Mentoring – part 2

Pairings: No pairings yet, possible Tony/Jamie

Fandom: NCIS/Blue Bloods

Warnings: Character bashing

Summary: Tony heads to NY to help the NYPD out of a jam…

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It was a long night of rehashing events that the two elder men had been over many times before. It was worth it, though, for the fresh insights that Tony was giving them. There seemed to be a very small pattern. So small that it was easily missed — unless you were coming from outside the routine and looking at it for the first time.

“You only hold these large debriefs once a week, and they are always in the main conference room on Thursday mornings, right?” Tony asked, consulting all of his notes. There were papers everywhere by this point.

“Yes, yes, we’ve already told you this. Will you just do the big reveal already, DiNozzo?” Greggs grumbled. “This old man needs nap before the lunch meeting, you know.”

“You’re adorable, Greggs. Just look here,” Tony said, pointing to a calendar he had drawn up. “You always met on Thursday mornings…except one week you met on a Wednesday morning instead. And here you met on a Friday morning.” Tony indicated a few other anomalies to the meetings schedule.

“Okay, and the significance?” Frank asked.

“Every time you met on a Thursday, according to these other notes here,” Tony picked up another pile, “information was spread. A led to B. Someone who was there on Thursdays specifically is the leak you are looking for.”

Greggs and the Commissioner both grabbed the note pile of leaks again to double check Tony’s findings themselves. It was all true. Each time Frank held a security debrief in his conference room, there was a leak…but only on Thursdays.

“That room is supposed to be secure, though,” Greggs said to Frank. “How is it that someone is getting any of the information from the meeting?”

“Is there someone that only attends on that day that doesn’t attend the others?” Tony asked before Frank could answer. “How often is the room swept for listening devices? Does anyone bring a laptop in with a webcam? Do the TV screens in there have webcams? Do you have an outside tech that can check for hacking?”

“In order, no, same people each time. It’s swept before every day starts. Yes to the next two, but we cut off outside signals while the meeting is occuring.”

“But the televisions are hardwired in, sir. I think you need to get a tech in, someone who isn’t connected to the NYPD — or at least someone you know that can keep their mouth shut.” Tony sat back and waited for the Commissioner to gather his thoughts.

“Right, okay. The two of you go home and sleep. I’ll send someone to come pick you up for lunch at 11:45 at the NCIS offices. By that time I’ll have an answer about the technology, and then we can hopefully narrow down the who.”

“And my cover for being in 1PP?” Tony asked.

“I’d like you to take some potential UCs under your wing, talk to them about what it’s like. Maybe do some training.”

“Ah, okay. Mind if I see some profiles first, sir?”

“You know, that’s not a bad idea. I’ll have Detective Baker put together some files for you and you can tell me who you think would be a good fit for this new ‘pilot program’ we’re trying out.” The Commissioner had a small gleam in his eye that Tony was starting to like.

“Trying to lure me away, sir?” Tony asked, preparing himself to leave.

“Well, if the cover is pulling double-duty, who am I to argue?” Frank answered, hands in the air.

“Ah, Frank, you couldn’t pull off the innocent look when you were six years old, and you can’t do it now,” Henry said from the doorway, laughing.

