Chaper one: Mouse-trap

Ziva crossed her arms, every part of her itching to move, yell, do something. Sixteen straight hours of stakeout, sixteen hours in a freezing cold car waiting...waiting...waiting, She was suddenly jerked back to consciousness as her cellphone rang "Hello?"

"Wakey Wakey"

"I wasn't asleep"

"You forget I see all" She looked around with squinted eyes and could just make out Tony's sedan parked conspicuously on the other side of the aircraft carrier. She sighed and leant back in her seat, tucking her legs up to her body for warmth "If the spy was going to come out, he would have by now" Tony laughed "You know that, I know that, but do you think anyone cares?" Ziva nodded. They had a tip off that an Abu Saif spy had infitrated the The USS Ronald Reagan. When two ensigns, Franklin Samuls and Micheal Judge had been reported UA, NCIS had been charged with the responsibilty of finding and questioning them. No one could remember seeing them leave the ship, and even after it had been searched time and time again, they were still here, waiting, waiting, waiting. Sometimes she wished that Gibbs and his famous "gut" was still here "This is pointless, I really want to shoot somet-" but she was cut off as there was movement on the ship. "You see that?" She heard him nod and silently clicked open the door "I'll go in first and call in for backup if I need it. Its probably just a seagull" she snapped the phone shut and slipped an earwig into her ear. Drawing her sidearm, she half walked half jogged up the gangplank. She saw something dark slip inside an open doorway. "Didn't they lock all the doors last night?" She murmerd and slid in behind it. She was deep into the the heart of the ship, following the strage dark shap,e when she heard a CLUNK from somewhere up above her, and felt a small puff of cold air on the back of her neck "Tony, I think-" The icy steel of a gun barrel on her back and an equally cold voice whispering in her ear was enough incentive to shut it "Drop the gun, Officer David, and keep walking".

Tony was already out of the car by the time he heard the voice in Ziva's ear. He was further away than she had been, and with each step he felt a sick dread growing in his stomach. He reached the doorway and tugged at the heavy steel door but it wouldn't give. He heard a yell from inside the ship and it took everything within him not to scream out to her.

Ziva stared at the two bodies on the floor. The ensigns deathly palor seemed to glow in the dark galley. She was trembling, not with fear, but with supressed rage as she glared at her two captors, each armed with a semi-automatic. "Why did you show me this?" She was really curious. This was obviously a trap, why did she need to see the bait, she'd already taken it. "To show what we are capable of, Officer David" She struggled to place their accents. One was clipped, oxford or jordan, the other could be spanish or puerto rican or a mixture of both. "You should have known not to kill two ensigns just to kidnap me, Nacho Libro" she prayed Tony was listening. Europa smiled and grabbed her in a headlock, dirty fingers brushing the earwig from her ear "Do you think anyone can hear you down here? Please Officer David, there so much lead between you and your boyfriend I would be surprised if the rats in the ceiling above you could have made out a word of that coded message" He stepped down hard on the earwig "Joaquin, take care of the boy, will you? I'll get her loaded"

Tony's fingers were red raw from the bars. Magee and Agent Balboa were on their way, suddenly gun shots rang out along the deck and he fell to the ground. He could just make out a behemouth of man making his way along the deck. The semi automatic in his hand sprayed bullets through the air. Tony tugged his sig from his holster and popped off one round, two but it wouldn't be enough. He could see the gap in the railing beside him and made a stupid, once in a life time descision. He grabbed the railing and slid between the bars, free falling the 50 feet to the dark water below. When he surfaced, his whole body bruised, he could make out the sound of a speedboatslicing cleanly through the water less than 100 feet away. Beheamouth and a skinny man dwarfed by his counterpart. He wanted to yell out to the Ziva he knew was on that boat, but he knew all they had to do was turn around and he's be a sitting duck. He could only watch half consiously as his partner was sped far away.

Chapter 2: What you see is what he gets

When Ziva opened her eyes. It was to blinding white light. As she tried to sheild her eyes, she came to the realisation that she was tied to a bed. Every possible scary though rushed into her brain, and came through her mouth in a curse "Via Zaztal"

"Dear me, Officer David, what foul langauge from a lady!" She swore a few more times, trying to locate the source of the voice. A shadow emerged from the light. It was Europa. "My dear Ziva, I don't want you to be harmed. I'm a buisnessman, not a monster" She reached down and touched her cheek. She spat at him, hitting the lense of his polished armani glasses "I hoped we could discuss this like civilised people but obviously" suddenly pain shot through her arms to her chest. You didn't have to be electrocuted before the recognise the experience. "Now, I would like you to tell me, the location of your former boss, Leroy Jethro Gibbs"

