SERIESFIC: WORST NIGHTMARE 10 (Tony Angst)
TI: WORST NIGHTMARE: The Hour of Separation 10
AU: SnoopMaryMar
DI: The characters and setting do not belong to me. The plot ideas are my intellectual property.
RA: T+/M
SU: The past always demands its due. Tony finds himself running for his life in the aftermath of a most difficult decision. Sequel(s) to “Pace Yourselves” and “Don’t Call It Destiny”
AN: This is what happens when you watch “Inglourious Basterds” and “Public Enemies” back to back.
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Jeanne blinked hard, once, as Tony stumbled to his knees with a pained cry. She tumbled to her knees beside him, the doctor in her taking over. “Tony?” His rapid breathing, thready pulse and the way his hands shook as he tried to clutch the gravel terrified her. Her fingers made quick work of the buttons on his shirt. The colour drained from her face as she saw the carnage staining his t-shirt. She peeled the soaked shirt up and gasped at the medley of bruising over his rib cage.
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EARLIER THAT DAY
Tony lay flat on his face in the alley in southeast D.C., his yell choked off by the boot to the gut. He curled in on himself; he had no way to move, to fight. Hell, he didn’t even know how they’d found him! Pained grunts bubbled past his lips, until they stopped and hauled him upright, slamming him against the side of the building.
“Where is the girl?”
Tony felt sweat start to bead and slide down the back of his neck. He grinned a grin Kate would have snarled over. “Which girl? I’ve had a lot of them.”
Dry-heaving, head pounding, blood spitting. He gasped for air as his back scraped across the dirty chipped brickwork. Hands tinted red with his blood let him crumple to his knees.
“Bring him. She can’t hide without him. We’ll find the little bitch soon enough,” the bespectacled, pudgy one laughed, the faintest hint of some kind of accent tinting the words.
Claw-like fists dragged him upright but Tony began a slow slide back down towards the ground.
“Weak!” said the hands’ owner, as he bent over to heave Tony back to his feet.
Famous last words.
Tony moved so fast the goon didn’t have time to blink. His Sig back in his hand from the back of the bastard’s belt, safety off and trigger back. The idiot had just enough time to recognize his death before Tony blew the expression clean off his face.
Tony threw himself backwards, rolling and firing, culling the herd once more before the last behemoth threw himself onto Tony.
It was anything but elegant. Snarls, biting, clawing, punching, kicking. Anything and everything until Tony managed to twist under the cackling cretin until he was able to get the gun pointing over his shoulder and into the bastard’s face.
There was shock in the voice that rasped “Nyet!” just before Tony pulled the trigger, the roar making his ear wail in pain as the bullet roared past, up and under the chin and out the back of his skull.
All Tony could think of was Jeffrey White for the few seconds he allowed himself to breathe. He scrambled to his feet and staggered up behind the last bastard desperately trying to pull himself to safety one-handed, as the other tried to stop the blood from spurting from his stomach.
Tony dropped to the ground, one knee against the base of the man’s grey shirt, pinning him to the pavement. “Who are you? Who sent you?” Tony snarled.
“Fuck you.” The accent he was finally able to place answered part of the question.
Tony cocked his gun, growling, “Answer me! Who sent you?”
“It’s over. Give up, Agent DiNozzo. You know you can’t save her or yourself!”
“Why now?” The curse that answered him was met with the smack of his gun against the bastard’s head. “I said why now!”
“Because you are the only thing we are missing.”
Tony gulped hard against the bile in his throat before making the bastard shiver as he pressed the muzzle of the gun against the back of the man’s neck.
“Then why do you need her?” Tony dug his knee hard into the bastard’s kidney, some dark piece of his soul grinning madly at the sound it wrenched from the man who’d just tried to kill him. “Last chance!”
“Leverage. She’s dead already, DiNozzo, no matter what you do.”
His ears rang as the sound ricocheted around the alley. Tony gagged as he pushed to his feet, his sanity silently screaming itself hoarse as the dying man’s legs twitched like fingers trilling on piano keys. Tony bit back a scream of pain as he clambered up and over the chain-link fence at the back of the alley and jumping, snatched a plaid work-shirt off a clothesline to cover the mess on his t-shirt.
He walked quickly away, blending into the commuter traffic at 16th and E as the sounds of the sirens permeated the air.
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SUNDAY, 2200, I-95
Jeanne tipped him backwards onto the pavement, poking and prodding over gasps and groans until she was satisfied none of his ribs were broken. She helped Tony get back onto his feet. “Why didn’t you tell me you were hurt?”
