Chapter 3

“Caesar’s spirit, ranging for revenge,
With Ate by his side, come hot from hell,
Shall in these confines, with a monarch’s voice,
Cry “Havoc!” and let slip the dogs of war.”
~ William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar, Act III, sc. i, L. 270-3 ~

After I’d introduced the other two agents to Lane, I went back out to the car and got his water bowl. When I came back, he was mooching caresses from Kate Todd, whom he seemed to have decided was his new best friend. Anthony looked a little put out, but as I quietly reminded him, he’d found Lane at the shelter and given him to me almost four years ago; he couldn’t expect the dog to remember that far back, especially when I’d trained him to only take commands from me. He seemed to accept that. All four of them sat at their desks, staying busy with whatever I had interrupted with my arrival. I took a quick turn around the floor, filling Lane’s bowl from the water cooler (nothing too good for my dog), and familiarizing myself with the layout. I came back from the opposite direction, which allowed me to see what was on Gibbs’ monitors. Two contained information I didn’t know anything about, but the third, the one where his attention was focused, looked to be Rushfeldt’s criminal record. At least, his picture was on the screen. I walked past and set Lane’s bowl down by Anthony’s desk, then backtracked to Gibbs’. He watched me as I came around so I too could see the monitors, first with only his eyes, then with his head. “What do you want to know?” I asked quietly.

“How he intends to find you and Tony,” he said. “That way, we can plan how to keep him from finding you.”

“I still think it’s best if I’m transient.”

“And I think that’s just asking to get caught.”

“I’m safe if he can’t find me.”

“He has limited time. If we can just keep you and Tony secured long enough, he’ll die of cancer.”

“Sieges can be broken.”

“Sieges can also last for years, with proper preparation.”

We glared at one another, but some germ of his logic registered with me. I frowned, sighed, and sat cross-legged on the floor beneath the large screen. He turned his chair to face me. “After I got out of the hospital, I moved, changed my phone number and personal email address, and had all my mail directed to a post office box. But I still work for U-Baltimore, and there are several organizations that have my real address. You know, bank for the mortgage, insurance companies, that sort of thing. He was also out for three days before I found out about it, so it’s possible he followed me home from work. He might even have followed me here. I don’t know.”

“But he has no resources,” Gibbs said.

“That we know about. The warehouse they found me in was three shell companies down. My lawyers managed to find and appropriate the assets of several companies, but it would be foolish to think that we got them all, or that he doesn’t have at least a million dollars at his disposal now. He’s really smart, Special Agent Gibbs. Don’t underestimate him.”

“Like I did you?”

We looked at each other calmly. “I didn’t say that,” I said quietly.

“No, you didn’t.”

I smiled. “I like speaking in riddles,” I told him. “I don’t get to do it very often. No one wants to play with me.”

He ducked his head, almost a bow. “I aim to please.”

“I doubt that very much.”

He looked at me closely. “You’re a very interesting woman, Doctor Levasseur.”

“You’re an interesting man, Special Agent Gibbs.” A brief silence fell. “Jen,” I said. “Go ahead. I have a feeling we’re going to be talking a lot, and formality just won’t do. But I’m not calling you Boss. You can just forget that.”

He smiled. “Wouldn’t dream of it. Gibbs, or Jethro, if you prefer.”

“If you prefer?”

“Then Jethro.”

“Very old school. It suits you.”

“It’s a name.”

“Names are a way of knowing, Jethro. Didn’t you hear me talking before?”

“I did. McGee!”

I heard a shuffle, and McGee appeared by the desk. He glanced briefly at me. “Yes, Boss?”

“You heard my conversation with Doctor Levasseur?”

He looked a little uncomfortable. “Yes, Boss.”

“Give me three ways Rushfeldt could find her address.”

“Uh, well, he could do a land title search.”

Gibbs nodded. “Two more.”

“He could… well, if he had some record of her social insurance number or driver’s license number from four years ago, he could do some identity theft and get the information that way.”

“I wouldn’t put it past him to have memorized the numbers,” I said. “He went through my purse pretty thoroughly before he started…” I thought it would sound far too melodramatic to say, “before he started torturing me,” so I just trailed off and let them fill in the blank. McGee looked even more uncomfortable, but Jethro didn’t even move. “One more,” he said to McGee, and the young man refocused.

“He could hack the University’s employment records, or he could pay someone to do that.”

“Can you find out if he’s tried any?”

