| Subject: ...For Meritorious Service, Chapter 25c, part two |
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TxJAG_b
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Date Posted: 08:48:31 10/01/08 Wed
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TxJAG_b
's message, "...For Meritorious Service" on 09:04:26 05/08/07 Tue
Normally the Light Colonel would have brushed off the Commander’s one-word comment as over-protectiveness. But in this case, she knew it was something more. As she looked around, she saw that Darcy Livingston was headed her way. “I gotta go, Harm. Stay safe. Don’t go chasing down any nuclear tipped missiles.”
Harm felt as if his feet were being cut out from under him. He had so much more to say. “Mac, I--” the connection cut. “…Love you.” The tall Naval Commander stood there for a moment holding the phone as the gentle buzz indicating the connection had been cut filled his ear.
“Sir? Has the connection been cut?” The Seaman didn’t want to pry, but he really did need that phone back.
Without saying a word, Harm handed it back to the stoic Seaman.
[And now, the concluding part of Chapter 25c...]
NCIS Headquarters
“So what brings you down here, Special Agent McGee?” Abby’s voice had a hint of playfulness at the edges, even though she was asking a serious question.
Tim McGee held up a manila padded mailer. “Just had this document arrive via courier from the Pentagon. It’s from Commander Rabb.”
Abby reached for the packet. “Really? Let me see….”
The Probationary Agent from the Norfolk Office held the package just out of her reach. It was a playful move. “Okay, let me get it open first….”
Abby pretended to sulk until Tim zipped open the folder and dug his hand in to retrieve the contents. Then she moved to look over his shoulder. Tim didn’t stop her. He was looking at the cover on the document.
They both read the cover sheet at the same time “…Threat Assessment for the US and Coalition Forces…Summer 2003….”
Operations…?” Abby asked, then her eyes got wide. “An intelligence report?”
Tim’s eyes were just as wide when he nodded and gave his reply. “From the Central Intelligence Agency….”
Abby began shaking her head. “Oh man, this is bad. The CIA? Gibbs won’t like this, he won’t like this at all….”
“Abby, he’s the one who sent it.”
But Abby wasn’t listening. “I can almost hear his bark from Iraq.” Her voice morphed into a rough Abby approximation of Leroy Jethro Gibbs’ voice. “Abby! I want to know the connection between Captain Lewis and the CIA!”
“Today?” Tim said finishing her sentence.
She glared at him in what he figured was an approximation of the Agency-wide known ‘Gibbs stare’ “No Abby,” she groused harshly. “…now!”
Tim nodded his understanding. He had heard that Special Agent Gibbs was a very demanding task master. “Oh.” He quickly skimmed through the pages of the report. “Look Abby, there are some pages marked….”
Abby got closer to his shoulder as she looked at the current page. “Wow! Did you read this McGee?”
Tim was busy processing what he was seeing. He nodded absently. “I am…” Then he stopped reading and turned to look at her. “Oh boy….” He said with trepidation.
Abby nodded. “You said it. If that isn’t a smoking gun, I don’t know what is….”
Tim read a little further down and then pointed. “Look at this; it’s some notes from a Colonel MacKenzie….
Abby pulled the page closer to her eyes and in turn got her face closer to Tim’s. “She’s one of the lawyers over at JAG Corps Headquarters. We, um, sort of got to ‘know’ her during the Singer murder investigation….”
Tim was trying hard to keep his mind on the document they were examining. “She interviewed…a Mr. Green at DSD about Captain Lewis….”
Abby’s pretty Goth features grew puzzled. “DSD?”
Tim worked hard to answer her instead of kissing her. There was something about Abigail Sciuto that turned him on. “Um yeah, stands for the Defense Services Directorate. They were under the State Department until 2001....”
Abby shook her head again. Tim was sure she was going to put her fingers into her ears. “Gibbs is definitely not going to like this….”
Before she could do that, the Probationary Agent pointed out something else on the page that might be better news. “Here’s a note from…Commander Rabb.”
Because Tim had pulled the document back down where he could see it better, she pulled it back closer to her face and in turn, they were closer together again. “That’s the JAG Lawyer we first thought had killed Lieutenant Singer….”
Tim swallowed. (Keep focused on the case….) “I know, I followed the news accounts.”