Tony shook his head, the colour slowly ebbing back into his face. “I don’t have time to be hurt. We’re on borrowed time until we get where we need to be.”
Jeanne helped him back to the car, silently cursing Tony’s obstinacy as he refused to rest, to let her drive. They pulled back onto the interstate and Jeanne kept a close eye on Tony. She flipped the heat on inside the car, hoping to fight off the chills the cold rain would surely drive into both of them. Jeanne tried to think of anything else but what Tony had told her but it kept bouncing around in her head.
It seemed like days before Tony broke her out of her miserable silence. “There were very few people who knew your father had confided in me, Jeanne. But I didn’t get there in time. So I still only had half the picture; the other half of the intel was still floating around out there. And unfortunately, somehow other people knew I had information that would blow open a lot of corridors they needed to stay secret.” He swallowed hard. “They would have used you against me. I couldn’t let that happen.”
“Who killed my father?”
Tony was nearly begging as he rasped, “Jeanne, they’re dead. They paid for their decision. Let it go.”
Fury raced up and down her flesh. “Who killed him!”
Tony looked at her, before slumping back against his seat. His voice was a hopeless desert. “Jenny Sheppard.”
“But -.” Jeanne’s world spun on its axis as she tried to reconcile the redheaded woman who was Tony’s boss with the knowledge that the compassion, the understanding and the care she’d shown for Tony when Jeanne had let anger and pain overtake her conscience had been nothing but a lie. That it had been her all along who had wrecked Jeanne’s life. That Tony had been her catspaw. “Did she know?” she whispered, appalled by the bombardment of revelations. “About the information?” It boggled Jeanne’s mind.
“She knew, Jeanne. She just didn’t care, she just wanted your father dead. And in the process, she painted a target on me that made it impossible for me to do anything but let you go. Not if I wanted you alive and safe.”
Tony pulled off the interstate at the exit to Raleigh and quickly reached over to squeeze her hand. “I saw her kill your father. I got there just in time to see her pull the trigger. What I didn’t know, Jeanne, was that people, people your father did business with, saw me there.”
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TWO YEARS EARLIER, GARDEN INN, DC
DiNozzo felt his knees crack painfully against the tile as he dove over the toilet and hurled what little he’d had to eat over the last two days into the bowl.
“Oh, Jesus, oh Christ, no,” he whimpered, gagging hard once more as he saw it happen all over again.
What the hell was she thinking? How in the hell did she find out where he was?
All that work, all the deals and the trade-offs. All for nothing.
What the hell were they going to do now?
Tony stayed there until his feet were numb, until he was sure he’d burned out his esophagus throwing up. But there was nothing left in him.
He gave a slightly hysterical laugh - he had nothing left to give.
He splashed water on his face and used the complimentary crap toiletries to clean himself up. Any port in a storm, after all.
He looked longingly at the cellphone he’d dismantled to prevent tracking. She had to be awake by now. Tony shuddered as he realized that he couldn’t even call Jeanne to warn her, to get her out of his apartment to someplace safe. Guilt chewed on his heart as he thought her waking to an empty bed and no note.
The knock at the door jolted him out of the staring match he’d begun to have with himself in the mirror. He snatched up his weapon and quickly checked through the peep-hole.
Kort languidly settled himself into the chair next to the desk. “I got your message: René is dead and we have a problem. Could you have been any less informative, DiNozzo?” he snapped in irritation.
“Nope.” Tony laughed bitterly. “You could say that it’s Mr. President, we have a problem.”
Kort was silent for a heartbeat before straightening. “What’s happened? I thought you’d killed him until now. Clearly, I was wrong.”
Tony finally sank down onto the bed, shaking. He hated showing weakness but he felt like he was trying to surf on quicksand. “Jenny Sheppard killed him.”
Kort rocketed out of the chair. “What?” At any other time, the look on his face would have put a smile on Tony’s.
Tony surged upwards and right into Kort’s face. “She put a fucking gun to his head and shot him at point-blank range, Kort!”
“How do you - ?”
“I watched her do it.”
“Why the hell didn’t you stop her?”
Tony paced across the room and back again. “I couldn’t. I literally reached the top of the gangplank when she just pulled out the gun and shot him. No warning, nothing.”
Kort sank back down into the chair. “Did she see you?”
