Chapter 175: Cybercrime
Monday morning Tim fired off two emails. One to Vance's
assistant asking for an appointment and the other to Geoff Carter, who, once
upon a time, had been one of Tim's classmates at FLETC.
These days Geoff taught Civil Rights law to the new Probie
wannabes. He made sure they knew what was and what was not legal when it came
to dealing with the wider world. Back in the day he'd been one of Tim's study
partners.
He asked Geoff if he could get the CVs of two or three guys
who were hot on tech/computer skills, preferably ex-Military, young, and with
no previous law enforcement experience.
He got one back saying: "Want a unicorn while
you're at it?"
That made him smile.
He sent back:
If you've got one.
Our team is losing half of its members soon and I need a
tech guy who can shoot or ask questions or speak military or something like
that. And if he can do all of that, even better.
Half an hour later he got back.
Does this unicorn have to be a he?
Tim quickly sent back:
Nope. Male, female, undeclared, somewhere in-between,
doesn't matter. Knows his/her way around a computer, that does.
Two hours later he'd gotten an email back with some
interesting looking attachments. He was just about to open them when Vance's
assistant buzzed him and let him know that Vance had some time.
So he shot the email to Tony, said, "Let me know who
looks interesting, and I'll set up the interviews," and then headed up.
There was a time when he found dealing with Vance to be
deeply intimidating. That time is not now. He's not entirely sure when it
changed. Somewhere between taking down Bodnar and his wedding. But no matter
how it happened, it did.
Which is not to say he finds dealing with Vance particularly
comfortable.
The man is still his Boss, still the head of their agency,
and still deeply formidable.
So, while it's true that he doesn't have to give himself a
little pep talk or anything, he does pause for a second before opening the door
to straighten up and get himself into the right mindset for this.
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| "You wanted to see me?" |
"Yes." Confidence, his job is to tell Vance what
he wants, and then make sure Vance knows he's got the balls to deal with
whatever gets tossed at him. A little voice in the back of his mind keeps telling
him to channel Gibbs. Talk more than Gibbs would, but project that same air of
there's nothing you can throw at me that I can't handle.
Vance gets up from his desk and gestures to the seats at the
conference table. They both sit.
"Well…"
"Back in '11 you offered me Okinawa's Cybercrime
department. I assume you did that because you knew I could handle not just a
team, but a department. I'm better now than I was then. Everyone knows Jenner's
not happy here, and when he leaves, I want his job."
"Uh huh…" Vance has that hard to read look on his
face, pretty much the only thing Tim knows for sure is that he's not in any
way, shape, or form surprised by this. "And what do you suggest I tell
William Manner, Jenner's second-in-command, who is also under the impression
that he'd do a good job with Cybercrime and has been waiting for Jenner to
leave so he can take his place?"
"That I'll do a better one."
Vance smiles a little at that, which makes Tim happy, then
says, "Are you sure?" which is less fun.
"Yes. I know Will, he was down in the basement when you
sent me there the first time. He's great. He's competent. He's a really good
second-in-command. And he's got the imagination of a bucket of cement. He will
follow orders perfectly. He will do exactly what you tell him to exactly the
way you tell him to do it. He's probably the most reliable man I met down
there. But he can't think outside the box, doesn't innovate, and you know that
about him, otherwise you would have offered him Okinawa when it opened up."
"That so?" Vance appears to be amused by this.
It bugs Tim when Vance does this. He's fairly certain that
Vance will give him Cybercrime, but this testing thing, proving he's up for it
is annoying. Still, as hoop jumping goes, this is child's play compared to his
first five years with Tony and Gibbs.
"Yes. Manner's a good symbol for DC Cybercrime.
Competent, technically skilled, decent at the job, but no spark. LA and Okinawa
are high-tech, cutting edge, on the front lines of the cyber battles. We're
playing clean up in the back. And it's because there's no one in the basement
who knows how to give orders. No one's figured out that we are not supposed to
be playing defense, but that it's our job to go out and find the bad guys,
catch them at their own game, and tie them in knots."
