„AGENT GIBBS!“
The shout rang through the office and several people turned. Gibbs, however, exchanged a look with Tony. Then he turned and went up the stairs to meet his agitated director.
„MTAC,“ Vance said with a dark face. Gibbs hid a smirk. Tony had been right in the end. They had been setting up the trap and after only one day, McGee had figured out that something wasn’t right. Ziva was close behind. And Abby had been looking really pissed off too. He had warned Vance that his team would see right through it. However, his team was apparently not the only ones who saw through it. The Avenger didn’t show, no matter what they did.
As he entered MTAC, he saw that Fornell and the FBI director were on the screen. „The operation is cancelled,“ Fornell announced, and he didn’t look happy at all.
Gibbs simply nodded. „I’ll tell my team, then.“
„Not so fast, Gibbs.“ Fornell intervened before Gibbs could only turn. „Every Agent on my and your teams will be interrogated.“
„Why?“ Gibbs asked with a frown.
„The Avenger has to have intel at the very least. Someone is feeding him information. We will interrogate every agent involved in the case,“ Fornell answered, sounding pissed.
Before Gibbs could open his mouth, Vance spoke up. „It’s an order, Agent Gibbs. Go down and tell your team that they are not free to leave the building. Agent Fornell will be here soon.“
Gibbs swallowed everything he wanted to say to either Fornell or Vance and simply answered with a „Yes sir,“ then left MTAC. As he went down, he saw Tony looking at him knowingly.
„People, you will all be interrogated by Agent Fornell. In the meantime, none of you are free to leave the building.“ Gibbs announced.
„Why are they putting us under house arrest? We haven’t done anything! We all knew that the case we were working on was fake and still we kept on working it!“ McGee said, outraged. Tony obviously wasn’t the only one who’d had enough of the secret operations. Gibbs suppressed a sigh at that. If Vance kept going that way he soon would have to find a new team, though he wasn’t sure that wasn‘t what Vance was trying to do.
„I know none of you did anything wrong. I wasn’t given a choice, McGee,“ Gibbs said, and it was as close to an apology as he would get.
„What was this for anyway?“ Ziva asked as she crossed her arms in front of her chest.
„I’m not authorized to talk about that,“ Gibbs said and the only reason why he said that was because Vance was standing on top of the stairs watching him like a hawk. Tony noticed it as well, and subtly shook his head when McGee wanted to say something.
A few minutes later Fornell showed up, and he looked even more grumpy than usual. He got the usual death glares from the team, although they were a little fiercer than normal. McGee was the first to be asked down, and Tony and Ziva remained in the bullpen, with an agent to keep them from talking and synchronising their stories.
Meanwhile in the interrogation room, Tim felt just as bad as he did the first time he sat in that chair, on the wrong side of the table. This time however Gibbs was in the room as well and if his earlier reaction was anything to go by, Gibbs was on his side. He would feel so much better if he knew that he hadn’t done anything wrong but after so many years with Gibbs â€" and so many computers he had hacked â€" he wasn’t so sure.
„Agent McGee, do you know why you’re here?“ Fornell asked.
„Erm, no, sir...Gibbs just said that we’re being interrogated. He didn’t mention why...is there another mole?“ McGee asked and looked nervously at Gibbs. Last time that didn’t go down well.
„Maybe,“ Fornell said cryptically and McGee frowned. „Did it at any time occure to you that this case was a fake?“
McGee looked at Gibbs and his boss nodded slightly.
„Yes, sir. The research I did, the algorithm...“ Fornell held up a hand to stop McGee from falling into techno babble, he wouldn’t understand a thing anyway.
„So you knew that the case wasn’t real. Did you find out the purpose?“
„No, sir. I talked to Tony about it, but he said he had no idea either. Neither did Ziva or Abby...“
„Did you ask Gibbs about it?“
„Actually, I had hoped that Tony would approach him about that...“
„So, you still have no idea why you were working a fake case?“
„No, sir, I don’t, I mean, yes, I do...I mean I have no idea why we worked a fake case.“ McGee stuttered slightly as he tried to find the right words. Fornell sighed and looked at Gibbs.