Abby was oblivious to the effect she was having on him or at least that’s what she wanted him to think. “Yeah, if it hadn’t been for Tony, Rabb would be serving time in Leavenworth,”
(Focus on the info on the page….) “He’s given us some web links and email addresses.”
Again Abby got that confused puppy dog look. “Why?”
Tim thought about the many things he could do to himself to get his mind back on what they were doing. None of the options he could think of could he do without drawing Abby’s attention, so he sighed as if the reason was patently obvious. “He thinks they’re tied to Captain Lewis and…Colonel Livingston.”
Abby was little taken aback by his ‘snotty’ response. She really did like Tim and thought he liked her, but that was from left field. Maybe she was flustering him and that’s why he was irritated…good. If he was flustered by her close presence that meant he was interested in her. (Yes!)
*~*
Darcy strode over to where Mac was standing, watching her platoon doing calisthenics. If Darcy had not been so flustered by her ‘discussion’ with Colonel Briggs, she would have noticed that Mac had just come out of a nearby shed and pocketed her cell phone. Instead, she was concentrating on planning her orders for her newest ‘recruit’.
“Colonel MacKenzie,” The Force Recon Colonel called out as she made her way toward Mac.
“Colonel,” Mac replied giving her a brief acknowledgement but seemingly unruffled by Darcy Livingston’s sudden appearance.
Darcy gave her a slight smile. Her coolness was another reason the Force Recon commander had recruited her. “How do you feel about taking on a little recon mission for me?”
Mac gave her a sarcastic smirk then turned back toward her exercising soldiers. “It’s probably a little better than watching these Marines exercise,” Mac quipped drily.
Darcy gave that snide little chuckle that the Light Colonel was beginning to despise.
“Well Cher, you’re going to get the chance to find out. Colonel Briggs needs to know the location of the insurgent unit that fired that rocket into the camp. By noon tomorrow.”
If that stipulation was supposed to rattle Mac, it didn’t. Without turning back to Darcy, the Light Colonel nodded. “I’ll assemble my platoon immediately, ma’am.”
“I knew you were a good choice for my unit, MacKenzie.”
Mac reasoned that she had to make her support of Darcy look believable. While looking for Sahood’s men, Mac would also find out who else in this platoon were loyal to Darcy and responsible for Lieutenant Ebbits’ death. As far as the JAG Corps Colonel knew at this point, the only person who wasn’t a Darcy supporter was Sergeant Casmir Szymas.
Everyone else at this point, including her ‘aide-de-camp,’ Kayce Danvers, was still suspect. Mac could ill afford to show faltering allegiance. She’d have to work carefully to find Ebbits’ assassins, and discover what Darcy Livingston’s real mission was.
“GUNNERY SERGEANT DALLAS! HAVE THE PLATOON FALL IN!!”
The most senior Gunnery Sergeant to Master Gunnery Sergeant Wilbane gave Mac a quick nod. “AYE MA’AM! STAFF SERGEANTS!! HAVE YOUR TEAMS FALL IN!!”
As Dallas and the staff sergeants got the platoon into formation, Darcy moved closer to Mac and lowered her voice.
“Oh, and Colonel…” she began pleasantly.
“Yes ma’am?” (Now what?) Mac thought, irritation lacing her unspoken thoughts. She knew that Darcy’s pleasant tone meant something unpleasant was in the offing.
“I’m giving you a replacement. He won’t fill the Lieutenant’s shoes, but I’m sure you’ll find him to be very useful.”
Mac wasn’t about to bite at that bait. “I’ll find anyone who can handle a rifle and my orders to be useful, ma’am.”
The Force Recon CO nodded in agreement. “Oh, he can handle a rifle and then some, Colonel. He’ll provide you with the CBR equipment you’ll need for this mission….”
*~*
The Light Colonel addressed her platoon directly. Orders, she said, were coming from Colonel Livingston and they were being given the honor of hunting down the insurgent missiles.
That brought an ‘Ooo-Rah!’ from the assembled group. To Mac they certainly sounded eager about doing this. But how many would be working to sabotage their efforts? Right now, she honestly didn’t know.
Ignoring those disturbing thoughts, she went on to tell the assembled Marines that the Colonel had advised that someone would be arriving shortly to fill them in on the details of the plan.
Then she ordered Gunnery Sergeant Dallas to have the men fall out but stay in the immediate area. Dallas and the unit Staff Sergeants did as requested. Mac could see some of them recon soldiers were keeping their eyes on her while others tended to their rifles or personal gear.
