A/N: Aloha! Revelations galore in this chapter! And we finally get somewhere with locating Tony...

Five hours later, they still had nothing – apart from the obscure message on the mirror, and the few titbits Carson had managed to extract from Murphy's manager. Gibbs sighed and took a moment to step back from the investigation and scrutinize Jay Carson. He'd never really looked at her, just given her an assessing look and jumped to the wrong conclusion of common, garden variety gun-for-hire, ignoring his own rule of never assume anything. Now, he tried to see where he'd gone wrong.

She was currently in crisis-mode, stood over a computer, spitting curses and pleas at it in equal measures and inhaling cigarettes like it was going out of fashion (which admittedly it was, no-one thought to mention that smoking was against the law in federal buildings). Her short hair had been clipped out of the way, catching the light in a shimmering blue-black like a raven's feathers, a few loose strands falling down across her face, one strand leaving a curved shadow over on of her eyes. Her eyes were a startling amber, cool and steady, and the only true indicator of her thoughts. For all her face remained impressively and relentlessly blank when questioned, her eyes gave her away. A sardonic smile might hide a flash of panic from an untrained interrogator, but not Gibbs – not anymore at least. She'd shed her jacket, and the shirt she'd obviously borrowed from Tony, leaving her in a tight, black sleeveless top that showed off her clearly visible ribs. She was obviously clinically underweight, yet alike to Tony, her diet appeared to consist of junk food. Her wrists were bony, but filled with wiry muscles, as were her arms – her upper right arm held the scars from where a tattoo had been removed by laser surgery a cross seemingly bound in chains with 'RIP' inscribed into the crossbar just underneath the scar, while a cobra ran around her left, it's head resting on her shoulder. Her upper back was covered, but when she leant down, her top rode up, and Gibbs could see the bottom of another tattoo stretching across her lower back. She was pretty, but then again, maybe pretty wasn't the right word. Her skin sported what was obviously a near permanent tan, and her face was weather beaten. He wouldn't have placed her as twenty-four, not by a long way, he would've said late twenties, early thirties, yet there was something undeniably young about her. Perhaps it was the face that her style seemed more in keeping with the current generation of teens. Gibbs could honestly say that he wouldn't be surprised if she turned up with a death metal t-shirt, a dozen piercings, tight leather pants, sporting a spiked dog collar and rings that should be declared lethal weapons.

Gibbs wanted Jay Carson to lose her cool façade. With the lawyer – Nemesis – at least you knew she was looking at you with the calculating speculation of an IA investigator who was waiting to see if you slipped up. With Jay, it was more like she was watching you waiting for the moment at which you gave her the opening she needed to end you. She kept her distance, throwing out bluntly honest observations that made most people back-off. She was the same mass of mirrors and smokescreens as Tony, only, where Tony used his to charm people (colleagues, witnesses and suspects alike), Jay used hers for the opposite purpose, to keep people away (especially, Gibbs noted clinically, men, and certain women of questionable sexuality).

There were three questions that were bugging him.

One: Who was the teen in the photo-album and the facedown frame?

Two: Who was Antonino Ginelli?

Three: What was the connection between Jay Carson, Anthony DiNozzo, the unnamed teen and Antonino Ginelli?

Oh, and four: Was the similarity between DiNozzo and Ginelli's first names a mere coincidence?

The other had all disappeared off to various corners of the building in an attempt to gain any information possible. Carson leant down, sighing sharply in frustration.

"I need a swim," she mumbled, almost inaudibly.

"We have a pool," Gibbs supplied offhand. Carson shot him a look, as if to say 'I know that'.

"Yeah, in the level below autopsy. That seems a tad perverse to me, but hey! I kill people for a living, what do I know?"

She rolled her neck and exhaled again as Gibbs took note of the almost bitter comment. Then, she grabbed her bag, jacket, and Tony's shirt.

"Where are you going?" Gibbs demanded shortly.

"For a swim," she said it as though it were the most obvious thing in the world, before sauntering out of the bullpen.

Tony had been missing for five hours, assumed in the hands of the psychopath assassin godfather O'Reilly, and Carson was going for a swim?

"She thinks best in the water," the voice behind him alerted him to the presence of Tantalus, Ducky's shadow and Jay's first port of call when she'd discovered Tony MIA (and didn't that rub Gibbs' up the wrong way).

"What?" had Gibbs spoken that last part aloud? Clearly.

"Jay, if she has a particularly difficult hit, or a problem to work out, she'll take a swim and come back with a fresh perspective and often a solution. She's not as on edge in the water either. She relaxes a bit."

