The Cascade Effect Chapter Twenty-One/??
The Cascade Effect
Summary: One Event, One Minor change in the way something happens can change a lot of events in the future.
Disclaimer: I don’t own so no sense suing.
Chapter Twenty-One
The next few weeks were very busy ones. Their first case after Tony’s rental car was blown up was a convoluted mess dealing with paid surrogacy and murder which resulted in a missing newborn. Thankfully they were able to find and return the child to the biological parents. Tony knew that the case had hit a rather sore point with Gibbs, considering that he could have lost Kelly to the same car crash that had killed his first wife Shannon. Of course the case that followed would have to involve Gibbs’ second and thankfully, hopefully, last ex-wife, Stephanie. Tony had heard all about Gibbs’ two failed marriages from not only Gibbs but Kelly as well. Gibbs’ first ex-wife, Diane, had cheated on him and ultimately married that man, who just happened to be Fornell. Gibbs had warned Fornell about Diane but Fornell had to learn the hard way. Stephanie was the one that took a nine iron to Gibbs head when he refused to send Kelly away to boarding school even though she was 17 going on 18. That was a few months before Kelly’s birthday and before Tony literally tackled Gibbs in an alley in Baltimore.
By that time Gibbs was already going through a divorce battle with the crazed woman and Tony was just glad to have never met the woman until now. The case also ended up being on an Army base so they had to work with Lieutenant Colonel Mann…again. She was still trying to get into Gibbs pants but Gibbs saw right through her act not to mention he couldn’t stand the woman, if she could be called that. They finally closed the case and Tony went to Gibbs’ house to pick up Kelly for their night out on the town. When he got there Stephanie was just leaving, she’d stopped by to give Gibbs his dog tags back. Kelly had nearly punched the woman but Gibbs had managed to stop that from happening, even if he would have loved nothing more than to let Kelly punch her. Kelly had never liked the woman and Tony could see why. Stephanie, while looking sexy, was a bitch of epic proportions. She also seemed to blame Gibbs for everything even if she was at fault. It was no wonder Gibbs had divorced her, that and her ultimatum wasn’t one he would tolerate. Tony just hoped that they wouldn’t run into Stephanie again anytime soon.
Not long after that case they ended up with another murder by accident. Ducky was hosting a group of Naval personnel and had removed the brain from a John Doe whose body had been donated for research and once he’d begun handing it around a silver liquid began to leak from it. The man had been murdered with a shot of mercury to the base of the spine. They went to investigate the area where Metro Police had found the body and ended up noticing a young woman while asking around at a nearby diner. Courtney Kreiger; FBI. It seems that their John Doe was an informant on a man named Kamal Konkoni aka The Eraser. It became a joint investigation with the FBI, which brought them into contact with Fornell once again. Thankfully after getting a bit of the run around they were able to find Kamal Konkoni and his Apprentice.
Tony remembered Ziva’s question to him as he drove home that night.
#Flashback#
They were sitting in MTAC watching the FBI take down Konkani when Ziva asked him a question.
“Did you get her number?”
“Who, Courtney? No.” he’d said, even as he heard Kate snicker softly behind him.
“I did. She wants to learn how to fight.” Ziva said, snatching the piece of popcorn he’d thrown towards his mouth.
He, Gibbs and Kate had looked at her in shock. They all knew just how badly Ziva had disliked Courtney and that she had not only gotten the woman’s number but was going to teach her how to fight was a shock. He looked at Kate out of the corner of his eye then shared a look with Gibbs. There was something more to iva’s statement then what she was letting on. The inflection in her tone suggested something much different. She was too smug about getting the FBI Agent’s number. They’d just keep their eyes and ears open to see if anything came of their suspicions.
#End Flashback#
Tony was glad to see the end of that case. He didn’t have any plans so he went home to relax. Thankfully Jeanne Benoit had disappeared off the radar at the same time as her father had. He just hoped that whatever it was that she had been planning would never come to fruition.
%Unknown Location%%
A dark haired woman sat in a chair in her hotel room seething.