When he was sure that she had finished, Master Gunnery Sergeant Wilbane asked Dallas and the staff Sergeants to meet with him. Mac thought about countermanding that order, but decided to see where this lead.
Instead she asked Kayce to join her in looking at topographic maps of the region north of Camp Chesty Puller.
Leaving the unit Sergeants to take care of any last minute problems, Wilbane, Dallas, and the others gathered in an informal semi-circle to discuss unit status and the coming mission.
Victor Galindez confidently strode onto the range, noting the group of non-coms clustered around at one end of it, obviously having a meeting of some sort. Rather than looking for the unit CO as he should have done, Victor decided to play his ‘part’ in this little game.
Some might have said his stride was more of a swagger. But then, he wasn’t Gunnery Sergeant Victor Galindez, he was supposed to be Master Gunnery Sergeant Hector Bustamante--better known to his friends and enemies as Cesar. ‘Cesar’ didn’t care that he hadn’t talked to the unit CO first. He had business with the unit’s senior non-com. A couple of Staff Sergeants looked up when they saw the Master Gunny approach. They did a quick double take and then barked.
“Master Gunnery Sergeant on the deck!”
The others started to react, but Gunny waved them off. “At ease guys, we’re all Sergeants here.”
Rudy Wilbane who had been lounging in a lawn chair he’d brought with him from the States, stood up and gave Victor a weasel-like grin.
“Well, as I live an’ breathe; if it ain’t ole ‘Galindez.’” Rudy knew that the real Victor Galindez was moldering away in some unmarked grave in Afghanistan. Hector had taken Victor’s place in 2nd Force Recon because he looked just like that sappy Gunny. Rudy hadn’t realized that Hector had risen through the ranks so quickly.
Victor mirrored his smile. “Good to see you too, Rudy.” Victor’s smile evaporated when he looked at the other Sergeants.
“Would you gents excuse us?”
Dallas and a few of the Staff Sergeants exchanged puzzled looks with Rudy, but then quietly excused themselves. In a few moments, Victor was alone with the unit’s Master Guns.
“Glad we didn’t have to do this with a crowd around…Master Guns, you’ve been relieved. Pack your gear and get back to Colonel Livingston’s office. ASAP.”
Both men started to laugh, but Rudy’s chortle started to falter as he could tell by the expression on ‘Hector’s’ face that he was not kidding.
Rudy Wilbane’s smile disappeared entirely, replaced by a look of fear mixed with disbelief. “You’re serious?”
‘Hector’ grinned and clapped Rudy on the back. “You’ve got twenty minutes to get your gear and report back to Colonel Livingston. I promised her I wouldn’t kill you outright the next time I saw you.”
“W-Why Hector? What did I ever do to you?”
Victor grabbed the man like they were old buddies – only someone really looking for it could tell Victor was threatening Rudy. “Remember, Rudy, its Victor, not Hector. And it’s not what you did it’s what you didn’t do.” He patted him on the back again and then gave him a ‘friendly shove’ “Now get your seabag and pack your gear. You’ve eighteen minutes. I really don’t want to kill you right here and now, but if you force me to, I will.”
Rudy didn’t say anything else. He hustled away from the range and the unit’s new Master Gunnery Sergeant.
Gunnery Sergeant Dallas had watched the whole incident. “Where’s the Master Guns off to?”
Victor gave Dallas a smile that contained little if any warmth. “Master Guns Wilbane has a job to do for Colonel Livingston. I’m his replacement.”
*~*
Late afternoon was quickly turning into early evening, but Darcy didn’t notice. She was busy contacting ‘her people’, letting them know that the big operation was getting underway.
No one queried her as to why the timetable had been moved up – the insurgent rocket attack had caused that. Gibbs and his Major Case Response Team were beginning to annoy her. They kept poking and prodding, turning up new evidence and making her contacts nervous. And though she had managed to turn Sarah MacKenzie and by a stroke of pure luck that goody-two shoe, Commander Harmon Rabb, had been sent to the Persian Gulf, the JAG officers who remained behind were making her life exceedingly difficult.
She thought about getting MacKenzie to get them to back off, but then she remember what Ricard had told her just before he was arrested. Gibbs and the JAG light Colonel had had a falling out, which meant that using Sarah MacKenzie to get them out of her hair was as good as pouring gasoline on a raging fire.
