thoughts and so preoccupied that when he slipped through the door he bumped into someone who looked a lot like McGee.

And sounded like him, too. "Tony. What's going on?"

"What're you doing down here, McGee. I gave you a direct order to..."

"Programs are running now," Tim explained. "I'll be notified by my phone if there's a hit." Tim held up his phone and managed not to take offense at DiNozzo's harsh tone.

"Oh, sorry," Tony sighed frustrated. "Got a lot going on right now."

"That's why I came down here. Tell me what's going on, maybe I can help? Say no and I'll be on the next flight to the bullpen."

Tony's erstwhile enemy, now partner Tim, stood trying to hide his nervousness but though there was no stutter, biting ones' lips was always a suspicious indicator. The senior agent realized this was a big step for Tim, taking the initiative rather than wait to be told what to do and ready to suffer the consequences, especially in the kinds of moods Gibbs could descend to.

Not only that but he himself could work to undermine Tim's relatively new confidence by scoffing at his attempts to help and sending him back to sit at his desk with the figurative tutors angry ruler marks across his knuckles. Tony wasn't going to turn down McGenius's offer, his pride wasn't that fragile so he didn't need to glare and growl like someone else they worked with. Besides, Tim was a great multi-tasker. He was fast and it was urgent and vital that the old battered cellphone got relieved of its secrets right away.

Tony slapped Tim on the back in camaraderie but didn't say anything, sure that Tim understood the gesture. They entered the lab and were greeted with eardrum blasting noise.

Abby was looking through a microscope at her work desk when Tony tapped her on the shoulder. She jumped but then relaxed when she saw who it was. They yelled back and forth at each other over the blast of what could barely be described as music until the sudden silence was a blessed event. Tim looked satisfied as he walked away from her boom box while the plug, pulled from its socket, lay idling uselessly on the floor.

Abby turned to glare at Tim. She would have turned off her latest CD, 'Warmed over Death', eventually, it was just more fun making the guys jump through hoops before she gave up the forensics.

"Hey, McGee! What have I told you about..."

"Abby." Tony interrupted the lab tech's beginning verbal pout by pulling the phone from his pocket and handing it over to her.

"I need you to take this old phone of mine apart and find out everything you can about who's been calling it. Senior stole it from me years ago but he's been paying the phone bill so it's still active.

'Why would Senior be..."

"Long story, Abby, tell you later, but someone's been calling me on this phone making threats about national security and the like. We know nothing about the caller. That's your job and McGee here is here to help. See what you can do." Tony was backing towards the door but before he turned around he gave her a warning that he knew would keep her on track.

"Don't know how far back you can go but...ah...some of the phone calls might be x-rated and pretty racy or...possibly just mildly titillating and not too graphic, well anyway, you know what I mean. Ignore those phone calls guys and stay on track, this is important. Call me if you find anything. You too Tim on that Carlson matter."

Tim and Abby watched him hurry away than shared a knowing glance.

"Did you get the impression that Senior was using this phone for...?"

"Oooh, phone sex, yeah I got it, McGee. Talk about dirty old men, ugh!"

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Okay, one nosy busybody lab rat down, Abby, and too many others to go. I should just write a biography so that anyone who cares can read my full life from conception to Agent and be done with it. Except, I'm pretty nosy myself so I can't blame Abby, Ziva and Tim when they snoop.

Tony reached the bank where the money he had deposited there to bait Senior was still in his account. Senior's spy teller had been fired and the bank President had offered profuse apologies and groveling and assured him that nothing like that would happen again, and please don't close out any of your lucrative accounts.

Tony had thought about it but ruled out the teller having made the calls to get back at him for reporting her crookedness and getting her fired. Granted, she and Senior were probably more than...acquaintances and she would have had access to Senior's phones among other things, but she had still been working when the phone calls had come in, no reason for her to be seeking revenge at that time.

