A Castle of Cards - sxerexs (2024)

Chapter 1: Chapter 1

Chapter Text

This was bad, no correction it was beyond bad it was Baltimore all over again but worse cause this time it wasn't just a dirty partner he had to worry about it was everyone. He didn't know who if anyone he could trust to watch his six. Operation Frankenstein just the name had him freaked, how the hell did a eight year old cold case turn into a National Security disaster with ties going as far up as the Vice President?

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Last Week - Monday Morning
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"You're on cold cases till I decide that you belong here Dinozzo," Gibbs smirked as he tossed a pile of folders on his SIC's desk. Tony looked up to see Mcgee and Ziva grinning at him.

"So, I tell you that they broke protocol by turning off the radio and they get rewarded," Tony said as he sat back in his chair. "I thought that your rule was to have your partners back."

"I talked to them they told me that they didn't do it, therefore you are the one trying to make trouble and if you think you can break up MY TEAM then your wrong, now get your ass in gear your working out of conference room 2 this week, and if you have a problem with that then the doors that way."

Grabbing the files off his desk, he turned to walk away clenching his teeth together so not to lash out when he heard Mcgee chuckle and comment "Guess that means I'm the new SFA huh Boss." Was he that stupid there was way he could get promoted even if Tony was off the team he wasn't remotely qualified and even Gibbs didn't have the power to make it happen.

"We don't need a SFA, you answer to me and me alone," Gibbs snarled back. "Tony can do the paperwork and you two will be in the field with me since that seems to be all he's good for."

How the hell had it become so toxic? What happened to This team is Family?

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Present Time
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"Compromised, they all have ties to this....I know it seems like....Yes sir I understand....Thank you I'll make my way over to your office to give an official statement and bring over the evidence as soon as I can get clear of here....I'm safe they have no clue ....Ya well, they seem to think I'm a clown who just lucks into solving the case....Okay I should be there after lunch if not send in the Calvary." Ending the call, Tony leaned up against the back wall of the elevator 'Gibbs private conference room' and snorted maybe just maybe things were looking up. He hoped he made the right call that Tom Morrow was one one of the good guys but right now he was all he had.

Walking from the elevator, towards his makeshift work space in the conference room Tony looked over at his teammates in the bullpen (yeah there was no way he would ever be able to work with any of them again) and inwardly cringed, it was going to take all of his acting abilities and undercover skills to make it through the day without losing it. Arriving at the conference room door the theme for Mission Impossible began playing in his head, all he had to do was get everything gathered together and get it out of the building without being caught by anyone oh yeah he could do he smiled to himself the Castle of Cards was coming down because the Wild Card trumped them all.

At the same time, Director Morrow of Home-Land/World Security was shaking his head 'Only you Tony, only you' he thought to himself how the hell had he turned a cold case that involved a suspicious shooting into a government cover-up that included brainwashed marines, False Identities, Dirty cops/feds the trust and N.I.D. and who knows what else. No scratch that, this was the mans specialty, thinking outside the box putting all the pieces together from a dozen puzzle boxes scrambled together and switched around with no instructions to guide him to make one giant picture out of them, but still a dead marine that was killed while on leave 8 years ago to the mess that now had to be cleaned up he surpassed even himself this time proving once and for all that he was the best there was. Reaching over to his phone he called the one number that he knew would need to be involved "O'Neill we need to talk."

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Last Week - Monday Morning
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"All righty now which of you lucky files gets my attention today lets see 'Einey Meiney Minee Moe' and we have a winner here folks lets see who our contestant is today. Petty Officer First Class Linden nice to meet you, now who wanted you dead?" Three hours later Tony was beginning to think that it wasn't just incompetence but gross negligence on part of the original investigators either that or an order from higher up to sweep the whole mess under the rug and declare it unsolvable cause there was no way they should have missed that the bullet that killed Linden had to have come from a sniper rifle, and if it wasn't lazy investigators that meant Oh sh*t what was he walking into.

It had taken the rest of the afternoon but he had six more cases with the same M.O. the main thing in common was the single shot from a high powered sniper rifle and sloppy investigations, a N.C.I.S. out of Hawaii, two F.B.I. files from five years ago, an NYPD case from two years ago, an open investigation in Florida, and a questionable case from Colorado three years ago. If this was what he could find in five hours then what else was there? And where did he begin?

"Intelligence officer. Stupidity officer is more like it. Pentagon wants to open a Stupidity Division, they know who they can get to lead it," the line delivered by Ole Blue Eyes himself popped into Tonys mind it was from a classic The Manchurian Candidate (1962) but how did that no no no a government led assassin team that was way to Hollywood but what if....what if? He hoped he was wrong, but somehow his gut was telling him he was on the right track now all he had to was figure out where the needle in the haystack was and follow the threads after.

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Present Time
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"Wait so your telling me that a Navy Cop has cracked open the biggest sh*tstorm of the century just because he was stuck on cold cases by his boss for reporting dereliction of duty and that his boss...Well Crap, I want him on my team." General Johnathon "Jack" O'Neill sat in Morrows office waiting for the aforementioned Agent to show up.

"You and a dozen other Alphabets, but the big question is going be does he want to stay an agent you and I both know that with this hes not going to trust anyone any more. I've known him since he came to N.C.I.S. from Baltimore and the only reason we got him was his partner was dirty he needed a change and thought he could trust us. I don't know exactly what he has just that the Trust and N.I.D. are all over it and hes scared for his life right now. The people he thought had his back are gone and hes not sure what to do next." Tom sat behind his desk going over what he had on the trust and rogue N.I.D. and knew that whatever Tony had was going to put his information to shame the man had connections upon connections that he could only dream of having."I'll tell you this though, I'm going to do my damnest to make sure he is taken care of, and if he wants he can write his own ticket when this is done. Out of everyone he is the only one that I trust to do the right thing...he took down the mob, turned in a dirty partner, ran interference for the most cantankerous bastard I've met, worked with a Mossad operative as his partner who holds him in contempt because he doesn't trust her like the rest of his team does, run multiple undercover ops, survived the plague and still believes the law has to be upheld above all else."

"Whoa back up, the PLAGUE your joking right?"

"Wish I was, Tony DiNozzo is either the luckiest or unluckiest man I've ever met, he might put himself down and act like a Frat Boy at times but he is one of the smartest men I know, and for those that he lets see through his mask are few and far between in fact I would be willing to bet that even then we don't get to see the real man."

A knock on his door interupted what he was going to say next, "Director, Agent DiNozzo is here."

"Send him in Amelia, could you see we not get interrupted for the next few hours?"

"Of course sir, is there anything else?"

"Send an urn of Coffee and sandwich platter up its going to be a long night."

Chapter 2: chapter 2

Chapter Text

Jack watched the younger man as he entered Morrows office, his eyes darting from side to side scanning as if assessing the room for potential threats, freezing up when they landed on him. "You know, I've backed up everything and if I don't walk out of here it all goes public." he drawled "As much as I trust Director Morrrow I don't know you."

"Tony this is General O'Neill of SG1, hes the man who wrote the reports about the Trust and N.I.D. that you found." Tom hurried to make the introductions before it went sideways, "By the way how did you get those reports?"

"I Smiled."

"I like him can we keep him," Jack grinned at the Director "I promise to keep him fed and watered and take him out for daily walks."

"I don't think the Mountain would survive the two of you, working together but we'll see what we can do." Turning to Tony he handed him a stack of papers, "I don't know how you found what you did but, if you're willing to sign these NDAs I can give you the full copies of those reports not just the redacted ones and I bet that all the loose ends you have will disappear."

An hour later after signing his life away and "Story-time" by General "call me Jack" O'Neill and Tonys mind was reeling, "Damn that explains a lot, it all makes sense now I knew I was missing a couple pieces but its all there now and oh crap this is worse then I thought how do we take them down, without alerting them cause you know when the little people begin to fall they're going to start circling the wagons"

"Don't worry about that, when it goes down no one is going to be able to alert anyone about what is happening if you can provide the details we need to take them out I have the resources' to do a clean sweep and take all the garbage out at once." Jacks eyes practically glazed over at the thought of Kinsey out of his life for good."So now you have all the pieces, I wanna hear how your cold case has become the catalyst for the biggest sh*tstorm of the century."

"Catalyst Jack?"

"Daniel got me a word a day Calendar for Christmas last year."

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Last Week Tuesday Morning
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Twenty-eight open cases across the globe all of them, had a single common denominator a high powered sniper rifle, was the cause of death , his feelers he put out had paid off Tony just hoped that something caught his eye and gave him a place to start. Thirty-five murders and not a single suspect, where to begin. He pinched the brow of his nose closing his eyes this was going to get ugly he could feel it.

"What do you think your doing DiNozzo, I told you cold cases not nappy time keep it up and I'll use you for target practice," Gibbs snarked at him as he stood in the doorway.

"Just gathering my thoughts Boss, think I might have a lead on one case," Tony looked up at Gibbs as a horrifying thought ran through him not just snipers but marine snipers and the best of the best was standing in front of him.

"Just one, thought you were a hot shot investigator there Junior, my TEAM has dead body over at the pier when WE get back I expect you to have results."

Just great now he had to run two investigations cause there was no way he was going to let anyone bury this, and Gibbs always said he knew where the bodies were maybe it was time to take it literally. There was no way he was going to walk away unscathed but if he went down then he was going to take as many with him as he could. Time to start making exit plans. He could do this and if he had to he could disappear so no one would find him he still had a few active aliases that no one knew about, and if this went as deep as thought then he was screwed if they found out what he was doing

A healthy bit of paranoia never hurt anyone after all, Trust No One. A Familiar phrase he heard jockeyed around the F.B.I. bullpen when he had the few chances to go there, thanks to the X Files becoming a cult phenomenon a few years back, great he had gone From spies to Aliens time to back up and get his head in the game.

"Have the work on your desk when you get back Boss," the once familiar phrase burned like acid on his tongue, everything in his gut told him that no matter what happened there was no going back to the quasi-friendship he had with the ex-marine. "Anything else you need?" He could do this he could play Gibbs loyal St Bernard for a few more days. The man might have been smart but was too co*cky he never thought that anyone would dare question him.

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Present Time
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"You mean you were running two investigations at the same time?" Jack questioned him, to run one of the caliber that he had but two that, that took something else.

"You've seen my file I'm an ex-cop during my time on the force there were times we ran half a dozen cases at the time, just a case of how you micro-manage your time and I actually had five going figured if I could keep the spotlight off of the first case then they wouldn't look at me to closely. Managed to close four of them just waiting to get some info back on the last one then its off the books as well, besides I always work better under a little pressure, and the other cases distracted me enough so I wasn't forcing myself to fill all the slots. Ya know walk away and the solution will come to you it might take a bit but worth it in the end gives you a fresh perspective each time you look at it."

"Told ya he was the best I worked with," Tom chuckled "But really Tony have you actually slept in the last week, cause you are looking like you are about to drop."

"I'll sleep when its over and I don't have to worry about waking up dead, seriously until everyone involved is taken down I won't be able to relax. Now where were we Oh yeah"

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Last Week Tuesday Afternoon
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The five other cold cases Gibbs tossed at him were nothing spectacular to write home about, he had two of them figured out within a few hours of opening them up, really all it took was reading between the lines and knowing that the former rules of Don't Ask Don't Tell was prominent in the first one a never married female officer, never known to date or even socialize was found stabbed in the one bedroom apartment she shared with her female roommate. A little digging turned up 2 reports against a fellow officer accused harassing her and threatening her with exposure, unfortunately the death of Major Hill stopped anyone from following through on the charges seems no one wanted to go against the Captain on sexual harassment charges when the accuser was dead.

The other case wasn't even that hard, a hit and run on the base involving a Generals private car. Receiving the requested surveillance tapes from the base took the longest time turns out that the old saying that the left hand didn't know what the right hand was doing proved to be true, the organization of the security office turned out to be a joke with stacks of tapes not labelled right if the were even labelled at all. It was however the needle that turned up when he was watching the tapes to find the accident, that started the ball rolling on what he had dubbed Operation haystack. Two of the victims were seen on the base within weeks before they were killed and while that wouldn't have pinged on anyone elses radar the fact they were both civilians with seemingly unrelated ties to each other, set Tonys Spidey sense off. It was a start and he could toss Gibbs a bone by giving him first case to gnaw on and then the second when he finished it off. The only question he had now was what to do next? Follow the victim trail or start on the sniper theory? It didn't matter he had a feeling that one would lead to the other but which would pay off first? To hell with it he could do both it would take a bit of juggling but in the long run he realized it was the only way to do it.

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Present Time
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"Lets get this right a completely different case unrelated to all this was your starting point?, Can I take you to Vegas next time I go cause forget the horseshoe you have the whole Damn horse." Jack turned to Morrow, "Seriously I'm putting in the adoption papers, we can share custody, he's to good to be wasted in that Agency."

With that Tony smiled, it looked like he had made the right call, it felt good to know that someone had his back and he wasn't alone anymore.

Chapter 3: chapter 3

Chapter Text

Realizing that there was someone willing to watch his back, someone he had just met who had faith in him Tony sank back into his chair thinking back to his former team he knew that everything was going to work out and things were never be the same again, Jack knew the true meaning of Semper Fi Leave No Man Behind unlike Gibbs who only seemed to use it when it was convenient for him, come to think of it a lot of Gibbs rules only seemed to apply when he wanted them to. Reaching over to grab a coffee he noticed that from somewhere Tom produced a bottle of Hazelnut creamer.

"I remembered what you like with your coffee from when I was Director over at the Great Pumpkin," he commented at the inquiring look shot at him causing Jack to snort his coffee.

"The Great Pumpkin you have to explain that one Charlie Brown," when he had recovered from his coughing fit.

"It's orange not just orange but ORANGE, like the Great Pumpkin spewed all over," Tony interjected " Someone once told me that the color was supposed to encourage communication and inspire activity but it just looks like the contractors used the cheapest paint they could find."

"Hence the Nom De Plume Great Pumpkin, BAU is painted a light blue so we call them the Sky Room and The main offices at the F.B.I. are a washed out Grey so most of us refer to it as The Dungeon once you go in its hard to get out.

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Last Week Tuesday Evening
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It had been close to midnight by the time he had managed to leave for the night but not before Gibbs had come and gone sometime around seven coming into "check" on him before he left telling him that he expected at least one of his cases to be on his desk when he got back the next morning or not to bother coming in.

"Yes Boss," the automatic reply coming from him as he was thinking of which one he give to him to follow up on. The stabbing would take the longest as Captain Skeezy as he christianed him was no longer in the service and was now on the travelling preacher circuit delivering fire and brimstone sermons about Adam and Eve not Adam and Steve. Yeah he didn't want to be around that circus when it came out that he didn't practice what he preached, killing the Major because he didn't want to admit that he was gay and in turn blaming her for her lifestyle, Gibbs would be just about be crawling out of skin before that was over. The hit and run would give him something to preen over, just confront the General about his habit of Drinking and driving and the consequences of getting behind the wheel wasted. Ah he would be nice one last time give him a reward for for walking into a DADT situation that never should have come to the conclusion it did.

In the meantime he was working on the victim timeline the oldest open case dating back to 1992 finishing with the latest one out of Florida Three weeks ago. The only evidence in each being a single bullet lodged between the victims eyes. At the same time something was niggling at the back of his mind a long forgotten conversation that hinted at this, something he knew he should remember.

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Present Time
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"Is, that normal staying at the office that long?" Jack questioned.

"Depends on the case there were some days when all we could do was catch a couple hours nap in the break-room, before Gibbs decided we could go home. I don't think he really cared where he slept most times Hell I remember going over to his place to drop off some paperwork and finding him passed out under the Boat hes building in his basem*nt.

"Is the man crazy?"

"Before last week I would have said no, he was driven but now I don't know."Tony answered honestly. "I just don't know."

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Last Week Wednesday Morning
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Arriving at the bullpen that morning, Tony was grateful he had beat the rest of them in of course it didn't help he couldn't sleep tossing over half the night as his mind fought to remember what it knew he needed to solve this. Turning around to see Gibbs exit the elevator his relief was short lived "What are you doing Dinozzo, thought I told you I only wanted to see you when you had the information needed to close your cases."

"Just dropping off the hard copy for you everything else was sent to your E-Mail."

"Good, good thought I would have to send you back as Agent Afloat to make sure you knew who the BOSS was, keep this up and I might let you come back to the field."

Agent Afloat... that was it Captain Richard Owens a late night cryptic conversation with him on one of his first nights aboard the Navy ship, came flooding back to him. Son of a Bitch he was trying to warn me. "If thats all I have to go, I'm waiting for a call regarding another case," Tony turned to leave knowing that he had already been dismissed, as the once meaningless conversation began replaying in his mind taking it to an entirely new level

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Present Time
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"I should have known, I should have caught it then if I did then we wouldn't had to deal with now it would have been finished and.."

"Your not to blame for this Tony, you weren't in a good place then. Christ Shepard had you pulling illegal undercover ops basically forcing them on you at the same time you had to deal with Gibbs defection and insubordination from your team members then when your finally hitting your stride The Great Jethro returns and it goes to hell in a hand-basket. To top it off Jenny basically committed suicide on your watch and no one wanted to admit that she wasn't thinking straight 'She was dying and chose to go out in a blaze of glory rather then suffer and put those around her through the pain of watching her become a shadow of what she was' her thought process was already scrambled and you were caught in the fall out."

"Thank you, but how"

"You still have a few loyal friends at NCIS young Palmer cornered me at my country club, and blasted me with both barrels basically telling me to take care of it before you walked. He opened my eyes to what was going on and I was going to step in but Vance took control sent you out as Agent Afloat saying that it wasn't a punishment but rather a reward, for a job well done. If I had known what was going on back then this could been prevented but who knows maybe all the players weren't in position yet and we weren't meant to clean shop yet. We have a chance to fix more now then we would've back then so lets go with it."

"Jimmy... my Little Autopsy Gremlin yeah hes a good guy, never thought he would become one of my closest friends."

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Last Week Wednesday Morning
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TONYS FLASHBACK

Agent Afloat more like Agent in Hell-- thats what this was the only civilian on a floating tin can in the middle of nowhere. Reward...Pfftt he knew what this was and it wasn't a reward not for him. This was all Vances doing the snotty little toothpick he was Mole hunting and doing this to prove that he was smarter then any of them in the MCRT. That he actually thought one of Gibbs handpicked team was dirty well maybe Ziva he still couldn't wrap his head around how a Mossad operative could be allowed access to sensitive government information hmm he'd have to check into that when he got back considering it was Jenny who put her on the team might be another of her little ops. No get your head back in the game no time to play what if. His musing was interrupted by a knock on his office door if you consider the broom closet he was currently in an office, "Enter."

Captain Richard Owens stood at the doorway looking at his newest Agent Afloat and wondered how this was going to work out."Walk with me,"not giving Tony a chance to reply he turned and began to head towards the Bridge as the young man scrambled behind him. "So how are you liking it here?"

"Truthfully, not much never been one for boats just never saw the appeal, and quite frankly its a waste of my talent no offence Sir but there are better things for me to do then break up poker games and lurk in shadows looking for contraband booze." Tony bit out, letting his frustration out. "They're calling it a reward but somehow I just cant see it."

"Some rewards, aren't recognized until years later well others are placed right front and center, and some rewards don't go directly to the one who deserves them, but the one who needs it. So if the higher ups are calling it a reward then it is one and you just have to figure out whose it is and maybe if its a shared one." Owen looked back at the sullen agent. "This could be Vances reward of free time to play in his new sandbox, your team-leads chance to fix mistakes, could be mine in getting a competent agent here, or it could be yours giving you time to decompress without having to worry about those around you. Its up to you to figure out which one it is."

"Never thought of it that way, it is something to think about, so what do you suggest I do on my down time cause you run a tight ship from what I see and I feel kind of redundant."

"Your continuing your education, take the time to work on your dissertation, look up old papers written by fellow agents, some of those are very enlightening. Board games are fun if you find someone to play them with operation is one of my daughters favorites maneuvering the little pieces through the wires. Books and movies are a good way to pass the time Mary Shelly has always been on of my first picks amazing the different ways they interpret the original novel. Bond movies makes you wonder how much is based on the truth sometimes. Robert Ludlums Bourne series is a good choice again makes you wonder if he took real life and blended it into his 'fiction' given the details he goes into. Ahh here we are have you ever seen such a beautiful sight." He asked as they reached the bridge, waving his arm at the sight of the sun rising up in front of them a glowing fireball coming out of the water on the Horizon, and with that the conversation was over as the two men watched the sun rise higher up into sky bringing a new day forward.

The end of his tour as Agent Afloat Tony looked up to see the Captain standing at the entrance to his quarters, "Can I help you Sir?"

"No, just came to say goodbye and tell you that if you ever want you are welcome on board with me anytime, you did a good job don't let any tell you otherwise. I look forward to seeing what you can do in the future and remember not everything or everyone is how it seems, the big picture is something only you can see it when the time is right, " and with that he walked away.

END FLASHBACK

Picking up his phone he called a number not normally on his contact list "Delores, its Tony Dinozzo...I need a favor"

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Present Time
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"Delores, as in Delores Bromsted in H.R." Tom looked gobsmacked "That woman, brings fear into the hearts of mortal men, I watched her bring an Admiral to tears with a tongue lashing regarding improper procedures, and you asked her for a favor."

"Yeah well, she kind of likes me, I respect her and knew that if anyone had what I was looking for it would be her, and honestly she is underestimated by what she does. That woman could run the entire agency with one hand tied behind her back if she wanted."

"That she could."

Chapter 4: chapter 4

Chapter Text

A knock on his office door had Tom looking up as his personal Assistant popped her head in, "Hey, Sir I'm going down to the canteen and wondered if there was anything you needed when I was down there?"

"Another urn of coffee, would be welcome."

"Okay, I'll have it sent up," Amelia said closing the door behind her.

"So you, got the Dragon of NCIS to give you a favor."

"Yup."

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Last Week Wednesday Morning
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Hanging up the phone, Tony smiled the puzzles pieces were beginning to come together, but he just had to wonder how Owens fit into all of this. A career Navy man who took a lost Agent Afloat under his wing was "Kinda Hinky" to borrow one of the resident goths catch phrases. Thinking of Abby he had to wonder, how the audio copies of his recordings and the ones that captured what was going on inside of the car had been overlooked or if she...No not the time he had work to do and that did not involve his own private conspiracy theory that his days were numbered at NCIS.

Making his way through the bullpen on his way down to H.R. he encountered Gibbs yet again, at the elevator great he hadn't left yet how was he going to explain this. "Where you going DiNozzo? Thought you were supposed to be working in Conference 2 not gallivanting all over."

"Actually, I'm on my way down to H.R. Delores called and wanted me to clear up some paperwork from last month that was missed unless you want to tell her I can't go Boss." Coming up with the one thing he knew would get Gibbs off his back a potentially mad Ms. Bromstead. He was pretty sure one of the unwritten rules went something like 'When Bromstead says jump you only ask how high.'

"NO...no thats fine, can't keep her waiting get a move on," Gibbs hissed out walking away.

That went easier then he thought, he should have tried that years ago the big bad ex-marine scared of a woman who when looking at her seemed harmless, no never harmless if anyone knew where the bodies were buried it was Delores. Gibbs for all of his blustering was second rate compared to her.

"I've been waiting for this...Wondered how long it was going to take you to look at Lindens file, I kept sending it up when cold cases were requested but for some reason it was always returned unopened till now." Delores let the words hang there.

"You, your behind all this?"

"No, not all of it, but I made a promise to my uncle and I intend to keep it."

"So, whats the promise and whose your uncle?"

"I promised to never look the other way and remember the big picture takes time to be seen by the right person."

"So Owens?"

"No, Rick is an old family friend known him most my life. My uncle is Edward Sheffield, he knew that something was wrong but was never able to prove it, so when you were recruited by Gibbs he knew that you were a key player but wasn't sure where to place you in the chain of command. Then when the Benoit fiasco happened, he realized that no matter what you placed the law above everything else you still wanted justice. All it took was a few well placed whispers in the right ears and he set the ball in motion to bring down what he called a Castle of Cards. He knew that you would do the right thing. The thing is he also knew he couldn't approach you directly he had to let you do it on your own that you had to be ready for it on your own time."

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Present Time
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"So, the Ex SecNav is Delores' uncle, that is something I never would have thought of, though it does explain a few things about her."

"I watched Senator Sheffield tear in Kinsey once, regarding a funding proposal that he put forward. When he was done I swear Kinsey was going to curl up into a ball and cry every reason he had was ripped apart and tossed out in no uncertain terms there was no way he could explain that he wanted the money to fund a probably illegal op at the time I thought it was the Stargate but now it would seem he had his fingers in more then one pie, and if Sheffield suspected then he did his damnest to make sure he walked away empty handed." Jack noted as he reached over for one of the sandwiches that had been forgotten earlier. "EWW canned tuna, I prefer my fish a bit fresher then packed in oil. You know when this is done Tony I have to take you fishing I have the perfect spot in Minnesota... Ah egg salad thats better."

"Yeah, no don't do boats or fishing," he waved his hand in front of him "Does this look like a fisherman...um no...now give me a beach just not in Hawaii, or a ski chalet with fresh powder and I'm all for it."

"You sound like Daniel a member of my team he would rather sit on the dock reading a dusty old book then toss a line in the water."

"Nothing wrong with a good book, I don't mind reading something if it catches my eye, sometimes its a toss up of a book or movie depending on what happened that day and how I feel."Tony admitted "and if a books being made into a movie then I tend to read it to see how close they keep the screenplay to the original, must admit though I was disappointed with the Harry Potter franchise, they left so much out of the movie that if I hadn't read the books I probably would have been lost, and don't even get me started on sparkly day-glow vampires thats just wrong on so many counts."

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Last Week Wednesday Afternoon
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"sh*t have you ever read, this stuff?" Tony asked as he pulled yet another folder off of the seemingly never-ending stack that Delores placed in front of him. "Some of it is enough to give Dracula nightmares."

"No, I tried when I first started working here but...I knew that if I learned anymore then I wouldn't be able to work here, so I just skimmed through the stuff when it came in and when I saw something that might fit I made a note and filed it away. Anyway I didn't know where to begin, it wasn't my place to investigate I couldn't make the connections or fill in the pieces but I knew eventually the right person would show up and everything had to be ready for them to connect the dots."

"Hey, you did pretty Damn good here, there is a bunch of stuff that doesn't fit in with this case," he said pointing to one of the stacks of discarded folders in front of him "but it still warrants some looking into later, cause it doesn't set right with me, but priorities demand Operation Haystack takes center stage right now. Its beginning to make me wonder though how many cover ups there are."

"Operation Haystack?"

"Yeah, ya know the old needle in a haystack, had to put a name to it when it became apparent that it wasn't just one case but multi, I just hope I don't let you down, I mean I'm not"

"Stop right there Anthony," Delores cut him off "Your better then all of them, and don't you forget that. Gibbs doesn't realize what he had in you, McGee and David they will never even come close to being the agent you are in fact between the two of us I'm surprised they are still here. McGee is hovering between Author and Agent, neither being that good his Deep Six Novel nothing more then a blatant rip off of NCIS procedures and I'm still not sure how he was allowed to be published as he's walking a fine line between fact and fiction in his book."

"Jenny signed off on it, and he's Vances' - 'GOLDEN BOY' the future of NCIS if you believe him."

"Well, that it explains it all, and David I don't trust her never have never will, her father is a P.O.S. that makes my skin crawl anyone that makes it as high up in the Mossad as he is, is someone not to be trusted, he would cut the throat of his best friend to get ahead."

"Already knew that, just don't have the proof to do anything bout it."

