Gibbs pressed down on the gas pedal, coaxing Sam Wilson's old car over eighty miles an hour on the interstate heading north. There weren't many cars on the highway, this late at night, although that didn't stop Rogers from looking a bit uncomfortable in the passenger seat. McGee was curled up in the back, asleep with Wilson's laptop clasped to his chest.

The Air Force veteran had willingly lent them his computer and his car for the drive to Camp Lehigh, located in Wheaton, New Jersey. With DiNozzo running point, he, Wilson, Kate, and Bishop would steal the EX0-Falcon suit from Fort Meade. The other three would investigate Camp Lehigh, following up on Heimdall's advice.

They were getting close to the camp, and would be there shortly after the sun rose. Gibbs wondered what they would find there, and what it was McGee would have to do. All three of them had guessed it would have something to do with a computer – hence, why they had requested to borrow Wilson's, since they had left McGee's back on Ghost Street with Jane Foster and Agent Torres.

As the sun was beginning to rise, they crossed the New Jersey border. McGee woke up within twenty miles of Camp Lehigh, rubbing his bleary eyes and yawning.

"We're almost there," Rogers told him. "Right?"

Gibbs gave a brief nod.

When they reached the Wheaton exit, Gibbs pulled over to get gas and Rogers and McGee ran into the gas station to buy some coffee and breakfast. Gibbs filled the gas tank as they came back out, with a tray of three black coffees, a handful of sugar packets and half-and-half creamers, and some breakfast sandwiches wrapped in tinfoil.

"Not much further," Gibbs said quietly, as they climbed back into the car and left the gas station. He took a long sip of his black coffee.

It didn't take them much longer before they pulled into the abandoned Army base of Camp Lehigh. They stepped out of the car, Gibbs resting his hand on his holstered pistol as they approached the installation.

"When were you last here?" McGee asked Rogers in a low voice.

"1943," Rogers answered, his expression pensive. "Project Rebirth."

The base was deserted, grass overgrown in the training area. The two agents and the Avenger entered through the gate after Gibbs picked the lock, gazing around at Camp Lehigh.

"What are we looking for?" McGee queried.

"Anything out of place," Gibbs stated, easing his gun out of its holster.

"Army regulations forbid storing munitions within five hundred yards of the barracks," Rogers stated, pointing to a lone building. "That's where we look."

They entered the building, the lights flickering on and showcasing the SHIELD logo on the far wall. Gibbs raised his pistol, glancing around to make sure they were alone as McGee gripped Wilson's laptop tightly. Several portraits hung along one wall.

"Stark's father," Rogers said quietly, nodding to one. His gaze saddened as it fell on the picture next to it, one of a woman with short dark hair.

Gibbs saw recognition flash across McGee's eyes before his gaze flickered to Rogers, but the computer geek didn't say anything. He himself remembered the woman, Peggy Carter, who had come to Stillwater several times to speak with his father, Jackson Gibbs, when he was still a kid.

She had even been at his mother's funeral, standing behind everybody else in a black dress, her gaze downcast and distant, her expression sorrowful but not because of Gibbs' mother.

Rogers moved away from the portraits, continuing over to a wall of empty bookcases. "If you're already working in a secret office," he remarked, grabbing one of the bookcases and shoving it over, gritting his teeth at the exertion as the elevator behind the secret panel was revealed. "Why would you need to hide the elevator?"

"And behind a bookcase, too," McGee said, his eyes widening. "That seems a tad cliché. Where does it go?"

"Let's find out," Gibbs said as the three of them stepped onto the elevator.

****

It took McGee several minutes to figure out the code for the elevator, using fingerprint dust from his NCIS backpack. Then he punched in the code and the elevator descended, the doors sliding back several minutes later to reveal a dark room.

Like before, the lights flickered on as they moved forward, triggered by the motion. It revealed a bank of old computer monitors at the far end of the chamber, with one chair sitting before seven of the screens. Rows of databanks faded into the darkness on the periphery of the room, all covered in dust and holding old rolls of tape, all filled with information for the computers to employ.

McGee's face lit up. "This must be what Heimdall was talking about," he breathed. Setting Wilson's computer down beside a new USB terminal, he examined the old technology. "This has got to hold SHIELD data. I mean, look at where we are."