Gibbs wasn't sure if this man was aware he'd just offered a way to try questioning Carson and get non-evasive answers.

"It'll help that it's near midnight."

With that, Tantalus disappeared again. It unnerved Gibbs that the two assassins just appeared and disappeared so suddenly. Not one of his remaining, un-kidnapped team really liked them (apart from perhaps Ducky), or their presence, but seeing as the only person Stateside who had any authority was Nemesis, and getting through to the mysterious Changeling organization was one of the most difficult things Gibbs had ever attempted, they were stuck with the two bodyguards. Gibbs decided to give Carson half-an-hour, then follow her down.

Jay dived into the pool and swam five lengths, coming up only briefly for air towards the end of each length. Then she settled into her strange, hybrid stroke, twisting over at the end of each length to kick off the wall. The pool was empty, but she was in the centre and swimming straight. There'd always been something therapeutic about swimming, since she was a little girl it had been her escape. Her other hobbies had been utter necessities (climbing, shooting, knife-throwing, MMA, languages, gymnastics to name a few). While swimming was useful, it was a rarely called upon skill. Truth be told, it was her escape from the macho bullshit that always invaded the hitter bases she'd grown up in. (There'd been four active women that she was aware of, only one of whom was regularly at any base when Jay was growing up). Jay had never had much weight, height had come suddenly at fourteen, and it was in the days before she'd realized the best way to win a fight against impossible odds. If you can't win, cheat – a guy's balls are often left open when they forget their opponent's a girl who is severely out-powered – if you can't cheat, run (she was faster than them and could fit in the ventilation shafts). Bruises had been common, broken bones unsurprising, and escaping to swimming pools simplistic. Then again, the moment someone had started making sexual advances towards her, they'd rapidly ended up dead. Trips to swimming pools in the middle of the night had always ended with her floating in the middle of the pool dreaming of a father who paid attention and a mother who'd actually cared enough to keep contact with her daughter. It varied whether she was face up.

Jay stopped midstroke, took a deep breath and curled under the water with only her back still on display. Normally that gave her serious pause for thought, but right now, her thoughts were a disorganized mess. Swimming was resolving nothing. She stayed curled up under water until her lungs began to ache. She could've stayed longer, but any real thoughts of causing herself harm or death had long since vanished. With an ease that spoke of much practise, she unfurled onto her back and stared at the ceiling, breathing steady, ears still immersed in the strange, peaceful, muted underwater world.

It took her thirty seconds to notice another presence in the room and she spent another minute thirty trying not to tense up and remain completely at ease in the pool as she located the interloper. He'd moved so he was parallel with her at the edge of the pool, silver grey hair impressed itself on her consciousness.

Gibbs.

She took two minutes to decide on a course of action.

"Agent Gibbs," she stated, lifting her ears above the water to hear his response.

"I was wondering when you'd acknowledge me," Gibbs commented with a vague grin. "You've been aware of me for three minutes."

Jay didn't bother to correct him. After all, it worked in her advantage if he underestimated her, even by a minute. "What d'you want?" her voice was perfectly neutral.

Gibbs didn't answer straight away, taking a moment to carefully formulate a response. "Just wanted to clear a few things up in the investigation that might help."

Ah, he was here to interrogate her. She'd go along with it. For now. "Go for it." ('Shoot' could (and would) be taken far too seriously for Jay to ever use the word in casual conversation).

"Don't you want to be out of the pool?"

"I'm fine here." Thank you very much.

Gibbs picked up on the unspoken edge to her tone and settled down next to the pool. He was silent for a while before starting off the questioning. "The teen in the photo-albums, and in the photo-frame you turned face down. Who is she?"

Difficult question straight off? Ouch. "Not even an ease in question? That's fast."

"I'm not interrogating you." (Not yet, Jay's mind added in). "I'm just asking questions which I think you know the answers to."

"She's dead. S'all you need to know."

"How'd she die?"

"Due to a hellsent, bastardly fucker of a cock-up."

"But how?"

"Not really important."

"Does the name Antonino Ginelli mean anything to you?"

"Yup."

Gibbs waited for her to elaborate. She didn't – to get the right answer, you needed the right question, she would've thought an interrogator of Gibbs' rumoured calibre would know that.

"What does the name Antonino Ginelli mean to you?" Gibbs' voice was cool, and unperturbed, almost as thought he'd expected the silence.

Jay moved to tread water, considering the best response to give to that. "To me," she stated slowly, almost pensively, drawing the words out. "To me it means you're digging up a lot of ghosts better left dead. People won't thank you for asking these questions."

Gibbs glared at her, but glares had never bothered her before – least of all when she was facing the person over three metres of water. Finally, Gibbs continued.