"Your a good man Tony DiNozzo, I wish you could see that." Anything else she was about to say was cut off by a pinging sound coming from a speaker by the door. "Hold that thought, we are about to have company, How can I help you Agent Gibbs?" transforming from Delores to Ms Bromstead completely with the ice dripping from her voice that he used to associate with her.

"Just checking on my Agent, wanted to see if he was still down here since he wasn't at his 'desk',"the older man peered into room as if to confirm for himself he was still there.

"Agent DiNozzo is fixing the mess that was made by, incompetent agents who don't know how to properly fill out the GHT6723 Requisition forms, after which he will be instructing said incompetent agents on how to do it properly unless you yourself would like to do it yourself."

"No, thats alright I'll let him do it," he backed out the doorway and tried to do a dignified race down the hallway as if he stayed any longer then he would indeed be put to work.

*****************************************************
Present Time
*****************************************************

"GHT6723 Requisition Forms?"

"Its for toilet paper, paper towels and hand soap in employee washrooms, Sir." Tony replied with a grin, eliciting a chuckle from both men.

Chapter 5: chapter 5

Chapter Text

After refilling their coffees the three men sat back relaxing for a few minutes before returning to Tonys recounting of the previous week. "You know Delores is wasted there, just like you are. I never realized what she did to make my job smoother, what can I do thank her?"

"Besides fixing this mess, she has a weakness for dark Belgian chocolate."

"Good to know I'll have the largest box I can find sent over to her when we are done with this disaster."

"I vote we make it a standing order, I've never met her but I don't want to be on her bad side. A scorned women is damn scary and add into that one who knows where the bodies are buried it's a deadly combination."

"Speaking from experience Jack?"

"Yup, the last one threatened to melt down my collectors edition box set of 'The Simpsons' seasons 1 through 5."

*************************************
Last Week Wednesday Afternoon
*************************************

"Hey Delores, how hard would it be to look up a couple of names for you? They've shown up a few times and I can't find anything on the NCIS database I've got a feeling they might be connected to the C.I.A. or something equally Hinky."

"Oh, honey, I got skills you can't imagine...Agent McGoo could only wish he knew what I did about hacking."

"You are so wasted down here. I'd have you on my team anytime."

"Not a chance, I quite like where I am hiding in the shadows, not having to worry about getting killed or something. I'd be useless in the field my nerves would be shot, besides the last time I shot a gun I thought my heart was going to leap out of my chest from the panic attack I was having."

"I'd always have your six, nothing to worry about." Tony reached out to squeeze her hand.

"And I'd always have yours. Now give me the names and lets see what we can find shall we."

After giving her the names, Tony glanced at his watch noticing the time almost three, "Hey, I'm going to grab some lunch for us anything thing particular you want?" taking the order he made his way up to the bullpen to grab his jacket he had left at his desk earlier. When he noticed McGees suit, covered in fine white feathers, "uh what happened or do I want to know?"

"He got oil and chickened when we went to pick up the suspect," Ziva piped up.

"You mean tar and feathered, wheres Gibbs?"

"He claimed dibs on the shower first, said I could wait till he was finished," McGee shot back "You should have been there then then this wouldn't have happened to me."

"Sorry, Boss has me on cold cases right now and it seems I was drafted for the day to help Ms Bromstead in H.R., did you at least get the guy?, he asked as he grabbed his jacket biting the inside of his cheek to stop from laughing at the image of Gibbs covered in feathers that floated in front of him.

"Yeah, he's sitting over in interrogation room 2 right now, Gibbs told me that he could stew in there till he decided to see him, hes got feathers all over as well, so by the time the Boss shows up he's gonna be scratching like crazy." McGee smiled at the thought of their suspect suffering a little. "Where you going anyway?"

"Told ya, I was drafted by Bromstead, shes got me running errands for her."

"Well better you then me, I had to take paperwork down to her once when I first started here, she made me stay and correct it before I was allowed to leave but not before giving me a lecture about penmanship and chicken scratch that would have made the Admiral proud."

"Why do think I'm in such a hurry, I don't need her freaking on me," he walked away whistling the chicken dance song he remembered hearing at the last wedding he had been at.

**************************************************
Present time
**************************************************

"Oh God, I hope someone got pictures," Tom's body was shaking with laughter as he pictured he two agents looking like they were ready to be plucked.

"It's on entrance surveillance, and I'm pretty sure there were a few camera phones being used."

"I'll get copies for all of us."

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Last Week Wednesday Afternoon
**************************************************

Returning to Delores' office with Pizza, bread sticks, and a box of doughnuts for after Tony told her about seeing McGee and what had happened. "Maybe I should draft you for the next couple days, it would help to keep them away from you while you look into this."

"We'll see, how its going and play it by ear. Can't let them get suspicious of why I'm doing extra work for you all of a sudden."

Pushing aside the empty pizza box, Tony reached over and picked up another folder having resigned himself to a long night of reading long forgotten and seemingly useless case details. "And away we go...you know we could be chasing a dead end with these...whoa hold on, I think I just found one of the missing pieces."Trent Kort, resident scumbag and the reason I needed a new car worked a joint operation with Gibbs training officer when he joined NCIS- Mike Franks and Colonel Frank Simmons who was later recruited into the N.I.D., apparently they were overseeing a so called training mission in '93' that just reeks of Black Ops. The entire thing was signed off by then SecNav Alexander Nelson who made a personal note ' O.P.F. Ver. 1 as outlined by Junior Agent L. Vance deemed successful' with a recommendation it be allowed to continue under the purvey of then Captain Davenport of the USMC our current SecNav." He held up a single sheet of paper "It looks like either someone was sloppy and forgot to get rid of the evidence or too co*cky and didn't think it would be questioned. Knowing Franks and Kort they were co*cky and high on themselves and thought they were untouchable." Thinking back to what he knew about the two agents, he realized that there was no way that Gibbs didn't know about this, damn the man was up to his hairy little eyeballs in this sh*t fest. He hated being right sometimes.

"That ties in with the two names you gave me earlier, Whitney Sharp and Riley McAllister both of them are Agents with ties to NCIS and the C.I.A. going in where they were needed. Sharp transferred to N.I.D. in 98 and has since disappeared, while McAllister is still an NCIS Agent but became a C.I.A. liaison in 99 no further records of any operations on file since then."

"The N.I.D., can't say I'm familiar with that."

"It's the National Intelligence Department, also known as the National Institute of Defense a civilian branch of the United States Government, beyond that there's not much information available but rumors have it that it was formed because of the Roswell crash in 1947."

"The basis for Men in Black, well every myth has a starting point, I remember hearing a few years back that the F.B.I. was involved in some type of monster hunting scheme that went sideways. So is it possible to get the un-sanitized versions of their personnel files, along with the goon squads?"

"Give me a couple hours I need to go down to archives and pull the hard copies, I'll see what I can find."

"That works, in the meantime I'm going to see what I can do about my other cold cases. I'll give Gibbs the Hit and Run in the morning but that's only going to take up a few hours, so I need something else to distract him."

Four hours later the pinging of Delores' security door had Tony looking up from the file he had in front of him, the latest cold case had the makings of a bad B movie complete with a Texas Brothel seems an enterprising lieutenant had a sister who was a working girl there and he thought that he could open a franchise with her being the front man (woman) and him running the show behind the scenes. It had worked till one of the customers a Vice-Admiral had dropped dead of a heart attack after a particularly strenuous workout. He must admit tossing the man behind a dumpster wasn't the smartest move, but they had panicked and rather then let anyone know the man had died in a whor*house with a girl young enough to be his Granddaughter they planted the seeds of him being murdered, at least it wasn't a pillow talk motive.

"I come bearing gifts, the complete files on our goon squad, took me a little bit as it seems that a couple of them were misfiled a few years back. Oh and I ordered Chinese should be here in half an hour."

"I don't do chopsticks."

**********************************************
Present time
**********************************************

"How the hell do you keep all these details straight? Danny, one of the smartest guys I know has difficulties walking and talking some days let alone trying to juggle half a dozen different problems in his head at the same time."

"Years of practice."

Chapter 6: chapter 6

Chapter Text

"You know, that when this is done you have a job with the me if you want," Jack looked at Tony "if you decide you don't want to stay with NCIS."

"Thanks, but I really don't know what I'm going to do. I mean I love being a cop but...how can I do my job if I can't trust those around me anymore, and really no offence but Tony DiNozzo space cop doesn't sound right."

"Don't worry about it right now, we will find a place for you that fits even if I have to create a new position for you."

"Thank you Director."

*********************************************
Last Week Wednesday Evening
*********************************************

The files that Delores had brought up sat in front of him as he began laying them out "I Don't know, if I can do this its like Pandora's Box once its open," he paused midway holding up one file, "You got Gibbs file as well?"

"Pandora's box is already open Tony we both know that if you don't, your always going to have that what if feeling."

"Yeah, I know its just hard for me to accept, that a man I respected so much would be involved in this."

"Tell you what, start with the others then read his last, maybe by then you will be able to look at it differently."

"You know you don't have to do this its not to late for you to walk away I can finish this up."

"We're in it together till the end, I told you 'I'll always have your six' and I mean it. You've gone too long with out support, and I won't that happen again."

"You're a good woman, anyone who says different can answer to me."

"Tell that to my 'Woulda -Coulda-Shoulda' AKA the one that got away."

"Ah the old 'W.C.S.' think we all have one at least one of those."

Getting comfortable he organized his thoughts deciding on the order the files should be read reaching the conclusion that Vance was the obvious choice as what ever was going on stemmed from him. The other files were shifted around with Franks and Gibbs last put last.

"sh*t, sh*t sh*t and double sh*t, we are so screwed." Finishing off his second file,the one of the current SecNav, "This isn't just a few murders this is an organized hit squad selling its services to the highest bidder theirs a venerable list of who's who in the political world all of the rising stars on the way to power. Vance gave them the idea with a paper he wrote and some dirty bastard went with the flow. There is nothing in the two I stomached through that says hey I'm an assassin ask me, but there i s enough to read between the lines connecting the dots with the two of them to more then a few hinky deaths we're talking real classic old school cold war killers."

"Oh dear."

**********************************************
Present Time
**********************************************

"I know your good but how did you get that far by just reading two files?" Tom interrupted him. "I mean, that is a hell of a jump even for you."

"Vances file included a paper that he wrote when he attended the Navy War College, it was designed as a way to generate diplomatic goodwill and produce a revenue large enough to sustain itself independently. The original idea called Operation Frankenstein, was to create the perfect weapon through what amounted to torture and brainwashing who wouldn't question what they were told to do. They in turn would carry out government-sanctioned assassinations, this was endorsed by Davenport who was at the time on staff there. Later revisions had these men and women also being hired out to independent corporations and influential politicians in other countries as well. Payment in some cases being unofficial training and information dumps as well as some hefty chunks of change. In his paper, Vance actually gives examples of possible targets and why they needed to be removed from the public eye, and Davenport oversaw several and I quote sketchy Operations that had no actual necessity in existing except to provide cover for something else. It turns out that Vance was actually recruited by McAllister for NCIS but very little is on file about his actual training his FLETC training was substandard according to his supervisors and then he was pulled for specialized with little explanation just a side note signed off by both Nelson and Trent Kort who was at the time a SAC at the C.I.A. for an unknown task force. Vance continued his career with more then one questionable mission till he suddenly started fast tracking to his present position in 02, backed by several notable politicians and higher ups."

"I don't recall that paper from when he was appointed a Deputy Director" Tom frowned as it set in.

"Delores found it, somehow a lot of official paperwork seemed to have been misfiled. There was no way it could be destroyed but paperwork getting lost in the shuffle happens all the time filed in the wrong place or stuffed into a corner and forgotten. Of course this was before her time and if she had known then it would have been fixed but it appears that not every employee is as diligent as her."

"She's better then a bloodhound, I could use her at the mountain to corral some of my scientists and there lost paperwork."

"You can't have her Jack."

"Why not a two for one deal the two of you, you'd never have to worry about anything again."

"Jack... no recruiting the Agents, till I can make a decent counteroffer."

"Yes dad."

"So, how do the rest of them fit in?"

****************************************************
Last Week Wednesday Evening
****************************************************

"This is a nightmare, its like someone took parts of James Bond, the Bourne Saga, The Manchurian Candidate and Spy Games mashed them to form a bad movie of the week. We have a fantasy imagined by the toothpick our screen writer a greedy producer the former SecNav and Multiple Directors, Film Crew and technical advisers that all want to be in charge." Tony groaned, "To top it off the actors are all unknown." When he finally put the last file down.

"I've skimmed through the expense reports and they stop right about 96, before that there were some large and questionable expenditures including an empty office building on the outskirts of D.C. they appear to still own. "

"I think thats when they became self-sustainable and a contract for hire group, but they still had to answer to someone and it wasn't one of ours. Possibly where the N.I.D. comes in it would make sense they take over a military/civilian operation they don't really exist so plausible deniability."

"And the rest of the goon squad, how do they fit in."

"Kort is an explosive specialist, with little to no morals, from what I can tell with his he was loaned as a consultant for a yet to be named project in 92, meaning he was a trainer of sorts appears to be handler for a number of quasi-legal ops as well. Mike Franks is listed as a recruitment specialist noted for bringing a variety of agents and Confidential Informants into the organization. Gibbs was handpicked as his replacement for when he retired interesting to see a side-note on the original file suggesting possible office training in future depending upon compatibility but it warranted waiting till resolution of P.H. situation."

"What do you think he means by office training?"

"Not completely sure, but doesn't sound good. Hey you said said Sharp transferred in 98 and McAllister became a liaison in 99 right?" getting a confirming answer he continued "Gibbs was sent to Paris with Jenny Shepard in 99, following a botched mission shared by Vance and Eli David. Well there he killed Anatoly Zukov a known Russian hit-man, what is interesting is that there handler was McAllister and the entire operation was signed off by Sharp herself."

"So a sanctioned government hit then?"

"Possibly, maybe just a clean-up, but Gibbs Rule number 8 - Never take anything for granted, Rule No. 39 – There is no such thing as coincidence and Rule No. 70 – Keep digging till you hit bottom.

**********************************************
Present Time
**********************************************

"How many rules does Gibbs have?"

"Depending on the day anywhere 50 to 80 plus his unwritten ones that come into play as he needs them, and no I don't know them all not sure anyone does. That includes Gibbs himself, he actually has more then one rule for a few numbers, so you have to interpret which one by whats happening at the moment."

Chapter 7: chapter 7

Chapter Text

"You do realize, that this means a complete review and audit of all cases possibly involved is going to be needed to be done."

"We figured as much, if you don't mind sir Delores and me we would like to be kept informed if that's possible."

"I believe that one of Gibbs rules is 'Your case, your lead.' you started this you deserve to finish it"

"Rule No. 38, thank you sir that means a lot. It may not be my mess but it needs to be cleaned up."

"Another rule?" Jack asked.

"Yup, Rule No. 45 – Clean up the mess you leave behind; never leave behind loose ends."

"That makes sense, I would love to see all of them when you get a chance."

"I'll see what I can do if you want I can put the addendum's on the rest of the team have added over the years as well."

"Sweet."

******************************************
Last Week Thursday Morning
******************************************

Tony sat at his desk finishing up the last of the paperwork for the cold case he was passing over to Gibbs when got in when he heard the distinct clicking of heels go past him towards the Directors office. What was she up to? Truth be told he probably trusted Delores more then anyone in the building but she still scared him last night after they had finished going over the original files she had looked at him and turned into mama bear sending him home making him promise to get at least 8 hours sleep, eat something half decent and have a shower before even thinking of returning to the office. He had never felt so cared for.

Half an hour later Gibbs arrived carrying his ever present coffee and scowled at him looks like he was a little upset about the feathers still. The irony was he had decided to hand over the "Chicken Ranch or The Best little whor*house in DC" case as he was calling it. Gluing the needed mask on his face as he looked up he saw the terrible trio walking towards them giggling over some private joke. "Morning Boss, Ziva, McGruesome, Abbs."

"Thought you were on cold cases, Tony." Abby grinned at him as Ziva and Mcgee smirked.

"I am, just getting signed in and getting ready to follow up the one I'm working on."

"I'll take that," Gibbs said putting his hand forward for the paperwork "You can stay here and follow the leads for the other ones I gave you."

Putting a look of disappointment on his face that was so easy he thought as he chuckled to himself "Sure Boss, think I might be able to go back in the field next week?"

"Depends on what you can find on the other cases" the scowl growing, "might have to give you some more just to be sure." Yup, he was pissed about the feathers.

"Agent DiNozzo, I expect you this afternoon to finish up the work you started yesterday sorting and inputting that data." A familiar voice cut into his thoughts.

"What do you need Tony for it's not as if hes any good at computers"

"Are you volunteering Agent McGee, good then I won't need Balboa then Director Vance." Delores turned to the man following her.

"You can't take my Agents."

"As the Director they are my Agents and if Ms Bromstead requires the use of them then I fully endorse it, unless you think that you can do what is needed by her yourself." Vance gave a pointed glare at Gibbs.

"Fine, how long do you think you'll need them?"

"Depending, it might take several hours unless you want to 'donate' your last Agent then it should go quicker."

***************************************************
Present Time
***************************************************

"You used Gibbs team to investigate him"

"They had no idea, what they were doing. We needed files organized and they did it for us."

"Sweet."

****************************************************
Last week Thursday Morning
****************************************************

They had been in the archives for almost four hours when Delores appeared declaring that they were allowed to break for lunch but expected them back in 45 minutes sharp. Tony stepped aside as the two junior agents jostled to get out the door. "How far have we gotten in tracking their movements?" He asked as he dropped into chair beside her. The work detail she had to put them on involved entering the case number, date of occurrence, team lead and agents involved into a program and refiling them in the correct order, so they could be pulled as needed instead of having to spend hours searching for misplaced files.

"Out of the five hundred plus that have been entered there are about 80 that involve one or more of the squad. We can pull them after and double check and cross reference the details."

"Let's concentrate on the ones, that have more then one goonie in it. The others can be checked after does your program allow for a brake-down of agents used? That could help track down who else they might have recruited."

"Of course, you know I had planned to do this to update the filing system down here eventually, but it is nice to have help."

"You my lady, are evil." Tony laughed "What do you want for lunch? I'll grab it and head back here before Tweedle-dee and dum get back."

"A salad from the canteen if you don't mind, we can order in later tonite for supper."

*******************************************************
Present Time
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"Sounds like a system that should be utilized in every Agency archive it would make things a lot easier for people looking up past cases."

"I"ll ask her about it."

*******************************************************
Last Week Thursday Afternoon
*******************************************************

Tony was finishing up his sandwich when he heard Ziva and McGee coming back up, their voices carrying down the hallway as they approached "How much longer does that woman expect us to be wasting our time down here, this is joke getting experienced agents doing grunt work that secretaries can do. Lets just leave and let Tony can deal with her." he heard McGee saying.

"I agree, we can tell them later, that an emergency came up and Gibbs needed us to help take care of it. he will blanket for us."

"Its cover Ziva, your right hes done it before he'll do it again. Lets go."

The two of them in the office just looked at each other and shook their heads, "They do realize the hallways are monitored don't they?"

"Either they're not that smart or they don't care doesn't matter we can work without them, I'll just pull the surveillance before it disappears, just in case."

"What do we do next then?"

"I'll work on a timeline for their movements we have, and compare them to any questionable deaths that I can find. I know they are not the only players but, with this we can establish a pattern and hopefully know what to look for with others. The biggest problem is that there is going to be a crap-load of different M.O.s. Gibbs likes to shoot people and Kort likes bombs and I once heard that Vance preferred a knife. If its possible can you start trying to find the money trail I know they were self funded but the cash has to be stashed somewhere."

"I'll see what I can do, I can call in a few favors from people who won't ask to many questions to get me started."

A few hours later, they were beginning to pull the pieces together, when they were interrupted by the door pinging "Whose coming to visit us now?" Tony muttered as he shoved the white board he was working on into the far corner so it could not be seen from the door and pulled an unrelated file in front of him taking the notes that were needed to enter them into the system.

*********************************************************
Present Time
*********************************************************

The knocking on the office door had the three men looking up as Amelia popped her head in "I'm getting ready to leave for the day is their anything else you are going to need?"

"Another urn of coffee, would be great and if you could order some supper for us and let security know. I'm afraid that we are going to be here for a while dealing with this."

"Of course Sir, don't forget to call your wife and let her know you're running late. I will see you in the morning."

Chapter 8: chapter 8

Chapter Text

The men decided to put off the rest of Tonys story till after they had eaten, and made a few calls letting people know they were okay. Tom's wife understood as her husband often had late night meetings. Jack let Sam and Daniel know that he was still working grousing about paperwork as he was wary of letting them know what was going on in case the N.I.D. was still monitoring them he didn't need to give them a heads up. The only person Tony called was Delores to let her know that he was safe and not to worry.

***************************************************
Last Week Thursday Afternoon
***************************************************

"I'm here to get my two agents," Gibbs announced as he entered Delores' office.

"Well, they are not here I was just about to call up to Director Vance and request that he needed to send me replacements as the two that were here have not seen fit to return after there lunch."

"What, hold on," Gibbs bit as he grabbed his phone, "McGee where are you?...I see...and Zivas with you still...uh huh considering I'm standing in her office right now and I can't see you try that again....you have five minutes to get your butts down here before I let Ms Bromstead call Vance and report you AWOL." Hanging up he turned towards the two who were holding back at there laughter it appeared the great Gibbs didn't run as tight of a ship as he thought. "We have a case that needs to be followed up on as soon as we are done they will be returned to you."

It seemed it was alright to lie to a fellow agent and office personnel but to get caught by Gibbs was another thing as he tied into them the second they came into view. "What were you thinking, oh thats right you weren't. Instead of just taking off you should have come to me and you wold have known that we had a case but instead I had to come down here and look for you only to find out you were nowhere to be seen. When we are finished this you will be expected here to finish up and continue to spend any down time we have working down here till the job is finished do I make myself clear." The functional mute spewed out.

"Yes Boss," Ziva and McGee squeaked out.

"Good, grab your gear, dead sailor found off the beltway. Move it."

Watching the trio disappear down the hallway Tony turned to Delores "You know the sad thing about that, he would have covered for them if you hadn't called them out"

*****************************************************
Present Time
*****************************************************

"Damn, what were they thinking"

"Who knows with those two, they seem to think that they are untouchable after all she's Director Davids daughter and hes the up and coming 'Super Cyber Agent' who can do no wrong in Vances opinion," Tony sneered.

"Well they are about to catch a hard case of reality."

******************************************************
Last Week Thursday Afternoon
******************************************************

"So it looks like it's just the two of us again."

"We don't need them but I tell you this after we're done I"m putting in for my vacation time, sun sand and Cerveza and holy crap thats it. That's how they recruited Gibbs"

"You lost me how did you... no never mind just explain it to me."

" Hold on let me check something real quick," He went to pull up a few files, "sh*t, you remember the note Franks had in his file on Gibbs? P.H. Pedro Hernandez, a drug dealer in Mexico he killed Gibbs wife and daughter twenty years ago. Abby and McGee went to Mexico for her to speak at a symposium and teach some classes on forensics to some students, she ended up bringing his body back to NCIS with her a few months ago. After that things got kinda hinky Abby and Gibbs were acting real strange she was actually jumping at shadows and kept looking at him like he had just kicked her puppy." Tony recalled. "It snowballed from there, the serial killer we were investigating had ties to the same drug cartel, then Special Agent Lara Macy was murdered, turns out she was a M.P. that investigated Hernandez' death and pulled strings to label it justified, she was killed by Former Army Ranger Jason Paul Dean, who was working for Colonel Merton Bell who supposedly had a grudge against Gibbs for something."

"It's like someone was trying to tie up loose ends."

"In more ways then one, but wait it gets better"

"This is better then the soaps I used to watch when I was younger."

Tony chuckled, "Not going to judge you, when I was younger I used to watch Daytime T.V with my mom, she had a penchant for game shows, still catch myself watching them once in a while."

"To be young and innocent again."

"I was never innocent, my lady, so where were we oh yeah Ziva and me, we had to take the body back to Mexico and ended up picking up Gibbs who had decided that it was a good time to take a siesta down there. Next thing you know we got bodies piling up, and Jimmy's joking that he going to have to start double stacking the drawers in the morgue. Turns out Dean killed Bell soon after that, played a part in the shootout between the drug cartel and Bell's flunkies and ended up getting double tapped in the chest and once in the the forehead by yours truly. I thought it was over, but the the next thing I know I'm back in Mexico tagging along with Alejandro Rivera under Vances orders to observe and report ended up running into Franks who had an injured hand. I get back from there and its like nothing happened, its all gone there's no follow up reports on anything. Someone buried it all and I'm not sure who Gibbs, Abby, Vance they would have all had to file reports but there's nothing, except the bare facts like they were scrubbed clean before they came down here."

"I'm still missing something, how did you get Gibbs was recruited out that"

"Its simple Gibbs wife and daughter were killed, he killed the killer, Franks got a sniper to train his operatives, in turn for covering it up. Macy and Bells deaths were because they had outlived there usefulness it was sheer luck that prevented Dean from knocking off Gibbs and Franks, and unless I miss my guess Dean was acting under someone else's orders, not sure whose but it had to be a higher up pulling the puppet strings wanting to get rid of who they considered either dead weight or a possible threat to his position. Its still up in the air if the original murders were a set up, but if they wanted someone bad enough they couldn't recruit through normal means I wouldn't put it past them."

"So, even if Gibbs isn't a major part of 'Frankenstein', he's still guilty of a murder and cover up, and he should have been jailed not become a cop."

"Exactly, that would explain why hes been so twitchy lately though, after all these years he thought he was in the clear and somebody opened up an ugly can of worms and brought the spotlight back on him, so now hes deflecting onto everyone else making them look at them and not him in an attempt to rebury it. Vance is probably helping cause 'Gee it wouldn't look good on his part'."

"And the terrible trio as you called them?"

"Ziva is Eli's daughter, so up to her eyeballs in it, cause face it we know that Vance and him worked together on a few occasions and the man is a slippery little weasel. McGee hes Vances little protege, being groomed to take over the big chair don't know if he has been read in yet but he's being prepped for the job. Abby I don't know where she fits....Uhh why didn't I see this before?"

"It's not your fault, you can't say you didn't have a small case of hero worship, when you started here and by the time that ended there were other problems that got in the way."

***********************************************************
Present Time
***********************************************************

"Well crap, thats...wow"

"I know."

Chapter 9: chapter 9

Chapter Text

"You can't keep blaming yourself kid, I should know I tried that and all it got me was the start of an ulcer, before I realized that even heroes fall.

"They worked under me for years when I was the Director and I had no clue, this has been in the works for over twenty years and involves multiple agencies For them the biggest kick in the teeth is going to be that a single agent and an office worker unraveled their web and it all started with a cold case."

"That's Very Special Agent and Her Office Majesty"

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Last Week Thursday Afternoon
****************************************************

"What we have to to do is figure out, who would have known about Gibbs and Franks, and is high enough on the food chain to start the ball rolling, it wouldn't have been Vance since with Gibbs gone, he would lose everything as well. He knows the MCRT team well enough that if something happened to one one us the others would become bulldogs. Look at what happened when Kate was shot. Bell was played by someone high ranking enough that he had to respect their judgement so that means a Major or higher in the forces or a politician maybe. Where are we coming with the money trail."

"Still working on it, money can be tricky with off-shore accounts and dummy corporations set up to hide it. I started with who we knew was involved and went from there. I did find some large payments that have been made to Trent Kort over the years, looks like he might have been skimming off the top and am starting to backtrack from there."

"Sounds like something he would do, loyal only to himself."