‘That damn idiot. How hard can it be to make him fall in love with me. He was said to be a player! Father said it would be easy! That the daughter of an old “friend” was after him and she was some big wig at some agency. That she was sending someone to get close to me! Why did he never try let alone never take up my offers for more closeness. Who the hell was that little bitch there that night?! Now Father and I have NO ONE on the inside to feed us information. Father said it would be easy to trick him into siding with us! Now Father’s missing, probably dead and I’m on the run hiding from the damned CIA. I WILL have my revenge on Tony DiNozzo!’ she thought.
As she sat there running everything around in her head the phone rang.
“Hello?” she answered.
“I have information for you…Ms. Benoit. If you would care to hear it, meet me in three hours at the café two blocks from your hotel.”
“Who is this?”
“A friend, that’s all you need to know.” The man on the other end said before hanging up. She stared at the phone, listening to the dial tone before placing it back upon the cradle.
‘I wonder who that is. Should I meet him? It might be worth my while and if it isn’t…Father taught me well how to hide a dead body.’ She thought before getting up and heading to the bathroom to get ready to meet the mystery caller. ‘Things may be looking up after all.’
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The next few weeks were less crazy for them and Tony was thankful. The day they got their next case they were working on paperwork. Abby came in and was all excited, apparently they had all promised to go with Abby to see Brain Matter, Abby’s friend’s band.
“Yaay! Tonight’s the night.” Abby said as she came around the corner.
“What night?” McGee asked her.
“Brain matter.” Abby told them.
“Brain matter?” Ziva asked.
“Yeah. My friend’s band. Remember?
“Brain…Brain Matter?” Tony said, trying to remember when she asked him to go.
“Yeah you guys all promised me you’d go with me.” Abby said as she handed Kate her ticket.
“All of us?” McGee asked her.
“All of you.” She told him.
Even me?”
“Even you.” Abby told Tony as she hand him a ticket.
“And you.” She turned to Ziva and handed her a ticket.
“And You.” Abby said handing McGee a ticket.
Ziva was the first to make an excuse that she couldn’t go, Tony followed and McGee tried to make an excuse but Abby thwarted that one. Kate was the only one that didn’t try to get out of it.
“I’ve got nothing better to do then…then to see….” McGee began, stuttering at having Abby’s spiked cuff in his face.
“A dead body, McGee.” Gibbs interrupted as he walked into the bullpen and headed to his desk.
“You read my mind boss.” McGee said, releieved to not have to go to one of Abby’s concerts.
“It’s a quick read.” Tony said, a subtle dig at McGee’s obvious relief.
“Pack up; full kit.” Gibbs said as he opened the drawer of his desk and tossed a bottle of pills to McGee who caught them
“Motion sickness meds?” McGee asked as he read the label.
“Chopper’s waiting at NAS Anacostia.” Gibbs said, typing at his computer.
“I’m fine on a chopper boss.” McGee said as he tossed the bottle of meds back to Gibbs.
Gibbs threw the bottle back at McGee before saying, “Chopper takes us to the ship, McGee. USNS Chimera. Get briefed at Anacostia.”
McGee’s shoulders slumped as Gibbs told him they would be going to a naval ship. McGee told him it wasn’t listed on the Navy’s registrar of ships and Gibbs gave him a look. Tony used Pig Latin to try and make McGee feel better as he gave Abby the ticket back followed by Ziva and McGee. Kate was the last and she was the one that had actually been looking forward to a night out with Abby.
They got to Anacostia an were getting ready to board the chopper while being briefed.
“Oh I get it, boss. It’s a Black Ship.” Tony said with a foreign Accent once they had been told that the ship was top secret above their pay grade.
“Black Sheep?” Ziva asked confused.
“No. They don’t exist.” Tony told her.
“Oh I’ve seen black sheep.” Ziva told him.
“No I said Black Ship not sheep. Clearly the US Navy is still intent on pulling the wool over the eyes of the American people. Sir.” Tony said.
The man tried to tell them that they couldn’t bring the camer but Gibbs overrode his command. When they got out to the ship no-one was answering their radio calls that the pilot of the chopper was making. Gibbs decided they would stay anyway after they had boarded the ship. They decided to see if they could find the crew but it seemed as if the entire crew had disappeared. Hopefully they could find someone or at least find the dead body they were to investigate.