"Or HYDRA," Rogers suggested. "Since it was hiding in plain sight. Isn't that what they've been doing, all this time?"

McGee bent over the keyboard, his fingers moving over the keys as he initiated the system. Rogers and Gibbs watched as the green letters scrolled across the screen before vanishing completely. "What happened?" Gibbs asked.

"The system should be booting up," McGee said with a frown. "Give it a moment. This is really old stuff, like from the '70's. It's a wonder it can still work."

The black screen lit up again, green vertical lines fuzzing across the screen. McGee furrowed his brow. "What the...?"

"Agent Timothy McGee," an old, accented voice declared, static edging the words. "Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs. Captain Steven Rogers. Welcome to my abode."

"Is the computer talking?" Rogers asked.

"I am not just a computer, Captain Rogers," the voice stated. "I am the body of HYDRA, which refuses to die." The green lines formed a face. "I am Arnim Zola."

Gibbs looked at McGee. "Go on, do your thing."

McGee looked down at the keyboard and tapped in two letters.

ls

A list of files appeared on the screen, replacing Zola's grainy face, and the three of them scanned through them. The sheer volume was overwhelming; thousands of documents and programs existed on this computer system.

"I am quite aware of your computer expertise, Agent McGee," Zola said. "It is amusing, that you think you can outsmart me at my own game."

"I don't have to outsmart you," McGee murmured. "I just need to know the commands." Exhaling, he closed his eyes for a moment, visualizing what file he needed to pull up. There wasn't time to comb through everything, so he needed to drastically narrow his search.

Project Insight? Too obvious. Operation Blackout? Again, too obvious. No, it will be something else.

McGee grinned and began to type in the command.

cd Keres

The files belonging to the directory labeled Keres appeared on the screen, and McGee's grin widened. Search narrowed. Now to find what he needed.

ls

A list of files belonging under the heading Keres showed up, McGee, Gibbs, and Rogers scanning through them as Zola droned on about HYDRA. A file with the name Target caught McGee's attention, and he requested the system to load it.

Something about this is too easy.

A complex code ran across the screen, too fast for McGee to see most of it. "I see you have found my algorithm, Agent McGee," Zola stated, sounding smug.

McGee stuck a USB drive into the port and initiated download. With a name like Target, it can't be good. "What does it do?" Rogers asked.

"I don't think I'll tell you," Zola replied serenely.

McGee glanced up at the smug face on the screen, a bad feeling forming in his stomach, and quickly started typing in commands.

access recent commands

A short list pulled up, several of which were McGee's typed commands, and the rest being internally given – one of which was a brief data file sent to DC. McGee knew instantly it had gone to the Triskelion.

cd memory

McGee scanned through the directory, opening the most recent file, saved from several moments ago. He read through the file, a brief transcript of the events which had just transpired, but it did contain mention of an incoming missile. Zola was ordered to stall them.

That's why everything was so easy.

"We have to get out of here," he said, glancing at Gibbs and Rogers. "Now. There's a missile coming."

Rogers turned, moving quickly to the grate centered over the floor and tearing it off as Zola began to gloat about their shared impending doom. Gibbs grabbed McGee, who had his USB drive and Wilson's laptop, and the three of them jumped into the hole, Rogers covering them with his shield just as Zola's voice was tuned out by the sound of the missile hitting.

McGee couldn't hear a thing after the initial sound of the explosion. Am I dead? Then he felt blood, trickling down his face. No, I must be alive. Otherwise, I couldn't feel.

Opening his eyes, he saw nothing but dust. Then he saw two figures, moving beside him. His arms were grabbed and he was pulled out of the hole they had taken shelter in. Coughing, he wiped at his face as he staggered and glanced around at the hell they had emerged in.

He barely recognized the base they had entered not even an hour ago. The building they had been in was nothing but rubble now. McGee gazed around and saw aircraft approaching.

Then Gibbs grabbed his arm and yanked him forward, the three dodging into the wreckage and away from the seeking eyes of SHIELD.

****

"Well, that was fun," DiNozzo commented, glancing over at Wilson. "But we got the EX0-Falcon suit, thanks to Bishop's knowledge of Fort Meade."

Bishop shrugged. "I did use to work there."

"Now what?" Wilson asked. "We just wait for the captain's orders?"

