| Subject: ...For Meritorious Service, Chapter 25d, part two |
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TxJAG_b
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Date Posted: 08:53:41 01/07/09 Wed
In reply to:
TxJAG_b
's message, "...For Meritorious Service" on 09:04:26 05/08/07 Tue
A/N: Sorry for the delay - this is a long chapter, but
it's also the beginning of the finale. Enjoy!
FMS Chapter 25d part two
1331 Zulu/0831 Local
NCIS Headquarters
Washington Navy Yard
John Michael McBurney had just reached the bottom of the stairwell when he heard voices coming from Abby’s lab. He stopped and listened for a moment.
“I found it!” The muffled female voice was triumphant.
“Found what?” Was what the Marine Major thought he heard the male voice say.
“What we’ve all been looking for!” He could tell the female was exasperated, that could be Abby….
“Really? Where?” Confusion; he could now tell that was Tim McGee’s voice. The probie Special Agent from the NCIS Norfolk office.
“Do you see that speck right there?” That was Abby’s clear confident voice.
“Um…no,” That voice was unsteady. It was definitely that of Special Agent Timothy McGee.
“Over here, McGee…” Abby’s insistent voice, almost commanding. He knew Abby Sciuto could be that way sometimes. That was one of the intriguing things about her.
“Oh, that speck….” McBurney shook his head in empathetic sympathy. McGee would pay for that.
“Yes, *that speck*, and anyway, it’s *not* a speck….” Abby’s voice chilled about 10 degrees. Yep, he’s gonna pay for that slip.
“It looks like a speck….” The probationary Special Agent offered as a defense. It was a tepid defense at best.
“Focus McGee!” Ouch.
That got him back on track. “Sorry; so, what is it?” Well, partially anyway.
Abby sounded almost frantic. “The missing link! You know, the thing that all of us, well Ducky, Commander Coulter and I, have been looking for…so we can nail Captain Lewis!!”
“You really think that will be enough?” McGee’s skepticism was his cue to enter.
“What did you find, Abby?” The JAG Major asked, as he strode through the parting Plexiglas doors and into Abby’s lab.
Abby and Tim turned in surprise at his sudden entrance.
“Wow, Major, you’re almost as good as Gibbs!” Abby gushed.
Tim’s boyish face was torn between envy and hurt. At that moment John Michael McBurney wasn’t too proud of himself. Sure he wanted to date Abby, but he didn’t want to win her this way.
Before he could say anything else, Doctor Mallard and Commander Coulter walked into the room.
“Ah Abigail, I do hope you have found something Jethro can use….”
“Jethro?” Tim had no clue who Doctor Mallard was talking about.
Abby ignored Tim’s query. She was beaming. “I have Ducky,” she tapped some keys on her keyboard. “Look at this!”
On her oversize monitors was an image of a spent shell casing, enlarged several thousand times.
Ducky and the others moved closer. There was a moment of silence.
Commander Coulter was the first to speak. “A fingerprint?”
“Not just any fingerprint. A fingerprint from one Captain Jacques Lewis!” She clicked a few keys on her keyboard and her screen split, like a cell undergoing mitosis, showing images of other bullet fragments. “And not only here, but here, and here, and here!”
1835 Local/1535 Zulu
Somewhere north of Mirbullah
As soon as they reached FOB Metz, the Light Colonel’s truck fell back and took the middle position in their little convoy. To any Fedayeen or insurgents watching, it would look more normal for the women to be in middle truck. They probably should have left the Camp that way, but Mac wanted to make sure she made a few visible ‘mistakes’ due to ‘overzealousness’.
Besides it would give Darcy something to chuckle about and make the JAG Corps officer seem more innocuous and less of a threat to the Force Recon CO.
Mac scanned the early evening desert countryside, watching for signs of trouble. Kayce, sitting next to her, was remarkably relaxed, despite the fact her rifle was wedged between her legs.
Unless you were actually looking for it, Mac observed, the sniper rifle was difficult to see. The Marine Judge Advocate was pretty sure Kayce didn’t intend to try and pull out her rifle in case they suddenly ran into trouble. She probably had a backup pistol.
Kayce turned and looked at her CO. “How many times have you been in combat, ma’am?”
