| Subject: ...For Meritorious Service, Chapter 23b part two |
Author:
TxJAG_b
|
[
Next Thread |
Previous Thread |
Next Message |
Previous Message
]
Date Posted: 23:45:10 05/08/07 Tue
In reply to:
TxJAG_b
's message, "...For Meritorious Service" on 09:04:26 05/08/07 Tue
A/N 1: Thanks to my betas for their work and the ladies
[and gentlemen] who have supported my work from day one.
A/N 2: Apologies to my regular readers for the delay.
My betas and I had time [and seemingly the tides] against
us last month and this month, but we finally got it out.
Enjoy.
Part two
2131 Local
Bethesda Naval Hospital
Bethesda, Maryland
Jennifer’s eyes were moist with tears of frustration. What she thought was a simple maneuver, getting up and climbing into a wheelchair, had turned into an abject lesson in futility. Her injured body had mocked her attempts to even sit upright for very long. The pain medication for her wounds only compounded the problem, making her dizzy as well.
*~*
Harm went on to elaborate on his theory. “All of the deceased were briefly in Colonel Livingston’s unit before being reassigned to Captain Lewis’ company. In one way or another all those killed, including Lieutenant Dodge, had a direct or indirect connection with Livingston.”
“We also know that Captain Lewis has active ties the Defense Services Directorate.” Mac added.
Gibbs eyes lit up in recognition of the name. “Jacques Lewis?” he repeated.
Mac exchanged a look of questioning surprise with Harm. “You know him?”
“I knew of him. He was with the Marine Mobile Training Teams in Columbia. Gibbs didn’t elaborate much to the attorneys’ surprise. Instead he focused on Harm’s idea.
“So what’s your plan?”
“Colonel MacKenzie has worked with Force Recon before. She’s going to infiltrate Livingston’s unit and gather evidence against her.” Harm said as he exchanged confident looks with Mac.
The senior NCIS Agent smiled and lowered his head as he shook it. Then he looked directly at Mac. “How long has it been since you worked Force Recon, Colonel?”
“Summer of 1995,” Mac said a little defensively, taking his stare as a challenge, “I served in Bosnia with the 2nd of the 9th.”
Now it was her turn to size up Gibbs. “You think you could do a better job?”
Gibbs chuckled, revealing for the first time a warm smile. “My Force Recon experience is a little staler than yours, Colonel.” he said wryly.
Harm had to know. “How stale, Gibbs?”
“Summer of 1991, Bosnia.” the agent again only confirmed the bare bones, length of time and where, but nothing else.
But Gibbs terse response masked what he saw in his mind as he flashed back on his tour in Bosnia as a scout/sniper with his Force Recon team. In rapid succession, he reeled through the stark images. The town they had scouted, Birchko, with its friendly people; the children he had befriended there; then being ordered out by NATO forces; and finally coming back later and finding the village a smoldering ruin.
Mac watched as Gibbs’ face showed traces of regret and anguish before they disappeared behind his investigator façade again.
Harm noticed it too. There was more to Special Agent Gibbs than just a hard-nosed NCIS Agent. It painted a very different picture of the man than Harm had remembered when they had their infamous confrontation at JAG Corps Headquarters back in April.
The aviator/lawyer was about to say something when Mac’s cell phone began to ring.
“Excuse me,” she said as walked away from the two men as she fished her phone out of her pant’s pocket and opened it. “Colonel MacKenzie.”
The voice was distant and almost drowned out by static. “Sarah? I can’t hear you very well….”
“Clay?!” Gibbs noticed that name had an immediate effect on the Commander, and not a good one judging from the look on his face.
“Sarah, we need to talk. Are you alone?” Clayton Webb sounded like he was shouting so he could be heard over the static.
Mac looked over at the two men. “Clay, now’s not a good time to talk--”
Clayton Webb’s voice echoed as the connection started to degrade even further. “Well make time. What are you doing?”
“I’m being interviewed by NCIS,” she said sharply. Gibbs noticed that this ‘Clay’ person seemed to have negative effect on her as well, though she was trying her best to be civil with him.
“What for?” It was a typical Webb response.
She would have throttled him if he were in reach. She decided to try and be polite one last time. “Clay--”
Again the CIA Agent cut her off. “Sarah, do you realize what you and Rabb have done? I just spent the last half hour being chewed on by Deputy Director Kershaw and DCI Watts for that melodramatic piece played out over ZNN.”