Plus, he was just grasping at straws. No way was the flighty teller, easily influenced by greed, smart enough to have planned and able to carry out this still unknown major threat to the Country. No, what was left when everything else was eliminated was, someone from his Baltimore days had his old phone number and used it to try and contact him. Senior had interfered so he hadn't been notified in a timely matter and whoever had made the phone call had gotten impatient and called the FBI direct.

Tony waited for the cashier's check to be drawn up made out to Anthony DiNozzo, Senior; two million of the original four found hidden away at the mansion minus two hundred thousand for the IRS's share and Tony's due compensation for the stress-related ordeal of being robbed by Senior...his stress related ordeal of being robbed? And suddenly that elusive feeling came to fruition.

He had been robbed! Of a brand new phone, hadn't even started to carry it around yet. How could he have forgotten that! That's why he'd been so upset, the phone was just on the market, state of the art. He'd even stood in line in the rain to buy that phone. He had just gotten around to calling people giving them his new phone number but the only two people he'd managed to reach that night were his partner, Danny Price, and his childhood friend, Margaret 'Peggy Stratum' Ringold.

Tony got the check and since he hadn't eaten anything except a bagel this morning, stopped and picked up some sandwiches at the deli for the team for an early dinner. He started his drive back to work bewildered at this sudden past chain of events. Danny hadn't been the one who'd called or had someone call for him. He'd told Danny about the robbery and the cop had immediately deleted Tony's phone number from his own cell phone directory, never having a chance to memorize it.

That left Peggy. Margaret Ringold. It'd been years but if it was her, she'd obviously kept that number and thanks to Senior, the phone was active. He wasn't a cop in Baltimore anymore and she didn't know that he had become an NCIS agent or his whereabouts after leaving Baltimore so she or whoever her accomplice was couldn't reach him any other way. That had to be it.

Tony felt a headache coming on, stress and lack of nourishment the culprits for sure. There was going to be no other choice. He couldn't wait any longer for Peggy to make her move. The, 'I'll call you', note would not suffice any longer. They had to get to the bottom of this.

Plans formulated in his mind on how he could see Peggy without her husband's knowledge, because apparently she didn't want him to know, were eventually discarded. Throwing rocks at her bedroom window for her attention probably wouldn't work and climbing through the same window was out of the question as he wouldn't put it past Shane Ringold to shoot first and never ask questions. Tony was glad when his cell phone rang and interrupted his scrambled thoughts.

"DiNozzo, where are you?" came his Boss' disgruntled voice.

"On my way back, Boss. Got the cashier's check and..."

"Just get back here!" Gibbs abrupt phone hang up wasn't surprising but the annoyance in his voice was. What did the Boss think he had done now?

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"Agent DiNozzo, how's Gibbs treating you?"

Senior security guard Gary was at the front desk when Tony arrived at the Navy Yard a few minutes after speaking to Gibbs. Gary had a beef with Gibbs after he escorted a witness to Balboa's team and had inadvertently witnessed what he thought was an overreaction dressing down of Gibbs to two of his agents, DiNozzo and that McGee.

It was none of his business but he still didn't like it. Tony was a good kid, helpful when his Lil had the stroke by bringing over several meals even staying to share them with him so he wouldn't have to eat alone. All that yelling Gibbs had displayed was uncalled for.

"No complaints, Gary, back down boy," Tony joked.

"You just give me the word, DiNozzo..."

"Gary, no offense, man, but you do realize Gibbs would sweep the floor with you, right?" Gary was ready to retire to sunny Florida and the stout man was long overdue to skedaddle.

"He could try!" Said Gary puffing up.

"Yeah, I know, you don't know your own strength, Mr T. But look, there's a man coming in to pick up this envelope. Get a photo ID, thumbprint and dental records before you hand it over, it's got over a million and a half dollars in it."

"Over a million, huh?" Gary hefted the slim envelope skeptically.

"Yeah, don't worry, its a cashier's check, one million eight, more or less."

