Author's Note: 1) Listening to Mozart's Requiem in D minor K.626. The perfect music for getting into the mood for writing this story – fits the suspense.
2) Trying to get in a hypothetical briefcase nuke bomb (one that Koloshenko could carry around; yielding from between 1-10 KT would be a logistical nightmare); considering that at the gate, he would be checked for said bomb, even with proper identification. Even with trying to figure out how big of a lead lined case he could carry on base to fool radiation detection sensors at the gate, he'd still be hefting such a big suitcase that he'd be spotted almost immediately.
Best Western – Silverdale Beach Hotel, Silverdale, WA
As senior flag officer, Animal strode up to the counter and said. "We need four rooms all beside each other; whether it's two and two across the hall or four in a row, that's fine, but it needs to be grouped together." He realized that they would be much safer grouped together than apart. Considering the agents, Harm and Meg, Lia and himself and Mac; they would have to stick close together. If they could find out where Rear Admiral Chegwidden himself was located, they would be able to formulate a plan to flush out Koloshenko.
The hotel manager managed to find a corner unit and three rooms beside each other. Animal nodded and handed over his credit card, then looked at Harm, Gibbs, DiNozzo, Agent Todd and Mac. He wasn't about to pay for their rooms as the Navy frowned upon that sort of thing.
"How many nights?" the inquisitive hotel manager inquired.
"Let's put it down for a week." Animal replied as the thoughts went through his head that they could possibly be there for a while trying to flush out Koloshenko. Looking over at Liandra who looked worriedly at him, he sombrely stated, "We may be here a while." the vague statement making Harm look anxiously at him.
As the keycards were disseminated amongst the group, with Animal and Liandra taking the corner room, owing to his rank, Harm stepped up to Animal as he looked at the short admiral. "Sir, are you sure that we'll need these rooms for one full week?" Harm looked apprehensive at the thought of the cost of the hotel room, but what cost safety and safety was in numbers as far as they were concerned. They had to stick together or they could be picked off if Koloshenko knew where each of them was located which fortuitously they hadn't been seen. Animal looked at him; then silently nodded.
When they had gotten up to their rooms, they had each put their seabags and other luggage in their respective accommodations. DiNozzo had gotten the necessary concealed carry permits prior to their departure for Washington – when he had brought the criminal record checks with them as a part of the NCIS package that he had quickly faxed over to the Washington State DOL office which had the necessary licenses for them at the base before they were turned loose to go find accommodations.
As each separated to their respective rooms with Gibbs and DiNozzo in one room, Kate Todd and Mac in another then Meg and Harm in one and Animal and Lia in the corner room; each not more than a door away from the other, they noted that they would all meet in the Beachfront Martini Lounge. There was also a breakfast buffet for $7.95 that was an all-you-could-eat buffet. And that meant that for decent meals, that they wouldn't even have to leave the hotel unless it was to reconnoiter the area. With their concealed-carry permits, they would be able to have their side-arms on them at all times and they wouldn't be easy targets for the assassin.
When they were ensconced in their respective rooms, Meg looked over at Harm with brimming eyes. "God, I hate this." She trembled as Harm took her by the arms and enfolded her in a tender embrace. "So much for our honeymoon and now we fear for our lives with this maniac out there." She shook her head. "I wish that Lindsey was dead." She spat out her former superior's name with bitterness. How much had he wrecked their lives?
"So do I." responded Harm and that was a tough thing for Harmon Rabb Jr to say as he tried to always look on the positive side of things. But with Koloshenko gunning for all of his loved ones and friends, he'd grown to understand that sometimes the hard things had to be done for the benefit of his family and friends. It didn't matter if the now-Koloshenko had once been his superior officer, he was now the enemy and he wouldn't hesitate to pull the trigger. After all, if any of his family or friends were in the crosshairs of Koloshenko, he'd blow Koloshenko's head off gladly and then worry about the guilt later. Nobody crossed his family…nobody.