"And you're the guy to do that?"
"Yes, because in the last ten years you've needed tons
of secure systems hacked, you've needed feints, Trojan horses, and decoy
systems, and not once have you ever called any of the guys in the basement,
whose job it is to do precisely that. You've called me. Because you know I'm
the guy who can take an objective, catch the bad guy, and figure out what needs
to be done and do it without someone telling me what to do."
"I do. But running yourself is very different than
running a department."
"It is."
"And Okinawa, which you are right, is the premier Cybercrime division at NCIS is four people. It's a team, and a department in
name only. I know you can run a team, but Cybercrime isn't a team, it's a department."
"True."
"And in fourteen years, you've taken point on fewer
than ten operations."
"Also true."
"And for all his lack of imagination, Manner is a
fantastic bureaucrat. He knows how to manage people."
"I'm sure he does. And I'm sure his paperwork is always
perfect. Of course, mine is, too." Tim smiles wryly at that. His is. And
so is Tony and Ziva's when he does theirs. In fact, the single biggest change
that'll happen when he leaves the MCRT is that the quality of the paperwork is
going to drop like a rock tossed off a cliff. "And it's true I haven't
taken point often, but the last time I did, I was managing more than two
thousand people. But it wasn't keeping all those people on a leash, making sure
they did the right things at the right time that ended that manhunt, it was
having enough imagination to be able to flush Blen out. It was being able to
think outside of the box and then rebuild the box so that he couldn't hide in
it. And if you want DC Cybercrime to ever be anything beyond a tech center that
plays catch up, then when Jenner leaves, you'll give it to me, and I'll turn it
into the best cybercrime division on the east coast."
Vance looks mildly amused by that. "It's the only
cybercrime department on the east coast."
"Only one for NCIS, but CIA, IRS, FBI, NSA, and
fourteen states all have cybercrime departments here, and if you give me three
years, I will have them all beat."
Now Vance looks honestly amazed. That's a whole lot more
than he expected Tim to come up with. "And how are you going to do
that?"
"By rebuilding the box we all play in."
Leon sits back, steeples his hands in front of him, and
smiles. "I like the sound of that."
"I thought you would."
"When Jenner gives notice, you'll be the next head of
DC Cybercrime."
"Thank you."
"And when he gives notice, your first job as Boss is to
tell Manner you're his new Boss."
"Of course."
"And I assume you are helping DiNozzo and David find a
suitable replacement for you."
"Trying. Just got started on that this morning. Looking
to find someone to replace me and Gibbs."
That got a grin out of Leon. "Good luck on that."
"Yeah."
"Well, don't let me keep you from it."
Tim knew a dismissal when he heard it, so off he went.
When Tim decided to start getting into better shape, he
stopped taking the elevator. Sure using the stairs wasn't a ton of exercise,
but he figured every little bit helped, and it didn't add all that much more
time to getting from point A to point B. MTAC to Abby's lab is four flights of
stairs and that's usually about as far as he goes in any given day.
So his feet are more or less on automatic, taking him toward
the stairs as he gets out of Leon's office, but he stops, turns and heads for
the elevator.
He wants to say it to Abby first. More importantly, he wants
another moment where it's just his, and if he takes the stairs, then he has to
go through the bullpen to get to her lab, and he knows they all saw him head
up, so they'll want to know how it went.
He's going to be a department head. He'll have guys calling
him Boss.
Wow. He takes a deep breath, lets it out slow, and tries to
let it settle in, then hits the button for the lab.
He'll be handing in his badge and his gun, sitting at a desk every day, coding until his eyes fall out, and filling out even more paperwork.
He's not going to see Tony and Ziva every day. He won't see
dead bodies, either. No more running down suspects, at least, not with his
feet, with his fingers will be a whole different story. He won't set all of his
computers to searching for something, and then hop down to Abby's lab and use
hers as well.
He won't be heading down there for updates on cases (and a
quick smooch).
