Chapter 7: INFORMATION HIGHWAY
It is about 3am and Ziva and Tony are at their desks tony is playing tetris on his phone and Ziva is looking through files of various suspects.
"There is nothing here tony!" Ziva says throwing down the file onto a larger pile spread out on her desk.
"Its 3am ziva no one's here you can take a break you know." Tony says relaxed
"Is that right Dinozzo?" Gibbs says from behind Tony
Tony jumps to his feet looking shocked and tenses his neck waiting for Gibbs to slap the back of his head.
"Im not going to smack ur head Dinozzo" Gibbs says
"Your not boss?" Tony asks smiling and relieved
Just as he says that he gets a swift smack to the back of the head his face changing expression immediately as Ziva smiles at him obviously amused.
"Abby needs us in her lab she has found something!" Gibbs informs them.
Ziva and Tony follow Gibbs to the elevator and down to the lab.
As they enter the lab they see Abby staring into the other side of the lab where McGee and Emma are working on a computer program and are
laughing and looking quite close.
"What have you got for us Abs?" Gibbs asks
"I found out what the green dicolouration sample was on the victim's mouth that Ducky gave me" Abby says angrily
"it is from something called a red tide"
"Something wrong Abby?" Gibbs asks unamused at the tone.
"You know Gibbs they have been like that for over and hour and i.." Abby says upset
"Abby!" Gibbs barks
"Sorry Gibbs" She says
The elevator dings and Veron and Smith enter the lab holding a memory stick in an evidence bag.
"Gibbs we have something you might want to see" Veron says
"What is it?" Gibbs asks
"We found this while looking through the items in that abandoned house at the crime scene, seems a little expensive to be left in an
abandoned house don't you think?" Smith says
Veron looks through the glass in the lab to see Emma and McGee laughing and workingon the computer, he is not looking amused.
"Emma! here, now!" he shouts
Emma stops laughing and looks up over the computer screen at her boss.
"Yes boss!" she says
Emma walks up to her boss and he gives her a death stare Gibbs would be proud of.
"Don't you ever ignore me when there is an important case we need to solve!" he snapps
"I'm so sorry boss!" she says directly
"I did not bring you here to pick up men!" he informs her
The whole team fall silent as Veron belittles his younger team member.
"Is he always like this?" Ziva whispers to Victoria
"Only when he feels we have screwed up!" She whispers back
Veron looks at everyone sternly and asks "Can we get back to work now eh?"
"Yeah as i was saying, this red tide is Not every plant poisoning is caused by a large, terrestrial plant. Several microscopic marine
algae are notoriously poisonous to hapless humans who consume them in shellfish. These Algae are tiny, single-celled plants that,
like plants on land, capture and use the sun's energy to grow. The growth of algae is an essential life process, as it is the first
step in transferring solar energy into aquatic food webs. The huge variety of marine algae are typically subject to annual cycles of
growth & decay. These organisms thrive and multiply principally during the spring and summer, in response to increased light intensity
and favourable levels of salinity & nutrients in ocean water. During the growth period, or bloom, each single algae cell may replicate
itself one million times in two to three weeks." She says
"What has this got to do with the victim's death?" Veron asks
"During the reproductive riot of the bloom, warm, shallow seawater tends to become discoloured by the sheer concentration of algae
seeking the sunlight. This discolouration is a result of the various pigments the plants use to trap sunlight; depending on the species
of algae present, the water may reflect pink, violet, orange, yellow, blue, green, brown, or red. Since red is the most common pigment,
the phenomenon has come to be called Red Tide." she says
So what has this got to do with the victim?" Veron asks again
"Most species contributing to algal blooms are harmless, BUT another big but!" she says
"Just like Tony's" Ziva says and recieves a smack to the head from Gibbs.
"some species are poisonous to animals which feed upon them directly or indirectly. Some of the toxins these species produce are seriously toxic.
Often, the algae themselves are unaffected, as are the filter feeders, especially shellfish, for whom micro-algae are the principal diet.
However, to carnivores further up the food chain, including humans, these toxins are potentially fatal!" She adds
"so what does this Red tide do to humans?" Gibbs asks
"As in the case of poisonous fungi, scientific knowledge of poisonous algae is incomplete; indeed, new and alarming toxic algae are still
coming to light. In Nova Scotia, however, three different algae are known to cause three, distinct, severe to deadly poisonings Alexandrium causes
Paralytic Shellfish Poisoning, Dinophysis causes Diarrhetic Shellfish Poisoning, Pseudo-nitzschia multiseries causes Amnesic
Shellfish Poisoning" Abby informs the group
"So what does this mean Abs?" Gibbs asks
"The victim ingested it sometime before his death" she says
"We need to canvas the area near where the body was found and also the victim's residence and talk to any family, friends or co-workers" Veron says
Veron hands the evidence bag he is holding from when he came in to Emma, "You know what to do" he nods and heads towards the elevator with the
rest of the group, McGee enters the room.
"Don't talk to me McGee!" she says and begins to run the DNA from the victim Ducky had given her.
"What did i do?" he asks surprised
"Just leave me!" she says and turns her back to him
"Fine! i was having more fun with Emma anyway!" he says to her
Emma enters the room as they finish fighting.
"Tim, i need your help with something" she says
"Coming Emma!" he says
He returns to the other room and you hear them talking and then they both laugh.
"I can't believe he would rather be with her!" she says quietly to herself and she turns to her computer which is scanning through fingerprints
on the AFIS database.
"I'll teach him!" she says to herself.
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