“Maybe,” McGee said. “At the very least, I can find out if it’s possible.”

“Get with Abby,” Jethro said. “I want an update every hour.”

“On it, Boss.”

“Tony, Kate.” The other two appeared as McGee disappeared. I motioned Lane over (he had trailed Todd), and he sat down beside me. “The other cases can wait. Tony, until the file gets here, start looking at possible safe houses, places we can stash you and Doctor Levasseur until Rushfeldt’s caught.”

“Me?” Anthony said. I heard the indignation in his voice. “Boss, I don’t want–”

“It’s not a matter of want, Tony,” Jethro interrupted. “If we opt for a safe house, there needs to be an agent on the inside to protect the Doctor. And that’s going to be you, whether you like it or not. The safer you are, the less chance of some bystander getting hurt.”

Anthony glanced at Todd. I blinked. There was more to that look than was intended. I looked at Todd a little closer. She kept her eyes on Gibbs, almost deliberately. Well, that was something to talk to Anthony about. But later. There was something more important to say right now.

“I haven’t agreed to hunker down,” I reminded them.

“I know.” Jethro turned back to me. “Just covering my bases.”

I nodded to him, satisfied. “All right. What do I do in the meantime?”

“Stay here and talk to Kate,” he said. “She’s got profiling experience. I need to know more about Rushfeldt. Can you do that?”

I frowned. I knew what he was asking me, and I knew that I was strong enough to do it, but there were other concerns. “Yes,” I said finally. “But not here. It’s too open. I won’t be responsible for horrifying all your colleagues.”

“Kate, use the interrogation room.”

She nodded, and I stood up. “And what will you do, Jethro?” I said. I couldn’t help it. He had left himself too open to the question.

He didn’t hesitate on his answer, however. “Browbeat Baltimore PD into giving us access to the current investigation,” he said. “They must have covered some ground in the past four days. It’d be better if we don’t have to cover it as well.”

It was all so decisive. I certainly wasn’t used to it. Everything on campus happened by committee, and at a snail’s pace. Jethro picked up his phone, Anthony went back to his desk, and I was left a little hung out to dry until Todd returned from a quick trip to hers. She had a PDA in her hand. “This way, Doctor,” she said.

Lane and I followed her to the elevator at the rear of the room. “No paper and pen?” I asked her.

She looked over her shoulder and smiled, holding up the PDA. “Besides, this isn’t an interrogation,” she said. “I don’t need props.”

“I had one of those once,” I said. “I gave it up for my day timer after it crashed twice in one week.”

She laughed. “Sounds familiar,” she said.

“Really?”

“Gibbs is…” She trailed off, and looked a little embarrassed. “Never mind.”

“No telling tales out of school?” I asked. “Anthony respects him a great deal too.”

“We all do,” she said. “He’s one of the best there is.”

“I rather got that impression.” The elevator arrived and we stepped inside. “Can I ask you something, Agent Todd?”

“Sure.”

“Do you think Anthony and Jethro are right? Should I stay here and allow them to protect me?”

She looked at me, and as the doors closed she pressed a button for another floor. The car started moving. “I understand why you don’t want to,” she said then. “If I were in your position, I would want to run as far and as fast as possible, and I wouldn’t stop running until I was sure it was safe. But Tony and Gibbs both have really good instincts. If both of them were telling me something, I would listen.”

“How long have you known them?” I asked.

“I’ve been here just over a year,” she said.

I nodded. “I’ve known Anthony for four and a half years. You’re right about him.” I couldn’t help but sigh. “And if you’re right about him, then you’re most likely right about Jethro as well.”

The car stopped moving and the doors opened, but before we stepped out, she turned to me with a smile. “I know,” she said. “You wish I weren’t.”

I laughed. “I like you,” I said decisively. “So does Lane, and he’s a good judge of character.”

“He’s sweet,” she said, looking down at my dog as we walked down the hall. “He reminds me of one of my brothers, actually.”

“What, big and ugly?”

She chuckled. “No, well-trained.”

It was said with such wicked humour that my estimation of her climbed a notch. Then she opened a door and ushered me into one of the coldest rooms I’d ever been in. Not temperature-wise – it was actually quite pleasant – but atmospherically. “Boy,” I said. “This place could use some wall hangings.”

Todd closed the door behind us. “We don’t usually use it for real conversations,” she said. “But it’s the most private place we’ve got.” I looked at the mirror that made up half the back wall, but decided to trust her. With quick hand signals, I had Lane lie down on the floor. He curled up and laid his head on his paws as Todd and I took seats at the bare metal table. The chair was not particularly comfortable. The room was ideal for its real purpose.