In the corner room, Animal looked over at Lia who was pulling out her Beretta and a shoulder holster which she would wear under her jacket. They had resolved to wear no uniforms so that they wouldn't be able to be identified as military at first glance with the exception of carrying their military ID so that they would be able to get on Naval Station Kitsap – Bangor. Their hope was to find Koloshenko snooping around the gate of the Naval Station just waiting to target Kate as she ventured off-base. Considering that both Bremerton and Bangor were in close proximity to each other, it would be a toss-up as to which one Koloshenko would be scouting.
A knock on his door made him grab for his M9 Beretta and stepping to the side of the door, he barked. "Who is it?"
"It's Kate." Animal kept his M9 pointed at the door as he opened it slowly to reveal a rather bemused Kate Todd who grinned apologetically at Lia who raised an eyebrow at the NCIS agent. "Good job." Kate said as she nodded at Animal who kept the sidearm trained on her for a long moment before slowly relaxing as he closed the door behind Kate as he ushered her into the room.
"So…" Animal queried the brunette agent who looked at him with a somewhat demure smile. It was the idiot who believed that demure smile. Kate Todd was vastly capable with her Sig as well as with a shotgun and she definitely had a head on her shoulders for profiling criminals.
"Admiral, Commander, I believe that the Naval Station to watch would be Bangor." Todd stated as she glanced over from Animal to Lia.
"I checked the database and found out that Commander Pike is working out of Bangor, Admiral, so I believe that it would be in our best interests to keep a close watch over the Bangor base gate."
Animal rubbed his forehead as he looked over at Kate Todd. "If you're sure…" he finally said.
"I'd stake my badge on it." Todd replied confidently.
Animal looked at her sharply. "I'd suggest that you be careful about what you wager. Agent Todd."
Poulsbo Inn & Suites, Poulsbo, WA 1825hrs, next day
Mikhail Koloshenko pulled into the parking lot of the Poulsbo Inn and Suites; it had been a long drive and he had wanted to make certain of getting to Naval Station Kitsap – Bangor. Despite the time it took to on the highway, he had wanted to make sure that he hit Washington State before he rested. This was in order to rest before he started his surveillance on Commander Kate Pike. What really angered Koloshenko about Kate Pike was that she was a Lieutenant junior grade to his O-5 rank when he was at JAG, yet now she was equivalent in rank. All that time that he had put in had amounted to nothing. He had been stuck as a O-5 and there was no way that anyone was going to put him in for promotion to O-6 now after his cover had been blown.
Gritting his teeth as he turned off the ignition to his car, he smirked with a dark satisfaction that he would like nothing more than to put several bullets in AJ Chegwidden's head for the black mark that AJ had placed on his service record. About twenty minutes later, he was safely in his room and two hours later, he was asleep after a delivery meal from a Chinese restaurant in Silverdale. Tomorrow he would still lay low and see if anything materialized. But outside of making a few preparations to meet a contact that he had in the area, there was nothing planned other than to reconnoiter the area and then head back to his hotel.
Best Western – Silverdale Beach Hotel, Silverdale, WA, 2125 hrs, next day.
AJ tiredly pulled into the parking lot of the Silverdale Beach Hotel Best Western as he turned off the ignition. His tired eyes looked over the parking lot as he parked his car next to what appeared to be another Navy vehicle. Yawning, he carefully looked over the parking lot making sure that there was no evident threats visible; his SEAL training coming to the forefront. Grabbing his gear from the back of the Suburban, he headed for the hotel lobby.
Laying his military ID on the counter and look over at the hotel manager who looked surprised to see yet another military ID in two days, AJ asked tiredly, "May I have a room?"
"Well, certainly sir. We have some on the third floor with a group of military personnel who came in just yesterday."
"Whatever will do. I'll be here for a week." AJ grunted unenthusiastically, his fatigue showing in his stance. "It's been a long drive." He said simply as he was handed a keycard and nodding his thanks at the manager, he headed for the elevator, hefting his bag over his right shoulder and his hard-case hanging from his left hand. Striding down the hallway, he noticed a door at the very end of the hallway open and his eyes narrowed as he saw a familiar tall frame step out of the room.
"Rabb?!" he said sharply. "What the hell are you doing here?"
