McGee paled at Gibbs words, he was glad that he wasn’t Tony right now. The more experienced agent bore the brunt of Gibbs anger frequently, but McGee had never heard Gibbs as angry as he was right now. Then again, McGee didn’t work at the DC office all that often, so he wasn’t absolutely sure this was the angriest Gibbs had ever been at DiNozzo, but the look Abby gave the two men said it was close.
Looking at the Southerner who Tony had introduced as his cousin, McGee truly feared that an old fashioned saloon style brawl would break out. The man really did not look pleased at all and that was the first time that his face had slipped from its congenial yet neutral mask in the entire time the three men had been in the bullpen. It gave him an air of danger that caused a shiver to move down McGee’s spine.
McGee really hoped that they could somehow salvage this situation. The areas of altered code that he had found thus far led him to believe it was an outside entity that wrote the extra code into the program. From the dates embedded in the code and the install dates, it had to have been done after the program was installed at NCIS. That meant the person responsible was either the project manager from D&S or someone here in the IT department who had access to the code. Certain members of the IT department had at least limited access to the code of the program to make repairs if needed in house, if the problem was simple enough. In order to track this down, McGee and Abby needed as much access as possible and a few extra hackers wouldn’t hurt either. He hoped that Abby could somehow do something to prevent Gibbs from making a huge mistake.
Tony continued to gather his belongings. There was total silence in the bullpen. At Gibbs barked command, Tony stopped what he was doing and took his modified attention stance. Gibbs razzed him about it, as did the rest of the team, reminding him he was never in the military, but even though he was never in the military, he did go to a military school and was more than capable of coming to attention.
Tony looked Gibbs straight in the eye, cleared his throat and said, “Have to go boss.” He continued to pick up his pack and hefted it on his shoulder. “You want everyone connected to D&S Secure Computer Solutions to leave the building. Well, you see I own,” Tony looked over at Ezra for a figure, Ezra handled his investment accounts.
“10%-“ he started to say and Ezra shook his head, “At least 10% of the company stock so I guess I have to go too.” Tony stood still waiting for the explosion he was sure was about to happen.
****************************
Abby looked at the problems that McGee had identified in the code. This was nasty stuff definitely something she and McGee could figure out, but it would take time a lot of time. If Gibbs chased these computer experts out of NCIS, then it would take longer, and if Ezra did as he threatened and got an injunction, they would be back to a completely paper dependant system for the foreseeable future. Most of the embedded dates for the changes happened after the install date of the new system. Theoretically, they could be changed, but it would take a lot of time and effort for something so small in the code. She was betting the dates where correct.
Abby became aware of the tension between the bossman and Tony. She wondered if they realized that a lot of it was actually sexual tension - probably not - guys could be so dense like that. Gibbs loved to go all alpha male on Tony, and the younger man never realized it.
Damn looks like Gibbs has backed himself and Tony into a corner. I better tell the boss we need these people here helping us.
****************
Before Gibbs had a chance to say anything else to Tony, Abby exclaimed, “Gibbs! You HAVE got to see this.” The goth lab rat was bouncing in her seat, McGee had really found an important piece of the puzzle.
Gibbs came over to look over Abby’s shoulder. He really didn’t understand much about computers, but he trusted the team he had surrounding him. If she was excited about something, then it must be important.
“See if you look here and here,” she pointed to some really small numbers that Gibbs had no hopes of seeing without his glasses, which he did not have with him today.
She saw him squinting and finally just said, “Those are the dates that changes to the code are made. The changes that we have found so far have all been made after the software was installed on our system. It was definitely not something that was done at the software company Gibbs.”
Her eyes pleaded with him to back down.
Gibbs knew he was being hasty about ordering all of the ATF agents out of HQ, but he couldn’t help it. Even though Agent Standish was Tony’s cousin, Gibbs didn’t like how familiar the two men were with one another. It was like seeing Tony interact with Abby, an easy going relationship based on love for one another. In the case of Abby, Gibbs didn’t have any negative feelings towards their closeness. When he saw Tony with Ezra, his gut clenched. And if Gibbs were honest with himself, he was extremely twisted up inside by Larabee’s interest in Tony; that compounded the problem with Standish. He had to back pedal, or Tony would leave with those men. Gibbs would be powerless to stop him. Abby always knew somehow when he needed her to give him a break in the case. He was standing behind her now peering at the small letters and numbers on the computer screen. This would allow him to keep Tony here and accept help from the ATF agents too.
He kissed the top of Abby’s head and said, “Good work Abs.” He started to leave when Abby interrupted him.