Especially where Gibbs was concerned.
No, she’d have to handle him differently. Killing him would be too thickheaded and draw unwanted attention to her operation. It was the kind of ‘attention’ that her plan could ill afford.
As she puzzled over what to do with the senior NCIS Agent, she noted her computer tech running a battery of programs on her laptop. She frequently did this kind of thing to keep the machine running smoothly. But what she was doing right now was different. Every time she opened a new program, she shook her head as if trying to chase flies away from her face.
“What is the matter, Corporal?” Darcy asked in a slightly irritated yet curious voice.
That immediately got the young computer tech’s attention. “I’m seeing something strange…,”
she said in a distracted voice.
Darcy stood up at her desk. “Strange? Strange how, Corporal?”
The young tech shook her head. “I don’t know…I think…”
“Think what, Corporal?” Now Darcy was getting worried. What else was going wrong now?
Corporal Darlene Prudle realized she wasn’t making any sense to her boss. “I’m getting a weird feedback signal, ma’am.”
Before the Force Recon commander could say anything else, Darlene nodded her head in confirmation that she had actually found something.
“There it is again, ma’am….” Darlene considered it an honor to have been picked to be in this unit. She would do anything for her CO to repay that debt. Anything.
“Can you isolate it?” Darcy said moving closer to the Corporal and her laptop.
The Corporal’s grin beat anything ever offered by the Cheshire Cat. “Yes ma’am. They won’t know what hit them by the time I get finished with them.” Corporal Prudle eagerly began opening programs on the Colonel’s laptop with lightning speed.
“Who are they?” Darcy said more to herself than to her Corporal as she watched her work.
But the Corporal didn’t hear her CO’s idle statement that way. She thought it was a direct request for information. “It’s originating from the Washington Navy Yard….” She stopped and looked up at the Force Recon CO. “NCIS Headquarters.”
Darcy Livingston froze for only a few moments, but Darlene swore she could see fear in the Colonel’s eyes. Then the moment passed and Colonel Livingston took over again.
“Let me see that,” Darcy ordered as she bent down to check the data. The Corporal sat back and let her have a full view of the screens’ contents.
After examining it for a few moments, the Force Recon Colonel stood back and nodded. “So they want to see what I’m up to, eh? Well Corporal, by all means, let them see….”
“Aye, aye, ma’am,” The Corporal leaned forward and began furiously tapping again on the laptop’s keys. More programs popped open on the Colonel’s laptop.
*~*
Mac’s eyes widened when she saw the tall lanky Master Gunnery Sergeant headed toward her. Kayce took note of the Light Colonel’s reaction, but didn’t say anything. Mac handed the folded topographic sheet to her.
“Colonel, good to see you again,” Victor said with the right amount of disrespect in his voice.
“Have you forgotten how to salute an officer, Master Gunnery Sergeant?” Mac replied coldly, working hard not to look at Victor’s new rank. “And where is Master Guns Wilbane?”
“Wilbane had to run an errand for Darcy, you understand. And in answer to your other question, no ma’am, I haven’t,” Victor replied, a lecherous smile gracing his rugged features, as he threw her a crisp salute. “Just thought you’d cut me some slack after our last adventure together….”
“I *should* have had you charged with conduct unbecoming,” Mac said heatedly as she returned his salute.
“But you didn’t, ma’am,” the Master Gunnery Sergeant replied. That lecherous taunting smirk returned. “But I’m not here to reminisce. I have your orders from Colonel Livingston.”
“Then let’s not waste anymore time. Corporal Danvers; escort Master Gunnery Sergeant Galindez back to the training area and have him assemble the platoon for the briefing.”
“Aye ma’am,” Kayce gave Mac a textbook salute and then turned to the tall dark Master Gunnery Sergeant.
“Lead the way, Corporal,” Victor managed to say in a tone that oozed politeness.
Kayce almost forgot this good looking man was a senior non-commissioned officer. “Y-Yes Master Gunnery Sergeant,” she stammered.
*~*
If anyone had been watching the Goth Forensics Lab Technician and the Probationary NCIS Agent from the Norfolk office, they would have thought this was part of a well-choreographed little skit.
Abby and Tim were busily clicking and tapping away in simpatico when Tim heard an unfamiliar chirp and looked up at his monitor.