"Admiral?" The tall man startled turned to AJ with wide open eyes. "Sir. I didn't expect…"
"Answer my question, Captain. What are you doing here?"
By this time, AJ's loud queries caused two more doors opened and Mac and Animal had peered out from the respective doors. AJ looked from Harm to both of them and rolled his eyes. "You have to be kidding me!" he growled. "Why is my Chief of Staff here rather than back at HQ? Does anyone listen to orders?"
Animal snorted derisively. "I don't follow your orders, AJ." He said with a rather sarcastic grin. "We guessed what you were doing. And you plan on keeping a watch over Koloshenko on little sleep. What time were you planning on a wakeup, AJ? 0500 hrs as usual? Where are you bunking?"
AJ tiredly looked at the key card that he was holding in his hand. "Room 317." He answered, barely managing to stifle a yawn.
"Well, that makes it better. We're 318-321 respectively." Animal looked over at AJ who looked absolutely exhausted. "Evidently Todd and Gibbs came to the same conclusion as you did; that Koloshenko was going to target Bangor so that he could murder Commander Caitlyn Pike." Gibbs came to the door and solemnly noted to AJ to come see him after AJ got settled in. Nodding to Animal as well to join them, Gibbs reentered his room.
When AJ had come in, Gibbs noted to AJ that "We have some very sobering news. You two are all-too aware of the mission of Naval Station Kitsap – Bangor. I believe most people are…" The two admirals nodded. "Well…" he paused for a long moment appearing as though he was holding back a migraine headache while his right hand massaged his temple. "…it appears though that Koloshenko is holding an even bigger grudge than we thought. We've heard from the Foreign Intelligence Service that Koloshenko may be planning something bigger." He looked slowly from AJ to Animal and back again. After he was assured of their attention, he continued. "He may be going after a SADM; 1KT of devastation. He won't wreck much, perhaps the operations center or maybe he might set one up beside the nuclear weapons armory that's spread out over the base. We store Tridents here." That wasn't new information. Everyone around knew it.
"You've got to be shitting me." Animal growled at Gibbs. "You're telling me this fumble-nuts has enough competence to blow up the base by activating a SADM?" The disbelief on his face told Gibbs that the admiral didn't believe that Koloshenko had it in him to take out critical areas on-base with SADMs or at least one SADM. With a blast radius of six hundred feet. All it would take was one to destroy the operations area; it would take a much larger one to render the base weapons bunkers ruined. And it was a dirty weapon. It was designed to be placed on the ground right next to a critical target and then armed. The team would have vehicles to get away from the blast area. The yield of the weapons was dial-a-yield (all the way up to 1 KT) and it would be easy to just stick a warhead set for twenty minutes in an out-of-the-way area where no one would notice it sitting there until it went off.
"He definitely could do it if he had the inside connections on the base." Gibbs replied with a grim look at Animal and AJ, "I can't tell you all the information we have. It's because of national security." Animal's look, when Gibb's stated that, was sarcastic.
…and his voice was even more dripping with sarcasm as he said. "So, Gibbs, I hope to hell you've got some persons of interest that you're investigating, because I sure don't want to be sitting at the gate when the base goes kablooey, if he gets lucky."
AJ asked pointedly as he leveled an index finger at Gibbs. "Are you sure this isn't all in the realm of fantasy? Because the level of incompetence Lindsey displayed was more than enough to make sure that we believed he was an idiot of the highest degree."
"That's what he meant for you to believe."
AJ shook his head. "I can't believe it…" he muttered as he looked over at Animal.
Animal looked over at AJ. "Any chance we could catch Kate off-base? Send in a request to BuPERS and get her home address? Make up some sort of excuse so that we can make sure that we secure Kate so that Koloshenko can't get to her?"
AJ nodded; "Good thinking, Animal. Must have been the fatigue setting in." AJ was usually quicker on the draw than this, but his long drive from McLean had wiped him out and he was behind the power curve. He had been thinking of this, but Animal had articulated it first. "I'll get Mac to call it in; better yet, I'll do it. My two stars will hit them harder and make it less likely that they refuse. Can I count on you guys to go get her? Admiral?" AJ said formally using Animal's rank.