"Gibbs' orders," Kate corrected him. "And no. We head back to Ghost Street, rendezvous with Agent Torres and Jane Foster."

"That's where we're heading now," DiNozzo said, glancing in the rearview mirror. Both Kate and Bishop were in the backseat. It was so strange, for Kate to be back there. It was almost like old times, except for the part where she was supposed to be dead.

During the drive to Ghost Street, Wilson was brought up to date on Project Insight and Operation Blackout. Kate told them about her end of it, information neither DiNozzo nor Bishop had heard before concerning the super-agent program and her own time with INTEL and HYDRA. Once they finished, there was silence for a bit.

"I'd catch you up on my side of things, but I doubt you want to hear about a bunch of veteran meetings and early morning runs," Wilson said. "You guys have by far had the more exciting story. It's like something out of a movie."

"Enemy of the State, am I right?" DiNozzo asked.

When they reached their hideout, DiNozzo parked in an alley a block away from the building and they carefully made their way to the place, slipping inside and creeping upstairs. After calling softly up to Torres to warn him of their approach, DiNozzo stepped off the staircase and immediately noticed the Russian redhead sitting by the window.

"Romanoff," he stated, surprised. "What are you doing here?"

"Getting away from SHIELD," Romanoff stated. "Miss me, Tony?"

Kate, who had come in behind him, arched an eyebrow at him. "Really, Tony? Her?" She laughed and brushed past him. "You haven't changed a bit."

DiNozzo wanted to retort, to declare that in fact she wouldn't believe how much he had changed, like he didn't believe how much she had, but bit his tongue. There was no way to tell her that, for there was almost ten years of change to go over. There was no time for that, and no way she would simply believe him.

Besides, some of those changes hurt.

Like your death, Kate.

Wilson was introduced to the group – he and Romanoff recognized each other from some brief encounter they'd had before – and they updated each other on their activities. The death of Frigga, Loki and Thor's revenge quest against the Dark Elves, the portal leading to Asgard and the subsequent fight with the enhanced, and Gibbs, Rogers, and McGee going on a mission to Camp Lehigh were recounted, and Jane and Torres brought them up to speed on the dark matter readings and their search for the SHIELD lab.

"We've narrowed down its location," Jane finished. "It's a block away, probably in the basement of another abandoned building. We were just going over our plan when you arrived."

"What's the plan?" Bishop asked.

"We scout it out," Romanoff said. "See what they're doing there. Everything SHIELD has their fingers in is suspect now."

"Like the Avengers?" Kate asked, lifting an eyebrow.

"That was Fury," Romanoff spat. "SHIELD scrapped the project, Fury's the one that brought it out again."

"Doesn't mean it was good," Kate returned smoothly. The corner of her mouth lifted into a grin, for she could see she was getting under the Russian agent's skin.

"Fury also instigated Loki's transfer to NCIS," Romanoff retorted. "Does that mean Loki is now not to be trusted?"

"You act like I would care," Kate said. "When I don't."

"Hey!" Bishop exclaimed, glaring at Romanoff. "I trust him far more than I trust you."

"You didn't trust Loki to begin with," DiNozzo pointed out, glancing at the Russian agent. "Besides, if that's the case, then you should be suspected, as a SHIELD recruit, and so should Bishop and I, and the captain, and McGee, and Jane, and Torres, not to mention whoever else has had a passing connection with the agency. Let's not take this too far. We know we can trust the people in this room, and a couple people outside of it. Whether the Avengers, as an initiative, can be trusted or not is a problem for later. Right now, the problem is HYDRA."

There was silence for a moment before Wilson spoke up. "So, what's the deal with this lab?"

"It's studying the gravitational anomalies here," Torres told him. "That's all I know. We now suspect they are also studying dark matter, according to Jane's data. What else, we don't know."

"Is it important we know what they're studying?" Wilson inquired.

"Considering that Ghost Street has seemed to become central to this case, yes," Jane said. "If they've found a way to harness the portals between the realms...we'd want to know that."

Wilson nodded. "Okay, then. What's this plan you've been talking about, then?"

/**/

Just a head's up, there may not be updates next weekend because I'm going to be moving into my new apartment and so I will be very busy with that. I haven't decided whether or not the updates will simply be late or if they'll just be moved until the following weekend.