Lost Too Much

LOST TOO MUCH Chapter 16

PART 2

Leon Vance rubbed his hand over his face as he looked at the files in front of him. This latest operation for his people had been a bad one. Usually cases such as this one would have been dealt with by the DEA, but with the problem entering US Naval ships, Sarah Porter had urged him to put his own people undercover and flush the criminals out until they found the man at the top.

Four months of NCIS agents in deep cover, good men who had families waiting for them at home, had their lives placed on hold. A well known and feared Columbian crime family, the Formosa Cartel, had managed to devise an extremely complex system to cart cocaine onto their naval ships and then pushed it across the east coast of America. Their drugs were killing and depending thousands of young people, destroying not only their lives, but that of their families. There had to be people at the ports at each end as well as on board the ships. There was no doubt, their people were involved. Leon sighed, they had no choice but to risk the lives of so many of his agents for the operation to shut this cartel down.

Leon knew that they were getting close to finding the proof they needed to make the arrests. His men were tired but so far no one had been burned, a fact which he was thankful for. They all were well experienced in going deep undercover and he had personally handpicked them from offices around the country. He looked up when his team leader for his local team entered the room.

"Gibbs." He closed the files on his desk and waited for the former marine sniper to talk to him on his current case. A dead Naval Petty Officer on the USS Arlington.

"Leon, we need to talk." Gibbs sat down in the black leather chair opposite him.

Leon raised his brow in anticipation of what was on his lead's mind. He knew it was important, otherwise Gibbs' wouldn't be there wasting his time.

"This case is far bigger than a dead naval officer, Leon. We've interviewed the crew and I found one of our own men onboard undercover. Why do we have NCIS Agent Michael Nassir on board as a Master Chief Petty Officer? And some background search on some other crew members tell me that he's not the only agent onboard." Gibbs remained his gaze on his boss. He knew that there was something big going on which he dread would hamper his own investigation.

Leon sighed, as Gibbs continued to hold his ground.

"It's a need to know case, Gibbs, and I suppose you are now in that position of needed to know." Leon passed the files on his desk over to him.

"Everything you need to know about Operation Formosa."

Gibbs raised his brow at the title of the operation.

"You've got men undercover to deal with the Formosa Cartel?" Gibbs' furrowed his brow, his worry returned.

"Look, Gibbs. I know you lost a good friend when our agency last dealt with this cartel, but the DEA need our help on this. Our ships are being used to import the drugs into our borders. Too many young people are dying or have had their lives ruined from their dependance on this combination of cocaine. It's highly addictive and more lethal than any other form of cocaine that we've ever seen in this country. We need to stop this now before another family have to bury their son or daughter from this drug.

Gibbs' fear for the agents undercover in this operation grew within him. But he understood the pressure placed on the Director. Gibbs scanned the intel as he flipped over to the next page.

"This is a lot of deaths from the drug, Leon." He shook his head and realised just how serious this problem was.

"This will help us find Petty Officer 1st class, Phillip Cromwell's murderer. These are all the suspects found onboard USS Arlington?"