*Rolls Eyes*
Chapter Two: Forbidden Fruit.
14x20: A Bowl of Cherries

*Trigger Warning*

It was the precious time, to test out every agents shooting which was perfect cause Isana didn't have to take her qualifications test alone, not that she minded it's just she really liked company, was always like this mauve she was born this way, but she liked hosting events and having people over. Everyone was in a line, Clayton was at the End, Isana was in the middle of Gibbs and Mcgee.

She had gotten everyone's phone numbers and had been getting along great with everyone except for Nick Torres. He was arrogant, felt like he knew best and was better than everyone else. Which she didn't like.

It didn't help that every chance they got Gibbs paired them up together. Maybe he knew how much they hated each other constantly bickering, it wasn't her fault that he truly rubbed her the wrong way.

Maybe that night that Bishop played that video weeks ago was just all in her head, maybe it was the song, but there was no way in hell she could feel desire for someone like Torres in life. She didn't have a type, she dated men and women, just as long as they made her happy, but she didn't like selfish people, she was far from it, she volunteered at animal shelters and to read books and hang out with Elder people. Whatever she could do in her free time was spent about herself. She hated him with a burning passion and nothing or no one would change her mind about it.

"Boss, where's your SIG?" Mcgee asks as Everyone was walking to look at their targets.

" Old Corps, McGee. Going back to my roots."

"That your old .45?" Isana asks as they make their way down the field.

"That's my dad's Colt. 1911. I grew up shooting it. Reliable. Packs a punch. I don't know. It just feels right."

They make it to their Targets as everyone looks at theirs Isana had all five rounds in the chest and the other five in the head. In a perfect circular shape, she smirks proudly as Bishop patts her on the back.

"Who knew Probie could shoot?" Bishop jokes as Isana laughs.

"I learned from the best. She walks over to the others who are staring at Gibbs's target which looks exactly like Isana's.

A petty officer walks up to the group. "Special Agent McGee."

" Yes?"

" Lieutenant Downey. Aide to Vice Admiral Chase."

" He okay?"Gibbs asks.

" He needs to see Agent McGee right away."

" Sure." Mcgee says as he and the petty officer walk off.

The rest of the team starts heading back up the field. Torres was standing on one side of Gibbs while Isana was on the other.

" Hey, Gibbs. Where's Quinn?" This was a mandatory re-qual."

" Worry about yourself, Torres. And your aim." Gibbs fires back as Isana laughs. Torres of course sends her a glare.

//

Back in the bullpen Clayton was looking over everyone's range scores at Isana's desk

"Impressive range score, Ellie. Only three points behind Gibbs and Izzie."

" Really? Hmm. I didn't notice." Bishop acts bashful as Isana laughs, before nudging Clayton.

" Yeah, Ellie's a deadeye. Glad she's on our side." The elevator dings and Quinn walks out.

" Ah, there she is."  Clayton unbuttons his Jacket.

" Morning."

"Hiya! Q" Isana replies as Quinn smiles at her walking towards her desk.

" Hey, Quinn, you missed a serious gunplay this morning." Torres mutters as Isana rolls her eyes nudging Clayton again,

"Out of my chair or I will sit on you." She gives him her usual intimidating lip purse and brow arch.

"You act like I would hate that." he jokes as she starts hitting him with the file in her hand, he just chuckles getting up from the chair. Mcgee walks in with a humph putting his satchel down.

"Oh. Okay. You won't believe what that was about."

" The admiral asked you to track down the computer hacker who infected his laptop with ransomware?" Bishop speaks up as Mcgee's eyes bulge out of his head, Isana laughs.

"Yeah, he called Vance after you left. Gibbs is up there right now." Isana explains.

" This guy won't let up."

" Where's his laptop?" Bishop asks

" I didn't take it. I told him there's nothing I could do."

" You did the right thing, McGee." Gibbs appears in the bullpen walking to his desk.

" Thank you, boss."

" Quinn." Gibbs whispers to her and they talk for a second before he goes back to his desk.

Mcgee's phone rings and he pulls it out of his pocket. "Oh, the admiral. Looks like he finally came to his senses."

"The Elliott Virus has encrypted your device with an unbreakable" a computerized voice is heard.

"No, no. No, no, no, no, no."

" Wait, what just happened?"

" Is that?" Bishop speaks up.

"Wait. Everyone, listen up. Get off your Wi-Fis. We're all connected on the same network. If I got infected" before he could finish the same voice was heard everywhere on everyone's devices."We all got hacked."

Everyone's phone and Bishop's computer got confiscated and taken upstairs with Mcgee and Gibbs while everyone was downstairs, while the group talked.

//

"Its just so weird without cell phones."  Quinn says as everyone was sitting around waiting for Mcgee and Gibbs.

