Chapter Twenty

Lia and Harm's Room, Hilton Monona Terrace, Madison WI, 00645hrs

Harm's eyes cracked open. Lying under the covers he waited for his eyes to acclimate to his surroundings. The early morning sun had attained an angle of 20 degrees above the horizon and he looked at the person sleeping curled up against him. Her beautifully voluminous red hair was draped across Harm's bare chest and her face was buried against his side. He smiled to himself. He leaned over her and whispered in her ear. "Lia...pssst. Lia." This double-bed was too damned small for his frame and too tight when it came to two people sleeping in the same bed. And that was all they had done that last night: sleep. But it was a damned comfortable sleep and morning was certainly intrusive.

Lia mumbled sleepily; cracked open one eye part-way like an irritable kitten and griped..."arrrgh...what? Must you be so damned cheerful this early in the blasted morning?"

"How's my girl?" Harm asked softly.

"Tired. Want more sleep!" She grumped, pulled the covers over her head and tried to go back to sleep. Harm chuckled and pulled her close to him. Harm had been a perfect gentleman and he hadn't made any advances though they had snuggled and kissed. It had made for a warm pleasant night comforted by a big warm six foot four teddy bear.

It seemed only five minutes later when Harm coaxed her up. "Lia. We gotta wake up and get dressed or we'll be late." The NAVINSGEN inspection was supposed to ramp up with the inclusion of the NAVINSGEN forensic analysis team and the NCIS's Procurement Fraud division as well as Technical Services who would send their computer geeks.

"Do we have to?" Lia whined as she tried to curl up and go back to sleep again.

"Yes..." Harm insisted as he tossed back the comforters and got up. Lia gave him an angry kitten stare as he also removed the blankets from her leaving her freezing in t-shirt and panties.

"I hope you know you're living on borrowed time." Lia hissed malevolently. Harm laughed heedless of his imminent danger. As he walked towards the shower, towel in hand, he was impacted in the side of the head by a deadly accurate 700 fill goose down pillow which elicited a muffled oomph and hysterical laughter which caused Lia to loose an irritated snort.

Meg & Animal's Room, Hilton Monona Terrace, Madison WI, 0650 hrs CST

The sun traced its rays across Meg's face causing her to moan softly and push back against the male body lying beside her, wiggling her butt up against the front of his torso. She smiled a little bit at the reaction she received but that was as far as she was prepared to push it. Perhaps she would have pushed it a bit further if she had known that he was single and unattached but he wasn't; and Meg knew that he was faithful to his girlfriend and this co-sleeping situation was only a mere facilitation of Harm being able to visit with his girlfriend who was actually here. His body felt nice, warm and comforting and Meg yawned like a contented cat as she stretched; trying to all the muscles working again from lying asleep for so long. She rolled over and wrapped a long arm over the other inhabitant of the bed which caused one eye to pop open which appraised her state of undress. It was a relief for the owner of that eye to know she was still mostly dressed, as much as sleeping with panties and t-shirt allowed, even though his mind went places where it shouldn't; trying to guess what she would look like naked, underneath him in flagrante delicto yet recoiling at the thought since that would be absolutely unfaithful to Maegyn O'Bannon, the woman who loved him. All this was, was a co-habitation of convenience, which still sounded dirty, but Meg needed a room to sleep in and Animal's room was the most convenient location.

"Morning, sleepyhead." Animal grinned at her when his other eye joined his first in wakefulness and Meg was able to gaze into his brown eyes. "Guess it's time to wake up…" He sighed in disappointment at the fact that they had to leave their comfortable bed. His body was fatigued and tired, and he needed the rest, Meg thought as she looked over at him.

Like Lia only a few minutes before to Harm, Meg moaned, "Do we have to?" and Animal laughed cheerily causing Meg to give him a dirty look. "You are so mean..." Meg complained. "Just when it was so comfy and warm…" and smirking at him purred in her most throaty voice... "…and sooooo romantic."

"I know…" Animal replied smirking back at her, "But we need to be dressed before Harm and Lia think that we've been doing something we shouldn't be doing." He got up, dressed in his shorts that were hiding his boxers as Meg looked him up and down appreciatively, at the still solid physique of a naval aviator. Animal never did miss a chance to go to the gym and worked out faithfully, though he knew he'd never set foot in a cockpit again of a fast jet, and Meg knew even more so than anyone other than his current girlfriend…that knowledge hurt Animal terribly. Even more so as she, along with Harm, had done the investigation into Animal's Medal of Honor several years back knowing full well that with the receipt of his Medal of Honor, Animal's active duty career as a front-line naval aviator was over. Being deep-selected for Lieutenant Commander had been a surprise once she was finished with Naval Intelligence but it brought her closer in rank to Animal and that was an even nicer surprise. But he seemed to be adjusting to life in the Naval Inspector General's office and he seemed to be more settled. They hadn't had much time to talk before they'd both fallen asleep as they were absolutely exhausted but it was nice to spend time with him.