"Who's the guy, DiNozzo, and what's the name of his dentist?"

Gary played along so seriously and was willing to pretend the preposterous request was legitimate without raising an eyebrow, that Tony felt his shoulders ease and the stress he'd been under all morning dissipate. He and Gary laughed together, did a silly hive-five handshake and then got back to work.

"Okay, you can forget the dental records. Just photo ID and thumbprint and a signature and don't let this get out but his name is Anthony DiNozzo, Senior, dear old dad. Don't take any crap, Gary, and once he's got the envelope in his hot little hand, you have my permission to kick his ass out of here."

"Hmmn, like that, is it, kid? No problem, Tony. I'll take care of it." Gary watched Tony trot to the elevator. Yeah, he'd take care of the kid's old man if he gave him any trouble.

"Tony, Tony, Tony!" A phenomenon in black, energetic and pushy, greeted him in the elevator on the way up.

"Tony, you're not going to guess..."

No, Tony wasn't playing games or humoring her, so no guessing. He wasn't Gibbs with the Caf-Pow, either, especially since he didn't know what was going on upstairs. She hadn't called and neither had McGee to warn him so he didn't have a clue.

"Sorry, Abby, not in the mood for guessing games today. Either tell me outright or save it until we get up stairs."

"Okay, geez, Tony, you're in a shitty mood. There were no messages," she said sounding aggrieved, "that we could recover. The phone's pretty ancient, technology wise, not the same as it is now. I'm still searching. I just wanted to tell you that the messages I could recover were pretty...well disgusting. Your old man's been using it as a cesspool...I'm not saying I'm adverse to phone sex, Tony, but he takes it to the next level of degenerate, ugh, and..."

"It's okay, Abby, call off the search for now."

"But, but, Tony..." Abby sputtered as she stood in front of him.

Tony patted her arm than stepped around her when the door opened and left her behind, mouth open, on the elevator. He headed to the bullpen, his desk, and the latest potential yelling screaming match he expected to have with Gibbs, cause unknown.

And surprise. Agents Fornell and Sacks stood by the stairs, Director Vance on the stairs. Ziva was at her desk drinking something frothy in a ceramic cup so he couldn't see her expression. McGee looked panicky and tried to catch his eye with a subliminal message that he didn't catch and Gibbs sat quietly smirky.

"Agent Fornell, what a surprise...Sacks, you too. Good to see you." Tony deadpanned.

"Wonderful to see you, too, DiNozzo." Fornell's genial greeting was in stark contrast to Sacks pissed off look.

"What's going on, Boss?" Tony put the sack of sandwiches on his desk then turned around to face the music.

"It seems we have a conflict of interest with the FBI, DiNozzo." Vance answered the question for Gibbs.

"Don't look so smug, Jethro." Fornell warned Gibbs, evidently having taken notice of the NCIS agent's subtle gloating.

"Your boy McGee here is slated for a cell at Gitmo. You won't think it's so funny and neither will he, I guarantee it, after spending thirty years using a pickaxe to break up hard rock in the sweat of his brow!"

Everyone could hear McGee gulp and choke on a suddenly dry mouth.

"Don't listen to him, McGee. You did nothing wrong," spoke up Vance dryly.

"Is anyone going to put me out of my misery and tell me what McGee didn't do wrong."

"Yes, DiNozzo and without me here. Sort it out, Gibbs." Vance turned abruptly and went back up the stairs at a steady clip while Gibbs got up from his desk and approached Tony and the bag of sandwiches. He helped himself to the one on top, unwrapped it and started to eat.

"Help yourself, Gibbs." Tony muttered sarcastically under his breath knowing that sandwich was his and the only pastrami on rye in the bag.

"Sweat of his brow, Tobias?" said Gibbs after swallowing a mouth full of food.

"Sounded good."