He tapped a few keys in quick succession to confirm his suspicions. “They’re onto us!” he announced. It had to be a ‘they’; no ‘he’ or ‘she’ could have detected them this quickly.
“What?! Oh crud! How did they spot us?” Abby asked, momentarily confused, then she began banging away at her keyboard as well, trying to lose whoever was trying to find them.
Tim’s hands flew across his keyboard. “We must’ve triggered some kind of security alert. It doesn’t match any of the systems currently in use by Marine Corps or any other Armed Forces branch….”
Abby watched as their screens began to vomit out a mountain of data. “McGee! Don’t let them fry my baby!!”
Tim noted that directories were being opened with sickening ease. A finger of dread prodded his stomach. They had to act fast or someone would soon be trashing their hard drives.
“Work with me Abby! I’m backing out of their system, but they’ve initiated a trace! We got to lose them before--”
Abby had already anticipated what he wanted to do. “Rerouting through Malaysia…now through South Korea!”
The MIT Grad shook his head as he tapped a succession of keys to close the portal they had just left. “It’s no good; they’re still tracing us!”
“They’re going to find us!” Abby squeaked. Gibbs had warned her about the dangers of playing with hackers. ‘Let the computer techs handle it’ he had told her. He also told her that if they worked their way back to her machine and damaged it, he would be very slow about getting her a replacement.
Tim executed a quick series of commands. “I’ll route us through a couple of civilian networks…no good…they’re still tracing….”
Abby was frantic. “Gibbs will kill me if this machine gets fried!”
Tim continued to hammer at his keys when suddenly he stopped. Then he opened a command prompt and entered a code. He licked his lips and began to smile. “Don’t worry, Abby, I have a plan….”
Abby was clueless. “What?”
Tim quickly explained. “We’ll let them come to us…”
Abby watched in dismay as Tim began opening what looked like a network gateway portal into the heart of the main NCIS server. “What are you doing?”
“Putting the finishing touches on a fake portal into your server and a dummy directory that mimics your server and all the NCIS servers…filled with worthless duplicates of our files...of course….”
“McGee, you’re a genius!”
Tim was quite proud of himself. “I created it one day as a lark….” His pride was dampened as the he watched the hacker’s relentless pursuit “Uh oh. Get ready, here they come…..”
“Come into my parlor…witchy woman…. …Tim! They’re deleting the files!”
Tim gave the Goth NCIS Forensic Lab Specialist a reassuring grin. “Let them – it’s all junk – but they don’t know that…”
“They’re also rewriting several files!”
He watched the speed with which file sizes changed. “Uh huh, they’re also planting Trojan horses and they’re doing a security scan of the directory looking for anything that can stop them…whoever she’s got working for her, they are good….”
“Don’t admire them McGee! Stop them!”
“They can’t go anywhere Abbs, they’re stuck in that dummy directory – to them it looks like the gateway to the entire NCIS Server. It will take them hours to figure out where they really are…and by the time they do….”
Abby Sciuto quirked a stern eyebrow at the junior NCIS Agent. “Did you just call me Abbs?”
Tim was momentarily chastened. “Uh, yeah, sorry. By the, uh, time they do, it’ll be too late.”
Satisfied with his answer, Abby smiled and slapped the monitor which was marking the progress of Darcy’s destructive trace.
“You may be good, witchy woman, but we’re better….” Spontaneously, she gave Timothy McGee a hug. “Thank you for saving my machine, Special Agent McGee.”
Tim felt himself color, “You’re, uh, welcome, Ms. Sciuto.”
“It’s Abby, Timothy. I called you Special Agent McGee out of respect, because you are a Special Agent.”
“Um, okay, you’re welcome…Abby.”
---TBC…
***********************
Don LaFontaine's voice over for Seasons 2 & 3 of JAG
when it moved from NBC to CBS:
"Following in his father's footsteps as a naval aviator, Lieutenant Commander Harmon Rabb suffered a plane crash
while trying to land his Tomcat on a storm tossed carrier
at sea.
Diagnosed with night blindness, Harm transferred to Navy's
Judge Advocate General Corps, which investigates, prosecutes and defends the law of the sea. There, with
fellow JAG lawyer Major Sarah MacKenzie, Harm fights
in and out of the courtroom with same daring and
tenacity, that made him a Top Gun, in the air....
A/N: I'll be back soon with Chapter 25d - thanks for
all the nice comments about the story. -TxJAG_b
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