Why would his superiors chew him out over something they had done? Mac’s voice betrayed her confusion at this seemingly nonsensical statement. “What? Clay, you’re not making any--”
“Sarah, listen to me, you don’t know who you’re dealing with. A burst of angry sounding static bombarded her ears. “…Secord isn’t the dangerous one. He’s merely the fall guy!”
That comment was loud enough to be heard by everyone in the room.
The light Colonel felt a frozen ball of fear growing in her stomach. Harm saw the look on her face and immediately reflected her fear in his face as he moved closer to her. Gibbs intrigued by this turn of events, moved closer as well.
The static died off for moment and Webb’s voice became crystal clear. “…What I’m telling you could get me fired, Colonel, but you need to know. We have reason to believe the traitors in 36th MEU are Colonel Livingston and Captain Lewis.”
Mac cupped her cell phone as she informed her partner and the NCIS Agent. “Webb says Livingston and Lewis are the suspected traitors. Secord’s just a fall guy.”
Gibbs didn’t like being left out of this loop. “How does this ‘Mister Webb’ know this?”
“Secrets within secrets,” grumbled Harm as he reached for her phone. “Top Secret, Level two compartmented. Let me speak with him, Mac.”
An annoyed look crawled across Gibbs face. “Is he speaking a foreign language?”
“It’s a long story,” she said wryly to the NCIS Agent as she handed the phone to her partner.
Mac knew if she refused to give him the phone, an argument would erupt, and that was the very last thing they needed right now.
“Webb, how did you get involved in this?” Harm snapped as he began speaking into the phone.
The CIA Agent was caught off guard by the switching of voices. “Rabb?!” Nevertheless the man quickly recovered. “I was involved from day one, Commander, you just never knew it. By the way, you need to report in, you’re way overdue for giving your status report.”
“Status report?!” Harm couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “Webb, in case the news hadn’t reached you yet, I’m out of the CIA. *Blaisdell let me go*.”
Clayton Webb almost sounded like he was smirking.
“Harm, you should know by now that you can never really stop working for us. By the way, tell Sarah that thanks to her phone call, Mr. Green at the DSD made a call to my boss and asked ‘why are JAG Corps officers and NCIS Agents involved in CIA operation?’”
Harm was livid. “DSD?!” he barked. “A CIA operation?!” That made Gibbs’ eyebrows raise a notch.
Clayton Webb’s distant voice remained free of static. “A CIA operation, Commander. We’ve been working on this one since March.”
Harm struggled to get his emotions back under control as he gripped the cell phone tighter. “Since when does the CIA and the Defense Services Directorate work together on any kind of operation, Webb?”
“For God’s sake, Harm, you should be able to figure that one out!” Webb snarled and then seemed to pull himself together. “Since it concerns national security and an attack on a US military installation in the Washington DC area.”
*~*
Jason Tiner lay back on his bed, sweating profusely and exhausted from his effort. The wheelchair was so close and it looked simple enough to climb out of the bed and into the chair. That way he could go and visit Jennifer. He really wanted to see how she was doing.
His leg, however, refused to cooperate, plus, the effort made his head throb. Not to mention a finger of pain from his bullet graze lanced through his skull, forcing him to lie back.
*~*
“You knew there was going to be a terrorist attack on JAG Corps?!” He could just imagine what the Admiral did when the former Special Assistant to the Undersecretary of State, former Station Chief of Paramaribo, and whatever else the man had claimed to be over the years, revealed that to him.
“Calm down Commander, we didn’t know anything for certain. All we had was terrorist chatter and what you and Sarah like to call ‘scuttlebutt’. There was nothing solid that indicated anything was going to happen.”
This was so typical of Clayton Webb and it really galled him that lizard called Mac by her first name. “And yet you neglected to tell the Admiral that this was a possibility.” He pointed out to the CIA man.
“I warned him as soon as I had credible intelligence.” Webb’s tone was decidedly defensive.
Harm launched an assault against that comment like he was grilling a suspect witness. “Which was too late to foil the attack, right Clay?”
“I tried to tell him,” The CIA man whined as a way of sounding like an excuse.
“I know, I know, as soon as you had something solid, spare me, Webb.” Harm muttered sarcastically.