"Excuse me for taking this seriously," said a very annoyed Sacks, "but you guys just interfered in an ongoing surveillance and investigation by the FBI. Hacking into the FBI's data base is a Federal offense and..."

"They found out more information than we had in six-months, Sacks. Just let it go and you and I both know it wasn't hacking, not this time, anyway." Fornell sounded almost plaintive, beaten out by the other agency once again.

"It seems when we started searching for info on the name Carlson...in NCIS's database, by the way," McGee gave Sacks a look of haughty disdain, "the search triggered flags in our shared database accessible to both agencies and the CIA, CGIS, NSA..."

"Okay, McGee, we get the point. There was no hacking. Just a slip of the tongue, right Sacks?" Sacks just grunted his reply. "Any place we can talk private,Gibbs?"

The group settled in a secure room. The Senior FBI agent grabbed an empty chair and filled Tony in. "I understand Senior gave you the name of 'Carlson' that the anonymous woman caller gave him. We know something is going on in that prison related to arms dealing and the selling of plutonium.

"The guy we're concerned with is named Madison, he's not getting out of prison 'til he's dead but he's got a following, inside and out, including a couple of brothers and a sister. Father and mother are deceased, killed in a raid by FBI agents. They just wouldn't give up and fought to the bitter end. The mother was found dead laying on top of her young children after she took the bullets to save them. The children were unhurt, they grew up hating and that family never forgot or forgave.

"We, meaning the FBI..."

Fornell looked extremely uncomfortable now at what he was about to tell them. It went against every grain in his body to reveal this because the fewer people that knew about it the better. But NCIS and Gibbs and his team wouldn't stop pursuing the case unless they were read in.

"What's got those in the know extremely anxious, Gibbs, is that we have a man deep undercover in that prison. Been there for eight months and he slips out what little information he can get. It's slow work and his life is in extreme danger. You know that the more people who know the less chance he has for survival. They find out he's a snitch his life wouldn't be worth shit."

"We know this Agent personally," volunteered Sacks. "It's not a joke. If you do anything to compromise his position..." He left the rest unsaid, just scrubbed his hand over his face and turned away.

"Ron," Fornell gently chastised. "You know these people. In spite of your ongoing antipathy with DiNozzo, they're professionals, like us. They need to know what's going on so they don't put our man's life in danger or compromise the sting."

"You knew we were working a case involving a prison and some mysterious woman and you didn't think you're opt was something we should know, Fornell?" Gibbs figured someone had dropped the ball and it wasn't NCIS.

"No way to connect the two, until now, Gibbs. The woman who called the FBI didn't give up a name." The FBI wasn't taking the blame, either.

Everyone remained silent after that, acknowledging the seriousness of the situation.

"Boss, I can back out of the searching mode, make it look like we were looking for a Carson, ' N', not Carlson, and we already found our man, in case anyone is keeping track." Volunteered McGee.

"Fornell?" Gibbs looked at his friend. "Will that help?"

"Yeah, that'll help. We've got to figure out where to go from here. We'll leave our man in place as long as we can but..."

"I've got something." Said Tony, all reluctance to share personal information gone.

All eyes turned expectedly toward him. "Senior stole my phone, nothing new there. I was going to use it as my personal phone. Baltimore police provided their own phones.

The phone was brand new and I had just gotten it when he stole it. Guess he liked all the pretty colors and doodads."

"What about it, DiNozzo?" Gibbs queried.

"You don't get it, the thing was new, brand new. I'd just stood in line at midnight in the rain for that phone and hadn't had a chance to give the number out to anyone except two people, my partner Danny Price and Peggy Stratum.

"Peggy Stratum as in Margaret Stratum Ringold, the best friend?" Ziva sounded not surprised, more, 'what did you expect'?

"Yeah, that Peggy," Tony replied choosing to ignore her tone.

"It's got to be her. I was with Danny when he deleted that number from his phone. It wasn't him."

That put the FBI Director's niece's best friend at the top of their list of persons of interest.

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