"Yeah, and no laptop."

'Well, the desktops still work. They're hardwired to a different network." Nick mutters as Isana just rolls her eyes from her desk.

" Burn phones, till we get our new smartphones tomorrow." Mvgee come down the stairs handing everyone flip phones

" Seriously?"

" This takes me back to my undercover days." Torres keeps flipping his phone open and closed.

"I mean," Bishop scoffs. "What do you even do with these things?"

" Call people." Gibbs mutters from his desk.

" Boss?" Mcgee holds up a flip phone.

" No, I'm good. Hack-proof." He flips open his phone. "Flip phone." before tossing it up in the air it lands on his desk with a thud." What do we know about ransomware?"

"Well, this is a screen- grab of the Elliott virus. It's not on anyone's radar, so it's new." 

" I'm trying to trace the I.P. address, but the hacker has hopped through multiple proxies, all located in Russia." Quinn speaks up.

" Also, Gibbs, MI6 has a guy in Moscow who specializes in counter-cyberterrorism. Say the word, and I can get him in MTAC."  Isana says as Clayton nods. Gibbs gives her his signature look as she gets everything set up in MTAC.

" 75% of all ransomware originates in Russia. It's a source of national pride."

" Special Agent Gibbs and McGee, MI6 Intel Officer Ian Lipovetskiy."

" I call it, um, the Russian invasion." Ian chuckles. "They penetrate your borders without ever leaving the comfort of their gulag."

" Do you recognize the virus, Officer?"  Gibbs asks.

" No. Never seen it before. But I think that your hacker is from your side of the pond."

" An American? Why?"

" The warning voice is computer-generated, so why does it have a Russian accent?"

" That's pretty thin evidence." Mcgee chirps,

" Well, I have more. The, uh, the ransom page itself, it doesn't have any typos. The Russian hackers' demands tend to be full of misspellings or improper syntax, but this is grammatically perfect."

" What do you suggest?" Gibbs asks.

" Well, my counterpart, Clint Asher, who works for your government, operates out of Langley. If he can't help you, no one can."

//

Of course everyone was assigned to their different places, Mcgee and Isana were partnered up and downstairs trying to locate Clint Asher the specialist that Ian suggested. He ran off after Bishop and Clayton went to interrogate him. They were looking for anything traffic cams around his office and home.

"We found Clint Asher."

" Where?"

" Well, we-we found his car." Isana speaks up.

" Traffic cams?"

" Nope. Satellite radio."

" All right. I think we have everything. Thank you."  Mcgee hangs up his phone.

" I don't follow."

"Well, Asher's Toyota has satellite radio. Pays a recurring monthly fee for it. We got the serial number to the radio control unit in his car, and the satellite company was able to locate the transmitter." Mcgee explains.

" Satellite radios have transmitters?:

"Some do, to record proprietary information, yeah."

" Okay, got it. Off Highway 224, south of Marbury, Maryland. The car has been there since 7:27 this morning."

"- Go, McGee. Take Bishop."

" All right, Abby, send me the coordinates." Mcgee heads for the door.

" Um, McGee, your phone doesn't do GPS."

" Oh, right. So..."

" A map, McGee. Remember maps?"

" Maps, right." Mcgee nods, walking out.

" Where was Asher's car before this?" Gibbs asks as the trio turn to the screen.

" Annandale, Virginia. Stayed there overnight."

" That a hotel?"

" Industrial area. Uh, looks like some kind of self-storage facility. The car arrived there just after 9:00 last night, and didn't move again until 6:46 this morning." Abby explains simply as Gibbs walks out Isana follows.

//

Of course Gibbs took Isana and Torres with him to check out the other location, which was a self storage location, the clerk at the front desk was a guy around Gibbs's age it took him twenty five minutes to find his glasses, and another ten to get the leasing logs up.

" Nope. And nope. No unit has been rented to a Clint Asher. Or an Asher Clint, for that matter. So I'm-I'm sorry, I can't help you guys."

"Noticed you have security cameras at your front gate." Gibbs says as he scoffs.

" Oh, God." he puts his head down as Gibbs and Isana smirk, he starts pecking at the keys on the computer which was annoying the hell out of Torres only to amuse Isana more. They walk around the desk and she helps him figure out the computer a bit. She was patient which didn't go unnoticed by Nick, he liked seeing her help the older clerk Buzz. even if they didn't get along.

" Last night, 9:02 p.m.  What kind of car is it you guys are looking for?"

" Toyota Camry. Blue." Torres speaks up.

" Well, that's pretty common. Uh, are you sure I should even be showing you this?"

"There." Isana points to the screen.

"Yeah. License plate matches. That's him."