Todd opened up her PDA and spun the stylus between her fingers once. “All right,” she said, looking up at me. “Tell me about Ethan Rushfeldt.”

“First thing’s first,” I said. “Turn your pity off. You won’t be able to get a real feel for this guy if you’re feeling sorry for me. I don’t want you to, okay?”

She seemed a little surprised, but nodded. “All right.”

“Good. Then let’s get started.”

An hour and a half later, Kate and I (we’d quickly come to be on a first name basis) sat back. Despite my warning and her best efforts, there was an undertone of shock, horror, and pity in her expression, but she’d conducted herself professionally, and had screens and screens of notes on Rushfeldt. My mouth was dry with talking, and I was torn between wanting to curl up on the floor with Lane and cry, or find a dojo somewhere and a partner willing to be beat up or to hold a punching bag as I knocked the stuffing out of it. I put my head in my hands, covering my eyes; I couldn’t look at her any more. “Is that enough?” I asked. “Do you need more?”

“No, I… I think that’s fine.”

“Okay. You guys have a gym around here?”

“A gym? Yeah. Why–”

“I have a little bit of tension to work out.”

“Oh. We do, but I don’t know if civilians can…” Her sudden stop caused me to move my hands and look at her. She was reading something on her PDA. “You know what? We’ll work it out,” she said, turning her attention back to me. “I’ll take you.”

It didn’t take a genius to figure it out. “Who’s back there?” I asked, temper starting to flare again. The look on her face was answer enough. “Jethro. Get in here!”

Lane woke up from his nap when I raised my voice, and he quickly stood up and trotted over to me, the fur on the back of his neck rising. I stroked him, brushing it down. “Settle,” I murmured. Just because I was annoyed was no reason for him to get charged up. He took the command, sitting down beside me and putting his head on my lap. Then the door opened, and he looked quickly towards it.

With dogs, things were simple. I had introduced Anthony, Jethro, Kate and McGee to him as friends, and that was what they were. So when he saw Jethro and Anthony through the door, he simply accepted that everything was fine. I, on the other hand…

Anthony stayed outside the room. His face was slightly pale, so I knew he’d heard at least some of what I’d told Kate. He might have seen the results of Rushfeldt’s anger first hand, but he’d never heard it laid out in that kind of detail. I smiled at him sadly. I’d never wanted him to hear it. Anthony was the type of man who would feel guilty about not getting there sooner, and I’d never wanted him to feel that. He should feel glad that he’d arrived in time. He smiled back, but didn’t come in. So I turned my attention to Jethro.

He had taken the two steps needed to get from the door to the table, and set a bottle of water in front of me. Peace offering? I was tempted not to accept it, but I was just so thirsty. Damn him anyway. Why did he have to give me something I couldn’t refuse? I glared at him as I took up the bottle and opened it.

If my annoyance made any impression on him, he didn’t show it. He turned to Kate. “Get started with your profile,” he told her. “Tony’s up to speed on the Baltimore investigation, so the two of you work together on what our next step should be to find this guy. I’ll take the Doctor to the gym.”

She nodded mutely, looked at me apologetically, then gathered her PDA and started to leave the room. “Kate,” I said. She turned around. I touched Lane on the head. He looked up at me. “Lane, follow,” I said, pointing to Kate. He immediately padded over to her and sat down in front of her, looking up expectantly. She smiled. I dug into my pocket for my car keys and threw them to her. She caught them easily. “His food’s in the trunk, and his leash is on Anthony’s desk,” I said. “He’ll let you know when it’s time for dinner. The expression’s unmistakable.”

“Okay. I’ll take care of him.”

“Thanks,” I said.

She left the room, Lane walking at her heel. Jethro slid into the chair she’d vacated and folded his hands on the table. Anthony stood in the doorway still, and he looked from me to Jethro, and back. He seemed about to say something, but Jethro said, “Get moving, Tony. I want this guy away fast.”

Anthony straightened slightly. “Okay, Boss,” he said. Then, with another look at me, he reached out and closed the door.

That left me and Jethro alone in the room. Really alone, for the first time, and for the first time, I could feel the extent of the power emanating from the man. This was his room, I realized, set up to his exact specifications, designed to enhance his influence over whoever sat in the chair I occupied. “Are you going to interrogate me, Jethro?” I asked, taking another sip of water.