No more stakeouts.
No more long drives to go get suspects, or question
witnesses, or talk to C.O.s.
No more bad take out eaten at his desk at ten at night while
going over the clues with Tony and Ziva.
No more desk.
No more looking up and seeing the three of them working away
on their paperwork.
He let out another long, slow breath.
Hopefully many fewer late nights. And even if he is on a
case and it needs overtime, he'll be able to do it from home. Kelly's going to
need someone at home, and he'll be there.
No more close calls. In the fourteen years he's been at NCIS
they've lost exactly one Cybercrime Agent, and he was killed when Kahn leaked
him. Not going to happen on his watch.
The elevator opens and his thinking time ends.
He pauses at the door to her lab, watching for a moment as
she dispenses some sort of liquid into the tiny vials Major Mass Spec uses.
Learner's team is working on a drug ring case that got hot
recently, so she's probably doing something for that.
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| "So?" |
He heads over to her, gently kissing her lips, and waiting
for her to put the pipette down before hugging her. "You're looking at the
next head of DC Cybercrime."
She squeezed him tight and shrieked. "When?"
"Whenever Jenner gives notice."
She was doing an excited little bouncing sort of thing, but
his voice caught her attention, and she stopped and really looked at him.
"You okay?"
He shrugs, holding her close, feeling her head against his
shoulder. "I think so. Just, on the way down, I was thinking of all the
things that are never going to happen again once I make the switch. And some of
them are good and some are bad."
"You regretting it?"
"No!" He shook his head vehemently. "It's
just… I won't see them every day anymore. I probably won't see you every day
anymore, not here at least. There'll be no reason for me to come down, I guess
once I get to Cybercrime, up here to work. It's going to be really
different."
"It's going to be really good. You're going to be the
Boss."
"Yeah, that's sort of freaky, too."
"Tell me about it."
He nods, understanding her own issues with this. Norfolk was
supposed to close its lab in January. That didn't happen, emergency funding
showed up from the ethers, but that funding was only going to keep Norfolk
going until June. Supposedly, for real this time, come June 1st Abby would have
three more forensic scientists working under her. And sure, that worked out
really well from a maternity leave perspective, but she was pretty nervous
about being the Boss all of a sudden, let alone sharing her lab with new
people.
"You want to celebrate?"
"Not yet. Let me actually get the job. Want to keep
this quiet. Among other things, Manner doesn't know he's not the next Head of
DC Cybercrime, and when Jenner gives notice, letting him know that is my job.
So, for right now, I want to just keep this in the family."
"No problem." She kissed him, sure that he needs
the extra time to let it settle in. Then she kissed him again, suddenly
understanding part of why he looks so out of it. "You're still you,
Tim."
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| Image from http://leticiahp16.tumblr.com/ |
He nods, seeing her get it. Special Agent Tim McGee is a
good third of his core identity, and soon, he won't be Special Agent Tim McGee
anymore.
"I know." And he does know it, but feeling it is a
different story.
She kisses him again.
"I should probably get back up. Paperwork's not doing
itself. And I got Tony a list of guys from FLETC to look at, got to see what
he's thinking about them."
"Okay." One last kiss, soft, gentle, supportive,
and then he heads toward the stairs.
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| Link |
When he got to the Bullpen all three of them were staring at
them. He gave a tiny nod which they all caught, and Tony was about to start
asking about it when Tim also shook his head slightly, signaling not here. They
understood that, as well.
Two seconds later, before he had even gotten all the way to
his desk, Gibbs' phone rang.
And they all know how this works, before Gibbs even has the
phone put down they're snagging their go bags, saving and closing computer
work, stashing paperwork, and by the time Gibbs had the phone hung up they were
ready to go.
"Gear up." It's a formality now. It's probably
been years since Gibbs has had to say the words.
But like a mantra, or a benediction, those words start a
case. They mark the team swinging into action. And today they mark something
else, the beginning of the end of Team Gibbs.
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