Ziva lay on the bed, fighting nausea and anxiety. There were three television screens on the wall beside her. Europa was standing beside them, fiddling with the dials. "What...what do you want with Gibbs?" He smiled "Thats for me to know and you to ponder" Suddenly three pictures appeared on the screen. They were security camera videos. One showed the hull of the Reagan, one was of Abby's lab and the other was the squadroom at NCIS. "Now, I want you to pay careful attention the screens. You can pick one or tell me the location of Leroy Jethro Gibbs" She grinned coyly at him "And what if I chose to pick neither?" She knew it was coming but that probably only made the pain more real. It was over twenty minutes before she panted out a word "Tony!" whether she actually ment it, or whether Europa simply consrued it as her choice, it didn't matter. "Excellent choice" It was too late.

Tony sat at his desk, head in hands, a million thoughts dancing swan lake in his mind. Should I have followed her? Should I have yelled, or gone with her or... There was a bang and he looked up at the floor shook. Ziva's desk had disappeared in a cloud of dust and rubble. He gave a yell and stood up, bits of metal spapping painfully against his skin, like the spray of hot oil from a fry-pan. Coughing, he slapped the evacuation button on the wall. An alarm rang out through the room and people started to file out, all looking curoiusly at her her desk. He waved his hands through the smoke and swore, as he looked at what had been a solid desk. A bomb, a simple bomb by the looks of it and judging by the acrid smoke filling room, had been placed underneath it, evisterating it to a pile of dust. Magee came around the corner, his shirt pulled up over his nose to block out the fumes "What the hell happened?" Tony turned and gave Magee the Gibbs look that in his opinion he had perfected "What do you think, Probie?" Magee head shook of its own accord and Tony sighed "Just get Abby up here, will you!" It wasn't a request.

Ziva watched, biting her lip to stop from yelling as she watched her own desk explode "That was a taster. The real bomb is somewhere else" She glanced at the other two screens. One showed Abby in a forensic's stupor, rocking back and forth in time with the music. Ducky and Jimmy wandered back and forth over the second screen, tyaking finger prints and examining the bodies of the two ensigns "Please don't make me- Ahh" she yelled" he'd upped the volatge "I won't do it, and I'm not going to tell you where Gibbs is" She smiled savagly at him "I've been tortured by Al-Queada and Hamas on three seperate occations. Don't believe me, check the scars. The only thing your pathetic little battery is going to do is piss me off" He smiled back "For your sake. I really, really hope not"

Abby fumbled for the remote, her hand sliding over samples and buttons till she found the right one. Valley of the Deads new album was everything the tattoo on the back of Draco's thigh promised it would be. She sighed disapointedly as once again she came up with a dead end. Something red caught the side of her vison and she spun en pointe to snatch the Caf Pow from Tony's hand "Whats up?" She shook her head frustratedly "I got nothing" There were no prints on any of the bomb materials, but I did get a partial unknown from the underside of Ziva's desk, I'm running it through AFIS now" Suddenly the computer beeped behind her and she turned back "Hold that thought". A file opened on the screen. At first she thought it was a match and her stomach leapt. But then she realised it was an encrypted video file. She pressed play feeling fear rise in her throat. Ziva was on the screen, her face pale between the ball gag and blindfold. "Hello NCIS" A soft british accent filled the room "As you are most likely aware, I have taken one of your agents hostage" A hand reached across the screen to pat Ziva softly on the head, she flinched "And since she has been so far unwilling to cooperate, despite heavy pursuation, I am requesting your assistence" He held a gun to the side of her head, a semi-automatic almost identical to thew one that had almost killed Tony "Find Leroy Jethro Gibbs and bring him to NCIS, When I see that he has arrived, and rest assured I will be watching, I will send you another video. The state in which Officer David appears in said video all depends on how long it takes to locate Special Agent Gibbs. To reanforce this, I will allow Officer David to say a few words" He carefully unclipped the ball gag and pulled it away. As he did so, he lighty brushed her shoulder and they could see her visably shudder. But next words were pure anadulterated Ziva "Tony, don't-do-anything-and-get-out-theres-a-bomb-lab-ship-" There was swearing in the back ground and suddenly her body froze, her teeth gritted and her fists clenched. Only now did Tony see the red and black wires wrapped around her wrists. A grimy hand came from behind to smack her hard over the back of her head and she tried to turn, her teeth bared. The camera was suddenly turned back around to face a dank grey wall. The originalhand made a ticking motion on the screen "You have 24 hours gentleman, good luck" The screen went black.