“Yes. Hell, she pointed the fucking gun at me and made me dump the body,” he fought off the urge to gag again, “René into the water before making me sanitize the scene.”
Kort looked confused and appalled. “Why did you -?”
Tony whirled, fists clenching and unclenching. “She knew Jeanne was at my apartment, Kort!” he snarled. “If I hadn’t done as she said, she would’ve shot me and then Jeanne!”
Kort shook his head, his eyes flickering as his mind careened through the information in his head. “How the hell did she know where the Benoits were?”
“No clue! Your people and SecNav were the only ones in the loop on this, as far as I knew!” Tony felt the frail threads keeping his temper in check fray even further. “So you tell me what happened, Kort!”
The colour stood out in Kort’s cheeks as the realization swept over him. “Someone talked.”
“You think!” Tony surged to his feet. “I was early, Kort! Early! Twenty fucking minutes early! Someone had to have told her where the meet was and what time the exchange was supposed to take place. Sheppard was going to throw me under the bus. Me and Jeanne! You’ve got a leak in your agency, Kort!” Tony felt his knees start to go and quickly sat back down. “She tried to frame me, Kort!”
The men were silent. The honking and dull buzz of traffic was an unpleasant filler as Tony let the truth sink in. He hadn’t been smart enough or fast enough to protect Jeanne. She was in so much danger and he’d failed her. His father was right, every time it mattered he’d find a way to fuck up. Everything was at risk now. Not to mention the fucking intel was in the wind!
It was the level of urgency in Kort’s voice that dragged him back. “Would Gibbs back you?”
“What?” Tony look at Kort in confusion, swallowing hard against the grief clawing at his belly.
Kort leaned forward in the chair. “Would Gibbs have your back if we took this to SecNav? If we took down Sheppard? She’s obviously completely lost it.”
Tony thought for a moment, thought about what René had told him, about the fact that SecNav had known nothing of Sheppard’s choice to reject the intel or that it was even on the table when Tony had cornered the man in the men’s room at his club. Gibbs had been there when René tried to deal and had said nothing. A dark sliver of uncertainly spiraled into a full blown wedge. “I..... don’t know.” Tony shivered, suddenly reminded of his time in Philly, of trying to stay alive in a corrupt department, never knowing if the next alley he dashed into would leave him with a bullet to the back of his skull. “He -.” Tony stopped, huffed a sigh. “Gibbs and the Director were together a long time ago. He really cares about her. I don’t know. He backed her against René's original offer.” Tony paused again, thinking hard. “I just don’t know.”
“Shit.”
Dread and misery yanked at him. “What? What else?”
“René was being watched by some mercenaries. Rumours surfaced that he was going to sell himself for safety. Vital information was on the table that would cripple a lot of plans. A consortium of his buyers placed a price on his head.”
“So Jeanne’s still in danger. We’re still ready for WitSec. We just move faster, leave now,” Tony’s voice cracked slightly as he realized he wouldn’t be able to say goodbye to Abby.
Kort shook his head. “DiNozzo....” Kort paused, then started again. “Tony, they were already on scene when you got there. They saw you there. They know you’re the one René spoke to.”
Tony felt his skin grow cold and clammy. He clenched the bedspread in his fists, squeezing at the fabric until his palms burned from the rubbing polyester. “What does that mean?”
“Would you be able to stand by and let them break Jeanne Benoit? Will you turn a blind eye when they blind her? What would it take to make you tell them what René told you?”
Tony paled. “Oh, God.” Nausea rolled through him and he gave in, ducking his head and taking deep, gasping breaths until it passed. “They’re going to hunt for us.” Kort nodded. “What are we gonna do?”
“Without Gibbs to help you stay afloat if we pinned it all on Sheppard? Made them think she was the one he was to meet with? Not much.” Kort had a vulpine curl to his lip. “I will keep her safe if you stay here. If you help me hunt them. If you help me find my leak. If you go with her, if you try and find her, try to contact her, there is little I can do. CIA will not assist with WitSec on what is purely a domestic matter.”
Fury sent him to his feet. “That wasn’t the deal, Kort! It was for both of us!”
Kort leaned back, grinning with sadistic fervour. “There’s no deal without the data, DiNozzo! Period! You were smart, you didn’t share what’s in that head of yours. That’s the only reason I’m here. We need what’s in your head, we don’t need what’s in hers! But her life? Expendable, as far as we are concerned. And without anyone you can trust? Well, that puts me in the driver’s seat, doesn’t it?”