An hour later, Tony was working on listing names and dates of questionable operations when he heard Delores coming towards him holding a new stack of papers. "I took a look at some of the names you gave me and what I have found out is First Defense a private military consulting firm headed by Colonel Bell held multiple contracts with the N.I.D. and some group called The Committee until a few years ago when he became exclusive to The Trust, which appears to be a consolidation of a splinter group of N.I.D. and the Committee members I can't tell you what there mandate is though since they seem to be non-existent except on paper, but it looks to be a who's - who list of political players, wealthy business men and Military personnel who have served on the Board of Directors."

"Okay then give me a list of the current ones and we can see if we can play connect the dots then, I'm getting nowhere here maybe this will point me in the right direction, as all I seem to be doing now is running around in circles."

"We have Terrance Evans and William Blaylock who are the Founders of Procyon Media Enterprises, one of the largest public relation firms in the world. Next there is Masato Hiro the Chief Executive Officer of Far East Mercantile, an international Import and Export Company that has caught the attention of ICE (International Customs Enforcement) with some of there questionable activities. Michael Northrup the Chief Executive Officer of Hammel Technologies."

"I know him, when I was on protection detail for Shepard she met him for lunch one day, told Ziva and me that he was an old family friend, that begins to tie together and I'm betting its going to look like a psychedelic string art by the time we are done.

"James Lowery the President and Tony Tran the Chief Financial Officer of Alaraph Pharmaceuticals, the DEA has an open file on them right now. Last we have Alex Jameson a former Vice President, and Charlotte Mayfield the current Vice President of Farrow-Marshall Aeronautics, a leading aeronautical company with several military contracts."

"That's connection two, Mayfield and Jameson have been here as guests of Director Vance."

"From there we go to the military officers we have a Colonel Maybourne of the United States Air Force, his personnel file is classified, suggesting long term black ops he is also the one who recruited Colonel Frank Simmons formerly of NCIS, who also is a board member. Colonel Robert Makepeace of the United States Marine Corps his file is also blacked out quite a bit, but I did find that he led a mission during the Gulf War that comprised of a team that included Navy Seals, Marine snipers and Army special force members. At the time of his death Bell was sitting on the board as well."

"We all know the connections with them."

"Finally we have a Russian General Miraslov Kiselev listed as a special consultant, who I have no information for and two politicians. Senator Clayton Jarvis, who is next in line to become SecNav. It is interesting to note that he replaced Davenport who served on the board till he was appointed the current SecNav and lastly Vice President Robert Kinsey, he has held a position with them off and on through his entire political career with him being labeled a special consultant at the moment."

"sh*t."

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Present Time
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"I'm familiar with most of those names, I've come across them at one time or another at the Mountain, but didn't realize they were connected like that. Looks like I need to do an entire review of the staff there to see who else we missed. Tony if you don't mind helping out we should do it before we take down the others just to make sure that no one else is compromised."

"I'll see what Delores says, cause I'm not leaving her out of this."

"Didn't expect anything differently."

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Last Week Thursday Afternoon
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Tony just sat there, his entire body numb this had to be a nightmare and he was going to wake up any minute now, Shaking his head he started clearing his thoughts. What to do? What to do? There was no way he could forget about this he couldn't even think about that, he started he had to finish but how far was he willing to dig. He could stop right here and send an anonymous tip to the press with what he had but he wasn't sure who he could trust sure there was Wendy his ex but he didn't want to get her involved in this mess. Politicians that was out of the question, with the V.P. and SecNav involved he couldn't be sure who else was. He needed someone he could trust, he just needed to figure out who. That left it to the fact that he had to dig deeper and with every step they took they risked exposure, was he ready for that was he prepared to see just how deep and ugly it was going to get. Jeez was he willing to risk Delores, he told himself he could handle it but could she, hell she admitted to a panic attack when she fired a gun. Letting out a breathe he didn't realize he was holding he looked at Delores who had a worried look on face.

"Are you okay?"

"Yes, no, I don't know. I just...I will be, this is just taking some time to process." He admitted. "Hey you know what we need a break lets take off for a bit, head to the cafe grab a coffee maybe a snack, get some air and clear our heads. When we get back, we can start again if that's alright."

"That works for me, I admit I"m feeling a bit overwhelmed here, it is a lot to process, just let me grab my sweater and lock and secure the office and we can go."

Ten minutes later they were sitting at a small table inside the cafe with coffees and danishes in front of them, neither of them bringing up the huge pink elephant dancing around them, threatening to crush them with any little misstep. Instead just talking about the latest movies that were coming out.

"Lounging around drinking coffee DiNozzo, looks like you are getting a lot of work done"

"It's my tea time Agent Gibbs, and I suggested he join me to discuss the next step in organizing my office that I want done. Do you have a problem with that?"

"No Ma'am, you should have my other agents sometime tomorrow if all goes well."

"Good, now if you don't mind." she dismissed him taking a sip of coffee. "I've always despised that man." She told Tony as he walked away.

His chuckle at her dismissal became a full blown Belly Laugh.

*****************************************************************
Present Time
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"There's a reason why, most agents run when they see her coming." Tom smirked "I used to use the threat of her coming to deal with it in person when some one was sluffing off on their paperwork, never failed to motivate them."

Chapter 10: Chapter 10

Chapter Text

"Gibbs called you out for taking a coffee break, when he was on one himself?" Tom just shook his head.

"Yeah, a prime example of his do as I say not as I do attitude."

"Does he take a lot of coffee breaks?" Jack spoke up.

"The man has more coffee then blood running through his system."

"Sound's like a few of my team, Daniel is almost non-functioning with out it and Carter comes a close second on some days.

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Last Week Thursday Afternoon
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Returning to the office feeling more refreshed, they sat down and began to document what they had putting in side-notes and filling up a legal pad with questions and possible follow ups that should be done. "We're still missing something or someone, its not adding up, Operation Frankenstein was a military/agency operation there is no way that anyone would let civilians start calling the shots. Especially ones who had no military background. The only ones with any remote connection are Alex Jameson and Charlotte Mayfield of Farrow-Marshall Aeronautics, as they have several military contracts , but even then they wouldn't have enough pull. Michael Northrup, Shepards 'old family friend' who she had lunch with was more then likely a debriefing of sorts. These companies are tied together by an invisible thread we can't see, and until our mystery player is revealed we won't get anywhere investigating them. what we have to do is focus on the military personnel and agents who we know about."

"That's going to be the problem, we have large chunks of their files blacked out and without the right security clearance we won't get anywhere. I'm lucky not to to have raised any flags when I pulled up what I did. I ended up having to use a reference checking program from Human Resources position to verify them. I'ts like they are ghosts."

"Well the C.I.A. are referred to as spooks so I wouldn't be surprised."

"You think they are working multiple agencies then? I have no access to other agency files"

"Happened before, I get lent out to whoever needs me, The FBI, DEA and ATF in the last six months alone."

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Present Time
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"Alien technology, each of those companies are under investigation by SG command regarding how they came to have off-world tech."

"No wonder we couldn't find anything, out of everything we came up with that wasn't even a possibility."

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Last Week Thursday Evening
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Supper consisted of takeout delivered by security when it arrived. The two of them eating in a comfortable silence, when Tony sat up almost knocking his Tandoori Chicken over. "We've been doing it wrong we thought that we needed to climb up the ladder, we need to go down right now the upper mucky mucks are hiding in plain sight as a legitimate organization, we can't touch. The way to take them down is to find someone isn't." Pushing aside the remnants of his supper he grinned. "It's time to play 'Six Degrees of Separation' the Dinozzo version."

Ten minutes later he looked up at Delores, "I know the weakest link... It's McGee since Gibbs is the only one who has a solid connection to almost everyone involved, and Ziva was placed on MCRT by Shepard, who bypassed all of the security protocols to get her there, she never even took the FLETC courses that are mandatory even I had to take them and I was already a gold shield with the Baltimore force when Gibbs recruited me. All they would tell me was that they were promoting Mossad/NCIS relations and that she had earned her place on the team, an assassin on an investigative team makes sense to me 'NOT'. When we learned about Micheal Rivkin I had both Vance and Gibbs try and warn me off saying that they had it under control--we had proof that she was protecting an enemy of the state and they wanted to let it slide basically saying that yes they knew she was playing both sides and there was nothing I could do about it. Then when we went back to Israel to deal with the fallout she tried to get Gibbs to pick sides. Thinking back the only reason he choose me was it wouldn't have looked good to leave an American Agent behind in exchange for a foreign operative. Since then she has tried everything in her power to get rid of me one way or another, constantly undermining me and last week her and McUseless turned off the radio when I was collecting voice samples. If something happened to me I'm pretty sure that they had a cover story planned."

"Dear Lord, is that why you were working cold cases?"

"Yeah, made the mistake of thinking I could trust Gibbs to do the right thing, turns out he was more pissed with me for even bringing it up then he was at the thought of them doing that, next thing I know I'm doing cold cases as a way to put me in my place and learn my spot on the team and as low man on totem pole below a trained killer and computer geek who has book smarts but hardly any street smarts. I'm going to need to get my personal files of all the information I've compiled and add to what we already have, if we're going to take one down we're going to have to take them all down."

"Is it in a safe place right now?"

"Oh yeah, safest place in the building"

Making his way through empty bullpen Tony sat at his desk and unlocked the bottom drawer reaching for the box inside that Gibbs had entrusted to him when he first joined the team, "The safest place in this office," he said as he searched his key ring for the lock box, before opening it and handing the files over to Delores. "I can go through them tomorrow and see if I missed anything but right now I think its time to get out of here."

Agreeing with him, the two of them made there way back to her office to secure it for the night before he escorted her to her car, making arrangements to start again in the morning after they had rested.

******************************************************
Present Time
******************************************************

"You used Gibbs Medal box to hide personal files, gotta hand it to you no one would think of looking there."

"Why do you have your Bosses medals?"

"Gibbs says he doesn't want the attention they bring the recipient. So I go in his place accept the award on his behalf and put it away, I've collected seven or eight for him in the last few years."

"If he doesn't want the medal, why doesn't he remove himself from participant list? I did that five years ago after I got sick and tired doing the dog and pony show every time they wanted to parade me in front of the masses as an example of the perfect soldier."

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Last Week Friday Morning
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Stopping in at the cafe to pick up coffees' before heading in, he went over the game plan he had come up with the night before. Hopefully with a little tweaking they would be able to carry it off. Zivas arrogance and McGee tendency to brag about everything he thought he was better then him at would be capitalized on and they wouldn't any wiser. He just hoped that Gibbs kept his word and sent them down later this afternoon.

"I come bearing gifts of coffee and danishes for us, my lady." Tony swept into the office he was currently occupying with Delores. Settling in they went over the plans making a few adjustments before diving back into the files again. The morning flew by with the two of them working in tandem stopping every now and then to go over a new piece of data they found.

"I'm going to head up to the bullpen," Tony stood up stretching. "That way I can lay the ground work for you to move in on them," referring to his teammates.

"Good luck I'll see you after lunch"

"Sounds good, we ordering in for supper again or dining out tonight?"

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Present Time
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"Good lord, the two of you plotting together, I don't whether I should get the popcorn or hide in the corner."

Chapter 11: Chapter 11

Chapter Text

"This little plan of yours how much as actually planned and how much was the Dinozzo special of flying by the seat of your pants?" Tom asked, "Since I seem to remember a few times you and and Gibbs made plans and had them go sideways when I was the director"

"It was about 50/50, we had a plan of what we needed, and went from there.

"Okay, we'll go with that."

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Last Week Friday Morning
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Gibbs was, at his desk when he arrived at the bullpen, with the other two nowhere to be seen, "Morning Boss, Ms Bromstead sent me up here to see when she could expect Tim and Ziva?"

"She couldn't have called me herself, since when did you become her errand boy?"

"I told her, I needed to finish some work on those cold cases you gave me. She told me I could come back when I was done here." Seeing McGee approach he continued "Just glad to get away from there for a bit, its like the paperwork bunnies went into overdrive and multiplied a thousand times, no ones touched some of those files for so long that there is like an inch of dust on them and my lungs were starting to act up."

"So why are you going through them now?"

"NCIS hard copy archives are getting congested and she has to send a bunch of the older closed cases and personnel files to the National Archives to make room for the newer ones. The problem shes having is some of them are NIS and joint operations with other agencies and you know no likes to share with the other team so she has incomplete files that are stuck here when they should be transferred out."

Glancing up at McGee he smirked inwardly 'Hook, line and sinker' knowing that the little prick couldn't pass up the opportunity to show off his skills and try and make him look bad at the same time. Realizing that sucking up to Delores was a way to get her in his favor and have her on his side in the future. Now all he had to do was wait for Ziva to show, which didn't take long.

Seeing her come up to them he continued, "The other problem is the actual moving of files as some of them are still listed as classified and we need at least two agents of proper clearance to do the job. Unfortunately there is a limited amount of agents that have both the clearance and time to do this." This was too easy he thought, she was almost drooling at the thought of getting her hands on classified material. "If we can't do it in house then we're going to have to bring in the feebies to help," delivering the kicker he knew would get Gibbs hackles up.

"Then its a good thing that the paperwork for this last case is almost done then, and they can go back and help you after lunch, don't bother with those cold cases go back down there and tell Ms Bromstead that she has them for the next two days and I won't be coming for them this time," Gibbs told Tony then turned toward the two junior agents and scowled at them, "And don't even think of ditching work this time I will not except ANY excuses. Now I need another coffee, when I get back I expect that paperwork on my desk."

BINGO phase one complete.

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Present Time
***************************************************

"You played to their weaknesses"

"Of course, it was easy Tims ego, Zivas greed and Gibbs inability to share, there was no other way they would have reacted."

"Remind me to never let you plot with my scientists, that would be wrong on so many levels."

"Even if we let you join in Colonel?"

"On second thought, maybe we could, I do have a list of...."

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Last Week Friday Morning
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"And its a go, two pigeons for plucking will be down here after lunch with Gibbs approval," Tony announced as he walked in, "How's it going on your end?"

"I have about half a dozen confidential and secured files all made up and labeled ready to stick in with the others, all full of completely made up sensitive information, that will make not only whoever uses it look like an idiot, but give us who took it if we split the decoys between them."

"Good, you have the story for McHacker?"

"I don't know if I can pull it off, might be better if you did."

"We could tag team him, you start and I finish it."

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Present Time
*****************************************************

"What kind of information did you put in the files?"

"Oh this and that, names of informants and identities of long term undercover operatives who don't exist, bank accounts that are possibly still active, locations of fake protected witnesses, records of cover ups that didn't happen, you know the usual."

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Last Week Friday Afternoon
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Deciding to grab sandwiches from the canteen, and return to the office they finished working out the details of how to go about their plan, when they heard footsteps coming down the hall. "Let the games begin," Tony chuckled.

"We're here what do you need us to do?" Tim smiled at Delores trying to impress her.

"Agent McGee, Agent Dinozzo mentioned that you are good with computers."

"I have a Master of Science degree in computer forensics from MIT, unlike Tony who has to hunt and peck to type a report."

"I see, does that mean you might be able to do something about the lost files?"

"UH...If you can explain that."

"She means a bunch of cases are cross-referenced with other agencies and she has no access to them if we need them in the future."

"Why would we need them in the future?"

"If a case is overturned, appealed or reopened because of new evidence showing up, like that one with the ugly dolls, that kept turning up and we ended up linking it to a cold case the feebs had, but only after Fornell saw the doll Gibbs had on his desk and remembered a case that he had seen years ago when he first started out turned out to be linked to the feebs and a case ATF had as well, remember McSightless, and if we ever find another doll we need to be able to access those files as well as ours." Purposely mentioning the one that he knew gave McGee nightmares because of the lifeless eyes the dolls that were found at the crime-scene had.

"Oh yeah, that makes sense, but why'd you have to bring that one up I can think of other cases that you could have used as an example, I'm gonna dream about those dolls again tonight." he whined.

"Sorry," he said catching sight of Ziva trying to hold back her laughter and grinned.

"So, do you think you can do something or are we just wasting time."

"No ma'am, I mean Yes ma'am... I mean"

"Well what is it? It's a simple question can you or can't you?" Delores snapped at him some of her real agitation with the agent coming through.

"I can do it, Im just going to need to get some of my equipment and a place to work, it should only take a few hours once we get started."

"Good, now what are you waiting for go get what you I'll have a work space ready when you get back," as she turned to Ziva, "As you for you Agent David, you can go with Agent DiNozzo and pick up the files that need to be transferred. I expect there are enough to warrant two trips so you can do one this afternoon and the other tomorrow, I do believe Agent Gibbs said I had you for two days"

"Agent McGee can do the transfers with me tomorrow we don't need Agent DiNozzo to come in."

"Agent McGee will be helping me with the paperwork again tomorrow, since you showed me yesterday that the two of you cannot be trusted to work together by deciding to leave without informing anyone, if there's nothing else I have work to do and so do you," the ice evident in her voice.

Phase two complete.

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Present Time
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"You should have seen it she went full on Arctic, I swear there was frost forming on the walls"

Chapter 12: Chapter 12

Chapter Text

"So the two of you split them up, and went from there to see what you could find?"

"The tried and true divide and conquer"

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Last Week Friday Afternoon
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TONYS POINT OF VIEW

"That woman has no right to talk to me like that, I'm a trained Mossad officer, my father..."

"That woman has been here almost as long as Gibbs and longer then the last three Directors, I don't think she cares who your father is. She knows what her job is and does it."

"Still, she needs to learn her place."

"Think Ziva, do you really want to piss off the person who has the ability to lose your paperwork. She's the head of H.R., all payroll and holiday forms go through her, as well as the re-compensation and equipment forms we have to fill out." Tony turned towards her letting it sink in just what Delores did. "That and the fact she is the one who we have to go through if we request any archive work. I don't know bout you but I like my paycheck."

"I didn't know that I thought she was a strutting groundhog working for the Director."

"Thats glorified gopher and she actually works for the Department of Defense, not NCIS to prevent conflicts of interest in case of pissing matches between departments so if one boss doesn't like what she does he can't replace her with someone who would agree with and answer only to him. Why do you think Gibbs and Vance are so scared of her? They can't control her."

The hard-copy archive room had a security door they need to access, with Tony using the code that Delores had given him earlier. "The codes are changed every few days to prevent unauthorized access, and all codes are assigned to a specific person so whenever their code is used it's registered." He told her as they entered, "I got a temp one good for a one-time use only." Cutting off any thoughts she might have had about using it herself. No need to tempt her even more.

The florescent lights in the room highlighted twelve file boxes placed on the center table, "These are the ones ready to go we have to do a double blind inventory of them to mark how many are in each box before they leave site, then secure it before transfer then when we reach our destination, they do a second inventory to ensure it all arrives. From their its in their hands, we are only allowed three boxes per agent as a safety factor."

"You have done this before then."

"A few times, worked with Pacci and Balboa then."

"So what is double blind?"

"You count each box then I do, after we compare numbers to make sure they are the same as what is on the control sheet, but we can't see the sheet till we are done and have entered our data so we can't cheat and say we did but didn't. This is what takes the most time, last time I was here Balboa and me ended up having to do a recount twice, cause they didn't add up and then we had to fill out discrepancy forms and request the master list of what was in the box originally and figure out what was missing."

"We can do all of them now and have them ready for tomorrow can we not?"

"Doesn't work like that, once its counted and secure it has to leave to prevent any tampering.

"Lets get started then, I have plans for tonight, I do not wish to miss."

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Present Time
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"Is that really necessary to transfer files?"

"Yeah, I think there's actually a full box of just transfer reports that have been filed in the past."

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Last Week Friday Afternoon
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DELORES POINT OF VIEW

"How long do you think this will take Agent McGee?"

"Depends on how many agencies you want to link up ma'am and please call me Tim."

"Since NCIS works mostly the FBI, Homeland and occasionally the CIA I think those would be adequate unless you believe that others should be added."

"Well those ones make sense, but in my opinion ma'am it would be better to link with the others as well, even though we don't have much contact with most of them right now. If in the future we need them, then I don't have reinstall the program and add them."

"That makes sense, I will leave you to it as you seem to know what you are doing."

"Yes ma'am, which system did you want it on?"

"I believe the one in the outer office I use that desk unless I have an intern. There is a security feature that can be used independently , as some of the interns that train down here do not have the proper clearance to access certain files yet."

"Of course, I can add that in for you as well as secure other programs if you wish."

And let you get your grubby little hands on sensitive document you don't have clearance for not a chance, Its a good thing Tony suggested using the back up system, I can unhook from the internet without alarms going off. Delores thought as she answered him, "No that's alright I had them installed by the cyber division and they appear to be functioning properly."

"If you ever change your mind, or have a problem you can always call me, since I am actually here on site, I can get here faster then anyone from the cyber-squad can."

"I'll remember that, thank you Agent McGee."

"I told you, call me Tim," he gave her a quick grin as reached into his computer bag and grabbed a flashdrive. "The program I want to install is on here. I created it myself and have used it many times to access other agencies."

"And its perfectly legal?"

"Yes ma'am, Director Vance was very impressed with it when I presented it to him. We are doing trial runs with it right now, with the hope that it will become standard with all agencies."

"Interesting, quite an achievement"

"Director Vance, has told me that I'm the future of NCIS, and that Agents like Tony and Ziva are are their way out, he's personally picked me as his protege and is grooming me for the directors chair, when he retires."

"Very impressive Tim, but I thought the SecNav was the one who appointed the Director, and it was from a pool of Deputy Directors already in place, that he couldn't name his replacement himself?"

"That's what normally happens but, Vance says I'm a special case."

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Present Time
***************************************************

"Oh he's special alright, is he that stupid or just that arrogant that he thinks hes earned the title?"

"A little of both, hes being fed what he wants to hear, and doesn't realize that he's just going to become another puppet for them. Whoever is pulling the strings wants someone they can control and McGee is it."

"That just sad, I remember when he first started out he had the potential to become a good agent but now hes forgotten what he wanted to be and is letting others make decisions for him."

"In other words, hes chosen to go to the dark side"

"Well, they do have cookies."

Chapter 13: Chapter 13

Chapter Text

"This could be looked at as a rogue operation, we will have to do some fancy footwork to explain all of this to DCIS."

"I realize that sir and am willing to take all the blame if you need me to."

"All we have to do is say that He was acting on behalf of me, regarding an issue with the Trust I had, I can get Carter to backdate some paperwork for me, requesting an investigation, that was sent and acted on, with Tony being assigned the case out of your office or something like that."

"That could work, and we could say that the other concerns came up during the investigation and had to to be followed up on to determine to what extent they effected the original issue, I will have to think of how to go about this."

"See, I'm smarter than the average bear Boo-Boo."

"But, I got the "'PIC-A-NEEK' basket Ranger Smith.'

Tom just rolled his eye, at the antics of two grown men who were quoting Saturday morning cartoons.

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Last Week Friday Afternoon
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TONYS POINT OF VIEW

Starting the inventory count Ziva picked up the first file questioning the different color labels on the cover. "I asked that the first time too, It has something to do with whats inside every label is a different level of classification, the ones we get for cold cases have a white label with black text finished cases that have have been through court have a yellow label still pending have blue, you've seen the labels on the files we get upstairs."

"I did not know the difference, so what do all the colors mean?"

"UH, Red is closed but connected to a second agency, Green is closed with follow up recommended, Orange closed with factors of operation still in play such as WITSEC or long term UCs still in effect, Safe houses that have been set up but unused and financials that can still be used. The Black with White lettering are ongoing operations that have been started and are waiting for further information, those ones are kept in a separate area till they are assigned a finished color."

"How did you find this out?"

"I told you, I asked and the intern working down here at the time told us."

"You probably flirted with her"

Ignoring her he just started his count "Come on, your not the only one who has plans for tonight lets get this started."

"One of your weekend only dates?"

"No, we've seen each other during the week as well."

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Present Time
***************************************************

With that Tom started to choke on his coffee, "You implied that you were dating Delores?"

"No, Ziva just assumed I was dating someone and I didn't correct her, besides the fact I know that she is in love with someone else."

"You know who?"

"Not yet, but I'm working on that."

***************************************************
Last Week Friday Afternoon
***************************************************

DELORES POINT OF VIEW

"I cant believe how simple this is," Delores marveled at Tim "You can not imagine the amount of time I will save with this, it is such a hassle getting information from our sister agencies sometimes, I shudder to think what their file rooms must look like."

"If you like this, I have a few other programs that could work for you."

"Like what?"

"Well, the first allows you to access any computer on our system so you could retrieve the files you needed yourself without bothering the agent involved and the other is a program that lets you transfer needed information between files.

"Those sound fascinating'" and totally illegal she thought to herself, "however, let me get used to this one first then in the future we can discuss possible further updates." Letting him think that she was contemplating them.

"I can leave you the basic information on them so yo can do over it in any spare time you might have."

"That would be lovely," glancing at the clock she noticed the time, "Oh, its my tea time would you care to join me? You can tell me how the Director is grooming you to take his place, before we continue setting up these files."

"I would love to."

***************************************************
Present Time
***************************************************

"And he actually uses these programs? How haven't some of your cases been thrown out because of illegal searches?

"He's got Gibbs and the Director saying that its Okay, I usually try and find and work something that we can use instead of what he comes up with, in most cases I've been successful but a few are kinda hinky you can say due process led to whatever broke the case, but the shortcuts that he takes are getting bolder, and when I found out about the other programs I got to wondering whose computers he's been in.

"When we seize his equipment I will have the cyber-squad go over it."

"Actually Tom, I want to take it the mountain, I have a couple of computer geeks who will be able to tell if he washed his hands before he used the keyboard before they are done. That and the fact we can't be sure who else might be comprised"

True, when I got sent out as Agent Afloat, Tim was sent back to Cyberville and we don't know who he might have become friends with.

***************************************************
Last Week Friday Afternoon
***************************************************

TONYS POINT OF VIEW

Finishing the counts, they got ready to transport the files. "Hey you mind watching these for a few seconds just gotta grab a cart for us," Tony stood up heading toward the back room "I'll be right back." Watching her out of the corner of his eye he saw her arrange the boxes so the two with Orange files would be easily accessible when loaded 'Well darling I wonder how you plan to get me out of the way to read those?' he thought grinning to himself. "I'm back lets get this show on the road."

Reaching the SUV he had arranged for them to use, they loaded the boxes when Ziva commented, "You should drive, I am unfamiliar with where to go."

"Fine by me, you ready?"

"Yes, would it be possible to stop and get coffee, on the way?"

"We could do that, how bout we hit up the shop down the block?"

Hitting the coffee shop Tony jumped out, I"ll be right back don't leave the vehicle we can't leave the files unsecured.'

"I won't"

It took him five minutes to run in out, that should have given her plenty of time he thought, don't want press my luck. He knocked on the window alerting her to his return. "Hey, here's your coffee lets go."

The warehouse facility used for intermediate storage was normally an hour away but with the weekend traffic it took almost two before they got there. "I thought we were to go to the National Archive?"

"No, we deliver here where it is inventoried, screened and quarantined till they transport it to the actual holding spot."

"Why? That is a big garbage on the clock."

"You mean waste of time and no its not, it's to make sure nothing unwanted is brought to the Archives that could hurt it like an explosive or toxic substance that could contaminate."

The rest of the drop off was easy they watched the count, and signed off on the boxes they had brought with them, "We should make it back to the Yard before five, then we're done for the day. What time you want to do this tomorrow? I was thinking 10-ish then we could be done for the day by two."

"That will work, what time will Mcgee will be coming in tomorrow?"

"Depends on what Ms Bromstead is having him do, Probably entering more files for transfer."

"How often do they do this move?"

"Don't know maybe once or twice a year when they need to make room."

"I do not mind this task it is less then me but different. I will not mind if I do this at a later date again."

"I'll let her know when I finish the paperwork off for the transfers"

***************************************************
Present Time
***************************************************

"I just bet, she'd love to the chance to see more classified files."