The others joined him, shaking hands and saying goodnight.

~~~

By the time Greggs and Tony arrived at 1PP the next day, Tony felt like he was in a better frame of mind than the day before. He had spent the mid morning hours looking over the files that Detective Baker had sent over. Most of them would not work out, but there were a good handful of potentials that he would like to interview.

He had also spoken with Director Vance. It seemed that he had indeed received his little “gift,” and was not amused. At least this time the irritation was directed elsewhere. Vance had told him that he was setting Internal Affairs on the entire group. When Tony asked if he was sure IA wasn’t going to do Gibbs a favor, Vance informed him that the SecNav had been read in as well. Not only that, but apparently Tony would be meeting with the SecNav while in New York.

“You ready for this, Tony?” Greggs asked. They were waiting for the Commissioner right outside his office.

“Yes, I am. There are –” Tony was interrupted by the arrival of the man himself, who just waved for them to follow him in.

“Gentlemen, please have a seat. I know we only have about thirty minutes before the meeting with everyone else, so let me cut to the point.” Frank closed the door behind them and hung up his coat. “My son knows someone that could do what you asked with the televisions, and they came up this morning to get on it. You were right. Every Thursday morning they hacked in through the webcams of the televisions and recorded the security debriefs. The specialist followed the feed back to an office two floors down.”

“What is located there? I am assuming that you already went over the security feeds and found your perp?” Greggs asked.

Frank nodded, settling in behind his desk. “We did, yes. He is being watched at the moment as Intelligence is combing through his life, looking for anything we need to know. Contacts, partners, clients, anything.”

“And your people? Are you pulling them in like we planned?” Greggs asked.

“Yes, everything is going to happen at the same time.”

“When are you going to make the arrest?”

Tony interjected here, “You’re going to do it while we’re all at lunch, aren’t you? You want to be far away and keep it quiet so no one knows there was a leak in the first place.”

Frank just smiled and changed the topic. “Tell me something, DiNozzo, after reading your file, there was one thing I kept wondering.”

“I can’t promise I’ll answer, but ask away.”

“You have been at NCIS for quite some time. Someone of your experience, education — why aren’t you leading your own team?”

“Ah, well, that would take way longer than the time we have, sir. Suffice it to say, it’s a mixture of misplaced loyalty — on my part — some issues in the DC office, and a bad case of trust issues.”

“Huh. Well, you answered the question while at the same time telling me nothing much at all. Nice job.” At Tony’s quick smile, he added, “We’ll continue this at a later date, I’m sure.”

Greggs just smiled as he followed the two of them into the conference room next door.

~~~

There were two extra people in Frank’s office when he returned. “Jamie, Danny, meet Special Agent Tony DiNozzo and Supervisory Special Agent Michael Greggs from NCIS. Tony here is going to be helping out with a new program.”

“Oh, yeah?” Danny asked, shaking hands with everyone. “What kind of program?”

“I’ll be training some potential new UCs, finding them some mentors to match with,” Tony explained. “When I am not busy with that, I’ll be over the NCIS offices working cold cases.”

“Can’t have him on actives while I’m loaning him out to your old man,” Greggs put in, flashing a smile at Danny. Tony understood where he was coming from, so didn’t take any offense.

“Jaime here did a small undercover gig when he first started out. He –” Jamie cut Danny off before he could get going.

“Enough, Danny, it doesn’t matter.”

“You aren’t interested in undercover work?” Tony asked.

“Ah, not as such. I enjoyed what I did at the time, but not really long term, you know? I’m more interested in being on the street and then working my way to detective someday.”

“Smart,” agreed Tony, turning to say something to Greggs, but was cut off by Danny.

“What do you mean, smart? Going undercover is a guaranteed shortcut up the ladder for Jamie.”

“Really, Detective? Do you normally advise permanent undercover work for members of families that are constantly in the spotlight? Or for officers who have already voiced that it doesn’t match with their career track goals?”

“Danny, enough. Leave Jamie be and stop pushing the Agent’s buttons just because he’s the new guy in the room,” their father remonstrated.

“Tony, if you give the pile the potentials to Baker on the way out, she’ll have them here tomorrow for interviews.”

“Can we set the interviews up in a different place? Is there an empty storefront or classroom or something I can use for it? I need to see how they react to different situations, their raw improv skills. Also, be able to see them without them seeing me for a few moments.” Tony wrote in a notebook and didn’t pay attention to reactions around him. “Just something you’ve used before, maybe a staging area for a past op or and old office I can convert with stuff that is laying around.”

“Can I help with this?” Jamie asked. “I’m really curious about how this will play out.”

“Ah, yeah, if the Commissioner is good with it. I could use another body for this part of the program.” They both looked at the man in charge for the final say.

Frank gave it a moment and then, “Yes, this should work. There’s an old boutique that we used some time ago for a sting. I think it’s still empty. It’s inside an empty office building we own. You and Jaime can use the store for that. Jaime is supposed to be on desk duty for the next three weeks anyway due to injury, so this works out well.”

“Right, let’s see if you can keep him out of trouble,” Danny mumbled.

“I’m not sure if you’re speaking to him or me,” Tony shot back.

They all left the meeting in good spirits, which was Tony’s goal.