The last piece of the puzzle.
Follows this.
There were times he realized he hadn't eaten. He'd take a bite of a sandwich and go back to it. There were times he realized he hadn't slept. He went come, crawled into bed with Heather, slept for a couple of hours, and went back to it. He'd committed all preliminary forensics to memory, demanding tripple checks from Abby, checks he didn't need because she was the best in the business at her job. She'd keep Clarke and whatever group of monkeys that did the science stuff working. All he wanted was results he could trust. But the forensics weren't what was bugging him right now. The blood splatter and bullet trajectories told him all the story he needed to know and in doing so, completely verified her story. He didn't have the why, but he had the who and the how and with that, his triangulation was almost complete.
So he stared at his notes, endless notes scribbled in his Marine shorthand; plugging A, B, and C into the equation and always coming up with Svetlana over Vance, squared. He wanted there to be some tie in to Jenny's new lover, to this guy who genuinely cared for her, but for as thick and twisted as his rather redacted file was, he was clean in this. There were hints, from what he could tell, to Svetlana but nothing that tied them right together. Nothing that was a quick, easy arrest or bullet through the head. Nothing that made him guilty.
No, this equation led back to a phone call and traced through to another call. One to another to another, building up after Jenny started her position as director. Then they dropped completely until the day Jenny was cleared by the CIA of The Frog's death. He stared for a long moment at the file, the single piece of paper, her get out jail free card. It was technically an international crime. The Frog was a foreign national who had been targeted and assassinated by a US federal agent. But this note was her get out of jail free card. How convienent that the US resisted investigation by the Hague, let alone investigation into their own agents. There were times he really detested coverups. Sometimes people deserved what they got. sometimes it was cold blooded murder. In this case, in the case of the frog, he just couldn't tell. Jenny's vengance had endangered them all. It had also awakened a sleeping monster in California, one who had seemed intent to bide his time, but her involvement with the death of the Tadpole and her ALS announcement had not only awakened Vance, but injected him with a jolt of adrenaline.
But to get to Jenny, Vance had to get through him and even Matt. And Svetlana and her own grudge seemed like a perfect opening. He stared at the intel, wondering what had triggered it. What had set the woman on her course? What revenge pushed her?
He continued to stare at the intel, blessing McGee's incomprehensible geekdom for all eternity. He didn't understand a word that came out of the kid's mouth, but the kid came through on everything he'd been hired to do. Every day he broke the most basic of laws and because of that tracked down the worst of the criminals and he did it without blinking an eye because there was a part of him that was an anarchist and wanted to see the computer based infrastructure taken down. He only wished disposable cell phones kept voicemail records.
Thanks to McGee he'd traced Svetlana through to the States. McGee had tracked something down - Gibbs didn't know and he wasn't sure he wanted to know - and Ziva was coiled and ready to track upon his orders. She was in California, so his gut had been right to remove Jen from the situation. But the next moves ... McGee's computers were good but they weren't that good. So they could only wait for patterns. They did not know where she was, which worried him. It meant she was still one step ahead, which meant Jen was not completely safe. Svetlana would be ahead of them until he figured out her movitves.
And then it hit him. what made a woman rampage through hell and back to take down those who had hurt her? Svetlana's was not the rage of a woman scorned but the red sight of a broken mother. She'd lost a child. A child whose loss could be traced back to Jen. Through some contact - either The Frog or their case or even Vance's own ambitions, the child's loss was Jen's potential death sentence. Svetlana's only mistake had been sending henchmen and Vance to do her dirty work rather than pulling the trigger herself.
He stared back at the records, opening file after file, trying to remember where it was when he'd seen the notation. It wasn't just a random brainstorm, he knew it to be true. And there it was. A child. Gender unknown. Born six months after the Paris Operation that had not killed her. What had stayed Jenny's hand then? Had she known? And how did the child trace back to the Frog?
The seconds ticked by, marked by the counting of the clock. He listened, praying that somewhere in the clicking of McGee's keyboard he'd find an answer.