"So what's the connection between the four of you?" his voice sounded offhand, as though he couldn't really care less about the connection.

Jay sighed, she couldn't escape this interrogation. "We knew each other. Once upon a time, far away from here." She paused, then offered Gibbs a fatalistic smile. "Heh, back in the 'good old days'. Before Ginelli and Shan died. Before I found out that I had other options. Man I feel old…"

"Shan? Is that the girl in the photos?"

Jay didn't respond. Her sanctuary, her escape, was being used against her, and the only thing she could do about it was shut up, or redirect. She snarled. "I'm going to kill him!"

Gibbs seemed taken aback by the ferocity of the statement, and the sudden change of topic.

"And rest assured Agent Gibbs. He deserves it."

Her voice had dropped to a deadly, ice-cold whisper, nearly lost in the strange atmosphere of the pool.

Gibbs heard the whisper. This woman managed to scare him. Heck, she was still a child. Hell, Gibbs was old enough to be her father! Yet there was the fact that (to quote Jay) she was raised with a gun in her hand. He'd seen her assemble that sniper rifle in Tony's apartment in a little under one minute ten, and he was certain she could hold a single, not necessarily comfortable position, for hours. He kept watching her as she tread water silently, eyes blazing furiously.

"Well Agent Gibbs, I think it's time we got back to work," Jay smiled, her dark expression suddenly banished. "I think I have a few ideas now…a few places that he liked too much to give up…"

Gibbs saw a smirk curl around her lips.

"Sometimes I thank heaven above that he gets attached to things too easily sometimes…"

Laughter echoed around the empty hall.

"Sometimes you just need to take a break and you get sudden inspiration. Take a step back and it suddenly becomes clearer…"

Gibbs rose to his feet as Carson swam backwards towards the edge.

"I'll be up in a moment Agent Gibbs," she assured him. "I need to shower first."

Gibbs nodded and left the hall. He turned just at the door and saw Carson haul herself out of the pool, and narrowed his eyes at her back – a burnt red brand-mark and tally-mark tattoos, elaborate writing underneath the tally-marks, running to just under her bikini bottoms. He frowned at them, almost went to confront the woman, but didn't. Something told him he wouldn't get any real answers out of her even if he did. He'd confront her later.

When Jay returned to the bullpen, she could tell from how Gibbs was looking at her that something was different. Immediately, she started running back over her actions getting out of the swimming pool.

Swim backwards towards the wall as Gibbs walks away…

Watch Gibbs leave, turn around…

Wait…Watch Gibbs get to the door, turn around…

"Shit!" Jay cursed quietly.

"What?" Simon appeared behind her and was treated to a deadly glare.

Jay looked around, leant close to Simon, grabbed his collar and hauled him closer. "Let's just say you get to explain to Hades why Agent Gibbs knows who I am."

"He does…"

"No, let me rephrase. You get to explain to Hades why Agent Gibbs knows who I am."

"That was careless."

"When have I been careful when swimming Simon darling?"

"That wasn't intentional!" Simon protested quietly.

"But you did it anyway. You explain it to Hades you son of a bitch."

She turned away sharply, moving back towards Gibbs who had been watching their 'argument' with incurious eyes. "Agent Gibbs…"

The elevator went and Jay and Simon's heads both snapped to it, instincts already on high-alert telling them something was off. A man stepped out in a suit, looking like he belonged in the bullpen at first glance, but Gibbs, Jay and Simon all recognized him. Jay immediately knocked Gibbs from his feet, Simon ducking as the gun Samurai had somehow smuggled past the front desk was pulled out. Jay rolled away from Gibbs as it went off, grabbing her own gun, not her Taurus pistol, but her Beretta 9-mil, and a spare clip to slip into her pocket, taking a shot a Saumrai, knowing it was going to go wide, and hoping to scare him upwards. It succeeded, and with a smirk, Jay took off up the stairs after him, Gibbs yelling at her to come back and Simon trying to locate his own gun from wherever he'd stashed it. She hit the roof and made the mistake of running straight through the door. Samurai's arm connected with her gun hand, sending the gun skittering away across the floor. Jay dove sideways to avoid the left cross he threw at her, regrettably in the opposite direction from where her gun went. She rolled to her feet as Samurai pointed his gun at her.

Jay cursed silently – 'stupidstupidstupidgirl! You always go through doors slowly, and never with your gun arm out.'

With that thought in her mind, she threw herself at Samurai, somehow managing to avoid the bullet that undoubtedly accompanied the shot she heard – and how the hell had she managed that? Samurai wasn't the best shot in the world, but he wasn't bad. Then her mind pretty much detached and instinct took over.