"You bet, Admiral. You need to get some rest so that you're in good shape for when we have to put Koloshenko in the ground." Animal barely restrained a yawn, the day's scouting was quite exhausting and he wanted nothing more than to be with Liandra in their own room. Tomorrow once he got the information from the admiral. Animal, Lia, and Mac would head for Kate's residence to set up a surveillance while Harm, Meg, the NCIS agents and the Admiral would set up by the gate to watch for Kate and to watch for any suspicious vehicles. Harm and Meg had high security clearances and were able to enter the base; whereas Animal and Mac had high enough ones but Lia being judiciary and not investigation, had her security clearance reduced to such a level as they would not be able to get on base to investigate the situation. They were trying to take care of all eventualities with regards to getting Kate away from Koloshenko. If they could manage to secure Kate Pike around a cordon of security, Koloshenko would have a hard time getting through to kill her.
Kate Pike's residence; 1034 NW Poppy Ct, Silverdale, WA 0500hrs; streetside
A sedan pulled up alongside the residence of Kate Pike, a sigh of relief went up among the three occupants of the car as they saw a parked vehicle in the driveway. Animal eased the car into park and shut off the engine - all three were in civvies with Navy ID on them; as well as all three being armed. There they would wait until 0600hrs until Kate Pike was up and ready to go to work. Then they would approach her and notify her of the change in plans. Kate Pike would be familiar with Mac and Animal's rank would persuade her to come with them.
"You think she'll agree to come with us, without question?" Lia asked Mac; her tone expressing her doubt.
Mac responded casually as she looked over at the door. "Well. We've got our Navy identification and we have an admiral with us. It's not like we're kidnapping her.
Kate Pike's residence; 1034 NW Poppy Ct, Silverdale, WA 0540hrs;
"Yes, officer, the car's been sitting there for almost forty minutes and it seems suspicious – the occupants are in street clothes ; and I don't know who it is that's in there. Could you possibly send a patrol-car to investigate?" Kate Pike was on the phone to the Bremerton Police Department which covered Silverdale and all points around it. "How long will it take, because I have to get to work soon."
"No more than fifteen minutes, ma'am. We'll find out who they are, if they're harmless and then you can be on your way. If they aren't then you may have to wait for a while as we'll need a statement."
Kate Pike's residence; 1034 NW Poppy Ct, Silverdale, WA 0555hrs; streetside
A black and white Crown Victoria police cruiser pulled onto the street and slowly moved its way towards their parked car. Mac groaned. This was not going well. Evidently Kate had seen the car and had called the police. "So what do we do now?" Mac grumbled acerbically. "We're armed."
"Well…" Animal grinned. "Look innocent and don't make any sudden moves?" he suggested. Mac's look was not very pleasant as she gave him the evil eye.
Lia was not so calm. She growled. "We're all armed. What the hell do you think they're going to do?"
Sure enough the police cruiser pulled up to the house and pulled into the driveway. Two officers got out; hands over their service Glocks and approached the vehicle from either side.
"May we see some identification, sir!" the officer from Animal's driver side window asked as Animal rolled down the window. He passed over his military ID, his VA Driver's licence and the concealed carry permit, just to defuse matters with a wide grin. "Sir, do you have weapons in your vehicle at this very moment?"
"Yes, sir."
"Please step out of the vehicle, sir." Animal complied as the officer patted him down and removed his M9 Beretta, which was safetied with one round in the chamber. Pressing the clip release and removing the clip, taking the safety off and then ejecting the unspent round in the chamber by jacking the slide back, he put the Beretta on the hood of the cruiser and then said. "Sir, is there any reason why you are casing the house of a fellow military officer?"
"Sir, we've been made aware of an assassin trying to kill certain members of the military. Evidently she's next on the list. You can check this out with NCIS." The officer looked warily at Animal as Animal notified them of why they were at Kate's place.
"And you're sure of this? You got evidence?"
"We have evidence." Luckily for the three, they had copies of folders from the NCIS file.