“Look, Harm, I’d love to play witness and lawyer with you, but right now it’s imperative that you stop Colonel Livingston and Captain Lewis.”
“I stop?!” Harm’s barked comment brought shocked looks from the other two people in the room.
The CIA Agent sighed heavily. “Look Harm, like it or not, you’re still working for us. Find a way to stop them. DSD has given us the green light to do what we need to wrap this up.”
The aviator/lawyer didn’t like that tone one bit. “Since when did you become my boss?”
“Since DCI Watts put me in charge of the Mirbullah operation, Commander.”
Harm swallowed, his mind racing. “Sheffield approved this?” Harm wondered just what kind of deal had Kershaw brokered with Sheffield so that the Naval Commander could rescue Mac.
Clay’s voice took on a chilling tone. “The SecNav understands the terms of your agreement with the Deputy Director, Harm, Catherine made the rules very clear to him.”
Now it was Mac’s turn to be concerned. Harm had gone from jealous anger, to righteous indignation and now anguished shock seemed to engulf him. How could Clay claim to be his boss? Then it came to her like a dash of cold water as she remembered one of her many bedroom talks with Clay while trying to get Harm out of the CIA. He had let it slip that the agreement that Catherine Gale had drawn up…it was more like a contract, stipulated if the Agency was dealing with a situation that involved an immediate threat to the government it was authorized to ‘reactivate’ any ‘retired’ or ‘paroled’ agents it deemed necessary to complete an operation. Harm was a paroled agent.
“Mister Webb is his boss?” This was one of those rare times Gibbs let his confusion show through his investigator persona. Mac nodded dumbly.
“I’ll need some time to formulate a plan,” Harm said stalling. That was when Gibbs spoke up.
“You already have one, Commander.” Mac nodded her agreement.
*~*
Tony DiNozzo and Commander Coleman were walking past the row of semi-permanent buildings when they stopped at one with sign tacked to it that said simply ‘best of the best’.
Tony gave Faith a wry smirk as he turned and knocked on the door. The Commander arched one of her eyebrow’s quizzically before shaking her head and blowing out a frustrated breath.
“Who is it?” came back the gruff sleep-filled voice.
Tony put a stern look on his face and did his best brusque investigator. “Special Agent DiNozzo, NCIS and Comman-”
He didn’t get to finish as Faith stepped in front of him.
“Commander Coleman, JAG Corps, Corporal Richards. Open this door.”
They could hear someone stumbling around inside as it sounded like things were being knocked over and tossed aside.
Faith smiled at a surprised Tony. “Officers have a command presence.” She said in tone the NCIS Agent could have sworn was glib. He started to open his mouth to say something in response, but then decided it wasn’t worth it.
They both turned back as the door suddenly swung open reveal a hastily dressed Corporal Devin Richards.
“I’m sorry, ma’am, sir,” he said quickly saluting, “I, uh, was asleep, I pulled a night patrol last night--”
Tony didn’t let him finish. “Mind if we come in, Corporal?” Special Agent DiNozzo pushed past him, followed by the JAG Lieutenant Commander.
Richards verbally stumbled as his sleep-fogged mind tried to respond. “Uh, yes sir, uh, I mean, ah, no sir, come right in, sir, ma’am….”
“As you were Corporal,” Faith motioned for the man to come away from the door. Tony had already pulled up a folding chair and made himself as comfortable as he could.
Reluctantly, Devin Richards pushed the door closed and turned to face the two.
*~*
Harm finished his conversation with Clayton Webb and by the end of it, the static had returned and obliterated the CIA Agent’s voice.
As he closed the phone, a sharp knock sounded on Mac’s door. The three looked at each other.
“Were you expecting company, Colonel?” Gibbs said.
“No,” she replied as she headed for the door, “Maybe it’s one of your men.”
“Agent DiNozzo and Commander Coleman are interviewing witnesses,” he responded
“Maybe they found something,” Harm was surprised to hear that his former defense attorney was here with the Major Case Response Team. It seemed that Sheffield and Kershaw weren’t the only ones making deals.
Mac opened the door and stood back. “Colonel Livingston,”
Darcy who had been intent on talking to Mac, noted that Commander Rabb was here along with another man she hadn’t wanted to see again anytime soon.
“Commander Rabb, Special Agent Gibbs, how nice to see you again,” she said coolly.
Then she turned her attention back to the light Colonel. “Colonel, I need to speak with you privately.”