It was an impertinent question, but considering the situation, Mac could understand why she was asking. This was a dangerous assignment. Their previous assignment, hypothetically anyway, was supposed to be a simple reconnaissance mission. Instead, it had turned into a full-fledged firefight which ended with the death of Lieutenant Carlson Ebbits and catapulted Mac into commanding this unit.
So she could understand why Kayce Danvers was asking the question.
When Mac did not answer right away, she noted that Corporal Burges was stealing looks at both of them.
“A few times,” Mac answered her evasively. The Light Colonel could think of at least a dozen different times when she was in a ‘combat’ situation. Her taking command of that Embassy Marine security team in Indonesia was one and there were probably more, but after a while, they tended to blur together.
Of course, the ones that were freshest in her mind were her last mission with this group and of course, her assignment in the Paraguayan Chaco Boreal with Clayton Webb, Gunny Galindez and Harmon Rabb, junior.
“How many times does this make for you, Corporal?” Sometimes turning the question back on a subordinate is the best way to answer.
Kayce gave her a grim smile. Like she was doing something distasteful but necessary. “Counting our last mission together and my time in Afghanistan, ma’am, this will be my tenth time in combat.”
1348 Zulu/0848 Local
JAG Headquarters
Falls Church, Virginia
Tiner passed his electronic sniffer over another workstation. Nothing. He glanced at the clock by the television monitors…they had minutes before the Admiral’s morning staff meeting for the attorneys ended, and a few more minutes before Lieutenant Sims would begin her part in this…operation.
When they had started examining workstations and desks the afternoon of Lieutenant Dodge’s funeral, Harriet and Marla had gotten off to a pretty good start. Then paperwork and regular duties in the Bullpen slowed them down considerably. Even when Jason and Jennifer got involved after they got back from the funeral, the pace was still agonizingly slow. Several of those who had their stations examined inquired what was going on, but Jason didn’t see that any of them were unduly interested. The term annoyed probably better described how most of them felt about this intrusion into what they considered their private space.
Jason looked across the Bullpen at Jennifer Coates who was passing a similar detector over another workstation. She lifted her head and shook it once, indicating she had not found anything either. He turned his head toward Sergeant Givers who was passing her detector over a workstation for the second time.
Jason knew he had to act fast or someone would ask what Marla had found. “Have you found something, Sergeant?”
Marla looked up at the sound of his voice. “No sir, I think this thing is glitching.”
Before anyone in the Bullpen could say anything, Jason Tiner strode over to where the young Marine was standing. “Let me see it.”
Marla quickly handed the matchbox sized device to him. He passed it several times over the workstation and frowned. “Yeah, it’s not working right…c’mon Sergeant”
“Where are you two headed? Did you find anything?” It was Seaman Cathart. Cathart didn’t strike Marla as the kind of guy who liked to play spy games, but then, that’s precisely why he could be one.
Jason gave the Seaman a pained expression. “No, this thing’s got faulty wiring. Like all things built by the lowest bidder….”
Cathart looked genuinely disappointed. As they moved away from him, he suddenly brightened. “Hey, can I go with you? I’ve never been to the tech area before; I hear they have a lot of cool stuff down there.”
Marla and Jason exchanged brief worried glances. “Um, sure,” Jason said quickly to hide their discomfort.
Marla sure hoped Cathart was just the curious kind.
1848 Local/1548 Zulu
Camp Chesty Puller
Near Mirbullah, Iraq
They were grasping at straws; that’s what they were doing. At least it felt that way to Gibbs.
He hated this. He had dedicated his life to finding and nailing scumbags…people who soiled the uniform and gave the Navy and Marine Corps a bad name. And he hated them even more when they slipped through his fingers.
He looked through the confession they had wrung out of former Special Agent in Charge Sedrick Phillips. Like PFC Secord’s confession, it heaped all the blame on him and directed anything away from Colonel Livingston or Captain Lewis.
Sedrick said he was the one who’d come up with the plan to compromise the Bahrain JAGMAN team and sabotage their investigation. Secord, after all, was just a man who solved problems by killing people, so naturally he was readily agreeable to having someone else come up with a workable plan to keep him and the other members of the so-called ‘death squad’ in the clear.