They hit the roof with the second gun skidding along the roof to hit the wall around the edge as the two assassins fought furiously, punches, kicks, Jay even bit down sharply on Samurai's arm when it came in range of her mouth, Samurai had enough presence of mind to stop Jay getting a chance to reach her boot for her knife. It was just a pity, Jay's mind mumbled, barely distracted from the fight, that her nails were kept short for practicality reasons – it was impossible to scale walls if your fingers couldn't slip into shallow crevices because your nails wouldn't allow it. The door burst open, but both of them ignored it, with Samurai rolling so that he was straddling Jay, reaching down to try and gouge out one of her eyes. Without even thinking, Jay jerked her head back, moved her feet flat to the roof, and bucked her body up, throwing Samurai away and rolling back to her feet. Samurai had found himself with three guns trained on him – Simon had found his, Gibbs had made it up, and Kate had joined them, McGee still no-where to be seen.

Jay took a moment to assess the situation and then kicked out at Samurai, noting his position close to the roof-edge. He tumbled over, taken off guard by her sudden movement. Jay ignored Gibbs and Kate's infuriated cries, sauntering over to the edge and perching on it, looking down at Samurai who'd managed to grab onto a handhold.

"Hello Samurai," she smirked down at him. "How nice of you to drop by. What can we do for you?"

"Shana," the name was gritted out, Samurai clearly not happy about the sudden change of odds.

"Oh come on. You can do better than that!"

"You could give me a hand up?"

"Can't you get yourself up? Oh yeah, I forgot, you can't free climb can you?" Jay leant back laughing. "Well, you don't get something for nothing. You should know that honey."

Samurai glared at her, but she could see fear flickering behind his eyes. "What do you want Shana?"

"What do you think? Where's O'Reilly keeping Tony?"

"O'Reilly? Seriously Shan, what happened to your respect for your elders? And who in hell's name is Tony?"

Jay shot a quick look back at Gibbs, Kate and Simon. From the look Simon was giving her, he'd connected the dots – he knew what the note she'd received from O'Reilly had meant, and who it referred to, but Gibbs and Kate were still a couple of steps behind, not for long though by the looks of things.

With an imperceptible sigh, Jay returned her gaze to Samurai. "Oh c'mon. You know Tony. He had his gun pointed at your balls in Murphy's…"

"'Nino? For real? He's NCIS now?"

"Yeah. So where are they?" Jay asked with a raised eyebrow.

Samurai reeled off an address, Jay calling it back to the other three.

"Very good. Next question, security measures?"

"Aside from the half-dozen assassins?" Samurai sniped at her.

"Smart-arse. O'Reilly isn't an idiot. Assassins aren't infallible. What else?"

"Ugh, you really are a pitbull aren't you Shan?"

"Oh yeah. Answer the question before I shoot you in the foot."

"Three separate camera circuits, a dozen or so cameras on each. Heat sensors, pressure pads on all the main doors, secondary main doors with electronic locks…"

"Any geeks on site?"

"No."

"Remote connection?"

"No."

"Why're you telling me all this?"

"Because I don't want to die. Unlike some people, I'm not suicidal."

"Newsflash mate, neither am I."

Samurai snorted. "Sure coulda fooled me Shana. You're going up against Damien O'Reilly. That is the definition of suicidal. You were always insane girl. I swear you'd rile the old man up on purpose."

Jay considered ignoring the comment, before replying in a muted tone. "It was the only to get his attention. He was more focused on you and t'other one. And 'Nino and Indy enjoyed riling him up, so I just joined in." She shook her head, clearing the memories. "It's in the past anyway. I hope you understand why I'm not going to give you a hand up just yet."

She slipped away from the edge of the roof.

Samurai had to have the last word however. "What about what 'Nino's achieved huh Shana? An assassin convincing his ex-marine boss that he's nothing more than a bumbling flat-foot?"

Jay's hand clenched at her side as she saw realization flood into Gibbs' eyes.

'Sorry 'Nino,' she thought. 'I tried to stop him finding out.'

"Something you want to tell me, Shana?" Gibbs' voice was ice-cold and deadly.

Jay managed not to shudder and somehow stopped her voice trembling. "Sure. I know where Tony is, I need blueprints to figure out the best insertion and extraction."

Avoid the topic, refocus on the rescue attempt, don't let Gibbs ask questions.

Jay practically ran down the stairs to get away from Gibbs' calculating gaze.

Ooh...more drama! Next chapter: Jay and Gibbs clash about how best to rescue Tony, and Nemesis points out who has the highest clearance...