But their co-habitation here, no matter how innocent, would cause RADM Stiles Morris to go through the roof. In fact any hint of impropriety would cause the new JAG to go absolutely nuts. Meg wondered if he would turn the shade of a roasted betel nut and go incandescent nuclear. The side that liked to tweak other's noses was tempted to inform the JAG of their cohabitation and see how much fallout came out, but the side of her that valued her job wanted to keep it. The latter side won out.

She sighed disappointed. "I guess we'd better get up…" She raised her arms above her head and yawned again. "…even though I don't want to." She sighed wistfully as Animal pulled his white t-shirt over his head concealing that physique again.

"I don't know exactly how long we're going to be here…" Animal said dourly. "From what it looks like, the books that I've initially taken a look at are seriously cooked. Things are not adding up, things are missing in the ledgers…but I need the forensic accountants to go through it."

Meg nodded. This was a dangerous case if it came down to fraud in a black project. Those who were embezzling money knew that if they were caught it would be a capital case and they wouldn't hesitate to kill agents if they were found out. Meg got out of bed, went over to her go-bag and pulled out a fresh khaki uniform and a white t-shirt. She was in the process of transferring her ribbons and rank insignia to the new khaki uniform, when a knock on the door came.

"Who is it?" Animal called out.

"Lieutenant JG Roberts, sir." The slightly confused voice of Bud Roberts was audible through the door.

"What is it, Bud." Animal called out.

"Well, sir, Lieutenant Commander Rabb, sir, he said that he was going to come back late, but I woke up and he wasn't there, sir." At that, Meg stifled a muffled burst of laughter. Meg yanked her t-shirt over her head, exposing herself, as Animal's eyes nearly bugged out of their sockets and he turned around one hundred eighty degrees instantly to offer her some privacy even if he couldn't get out of the room while Meg grabbed a bra and quickly put it on. She yanked her white t-shirt over her head, pulling on a pair of khaki pants and her khaki shirt on then neatly buttoned her shirt and fastened her khaki web-belt.

She smirked at Animal and mouthed silently If you're going to open the door and let him in. Animal blushed in response. Animal sighed as he dropped his shorts and put on his khaki trousers, buckling his belt, ignoring the pressed khaki shirt on the clothes-hanger for now and then walking over to the door. Opening the door wide, he greeted Bud, who, when the door opened, gaped in surprise as his mouth dropped open.

"Uh…um…" Bud stammered. "I'm sorry, sir…I didn't know, sir…uh…" He stared at Meg and then back at Animal then back at Meg. It was so comical that Meg couldn't help but burst out laughing.

"Bud…Harm kicked me out of my room and I didn't want to disturb you for a place to sleep, so I went ahead and knocked on Captain Nakamura's door and he offered me a place to sleep. Just keep it quiet when we get back, not that they can do anything about it. We are serving in different chains of command…and he was the perfect gentleman." Meg explained to a still-dumbfounded Bud Roberts whose mouth kept opening and shutting like a gaping goldfish.

"But…but…" Bud stammered. "So…that means…that if LCDR Rabb didn't come back to our room…then he's with…uh…LCDR Gracen?"

"Give the man a cigar…" Animal commented wryly as Meg nodded increasing Bud's rapid rate of gaping. Meg looked amused at Bud's awkwardness in the face of what he assumed as two officers in an intimate situation.

Lia and Harm's Room, Hilton Monona Terrace, Madison WI, 0710 hrs. CST

Lia grumbled while putting on her khaki shirt and pants. Harm emerged from the shower wearing his uniform and grasping his cover. Evidently they would throw their go-bags in the back of their Suburban and head back to the base. She put on the web-belt that secured her holster to her waist. Harm watched his girlfriend get herself ready for the investigation. Her continued grumbling made him smile; evidently, she was not a morning person.

"Just about ready for breakfast." He asked, tempting the tiger.

Lia let out a muffled irritated grunt as she continued throwing her things into the go-bag. It sounded something like when hell freezes over. Harm avoided a laugh that would have been hazardous to his health. Even though they hadn't pushed the envelope in terms of a relationship or had gone beyond the bounds of decorum, bunking together was frowned upon.

Harm decided to tread safe subjects and commented. "Captain Nakamura says that the possibility of someone embezzling funds from black projects into the hands of an unnamed recipient is quite possible. That's one of the reasons why he wanted Meg here."

"Oh…" Lia's tone was decidedly skeptical owing to that performance last night of Meg scuttling off to Captain Nakamura's quarters. "…really?"