Personally, Gibbs thought the story stunk. But at this point he really didn’t have anything else to go on. What really bothered him was having that JAG Light Colonel out there with Livingston’s henchmen playing good girl gone bad. Maybe it was because he’d found a kindred spirit in that Marine, maybe it was because his gut told him that Darcy Livingston was dirty. And his gut was seldom wrong.
He hadn’t even noticed Commander Turner leaving. Thinking back, though, he did remember the JAG Officer saying something to the effect of ‘This is getting us nowhere’ and mentioning something about grabbing a bite to eat.
The Senior NCIS Agent had merely ‘uh huhed’ his agreement. His mind was totally focused on this case and his frustration with it.
Tony DiNozzo, still burping garlic from the spicy dinner served at the temporary Officer’s Mess, had no idea of the maelstrom he was about to step into when he walked into the room. “Hey Boss, you missed dinn--” he began amiably enough.
Gibbs’ stony stare stopped him dead.
“Where have you been, DiNozzo?” It came out sounding more like an accusation than an actual question.
“Uh dinner, Boss, you know, evening mess? They had this chicken parmigiana with penne pasta that was really pretty--”
Gibbs’ hardening stare stopped him dead.
“You probably don’t care about that, right.” Tony mumbled as he quickly pulled out his PDA, “Okay, Commander Coleman and I interrogated Corporal Devin Richards for most of the afternoon….”
“And?”
“And, he insists that he…”
“…only dealt with PFC Secord and Sedrick Phillips, am I close, DiNozzo?”
Tony chastened, looked down at his PDA and then back at the Senior NCIS Agent, “Uh, yeah, Boss…”
It was probably his use of ‘Boss’ as a term of respect that saved Tony from his usual head slap for not paying attention. Still, his number two man was not following. He’d have to spell it out for him.
Gibbs sighed, “Tony, do you see a pattern here?”
Tony felt as if he was skating on late winter ice. “They’re covering for each other?” His voice was hesitant, expecting a verbal rebuke, or even worse, the famous Gibbs ‘slap to the back of the head’ to get him to focus.
In what Tony thought was an unusual move, Gibbs did neither. Instead, the Senior Special Agent nodded. “Exactly, Tony, there isn’t a single word that comes out of their mouths that doesn’t tie all three of them neatly together, don’t you find that a bit odd?”
1630 Zulu/1030 Local
NCIS Headquarters
After Abby’s incredible finding, she began moving from machine to machine in her lab, trying to coax more from what she had.
After twenty minutes of chasing dead ends, they agreed this might be the best they could do. Seeing how none of them had had breakfast yet, or even dinner the night before for that matter, an agreement was made to split up and get something to eat and then meet back here at 10:00 a.m.
When they met again in the lab, Jack was the third person to arrive. Abby and Tim were standing side by side, tapping away at the dual keyboards. On their screens flashed images and web pages in rapid fire fashion. Tim was munching on what was left of his breakfast biscuit. Abby had her Jumbo sized Caf-Pow, its straw perched between her ruby red lips.
“Okay, that’s just not right…” Abby mumbled as she turned her head to match the orientation of
the document. Tim McGee continued tapping on his keyboard.
“Try this Abby,” Tim said as he clicked his mouse.
The document righted itself and enlarged so that the tiny print could be easily seen. “Yeah, that’s much better…”
“What are we looking at?” Jack asked no longer able to contain his curiosity.
“A ‘lost’ after action report; the file had been saved under another name, instead of the one it was supposed to be saved under.”
Jack scanned the document. “From Afghanistan?”
Abby nodded. “Yep.”
“So what does this have to do with Captain Lewis or Colonel Livingston?”
“Commander Rabb made a reference to this in his report, but he couldn’t find it either. He didn’t have time to really investigate further, before he was recalled to the Patrick Henry for duty.”
Tim picked it up from there, “So we took the name and began trying variations and misspellings, plus we found a reference to it when we were. We, ummm, ‘scanned’ Colonel Livingston’s laptop…”
Before he could say anything about that Abby leaped in again. “And volia’ the missing file that was mentioned in the report.” Abby said smiling broadly.
Major McBurney was totally turned around. “Which report?”
Abby bundled up the small stack of papers, photos, and the paperbound report and acted as if she was handing him a bag of tarantulas. “This. Here. It’s from Commander Rabb.” Whispering as he fingered the material. “He got it from the DSD….”
