Chapter Three – Planning and Executing: In Which Tony Makes a Mistake
In the morning, Gibbs, McGee, DiNozzo, and Dr. Mallard met in Abby's lab. In light of the late night, Gibbs had already had at least three cups of coffee and had provided Abby with her second CafPow! of the day. Even DiNozzo and McGee were sucking on caffeine
"Well?" queried Abby. "How did it go? Did Mikey do okay?"
"Mikey did fine," said DiNozzo. "He got to spend a whole bunch of hours watching a drug dealer do deals. And believe me, once you've seen one deal, you've seen ‘em all."
"Let's see the video," Gibbs told Abby. The group watched the footage from the catcam in silence, with Abby fast-forwarding through the waiting times.
"I see what you mean, TonyCat," she murmured.
"It was pretty boring in the van, too," added McGee.
"Yes, I must confess that I came close to nodding off several times myself," Ducky told them.
"That's the nature of surveillance," Gibbs told them. Turing to Abby, he said, "If the intel is right, all these guys are Navy, except maybe for Gianni's pickup man. Are you going to be able to ID them?"
"Oh, yes, Gibbs, I will ID them, one and all, although without fingerprints it's going to take a while longer. Too bad we can't teach Mikey to lift prints."
"Oh, Mikey knows how to do that," DiNozzo replied, "but without opposable thumbs it's kinda hard."
"Do what you can, Abs," Gibbs said.
"Right, bossman," Abby chirped.
"By the end of the day"
"Gibbs!" Abby protested, but by then Gibbs was on his way out the door, followed closely by DiNozzo and McGee.
Abby turned to Ducky, but he waved at her, saying, "I've got to get back to the morgue and finish up a couple of things."
Without distractions and only one more CafPow!, it actually took Abby less than three hours to get the ID's needed. As expected, all of the buyers were Navy, and, according to their Navy profiles, all served aboard various naval vessels currently in port in the D.C. area. The bagman and his boss were easy too, as they both had mug shots posted with both the FBI and ATF. At her call the three male field agents trooped back into her lab for the report.
Pulling up Gianni's photo on the plasma screen, she read his vitals. "Gianni della Giannina. Well known as an associate of Carlo Lapressa, also well-known as the Mafia boss in the D.C. area."
"Is the last guy that came in Lapressa?" McGee asked.
"No, Lapressa the boss. He's too high and mighty to do any of the dirty work," Abby answered. "Your man in the video is Tom Smith, also an associate of Lapressa's."
The agents exchanged raised-eyebrow glances. "Tom Smith?" asked DiNozzo.
"It's an alias, I'm pretty sure," Abby replied.
"Ya think?" Gibbs asked.
"With McGee's help, I checked with the FBI and Metro Police to see what they have on these guys." She turned from the plasma to face the agents. "About three years ago there was a big meeting at the Greenbriar, that fancy resort out in the country. The meeting was between the honchos of the D.C. Latino drug ring and Lapressa's family. They'd been having a huge turf war, lots of people killed, including innocent bystanders, that sort of thing. The feds and the locals were closing in on them, and it was clear they had to come to some arrangement."
Abby picked up her CafPow! to take a long sip. "Getting kinda dry here, Gibbs."
"When you finish the briefing, Abs."
"You are so dominating, bossman," she replied. "Well, anyway, the outcome of the meeting was that the Latinos would handle drug distribution in the barrios, and Lapressa got everything else. It's pretty lucrative for them."
"I don't wonder," mused Gibbs. "Not only do they have most of the local neighborhoods, but they also have the military installations."
"So basically," Tony interjected, "we want to go after Lapressa, is that right?"
"Basically," Gibbs agreed.
"But don't we need to find a solid connection between Gianni and Carlo?" asked McGee. "We can stop this operation at Harry's Place, but it's just going to pop up somewhere else."
"It's not just the drugs, McGee," Gibbs said to him. "We're talking Mafia here. That means money laundering, selling weapons, prostitution, murder for hire, even fixing traffic tickets—anything criminal. Even though the Feds have shut down a lot of the most powerful Mafia families in this country, there are still the little pockets here and there where, for one reason or another, their activities continue. If we can take Lapressa down, we'll be doing everybody a favor."
"And maybe for once NCIS will get some respect from the other LEOs," Tony stated. He half anticipated the dope slap. "Speaking of respect…." He broke off as Gibbs glared at him.
"So what's next?" Abby wondered.
"Get all the info you can on the guys that bought supplies from della Giannina. We'll have the MPs bring them in. We probably won't get any useful information out of them, except how they found out how to get in touch with Gianni."
"For the rest, we need to tail Tom Smith after he makes another pickup to see if he takes it to Lapressa. We'll also be staking out Gianni to find out where he picks up his supplies."
"Sounds like a plan to me," said Tony. "What about Mikey?"
"Mikey's done his job," Gibbs said. "It's time for the humans to do theirs. We're going to have to bring Madame Director and Officer David into the know to accomplish the rest."
"But they don't need to know about Mikey yet, do they?" Tony asked.
"Not yet, but…." Gibbs didn't finish his thought, implying that Shepard and David would be finding out soon enough. Tony was left feeling anxious and unhappy.
Over the next few days, the team was busy. There were endless meetings to plan the rest of the operation.