" Who's in the passenger seat?" Gibbs leans forward squinting at the screen.

"I can't make him out."

"We good?"

" No. We stay here and watch that car leave." Gibbs hits Buzz in the back. " 6:46 this morning."

"Here it is. Blue Camry. But it's just the driver. Where's the other guy?"

" Which storage unit did they access?"

" The cameras are only on the gates." Buzz explains as Gibbs sighs irritatedly.

" Buzz, that is not what he's asking."

" Oh, I get it. See, you get to ask all the questions, Buzz gets to do all the work. (sighs) The gate code corresponds to the storage unit. So that's 217."

" Who rents that unit?" Gibbs asks.

" Uh.." Buzz flaps his hands around in a confused manner.

"You know what? I got it. You've done enough." Torres walks over to the filing cabinet looking through the files. " Boom. All right, Unit 217 rented to David Yates. I'm gonna take a picture of this." He pulls out his phone, flipping it open. Before looking between the file and phone." I'm taking this."

" Fine. Did you boys and Lady get what you need?"

"No, not yet." Gibbs takes some bolt cutters off the wall as Buzz sighs showing the trio where the unit is of course when they open it, its empty. Buzz starts laughing as a phone rings Torres pulls out his.

"Hello. Hello!" He looks at the phone, raising it in the air to try and get a better cell signal.

"Hello, Bishop. We didn't find anything."

"Put your phone away. Leo's is the one that is ringing." she nods towards Gibbs who is on the phone with Bishop.

"Leo? Huh?"

"I'm special."

"I know." Nick sasses as Isana rolls her eyes and Gibbs hangs up the phone going back to the car.

//

The drive to where Bishop and Mcgee were was long, it takes twenty minutes to get anywhere in that town, and that's part of the reason why Isana hated driving. She would rather walk everywhere but she couldn't walk on the highway.

"Asher's Camry. Looks like someone dumped it."  Bishop explains as everyone looks at the car, it had just been pulled from the water. Isana was adjusting her hair in the ponytail, she had  gotten into the gear, Ncis jacket and hat in the car, except she wasnt wearing that hat.

Gibbs opens the door as water comes gushing out he takes some gloves and starts feeling around for a lever to open the trunk. Isana comes around to help.

" Hey, guys, what is that?" Torres points to the back of the trunk where a white cloud is coming from.

"That steam?"

" That open the trunk?" Gibbs is feeling for leavers as Isana batt shim out of the way.

" No."

Bishop just shoots down that Idea handing Tim a crowbar.

" All right. Ready?" He pulls gloves from his pocket pulling the truck open, they grimace at the sight of Clint Asher, covered in Ice.

"Whoa. Why's he look like that?"

" He's frozen solid." Isana speaks up as everyone just looks at him in the trunk.

//

" Any more on victim Asher?"  Gibbs walks back into the bullpen from the lab where Abby, Mcgee and Bishop were just working. Torres, Isana, and Quinn were all working to find out more about Asher.

" Uh, yes, we have his college transcripts unsealed and we know why he was kicked out." Quinn holds up a paper.

" He wrote a ransomware virus and sent it to his friends."

" Yeah, he said it was a joke, but his dorm mates didn't think it was very funny, though." Isana speaks up leaning against her desk, her foot touches Torres's and she moves it back immediately.

" The dorm name: Elliott Hall."

" Wait, Asher created the Elliott Virus?" Gibbs looks up from his computer.

" Ten years ago, and after that, he went on the straight and narrow and went after guys that he used to be. His own virus then came out and he wound up killed."

" Who and why?" The room grows silent, no one having the answer. "What do we know about the guy who rents the empty storage unit?"

" Oh, it sorry. Hello." Quinn's phone rings.

"Paperwork says David Yates. Address puts him in the middle of Potomac. Phone number is fake, too. E-mail's bouncing back."

" David Yates is an alias."

" Anybody who read this rental app could see that, including the storage unit manager." Torres speaks up.

"Don't blame Buzz, he has glaucoma in one eye." Isana mutters as Gibbs walks over to his desk pulling out his gun.

" Come on, Torres, Iz, you're with me. Quinn."

" Um, uh, Mom."

"Yeah. Do what you got to do." Gibbs mutters as the trio walks to the elevator.

//

" I told you, I don't know who he is."

" That's the wrong answer, Buzz."

" I don't know every renter. I've got 260 units." Buzz says as Torres groans.

"Buzz, are you sure you dont remember David Yates?" Isana was trying a more calmer approach.

"Yes!" he sasses

"Well, we have a warrant that says we can open each and every one of them." Torres opens and closes the bolt cutters as Isana kisses her teeth at him.

Buzz stammers. "You can't do that. No. Hey. He can't do that." He points to Torres who is half way out the door.