"I Just wouldn't want to be her when whoever she passes the information off to realizes that its a set up, we'll be the least of her worries, she'll be begging for us to arrest her rather then face them, " handing Tom A folder. "I have a copy of all the false info we placed, if you want to arrange for the capture of enemy agents on foreign soil."

"Remind me never to get on your bad side."

"I don't have a bad side, just a slightly evil one."

"Only slightly?"

Chapter 14: Chapter 14

Chapter Text

A knock on the door interrupted them, Night Security were doing there rounds and were checking to see if they would be needed by the Director.

After being assured that he would call them if needed, he asked if they could possibly have another coffee urn sent up from the canteen before it closed for the night.

A final pot of coffee arriving with an assortment of pastries left over from the day and they were set to continue.

"I just can't believe that it took you a week to uncover this much, most agents working with a team under them would have taken six months to get this far."

"What can I say, I was motivated, and pissed off not a good combination."

***************************************************
Last Week Friday Afternoon
***************************************************

DELORES POINT OF VIEW

With their coffees poured they sat back to relax, "Now Tim, you have to tell how you managed to catch the eye of our Director, he doesn't strike me as the type to mentor anyone, let alone a Junior Agent."

"He didn't really like me the first time we met, the first thing he did when he became Director was to separate Gibbs team, sending me to back to cyberville. I think he was trying to show everyone who was the boss," he snickered, "Didn't work to well Gibbs bitched at him till we all came back, mind you we really didn't need Tony but he came back as well."

"Oh yes, I remember that, the paperwork was a nightmare to keep straight."

"After that, he just kept watching me, I admit it kinda creeped me out at first. When he approached me after one of our cases, he said that he was impressed with the way that I handled myself and that I had a good future with the Agency if I continued the way I was, that I reminded him of himself when he was just starting out, and if I wanted to I could make it to the Directors chair as well."

"That is quite an endorsem*nt, so is that when you became his protegee?"

"No, I didn't really see him after that for a while we were busy with cases and he had important stuff to do as well. It was about six months after that he asked me to come and talk to him in his office, when he told me that he had plans for the future and if I wanted I could be part of them.

"So what were his plans, if you don't mind me asking or are they classified?"

Tim laughed, "No they're not classified, but he wants to keep them quiet."

"You don't have to tell me then, but that still doesn't explain how you became his protege on the way to the Big Chair."

"That's alright but you can't tell anyone though."

"Who would I tell its not as if I have a lot of visitors down here, and I don't socialize with anyone from NCIS outside of work, besides the only ones who need to know are the ones currently involved unless it directly effects the Agency negatively."

"No, it doesn't, nothing like that. The Director is planning to retire from the Agency in the next few years to work as a civilian consultant with the N.I.D. and from there he hopes to springboard into politics, the current SecNav suggested that if he wanted to advance working with them would help, he was with them a few years and it helped with his advancement.

The N.I.D., can't say I'm familiar with that."

"It's the National Intelligence Department," Tim told her, "I'm not surprised you didn't know, I had never heard of them before he told me, but there's a lot of power behind them from what I understand."

"So he wants to become the SecNav then?"

"No, I think he actually wants to get into politics hes mentioned that he eventually plans to run for office."

Delores had to hide her shudder that man in public office was enough to send cold chills running through her. "That's quite ambitious of him I wish him luck."

"Yeah, that's why he wants to groom me to replace him, he says that I have the qualities needed to advance this Agency and bring it up to to par with the other Federal Investigators. That with me at the helm we would be able to take on the bigger Agencies, that think we are nothing but a little fish in the governments big pond."

"I think the Agency would go places with you" like right down the toilet she thought.

"Thank you, Vance and I have talked about what he wants to do and it makes so much sense and I know that I could make it work."

"He must have a lot of confidence in you to let you in on his plans."

"Oh they're not just his plans, I've come up with a few that he agrees on like all Agents must have mandatory computer degrees, and that each team answers only to their team lead."

"Would that work?"

"It works with our team, no one listens to Tony he just does all the paperwork and gets lucky once in a while finding a clue to solve the case. The real work is done by by Gibbs and me I do all the computer searches that find out what we need and Gibbs goes after the bad guy when I'm done."

"What about Agent David?"

"She's the one who does the dirty work for us, she's a trained assassin that protects the two of us out in the field."

"And Agent DiNozzo, who protects him?"

"If he gets into trouble, he can get himself out. Its not like hes a big part of the case work. I mean last week we closed out three cases alone without him."

"I thought those were the cold cases that Agent Gibbs had him on?"

"That he couldn't close he gave Gibbs the paperwork he had and Gibbs knew what had to be done when he read them. He's smart like that."

"Oh," how stupid are you she thought "I see."

"That's why Agents like him are on their way out, the way of the future is computers," he smiled at her "As you can see with the programs I use, we will still have to go to crime scenes and all that but legwork is something that can be left to the local LEOs, Director Vance has told me that there are programs in place that can be used to ease the workload and he wants to start using them more, but the only way is if there are changes higher up which is where I come in, when I become Director, there will be different people in charge and then changes will start happening"

"Interesting, but we've wasted enough time here, we can talk again tomorrow but now we have to finish up the work for today," she said turning back to the paperwork on her desk.

***************************************************
Present Time
***************************************************

"I don't know whats sadder, that he believes the crap that comes out of his mouth or the fact this you have had to work with this for how long."

"A little of both, the worst part is because of this he thinks hes untouchable."

"Ten feet tall and bulletproof, is no defense for getting cut off at the knees as he's going to find out."

***************************************************
Last Week Friday Afternoon
***************************************************

Arriving back at the yard, Tony left Ziva in the parking lot saying that he had to finish up the paperwork for the transfer and if she wanted he could do hers as well she just had to sign them off tomorrow. In Delores' office he found the two of them finishing off for the day "Hey just have to write up the work done and I'm out of here, Ziva had to go but will finish her paper work tomorrow."

"Agent McGee and I are finished here for today, and I just need to do a couple of things to get ready for tomorrow."

Tony sat quickly at the desk and grabbed the forms he needed, it only took a few minutes before he handed her the finished forms "Here you go, if that's everything?"

Smiling as she read the note he had written in the sidelines 'I'll be back bout an hour with supper to go over today, Italian sound Okay?' "Thank you, Agent Dinozzo that's good."

Heading home for a quick shower and change of clothes he called his favorite Italian restaurant to place an order for take out he could pick up on his way back.

***************************************************
Present Time
***************************************************

"I don't know how you worked with them, I would have been tempted to zat them."

"Zat them?"

"Think over the top space ray guns."

"Cool."

Chapter 15: Chapter 15

Chapter Text

"So your sure that you don't want to come work at the mountain, I can give you one of my space guns."

"I told you no recruiting Jack at least till this is over"

"But dad."

"I said no Jack am I going to have to get Carter in here to control you?"

"No, she'll give me a lecture about how I should learn to share and then pull Daniel in to give me his disappointed poutty face, or even worse make me sit through one of Rodneys lectures and expect notes on it when hes done."

***********************************************
Last Week Friday Evening
***********************************************

Deciding to call a Taxi so no one would see his car back at the yard, Tony picked up their supper and was on his to towards Delores office, when he heard voice causing him to duck into the supply room to hide, Mcgee was still there despite her obvious attempts to get him to leave. "Tim I told you I am perfectly fine, I need to finish up my work before I leave and the longer you are here the longer its going to take me."

"I wouldn't be a gentleman if I left yo to walk alone to your car when your done."

"I have security to walk me out, now you have to leave I told you we can talk tomorrow."

"Well I'm just worried, you called me Agent McGee in front of Tony and I thought that you were signaling that you wanted me to stay in a professional capacity."

"I called you Agent McGee in front of Agent DiNozzo because it not professional to call you by your first name."

"Oh, it's just that Tony is sometimes a little hard to take and I thought he might be bothering you."

"Agent DiNozzo has been nothing but professional with me, now yo have to leave I have some secured documents I need to finish up."

"I can help."

"No, its Friday night go home enjoy yourself, I will see you tomorrow at ten. No earlier as I have plans for tonight when I'm done here and don't plan to be back till then."

"Okay, I guess I will see you tomorrow." He turned to pack up his stuff before leaving "You have a good night."

Waiting for a few minutes after he heard McGee pass the supply room, he slipped out and headed to the office knocking lightly before entering.

"Thank God it's you I thought that leech was back, I've been trying to get rid of him for the last half hour."

"I heard, now how hungry are you?"

"Absolutely starving."

"Good I brought, Chicken Fettachini and Spaghetti Bolognese not sure which one you preferred, Bread sticks and a Greek Salad to start with Tiramisu for dessert," he said as he cleared a spot on the table for the food.

"Just let me set the perimeter alarm for the office, before we eat in case he comes back."

***********************************************
Present
***********************************************

"That boy doesn't have many friends does he?"

"That's a resounding no."

***********************************************
Last Week Friday Evening
***********************************************

Deciding to wait till their meal was finished before going over the day the conversation flowed smoothly as they discussed the latest movies that had come out as well as some of the books both fiction and non-fiction they both enjoyed. Clearing off the table, and disposing of their garbage, Tony chuckled "If anyone had told me a week ago that I was going to find myself messed up with the biggest conspiracy around I would have said they had watched to many X Files, now look at us two low level employees sitting on top of the biggest political nightmare of the century, its like our own Watergate, all we're missing is an informant with a creepy code-name."

"Well we have Agent McGee, although he doesn't realize what he's telling us."

"True, okay we have our informant code-named Little Weasel, no that doesn't sound quite right how about Bigmouth Weasel, or Little Idiot or better yet Bigmouth Idiot Weasel."

"Tony, be nice I like weasels."

"Yes my lady, so other then the fact that he latched onto you like a lost puppy how did your day go?

Delores explained what he had told done and the program he installed for her as well as his offer to install others as well as their tea time conversation and what she had learned. "I don't know how you do this type of work all the time, I was almost sick to my stomach having to listen to the self-righteous bullsh*t that came out of his mouth, everything was about him."

"Such language from a lady."

Which earned a definite unladylike snort, "I have five brothers, what do you expect."

"Fair enough, now that program he put on it on your auxiliary computer right?"

"Yes, I didn't want him on my main one."

"Good, I wouldn't have put it past him to put in a keystroke program of sorts,to gain access to any of your files I would be willing to bet that is how he accessed the other agents computers secure files as well, make sure it is disconnected so it can't be accessed from the outside."

"Already did that, the power bar was accidentally pulled out in case he says something tomorrow about it I didn't realize it happened. Aren't you worried he got into yours then?"

"My work computer, maybe but my personal one not a chance, I've never trusted him enough to have access to it and it only connects to the internet through secure channels its not on the system in the office. I can still access the NCIS sites but its piggybacked over several networks before it reaches the destination and its swept for security problems every week, a friend of mine at the FBI set it up for me."

"I thought you didn't get along with any FBI Agents?"

"Shes not exactly a Fed."

"Gotcha, so how was your day with Agent David?"

"She behaved as expected, she actually offered to do this again, guess she liked what she found out and thinks this could become a regular source of info for her," he told her gaining another snort.

"Are we done for the night then, or do you have more that you want to go over?"

"I think we've gotten all the stuff we're going to get for now, we can finish tomorrow and write up our reports then figure out who to take this to I have a few ideas but I'm still waiting for some people to get back to me hopefully they will soon because I don't know how long we can hide what we are doing...mind you they wont expect anything like this from an office worker and a dumb jock, not like we could do something like this without someone holding our hands all the way cause its way too complicated for us to do by ourselves," he chuckled.

***********************************************
Present
***********************************************

"I can't believe that so many people still fall for that dumb jock routine of yours, if they realized that you could mastermind and carry out a plan of this magnitude effectively taking down a corrupt government agency and several high ranking officials in a week, they would know you are any thing but, and yes I know the qualifications to become an S.A.F require more then just a Bachelors Degree. You remember I was your boss when you started there."

"I give them what they expect of me."

"What Degree's do you have then?"

"As well as a Bachelors of Phys. Ed, I have a Masters in International Relations which gives me a critical insight and understanding of the perspectives and implications of global issues, such as poverty, genocide, armed conflict, terrorism, human rights, as well as the environment, as well as a Doctorate of Philosophy in Political Science (International affairs) combining elements of political science, economics, sociology, and the hard sciences, specializing in International Conflict Management and Resolution. I focused on International negotiation, conflict resolution and analysis, Terrorism, counter-terrorism and intelligence studies as well as Arms control and disarmament. With my thesis being on Political vs. Public Terrorism, how it affects the the International landscape."

"Well Crap, I remember hearing about that paper from Daniel, he went on and on about it and how it could be applied to our situation with the Gould and Tokra."

Chapter 16: chapter 16

Chapter Text

"You do realize that I have to show you off right."

"Jack..."

"What?"

Tony sat back watching the two men laughing at them, "You really know how to flatter a guy."

***********************************************
Last Week Saturday Morning
***********************************************

That morning found Tim and Ziva waiting when Tony arrived "Well it's about time, you showed." Tim bit out at him. "We've been here for the last half an hour waiting to get in."

"Considering its only quarter to ten, and Ms Bromstead said that she would be here at ten, why would I get here any earlier McCranky?, its not like I have the key and security codes to her office."

"Security codes?" Ziva asked.

"Uh yeah, considering the sensitive documents she has in there, they put a specialized system in."

"How do you know about it then?"

"I asked McScmuck."

As Tim was about to reply, Delores came up behind them, "Sorry I'm running late I had a phone call from my Uncle Edward, this morning, and we lost track of time or I would have been here sooner, now if you would back up I need to get through don't come in till I disable both alarms please."

Tony and Ziva moved aside for her while Tim just stood there. "Agent McGee you have to move as well.

"Oh, okay."

Once everyone was in the office she turned to them, "Now is everybody ready for today, Agent McGee I expect you will help me in my office with file work, Agents DiNozzo and David you re doing the last transfer then. Agent Dinozzo here is the access code for today." handing Tony a slip of paper, he opened it to read 'Uncle Ed is faxing me some more information this afternoon, he says we should look at'.

"Okey dokey, that works see you in a few hours when we're done, Ziva shall we?" he replied opening the door for her.

"Okey dokey what are you five?"

"Yup."

With Tony and Ziva on their way to the Archive room, Tim turned towards Delores, "I'm sorry about earlier, I didn't mean to overstep.

"That's alright Tim, its just that the director does not even have access to my office when I'm not here, due to protocol and regulations."

"That makes sense, so what are we doing today?"

"Not a lot but we just have to finish entering the case files into the system that we started the other day."

"We can do that, and I'm not sure if your aware of it but I'm a writer, and I have a copy of my new manuscript with me. I'd be honored if you look at it before I submit it, I think you would enjoy it."

"I'd be honored, now the sooner we start the sooner we're done."

***********************************************
Present
***********************************************

"He gave her a copy of his book?"

"Made interesting reading, half fact, half fiction all pompous grandstanding. If the first one is anything like this I'm surprise he was allowed to publish, since he tends to bring real cases into his little fantasy world.

"I'll check into it."

***********************************************
Last Week Saturday Afternoon
***********************************************

Tony and Ziva had arrived in hard copy room and repeated the process they had yesterday afternoon, of doing the counts and securing the files. "So do you want to drive today or you okay with me driving again?"

"You may drive if you wish, would it be alright to get a coffee again before we leave?"

"Sure, works for me," he told her as they loaded the files into the SUV and got themselves ready to go. Starting the vehicle he looked at the gas gauge. "Crap, mind waiting a minute I gotta grab a gas card we're going to need to fill up before we get back here."

"No problem, I do not wish to be stuck anywhere."

Hopping out of the car, Tony jogged around the corner stopping when he was out of sight, silly woman did she forget he had a permanent issue gas card for NCIS vehicles as S.A.F. Watching a few moments he caught the flash of her camera phone, ah so that's how shes doing it, we can use that as evidence. When enough time had passed he hurried back to the car. "We can't stop at the cafe its closed today, drive through Starbucks work for you?"

"That is fine, now can we go I have plans again tonite."

"OOHH hot date two nights in a row, who's the lucky guy?"

"Who I date is no concern of yours, just like I do not wish to know who heats the bedding with you."

"That's warms the sheets," he replied rolling his eyes at how she had been in America so long but still couldn't speak the language.

The rest of the day continued on with Ziva whining that she didn't know why two Agents were needed when one could handle the job just fine and that was not the way that Mossad would do it, and Tony just ignoring her as best he could till they pulled back into the Navy Yard. "We're done if you want to take off for your date you just have to sign the final forms on Monday, I can leave them in your inbox when I'm done."

"Thank you, and his name is Ray."

"Huh, who?"

"My date, I know your dying of curiosity."

***********************************************
Present
***********************************************

"What if she already passed the info on and deleted the pictures?" Jack questioned.

"Nothing is ever permanently deleted, you just have to to know where to look, to quote McGoober, your scientists should know what to do."

***********************************************
Last Week Saturday Afternoon
***********************************************

Tim was just finishing up whatever paperwork that Delores had him doing when Tony walked into the office. "All done just have to finish my paperwork so it can be signed off and I'm done. So what about you Tim any plans for tonight I know Ziva has a hot date with some Ray dude."

"Ray, that must the guy from the CIA that was calling her last week. And if you must know Abby wants to take me to a new club tonite, she thinks I'll really like it."

"Have fun, you going to dress up?"

"Whats wrong with the way I look now?"

"Have you ever been out clubbing with her?"

"We've gone for drinks."

"Okay," Tony tried not to laugh, he remembered the few times he had gone out with Abby and it was nothing like Tim was expecting. "Have fun tonite, I know I will."

***********************************************
Present
***********************************************

"So what's with this Abby person"

"Think a cross between Goth and Pollyanna."

"That's scary."

"That's Abby."

*************************************************
Last Week Saturday Evening
*************************************************

Deciding, that they could wait for supper they started going over the day when Delores handed him the manuscript that Tim had left her. "Thought you might like this I have no intention to read his drivel."

"Yeah, I heard from a few people that it was dime story fiction but I'll look at it after, did your Uncle fax over the information."

Yes, Tim was here when it came in so I couldn't look at it I just locked it in my desk, you should have heard him go on about how outdated faxing something was that electronic transfer was the way to go."

"Sounds like him, he doesn't realize that old school is the way to go sometimes. So lets see what Uncle Edward has for us."

Edward Sheffield had taken over when Alexander Nelson passed away suddenly, it seemed that no one had bothered to clean out his office before he was installed as the next SecNav and going through his predecessors paperwork he had come across some files and notes that he had found suspicious but gave no clue as to the what actually was involved. He had dug deeper finding out what he could and had continuously hit a brick wall but knew that then Senator Kinsey the little rat he was, had his fingers all over it as well as several high ranking military officials and several minor at the time government officials who had risen up ranks over the last few years. What bothered him the most was finding a report that had been jointly filed by two Federal Agents stating acceptable losses during training procedures, how how plans had been made to rectify the problem, including bringing specialized personnel. The worst of it was that nothing was openly acknowledged making him aware that what he found wasn't remotely legal.

"sh*t, no wonder he was worried this is disturbing without knowing everything else, we found out. The good thing is it gives us a list of players, some of them we didn't know about."

"Who do we take this to? I mean I don't know who we can trust anymore."

"Leave that to me, lets put what we have together and lock up. I found a great little restaurant out of the way that no one we know would go to," hoping he sounded more confident then he felt.

***********************************************
Last Week --Sunday--
***********************************************

After dinner the night before Tony left Delores with the promise that it would soon be over. The next morning had him sitting in his apartment with Mcgees book and his off duty service revolver by his side, with all he had learned the past week followed up by yesterdays revelations he was beginning to jump at shadows, he knew that they needed to do something fast before it came crashing in on them. Making copies of everything they had, he arraigned for them to go to the right people if he disappeared without telling them. His exit strategy was put into motion with different aliases that would not be looked for if needed, he even made preparations to protect Delores and make her disappear if it came to that. Now who could he go to one or two people came to mind but did he want to involve them in this sh*tstorm.

**************************************************
MONDAY MORNING
**************************************************

Tonys decision was made for him, when after he arrived at work that morning, Gibbs was waiting for him as he stepped off the elevator. "Your still on cold cases this week, McGee told me how you tried to make him look bad with Ms Bromstead when he was working with her. It appears you haven't learned you place. Everything you need is in conference room two. Unless you need to get additional files you are not to leave there until a case is finished for me."

"I've finished up what you gave me last week, so I'll go get more from the Archives"

"I'll call down and tell her to expect you, now get moving."

Getting a handful of files from her he gave her the heads up that he was moving ahead and that if she could make sure that she was secured in her office till he or someone he trusted came for her joking that it probably wasn't the first time she slept at her desk. Entering the elevator, he called the one person he decided on. "Hello Director Morrow, I need to talk to you."

***********************************************
Present
***********************************************

Finishing up his recount of the previous week, Tony looked as if a huge weight had been taken off his shoulders, "So there you have it, what do we do now?"

"You have all the proof with you, including the cold case that started this?"

"Yes Sir, it's all here," he said handing over a large satchel he had brought with him.

"I'm going to have to make a few calls and see where we can go, it shouldn't take to long I hope I will just give a condensed version now and you can make a detailed report after," picking up the phone and punching in a number "Henry, we need to talk... no it can't wait till morning...I'm sure...Good have I got a story for you."

Chapter 17: Chapter 17

Chapter Text

Jack and Tony moved over to the other side of the room to give Morrow some privacy with his call, "You did good kid, I don't think anyone else could have pulled that off."

"Thanks Jack that means a lot, so even if I don't come to work for you can I get a tour of the Mountain?"

"You Betcha."

The two men sat talking for another hour while Tom was on the phone, not wanting to disturb him. When he hung up, he looked over at them, "Well the President was impressed with what you did, and has taken steps to start on the clean up we need to do."

"That great, so what happens next then? And am I going to be part of it or is someone else going to take over?"

"You'll continue to work on this, Congratulations SAC DiNozzo."

"Huh, say what"

"Officially under special order of the President, you were transferred to the DoD six months ago, to work directly under the Assistant to the Secretary of Defense for Intelligence Oversight who as you know, is responsible for the independent oversight of all intelligence, counterintelligence, and intelligence-related activities in the Department of Defense ensuring that they are being conducted in accordance with all Federal law, Executive Orders, DoD directives, regulations and policies. The paperwork is being filed as we speak, it lists you as being on secondment to NCIS to oversee Operation Haystack, an investigation of possible corruption within the Agency."

"Wow, I don't know what to say thank you," Tony sat back in his chair visibly relieved he knew he had picked the right person to go to with his concerns.

"You have all the power of a DCIS Special Agent in conducting, supervising, or coordinating investigations of criminal activity in programs and operations of the Department of Defense, with the authority to execute and serve any warrant or other process issued under the authority of the United States to make arrests without a warrant for any offense against the United States committed in your presence, or any other felony recognizable under the laws of the United States if you have probable cause. Your credentials are being sent over by courier as we speak."

"I guess that means I can't take him to mountain."

<<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>>

"The first thing we need to do is get Delores clear of there," Tony spoke up "She needs to be away from the line of fire when we go in to take them down...how are we going to do that anyway? and how are we going to excuse my absence I told them that I had to see a doctor cause being stuck in the Archives all weekend had aggravated my lungs, Gibbs tried to argue with me and wanted me to go see Ducky saying that he could check me out I didn't have to leave. Are we taking them down all at once or one at a time? Does..."

"Whoa hold on there, one thing at at time call Delores and tell her that she needs to go home and tomorrow she can expect two interns from the DoD for her to train. They will act as her bodyguards till this is done Jack any suggestions from your staff?"

"Simon Wells and Jake Bosworth from SG13, both are familiar with covert ops and young enough to pass as interns." Jack answered, "As for Tony we can get Dr. Carolyn Lam, shes Stargate Command's Chief Medical Officer to put him on medical leave for a few days while we set everything else up."

"Sounds good, Tony make the call, I'm sure she must be frantic."

After talking with Delores and assuring her that everything was okay telling her the plan, he handed the phone to Tom, "She wants to talk to you."

Five minutes later he handed the phone, back to Tony visibly shaken and a little bit whiter then before.

"Everything okay Sir?"

"I'm just Damn glad shes on our side, it appears shes taken a liking to you and proceeded to inform me what would happen if you did not return in one piece."

They continued to go over the papers Tony had brought with him till security called up to say a Presidential courier had arrived, and needed Tom's signature to release his package. Telling them that he was expected he told them to escort him to his office.

<<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>>

Signing for the package, Tom opened it and began going over it chuckling as he came across the sticky note the President had left for him 'Tell Jack I win, he's mine'.

"This makes it official, you are now a full time DoD Special Agent in Charge of the new Agency Corruption Task Force the President has created, according to this paperwork he sent, you are only answerable to him unless there is a possible conflict of interest between the President and a case then it will be deferred to a secondary of your choosing. This gives you free reign to investigate any and all current or defunct operations within a federal agency if you have probable cause to question, and recruit within the ranks as needed. You security clearance has been upgraded to facilitate this."

"I don't know what to say, I didn't do this for a promotion."

"No, you did it because it was the right thing to do and obviously the President agrees, so lets get this show on the road and finish what you started where do you want to begin?"

"Well we are going to need to take them all down at once or within a very short time of each other to avoid anyone communicating with each other. If you don't mind I would like to be present at NCIS Headquarters when this is done."

"Wouldn't expect it any differently. Jack can you provide the take down teams or do we need to bring in outside assistance?"

"Depends on how many teams we're going to need. SG1 will want to take Kinsey and company, The Trust depends if we can get them together as a group or individually, no matter what that will need a minimum of four teams with the amount of people involved. The SecNav is one and NCIS, Tony how many?"

"At least three, heavily armed because of Ziva and Gibbs they will fight down to the wire, when we confront them like this. Vance has gotten soft relying on support from everyone else, McGee will crumple he will do what he thinks is necessary to save his own skin and if that means turning on everyone he will. The loose cannon is Abby we know she's tainted evidence for them but how far is she willing to go is my question...before this started I wouldn't have asked but mind you before this I didn't think any of my so called team would have been this far over the line."

"So thats nine teams then we can do that."

"Your forgetting Mike Franks who last I heard he was in Mexico, Trent Kort over at the CIA not sure where he is right now as well as Sharpe and Simmons, plus the handful of minor players from Sheffields notes. We're going to need at least fifteen unless we can pick them up with anyone realizing what is going on. Probably also going to need at least four teams on standby to pick up the slack if things go sideways which they probably will. Might want to investigate this Ray fellow that Ziva is supposed to be seeing as well because more then likely hes also up to something not quite legit if he's involved with her. Ahh crap we should pick up Eli David as well cause he's got to many connections with them not to know whats going on and honestly wouldn't put it past him to pull a fast one."

"That's everyone then?"

"Probably more, just can't think right now."

"Considering it's almost midnight, and I'm willing to bet you didn't sleep for sh*t last night no wonder, you're exhausted, tell you what lets get you a good nights sleep and we can go over the plan tomorrow figure out who else we need to pick up and meet the team leads who are going execute it. "

"They'll be coming here then?"

"Hell no we're going to the mountain, easier to gather everyone together that way besides you won't have to worry about jumping at shadows and maybe get a decent nights rest."

"Not till this is over."

"No doubt, ready to go?"

"So what, we going to fly out there?"

Jack chuckled "Nope even better, hope you don't get motion sickness."

"No, I ride with Gibbs and he drives like a maniac"

"Good! Prometheus, two to ring up at my location."

Chapter 18: chapter 18

Chapter Text

"Whoa...beam me up Scotty"

"We're more sophisticated then that."