“You mother-fucking bitch,” Tony breathed, his palms itching.
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AU: SnoopMaryMar
DI: The characters and setting do not belong to me. The plot ideas are my intellectual property.
RA: T+/M
SU: The past always demands its due. Tony finds himself running for his life in the aftermath of a most difficult decision. Sequel(s) to “Pace Yourselves” and “Don’t Call It Destiny”
AN: This is what happens when you watch “Inglourious Basterds” and “Public Enemies” back to back.
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Jeanne blinked hard, once, as Tony stumbled to his knees with a pained cry. She tumbled to her knees beside him, the doctor in her taking over. “Tony?” His rapid breathing, thready pulse and the way his hands shook as he tried to clutch the gravel terrified her. Her fingers made quick work of the buttons on his shirt. The colour drained from her face as she saw the carnage staining his t-shirt. She peeled the soaked shirt up and gasped at the medley of bruising over his rib cage.
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EARLIER THAT DAY
Tony lay flat on his face in the alley in southeast D.C., his yell choked off by the boot to the gut. He curled in on himself; he had no way to move, to fight. Hell, he didn’t even know how they’d found him! Pained grunts bubbled past his lips, until they stopped and hauled him upright, slamming him against the side of the building.
“Where is the girl?”
Tony felt sweat start to bead and slide down the back of his neck. He grinned a grin Kate would have snarled over. “Which girl? I’ve had a lot of them.”
Dry-heaving, head pounding, blood spitting. He gasped for air as his back scraped across the dirty chipped brickwork. Hands tinted red with his blood let him crumple to his knees.
“Bring him. She can’t hide without him. We’ll find the little bitch soon enough,” the bespectacled, pudgy one laughed, the faintest hint of some kind of accent tinting the words.
Claw-like fists dragged him upright but Tony began a slow slide back down towards the ground.
“Weak!” said the hands’ owner, as he bent over to heave Tony back to his feet.
Famous last words.
Tony moved so fast the goon didn’t have time to blink. His Sig back in his hand from the back of the bastard’s belt, safety off and trigger back. The idiot had just enough time to recognize his death before Tony blew the expression clean off his face.
Tony threw himself backwards, rolling and firing, culling the herd once more before the last behemoth threw himself onto Tony.
It was anything but elegant. Snarls, biting, clawing, punching, kicking. Anything and everything until Tony managed to twist under the cackling cretin until he was able to get the gun pointing over his shoulder and into the bastard’s face.
There was shock in the voice that rasped “Nyet!” just before Tony pulled the trigger, the roar making his ear wail in pain as the bullet roared past, up and under the chin and out the back of his skull.
All Tony could think of was Jeffrey White for the few seconds he allowed himself to breathe. He scrambled to his feet and staggered up behind the last bastard desperately trying to pull himself to safety one-handed, as the other tried to stop the blood from spurting from his stomach.
Tony dropped to the ground, one knee against the base of the man’s grey shirt, pinning him to the pavement. “Who are you? Who sent you?” Tony snarled.
“Fuck you.” The accent he was finally able to place answered part of the question.
Tony cocked his gun, growling, “Answer me! Who sent you?”
“It’s over. Give up, Agent DiNozzo. You know you can’t save her or yourself!”
“Why now?” The curse that answered him was met with the smack of his gun against the bastard’s head. “I said why now!”
“Because you are the only thing we are missing.”
Tony gulped hard against the bile in his throat before making the bastard shiver as he pressed the muzzle of the gun against the back of the man’s neck.
“Then why do you need her?” Tony dug his knee hard into the bastard’s kidney, some dark piece of his soul grinning madly at the sound it wrenched from the man who’d just tried to kill him. “Last chance!”
“Leverage. She’s dead already, DiNozzo, no matter what you do.”
His ears rang as the sound ricocheted around the alley. Tony gagged as he pushed to his feet, his sanity silently screaming itself hoarse as the dying man’s legs twitched like fingers trilling on piano keys. Tony bit back a scream of pain as he clambered up and over the chain-link fence at the back of the alley and jumping, snatched a plaid work-shirt off a clothesline to cover the mess on his t-shirt.
He walked quickly away, blending into the commuter traffic at 16th and E as the sounds of the sirens permeated the air.
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SUNDAY, 2200, I-95
Jeanne tipped him backwards onto the pavement, poking and prodding over gasps and groans until she was satisfied none of his ribs were broken. She helped Tony get back onto his feet. “Why didn’t you tell me you were hurt?”