"Why weren't we informed of this by NCIS?" came the pointed question from the police officer as he looked over the file. "Evidently this Koloshenko character seems to be a really dangerous person."
"Evidently NCIS had a case of the stupids." Animal said. "Right now, Commander Pike is in danger and we need to make sure that she's safe."
The Bremerton police officer looked over at his partner. "You go tell Commander Pike here that these people are legit and they're trying to protect her." His partner jogged up the walk to the door of Kate's house. When she came to the door; she looked over at the vehicle as the officer beside the car gave a thumbs up. There was some gesticulation as the officer at the door notified her of the situation. Finally she went back into her house and about ten minutes later came back with a packed bag. Coming down to the car, she gasped. "Colonel Mackenzie?"
"Yes, Kate…it's me." Mac gave her a small smile as she looked over at Kate. "This is Rear Admiral (upper half) Toshio Nakamura and his wife, Commander Liandra Gracen-Nakamura. We were here to make sure that you were OK and to get you to a safe location. Lindsey or Koloshenko as he's now known is targeting anyone with ties to Harm, and we want to make sure that you're not able to be as easy of a target as the last one who was killed by him."
"Who was that?" Kate asked, her eyes wide with fear and surprise.
"It was Rear Admiral Brovo. Koloshenko shot him twice in the back of the head, execution style."
"Should we put out an APB on this Koloshenko guy?" the police officer asked. "Keep it within the department and have them keep a lookout?"
Animal stated. "He's armed, and can disguise himself to look like somebody completely different. You won't be able to track him easily." His cell-phone started ringing. "Mind if I answer it?" Animal asked the police officer who nodded. "Admiral Nakamura!" he barked.
"Gibbs here. We just got a call from the JAG SW office. Captain Krennick was missing! She hasn't reported in for work for the past three days. The CO of JAG SW was planning to put her on report for AWOL and start leveling an Article 15 under the UCMJ; and then we were just informed that the Fallon Police Department received a call regarding an unpleasant smell emanating from a house on Bottom Road. Police investigated and the coroner's department came out. We found Captain Krennick face-down in her tub. Evidently she had been hit with a blunt object and drowned. The NCIS office down there has seen tire tracks around the house…and other people have mentioned that they saw a vehicle that turned down the street with lights off. But they were unable to get a license plate number to ID it with." Animal's eyes went wide. "But we have a confirmed ID that Captain Krennick is deceased."
"Shit!" Animal swore. "OK… We've got Kate. Pull back from surveillance to the hotel and we'll regroup."
"Got it." Gibbs said.
When the police were done checking the file out and making notes, they returned the file to Animal and Kate was safely in the vehicle with Mac, Lia and Animal, the Bremerton Police Department cruiser trailed behind them back to the hotel. Just as they pulled in they saw Gibbs, Todd, DiNozzo, Harm and Meg pull in."
"Gibbs!" Animal growled. "I've got two cops that are wanting a briefing about Koloshenko and they want to talk to you three down at headquarters so that they're all aware of the situation."
Gibbs nodded and said, "DiNozzo, you're with me. Kate, you stick with Kate and Colonel Mackenzie." Agent Todd nodded in response as the rest of the navy officers headed for the hotel lobby to head back to their rooms.
Poulsbo Inn & Suites, Poulsbo, WA 0725hrs
His eyes cracked open, for a brief moment, he was disoriented as to where he was. Taking an encompassing look around his room, he remembered that he was where he needed to be. Koloshenko had a mission that was given to him by Vasily Ivanov, another Russian Intelligence agent in Seattle which he met yesterday; along with a package of items and identification. He was to get on base, with clearance documentation from inside informants; this ID had enough high-level clearance to obtain access to the weapons bunkers; and he was an O-6 from the Naval Inspector General's office according to the documents given to him. The picture showed a white haired naval officer with a mustache, his chin clean-shaven and no glasses, which meant that he would have to wear contacts. Aside from the minor irritation and red eyes, and picking up some hair dye to put more grey streaks into his hair to match the photo-image, he would have no problem with the disguise.