“The Colonel is busy right now,” Gibbs said as he eyed Darcy Livingston. He didn’t like her the last time they met and he liked her even less now.
“Whatever you have to say, Colonel, you can say to all of us,” Harm added crossing his arms and looking pointedly at the Force Recon CO.
Darcy nodded, quickly shifting gears. “You’re right, Commander, forgive me,” she said in a fake remorseful voice. “Mac, Secord named names; one of my own men is the real leader of the hit squad.”
“Who Colonel?” Gibbs interjected.
Darcy somehow managed to look embarrassed. “The leader of my Force Recon detachment for the 36th , Captain Petkiewicz. How could I have been so stupid?” She walked over sat down hard on the edge of Mac’s bed, her head in her hands.
Gibbs, Harm and Mac went over to her side. Darcy looked up at them. She had managed to squeeze a few more tears from her eyes. “That’s who Secord was looking at; not me or Captain Lewis.”
It was the perfect alibi, thought Mac, with Secord being the fall guy. Apparently, though no one in Darcy’s Force Recon unit could be trusted, this Captain had somehow fallen out of favor and had become a sacrificial lamb.
Before the two JAGs could say anything to Darcy, Gibbs squatted down in front of her. “Don’t blame yourself Colonel,” he said gently, taking her hands in his, “Bad guys are good at telling lies.”
Darcy gave the silver haired NCIS Agent a momentary puzzled look before nodding and giving him a fake watery smile. “Thank you, Special Agent Gibbs.” Her voice was husky from her crying performance.
Harm gave the woman an equally tender look. “We’ll take care of him, Colonel.”
If it hadn’t been a performance Mac would have felt a pang of jealously. Now the question was, could they trust Petkiewicz?
*~*
DiNozzo, Coleman and Richards sat in semi-circle in the poorly lighted room. Tony was busy tapping away with his stylus. The JAG Corps officer had produced a vinyl binder from her briefcase as well as evenly sharpened no. 2 pencil. She was busily scribbling away on her notepad that was clipped to the binder.
“Sorry about the lighting, ma’am, sir, we don’t have much in the way of accommodations….”
Faith kept a stern look on her face despite the friendly tone of her words. Tony was intrigued. Just how did she do that? “That’s quite all right Corporal; we certainly understand, don’t we, Special Agent?”
“Uh, yeah, sure, we understand Corporal,” he said quickly as he finished tapping on his PDA. “What can you tell us about Lieutenant Dodge’s death?”
“Nothing to tell.” He replied smugly then seeing Faith’s immobile face, he hedged.
“Sorry ma’am, I meant to say it was all PFC Secord’s doing.”
“And it was the same with deaths of PFC Krivstad, Corporal Grearson, and Sergeant Colwell, Corporal?”
“Uh, yes ma’am…”
Tony whistled as wrote this information into his PDA.“Wow, he was busy little guy.”
“Yes sir, he was,” Devin Richards nodded his head in agreement.
Tony smiled as he finished entering that information. “And I guess he killed Captains Jalloud and Butler as well,”
Richards looked bewildered for a moment. “Yes sir, er, I mean, no sir,”
Faith had stopped writing on her notepad. “What exactly do you mean, Corporal?”
“Sergeant Colwell killed Captain Butler ma’am, and Corporal Grearson killed Captain Jalloud.”
Tony chuckled, “That’s not what PFC Secord said, Richards.”
Richards blanched. “It’s not?”
“No Corporal,” Faith replied smoothly, “PFC Secord confessed to killing Lieutenant Dodge, PFC Krivstad, Captain Jalloud, Captain Butler, Corporal Grearson, and Sergeant Colwell.”
Tony shook his head. “You know, Commander, this reminds me of case I had back in Baltimore a few years back….”
Faith rolled her eyes. What she really wanted to do was scream. In past few hours she had heard several Baltimore ‘true detective stories’ courtesy of Anthony DiNozzo.
Tony was in high gear “…ya see there was this guy, well, he was more of girl really, but she talked and acted like a guy; anyway she claimed that she had killed over fifty people, can you believe that? Fifty!”
Devin Richards wasn’t sure where this was going, so he decided to play along. He nodded dumbly. “Uh huh….”
“Well it turns out; she didn’t commit all fifty, just twenty of them. She wanted to have bragging rights on the fifty, you know why?”