The director had looked suspiciously at the photos taken by the catcam but said nothing. Agents from the FBI, ATF, and Metro police were all briefed, and in turn gave their briefings to the teams from NCIS.
With Shepard's blessing a naval MP was recruited to seek out Gianni della Giannina at Harry's Place and make a buy. At the appointed time the young MP and a very nervous McGee acting as backup entered Harry's. When Gianni wondered why there were two of them, the MP told him that he'd been a little nervous about coming alone and maybe encountering problems. Gianni was not happy. He stood up and walked over to where McGee was standing, grabbing him by the collar.
McGee was duly intimidated, promising never to rat. "And anyway," he told Gianni, in a moment of inspiration, "I need something real soon, and I'll get it a lot sooner if I'm with him." The desperation Gianni heard in his voice was not faked, although it did not spring from the source the bagman thought it did.
Gianni had glared at him for a moment, then released him roughly.
That night when Gianni left the bar, he had a tail. DiNozzo and David spent the night in their car, watching as the bagman entered his home carrying the two briefcases. It was a chilly night to be doing surveillance from a car. When Tony suggested that they huddle for warmth, Ziva gave him a glare that would have done Gibbs proud. Tony obviously had only been doing his usual teasing; he didn't follow up. Instead, he told David they would divide the night into two-hour watches; he would take the first watch.
The following morning, after an uneventful and unrestful night, they watched as della Giannina left his house with the two bags. He led them to a high-rise office building on the outskirts of the city. Parking illegally, the two agents entered the building in time to determine the floor at which the elevator stopped. By the time della Giannina returned to his car, his bags were visibly heavier, and the agents had determined at which office he'd had them resupplied. Although they knew that it was relatively easy to move drugs around with impunity, they were surprised that the central warehouse for this operation was located in a very prestigious law firm. Well, what better cover than a legitimate business?
Somewhere in the District, a palatial home occupied by Carlo Lapressa was also being observed night and day by rotating teams of agents from the various agencies. Although they did not have access to the catcam, they did see—and photograph—a lot of traffic in and out of the estate by persons of interest, including one Mafioso who called himself Tom Smith. Apparently, Mr. Smith was not expecting that he would be observed on his rounds throughout the city as he pick up the booty from Sr. Lapressa's many illegal operations, including the little drug room at Harry's Place.
With the information gathered, the various law enforcement agencies obtained wiretap permissions, which yielded even more damning information on Lapressa's operations. It was almost time for the sting to go down.
The final meeting before the operation began occurred in NCIS's auditorium. Almost fifty people were present. Gibbs' team was delegated to work Harry's Place, since they were already familiar with it. Other teams were assigned to Tom Smith, to Carlo Lapressa, and to several other people involved in Lapressa's ring. The teams agreed on a start time. Surprise was to be a key element so that the criminals wouldn't have time to communicate with and warn each other.
On the appointed night the silver van once again took its position by the telephone pole, joined by an NCIS sedan, and a unit from ATF. With weapons drawn, the group entered Ocean Lane. Because McGee had been there before, he was the one to open the door in the hope Harry would not make him. However, he had hardly had time to step over the threshold when the team behind him pushed in.
"Hands up! Police!" Gibbs barked. Ziva David, with backup from two ATF agents, approached the back booth on the right. Gianni was caught receiving the envelope of cash from his current client. David ordered buyer and seller to stand so the ATF agents could cuff them.
Gibbs, McGee, and the agents backing them up were arresting the other patrons of the bar, while DiNozzo kept his gun aimed at Harry the bartender, waiting for another agent to be free to restrain him. In spite of the gun pointed at his head, Harry made a grabbing motion behind the bar.
DiNozzo shouted, "Drop it." But Harry brought up the gun, aiming it directly at Tony's chest. He was just about to pull the trigger when the air around Tony began to shimmer in a strange way. Tony seemed to disappear into a mist, and there was an eldritch screech. The bullet passed through the air where Tony had been standing just a moment before, landing in the doorpost.
Harry barely had time to gape at what he had just seen when a large, sleek brown cat leaped up on the counter, and then on his head. Trying to protect himself from the snarling, spitting animal, he dropped his gun and raised his hands to his head, trying to dislodge the cat. The cat, using Harry's head as a springboard, jumped up on top of the backbar.
All motion, even all sound, in the room stopped as everyone looked toward the bartender, who by now was weeping with pain from the puncture wounds left by Mikey's claws.
Gibbs shouted, "Agents, cover your subjects. McGee, get him out of here."
McGee began moving toward the bar, scooping up Tony's clothes as he moved. Mikey jumped from the backbar down to the counter and then into McGee's arms. McGee ran to the door, leaving behind bar patrons, bartender, drug dealers, and LEOs—especially one Ziva David--standing motionless in shock and amazement.
In the van McGee realized that Mikey was trembling.
"Tony, are you okay?" he asked worriedly.
In answer, Mikey jumped from McGee's arms down to the floor of the van and shook himself. It took several minutes longer than usual, but eventually Mikey morphed back into Tony. He redressed himself quickly.
"I don't think you should go back in there," McGee told him.
"I don't think so either," Tony replied. "That was too damned close." He was still trembling.
Author's Chapter Notes:
In which Tony makes a mistake.