Within five minutes McGee was in the head puking. Ziva and Kate both owed him ten dollars. Ducky and Gibbs were opn deck looking around and they had noticed that there were no life boats aboard the ship. They heard a groan and went running below deck to find out what it was.
“Where’s McGee?” Gibbs asked as he and Ducky got to where Tony, Ziva and Kate were standing.
“Calling earl. Shouting groceries. Making street pizza. Technicolor yawn.” Tony told him as he pointed to the door in front of him.
“Found something.” McGee said as he exited the head.”Lost something too.” Tony said, picking up his bag before following the other five.
They followed McGee into the lab like room. They were talking about why there would be a lab on board when they heard a noise from above them. It sounded like it had come from the cargo hold above them. Gibbs told Tony, McGee and Ziva to check out the cargo hold and had Ducky and Kate follow him.
Tony: (singing) “Baa Baa black ship have you any wool? Yes sir. Yes sir, but in order to see it you're going to need top secret government clearance.” Tony sang, the tune haunting just like the song Hoist the Colours from Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End.
He’d recently seen it with Kelly and amazingly enough, Gibbs. He was still shocked that Kelly had managed to talk her dad into going to the movies with them. He didn’t know how but he kind of wanted to know how as well. It might come in handy at a later point.
“Someone or something is on the ship, with us. I can feel it.” Ziva said as she walked around the hold.
“Uh, yeah, I can see it.” McGee said as he looked over Tony’s shoulder. Tony turned around and jumped back as he saw the large rat behind him.
“Scared much, DiNozzo?” McGee asked, smiling smugly.
“Stuff it McBarfbag.” Tony told him.
“It's just a cute, little rat. Why the irrational fear?” Ziva asked.
“It's not cute. It's not little. And it's not irrational.” He told her as they continued searching the hold.
“Cowardly, then.”
“Not if you're, uh, someone who survived a bout of pneumonic plague. Thank you very much. Rats are a known carrier. I used to love rats, back before the plague. Was a regular Willard.”
“What is a Willard?”
“It's a movie.” McGee told her before Tony could.
“Mmm.”
“Willard had a pet rat named Ben, was a social misfit, made fun of by his coworkers, had a creepy boss.” Tony told her.
“No wonder you're related.”
“You think Gibbs is creepy?” Tony couldn’t see how anyone would think Gibbs was creepy. Scary sometimes, but not creepy. Of course Tony thought he was sexy too but he had no intentions of telling anyone that. It was bad enough he’d slipped up and told Kelly one night after three hellish weeks of back to back cases and very little sleep. Thankfully she’d never mentioned it other than to try and convince him to tell her dad.
“I think she meant the social misfit, made fun of part.” McGee told him.
“Shhh. Did you hear that?” Ziva asked them.
“No.” Tony and McGee answered at the same time.
“There’s something aboard. Other than a rat.” Ziva told them.
“What do your astute ninja Mossad senses tell you it is?” Tony asked, trying to be a smart ass.
“In Mossad, part of the training is to be open to things you cannot see. Or even understand.” Ziva said as they cautiously made their way down the corridor.
“You mean the supernatural.” McGee interjected.
“Call it what you want. Not everything can be explained by the laws of the natural world.” Ziva explained.
“You believe in ghosts?” Tony asked her, slightly disbelieving.
“I do not, not believe in ghosts, or demons, or monsters. We are on a ship called the chimera.” She said.
“I thought chimera meant delusion or fantasy?” McGee asked, confused.
“In Greek mythology a chimera is a monster with a lion’s head a goat’s body and a dragon’s tail.” Ziva told them as they continued down the corridor.
“So you think they named this ship the Chimera because there's a monster on board?” Tony asked her.
“They did not name it the Puppy!” Ziva told them, exasperated. Just then she halted them before slowly reaching her hand out to the handle of the door in front of them.
The door opened and caused them all to jump back. “Boo.” Gibbs said. “Get in here.” He told them motioning for them to enter before heading back to where Ducky and Kate were kneeling.
“Well whatever’s on this boat must be pretty scary if it got them to ditch this delicious lookin’…what is this stuff?”
“Don’t ask me. That’s not a request that’s a command.” McGee said as they continued towards ducky and noticed the vomit on the floor.