“Nope.”

“Anyone else back there?”

“No.”

“You shouldn’t have brought Anthony.”

“I didn’t. He came down to report to me and stayed.”

“And why were you down here anyway? I asked for privacy for a reason.”

“There were things I needed to know.”

“About me, or about Rushfeldt?”

“Rushfeldt.”

“You’re lying.” He chuckled and leaned back in his chair. I smiled, my annoyance dissipating. “I’m smarter than the average bear, Jethro, and I don’t like to be played, or spied upon. You’ll get more out of me with direct questions. I asked you before, and I’ll ask you again: what do you want to know?”

He traced a circle on the table with his index finger, his eyes turned away from mine. “Why did you come here?” he asked finally, looking up.

“To warn Anthony. Our experiences with Rushfeldt…” I shrugged. “They sort of tied us together. He brought us both within inches of death, so we understood what the other was going through. And then, you know, his parents were away in Europe, and mine are dead… We were the only ones really there for each other during the recovery.” I sighed and leaned forward on the table. “Anthony and I are friends, and our friendship was forged in the hottest fire imaginable: fear. No matter how much time goes by, no matter how much either of us changes, that will not. I couldn’t not warn him. I couldn’t not see him and talk to him about this.”

“Was that the only reason?”

I stopped and thought before I answered. “No,” I said finally. “When I heard about his escape, I went into reaction mode. Everything I did was instinctive. Anthony rescued me from Rushfeldt once. No matter how… strong I think I am, there’s a part of me that still wants to be protected. It took over there for a while. I was already on the road before I thought about the danger I might pose to him.”

“He’s used to it.”

“No one should be used to it.”

“Soldiers are.”

“Anthony’s not a soldier.”

“I am.”

I contemplated him for a moment, chewing slightly on my lip. “Are you putting yourself between me and him, or between Anthony and him?”

He shifted a little in the chair; my shot had gone home. “Tony’s put himself in front of you. Does it matter where I stand?”

I sighed. “No, I suppose it doesn’t. Unfortunately, if it comes to that, we’ll be falling all over each other. Because I won’t let anything happen to Anthony either.”

“If he has a gun–”

“His weapon of choice is a knife, Jethro. Why do you think I carry them?”

He frowned, and pressed his palm to the table. “Will you let us protect you, then?”

I crossed my arms over my chest. “I want to run,” I said, “but Kate tells me to listen to the two of you, that you’ve got good instincts. I might have a black belt, but I’m an academic, not a soldier. I can’t think myself out of this situation. It’s not that kind of problem. I can accept my limitations. But tell me honestly, Jethro Gibbs.” I unfolded and leaned forward over the table, gripping his hand. It was warm in my cool fingers. “No lying, no dissembling, just the truth. Can you protect me?”

He had wonderful, clear blue eyes. They were the kind that wouldn’t give away a thing, if the owner of them so desired. Even when he didn’t so desire, they were guarded and hard to read. The silence stretched out as we examined one another. Then he shifted. His other hand came up and covered mine, surrounding it in warmth. “I give you my word. I’ll keep you safe,” he said.

But his eyes told the truth. I swallowed around the fear and resignation that briefly blocked my throat. My voice was slightly hoarse when I spoke. “No, Jethro. No. Do your best, but if it comes down to a choice between me and Anthony–”

“It won’t.”

“It might. And if it does, leave me to Rushfeldt. Save Anthony.”

“He’ll fight me. He’ll hate me if anything happens to you.”

“He saved me once, and nearly died because of it. I won’t allow that to happen again. This time, it’s my life for his. You’ll have to make him understand that.”

“Doctor–”

“Jen, remember?”

“Jen, it won’t come to that.”

Slowly, I pulled my hand out from between his. “Just covering my bases,” I said softly.

I wondered what he was like when he used this room for its real purpose: what kind of expressions crossed his face, how he moved, what kind of rhetoric and non-verbal tricks he used on the people he talked to. I wondered what he was like when he put on a façade. Because I didn’t think he was putting one on for me, and his only reaction was a slight tightening of the muscles around his eyes. And yet, that simple narrowing told me everything I needed to. Because he knew that when I used the same words as he had earlier, I meant exactly the same thing. The words implied several courses of action. The meaning invested in them by our strength of will meant we knew it was the only course of action.

“Jen–”

I shook my head. “Take me to the gym now, Jethro. I don’t want to talk any more.”