Landing on the deck of the Prometheus, they were greeted by two marines who were familiar with Jack, "Good evening General, we weren't expecting you tonite is everything okay?" indicating towards Tony.

"It's just bout perfect and tomorrow is going to be even better this is SAC DiNozzo of the DoD, be nice to him or I'll sic McKay on you."

"Jack you promised me a bed where I don't have to sleep with a loaded gun under my pillow, unless you mean't the transporter pad, I have slept in worse places but a hot shower would be nice as well." Tony began rambling the lack of sleep and tension from the last week catching up with him.

"Right, sorry get hold of SG command and tell them to have the guest suite near my quarters prepared. Who's on call?"

"That would Colonel Carter, Sir."

"Good get her on line."

<<>><>><<>><<>><<>><>><>><<>><>><< MONDAY NIGHT

"Jack I thought you were doing paperwork, what are you doing on the Prometheus?"

"I've been in a debriefing since before lunch with Director Morrow and a Very Special Agent who is about to bring down The Trust, I've promised him a safe place to sleep right now."

"Are you in charge of the take down then?"

"No, he is and before you get huffy about how it should be a Military operation, he has a higher security clearance then me, and answers to no one but the President. Officially he is the head of the Inter-agency Corruption Task Force, unofficially he's part bloodhound, part pit bull and all wild card who thinks so far outside the box it might as well not exist, considering it took him less then a week to get what he needed with only himself and one other person who isn't field trained I wouldn't question him."

"A week, Holy sh*t we've been looking for a way for years. Are you sure?"

"Yes Sam, I'll fill you in when we ring down, you can question him tomorrow when we meet to go over details. Right now he needs to sleep where he doesn't and I quote 'need a loaded gun beneath his pillow', could you also see that a sandwich tray is sent to his quarters and arrange for Dr Lam to see him sometime tomorrow, we need to extradite him from where he is and are using medical to do it."

"Yes Sir, see you in a few."

<<>><>><<>><<>><<>><>><>><<>><>><<>

Ringing down into the Gate Room, they were met by two marines who informed them that they were to escort them to debriefing. Tony by this time had had enough, "Is this standard procedure or doesn't your 2IC trust you or maybe shes put out by the fact that a lowly agent got the goods on Kinsey and she couldn't. I'm tired, I'm hungry and I'm getting cranky," looking at the one marine who was trying to intimidate him, "And that doesn't work on me, I was SAF for Gibbs for ten years you have nothing on him."

"Gunnery Sergeant Gibbs?"

"Yeah, take it you've heard of him."

"Oh sh*t," Looking over at Jack "Sorry Sir, if you worked with him then Sorry." He stuttered out.

"His reputation proceeds him."

"He WAS a good marine, a not so sh*t hot agent but then again no ones perfect." Tony conceded.

"Speak for yourself."

Arriving in the conference room, they were greeted by two woman one of whom was carrying a clipboard, "I understand you have some information about the Trust for us Agent..."

"What I have, can wait for tomorrow, I'm not handing it over to you so you can run off half co*cked and ruin my investigation because you think you know better, and its Doctor DiNozzo, if you want to play the pissing game." he had worked enough interrogations to realize that they were attempting to do, "And also if you think you can head-shrink me pfft I've sent the best of them to therapy after there done with me. Which one of you is Carter?"

"I am, and I'm sorry I just thought..."

"Ya thought wrong," he cut her off "So whats the matter, Someone else solved your problem or your not in charge of the take down, cause Lady I don't care. Jack wheres my bed?"

Turning to one of the marines he asked them to escort Tony to his room for the night, "We'll talk in the morning, I'll have a someone fetch you for breakfast." Facing Carter he shook his head "As for you, you have some explaining to do that man has little to no trust in anyone because of his job and you just about destroyed his in mine because of your little stunt."

"I was worried Jack, you were in a private meeting for hours you didn't tell us about and then show up here unannounced with some guy you say is going to solve our problems."

<<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>> TUESDAY MORNING

The next morning found Tony looking at the suit he had worn the day before, and wondering if he could get Jack to find him some spare clothes, when a knock got his attention. Wrapping himself in his blanket he opened the door, seeing Jack with a set of BDUs "Oh thank you, didn't have time to pack you know."

"Figured as much, so get any sleep last night?"

"Some, spent most the night going over figures and its not looking good for us."

"Why not, no don't tell me till I've had coffee get yourself dressed and we'll head to the mess for breakfast, I'll wait in the hall for you. Oh and Carter shes sorry for last night, its just shes a little protective of me."

"Understandable, she kinda like your Delores except shes not just your best friend shes in love with you."

"What no, its not like that."

"Keep telling yourself that oh Blind One, I can tell and I only spent five minutes with her."

<<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>>

Heading to the mess hall, they were joined by Colonel Carter and another member of SG1 that Jack introduced as Dr Daniel Jackson.

"Morning Colonel Carter, Dr Jackson"

"Dr. Dinozzo, I'm so sorry about last night, I just was worried about the General and really one week to topple The Trust, when we haven't been able to do it in over three years it was a bit suspicious."

"It's Tony and what can I say I was motivated."

"Tony, you were pissed at Gibbs," Jack cut in.

"That too," he shrugged "Dr Jackson, Jacks mentioned you a few times its nice to meet you."

"Really he's never mentioned you."

"Probably since we didn't meet till yesterday Danny besides you should have recognized his name."

"Oh... Whys that?"

"Cause he wrote that paper you raved about for months about Political vs Public Terrorism."

"That was you, oh I have so many questions we need to talk, have you written anything else?"

"Down boy, You can monopolize him after right now its breakfast followed by strategy planning, that reminds me according to Bethesda Emergency you were admitted with respiratory distress, yesterday afternoon signed off by Dr Pitt and Dr Lam, turns out they know each other the paperwork was sent off to H.R. this morning."

"I have to call Delores, shes going to be worried."

"Delores?" Carter asked. "Girlfriend?"

"My Moneypenny, Jack do you have a phone I can call out from? Mine died and if I go to charge it chances are Abby will have put a trace on it the minute its turned on."

"All signals are blocked except for secured lines, you can use mine just be sure to let her know I'm feeding and watering you as per her instructions I heard the threats to Tom if you don't come home in one piece," handing him his cell phone.

"Delores it's me...I'm fine I promise...I'm not lying to you...Yes I know...If McLoser asks again, your at the part where Tibbs finds the abandoned car its about halfway through...Listen I need you to find out about Zivas boyfriend it's Ray something just get me his last name...Be brave ask Timmy out for lunch he'll start blabbering...So how are the two new children?...I see hold on, I'll talk to you after lunch," turning to Jack "She wants to talk to you." he smirked returning his phone to him.

"Yes ma'am...Yes ma'am...Yes ma'am...No Ma'am...of course." Ending the call, he shuddered "That was just mean, I can see how she made an Admiral cry."

"Actually it was a Rear Admiral, and you have to admit she is Sheffields niece."

"Yeah so you were going to tell me how bad it was I've had my coffee and a bracing talk with your adopted mother hit me with the numbers."

"Worse case scenario we need thirty-five teams to take everybody down at once, that's including the group take downs. I'm working on cutting that back but its going to take some juggling. One of the other problems thats come up are some of the names on the list that Sheffield gave us, there's little to no information on a couple of them like they don't exist, we can leave them out of the initial take down but will have to get back to them as soon as possible when this is done hopefully we can get more information on them from some of the players we take down."

Chapter 19: Chapter 19

Chapter Text

<<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>> TUESDAY MORNING

"Thirty-five teams there's no way we can do it, we only have sixteen that are combat trained surely..."

"Colonel Carter, breathe--in out in out good now, give me a few hours and I'll have it sorted out even if I have to bring in my own people from other agencies to make it work."

"Who would you bring in and how can you just go to another agency and get their people to help you?

"CARTER, when I told you last night he was the best did you not here me also tell you he answers only to the President, if he wants people he will get them."

"Okay, I just..."

"I know now I'm pretty sure the mess is not the place to do this, Tony I can set you up in the spare security office if you want."

"That works for me, I'm going to need files on all the SG teams to go over, just in case we're missing someone. All we need is an uncontrolled Frankenstein on the loose when we drop the ball. That's the next thing we're going to have to do, is find all the operatives, and hope they don't have deadman switches. We can do that after we get final files I'm hoping."

"I wasn't even thinking of that, Crap Danny mind helping him out"

"Uh sure, what am I supposed to look for?"

"I'll explain when we get set up, Jack how are we situated for holding cells if needed?"

"I'll start on that next anything else?"

"We should plan for this go down by the end of the week Friday afternoon at the latest I'll let you know what else I need as it comes up"

"Okey Dokey, you heard him kiddies we got work to do."

<<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><>><<>>

Not sure where to start, Tony stared at his files lost in thought till he was interrupted by Daniel, "You know I'm told I get the exact same look when I can't figure something out."

"Yeah, what look is that?"

"The WTF am I going to do one. Jack tells me to step back grab a coffee and look at it from a different angle."

"That's it, a different angle they need to be...here hold on... do I trust...we need to make some... they might do it...do we have any string...no that wont work...we need tape and...gotta call Tom...we can that might...yeah that's it" standing up he crossed over to the far wall and started to remove the posters someone had put up."

"UH...what are you doing?" Daniel was watching him as if he was about to grow another head.

"A different angle instead of one at time all at once, and the only way is put them up on the wall like a crime scene work up all the info we have displayed at once, so we see the big picture, like a mural. Its simple."

"Maybe to you."

Ten minutes later, Jack walked into see the wall that was once covered in superhero posters, now adorned with pages of names circling a single sheet with the number thirty-five in it. "Love what you did with the decor."

"Thanks, this is whats going to cut our numbers back, this is all we have have to round up, however we know that it can't be done at once so we even the odds out by taking down who we can before that's not going to missed or cause suspicion."

"That makes sense, I guess but how do we do that?"

"Watch and learn, I'm going to need access to your MTAC and transportation arrangements made for some people."

"Jack, his mind works like nothing I've seen before its all over the place and it confused me worse then you do."

"Its a natural talent, hey does your Star Trek Transporter Ship...

"The Prometheus."

"Yeah that, does it need a communicator or something to get a signal lock on someone?"

"No, if we have there DNA we can do a trace for them, Why?"

"Maybourne, Makepeace, Simmons and the Russian General Kiselev have all been read into the Stargate Program right."

"Unfortunately, yeah they have."

"Good then beaming them aboard the Prometheus won't reveal any secrets they don't already know. and you should have their DNA on file with them being Military, and we're down to Thirty-one teams."

<<>><<>><<>><<<>><<>><<>><<>><<>>

Pulling the first four off the wall placing them them in a file he marked with 'Beam Me Up' he began looking at the rest, "SG1 is going to want to take down Kinsey right?" taking him off next.

"He's been a pain in our side for years oh yeah he's ours."

"Okay, Eli David Mossad Director, you need to cautious with him, he's a slippery bastard heavily armed is a good idea and if extreme pain just happens to be administered during his take down it would not be questioned."

"OH..."

"Lets say I owe him a few broken bones."

"Okay, who's next?"

"Trent Kort CIA, mentally unstable, likes things that go boom, again extreme pain recommended."

"What did he do?"

"Besides somehow being involved in Director Shepards death, he blew up my car...I loved that car"

"Ouch."

"That's a start but we still have a bit to go to get this manageable. I need to make some calls."

<<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><>>

"Good Morning"

"Is it, did you even sleep Tony? I know I sure didn't, my mind was still processing yesterday, Hell it still is I can't do a damn thing productive and Amelia keeps checking on me and asking if I'm Okay."

"I got about four maybe five hours I was going over numbers last night, we needed Thirty-five but only have Sixteen teams I've dropped it down to Twenty-eight and Thirteen."

"So what do you need me to do?"

"Remember the two companies that were being investigated by ICE and DEA, we need the cases wrapped up as loud and media heavy as they can make them, as fast as possible today or tomorrow would be best if they get taken down by someone other then us then they won't suspect anything else. They can take all the credit and do what they want after take their time dissecting them, just as long as we can get our people to take the suspects off there hands for the next couple of weeks."

"I can do that, I can spin a crossover investigation that needs immediate handling due to a sensitive situation, not like its going to be far from the truth. Anything else?"

"How well do you know, Jarvis?"

"Same Country club, we see each other at government functions quite a bit wouldn't exactly call us best friends though.

"Could you have him come down to your office for a meeting of some sorts then or would he get suspicious?"

"Not a problem we've met a few times."

"Perfect arrange for Friday Afternoon around one, the other take'downs are happening between one and two if we can have you grab him then its one less for us."

"I'll start making calls now, phone me in a few hours and I can let you know the times. Is there anything else you need?"

"I need to set up a couple of MTAC calls if you could help.'

"Just tell me who and when"

<<>><<>><<>><<>><><><>>><<>><<<><<>><<

Deciding that he needed coffee before attempting anything else Tony was headed to mess hall when the loud sound of a klaxton went off followed by the announcement 'Unscheduled OffWorld Activation', "Well that's new." he murmured to himself as a group soldiers went past him towards the gateroom.

"Tony," Jack called coming up behind him "Come on you gotta see this." pulling him along as he hurried after the marines.

Reaching the Gateroom they heard from the Airman sitting behind the control panel "Its SG 5's IDC signal"

"Open the Iris," Jack ordered.

What at first appeared to be a just stone circle filled with what almost looked like water that was rippling, suddenly changed with the water shooting forward like a wave followed by a group of men walking through with the wave going back to rest inside the stone.

"So what do you think?" Jack eyes glittered as he rocked on his heels.

"Looks like someone flushed a funky toilet."

Jacks jaw just dropped.

"I think you broke him Dr Dinozzo," Colonel Carter came up behind them

"I told you, call me Tony," he smiled at her "That happen often?'he pointed at the sputtering man.

"No, haven't seen that for a while, it looks good on him. While we're at it call me Sam."

Chapter 20: chapter 20

Chapter Text

<<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>> TUESDAY AFTERNOON

Realizing that Tony was as dependent on coffee as Daniel was, Sam made arraignments for an urn to go back to his office with him, as they sat eating there lunch "Where do you put it all? I mean I saw what you had for breakfast and if I ate that I'd still be full."

"I've always had a high metabolism, If I don't eat then I can get pretty light headed. I've learned to keep power bars on hand when I can't get a decent meal."

"Sound like Colonel Mitchell, he the one currently leading SG1 he's always got a supply of chocolate at hand."

"Chocolate is always your friend."

"How far have you gotten in dropping the numbers?"

"With three teams accounted for, we still need Twenty-eight with only Thirteen available, hopefully with my next calls I can cut out two or three more. right now I'm working on the known factors I have eight hostiles I'm still unsure about. They appear to be on the fringes but we can't know for sure as they were involved with the start up but have mostly drifted away over the course of the last ten to fifteen years. I will have more information on them by tonite after I go over their files again I admit I just kinda glanced at them earlier but I didn't have the time or energy when I got them Yesterday morning before I met with Jack and Director Morrow."

"If you want, I could go over them save you the time that way you can continue with what your doing."

"Could you, you don't mind?"

"Not at all."

"I'd kiss you, but I think Jack would get jealous."

"It's not like that, he doesn't..."

"Just keep telling yourself that."

<<>><<>><<>><<>><<>>><<>>><<>>><<>>><<>>><<>><<<>>

With the eight unknowns being looked at by Sam, Tony returned his concentration to the remaining ones on the wall, hopefully the next few hours would lower the numbers more. Noting the time he he realized that he needed to touch base with Delores.

"So how was your lunch with McMouth?" he greeted her as she answered the phone.

"Absolutely horrendous, he wouldn't shut up complaining the entire time about how the team has been sidelined doing paperwork because they are a man short with you out pretending to be sick to get sympathy and how they functioned last week without you proved they didn't need you."

"But, last week I was technically still there on the books, Gibbs is the one who pulled me out of rotation not the Director so they were still a four man team. This works for us, with them stuck on desk duty, we won't have to track them down, it'll help if they are all in one spot. Other then that all is good then?"

"He told me Zivas boyfriends name, Ray Cruz he works for the CIA and he doesn't like him, called him a cowboy who needed to learn his place."

"Ouch, me thinks someone is jealous."

"Well he certainly is of those two young men who Director Morrow sent over, he can't understand why I would have them in my office, and if I want he can get rid of them as well cause remember he has pull with the director," she laughed. "Now how long is going to take?"

"If all goes well Friday afternoon it will be all over."

"Good I expect you back here then."

"About that, there's a bunch of changes we need to discuss after."

"Noted, now call me tomorrow to check in."

"Yes my lady."

<<>><<>><<>><<>><<>>><<>>><<>>><<>>><<>>><<>><<<>>

Fingering the well worn card with only a phone number on it he wondered, did he want to call in his favor or could it wait deciding to hold off, Tony opted to call back Director Morrow instead he would wait and see what he could get done before bringing him in.

"Hey Tony, I have a meeting with Jarvis at one on Friday, he thinks its to go over plans for a retirement dinner of a colleague of ours."

"What ever works, bet its a long time since you did field work of any kind. Hows it feel?"

"Surprisingly good, I forgot the rush you get." He laughed "Don't think my wife would appreciate me going back to it though, shes gotten used to me sitting behind a desk."

"Fair enough, I have another name for you its Ray Cruz, supposedly CIA. He's apparently dating Ziva."

"See what I can do, I talked to the Directors over at DEA and ICE, they've both agreed to speed up the take down with them happening tomorrow morning, all they want is full access to the company files to get what they need."

"We'll give them what we can excluding anything from project Bluebook."

"Lastly I have MTAC set up for ten am tomorrow, a multi conference figured it would be easier then explaining everything twice. How much do you plan to tell them?"

" As much as I have to, they need to know what they are potentially walking into . I'm debating about my promotion."

"Understandable, talk to you in a few hours."

Hanging up the phone he wrote MTAC 1000 M-L-C on a slip of paper and taped it on the wall he was now calling Tonys most wanted a take on the NCIS wall Gibbs was obsessed with and looked longingly at the couch that sat in the corner, a few minutes of rest wouldn't hurt,they were down to Twenty- four and Thirteen he only needed eleven more.

<<>><<>><<>><<>><<>>><<>>><<>>><<>>><<>>><<>><<<>>

At the same time Tony was settling on the couch, the three original members of SG1 were gathered in Jacks office. "I'm so sorry I doubted him Jack, I read his report after you reamed me out last night. I can't believe that he did this with just an office worker to help him."

"Trust me shes not just an office worker and if Tony hears you calling her that he might hurt you, from what I can gather, they've adopted each other as family, and are extremely protective of each other. She made me promise to look after him, that he better not get hurt more then usual on my watch."

"Point taken, will he be coming to the mountain permanently after all this is done then?"

"I wish, but that's up to him the President gave him carte blanche on any and all cases that fall under U.S. Jurisdiction that he wants to look into if he thinks they're 'hinky'.

"Hinky?"

"Apparently one of his co-workers terms meaning not right, still doesn't mean I won't try."

"I looked up the papers that he wrote, its absolutely amazing the insight he has, I can't wait to pick his brain."

"Speak for yourself, I just want to see him go up against Dr McKay, I have feeling he'll break him."

"Jack he broke you."

"He called it a fancy toilet."

Sam smiled "He has a point it kinda does look..."

"Not another word."

"Yes, Sir, changing the topic I went over the last of the people that were on the list, there are only a few of them who have viable connections the rest appear to have just been used for funding."

"Let him know, he decide how to deal with them, what about the ones that 'don't exist'?"

"I was going to start searches on them after supper."

"Good, Danny any luck going through the personnel roister?"

"Only one, that kinda matches what Tony gave me and hes on SG 21 Airman Karl Lassic, I pulled his official file for him to go over after. Thought that I might start going over the entire mountain personnel if that's all right."

"Go for it, I was planning on that anyway."

<<>><<>><<>><<>><<>>><<>>><<>>><<>>><<>>><<>><<<>>

Tony woke up to the sound of someone entering the room, looking over to see Jack standing just inside the door, "What time is it?"

"Almost 1900 hours, thought you might like some food. Feel better."

"Yeah, more tired then I thought but I needed to crash for a bit. Thinking supper, a review of the day, followed by a hot shower then bed is on my agenda won't be able to do anything if I burn out or make myself sick."

"Smart man."

"Just know my limits, had to learn that after I got the plague when my body says your done I need to listen."

"You know we have healing devices that may be able to help you with that. If you want I could set something up for you. Dr Lam wants to give you a once over before Friday anyway so she has your baseline."

"Honestly, not to fond of doctors or hospitals for matter spent to much time in them, but I guess I should can we set it up for tomorrow afternoon I have an MTAC in the morning and don't know how long it will take."

"Now, lets get outta here, if we hurry they should still have jello for dessert."

Chapter 21: chapter 21

Chapter Text

<<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>> WEDNESDAY MORNING

Despite telling himself that he would look at the new files that Carter had gathered, the need for sleep overrode those thoughts and following supper he soon found himself crawling into his temporary bed. Waking up the next morning found him refreshed and ready to start back where he left off the night before.

Dragging himself to the mess for food and coffee, he ran into Daniel who was looking about as equally awake. Joining him they both sat there waiting for the coffee to kick in before attempting to start the day.

"I wanted for apologize for Colonel Carter,' Daniel began.

"Not your place to apologize for her, besides we worked it out. I get it an outsider coming in taking over not always the best thing."

"Are you coming to work for Jack after this?"

"Don't know, have to talk it over with my partner, so ready for another day in the trenches there still a lot to get done and I need to be at your MTAC before ten."

"MTAC... oh you mean our video conference room."

"Tomato- tow-mah-toe same thing."

<<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>>

The files that Sam collected were waiting on his desk when he arrived in his office, deciding to finish them off before starting anything else. Out of the eight they were three that were still active and needed to be picked up, the others had just contributed to the original funding and some sneaky interviews would deal with them. Pulling down the names off the wall he totaled it up they were down to ten teams but, still needed sixteen more for the take downs. He could do this.

It was half past nine, when Jack knocked on his door, "You sure you want to do this, you trust them?"

"Trust them enough, when I was debating who to call about this mess, that they were my other choices."

Entering the conference room, they found the technician getting ready to start the call. Seeing Tom come up on the screen, Tony grinned "A bright and cheery good morning to you, are we ready to rumble?"

"As ready as I'm going to be, and you?"

"Honestly, no but it has to be done, they will need to be read in anyway and I'd rather it be me that does this." the monitors chimed letting them know that the other parties were ready to join.

"Good morning Thomas, I must say you had me intrigued to the nature of this call...Ahh Agent Dinozzo it is always a pleasure to see you, where is the rest of your team?"

"Director Morrow, Agent Dinozzo I agree with Miss Lange you had me intrigued when you requested a secure conference call with my office."

"Everything will be explained Admiral Chegwidden, Miss Lange. During a routine investigation, Operation Frankenstein, a currently unsanctioned black op was discovered, If you could look at the secured files I'm sending we can go from there."

Hetty was the first to finish reading the information, "That is severely disturbing, what do you plan to do Director Morrow? I presume young Anthony is part of the solution."

"I plan to take them down, all of them." Tony spoke up his voice sounding harsher then Hetty expected.

"I see, and how do you plan to that?"

"I was transferred to the DoD, just after this was discovered to work on the Presidents new Inter-agency Corruption Task-force, we have the ability to pull in whoever we need to get the job done. I requested that you be involved."

"Your supervisor agreed to this then, I would like to meet with whoever is in charge, to confirm everything." Admiral Chegwidden spoke up.

"Agent DiNozzo is the Agent in charge of Operation Haystack, he answers only to the president for this. "Jack answered for him, "General O'Neill that's two ells, with project Bluebook. He was he one that was instrumental in discovering how far this goes. I'm here because of cross jurisdiction."

"I have no problem, my team is available for you, who and what do you need done? A.J. what do you say?"

"I expect a good dinner and the full story after. What do you need?"

"The take down is happening on Friday afternoon unfortunately we don't have enough teams to take out everyone individually, so we have been making arrangements to take some down separately beforehand. Admiral if it would be possible for you detain Secretary Davenport and until my one of my teams can assume custody of him. The President would like to keep this as low as possible for as long as possible, due to the nature of this."

"I can have him come to my office for a problem that needs to be dealt with, I'm sure I can find something, will Jarvis be replacing him immediately?"

"That's the other problem, he's also on the list to be arrested."

"I've got him." Tom piped up. "The President will need to appoint an interim SecNav till A permanent one is called, but that's not my department. When I briefed him Monday, he was made fully aware of the situation, so I expect that he will be getting hold of you before too long."

"Hetty, we need two things from you, Riley McAlister he's in San Diego right now, he needs to be detained somehow."

"I can have him picked up on a misdemeanor by the local P.D., and the paperwork can get lost in the shuffle till you can deal with him, they owe me a few favors and will be happy to help."

"Thank you, the other thing is the take down at NCIS itself, we have five targets there, two of them I'm not so worried about its the other three."

"I will be there with bells on the toothpick will be pleasure to snap, the man is a disgrace to the agency. Agent Callen and his team will be coming with me, I will give them the basics only, that there is a rat infestation that needs to be stopped and you can finish briefing them before we go in."

"Thank you."

"No, thank you I'm honored that you would still trust me with this after learning what you did about your agency."

"I've always trusted you. I will have a plane waiting for you so no one is aware of your travel plans.

Ending the call a few minutes later after finalizing the details and agreeing to talk the next day Tony turned to Jack, "Just one more to go and I know how to deal with him, then we have enough teams for the take down."

<<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>> WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON

Checking in with Delores after lunch Tony could hear the sounds of what sounded like demolition in the background, "Doing some redecorating are we?"

"No, some idiot flooded the washroom on the second floor and it's leaked down into my hallway."

"How long to do the repairs?"

"Could be two days they told me, I'm not impressed."

"This could work in our favor, tell Bosworth that Uncle Jack wants to meet you after work and the site needs to be secured against infestation, I'll meet you at the Italian restaurant after work, and you can call in sick tomorrow because of a migraine caused by the noise the workers are creating."

Hanging up the phone he headed towards Jacks office. "I need to go pick up Delores after work."

"Everything alright?"

"Yeah, they had a water leak that has affected her floor. I'd feel better if shes out of the line of fire on Friday anyway, and she will be safer her if things go Kaboom"

"Kaboom? You don't think the water leak was an accident?"

"Maybe, maybe not. Either way not chancing it."

"I'll make arrangements for a room, anything else? You mentioned taking down the last straggler what do you have planned?

"After I get done with medical, and picking up Delores how would you fancy a road trip to sunny Mexico?"

Chapter 22: chapter 22

Chapter Text

<<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>> WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON

Sitting on the examination table, Tony was listening to Dr. Lam go over the results of the medical scan she had just completed, and how the amount of injuries she cataloged were the equivalent of a special forces soldier. "It's debatable who has the most injuries, you or General O'Neill, but with the heavy scaring on your lungs you are fit to return to desk duty only, I would not recommend any field work."

"Not happening Doc, My case my lead. I started this and I'm finishing it, Jack said something about a healing device that could be used."

"We do have a healing device, but I was not aware you knew about it."

"Given what I do, Jack filled me in on what goes on here, my clearance is high enough if you want to check with him."

"Check with who?" Jack walked into the infirmary "Well Doc, he ready to out and play?"

"General O'Neill, with the damage to his lungs I don't think that he is fit for active field duty."

"For crying out loud, just get Vala to do her mumbo jumbo and voila hes fixed."

"She's currently offworld, if it's to be used then I would suggest Colonel Carter or yourself weld the device."

"Sams better with it, I'll call her."

Half an hour later, Sam was placing a circular device over her palm and turning towards him. "It requires naqahdah in the blood of the user and since I was a host there is a residual left. Jack and Daniel also have it in their blood but I've had more practice with the device." She explained to him, "Now just hold still you should feel a warmth radiating from your body, its just the healing beginning to work."