There were times he realized he hadn't eaten. He'd take a bite of a sandwich and go back to it. There were times he realized he hadn't slept. He went come, crawled into bed with Heather, slept for a couple of hours, and went back to it. He'd committed all preliminary forensics to memory, demanding tripple checks from Abby, checks he didn't need because she was the best in the business at her job. She'd keep Clarke and whatever group of monkeys that did the science stuff working. All he wanted was results he could trust. But the forensics weren't what was bugging him right now. The blood splatter and bullet trajectories told him all the story he needed to know and in doing so, completely verified her story. He didn't have the why, but he had the who and the how and with that, his triangulation was almost complete.
So he stared at his notes, endless notes scribbled in his Marine shorthand; plugging A, B, and C into the equation and always coming up with Svetlana over Vance, squared. He wanted there to be some tie in to Jenny's new lover, to this guy who genuinely cared for her, but for as thick and twisted as his rather redacted file was, he was clean in this. There were hints, from what he could tell, to Svetlana but nothing that tied them right together. Nothing that was a quick, easy arrest or bullet through the head. Nothing that made him guilty.
No, this equation led back to a phone call and traced through to another call. One to another to another, building up after Jenny started her position as director. Then they dropped completely until the day Jenny was cleared by the CIA of The Frog's death. He stared for a long moment at the file, the single piece of paper, her get out jail free card. It was technically an international crime. The Frog was a foreign national who had been targeted and assassinated by a US federal agent. But this note was her get out of jail free card. How convienent that the US resisted investigation by the Hague, let alone investigation into their own agents. There were times he really detested coverups. Sometimes people deserved what they got. sometimes it was cold blooded murder. In this case, in the case of the frog, he just couldn't tell. Jenny's vengance had endangered them all. It had also awakened a sleeping monster in California, one who had seemed intent to bide his time, but her involvement with the death of the Tadpole and her ALS announcement had not only awakened Vance, but injected him with a jolt of adrenaline.
But to get to Jenny, Vance had to get through him and even Matt. And Svetlana and her own grudge seemed like a perfect opening. He stared at the intel, wondering what had triggered it. What had set the woman on her course? What revenge pushed her?
He continued to stare at the intel, blessing McGee's incomprehensible geekdom for all eternity. He didn't understand a word that came out of the kid's mouth, but the kid came through on everything he'd been hired to do. Every day he broke the most basic of laws and because of that tracked down the worst of the criminals and he did it without blinking an eye because there was a part of him that was an anarchist and wanted to see the computer based infrastructure taken down. He only wished disposable cell phones kept voicemail records.
Thanks to McGee he'd traced Svetlana through to the States. McGee had tracked something down - Gibbs didn't know and he wasn't sure he wanted to know - and Ziva was coiled and ready to track upon his orders. She was in California, so his gut had been right to remove Jen from the situation. But the next moves ... McGee's computers were good but they weren't that good. So they could only wait for patterns. They did not know where she was, which worried him. It meant she was still one step ahead, which meant Jen was not completely safe. Svetlana would be ahead of them until he figured out her movitves.
And then it hit him. what made a woman rampage through hell and back to take down those who had hurt her? Svetlana's was not the rage of a woman scorned but the red sight of a broken mother. She'd lost a child. A child whose loss could be traced back to Jen. Through some contact - either The Frog or their case or even Vance's own ambitions, the child's loss was Jen's potential death sentence. Svetlana's only mistake had been sending henchmen and Vance to do her dirty work rather than pulling the trigger herself.
He stared back at the records, opening file after file, trying to remember where it was when he'd seen the notation. It wasn't just a random brainstorm, he knew it to be true. And there it was. A child. Gender unknown. Born six months after the Paris Operation that had not killed her. What had stayed Jenny's hand then? Had she known? And how did the child trace back to the Frog?
The seconds ticked by, marked by the counting of the clock. He listened, praying that somewhere in the clicking of McGee's keyboard he'd find an answer.