Tony shook his head, the colour slowly ebbing back into his face. “I don’t have time to be hurt. We’re on borrowed time until we get where we need to be.”
Jeanne helped him back to the car, silently cursing Tony’s obstinacy as he refused to rest, to let her drive. They pulled back onto the interstate and Jeanne kept a close eye on Tony. She flipped the heat on inside the car, hoping to fight off the chills the cold rain would surely drive into both of them. Jeanne tried to think of anything else but what Tony had told her but it kept bouncing around in her head.
It seemed like days before Tony broke her out of her miserable silence. “There were very few people who knew your father had confided in me, Jeanne. But I didn’t get there in time. So I still only had half the picture; the other half of the intel was still floating around out there. And unfortunately, somehow other people knew I had information that would blow open a lot of corridors they needed to stay secret.” He swallowed hard. “They would have used you against me. I couldn’t let that happen.”
“Who killed my father?”
Tony was nearly begging as he rasped, “Jeanne, they’re dead. They paid for their decision. Let it go.”
Fury raced up and down her flesh. “Who killed him!”
Tony looked at her, before slumping back against his seat. His voice was a hopeless desert. “Jenny Sheppard.”
“But -.” Jeanne’s world spun on its axis as she tried to reconcile the redheaded woman who was Tony’s boss with the knowledge that the compassion, the understanding and the care she’d shown for Tony when Jeanne had let anger and pain overtake her conscience had been nothing but a lie. That it had been her all along who had wrecked Jeanne’s life. That Tony had been her catspaw. “Did she know?” she whispered, appalled by the bombardment of revelations. “About the information?” It boggled Jeanne’s mind.
“She knew, Jeanne. She just didn’t care, she just wanted your father dead. And in the process, she painted a target on me that made it impossible for me to do anything but let you go. Not if I wanted you alive and safe.”
Tony pulled off the interstate at the exit to Raleigh and quickly reached over to squeeze her hand. “I saw her kill your father. I got there just in time to see her pull the trigger. What I didn’t know, Jeanne, was that people, people your father did business with, saw me there.”
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TWO YEARS EARLIER, GARDEN INN, DC
DiNozzo felt his knees crack painfully against the tile as he dove over the toilet and hurled what little he’d had to eat over the last two days into the bowl.
“Oh, Jesus, oh Christ, no,” he whimpered, gagging hard once more as he saw it happen all over again.
What the hell was she thinking? How in the hell did she find out where he was?
All that work, all the deals and the trade-offs. All for nothing.
What the hell were they going to do now?
Tony stayed there until his feet were numb, until he was sure he’d burned out his esophagus throwing up. But there was nothing left in him.
He gave a slightly hysterical laugh - he had nothing left to give.
He splashed water on his face and used the complimentary crap toiletries to clean himself up. Any port in a storm, after all.
He looked longingly at the cellphone he’d dismantled to prevent tracking. She had to be awake by now. Tony shuddered as he realized that he couldn’t even call Jeanne to warn her, to get her out of his apartment to someplace safe. Guilt chewed on his heart as he thought her waking to an empty bed and no note.
The knock at the door jolted him out of the staring match he’d begun to have with himself in the mirror. He snatched up his weapon and quickly checked through the peep-hole.
Kort languidly settled himself into the chair next to the desk. “I got your message: René is dead and we have a problem. Could you have been any less informative, DiNozzo?” he snapped in irritation.
“Nope.” Tony laughed bitterly. “You could say that it’s Mr. President, we have a problem.”
Kort was silent for a heartbeat before straightening. “What’s happened? I thought you’d killed him until now. Clearly, I was wrong.”
Tony finally sank down onto the bed, shaking. He hated showing weakness but he felt like he was trying to surf on quicksand. “Jenny Sheppard killed him.”
Kort rocketed out of the chair. “What?” At any other time, the look on his face would have put a smile on Tony’s.
Tony surged upwards and right into Kort’s face. “She put a fucking gun to his head and shot him at point-blank range, Kort!”
“How do you - ?”
“I watched her do it.”
“Why the hell didn’t you stop her?”
Tony paced across the room and back again. “I couldn’t. I literally reached the top of the gangplank when she just pulled out the gun and shot him. No warning, nothing.”
Kort sank back down into the chair. “Did she see you?”
“Yes. Hell, she pointed the fucking gun at me and made me dump the body,” he fought off the urge to gag again, “René into the water before making me sanitize the scene.”