“Actually, bossman, McGee is the one who found it.” Gibbs had been heading back to his desk and stopped to look at McGee. The agent on loan from the Norfolk office stood still as a statue looking as frightened as a deer caught in the headlights of a car.
“Good Work McGee.”
“Th"thanks Agent Gibbs”
Gibbs looked at Tony, and the younger agent got the message. He sat down and with a few gestures and nods of his head got Ezra to relax enough to see what Gibbs would do next.
Gibbs continued back to his desk. “OK. Since this happened once the software was installed here, who would be able to do it?”
McGee started thinking, “Well… the director of the It department and the project manager definitely have full access to the system. Possibly the Network manager. Then there are usually a whole host of people who have limited access to this portion of the system. I would have to call the It department for a full list.”
Gibbs stared at him “…on it” McGee said as he picked up the landline of the desk he was using.
He turned to Abby, “Anymore changes made to the program or have you found them all?”
Abby looked at Gibbs as if he had grown several more heads “Bossman, do you have any idea how many pages of code are in this program?-“ She started to tell him exactly how many and how long when Gibbs cut her off.
“How much help do you need?”
“Minimum McGee and at least one more person -- two or three more would be best.”
“You’re sure that this was done at NCIS?”
She nodded emphatically.
“He any good?” Gibbs pointed towards JD. He knew his computer geeks had spent a fair amount of time with their ATF counterpart last night after the bust.
“He’s better than good, Gibbs At least as good as me. Maybe even better.” Abby said earnestly, pigtails bobbing in excitement.
Gibbs pointed to JD, “You go with Abby; see what else they did to the system.” They started off, “Agent Dunne,” Gibbs called out as they walked towards the elevator. “This per diem person you called in… are they as good as you?”
JD grinned, “Even better,” he answered as he continued towards the elevators with Abby.
The two computer geeks were already talking in technobabble, discussing how they were going to tackle issue of finding more bad code. It was an assignment that they excelled at, but beyond that, their teams were reliant upon them for the investigation.
Gibbs turned to his remaining agents. “Kate, I want you to go through the names McGee gets from the IT department. I want complete background checks on them as well as the Director of the department and all of the other people McGee already mentioned.”
Ezra turned to the profiler and offered his assistance. “Our company keeps meticulous records of the people who have access to our code to make changes including the dates the access is effective, and what level of access the person maintains. I would be more than happy to assist you in this endeavor.”
Gibbs had turned from his profiler and focused on DiNozzo. He trusted her to get it done with or without help.
“DiNozzo, while I was away, I found out the IT director didn’t come in or respond to his pages this morning. I want you to go to his home and check it out.”
Tony gathered his pack and jacket. He wasn’t too thrilled to be going alone, but he didn’t want to contradict Gibbs in his current mood. Tony tended to pick and choose his times to challenge the older agent, and he could tell this was not a time to press his luck.
Vin had watched all of the drama and tension unfold around him. His posture remained relaxed even when Gibbs was butting heads with Ezra, though it took a great effort not to interfere, the Texan knew his lover would not appreciate Vin involving himself in their dominance games. It was extremely difficult; Ezra aroused every protective instinct that the sharpshooter had.
The exchange had also aroused more than just protective instincts. As much as Vin wanted to protect Ezra, seeing the smaller man take control and hold his own against a strong personality like Gibbs turned Vin on. Although Vin’s posture had remained relaxed, he had to move his legs more than a few times to relieve the pressure in his groin while Gibbs and Ezra were talking or having a small war without loss of life.
If anyone who didn’t know the sharpshooter had been watching him, they would have thought he was bored and that he wasn’t paying attention to the discussion going on around him. Vin was perfectly well aware of every comment made and order given. The last one disturbed him.
Tony was told to go into an unknown situation with no partner no back up. Vin had been wearing his cowboy hat today in typical Vin fashion. In fact, he was dressed as he usually did for a day of work at the Denver ATF building. His hat had been halfway covering his eyes, once Vin heard Gibbs give Tony his assignment, Vin glanced at Ezra conversing without speech or sign language. Vin and Chris often communicated without speaking a word usually at busts but occasionally about working the horses on the ranch Chris owned. Vin and Ezra often did the same thing, their communication often entailing elaborate pranks, generally aimed at Buck and JD but sometimes at the rest of the team. This time when their eyes met Vin knew exactly what his new lover wanted - someone to watch his cousin’s back. He nodded to his lover slightly and tipped his hat indicating message received.
As Tony made his way to the elevator, Vin stretched lazily and pushed away from the wall that he had been leaning against. “Tony wait up,” he called to his lover’s cousin. There was no way he would let the NCIS agent go to an unknown location alone under such questionable circumstances.
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