His only weapon would be his bare hands, as all were searched carefully when they were taken on base and a Makarov would just attract attention. His inspection was slated for tomorrow. In fact, this was a convenient mission. It would take out two birds with one stone and quite possibly have cascading ramifications. All he needed to do was to rendezvous with his contacts on-base. His contacts were waiting for the go-ahead, but it was just a matter of which day. Koloshenko wanted to make sure that everything was in place. And considering that the police were looking for him, he wanted to make certain that he laid low for several days.
The rest of the package contained the uniform that was required to effectively masquerade as Captain Miles Lund, USN Inspector General's Office, a set of and a Commander/Captain's officer's cap in the right size. Getting dressed in a ratty coat and pulling a rather old and grungy watch-cap over a face that had several days of five-o'clock shadow, he looked ratty enough to be able to head out the door without being recognized. Each suite was self-contained so he had the privacy to go in and out as he pleased without being bothered. A quick trip to a Walgreens for hair dye and a run to Subway should do for food. After switching vehicles, his vehicle would be untraceable.
Best Western – Silverdale Beach Hotel, Silverdale, WA, 1100hrs
A knock on Animal's door interrupted Lia and Animal's rest. Animal walked over to the door, his Beretta in hand and answered it. "Who is it?"
"Gibbs, Todd and DiNozzo." Came the reply.
Animal covered the door as they stepped in. "Step to the side and make sure that the hallway is clear." He ordered as they stepped in. "Where are the rest of us?" he asked acerbically. "We need an all-hands meeting."
"They're down getting some chow and they're bringing some up to you." DiNozzo replied.
"It'd damned well better have some meat in it…" In answer to that growl, there was a knock on the door as the rest of the group were ushered into the slightly larger room that was Animal and Lia's. Mac held up a bag from the downstairs lounge with a wide grin. The smell of burger and fries emanated from the bag. Animal took it from her and said. "I'll pay you back." Looking at the receipt he took a sawbuck out and said "keep the change, Mac."
"I tried to get you something healthy…but Mac vetoed it." Harm insisted aiming a rather disgruntled look at Mac. "…said you'd growl."
"She's right, Harm. And you don't want to get on the wrong side of a grizzly bear who hasn't had his daily dose of meat." Animal grunted as he started digging in. The other bag was handed to Lia who grinned at Mac and said. "You got it right."
"You're welcome." Mac replied with a casual smile.
"So…" Animal asked. "What do we do now with the situation as it stands?" he held a fry in one hand then took a bite out of the fry. He always ate the fries first. Chewing and swallowing, he stated. "So… we've taken away a potential target from Koloshenko; now what?"
Gibbs looked at each person in turn. "Koloshenko is going to try to eliminate the operational capability of our Trident missile subs. His reasoning: they don't have any missiles to fire, then they can't operate. He's planning to do this by activating one or more SADMs on the base. Plus the political fall-out from his actions as he has been outed as a Russian intelligence agent will be enormous. Considering how long he has been operating within the military community with access to large amounts of sensitive information that could have been leaked to Russian Intelligence; it's not going to be a simple investigation. Who knows what ties he's had throughout his navy career? Who knows what moles we have in operation? There's going to be a top to bottom criminal investigation and anyone not in this room is suspect. The naval officers looked at each other. That was really going to go over well with the rest of the military community. "Right now…" Gibbs paused for a long moment. "We don't know where the leaks are…and what we've lost; but all that doesn't mean a goddamned thing if we don't stop Koloshenko."
"So…how are we going to do that?" Harm looked over at Gibbs with a rigid stare.
"We are going to trail him onto the base tomorrow. We will sit on gate until such time as his vehicle shows up and then we will trail him onto the base." Gibbs said. "I want Lia, Mac, Kate and Agent Todd to stay at the hotel to coordinate with us. We will be in contact, but the rest of us need to go and deal with Koloshenko." Gibbs paused for another long moment and looked each of them in the room, locking eyes with them. "Koloshenko needs to be removed and the only way that we're going to keep our Tridents safe is to take him out on-base. That means following him; find out what he's doing…and eliminate him with prejudice before he manages to arm one of those SADMs that he has his eyes on." There was dead silence in the room.
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