“No Tony,” Faith said fighting the urge to clinch her teeth. “Why?”
“Because she didn’t want her brother hogging all the credit, ya get it?”
Just when she thought Tony was the biggest pain in the world, he came up with a gem like this. Marines thought of themselves as like family, brothers and sisters. It was actually a very clever ploy.
“Actually, Tony, I do,” Faith said with a thin smile.
Tony looked at Richard with that irrepressible grin still plastered on his face. “So do you get what I’m saying here, Corporal? Either PFC Secord is world’s greatest killer, or someone is lying. So do you want to tell us who is doing the lying?”
Corporal Richards realized he had been tripped up.
1120 Local
Forward Operating Base Metz
Near Fire Base Puma, 36th MEU
“Cap’n,” The force recon Sergeant stood, aiming his binoculars at the growing dust speck on the horizon. “We’ve got company….”
Force Recon leader Captain Mark Petkiewicz stood up as well.
“Let me see those, Sarge. I don’t want to have to crawl back in our rabbit hole and retrieve mine.”
“Aye sir,” the Sergeant said handing his field glasses to his senior officer. “Can you see who it is?”
Petkiewicz focused on front windshield of the approaching HMMWV. He could see the occupants.
“It’s Colonel Livingston and one of the JAG Corps officers who defended Lukens and Buell….” he said slowly.
“What do you think they want, sir?”
“We’re about to find out,” he said lowering the glasses.
*~*
Devin knew he had to think of something quick to throw them off this scent or he’d wind up dead.
“Look, I was mistaken…” he began.
“Which time?” Tony replied sarcastically, “When you told us Secord did all the killing or the previous time when he didn’t?”
Richards shook his head in frustration. “Look man, you’re confusing me, besides what gives you the right to come in here, questioning me about all this anyway?”
Faith cleared her throat. “According to SECNAV INST 5430.107: ‘NCIS has primary investigative and counterintelligence jurisdiction with the Department of Navy’, Corporal, that includes the Marine Corps, as you know. Also Presidential Executive Orders 12829, 12958, 12968 define NCIS’ mission as safeguarding classified information, vetting personnel for trustworthiness, and protecting information within industry. You Corporal, fall under the ‘vetting personnel for trustworthiness’ statement in light of your recent comments.”
Richards turned to a smiling Tony DiNozzo. “What is she, half-Vulcan, or something?”
*~*
“Captain Petkiewicz?”
Mark had seen this man before. He had accompanied the Colonel during an NCIS investigation some months ago.
“Yes sir?”
Harm moved over to the man. “Captain you are hereby relieved of duty. You are suspected of having committed murder and conspiracy to commit murder.”
“Sir?” The Sergeant looked anxiously from his CO to the JAG Corps officers and NCIS Agent.
The Captain looked sympathetically at the man as NCIS Agent Gibbs turned him around. “As you were, Sergeant.” He said quietly.
Gibbs continued reading the Captain his Article 31 rights as he snapped a pair of handcuffs on him. “You have the right to remain silent and make no statement. Any statement you do make could be used against you in a court martial. You have the right to consult with an attorney before making any statement….”
Darcy was smiling. “He almost got away with it, Colonel,”
“Got away with what?” Mac asked.
“He was planning on killing me and taking over the unit, with Secord’s help. Isn’t that right, Sergeant?”
The Sergeant nodded numbly, as if someone had punched him in the stomach.
Darcy turned back to Mac. “I was wrong about you, Cher. You are a good Marine. Look me up if you ever need a favor.” She looked over at Harm and Gibbs talking to the Captain. “I’ll send another Hum-vee out to pick all of you up. Right now I have to get back and reorganize my unit and see if anyone else was involved in this despicable act.”
She turned to the recon Sergeant who still seemed to be in shock. “Sergeant, you’re in charge until I return.”
He quickly saluted her. “Aye ma’am.”
Darcy returned the salute and then got back in the HMMWV which headed back in the direction of the BLT Headquarters.
The bewildered Sergeant turned to Mac. “Colonel?”
“Yes Sergeant?”
“The Captain’s being framed, he’s not guilty of anything, I’ll testify to that.”
“We know, Sergeant,” Harm replied.
Gibbs began unlocking the Captain’s handcuffs.
---TBC…
[
Next Thread |
Previous Thread |
Next Message |
Previous Message
]
| |
Feedback: 