Feline Confidential
Gibbs knew he was in trouble again when he answered the phone and heard the Director's voice. "My office. Now."
"I'll be…um…." He made a hand gesture to his team indicating he was going upstairs.
DiNozzo and McGee watched him go, glancing at each other with concern. David's expression was one of speculation.
When he had entered Jen Shepard's office and closed the door at her command, she said, "Do I understand this correctly? You sent a *cat* undercover?"
"Where did you hear that?" he asked.
"Ziva told me. She described a videotape of one" she glanced at a paper on her desk,"…one Petty Officer Jody Silverton receiving two men at her home with whom she had sex for pay. And, according to Ziva, the cat was in her house just before the first of the men came in, and the cat was wearing, or perhaps even carrying, a camcorder that recorded both of those encounters."
Gibbs' eyes narrowed slightly. "And how did Ziva know it was a cat?"
"Because the young woman was obviously relating to a cat. She called it ‘kitty'; she read its ID tag and called the owner; she stroked it. The view appeared to be from the level of the ID tag."
"Did the camcorder get a picture of the cat?"
"Obviously not. The camcorder was *on* the cat's collar."
Gibbs shrugged.
Shepard picked up a sheaf of papers. "And furthermore, when DiNozzo interviewed her, she asked about the cat."
Calmly Gibbs asked, "Did DiNozzo say anything about a cat?"
"No," she replied, her voice as cold as ice.
"Well, there you are," Gibbs replied. "If DiNozzo doesn't know anything about a cat, there probably is no cat."
Shepard seemed to be just short of furious. "The evidence points to a cat. And what I want to know is, where did the cat come from? Are we running feline undercover agents now?"
She drew herself up indignantly. "What the hell is going on here, Jethro?"
"I don't know, ma'am," he responded. "To the best of my knowledge, NCIS doesn't have any arrangements for using cats in its work." He paused before continuing speculatively. "Although it's not a bad idea. A cat could go just about anywhere undercover, and nobody would know what it was up to."
"Jethro!" The director was almost shouting with rage by now. "I want an answer. I want to know if a cat was involved in getting that videotape. I want to know how you did it. Do you realize what knowledge about that could do to the case?"
"It's my understanding," he said, "that the JAGs have more than enough evidence to put away Warrant Officer Sheckelman and Captain McCallan for a long, long time without videos of their actions."
"Nonetheless, if it ever gets out that NCIS may be using *cats* to do surveillance, we'll be the laughingstock of the government."
"You're the one saying a cat was involved. Are you going to tell other agencies that we're using cats?"
Shepard's only response was to glare at Gibbs.
"Get out of here!" she finally said, doing her best to contain her fury. "But if I ever find out that you are running a cat as an agent, I will kick your ass over the moon."
Gibbs returned to his desk with a grin on his face and a twinkle in his eye. On the way he stopped in front of Agent DiNozzo's desk. "Tell ‘Mikey' to stay out of the director's way," he told the younger agent. "She's having a hissy fit."
"On it, boss," DiNozzo replied with a gleam in his bright green eyes.
Story Notes:
Follows "Cat Undercover."
Usual disclaimers
Author's Chapter Notes:
The Director wants to know about the team's "new agent."
Chapter End Notes:
Follows "Cat Undercover."
Usual disclaimers
Usual disclaimers