„You’re free to go, McGee.“
McGee stood and left the room. Gibbs smirked slightly. He knew that McGee wasn’t half as nervous as he let on, but the boy still had that persona down and sometimes playing like that came in more handy than trying to be a tough agent.
Tony looked up when McGee entered the bullpen and Ziva was asked down. „How did it go?“ Tony asked and got an evil look from the FBI Agent. „Right, forgot, no talking,“ he muttered, and turned back to his computer, resting his head on his hand as he clicked through his emails. At some point Ziva returned, but Tony wasn’t asked into interrogation. Tony figured that Fornell wanted to question Abby and Ducky first, and when he finally was asked down he went into the interrogation room with his head held high and a slightly arrogant expression. Fornell had really interrogated him one time too often for his liking. He sat down and fixed the agent with a glare.
„Agent DiNozzo, this feels like déjà vu,“ Fornell said with a smirk. Now it was Tony and Gibbs glaring at him.
„Really? You’re going to accuse me of murder yet again?“ DiNozzo retorted calmly.
„No, not this time. Agent McGee told us that he talked to you about the case being bogus. How did you come up with that idea?“
„Well, where to start?“ Tony leaned back in the chair. „We didn’t work the scene. Ducky didn’t get a single body for autopsy. Allegedly the PD had done all that already before they knew that the women had been in the Navy. The thing is, the photos didn’t look right. And Abby’s test results just came popping up, we found all those promising leads, but as soon as we started to dig deeper we were blocked. You’re an Agent for how long, Fornell, 40 years?“ Tony grinned slightly as Fornell’s jaw tightened. „You should know that we notice if a case looks too perfect but yet unsolvable. When McGee approached me about the algorithm-whatever, we concluded that the case couldn’t be real.“
Fornell narrowed his eyes at Tony.
„So, you knew the case was fake, did you find out the purpose for it?“
„No, I didn’t. I meant to ask Gibbs about it, or rather yell at him, or maybe I’d just have handed in my resignation because it’s the second time in six months he’s done this. Anyway, I didn’t get the chance to talk to him about it because you showed up and thought you’d have a little chat with all of us. So, what’s the deal? Another traitor? Terrorism?“ Tony raised his eyebrow and Gibbs had to admit, he was damn good at this, though the part about the resignation stung a little.
„Have you at any time given out information about the case or about the case being fake to anyone?“ Fornell asked instead of answering the question.
„You mean beside McGee, Ziva, Abby and Ducky? No, I never talk about work details with anyone beside the team or the director,“ Tony answered and it sounded a little too textbook.
„No friends? Family? Girlfriend?“
„What do you wanna hear, Fornell? My family? I barely talk to any of them anymore. My friends? Why should I tell my frat brothers about a bogus case? And I don’t have a girlfriend.“
Fornell nodded and after a few more questions Tony was free to go. He went up into the bullpen to see several FBI agents who looked pretty nervous.
„What’s going on here?“ he asked McGee.
„Apparently we’re not the only ones getting interrogated,“ The young man answered as the FBI agents were lead out of the working area. Tony sat behind his desk.
„Did Fornell tell you what this is about?“ Ziva asked.
„No, but for once he didn’t accuse me of murder, which is a nice change,“ Tony answered and turned to his computer.
Half an hour, later Gibbs entered the bullpen and he had that look. It was the same look that dogs had when they got the bone. He had broken someone in interrogation.
„Boss, what is this all about?“ Tony finally asked. He already knew, but he also knew that McGee and Ziva wouldn’t ask. Well, Ziva would but it wouldn’t be so polite.
„Fornell suspected a leak to the Dark Avenger in either my or his team,“ Gibbs answered. „I really didn’t suspect you guys and I didn’t want to do this, but I wasn’t given any choice by the director.“
„Did they find the leak?“ McGee questioned.
„One of Fornell’s team admitted dropping information for the Dark Avenger. Fornell’s giving him a piece of his mind at the moment.“ Gibbs replied and sat behind his desk. „It’s late, guys. Go home.“
McGee and Ziva were quickly out of the bullpen, but Tony lingered behind. „Tony, I could use a hand with the boat tonight. You free?“ Gibbs asked.
„Sure, boss. I’ll bring Chinese,“ Tony answered with a grin and then grabbed his coat and left.
Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. No money is being made from this work. No copyright infringement is intended.