" This roast beef?" Gibbs is fiddling with what is supposed to a be a roast beef sandwich on Buzz's desk but looks more like bologna

"Oh, come on, man."

" Okay, Buzz, so here's the deal. We're on a deadline, which means we don't have time to arrest you, transport you back to NCIS and interrogate you. Tell us what you know." Gibbs is now in Buzz's face.

" The guy on your surveillance video-- we found him dead in a lake."

" Did Yates do that? Uh, look, all right, I'm gonna be honest with you. Yates has a second unit, off the books. He pays me in cash, and then he tips me not to say anything to anyone. But I swear on my mother's grave that I don't know what's in there." Buzz explains as Isana sighs.

"Buzz... you're better than this."

They got the unit as Torres uses the bolt cutter to get inside. It opens and they see all of  this expensive equipment.

" Whoa. What is this guy? Dr. Jekyll?" the trio step further into the unit looking around.

" It's a homemade cryosauna. And not for pleasure." Isana speaks up pointing at the tube with a lock on it.

" Hey, Nick.Iz, Ether. Not the pleasure kind, either."  they look around more.

"Gibbs. Isana." They turn to see what Nick was looking at. They see inside the small peephole of the chamber there are two frozen bodies.

//

Clay was sitting in Isana's chair in the bullpen, she sent him a look as he smirks.

" Special Agent McGee." Vice Admiral enters the bullpen with vance.

"Vice Admiral Chase."

" How's the case going?"

" Uh, well, it's taken a sharp left turn."

"Yeah, we are way past hacking." Torres speaks up leaning against Isana's desk their legs rubbing up against one another's; she just looks at him as he smirks and she steps over a bit, leaving some distance between them.

" The vice admiral's well aware; I've kept him up to speed. Mm. He's actually here for another reason." 

" Yes, well, um I want to apologize. I let ego and obstinance get in the way of logic. Those photos are too important to stand on principle. I'd like to pay the ransom. For myself and all who I infected. Here." he hands his laptop to Mcgee.

"Oh. Thank you for the apology, Admiral, but I wouldn't pay just yet. We still have 90 minutes left." Mcgee smiles as Gibb enters the bullpen.

" Did we I.D. the bodies?"

"Two homeless men disappeared separately more than a year ago." Clayton stands up from Isana's chair.

" Any connection to Clint Asher?"

" No. Or with ransomware."  clayton continues

"There's more. Asher wasn't the only one kicked out of college for the ransomware prank. His roommate was expelled, too. Together they created the Elliott Virus. Carlo Hackett. Human developmental biology major."

" He wrote a science fiction blog, and his senior thesis was on cryogenics. Carlo went on to become a lab tech. Worked in a blood bank until he was fired six months ago for theft." Isana continues.

" Liquid nitrogen?"

" He needed a constant supply."

" And Cryoenergy Day Spa became the new source. He cut a deal with the manager to buy the extra canisters." Mcgee says.

" Liquid nitrogen's expensive, so he dug out the ransomware virus him and Clint Asher created in college."

" Carlo Hackett and David Yates are the same guy?"

" I hooked up Buzz with a sketch artist to draw Yates. Here's what we got." Torres types on Isana's computer and she kisses her teeth at him. He pulls up a sketch that looks exactly like Carlo.

"Let's go get him." Clayton says happily.

" No. He's coming to us." Gibbs explains as they head back to the storage unit, Carlo sees that it's been broken into and opens it, seeing Gibbs and Mcgee inside.

" Hello, Carlo." he tries to run only to be stopped by Nick, Clayton and Isana.

"Freeze." Nick chuckles. " See what I did there?Freeze."

"Clever." Clayton mutters as he and Isana roll their eyes.

"Hey, boss, Clint Asher logged on last night. Looks like his last act was to try and shut down the virus." Torres shoves Carlo into the storage unit.

" He's gonna finish what he started."

" Mr. Hackett, password, please." Mcgee turns to Carlo.

" And if I refuse?"

" A shower. A cold one" Gibbs mutters as Carlo types a few keystrokes. The computer trills. And McGee sits down.

"That's it?"

" That's it." Mcgee says simply as Isana holsters her weapon. She scoops up Carlo by his shirt. Cuffing him as Everyone watches.

The woman may be small but she could hold her own. In the end everything worked out Carlos got put in jail and Isana still hated Torre's' guts especially after she told everyone about the photo she had on her desktop. Which she thought was adorable, it was her and Mitjo, their faces squished together, the dog looked unphased by his owner's behavior while Isana on the other hand had a shit eating grin while her cheeks were pressed against Mitjo's face.Truth be told he waited til everyone left and sent that photo to himself erasing the evidence that it ever happened.

Word count: 3500