“DSD?” Jack hadn’t heard that acronym before.
Tim was about to answer when Doctor Mallard and Commander Coulter made their way back into Abby’s lab.
“Uh yeah, hi, Doctor Mallard, Commander Coulter…” He turned back to the Major. “DSD…ah, it stands for Defense Services Directorate….”
Ducky nodded sagely. “Ah yes, I’ve heard of them and their nasty exploits…”
Teresa further elaborated for the young JAG officer. “They’re an agency within the Justice Department. They gave the Commander and Colonel MacKenzie a rough time during the late 90’s. One of their operatives, Special Agent Clark Palmer, went rogue and tried to kill Commander Rabb several times….”
Jack looked at the cover of the paperbound report. “But this isn’t from the DSD…”
Tim nodded his understanding of the Major’s confusion. “Sorry, that’s a courtesy copy of a threat assessment report from the CIA.”
Jack McBurney rearranged the materials Abby had given him so he could thumb through the report. “CIA, DSD? Boy, the Commander and the Colonel sure do dabble a lot in Black Ops….”
Teresa nodded in agreement. “True but that’s part of their reason for being Admiral Chegwidden’s troubleshooters at JAG Corps Headquarters… they handle the sensitive cases for the SecNav.”
The Marine Major picked up on where Teresa was going with this. “…because Admiral Chegwidden’s a former SEAL….” He stopped looking at the report and switched back to the photos.
“And that probably has a lot to do with it, too.” She nodded in agreement.
As the JAG NCIS liaison flipped back and forth through the various photos, Ducky leaned in for a closer examination. “Uh, Major, do you mind if I take a look at those photographs?”
Jack gave the NCIS Forensic Examiner a friendly smile. “Not at all Doctor, be my guest….”
He separated the pictures from the rest of the materials and handed them to him.
Slowly and methodically, Ducky began flipping through the photographs. “Well now, what do we have here?”
Teresa, who was closest, moved in to inspect what the fellow Medical Examiner had found.
“What is it Ducky?”
Ducky stopped his perusal and focused on one image in particular. “An intriguing puzzle; at first glance…um, Abigail, do you mind…?” The bespectacled Doctor raised up his hands, holding the photographs aloft for Abby to see what he wanted.
The Goth Forensic Technician gave him a big smile. “Heck no Ducky, what do you want to do?”
Ducky nodded and held up an index finger. “A little experiment, Abby.”
Doctor Mallard could tell that Major McBurney was just as curious as the rest of them.
“You see Major, since forensics isn’t giving us what we need; I thought perhaps we might try a different direction…. Since I began working with Jethro, uh, Special Agent Gibbs, I’ve been ‘dabbling’ myself, you might say, with criminal psychology; it’s turned into a hobby of mine.”
Teresa looked around. There really wasn’t anywhere in the lab where they could lay out all the photographs.
“Why don’t we move downstairs to the morgue where we can lay these out?” She suggested.
Abby and Tim locked their computers and then they all began walking toward the elevator.
Ducky chuckled as he pushed the button for the elevator. “You know, this reminds me of a case I dealt with once when I was on loan to Scotland Yard….”
*~*
When the elevator doors opened, Ducky still talking. “…so you see, I fancy myself to be somewhat of an amateur criminal psychologist, and these photos might help give us a more complete picture, if you will, of our good Captain Lewis.”
Ducky looked around for his forensic technician. “Ah, Gerald must be on break. Good of him to tidy up before he left, it gives us plenty of room to work….” Ducky said cryptically referring to the plethora of bodies that had previously been spread out in this room.
As the others gathered around him, Ducky very methodically began laying out the photographs on an autopsy table. Tim and Jack watched, fascinated.
Ducky turned to them. “It’s actually a very intriguing hobby…”
“You know Ducky, you could get a degree in criminal psychology. It could be most useful in cases like this.”
Donald Mallard smiled at Teresa’s encouraging suggestion. “I have to admit, I’ve given it some thought. But I’m rather busy, right now, perhaps in the future…Abigail, could you hand me Captain Lewis’ personnel file?”
“Here you go, Ducky.”
The NCIS Medical Examiner opened the file folder and began rearranging the photos. “All right then, now… let’s see what we have here….”