"So how are you feeling?" Dr. Lam was running the scanner over Tony again checking over the results of the device, when Sam had finished. "Everything looks good, it might take a while for you to adjust to the increased capacity of your lungs so don't overdo it for the next couple days, other then that the damage to your knee was also repaired as well."

"I feel amazing, my entire body is tingling, its like wow."

"That's a good way to describe it, felt like that myself," Jack laughed "So what off to Mexico now?"

"Gotta pick up Delores first."

<<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>>

Deciding to ring into Tonys apartment, so he could pick up some personal items, extra clothes and his power suit for Friday, Jack looked around. "Wouldn't think a federal agent would have a baby grand piano."

"It was my mothers, I play it when I can."

"Nice, got everything?"

"Think so, the restaurant is a bout ten minutes from from here so should head over," Tony replied only to be interrupted by a pounding on his door.

"Open up, I know your in there Tony I can you talking...I went to the hospital and they said you weren't there...I know you lied to Gibbs"

"OH sh*t, its Abby...Kitchen go," throwing his bag behind the couch, he ran his fingers through his hair messing it up and went into a slouch. "Hold on don't break my door down, "Tony called out going from the picture of health to worn out in front of Jacks eyes.

"What do you think your doing?" Abby screeched at him as she stomped into his apartment. "You...you...you look like crap." actually looking at him. "You are sick. Why aren't you at the hospital?"

"You know I hate hospitals, I signed myself out and came home I can look after myself. Why are you here?"

"Tim was going on about how you were faking being sick to get out of Gibbs punishment what did you do anyways?, and ended up getting the team put on standby this week. I thought that..."

"You would go to the hospital and check out how sick I was and when you didn't see me automatically decided I was lying," Tony gritted out "Well now you know, get out go report back to Gibbs you saw me."

"No Tony its not like that"

"Really, I know you Abbs, you'd do anything Gibbs asked of you...I'll be back in a few days with the paperwork now go. I'm tired ...I'm hungry...and I don't want to see you."

"I'm sorry I should have..."

"Whatever go," as he pushed her out the door slamming it shut. Giving it a few seconds till he heard her stomp off then shaking off the mask he had adopted "Good thing we showed up today, she would have run searches all night to find me otherwise." He told Jack as he came out of the kitchen.

"Wow, she's...intense, and you wow."

"She's different... now we have to go get Delores."

<<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>>

Arriving at the restaurant, they went inside to see her and Airman Wells waiting for them. Greeting them he told them that Bosworth was setting a perimeter watch on her office and they would continue to monitor it till the take down.

This was the woman who had reduced an Admiral to tears and put the fear into him and Morrow, she looked harmless. Jack thought then she opened her mouth. "If I have to deal with that wanna be hack writer one more minute Tony I will not be held responsible, his body will be buried in the back Archive under so much paperwork they will never find him, and another thing what gives your so called boss the right to tell me who I can or cannot have in my office he had the nerve to inform me that he didn't want his Agent doing any work for me unless he approved it. That you were a slacker who needed discipline not coddling. And if that Banshee comes down to see me one more time trying to convince me that monthly file transfers are needed I will get over my fear of guns. Now let me get a look at you, have been eating, you are at least trying to sleep right."

"Yes my lady,"Tony chuckled. Turning to Jack he smiled "Warned you, don't cross mom."

"I promise hes being fed and watered on a regular schedule, I even made sure he saw my CMO to take care of his lungs."

"Good, because if hes not happy then I'm not happy and..."She trailed off.

"Everything is okay," Tony cut in "The take down is happening on Friday, but we need to get you out of there now, the base doctor can sign off your medical leave and send it in for you. I know you can take care off yourself but I'd feel better if you were closer to me for now, besides we have a crap load of files to go through and I want you to oversee I trust Dr Jackson but hes not up to your speed."

"Alright then, I need to get my personal items and a couple changes of clothing before going then." Turning to Jack "I presume you are our ride."

"Kinda, Tony maybe you better explain it to her."

After going over the basics, and assuring her that it was safe, the four of them exited the restaurant, to head back to Tonys. When they made it back to his apartment he grabbed his bag and quipped "Ready to beam up Scotty," causing Jack to groan.

"Even I don't say that."

At Delores' she grabbed an overnight bag and threw in extra clothes, pajamas, and her necessary toiletries before grabbing her own blanket and pillow as well as the doll Tony gave her for Christmas. "What...I don't go anywhere without these." she glared at Jack when he looked at the items funny. "I can't sleep in strange bedding and my Doll is a reminder that there is still good in people, if you have a problem with that."

"No ma'am."

<<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>>

Sam and Daniel were waiting for them when they got to the mountain, "Director Morrow Called he wants you to call him back, and OSP Lange called as well," Sam informed him after introductions were made.

"I'll call them back after Delores gets settled, you have a room set up for her?"

"Yes, its just down the hall from yours if you want I can have an airman take her things and you call show her your office, then head to the mess for supper."

"Up to her, that okay with you?" he asked turning toward her.

"That's fine with me. We can eat then get started going over those files Tony mentioned."

Leading the way to his office, he began to tell her what she had missed the last few days, and would she be interested in working with him full time after this was done, explaining that they would have free reign to look into whatever they thought was hinky. "So what do you think? Can we do this? Cause I really want you with me, we work well together and the first person I thought of when the President said I could recruit who I wanted was you. I know that..." Tony rambled on before she cut him off.

"If you think you are going to do anything without me dear boy then you have another thing coming, besides who else is going to make sure you take care of yourself."

"Yes, my Lady," He grinned sheepishly. His Moneypenny would always have his back like he always had hers.

"Now lets get this show on the road, we still have a lot to do before Friday and if I'm correct the fallout is going to hit hard and fast, we need to make sure that everybody is taken care of including those poor men and women who were turned into killers by those people.

Chapter 23: chapter 23

Chapter Text

<<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>> WEDNESDAY EVENING

After a quick supper, they returned to their office with Tony needing to return the calls from earlier and Delores starting on the personal files.

Doing a quick review in head of still had to be done, he decided to call Tom first as that would hopefully tie up a few more loose ends he hoped the older man could help him with.

"Just calling you back, whats up?

The DEA and Ice did there take downs this morning, the three hostiles are being held in-house, till you can pick them up. The sooner the better, as they freaked out the arresting agents according to scuttlebutt, it was like they were possessed."

"Hold on, I'll let Jack know and he can send a team to pick them up ASAP." Putting Tom on hold, he called Jack to let him know they needed to get the three trust members.

"I'm back is everything else on your end set up for Friday?"

"All done, Jack and I have holding cells for everyone, either at the mountain or a federal detention center. What did you want to do about interrogations?"

"That's something I wanted to go over with you, I want to at least supervise all of them, but I think we should bring in Harmon Rabb and Sarah MacKenzie from JAG, to work with me if you can get their clearance papers set up. Hetty would be the best choice for Davenport and Vance, but we're going to need her to take the helm at NCIS and start sorting through the mess there as soon as possible."

"And Gibbs, and rest of them?"

"They're mine."

"Okay, Since we're not sure how deeply involved he is, I checked with legal, and McGee's book gives us cause to have him charged with Treason, due to the confidentiality statement he signed upon joining NCIS, when Shepard signed off on his first book she should have realized this."

"The way I'm seeing it Tim was being played right from the beginning, they wanted someone they could control and he was it, not saying he's innocent because he should have known this crap was wrong."

"True enough, he just as guilty as the rest of them because he let his ego and ambitions override the law."

"I need to let you go, my next call is to Hetty, then Jack and I need to plan a Mexican Siesta, we will talk again tomorrow after a few more things get done."

Turning to Delores after he hung up with Tom "Looks like everything is falling into place, how do those files look?"

"So far so good, the only Dr. Jackson found definitely fits the profile, no one else that I can see on the SG teams, but I haven't started on base personnel yet."

"I'm hoping we can get a master list from one of the major players if not from a couple to compare them, but with most of the operation of the mountain Jack and I want to be sure that we don't have a loose Frankenstein that's going to try something."

"That makes sense, if I could get another set of eyes, that could help me go over these, we could divide the pile."

"Should be able to, I'll ask Jack who he can spare when hes done with the new guests."

<<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>>

Reaching for the phone he dialed NCIS-LA waiting for Hetty to answer.

"OSP Lange, how may I help you?"

"It's Agent DiNozzo, returning your call."

"Ahh, Tony good, my team is ready for Friday, Agent Callen is looking forward to seeing you again, Don't worry I only told him about an infestation problem, not the rest of the 'story' you gave us. With General O'Neill involved I suspect it is worse then you let on."

"It is, but with the amount of crap I uncovered, Its hard to get into, It took me almost twelve hours to debrief, and we're still finding more stuff out."

"I had hoped it wasn't like that but just from our earlier conversation I knew it was more then likely a large rabbit hole you fell into."

"Excuse me?"

"I know you and your team, I suspect that you were the one to first find something out and did some digging on your own and it went from there because you didn't want it to be true."

"It was something like that I promise to explain when this is over."

"Very well, now my second order of business... Mr McAlister was picked up on an anonymous tip about illegal drugs that he was carrying. When he was searched they found a concealed weapon as well that he had no permit to carry. Being the senior Agent on the West Coast the call came to me should I bring him along or leave him here."

"Take custody of him tomorrow night, before you catch the plane, there will be an escort meeting you and they can look after him. There are accommodations set up for the team."

"I expect mine are long term as I will probably be taking over the main office till things are sorted."

"Yes ma'am I would also like you to be present when we interrogate Vance and Davenport."

"I'd be delighted, I will talk to you tomorrow before we leave. You have yourself a good night SAC DiNozzo"."

That woman was scary.

<<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>>

Looking up at the clock, Tony saw it was getting close to eight, just about time for the road trip, "Come on, I need a coffee, before we leave Jack said he'd be ready by nine."

Walking down to the mess they met up with Daniel who was carrying a large stack of files muttering to himself "Problems Dr Jackson?"

"Huh...oh hi Tony, ma'am no I was just in the records trying to find a report from last year that SG1 filed about Kinsey when he was last here."

"And..."

"The only one who can make any sense of that filing system is Walter and Jacks shanghaied him to set up for Friday."

"Would it be Okay if I looked?" Delores asked.

"I don't think that would help, nothing makes sense the way he has it, nothing is in order."

"There is not a filing system I can't figure out, lead the way."

Less then ten minutes later, Delores and him came into the mess carrying the lost file " I don't know how she did it I was in there for two hours."

Tony just shrugged, "I don't ask I just let her do what she needs to."

As they were finishing up their coffee, Jack showed in the mess "Well that was fun kiddies, Lowry had a hitchhiker, Carter has him contained right now, I'm just hoping that hes the only one we have to worry about."

"Not good do we need to make changes"

"No, just make sure everyone's armed, no hesitation to use force if needed."

"Works for me... You just about ready?"

"Let me grab a coffee first, we need to swing by the armory before we go and that should be all."

<<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>>

The visit to the armory was fast, with the guards ready and waiting with weapons and extra ammo for them. A demonstration and quick lesson on how to use the Zat that Tony called an over the top Tazer with self clean up and they were ready to be transported to Mexico.

Ringing down at a remote location about a mile from where Mike Franks beach house in Baja was, they set out towards him. "When we get there, hold back if he sees someone other then me he might get a little put out, ah hell he'll be put out to see me, but wont question it as much." Tony told Jack as they approached.

"Whys that?"

"No TV, no radio, no newspapers, no phone. Means he has no outside information, he went off the grid when he retired so I show up he's going to think I'm here on behalf of Gibbs."

"Well you are, kind of."

"He doesn't need to know that," he smirked. "There's his place and look there he is all by his lonesome."

"Your a pain in the ass to get hold of you know that?" Tony called out to him.

"What the hell Dinozzo, whats the probie done now that warrants you coming to collect me? And who's your friend?" He asked thumbing towards Jack.

"Transport and backup, considering what happened last time Tony was down here, didn't want to piss off someone if he doesn't make it back in one piece, his partners not someone I want mad at me."

"Smart man, Gibbs would have your ass in a sling."

Tony had to bit his cheek from laughing, it wasn't Gibbs Jack was worried about but Mike didn't have to know that. "You have any plans for the next few days or can you leave."

"Nothing major, just some fishing and working on my tan," He chuckled. "Come on let me get my crap and we can head out you can fill me in on the way, I presume from the direction you came from you have a boat."

"Something like that." Tony followed him into the house, "Looking good, you've fixed it up from the last time I was here."

"Thanks, how long this gonna be?"

"Don't know, all I do know is that it's a complete cluster and going to take awhile."

"Pfft, Probie bit off more then chew again, warned him there's gonna be I time I won't be able to be able to pull his butt from the fire." Grabbing his goto bag he headed to the door.

"You're not going to save him this time either, "Jack stood at the entrance. "Mike Franks we are placing you under detainment, run or try anything stupid you will brought down with extreme prejudice."

"You and what army?"

"Don't need an army, I have Tony and I have this." He raised his Zat.

"Oh I'm scared, do you know who..." his words cut off by the sound of the jolt that hit his body.

"That never gets old, lets search this dump see what we can find then we can ring out, we've got about two hours before he wakes up."

Chapter 24: Chapter 24

Chapter Text

<<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>> WEDNESDAY EVENING

After securing Franks, Tony and Jack began their search eventually turning up a file box labeled Insurance hidden beneath a false floor in his bathroom. Opening the box Tony started flipping over the files "sh*t we need to get these back to the base, these are classified files that he was more then likely using for leverage."

"How, the hell did he get them?"

"Looks like Director Shepard had them this is her handwriting." Pointing to a notation on one folder, "And when she died he claimed them. This file, "holding up the one Jenny had wrote on. "contains details about an unsanctioned op that Vance and Eli David went on, cleaning up a mess from another questionable op of hers and Gibbs that went south. Looks like he didn't trust his fellow conspirators to watch his back and made sure they wouldn't roll on him. There are more files in here we need to get Delores to look through them, and see if there's anything else connected to Frankenstein."

"Lets head out then, you want to talk to him when he wakes or give him time to stew."

"Let him wait, make him wonder who turned on him."

<<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>>

"Honey, we're home, and and we brought back souvenirs," Jack called out as they ringed into the mountain, two marines stepped forward to the limp body of Franks to take him to the holding cells. "Have Dr. Lam check him out before he wakes up we don't want any more surprises like Lowry." Jack told them as they placed him on the stretcher.

Once they returned their weapons to the armory, the men headed for Tony's office with the box of files that they had liberated from the beach house. "Hey My Lady, we found some hinky paperwork he had hidden away, I know your busy but would you mind helping me go through it to check it out."

"It will be a nice change of pace from the personal files, I've made my way through about a half of them, there's only two I'm concerned with so far I put them on your desk to look at when you got back."

"You are the best, you know that." turning to Jack he asked "Would it be alright if we had a sit down with the team leads to go over whats happening Friday?"

"I'll call one for tomorrow morning, none of them are offworld right now."

"Sounds good I want to finish this paper work up tonight, so we can concentrate and finalize everything we need to then."

It only took them a few more hours to finish going through the rest of the staff files, finding only one more that didn't set right with them. "These two are high probables for Frankenstein, but this one Jarod White, its I don't know, just he's not who he says he is. The information in it is almost too perfect like someone was creating a legend but didn't know how much to put in so its stuffed up. No one else would catch this but because we are looking deep and have seen so many in such a short time it stands out."

"You can let The General Know in the morning, now its after midnight, we can go through the cowboys insurance box tomorrow, You need to get some sleep before you drop."

"Yes ma'am."

<<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>> THURSDAY MORNING

The two DoD agents found themselves sitting in the mess, finishing off breakfast, when the klaxons went off, 'Offworld Activation, Atlantis Dialing in.' "Looks like someones flushing the toilet," Tony chuckled "Come on you should see this."

Watching the ring ripple and two men step out Delores exclaimed, "Well, you don't see that everyday do you."

"General O'Neill," one of the men greeted Jack. "Well this a pleasant surprise, thought you were in D.C. nowadays?"

"Major Lorne, its good to see you as well, I made a special trip this week, to deal with some issues that came up."

"Enough chit chat, I have things that I need to do"

"Dr McKay, as charming as ever I see," Jack snarked. "Major if you want, we have a tactical meeting in ten minutes you are welcome to join us, McKay your free to do what you want."

"I might as well join you, I can go to the labs after."

"As you wish," Jack turned to walk away. "Tony, Ms Bromstead, there you are, if your ready we can head to conference one."

"I just need to pick up the files we need, they are back in my office," Tony replied.

"I can get them, did you want Franks file on Vance as well." Delores asked.

"Yeah, forgot about that."

"How much did you sleep last night? Your no good if your exhausted." pausing to hear Jack chuckle she turned "And you, do remember our little chat?"

Jack gulped "Yes ma'am"

"Really General letting a secretary talk to you like that, how the hell did she get clearance to be here in the first place." McKay interrupted him.

You could have heard a pin drop, as Sam, Daniel and Jack stopped dead in there tracks. "Oh sh*t, Delores, he doesn't know better," Tony placed hand on her shoulder in an attempt to diffuse the situation. "I've heard about you McAsshat, you can go after me but M' Lady, is another story, You are not the smartest person I've met, MY PARTNER, is not someone you push around or try to intimidate do I make myself clear."

"And who are anyways?"

"Tony my dear boy, calm down that biped is no reason to excite yourself, he obviously has several issues he needs to work out."

McKay sputtered "Excuse me, I don't..."

Turning towards him she let out her I'm pissed glare "Did I say you could talk to me, NO. If I had the need of your opinion I would have requested it. Now, unless you have anything useful that could be put forward in this matter, which I doubt, you are dismissed. The adults have things we need to do."

"You think,that..."

"I KNOW that, you are acting like a spoiled little boy Meredith, now keep that up and I'm sure that The General can find a place to put you in time-out."

"Gentlemen, I'm sorry I forgot to introduce you," Jack stepped forward "This is Dr. DiNozzo from the DoD, he's the SAC in charge of the Presidents Inter-Agency Corruption Taskforce, and his 2IC Ms. Bromstead."

"A pleasure to meet you Ma'am, Major Evan Lorne at your service. If you have anymore issues with Merry let me know, I'll be happy to help you find a time-out corner."

<<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>>

The rest of the morning ran smoothly, with Tony outlining the details of the taskforce and who they needed to apprehend. Finishing up they assigned teams for each take down with the team leads going over the details of their subject. SG-1 with Colonel Mitchell, was assigned to Kinsey with SG-5, a Marine Combat Unit led by Major Altman, would take Eli David. SG-13 led by Colonel Dixon would assist Tony and the NCIS LA team at the NCIS headquarters. The rest of them were divided up between the remaining teams, leaving two of them as a standby backup if needed. Jack and Delores would stay behind running the comms and coordinating the teams, Evan deciding that if it was alright with Tony he would join him at NCIS.

Dismissing them so they could start preparing for the next day, Jack turned to Tony, " What else is there?"

"You have two Frankenstein here and an 'I Don't Know', pick them up discretely, but keep them separated. The third one is going to be difficult, looks like you have a mole problem but I won't know for sure till I can see him face to face and that's not going to happen till after the weekend. Do you have enough holding cells or do we need to start rearranging."

"We can do it, we can leave the four Goons that Prometheus is picking up in their brig till we have room."

"That works, I don't think we're forgetting anything, but if we have to we can improvise on the fly."

"That happen a lot with you?"

"More then I want. When is the carrier picking up Hettys team?"

"In four hours, we have a compliment to escort them and take McAlister off their hands, they are being put up in a safe house an hour from the Navy Yard. Are you meeting them tonight or tomorrow morning?"

"Tomorrow, I'll check in with her after lunch then when they arrive. I need to go through Franks box to make sure there's nothing we missed then and run a final check over the takedown list, and I'm sure there's stuff i'm missing but will get to it when I can.

<<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>> THURSDAY AFTERNOON

Three hours later, Tony closed the last of Franks insurance folders, "He only had a couple files that connect to Frankenstein, and a few that we can use against the goon squad, the rest is a whole bunch of other sh*tstorms that are going to have to be dealt with later and these three," he held them up. "These three are related to our mystery bodies from Sheffields File."

The call to Hetty, confirming their arrival and meet time arraigned Tony called Tom to let him know of the other files they had found. "I didn't think that this taskforce would need to continue after we were done here, but looks like we have at about half a dozen plus of hinky op to look into. Three were on the outskirts of this mess but look like they have there own dirty laundry if Delores and I read the files right."

"So your going to continue for the DoD then?"

"Yeah, I would't feel right knowing that this stuff was happening and I did nothing."

"Your doing what you can and that is all you can do, just remember you don't have to do it by yourself you can have all the help you ask for, and remember to designate."

"Yes dad, I have to go I'm under orders to finish up and relax the rest of the day, I'll have enough to do tomorrow."

Chapter 25: chapter 25

Chapter Text

<<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>> FRIDAY MORNING

This was it, after everything this was it, despite attempting to get a good nights sleep Tony was awake and dressed to the nines in his Armani power suit and Ferragamo Oxford Shoes by seven and heading to the mess for breakfast. Running into Jack on the way, "Wow I"m going to say that suit costs more then my paycheck."

"To be confident, you have to look confident." Tony was telling him as Delores and Sam walked in.

"Your Armani with the Ferragamo, it looks good, are you going with the grey or black tie with it."

"I think I'll do open collar, safer you do remember what Zivas like"

"Oh yes, she like to use whats on hand. What time are you meeting OSP Lange?"

"Colonel Dixon and his team will be ready to ring out by nine, we need to go over the plan with Hettys team and see if she has any suggestions. The other teams will be ringing out in five minute intervals till they are done. SG-5 left an hour ago and are in place to take Eli down as soon as it is clear for them. We don't have to worry to much as the time difference will help in covering his disappearance till after."

"Will he be brought here then?"

Yeah, along with the rest of the Trust, Kinsey and any that are suspected of having hitchhikers. The rest all have reservations at a private Federal Detention Center."

<<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>> TONYS TEAM 0930 HOURS

Tony, SG-13 and Major Lorne, having ringed into a second house set up for deployment arrived at the safe house at half past nine. "Good morning, SAC DiNozzo, I will gather that this is your current team?" Hetty greeted them at the door.

"Yes ma'am, how much have you told the others?"

"Just that we have an infestation problem, that needs to be cleaned up."

"Okay, I brought you some other eyes only files for you to look over, when you are done we can brief the team."

It took about ten minutes before she closed the last file, "How did they think they were going to get away with this?
This is completely unacceptable. How dare they think that they had the right to play judge jury and executioner?"

"Hetty, everything all right?" Callen walked into kitchen where they were. "Hey Tony, long time no see, you our point man for this, wheres Gibbs would have thought he'd be lead?"

"Agent Gibbs is one of the targets," Hetty answered for him.

"What no way, you must have made a mistake."

"Give him the first file Hetty, he needs to see it." Tony told her.

"I want to be sick, this...that is...How could he?" Callen was at a loss for words.

"I wanted it to be wrong as well, but its not. I know its hard, he was MY boss for ten years and everything I thought I knew about him is turning out to be a lie."

"We can do do this, whats the plan?"

<<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>> MOUNTAIN 0930 HOURS

"General O'Neill, the escort is here with McAlister, requesting permission to enter" the young Airman on duty reported.

"And so it begins, send them down and have them take him to level 6 cell 5. Anything from SG-5?"

"They are in position,and waiting for the go."

"Tell them the field is open for them. Who else is ready to clear?

"The Prometheus is on line and waiting for openings."

"Let them know that they have a go when they do. Keep an open channel to all teams, put them on live speakers as needed."

<<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>> SG-5---ELI DAVID 1000 HOURS

Major Altman acknowledged the go and signaled his team, Director David was finishing his evening meal as they were seven hours ahead of D.C. if he followed true to form he would retire to his study for the night to work on paperwork till he was done for the evening, the dossier on him showed that he preferred to leave his private guards outside rather then have them disturb him as he worked.

Soong and Baker were assigned to incapacitate the two who were on house patrol, While Anderson and Russell would remove the two roving ones that patrolled the premises. This left Davis and himself responsible for the final two that were at the gate and and did perimeter patrol. Waiting till the hour check in was done they began, giving themselves thirty minutes to finish the first part before going onto there primary target. Once they had him they would have six hours before the guards were due to change out and they noticed something wrong.

Locating their first targets, the team quickly subdued them rendering them unconscious and tied up, before proceeding toward the study. Eli was standing looking out the bay window behind his desk when they entered, "How can I help you gentlemen, I am presuming from the way you disabled ny security, that you wanted to see me." he asked turning toward them.

"Eli David you are being placed under detainment, by order of Homeworld Security." Altman stepped forward.

"That's nice and how do you think you are going to get me out of here?" Its not like you can just waltz me across the border, you have no transport anywhere near here, and a group of men carrying a body well even in this country that does cause suspicion, and I wont walk so I would suggest you leave now while you still can, and since you seem to have disabled anyway for me to call out you have about six hours before the tables are turned and you become the hunted and my men won't leave you alive," he turned back to the window.

"He really is an arrogant SOB isn't he," Anderson noted "SAC Dinozzo warned us."

"Agent Meatball, since when did he call the shots, he must still be upset about our last visit, can't forgive me for a few bumps and bruises he got, or is he trying to impress my darling little daughter. She does have certain charms, she inherited from her mother."

"I've heard enough take him down Captain Soong," Altman cut Eli Off.

Watching the man crumble in front of them, they began a cursory search of his office, finding copies of the transmissions that Ziva had sent the week before. "We got what we need, lets lock it down and head home."

<<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>> MOUNTAIN 1030 HOURS

"Sir, SG-19 is requesting a go, their target Agent Sharp is located in Tokyo and has retired for the night."

"Bring her in," Jack said, turning to Delores "Let Tony know that teams 5 and 19 are on the move."

<<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>> TONYS TEAM 1030 HOURS

"Sir, we have conformation that teams 5 and 19 are on the move," Colonel Dixon informed Tony. "They will let us know when the packages are secure."

"Good, any word from Prometheus?"

"Locked on and holding till feasible."

"This is larger then just the NCIS isn't it?" Callen sat at the table listening to them, "How many teams are there?"

"Not enough," Tony replied, "If we had wanted to take everyone down at once it would have taken Thirty-five, it meant we had to do some juggling."

"Damn"

<<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>> MOUNTAIN 1100 HOURS

"Sir, SG-5 is returning with there package, they will be clear to assist if needed in Forty-five, SG-19 has extracted their target and will be returning by carrier shortly."

"SG-5 can pick up Jarvis and Davenport, when they are secured, and escort them to the center, and stay there as additional security till its confirmed all clear."

<<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>> TONYS TEAM 1100 HOURS

Finalizing the details, it was agreed that Hetty would go in first, with Deeks as her escort to ambush Vance, once they had him secure, Tony and the rest off the L.A. team along with Evan would show up in the Bullpen, with SG-13 waiting in the Stairwell till the signal. "I'm calling Balboa and telling him to keep his team out of the line of fire, I'll let him know that I've finally had it with Gibbs and his latest stunt of sidelining me was the final straw. He's been after me for years to stand up to the man. Guess he finally gets his wish."

Chapter 26: Chapter 26

Chapter Text

<<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>> TONYS TEAM 1200 Hours

After leaving the safehouse, they began to make there way towards the Navy Yard, with Tony receiving updates on the the other teams along the way. With Hetty and Deeks making their way to the Directors office, the rest of them settled down to grab a quick lunch.

<<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>> TONYS TEAM 1230 Hours (HETTY)

Stepping off the elevator, Hetty and Deeks noticed that Gibbs team was sitting at their desks picking away at takeout, as they looked over files. "Just continue walking, I will take deal with them," she told the young Agent as Gibbs approached them.