“Ooh, the plot sickens.” Tony said.
Ducky and Gibbs were conversing about the vomit while McGee began taking pictures before McGee moved back groaning.
“Steady probie.” Tony said
“Tell that to my stomach.” McGee said, groaning. Tony bent down to the heaight of McGee’s stomach.
“Steady probie's stomach.” He said.
“I wouldn’t stand there if I were you McGee.” Kate said, knowing it could compromise the crime scene.
“I see your point. Don’t want to compromise the crime scene.” Tony said, looking at McGee.
Just then Ziva noticed a patial footprint in blood. That footprint led to more which led into the freezer. They opened the door and a dead body fell out. Ducky told Ziva she was right that someone was on board with them but she said it was someone alive. Tony said someone had to have tossed the man on the creamed corn. McGee didn’t like hearing the words creamed corn because they made him feel sicker and want to puke again. After doing an initial assessment, which ducky said was asphyxia McGee called Abby and didn’t recognize the music she had on, which was Brain Matter.
“You guys okay?” Abby asked him.
“Oh yeah, yeah we’re peachy. I am dealing with my boat-phobia, Tony's dealing with his rat-phobia, and Ziva's dealing with her ghost-phobia.” McGee told her.
“So, what's Gibbs dealing with?” Abby asked.
“Them.” Gibbs said, pushing McGee out of the way.
He would have had Abby get the director but she showed up and that when they found out that Ducky’s initial disgnosis was wrong and that it looked as if Dr. Takada, their dead man, had died of Viral Hemorrhagic Fever. If Ducky’s diagnosis was correct and they had been exposed then they would be dead by morning. It wasn’t a comforting thought, especially for Gibbs. He may be reckless at times bet he didn’t want to leave Kelly alone now. She’d find a way to bring him back and kill him herself. They were in the lab and Ducky was doing a basic autopsy as best he could with the primitive conditions, even thought he’d done autopsies in much more primitive conditions.
“You know what killed him?” Gibbs asked.
“Well, if Dr. Takada was a bit too fond of scotch then what I’m seeing here is esophageal varices and this tear caused blood to enter his esophagus, causing him to vomit blood. Or Dr. Takada could have had a severe gastro-intestinal infection that produced a Mallory-Weiss tear, in which case the vomiting would have come first. Neither diagnosis is inconsistent with hemorrhagic fever.” Ducky told him.
“And if we were exposed?” Gibbs asked him.
“Well I’m hampered from prognosticating further until Dr. DiNozzo gives me a proper blood analysis.” Ducky said, looking at Tony.
“Abby, where's the gas chromata-thinga?” Tony asked Abby who was on the feed behind him.
“It's the boxy looking thing, with the, um, circular door-like thing on the front.” Abby told him, trying to use words Tony would understand.
“Oh. I got it.” Tony said, seeing the aforementioned machine.
“Ok good. Now, um, put the sample in the circular rack like thing at the top.”
“Got it.”
“Ok press the blue start button. It’s, it’s blue-ish and square-ish. It’s on a tower on the top Tony, the tower like thing.”
“Got it.”
“While were waiting for the analysis let’s get the blood count so place a small amount of blood on your slide. It’s amazing what we can learn from blood even before it’s analyzed. I mean the, the color the texture the smell. Ok um, now take out the dropper of methylene blue. It’s blue-ish and it’s dropper like.” Abby explained, she had never had to walk someone through the forensics side of it without actually being the one to do the work.
“Got it.” Tony told her as he found the chemical she had told him he needed.
“Ok now place two drops of the methylene blue on your slide.”
“We’re good.”
“Of course, blood that's passed through so much GI tract has very a particular smell.” Abby said just as Tony took a few whiffs of the blood. “But since this guy may have died from a highly contagious virus, whatever you do, do not inhale it.”
“We're not good.” Tony said, grimacing
“Hey, you okay, DiNozzo?” Gibbs asked, as he turned around and looked at Tony.
“Not for long.” Tony told him, placing the slide on the microscope. He didn’t notice as Gibbs gave him a once-over.
“Where’s my blood analysis, DiNozzo?” Ducky asked, frustrated.