"Yes, really." Harm intuited that Lia was wondering if Meg's and Animal's shack-up was not entirely innocent. "Animal wouldn't dare endanger his relationship with Maegyn. He's all business when it comes down to this investigation. Sure, Meg and Animal like each other, but it's a platonic friendship and has been since Animal's Medal of Honor investigation." He paused for a long moment and then continued. "I have a feeling that this investigation is going to be dangerous. The ones who are embezzling the money don't want to be found and they won't hesitate to kill someone to silence the crime. That's why NAVINSGEN decided to arm themselves and recommended that any investigators on this investigation no matter what, be armed."

Lia looked at Harm, "You think it will really come down to that? They'd rather shoot it out than give up quietly?"

"They've been doing it a long time and they know that the numbers are in the billions of dollars now. It means that there are capital charges pending under 18 U.S.C. 794 as well as 18 U.S.C. 2381 which could land them two death penalty sentences. Not to mention if they tried to murder any investigator, they could land another capital charge of death under 18 U.S.C. 3591(b)(2)."

"That's treading dangerous waters for them, isn't it?" Lia commented.

"Well, that's why Animal chose for us to be armed, because if they feel threatened they could endanger our safety."

The seriousness of the conversation was interrupted by Animal's voice outside in the hallway. "You two finished doing what you were doing? Because we really are hungry and want some breakfast!" Harm flushed beet red while Lia shook her head in disgust.

Naval Station Three Rivers, Oakville, WI 0800hrs CST

Upon arrival at NS Three Rivers, Animal and the rest of the group met up with Gibbs who had two other agents with him. One of the agents extended her hand and said. "Morning, Captain, I'm Special Agent in Charge of the Forensic Analysis Team. Jessica Sharrow, pleased to meet you." Animal looked at her; a blue-eyed, wavy haired blonde, down-to-business demeanor and nodded. He could work with her on the accounting, as long as Bud and Meg were able to deal with the interruption. The other agent was a man who stepped forward to introduce himself.

"Barrie Hollands, Procurement Fraud Division…" He said brusquely. Animal nodded again, another down-to-business agent and one not concerned with his stature in NCIS. It looked as though he would be one that would get down to work and help with the investigation.

"So…" Animal said, his tone all-business, "Do you have one of your Technical Services guys here, or did you bring an entire team?"

"He's running a bit late, but he should be here within the hour." Agent Hollands replied.

"Captain Toshio Nakamura…" Animal said extending a hand to shake Agent Hollands' and then introducing his fellow officers: "Lieutenant Commander Harmon Rabb. Lieutenant Commander Meg Austin, Lieutenant Commander Lia Gracen and Lieutenant JG Bud Roberts." Hollands and Sharrow each shook the officers' hands. "Agent Sharrow, Lieutenant Roberts and Lieutenant Commander Gracen will assist you with the forensic accounting and Lieutenant Commander Meg Austin and Lieutenant Commander Rabb will assist Agent Hollands. I'm going to go speak with Gibbs." Animal nodded to the agents as Gibbs moved to the side.

Gibbs nodded to Animal as they moved off,

"Any leads?" Animal asked when they got far enough away from the group who were discussing how tasks were going to be divided up amongst themselves.

"Nothing as of yet. Ducky managed to get the result of the hi-tech poison analysis. It's something that we've never heard of before. It was an ATP inhibitor mimicking calcium cyanide poisoning…yet safe enough to handle without risk to the person doing the poisoning. And one other thing that we found out was that Bradenhurst Corporation was involved. They're a high-secrecy weapons manufacturer, one of the military defense contractors." Gibbs commented. "The problem is…" he paused for a long moment. "I don't like where this is going. If we stumble onto something that we're not supposed to stumble onto, things could get extremely messy."

To Animal, that was the understatement of the year. "Y'know…life was a hell of a lot easier when all I had to do was worry about getting my Tomcat from point A to point B without bending it." He said sourly.

Gibbs snorted. "Welcome to big league investigation."

"You think Bradenhurst is involved?"

Gibbs looked at Animal straight in the face. "You think they aren't?"

Animal shook his head. "Defense contractors want the money…what I'm asking is you think they're involved in the embezzling? Cut money their way to R&D bio and chem weapons and you got a stream of endless funding. If the Navy gets black projects approved, Bradenhurst has plenty of money keeping their tentacles in."

"They got their tentacles in, that much I know." Gibbs replied looking around him to see if anyone was hanging around.

"Get your forensic accounting guys in…get some computer geeks in and see if they can put their heads together and find out where the money is going and how its getting there." Animal stated as he leaned in, trying to keep their conversation private. "Gut hunch says that the guy that was in on the Bryce murder is still hanging around, and he's planning on shutting up whoever he feels is going to blab to us."

Gibbs nodded as his own gut hunch was vindicated. "As soon as Cole gets here, I'm going to send his geek team in to confiscate the computers so that we can retrieve any money trail."