"Hetty I wasn't aware you were coming is there anything you need my team to do, we're on Standby right now, so we are free."

"The trip is a last minute decision, if I need you I will let you know," she told him as she continued towards Vances office.

"Whats up Boss?" She could hear McGee asking as she walked away. Gibbs reply really did show his arrogance.

"Think that's the reason, we are on standby, they obviously are going to need a team for something and as we are the best, they wanted us available."

"Makes sense, Boss."

<<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>> MOUNTAIN 1230 HOURS

"All teams in position, sir, waiting for the go." the Airman informed Jack.

"Give them yellow and have them proceed as needed, green light as soon as they positive."

"Yes Sir."

<<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>> TONYS TEAM 1230 HOURS (HETTY)

The Directors assistant, saw Hetty as she exited the elevator, and had notified him that she was there, so he was waiting at the top of the stairs as they walked up, "Leon, I'm sorry to drop in unannounced, however it is necessary, if we could take this to your office where we have some privacy?"

"Of course, will your Agent be joining us?"

"Yes, Agent Deeks is here to assist with this."

"Very well," he looked around, Hetty showing up out of the blue was never a good thing. He wondered if they had found another mole in his office, as it seemed that people thought NCIS was an easy target.

"How bad is it?" he asked as he enabled the privacy mode.

"During a routine investigation, some rather disturbing classified files came to light, what I am here for is to get answers."

"You can be assured, that you have have all the resources necessary available to you. If you require any of my Agents do not hesitate to let me know."

"Thank you, If it is possible to get your forensic scientist up here, I would like her to go over somethings for me."

Waiting for Abby to arrive, Leon tried to get the case details out of the two of them. "All in good time, I just want a few things cleared up first."

Bouncing into the room, Abby smiled when she saw them, "I heard you were here, is that cute Agent also coming?" she referred to Callen.

"He's here, he wanted to grab some lunch before coming up."

"He's gonna miss Tony, hes out on sick leave. I could call him and let him know if he wants."

"That's quite alright Dear, if we could get back on track, I would like you to answer some questions for me. Leon if you don't mind securing the room again. Thank you."

"Cool we're doing 'super secret agent mode'."

"If that is all, Miss Sciuto, could you explain this this?" she placed the Hernandaz file in front of her."

"What I don't know anything about this?"

"You did not, open this investigation, when you were sent to Mexico to lecture then?"

"Well I, uh..."

"Really, Leon anything you care to add? A reason why a murder was covered up not once but twice. Mr. Deeks if you don't mind?"

"Not at all, Hetty" he stepped forward placing his cuffs on Vance as Hettys went around Abbys wrists.

"Leon Vance, and Abigail Sciuto, you are hereby detained on order of Homeworld Security, please do not try something stupid." Hetty moved around the desk "If you could inform the rest of the team I will gather the files needed."

"You can't do this, I'm still the Director.."

"I'm afraid not Leon."

` "The SecNav will hear about this."

"I'm afraid he has his own problems right now Mr. Vance."

<<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>> TONYS TEAM 1300 HOURS

"Vance and your scientist are detained, and Hetty is getting the files we need. We can go in anytime now," Callen informed Tony. "You ready for this?"

"As much as I can be."

<<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>> SG-1 1300 HOURS (KINSEY)

Kinsey was beginning to fume, the President had requested a meeting with him specifically for one P.M. and now he was told to wait, he had cleared his schedule to come see him and now he was busy. One of these days that man would realize who he was dealing with, and it couldn't be soon enough.

Hearing the hall door open he looked up to see Colonel Carter nearing him, "Oh it's you, I suppose your the reason, he's busy, you people call and he puts everyone on hold."

"Actually, we were looking for you."

"We? I only see you."

"Look again," As the rest of the team walked up behind her.

"What do you want? I'm a busy man."

"We're here to take you into detainment," Colonel Mitchell informed him.

"You can't do that, I'm the Vice President, you have no right."

"Teal'c see if you can find a gag for him."

<<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>> SG-3 1300 Hours (TRENT KORT)

"Target sighted, he's leaving the restaurant."

"Approach with care, he's considered to be volatile." Colonel Reynolds the team lead informed them. "Judson, Castleman circle around behind. Baker, Bosco, Johnson, and Peterson, take the flanks. Warren, Mooney your with me."

The nine members of SG-3 closed in on Kort, "Trent Kort," Reynolds called out to him.

"Yeah, what do you want?"

"We are here to place you under detainment on orders of Homeworld Security."

"Good luck with that, I'll be out in under a hour, then I'm going to make sure that the next thing you do is get transferred to the middle of nowhere guarding an empty building."

"You can try."

"All I have to do is make one call and you'll be scrubbing latrines for the rest of life."

"Going to be hard, to do that if you can't make a call."

"Well then, I guess we'll have to do this the old fashioned way then," as he drew his side arm and fired in rapid succession towards the three men in front of him, diving to the ground in an attempt to roll under his car, unaware of the two men coming behind him.

Judson dropped at the same time extending his combat baton cracking the back of Korts knee as Castleman tackled him,
leaving the three men in a pile. "You okay Colonel?," called Baker as the other three went to secure their prisoner.

"Warrens got a graze on the arm the flacks caught the rest, for a hotshot CIA hes a lousy shot."

<<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>> MOUNTAIN 1315-1345 HOURS

"We have confirmation Sir, all field teams engaged."

"We have pick-up requested."

"SG 3 and 9 requesting medical on standby."

"SG 8 has a hitchhiker."

"All teams clear."

<<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>> TONYS TEAM 1330 HOURS

Walking towards NCIS Headquarters, Tony could feel the knots in his stomach, the last time he was this nervous was just before he had proposed to his former fiance and look what had happened there, dumped just before the wedding.

"It's going to be alright," Callen placed his hand on Tonys shoulder. "You've come this far, and your not alone in this, though how the Chair Force got involved is a story you need to tell me after," he chuckled

"That's AIR Force, squid cop," Evan shot back. "Mutual friends introduced us and we hit it off, besides My boss would hurt me if Tony got hurt."

"Good luck with that, hes a slight danger magnet."

"Oh and your not G." Callens partner tossed in. "Between the two of them one will end up in the hospital before the op is done."

"Will not."

"Will too."

"Children," Tony laughed the joking around having eased his nerves. "We're here."

Signing in using his DoD identification, the one guard at the desk looked at him funny.

"Finally took one of the offers up Mike," Tony referred to one of the the many recruitment letters he received. "Just have to go clear up a few thing upstairs, Gibbs doesn't know yet. I want to surprise him."

Mike grinned, he'd pay to watch the former marine lose it when Tony told him it he was leaving. It was no secret the Senior Agent had a temper, as he wondered who would win the pot betting on this being the week DiNozzo left, "Good luck Tony, just a heads up he been a crank all week."

"Whats new? I've been out sick so I wasn't around to deflect though. Don't let anyone know about these guys either." he indicated SG-13 and and the others that came in with him.

"Wouldn't dream of it." as he cleared them.

Heading towards the elevator, Dixons team took the stairwell.

Chapter 27: chapter 27

Chapter Text

<<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>> TONYS TEAM 1345 HOURS

Stepping off the elevator, Tony saw that the floor was relatively empty, looks like Balboa had warned the other team leaders, about the confrontation that was coming and no one wanted to get in between the two of them when they went head to head. Confirming with Dixon that his team was in place behind the stairwell door he went towards the Bullpen, a few brave Agents giving him the thumbs up as he passed.

"Tony, thought you were sick, Abby..." McGee started.

"No, I'm fine just needed a few days away from here."

"Then if your better, you can go back to cold cases we have stuff to do." Gibbs glared at him.

"Really, looks like your doing paperwork to me."

"Don't get smart with me DiNozzo, I can have your job if you keep that up."

"How have you worked with that jerk for this long?" Evan spoke up.

"It hasn't been easy."

"And who the Hell are you?" Gibbs narrowed in on the uniform "Since when do you have a Zoomie as backup Dinozzo?"

"Whoa hold on there Mud Puppy, I'm just here as an impartial observer."

Ziva looked at him like he was below her "He looks like he could not fight his was out of a soaked grocery holder anyway."

"That's wet paper bag," Tim corrected her.

Evan looked at Tony, "She really that stupid cause seriously, anyone that's been here as long as she has should have mastered the English language, even 'T' and Ronan aren't that bad."

"Makes you wonder doesn't it." as he sidestepped the headslap that Gibbs was going for. "Don't even think of trying that again old man." he countered.

"You know that constitutes as abuse?" Callen stated bring the teams attention to the group standing off to the side.

"It's just Tony, he deserves it." Mcgee piped in "Not like it matters.

"Agent Callen, Hetty is with the Director if you need to see her. I suspect she is filling him in on why shes here."

"You could say that, Agent Gibbs."

"You'll have the full use of my team if you need it, except Tony hes on desk duty till I say otherwise."

"Really Tony, what do think about that?"

"Sorry to disappoint you Jethro, but your not my boss."

"I'm your boss till I say otherwise." Gibbs shouted at him, "You have no say in where you go or what you do unless I allow it."

The few brave Agents that had stayed in the bullpen, sat back noticing the fury radiating off of Tony, whatever had happened to cause this had to be bad. The normally calm man was practically vibrating.

"You are a piss poor waste of space, to think I once idolized you that just about makes me want to be sick"

"Oh get over it Tony, just because he has you on desk duty and I'm now acting SFA, you don't have to throw a tantrum." McGee chimed in " Its not like you could actually do the job properly anyways no one listens to you, Gibbs just has you here cause he needs a four man team and why train someone else, we work good together."

"Shut it Agent McGee. You called me Gibbs loyal St Bernard, your nothing but his trained poodle jumping through his hoops, I guess that makes Ziva the attack dog Arf Arf."

Gibbs was turning red with his anger, "Your fired Dinozzo, get out of my sight before.."

"Before you what...Shoot me in the back, wouldn't be the first person that you did that too."

The silver haired agent was frothing at the mouth. "You don't know what you're talking about EX AGENT DINOZZO," Tim and Ziva seeing Gibbs lose it began inching closer together.

"The name Hernandaz ring a bell, you shot him in the back twenty years ago, mind you your getting old probably starting to forget who you murdered back then." Tony dropped the bombshell on the squad room. "I'm sure there were more, considering who your mentor was."

"Franks is good man, when he finds out about this you'll regret what your saying, he'll bury you so deep that..."

"Oh you think his insurance files are going to help...they made interesting reading when we picked him up the other day. I don't think you can count on him. By the way you can't fire me I actually I transferred to the DoD a while back." Tony cut him off. "By the order of Homeworld Security you are being placed under detainment for your involvement with Operation Frankenstein and the murder of Pedro Hernandaz."

Gibbs lunged at him unaware of the Marines that had come onto the floor, Tony blocked the blow to the head that Gibbs was going for, followed by an elbow to his gut startling him into a momentary lapse. "Didn't think I'd fight back gunny? Maybe you don't know me as well as you thought." Tony spit out as he aimed toward his jaw, causing a loud crack to be heard. "Oh that's gotta hurt."

"Sir we can take him from here," Major Waterhouse declared as they entered the bullpen roughly grabbing Gibbs by the neck.

"Are you going to need Colonel Carter to fix your hand, it sounded like something broke?" Sergeant Apone, spoke up.

"Nah, my hands alright not sure bout his jaw though.

<<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>>

"Oh my God, Tony I never knew...If I realized that Gibbs was doing this I would..."

"You would have what McGee? Turned him in climbing another step up the ladder towards the Directors chair. Too bad it wouldn't have worked, Vance knew all about even helped cover it up. You tried to turn him and they would have turned on you."

"You're lying, I'm Vances protege, he would have protected me."

"You're delusional, you are nothing but a pawn for them, A pathetic little puppet. Someone who they could mold into a perfect little agent pulling the strings as needed. Not an original thought in your head everything placed there for you to say and do, get a little to big for your britches they cut you down why do you think you were never made official SFA? They wanted to remind you that they were the ones who controlled what you did."

"I'm original...I wrote a novel remember."

"Yeah full of confidential information, you stole from NCIS files, couldn't think of a plot on your own?"

"Its not like that, I made up the characters and had them solve the case."

"Um hmm L.J. Tibbs, Agents Tommy and Lisa, Amy Sutton, Pimmy Jalmer and of course the hero McGregor, can't see any resemblance to people we know can we," Tony commented sarcastically "Your lucky Jimmy never decided to sue you for defamation of character, mind you that can still happen."

"I for one thought the characters you wrote were a cartoon"

"See even Ziva agrees with me for once."

"Your just jealous of me, I'm smarter then you and I have a future, I'm not a gym teacher turned cop turned agent who gonna be stuck working in a loser position where no one listens to him I'm going places."

Callen cut him off "Have you ever read the requirements to become an SFA, Agent McGee?"

"No, I figured if Tony could become one they didn't expect much, one of the things I'm going to change when I get put in charge."

"Maybe one of the changes you should think about is making all Agents read the handbook when they are hired. You need to have a Masters Degree, at the minimum. What's yours?"

"Tony doesn't have a Masters, hes got a Bachelors of Phys. Ed."

"I have my Masters in International Relations, and Doctorate of Philosophy in Political Science (International affairs), McIdiot."

"Bu..bu..but? How come I didn't know?"

"Its in my file if you had actually read it or did you think you knew better?"

"Gibbs told me, I didn't need to that they were a waste of time."

"And look how well that worked out for you...Timothy McGee you are hereby detained to the custody of homeworld security on the suspicion of treason, Captain Deveraux, could you take Agent McGee into custody for me." He called over to him.

"You can't do this Gibbs fired you, your not an Agent anymore."

"The fact is that your a complete idiot, weren't you listening to me when I said I don't work for Gibbs."

"There's been a mistake, we can work this out, I know stuff that I can tell you bout Vance and Gibbs I found out."

"A little to late, there McGee, doubt you know anything I don't"

<<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>>

Turning towards the final member of the MCRT, "Ziva, where do I begin"

"You have nothing on me, Gibbs and McGee are stupid, they did not cover there foot prints."

"You mean tracks," Tim spoke up from where Captain Deveraux had secured him "And I have nothing to hide Tonys just acting the big-shot."

"Shut up McGee," Ziva glared at him. "Even if you arrest me, my father and Director Vance will see that I'm released and I will return to work where you will not be able to do anything. The SecNav will also hear about this, he is one of my fathers confidants, and he will not be happy with you."

"We have copies of the transmissions you sent regarding classified NCIS data, your being charged with treason and being placed under detainment by homeworld security. I suggest you shut up." Dixon came up behind Tony.

"What, who are you to try this? You wont get away with this."

Hetty appeared at the top of the mezzanine above the bullpen. "SAC DiNozzo, I would require your assistance if you are finished with those people."

Taking advantage of the distraction, Ziva attempted to bolt from the floor only to be stopped when Evan turned and aimed the Zat he was carrying at her, causing her to fall in an undignified heap. "Man, you guys have the coolest toys, I need to get me one of those," Tony chuckled. "Call it in Colonel, we need transport to the detention center, just make sure to keep everyone separated. I'll call Scotty for a ride when I'm done here."

Chapter 28: chapter 28

Chapter Text

"Tony, Tony, Tony, your here, you can fix this. She's gone crazy," Abby cried as he entered the office, "She's saying that Gibbs is a killer, Ziva and Tim are traitors and Director Vance is a bad guy." Her head swiveling back and forth between Hetty and him. "She arrested me...Whoa she called you SAC Dinozzo, when did you get promoted? Wheres Gibbs? What did you do?...Hey your the guy that was in Human Resources office that Timmy doesn't like... Why are you here?...Tony do something, tell her she's wrong."

"Is she always like this?" Bosworth asked as he came in behind Tony.

"It's Abby babble, and depending on how many Caf-Pows shes had it varies," he answered before turning to toward her. "Sorry Abby, but it's the truth. You know Gibbs killed Hernandez, I saw the way you were acting after you came back from Mexico."

"But, he just.."

"Just what Abby? Just decided to take his own revenge, bypass the justice system, break the law cause that's what he did. He only follows the rules if it suits him you know that, he did it then and he still does."

"He gets the bad guys though."

"Really, I looked at the MCRT statistics, Gibbs might have the highest solve rate, but the convictions on our cases are crap. The perps get off on technicalities, the laws he breaks, Tim with his semi legal hacking, Ziva the break in and search queen because Mossad wouldn't wait for a warrant. I worked with them I saw it, do you know how many times I had to find something to make the case legal since they didn't care just as long as they got the criminal. I was a cop none of them, have investigative experience."

"Your wrong, they solve the cases the bad guy gets caught and goes to jail."

"Take off your rose colored glasses Abbs, your silver fox is tarnished, the question is how bad are you?"

"I've done nothing wrong."

"You helped cover up a murder. How many other times Abby? What else did you do, to help Gibbs get the case solved?"

"I never...I wrote a report...Tony you have to believe me."

"I wish I could, it's just I've seen your loyalty to Gibbs, remember the trainee stickers and his alter of worship. Hell, you were at my apartment the other day checking up on me for them, just to make sure I was actually sick. Always so willing to believe what they tell you 'Tonys faking being sick, Tonys playing hooky, Tony doesn't know how to do his job' Wake up I've never lied to you, and I'm not about to start."

"You...you said you were sick."

"I was, I spent almost a week breathing the dust in the Archives what do you think that did to my lungs?"

"I didn't think..."

"No, you didn't but you're going to get plenty of time to do that now," he turned to Jake "Keep an eye on her, shes not like the others, shes not.."

"Understood sir, we will....Miss Sciuto if you would come with us."

"Tony, where are they taking me?"

"They need to get a disposition from you, I'll try and see you later." he told he he turned away, from his once best friend, Abbys loyalty was what drew him to her in the first place and now it was her downfall.

<<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>>

"Vance, you've been a bad boy."

"I've done nothing wrong, Agent DiNozzo. Whatever you think you have on me is utter nonsense."

"Really, then you never wrote a paper on Operation Frankenstein, you never helped to put into play?"

"I wrote it I admit, but I had nothing to do with putting it into action."

"I beg to differ, we found the revised copies you also wrote counteracting problems they ran into when they were starting it up," Tony told him. "The use of sleep deprivation to make them more susceptible to accepting a new thought process. Waterboarding them to make them break then putting them back together, with a few surprise bonuses."

"SAC Dinozzo, also found your original recruitment papers, I must say that was an interesting read Leon. Your early training leave a lot to be desired, you barely passed your firearms qualifications and hand to hand pathetic. How you became a field Agent is beyond me."

"I became a field Agent, because the ones in charge at the time, saw my potential, they knew that the future was changing, that we could no longer rely on shoot and capture the enemy, that elimination was they key. They did what they thought was the best for America, and they were right. McAllister warned me that dinosaurs like you," Pointing at Hetty, "would try and stop us. But you have no idea far this actually reaches. How high up we go."

"It's dinosaurs like me Leon, who along with Agents like young Anthony who will will stop this perversion of justice that you have perpetrated. The key to keeping us safe is not sitting behind a desk letting someone else getting their hands dirty, its getting out there and rolling in the muck with the rest of them. Unlike you, I wont destroy an innocent life I have a code of ethics that I have always subscribed to."

"And look at how far that has gotten you, stuck in L.A. running a team of misfits, look at me I rose up the ranks to be your boss. You think that this little coupe will go anywhere, your sadly mistaken. When Davenport and his Bosses find out what you've done you will be lucky to find yourself in the nowhere."

"That's where you're wrong, we have more power then you think. Davenport along with Jarvis were picked up earlier today. They won't be able to help you. As for their Bosses VP Kinsey, hes uh run into a small complication of his own." Tony interjected. "But thanks for letting us know that theirs more then one person pulling your strings. You think that you run the show here its clear that you answer to a higher power and are another one of the puppets. Is that what you planned for McGee for him to be one of your puppets so you could pull his strings getting him to do what you wanted?"

"Agent McGee is what the future needs, he knows brute force doesn't work that knowledge is power."

"Your pathetic, I don't know who to feel more sorry for, the men and women whos lives you messed with or your families. Wonder how Jackie and the kids are going to react to this? What they are going to do when they realize that man they thought they knew is nothing but a coward letting other people fight his battles." Turning toward Hetty, "His, personnel files how far did you get?"

"We found ones on the entire MCRT, as well as the SecNav and several unsanctioned operations. His computer will need to be gone through still as access codes are unknown. We will have to continue looking as it was a cursory search to begin with, if Agent Callen could assist."

"I'll send G up when I head out, I will take his computer with me, Mckay or Carter could do there magic on it. The office is all yours rip it up, and let me know what you find. Airman Wells will stay with you to help. We'll take Vance with us for now till its decided what to do with him probably need to search his home as well I'll get someone to secure it for now."

"Thank you Anthony, I will continue to search here, and hopefully this will be concluded soon."

"I hope so to, but I don't think it will there's more players that need to be stopped."

"I have every confidence in you, and will give you every resource I can to help."

"Thank you Director Lange."

<<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>>

After ensuring that Gibbs and his crew were transferred to a secure facility, Tony stopped back at his apartment to gather a few thing before calling for a pickup. Jack and Delores were waiting for him when he arrived at the mountain. "Well you look like crap."

"Feel like it too, all I want to do is have a hot shower, and some food followed by 24 hours sleep but that's not going to happen, so I'll settle for a shower and food. I have a computer for one of your geek to go through hopefully it will tell us something. I still need to set up interrogations for everyone that's involved."

"The interrogations can wait, we have teams that are in the process of picking up all of McGees and Davids personal and work electronics. Vances and Miss Scuito as well as Davenports, Jarvises and Kinseys will be here later as well."

"Good, maybe going through those first will help us, we also have the security cameras of the bathroom on the second floor and Archive hallway I looked at, turns out the flood wasn't an accident."

"Who was it?"

"Fornell"

<<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>>

<<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>>

Chapter 29: chapter 29

Chapter Text

<<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>> FRIDAY NIGHT

"I've checked all of Gibbs call logs and there's nothing to show that he contacted Fornell, so it was either one of the others or he was acting on his own." Delores said as she reached for the stack of files they had confiscated from Vances office. "There's nothing in any of the other files we found that even suggests he's connected to this mess."

"Well it depends on who you talk to, they are best friends or frenemys, considering they both married the same woman. I think that a friendly visit to him is going to be the only way we will know."

"He could be dangerous Tony."

"I'll see if Either Jack or Evan, can come with me."

<<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>>

Surprisingly it was Sam, who went with Tony to confront Fornell as Lorne, needed to sort somethings out before he went on his shore leave the reason why he was at the base in the first place and Jack was back in D.C. for the night finishing the paperwork he had been putting off.

Walking up to his house, Tony noticed that Emily, Fornells daughter bike was on the front porch. "His daughter is here for the weekend, we are going to have to be careful, I don't want her to get caught up in this," he warned Sam.

As they were about to ring the bell, Fornell came around the corner with a garden hose. "Agent Di-Note-Zo, I must say this is a surprise, I heard rumors of a kafuffle this afternoon, thought you would be tied up."

"Figuratively or literally?"

"Depends, who's your escort? And why are you here?"

"Sam Carter. That depends why did you flood the bathroom last week?"

"I ate Mexican for lunch, that day."

"What did Gibbs tell you?"

"Who Says I talked to Gibbs?"

"Is this the way you want to play this, cause its not going to work."

"Just has to work long enough to get my backup here, I saw you before I came out and called it in. Don't know how they missed picking you up in the raid but you messed up coming here."

"The raid got everyone it was supposed to Fornell, don't know why you think differently. Mind you, we all know that what ever Gibbs tells you has to be the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. After all he did try and warn you about Diane."

"I thought he was exaggerating, besides hes never steered me wrong before."

"Always a first time or maybe hes played you before and your just to blind to see, oh look here comes Agent Slacks, hes your backup?" Turning to Sam "He believes I murdered a pair of legs."

"DiNozzo, I always knew you were dirty, now I can finally put you away might even get me a commendation for this." The FBI Agent drawled out as he approached. " Who's your honey, some Bimbo you convinced that you're a good guy?"

"Dr. Samantha Carter, Colonel USAF, Agent Dumbass. And be careful she bites," He chuckled. "Here's my ID," He tossed his DoD Badge to Fornell, "We've been investigating a breach at NCIS, seems you backed the wrong man Tobias."

"McGee called, said that you were snooping around Jethros old files, that you were pissed at him and looking for revenge because you were no longer his favorite."

"I was looking at his old files, but not for revenge, needed to find out who else besides me he screwed over with his I'm the only one who can make decisions regarding the bad guy attitude."

"Stand down Sacks, lets hear him out." Fornell nodded to his Agent. "You're saying that Gibbs was bending the rules."

"Not bending, breaking them and he's been doing it for a long time. I found something out I wasn't supposed to and it went from there. Its not just him that's dirty, Ziva, McGee, Vance, the SecNav plus a bunch of others not the same mud-pile but you get the picture. The question is are you rolling in one as well?"

"Lets say that I believe you, where's your proof?"

"You willing to look at it? Then come with us."

"I'm not going anywhere with you, till you can prove what you're saying."

"I still don't trust you." Sacks snarled out, having lowered his gun but not put it away. "In fact, I think we should arrest you anyway not like your going be able to show any proof of your delusions and since its Friday night Judge won't see you till maybe Monday if we let him know your there."

"You want proof," He reached for his phone.

"Try anything and I will shoot you."

"I really, really want to Zat him," he murmured to Sam.

"Considering he called me a Bimbo, I wouldn't mind."

"No whispering."

"Fornell, put your Agent on a leash, I'm just going to make a call."

"Sacks, relax let Agent Di-Note-Zo make his call. Put it on speaker."

Hitting speed dial three Tony put it on speaker as it began to ring. "Tony whats going on, thought you were done for the night?" Tom asked as he answered the phone.

"Director Morrow, ran into a little snag, we're at Fornells and he seems to be having a hard time believing anything I say. Would you like to talk to him."

"Put the Feebie on line."

"You're on speaker Tom."

"Good, Fornell pull your head out of your ass and listen, SAC DiNozzo is telling the truth, I don't know what lines you've been fed by Gibbs but get over it. Either you're on our side or we arrest you as well for conspiracy. Got it Good. Now Tony, while I have you on line I need to know if you're planning the interrogations this weekend or are we letting them sit?"

"Harm and Mac will be here tomorrow. I want the techs to finish going through computers first and we still need to look at some files we found. Hetty said shes available Monday, she wants to finish sorting out what she got. I can start on the minions tomorrow."

"I'll let the president know, hes appointing A.J. as interim till this is cleared up. Hetty will continue as Director for the time being, it's up to her whether she want to continue after."

"Okay, I'll call you tomorrow, afternoon and we can go over the game plan."

"Sounds good," Tom replied as he hung up.

"Satisfied now, great got the coffee on I'll tell you what I can."

<<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>> SATURDAY

The next morning found Tony exhausted, they had ended up talking for well over three hours the night before with Fornell, in shock about what he learned about his so called friend. In the end he sent them off telling him that he would call later, when he had time to digest it all.

The Trust members were the first on his list for the day, learning from them that they had been given advanced technologies in exchange for favors, the two of them that were hosts, had been removed to a secure site till they could be dealt with. The officers were self righteous all proclaiming that what they were doing was for the greater good. Tony left them for SG Command to deal with as they would have to deal with the fact they knew about project Bluebook.

Chapter 30: chapter 30

Chapter Text

<<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>> SATURDAY EVENING

Tony finished his interrogations for the day, happy to leave them behind. The easier ones done, he now could focus on the main players. "My lady," he addressed Delores " So who should I go after next, We have Team Gibbs, Franks, Eli, Sharpe, McAlister Cruz, Kort, Davenport, Jarvis and Kinsey left."