“I’m working on it, Ducky. It may be the last thing I do.” Tony said as he tried to make sense out of what he was seeing.
“Let’s hope not. May I?” Ducky said as he came around to the microscope.
Tony let him take a look and he told them that there were increased white blood cells which was indicative of the body trying to fight of an infection or virus. McGee came in then and told them Shepard wanted to see Gibbs and Ducky. After talking with them they left and Shepard argued with the commander about having placed the ship on quarantine.
“We’ve been through almost every room on this ship.” Ziva said while they were looking at the scematics.
“Almost only counts in horse shoes and hand grenades.” Gibbs told them.
They went to go over the ship again and McGee tried to stay with Ducky but was shot down by Ducky himself. As they were looking Tony noticed an itchy spot and started arguing with Ziva about it. To settle their argument Gibbs called Ducky for the symptoms of the virus. After Ziva saw something and followed it Tony noticed a door that said bio-hazard on it and pointed it out to Gibbs. After they had left McGee working on the lock to the bio-hazard room Gibbs noticed a dead rat and had Tony take it back to Ducky. While he was doing that the lights went out. Shortly afte Ziva had told them she’d noticed a door that had said electrical Room they followed her and ran into a man who tried to get away thinking it was them that had hit him over the head. After catching him Tony took the rat to Ducky before going to help McGee get the power back on. While searching Tony found the transponders from the life jackets. He took them to Gibbs who confronted the cuffed Midas, thinking he was the one that had removed them from the life jackets.
“You were in the electricl room when the power went out.” Gibbs said to the man after he denied removing the transponders.
“I wouldn’t even know how to such off the power! I’m just the cook!” Midas told them.
“Just the cook?! Yeah, that's what Steven Seagal said in Under Siege, and look at the havoc he wreaked, huh? What about the Hunt for Red October? The saboteur was the cook.” Tony said, angered. Gibbs gave him a look and he stopped rambling about movies. “I'm sorry, boss. I'm just saying that, you know, just because he says he's the cook, doesn't mean he's isn't potentially guilty. He could have slipped poison into Takada's food.” Tony told him.
Just then Ducky showed up and told them that Takada hadn’t been poisoned the virus was injected into him. The lights went on just then and they heard a noise before Ziva and Kate yelled for Gibbs. They had seen someone or something but they weren’t sure what it was they had seen. Gibbs noticed that the signal light was gfoing off and then a net with four barrels was dropped on Tony, who managed to get out of the way in time unharmed. They noticed a man start running and went after him. It turned out to be the radio operator. Gibbs then got on the phone to MTAC and Shepard and began arguing with them abou telling him what the men that were heading to the ship were after. Thankfully McGee had managed to get the door to the bio-hazard room open and they went to it, leaving Shepard an the commander alone. Gibbs went in and looked at what was in the box. Ziva then showed up and said they had spotted the assault craft. It was about five minutes out, maybe less. The six of them came up with a plan and implemented it. They stole the Russians assault craft and left the boat and the radio operator with the Russians. Since they’d stolen the Russian ship they headed towards land. They were talking aboiut the ruse they had played and what was in the box, Russian Nuclear Warheads, when a missile hit the ship and blew it up.
“How did they know we were off the ship?” Kate asked Gibbs.
“Don’t think they did.” He told them. Tony looked at him, he’d known the navy could be assholes but he hadn’t realized they would risk incurring the wrath of the director of NCIS, not to mention the SecNav and many others. Apparently some people in the Naval food chain had decided they were expendable, despite the fallout it would cause. Hopefully they would never have to be on another Black Ship otherwise Tony would seriously consider pulling a Gibbs and “retire.” It would be nice to get back to more normal cases, with less espionage and less secrets needing very high clearances. He had no idea just how long that could take.
TBC…
AN: Hope ya’ll liked this chappie. I had a hard time condensing it because there was a lot of dialogue I liked in this episode. Can anyone guess who the mysterious woman is? She’s probably not so mysterious after all though. As always, reviews, comments and Constructive criticism is welcomed. Flames and flamers are not. Flames will be used to keep me warm in this shitty winter weather and Flamers will be given to Erik Northman and that crazy King of Mississippi, Russel.
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Chapter Twenty-Two>>