DSD Office, Naval Station Three Rivers, Oakville, 0925 hrs

He wasn't happy about the situation. This morning when he had gotten to his office, there seemed like almost a hundred NCIS agents around the entire complex. The sharks were circling the shark cage. Whoever tipped off NAVINSGEN brought the whole damned temple down on themselves just like Samson. Eventually, those computer geeks were going to recover enough data to link the funds from Navy black projects to Bradenhurst's financial coffers.

So what was he going to do about? He pulled out a USB drive, smiling all the while that the public was trying to develop one and the DSD had had one for years. It was a last ditch effort on his part. It was a piece of EncryptLock software specially designed to encrypt all the files on the main server of the computer. This encryption was 256 bit encryption which was considered high-tech for today and made it absolutely impossible to physically decrypt without the password which he would keep…and it would set back black project R&D for years. He smiled. The nuclear option, he thought. It was a self-executable file which would upload as soon as he loaded the USB flash drive into the nearest USB port and would finish encrypting all the files within two hours, then the R&D for all US military black projects would screech to a halt.

There was no way to undo this, at least not with today's technology, he smirked to himself. And he'd be able to pick and choose which bit of information that he'd decrypted back into useable form he'd pass along to Bradenhurst and which bit of information he'd pass along to the highest bidder. After all, he thought to himself, he was in it for the money.

Smiling to himself again, he inserted the USB drive seeing the green light going on and the whirring sounds going as the self-executable file started installing itself onto the main drive.

Naval Station Three Rivers, Oakville, WI 0935 hrs CST

Special Agent Ibraheem Abdur-Rashid El-Amin, NCIS, Technical Services called out, "Agent Gibbs… Got something here... Suspect uploaded a 256 bit encrypt file onto a computer logged in at DSD on base."

"Damn, that's our guy." Gibbs growled. "Good work, El-Amin. Track it."

"Not much we can do, Gibbs, it's already done its damage. We need to get our computers off the grid or we'll go down too." The agent turned back to his computer and started withdrawing wires. Turning to Agent Hollands and LCDR Austin and LTJG Roberts, he said. "Get your laptops off the network or your files will get encrypted too along with it." The three hastened to comply.

Gibbs turned to Animal who was there. "Follow me…" He said to Animal who withdrew his sidearm, and chambered a round in the barrel, flipped on the safety and returned it to his holster, "I know where the DSD office is. You guys stay here." He said to Austin, Roberts, El-Amin and Hollands.

Jumping into Gibb's Suburban, Gibbs and Animal peeled out of the parking space and down the base road towards the DSD office.

It wasn't but five minutes away, but it seemed like a lifetime. As they screeched to a halt in front of the DSD Building, they saw a grey suited man exit the building. When the vehicle came to a halt, Gibbs and Animal dove out of the vehicle, guns drawn.

"NCIS! HALT!" Gibbs roared startling the grey-suited man who ducked, twisted and then came up with a sidearm in one hand. For Animal everything turned into slow motion as he started to bring up his Beretta. He saw the flash of the gun…and heard the whine of a 9mm going past his shoulder, then a twang of another bullet as it ricocheted off the open door of the Suburban as it hit the steel panel and then all of a sudden he felt as though he had been kicked by a mule in the back. A blinding pain as it was suddenly hard to breathe, a fiery burning lance through his chest, as he was flung forward. Animal barely noticed as Gibbs fired back twice at the man, who escaped. Animal's lung began to squeeze. He squeezed his eyes shut and opened them again to find Gibbs' face over his, yelling, "GODDAMN IT…YOU STAY AWAKE…CAPTAIN! DON'T YOU DARE FALL ASLEEP ON ME!"

Animal tried to open his mouth to speak but couldn't. The feeling in his chest felt like knives stabbing him every time he tried to breathe and he couldn't seem to catch his breath. His breaths came in short gasps and his vision started to white out and he passed out, vision fading to black.

Gibb's POV

Gibbs saw the Navy Captain stagger and fall, a crimson splotch on his upper back, as a hole appeared in the back of his khakis. He fired twice at the grey-suit to keep him from firing back and ran towards the Captain.

Falling to his knees in front of the downed Navy Captain who had fallen face up, his blood leaking into the grass, he yelled, "Goddamn it…you stay awake…Captain! DON'T YOU DARE FALL ASLEEP ON ME, Pressing a hand to the wound he felt the inward sucking of air into the lung, which could potentially be fatal. Gibbs grabbed a plastic bag from the car and duct-tape slapping the bag onto the wound and taping it around, then getting on the radio, he called in. "I have a man down. Sucking chest wound. Shallow fast breathing. I need a medic, goddamn it. Get me a damned medic NOW!"