"Franks won't talk, he was a miserable old cout when he was with the Agency and his disposition hasn't changed. Dr Lam finished his medical, and found he has terminal lung cancer so he has nothing to lose. From what I hear Jarvis is blabbering on trying to save his own skin, he doesn't seem to know much more then what we already do. His guard has been taking notes you can look at after. It would also appear that Mr McAlister is trying to save his own skin, when he found out why he was detained he broke down, claiming he was forced to do it and now wants to make amends hes filled almost four legal pads with notes and hes still going. Mr. Cruz is nothing more then an information source for Ziva so other then gullible and needing a smack to the head for thinking that little Miss Mossad would like him. He's cleanish well as clean as the CIA can be. Ms Sharpe is willing to speak to man in charge only. The techs haven't finished with the computers so her and Eli to start."

"Thanks, What would I do without you? I"ll start with them tomorrow morning, Harmon can meet me at the detention center tomorrow and I'll give him the notes before we see her."

<<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>> SUNDAY MORNING

Walking into Eli's cell Tony got straight to the point, "I don't expect much from you as your a sniveling child. We're charging you with International Treason due to the transmissions that we know were sent by Ziva. Before you get all high and mighty about how its expected your a spy, I"m going to let you in on a little secret, Mossads going to find out all about your double dealing."

"What are you talking about Agent Meatball?"

"The banking details that were sent with the other classified data. Looks like you didn't pass that along to the others, planning to fatten your own bank accounts were we. Too bad your government doesn't look to kindly on that, you were planning to steal from them. They don't look to kindly on greedy traitors do they."

"You're bluffing."

"Am I, remember last time?" Tony gave a shark-like grin.

"You can't do that, they will banish me, they'll take everything."

"I really don't care, your family deserves everything they get...unless"

"What? What do you want from me?"

"Everything you have on Vance and Davenport to start we'll see if its any good. Then we might be able to make a deal, you can talk to these fine gentlemen I have another appointment that I have to get to." Tony motioned for the marine guards, "I'll get back to you later, boys hes all yours."

<<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>>

Sam caught up Tony as he was getting ready to head out to meet with Rabb, we cleared Davids computers shes been sending classified data back to Mossad basically since she started with your team, everything from blueprints to personnel files. Nothing about the Trust or Frankenstein just old fashioned loyalty to the mother country."

"Can you get me a hard copy of what she sent, and send a copy to Delores so she can go through it as well before I leave. I'm heading over to see Sharpe right away. There should be time to talk to her after. I'll stay at my apartment tonight and head back to the center tomorrow, Hetty wants to deal with Davenport ASAP, and A.J.s sent the files he confiscated from his office on Friday, I hope to see Kort while I'm there as well. Jack and Colonel Mitchell are chomping at the bit for Kinsey but we need to try and find who hes sharing the power with first."

"I'll start digging on him, with charges of treason being held against him we a little more leeway for searches. Walter and McKay said that they should have McGees computers done by tonite, I will send you a report when its done. Anything else?"

"Have you picked up White yet? He's a player but not sure where he fits in or even if its the same game."

"He's in detention one right now, we can deal with him when you get back."

"Okay, I should be back in a couple of days then, when everyone is dealt with."

<<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>>

Harmon caught up with Tony as he was signing in to the detention center, "Hey man, good to see you again, and this time there's no murder charges against us, Mac couldn't make it sorry, but shes stuck at JAG headquarters dealing with another case so it looks like its just he two of us."

"That's alright, come on lets grab a coffee I need you to sign some NDAs then and I can fill you well at least give you the Readers Digest condensed version."

Half an hour later the two men were sitting in an interrogation room that had been reserved for them, "Well you don't do anything by half measures do you?" Harm shook his head.

"Nope"

"Who's our first victim then?"

"I figure Sharpe, then we can do lunch and Ziva when we back, cause she'll ruin my appetite if I see her before I eat, depending how long we are withe her we can try and see Kort today as well. Hetty's meeting us tomorrow for Davenport first thing in the morning and by then they should have the files from McGees computers that reminds me have you read his books?"

"Director Morrow sent me copies on Friday, I can't believe he was allowed to publish. So if you can get the files Mcgee then Gibbs."

"That's the plan."

<<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>>

Whitney Sharpe was led into the interrogation by her Marine guard, taking one look at the two men waiting for her she scoffed, "I said I'd talk to the man in charge not a JAG thug and a field Agent."

"Sorry you think that, but I'm SAC DiNozzo and this is Captain Rabb, hes only here to observe as you are being charged with treason."

"Really you have to answer to someone, I want him here." Sharpe demanded. "I'll only talk to the person in charge."

"It's me or no one sweetheart, I only answer to the President and I won't waste his time bringing him here to talk to a snotty brat who thinks shes still calling the shots. Hate to disappoint you but your dreaming if you think that."

"If your in charge then you can cut me a deal, I talk I walk."

"Lady, we have you on charges of treason against the Government we have files and depositions on you. Operation Frankenstein is in the process of being shut down, yes we know about that and your involvement. I doubt you can tell us much, Rabb lets go." Tony made to leave."

"No wait, I have lists of recruits and targets, I kept them in case I needed an escape plan."

"What is it with your era of Agents, needing insurance policies? Captain what do you think?"

"If her files match what you already have, then she might have some leverage, if it doesn't match shes blowing hot air either way couldn't hurt to look."

"So lets say we can work something out, wheres the list?"

"In my apartment, in D.C. the fridge freezer, a thumb drive wrapped in Saran, and taped to the bottom of the ice cube tray that's full of ice packs."

"We will see what we can do," Tony nodded to the guards, "Make sure she is kept separated from the others."

"What kind of deal can you offer her?" Harm asked when she left.

"Solitary, life imprisonment, a few of her partners in crime are looking at hard time and they won't survive in general population if word get out what they're in for. We can't keep the lid on this forever, damage control is already being done to keep names out, but sooner or later it going to come out and there will be a lot of pissed off people."

<<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>> SUNDAY AFTERNOON

Tony was surprised when Ziva was led in by a guard followed by two more, shackled with full transport gear and a belly chain with a handcuff cover in the front stack position. "Do I want to know?"

"Three escape attempts, and she put four of my men in the hospital. Next time we're using lethal force." The Marine guard informed him.

"Noted, Ziva must say I never thought of you as Bondage Barbie, but you can pull it off. Harm I don't think you've met little Miss Psycho."

"Never had the displeasure."

"Introductions then, Captain Rabb meet Ziva David. Lets begin shall we."

"Tony...When my father finds out what you have done you will spend money for this."

"It's pay for this and no I don't think so. He's too busy trying to save his own ass, and I would't count on your precious Mossad to save you either."

"He made me do it."

"Sorry just can't believe that, you had your chance to cut ties with him when you came back the last time and you didn't. But lets start at the beginning you profiled our team to help your brother and when he killed Kate, you used that. We know you killed Ari was that spur of the moment or planned to get in Gibbs good graces either way it worked he thought he owed you and when Jenny put pressure on him he accepted you on his team."

"It was not like that..."

"Doesn't matter now, you used that position to spy on us, you continued to profile us, when you couldn't seduce me you used McGee to drive a wedge between everyone pandering to his ego. You sent classified documents back to Israel from not only NCIS but from the files that Mcgee hacked in other Agencies...You know what I'm done, there's no hope for you, there's nothing that you can say that will change my mind. You're on your own. Goodbye Ziva."

Chapter 31: chapter 31

Chapter Text

<<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>> SUNDAY AFTERNOON

After Ziva was taken back to her cell, the two men spent the rest of the afternoon reviewing what they had. Someone had retrieved the thumb drive from Sharpes apartment, as well as several other files that were sent to the mountain, before being passed back to Tony.

"There's at least a hundred plus, inductees into Frankenstein that she was responsible for, how many others are there? And how are we going to deal with them? What do I do?"

"Tony you are not going to be held responsible for the actions of others, you're doing what you can, there is almost twenty years of recruits, not all of them will be found. The ones we do, we will take care of. I'm thinking a cult deprogramer of some sort to start, followed by therapists and long term medical care if needed. They will not get pushed aside."

"And there victims? Whose going to answer to them?"

"We can look into charging the operatives Handlers or maybe their bosses, we can also see if we can trace back who ordered the hit. Not going to lie its a cluster of the highest standing and it could take years but it will get sorted, you have my word."

"Thank you. That means a lot to me, now how about we go find some food before we tackle dirt-bag three today?"

<<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>> SUNDAY EVENING

Arriving back at the detention center they were setting up for the next interview when Tony spoke up, "Do you remember when my car was blown up on live television?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Korts the one responsible for that."

"I take you two don't like each other."

"Depends on the day, so it might be better if you take the lead and I just observe."

"We can work with that."

Standing off to the corner, when Kort was led to interrogation, Rabb greeted him, letting him know exactly why he was in custody when he finally noticed him "Dinozzo why you here? Come to gloat? Still pissed about your car?"

"Hey I loved that car, it is nice to see you in cuffs and I wanted to be here for your downfall."

"Agent Dinozzo is here on behalf of NCIS, since this involves there Agents and he's familiar with you"

"Captain, he's nothing but a pawn, too stupid to be in charge of anything just finish up so we can go I have plans that don't have anything to do with being here tonite." Tony looked at his watch.

"Really that's what you think, let me tell you a few things"

Six hours later, Harm and Tony began to go over the information that Kort had given them. Victim lists, recruits, training procedures, banking information, safe houses the man had been a font of information,stating that if he was going down, he was going to take as many of them with him as he could.

<<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>> MONDAY MORNING

Armed with the information that they had gotten the night before Tony met up with Hetty at NCIS headquarters, before they were due to see Davenport. "Sorry its such short notice, but this just came out last night we were up till zero dark thirty going over it and it all appears legit."

"Thank you Anthony, I can look it over while we have a cup tea, your Dr. Mallard was kind enough to bring me some of his private reserve"

"Ducky and his tea, he takes it almost as serious as you," he chuckled. "Hows he taking this? I know he was friends with Gibbs for years."

"He raged at first until I presented him with the evidence we have, he is quite upset about the entire thing, you should go and see him."

"Can you tell him I will call on him as soon as I can, I just can't do it right now. He's going to want answers and I can't give them yet."

"Of course, now if you would be so kind as pour me a cup while I go over these files."

Davenports interview was almost anticlimactic, Hetty walked in dropped the files on table in front on him and glared at him till he began talking.

<<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>> MONDAY AFTERNOON

The mountain had sent, all the files from McGees computers, a good portion was case files that were bullet pointed with notes for another novel while the rest included the programs and records he used for hacking into both other agencies and Agents personal computers and Tims personal agenda with ideas and changes he would implement when eventually he rose up the ranks to became the Director and eventually the SecNav.

Entering the interrogation room, Tim sneered at Tony, "Oh look its Mr Big Shot, you know you can't keep me here I know my rights and when my lawyer is through with you, the tables will be turned and I'll take great pleasure in letting you sit behind bars." Seeing Rabb he asked "Are you my JAG, cause I want a new one that's not friends with him."

"You have no rights Mcgee, your charges include aiding international terrorists, releasing confidential information and espionage."

"Try again Tony, your just jealous of me and want me out the picture before you get fired."

"Lets start with your so called novels then, using classified material to pump up your storyline. Detailing NCIS case files along with NCIS security procedures. It's a wonder you haven't been investigated before now, considering the confidentiality agreement you signed when you became an Agent it states that you can and will be charged with treason if you reveal state secrets, or did you think you were above all that?"

"Director Shepard had no problem with when she read it, in fact shes the one that suggested more details and Vance said it was an excellent read."

Harm just looked at him, "You're kidding me. Your superiors actually encouraged giving away classified material and you didn't find it suspicious?"

"Well no."

Tony just shook his head, "You see what I mean, McStupid here thought it was perfectly okay to divulge information that should have never left the bullpen." he told Rabb. "How can you think that it was fine McGee, we've arrested people for less?"

"That's different."

"There's no convincing you is there. Fine, how about allowing Ziva to use your programs to steal classified data that she sent back to Mossad."

"What are you talking about?"

"Your hacking programs, she used them to get into files, she didn't have clearance for, which she sent back to Israel.

"I didn't know she was doing that, if I did..."

"You knew, you installed the programs for her and showed her how to use them."

"I didn't know..."

"That's getting old McGee, and how about those programs of yours anyway. How many times did you use them to go into another Agents files and steal files or change stuff. That's called interference of the law and invasion of privacy, McGenius. The keystroke program where you could track what was accessed it all leads to charges of espionage."

"Vance told me to put those programs on the agency computers, said he wanted to monitor what his agents did. That it was to prevent them from wasting company time doing personal stuff."

"So you just did what he wanted, didn't stop to ask if it was legal. OH OH I know the answer to that, the Director wanted it and like the suckup you are you did it, is that why you called Fornell to suck up some more to the Boss get me out of the picture then you would have a clear run at my position. Hate to say it but it backfired on you and now the FBI is on the hook for a repair bill due to water damage."

"Fornell was supposed to question you in front of Gibbs, make him mad enough to fire you. I told him you were digging around in the Archives to get you away from Delores, she didn't need you to taint her anymore then you already have. What have you done with her anyway is she sitting in another cell wondering what she did wrong. If you've hurt her Tony."

"My lady is fine, who do you think was helping me, sure wasn't you? So how do you think you are going to get out of this one how is McGregger going to save the day for Agent Tim?

"I learned stuff about Gibbs and Vance, I thought that one day I could use it against them."

"Be still my beating heart, you've been taking lessons from Miss Mossad on how to double-cross your team 101. Lay it on me Probie but be warned your not as smart as you like to think, I just happen to know a lot of people who are way smarter then you."

"Gibbs killed a man."

"Hernandez, next"

"Vance was a part of a secret organization."

"The Trust, next."

"How did you find this out I only discovered it by accident"

"Like I told you, work smarter, not harder. I'm an investigator, not a computer hack, and by the way your skills are like majorly out of date, so I've been told. Hard to say your the best when there's always new stuff coming out you don't bother to learn. So unless you have something for me, we're done here....Nothing thought so."

Chapter 32: chapter 32

Chapter Text

<<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>> MONDAY EVENING

Tony returned to his apartment, after they finished processing McGee, declining Rabbs offer of dinner and drinks saying that he wanted to prepare for facing Gibbs in the morning. After laying out a fresh suit for the next day, he changed into sweats and an old OSU tee shirt, before deciding to call Delores and fill her in on his day.

"Its almost done," he told her" Tomorrow, I'm going to see Gibbs and then that's all of them. I'll be back there tomorrow night, and we can decide where we go from there."

"Walter and I were looking over the files from Mike Franks, it looks like they are a few operations in different agencies that had connections to Operation Frankenstein. As well as three that not connected that are just plain Hinky from all viewpoints."

"Walter?"

"Sgt. Harriman, General O'Neill has had him assisting me in going over the files."

"So we're going to do this then, clean up the dirty operations."

"It seems like the right thing to do, beside if we don't who will."

"True enough, Jacks offered us an office at the mountain so we can use there facilities. Tom's got an office for us as well so we could split the time between them as needed."

"Colonel Carter, also wants you to look into Mr White, when you get back she finished the background on him and he doesn't exist there's nothing on him anywhere."

"First thought, hes a spook with a real good legend, start a facial recognition scan on him see what we can get and when I get back I will see what I can do."

"Okay I can start that in the morning, did you want me to start the follow ups or did you want to wait?

"Might as well get them started, we can leave them open if we need to.

"We will see you when you get back then good luck tomorrow, don't let him get to you, you're the better man just remember that."

"I will, you have a good night as well."

<<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>> TUESDAY MORNING

Sitting in the interrogation room waiting for the guards to bring Gibbs around, Tony was hit by a wave of nostalgia. Remembering the many times that the two of them had sat on the same side of the table he had to admit he learned a lot from his former boss. He just hoped that it was enough.

The Marine, who led him in looked at him with disgust as he pointed in the direction of the table. "Is there a problem Sergeant?"

"He's a a disgrace to the corps, Sir a lousy marine."

"This man was a great Marine, he's a lousy Agent get that right." Tony snapped back, despite it all Gibbs had honorably served his country, it was after he was discharged he embraced the second B for Bastard.

"Defending me now DiNozzo?"

"No, just making a point, you were a good Marine what happened?"

"What do you think, my life was ripped away from me."

"You think, your the only person who lost someone or does no one else matter in the world of Leroy Jethro Gibbs?"

"I protect the innocent."

"At what cost, Look at yourself you've changed even since we first met. I don't recognize the man I once knew."

"I'm still the same, its you who's changed you've gone soft, you think the bad guy needs defending. When I met you, you were nothing but a wet behind the ears cop, couldn't stay at a job more then two years. I let you work with me almost ten."

"I was a Gold Shield, Detective, not some rookie I left the jobs because of the corruption, if you haven't forgotten my last partner was dirty and I couldn't work with him. You recruited me I didn't ask to become an Agent."

"Seemed like a good idea at the time."

"Really, what made you change your mind, when we got Kate on our team, maybe McGee easier to mold or manipulate into the perfect Agent. Someone who would follow orders blindly. Since I was too by the book, Yeah I got the job done but I didn't cut corners to do it. Gotta say you screwed the pouch with that."

"Kate was a good Agent, Tim is...was going places till you decided to play with our lives."

"Kate, was two seconds from being fired as Secret Service, because she screwed up, she might have been a good Agent given time but you didn't help by letting her get away with what she did. She should have respected the chain of command...you bypassed that when you told held her the only ones he had to listen to was you. McGee followed her lead, I gave him a chance I was the one who pushed for him to be on our team you messed him up."

"This...this is what this is about.. your ego was hurt because they wouldn't listen to you."

"No, but I should have done something then, Unfortunately I still had a case of Hero Worship with you. I saw a man who I thought was doing the right thing. Do you know how many people thought You were sleeping with Kate that's why she was allowed to do what she did?"

"I never...how dare you." Gibbs was beginning to vibrate.

"Never said you were, just a lot of people think that, you fired Vivian for less." referring to the Agent that had been with them before Kate arrived. "I defended you, I told them that she got the job because she was good at what she did. What I think is you were replacing Kelly, you wanted a surrogate daughter and you found one in her and when Ari killed her you needed someone to blame. That's when your attitude really changed towards me I was there I lived she didn't. You couldn't go after McGee because he was greener then her."

"You're blowing smoke out of your ass Dinozzo, I treated you like a son, we were a family."

"A dysfunctional one, when she died you became colder harder you went after Ari just like you went after Hernandez, only this time you had the law behind you so yo could justify it. You became the judge jury and executioner deciding who we would go after. Oh but Ziva messed that up she took your kill shot she stepped in and took over from Kate, she knew exactly what she was doing going for the weak link it wasn't me or Tim it was you."

"I'm not weak."

"Franks played you, the great L.J. Gibbs, he knew exactly what he was doing, he used your grief to get you to go after Hernandez, then he used your guilt to play on his team. You could have said no you could have turned yourself in, you were a decorated marine you knew between right and wrong...I think you got a taste of power that was denied you when you were with the corps...You didn't like sitting on the sidelines anymore taking orders from the men in suits...You wanted to be the one giving the orders but you needed to be back in the trenches you got a rush every time you went out into the field knowing that you held the power of life and death of someone in your hands."

"It wasn't like that, Hernandez got what he deserved, he wasn't going to pay otherwise."

"Franks had the information, needed to convict him if you had let the right people know it would have happened. People you claimed to have respected, you had no respect for them only contempt you thought you could d the job better then them that's why you did it, you had the self inflated Ego already that you were the best because you were considered to be the best sniper the corr had seen in years. You convinced yourself that no one else could do the job."

"I did what was needed to get the job done, something you should know all about."

"I never broke the law you did that's the difference between us, you made you own law.'

"I fixed the law," the silver haired agent snapped out, "when it was broken I fixed it."

"You twisted it to fit your needs, and you dragged McGee and Kate with you, there was no hope for Ziva ever she was already beyond redemption before she showed up, you just enabled her to become worse."

"You used to listen."

"I also questioned you remember, maybe that's what went wrong I was no longer your Loyal St Bernard. I could think for myself"

"Is that what this is about? Revenge, I hurt your feelings well too bad you should have sucked it up and acted like a real man instead of going behind my back like a coward."

"I did what was right I upheld the law, you brought this on yourself, hell you started this. Your punishment for me when I tried to report the twins for dereliction of duty when they left me without backup started this."

"What you decided that you were going to get back at me by digging into the past."

"The cold cases, Petty Officer First Class Linden, his murder."

"What about it couldn't solve it that was one you never gave back to me."

"I solved it alright, Operation Frankenstein. Ring a bell you trained them, you trained them to become killers I just followed the bread crumbs, you taught me that. You told me there is no such thing as a a perfect murder and you were right. I just needed to find the right clue, and I did. The more I dug the the worse it got, you, Franks, Vance, Sharpe, McAlister, Kort all of you. You played God and it backfired, it became more then any of you could handle. It was no longer in your hands, and you couldn't do anything about it."

"WE HAD IT COVERED." Gibbs roared at him.

"No, you had your Asses covered, you and your insurance policies to make sure you came out of this if it went south. Too bad the policies expired, they made it worse because each one of them just added to the fire. I've seen them Franks he was a paranoid bastard, he had dirt on a whole bunch of hinky things to make sure that no one came after him and by default you. Sharpe and Kort wow they wanted to make sure if they went down it would topple the Castle of Cards that was built."

"We did the right thing, we made sure that people who deserved to pay would, when they couldn't be stopped by the law."

"You, became what you proclaim to hate the most, a lying, cheating, murderer, a traitor to your country and a disgrace to law enforcement... You make me sick to think that I once wanted to be like you."

"It wasn't like that," Gibbs looked defeated.

"That's what it became...I hope you can live with yourself, you have a lot to answer for. Shannon would never have wanted you to go down that path. Good bye Boss." Tony turned and walked out of the interrogation room closing the door on what had been his life for ten years.

Chapter 33: Epilogue

Chapter Text

<<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>> TUESDAY EVENING

Returning to the mountain, Tony headed back to the office that Jack had declared to be his. Delores was going over case files when he entered. ""Its good to have you back, how are you feeling?"

"Tired, happy sad, scared, confused, all the above. This afternoon when I left Gibbs I realized that things are never going to be the same. That this is my life now." He waved his had around the office. "Look at us, we're in a mountain twenty some levels underground. Aliens and space travel are real, and I can't go back to being SFA DiNozzo pretending that I don't know. I have more responsibilities then I ever dreamed of and I don't know if I can do it."

"You listen to me you are VERY Special Agent in Charge Anthony DiNozzo. You have the chance to make a difference, the president seems to think that as well or he would not have created this task force and put you in control of it. He would have turned it over to another agency and told you, Thanks we can take it from here, he didn't."

"I know its just...its just the two of us and do you really want to do this, I mean if you want you can go back to NCIS and I can ..."

"Bite your tongue, we started this and WE will finish this. I will not desert you. Besides, why should you have all the fun."

"As you wish, My Lady."

"Thank you, kind Sir."

"So where do we start?"

"As I was telling you last night, Franks files are full of dirty secrets, we have The Centre a corporation in Blue Cove, Delaware, that is supposedly a think tank. Division, a U.S government organization originally responsible for operations such as sabotage, espionage and assassination. However, it would appear that several years back they went rogue and began doing under the table murder for hire services, with most of the targets being people with political ties and high up in the government. Finally we have The Dollhouse a global operation which consists of at least Twenty-three branches world wide. Their cover is regional offices for The Rossum Corporation." Handing him the folders that contained the information.

"These are the ones that have ties to Operation Frankenstein then?"

"Yes, Mr. Parker from the Centre was an original benefactor and consultant, while Division is noted to be a training center. The Dollhouse, as well as being linked to several disappearances, is listed as a operating consultant and training facility as recently as two years ago."

"And the other three?"

"The Alliance of Twelve, it's divided into 12 sections, named SD-1 through SD-12, which stands for Section Disparu. The section that doesn't exist when translated from French. They seem to deal mainly with black market trading of weapons, military secrets, industrial intelligence, medical technology, computer advances, and political agendas. None of it sanctioned by the CIA which they are supposed to be affiliated with. Next is Domestic Protection Division, a subsection of the CIA that operates within the country, and lastly the Organization a rogue cabal within the United States Government.

"When we have time we can begin to research them."

"Easier said then done, there is nothing in any of the data-banks we've searched. If we start digging too deep then they are going to find out."

"Well it looks like I might have to go Suicide Squad then."

"Do I want to know?"

"Probably not."

"The other problem we have is Jarod White, I ran the facial recognition on him like you asked."

"Did we get a hit?"

"Several, actually and they are still coming in. "

"How many?"

"Seven so far, Coast Guard Lieutenant Jarod Campbell, Lieutenant Commander Jarod Forrester, who is reported to have served on the USS Monroe. I already put the call in to Captain Owens."

"Good, he should be able to find out more."

"The next four IDs were all FBI. BAU Ressler, Special Agents Wilkes, Curtis and Jackson, Jackson having worked with Bailey Malone of the Violent Crimes Task Force. The last one he appeared to be was Army CID Jarod Stevens."

"So we have a spook able to insert himself into other Agencies or one hell of a con artist, either way he messed up this time. If Carter is available tomorrow we can arrange an interview with the man, right now all I want is food and friendly conversation. Jack says that there is a great Steak House in town."

<<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>> WEDNESDAY MORNING

Tony spent the morning finishing the reports from Operation Haystack, detailing the whos, whats and whens that had been uncovered during his investigation, filling in the details that he had forgotten during his original debriefing last week with Tom and Jack. Working with Delores, they wrote up two versions the final report the first which would go to the President and a second one which was censored enough that would be used when it became general knowledge about a shakeup in the Agencies and the higher level government officials who had been involved. By a mutual agreement all the names of the takedown teams and themselves were labeled as classified due to the nature of the taskforce.

"Tony whats going to happen to them?" Delores asked as they finished the reports.

"Ziva and her father, will be sent back to Israel when the State Department are finished with them. They will be imprisoned over there for crimes against the Government turns out they found out about Elis private accounts when they were investigating his disappearance, they thought he had pulled a runner and were preparing to go after him. McGee is looking at a twenty plus stint of federal time and never touching a computer again. Gibbs since he is still a Marine Reserve is facing a Military court marshal for the murder of Hernandez. The others are facing a various amount of prison time. Abby is just guilty of believing the wrong person so she won't face prison time but will never work in a lab for law enforcement again."

Carter knocked on the door interrupting them "Whenever your ready we can head to the interrogation room we set up for Mr. White."

"Lead the way."

<<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>><<>>

The man who was led into the interrogation room reminded Tony a little of himself someone who hid behind mask to hide his true self. "Good morning Mr. White or should I say Campbell or is it Lieutenant Commander Forrester. Maybe it's Ressler, Wilkes, Curtis Jackson or Stevens seems like we have a choice now. Who are you and who do you work for?"

Jarod, was watching the man interrogating him, he was a Wild card that the hadn't been expecting on this pretend, he had done the research digging as far as he could before entering the mountain under his current ID and there was no record of the man being there. were they looking for him, because of who he had been or did he just get caught up in something else.

"Come on now I'm waiting. You can answer me or go back to your cell and wait till we find out."

"You won't find me, I don't exist."

"We dig deep enough you will turn up."

"No, it's not like that," Jarod decided to go with the truth, "I don't exist anywhere, I've looked...I was kidnapped in 73 by an organization called the Centre, they raised me I escaped from them a few years back because I found out they lied to me...They said my family was dead and used me."

The Centre, that was one of the organizations, that had connections to Operation Frankenstein, this just got complicated...

TO BE CONTINUED IN ----------------- JOKER IN THE PACK