*~*
Tony was glad that for once he wasn’t on the receiving end of Gibbs’ slap. He was so glad in fact, that he almost didn’t hear his cell phone. He quickly fished it out of his pocket.
“ Uh, yeah, DiNozzo….”
“Deenutzo, what are you and Special Agent Gibbs doing in Iraq?”
Tony grimaced. “Tracking down leads on the terrorists who assaulted JAG Corps Headquarters, Special Agent Fornell, I’m sure Gibbs would love to give you all the details.”
“Cut the crap DuhNutso, I know why you’re there; tell your boss I have some information for him if he’s interested.”
Tony cupped his cell phone. “Boss, it’s Special Agent Fornell, he says he’s got some information for you about our case.” Gibbs motioned for him to hand over the phone.
“Yeah, Gibbs.”
“Jethro, you sound like you’re in the next room, not half a world away.”
“That’s nice Tobias; now, what do you have for me?”
“Easy Jethro, I went to a lot of trouble to get this for you.”
“And I appreciate it, Tobias.”
“You didn’t let me finish. The trouble comes from looking into the backgrounds of one Captain Jacques Lewis and one Lieutenant Colonel Darcy D’Acerville Livingston.”
“Captain Lewis is a former DSD operative and Colonel Livingston has a missing husband. Is that what you wanted to tell me?”
“Yeah – wait! How the hell did you know that?”
“I make it my business to know, Tobias. Have you found out anything about the fate of her husband?”
“As a matter a fact we have. A car registered to him was pulled from Black Bottom Bayou. No body, but we did find evidence of foul play. We’re checking the grounds of their residence now for a possible burial site.”
“Anything else on Captain Lewis?”
“Other than the info you have that he was with DSD for a while? No, he’s like a ghost. No parking tickets--”
“No criminal record, no outstanding warrants. I get it, Tobias, squeaky clean.”
“That’s just it, Jethro, no one is that squeaky clean.”
“A sanitized record?”
“Exactly. Too sanitized; someone went overboard.”
“Thanks Tobias, I really do appreciate it.”
The FBI Special Agent let out a sarcastic snort. “You should, Jethro. I’ll let you know as soon as we turn up Beauregard Livingston’s body.”
“By the way, why didn’t you call me on my phone?”
“I figured the battery would be dead, or you wouldn’t have it turned on. I know what a Luddite you are when it comes to technology.”
The senior NCIS Special Agent knew that dig was designed to rile him. He merely smiled and lightly chuckled. “Always a pleasure talking with you, Tobias.”
Special Agent Fornell’s sarcastic response was just as polite. “Likewise Jethro.”
*~*
Back in the NCIS Morgue, Ducky was poring over his mosaic of photographs that he had arranged on one of the empty autopsy tables.
“Do you see this, Major?”
He knew the NCIS Medical Examiner wanted an answer, but he wasn’t sure what that answer was. The major shrugged. “I’m afraid I’m out of my league, Doctor.”
Ducky nodded his head absently and turned to Commander Coulter. “All right then, what do you see, Teresa?”
Commander Coulter scanned the photograph for a moment, but didn’t see anything unusual either. “I see a happy family portrait…” She sighed as she gave up.
But Doctor Mallard wasn’t going to let her get off that easy. “Really? Look closer,”
Then she saw it, it was like those crazy puzzles in the paper where you have find the subtle differences. She found one. “Wait, the look on his face--” Or had she?
Donald Mallard smiled benignly nodding his head. “Exactly, my dear, put this together with the anomalies in the other pictures and you can arrive at the fact that this is a staged setting.”
Tim, intrigued by the ME’s discovery, looked more closely at the photo – it looked like a normal family portrait to him. “You mean that this isn’t his family…”
Ducky held up his index finger as he made his point. “…judging from their distance from him and his displeasure with whatever happened just before this picture was taken, plus the information Commander Rabb supplied…”
Besides Teresa, Abby was the only one who got it. “And presto you have one botched ‘family’ photo.”
Teresa was impressed. The more she hung around Doctor Mallard, the more impressed she became. “That is amazing Ducky, you’re really good at this….”
“Yes,” Doctor said a vague tone as he examined another one of the photos up close. “The only thing that’s missing from this farce is the dutiful family dog….”
--More to come...
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