Kort looked confused and appalled. “Why did you -?”
Tony whirled, fists clenching and unclenching. “She knew Jeanne was at my apartment, Kort!” he snarled. “If I hadn’t done as she said, she would’ve shot me and then Jeanne!”
Kort shook his head, his eyes flickering as his mind careened through the information in his head. “How the hell did she know where the Benoits were?”
“No clue! Your people and SecNav were the only ones in the loop on this, as far as I knew!” Tony felt the frail threads keeping his temper in check fray even further. “So you tell me what happened, Kort!”
The colour stood out in Kort’s cheeks as the realization swept over him. “Someone talked.”
“You think!” Tony surged to his feet. “I was early, Kort! Early! Twenty fucking minutes early! Someone had to have told her where the meet was and what time the exchange was supposed to take place. Sheppard was going to throw me under the bus. Me and Jeanne! You’ve got a leak in your agency, Kort!” Tony felt his knees start to go and quickly sat back down. “She tried to frame me, Kort!”
The men were silent. The honking and dull buzz of traffic was an unpleasant filler as Tony let the truth sink in. He hadn’t been smart enough or fast enough to protect Jeanne. She was in so much danger and he’d failed her. His father was right, every time it mattered he’d find a way to fuck up. Everything was at risk now. Not to mention the fucking intel was in the wind!
It was the level of urgency in Kort’s voice that dragged him back. “Would Gibbs back you?”
“What?” Tony look at Kort in confusion, swallowing hard against the grief clawing at his belly.
Kort leaned forward in the chair. “Would Gibbs have your back if we took this to SecNav? If we took down Sheppard? She’s obviously completely lost it.”
Tony thought for a moment, thought about what René had told him, about the fact that SecNav had known nothing of Sheppard’s choice to reject the intel or that it was even on the table when Tony had cornered the man in the men’s room at his club. Gibbs had been there when René tried to deal and had said nothing. A dark sliver of uncertainly spiraled into a full blown wedge. “I..... don’t know.” Tony shivered, suddenly reminded of his time in Philly, of trying to stay alive in a corrupt department, never knowing if the next alley he dashed into would leave him with a bullet to the back of his skull. “He -.” Tony stopped, huffed a sigh. “Gibbs and the Director were together a long time ago. He really cares about her. I don’t know. He backed her against René's original offer.” Tony paused again, thinking hard. “I just don’t know.”
“Shit.”
Dread and misery yanked at him. “What? What else?”
“René was being watched by some mercenaries. Rumours surfaced that he was going to sell himself for safety. Vital information was on the table that would cripple a lot of plans. A consortium of his buyers placed a price on his head.”
“So Jeanne’s still in danger. We’re still ready for WitSec. We just move faster, leave now,” Tony’s voice cracked slightly as he realized he wouldn’t be able to say goodbye to Abby.
Kort shook his head. “DiNozzo....” Kort paused, then started again. “Tony, they were already on scene when you got there. They saw you there. They know you’re the one René spoke to.”
Tony felt his skin grow cold and clammy. He clenched the bedspread in his fists, squeezing at the fabric until his palms burned from the rubbing polyester. “What does that mean?”
“Would you be able to stand by and let them break Jeanne Benoit? Will you turn a blind eye when they blind her? What would it take to make you tell them what René told you?”
Tony paled. “Oh, God.” Nausea rolled through him and he gave in, ducking his head and taking deep, gasping breaths until it passed. “They’re going to hunt for us.” Kort nodded. “What are we gonna do?”
“Without Gibbs to help you stay afloat if we pinned it all on Sheppard? Made them think she was the one he was to meet with? Not much.” Kort had a vulpine curl to his lip. “I will keep her safe if you stay here. If you help me hunt them. If you help me find my leak. If you go with her, if you try and find her, try to contact her, there is little I can do. CIA will not assist with WitSec on what is purely a domestic matter.”
Fury sent him to his feet. “That wasn’t the deal, Kort! It was for both of us!”
Kort leaned back, grinning with sadistic fervour. “There’s no deal without the data, DiNozzo! Period! You were smart, you didn’t share what’s in that head of yours. That’s the only reason I’m here. We need what’s in your head, we don’t need what’s in hers! But her life? Expendable, as far as we are concerned. And without anyone you can trust? Well, that puts me in the driver’s seat, doesn’t it?”
“You mother-fucking bitch,” Tony breathed, his palms itching.
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