Chapter 4

Even more puzzled than before, the three agents returned to the city for lunch. They ate quietly while Gibbs tried to contact Fornell who might have access to more information.

"All that Fornell could tell was that Andrei Selivanov is a big wheel in Mexican drug traffic. They also organize import and export to the United States. But he told me about a contact who we're going to meet this night."

With that information, the team left their hotel at ten o'clock in the evening and without police badges but with guns, they headed toward the more dangerous zones of Mexico City.

Hardly any street lamps were working and Tony has barely felt that uncomfortable ever before. He felt how people were moving in the shadows, but couldn't see them. He forced himself to follow his boss without looking around. Finally, they arrived at an abandoned warehouse. Windows were broken, doors were missing and empty cigarette packages and broken beer bottles were covering the floor.

There were boxes at the walls, bags of white and brown stuff lying around. Tony spotted a small light at the end of a corridor and recognized a man sitting there, Mexican, probably thirty or forty years old.

"Ya the cops?" he asked in broken English.

Gibbs nodded. "We want to know something about Andrei. Where he is, what information he received from Special Agent Ryan," the boss wanted to know.

The guy was staring at him for a while, but suddenly, his eyes got all glassy.

Tony raised and eyebrow before he cringed, hearing suddenly a low and rough voice behind him. "Why don't you ask me personally?"

The informant nearly fell down from the box he was sitting on and all three agents were turning around at once, pulling their guns. But suddenly, someone switched on the lights and after a few seconds in which Tony got used to the brightness, he recognized at least ten men armed with loaded rifles in front of them and to be honest, they didn't seem happy at all.

"Tie the agents," Andrei Selivanov ordered in Spanish with Russian accent and didn't hesitate pulling out his own gun and shooting the traitor directly in the head without even blinking.

"We should kill them," one of the men suggested.

"I said: Tie them up. I want to torture them first, we don't get NCIS special agents all day," he repeated angrily and watched silently how Gibbs, McGee and Tony were disarmed, pushed on the floor and tied with a rope each at hands and legs so that they couldn't move anymore.

"Listen…you have already killed one Agent. When you kill three more, you'll make it even worse. You might have bribed the whole city here, but believe me, you can't stop CIA from interfering into this!" Gibbs tried to say.

Andrei listened to all this and nodded. "Well…I know that it might sound surprising to a typical American hero and ex-soldier, but I'm not afraid of the States' Intelligence." He turned to his men and spoke something in very fast Spanish. Some of them went away and now there were only four left, watching the agents. "Now, Special Agents of NCIS of DC, what shall I do to you?" he asked and wanted to add something when suddenly all lights went out.

Tony couldn't see anything, but he heard gun shots. Feet were moving and Andrei was obviously firing back. He noticed screams of some men and a body dumping on the floor right in front of him.

The footsteps were coming closer and he heard a whisper which he couldn't understand at all. All of sudden, he felt hands grabbing him, dragging him over the floor.

"Hey!" he screamed but someone was cutting open the rope at his legs but at the same moment, he felt the muzzle of a gun pressed against his back. "Walk," someone hissed and pushed him forward so that he nearly stumbled.

He could barely see anything but just heard the shouts of McGee and Gibbs who had no idea what was going on. "Gibbs! McGee," Tony yelled but as soon as he stepped out into the warm air of the night, a wet tissue was pressed on his mouth and he felt how his brain became all misty and stopped working. Silently, Agent DiNozzo fell down to the ground and didn't notice anymore the two men putting him into the rear trunk of a car.

Neither did he notice that Gibbs and McGee were still sitting in that abandoned warehouse, not able to get any help. Nor did he notice the last shadow disappearing when one of the men fired gun shots at the shillouette of the beautiful Katarina running away to report her sister what she has just witnessed and that she couldn't help Tony as more men were approaching, helping the two persons who were closing the trunk and driving away, out of the city.

"Boss?" McGee asked after a while.

"I can't cut myself free," Gibbs answered.

"With what?"

"The knife in my pocket. Can you see anything?"

"No," McGee said, all lights were off. "Who was that?"

"No idea," the boss answered and added, "can you stand up?"

McGee tried to and finally made it up. He tried to jump forward but only after one meter he was stumbling over something soft and fell down on the hard floor.

"Everything okay?" Gibbs asked.

"Yeah, I just fell over a body."

Suddenly, the lights went on again and some men in police uniforms were entering the warehouse. "Over here!" Gibbs screamed and the men starting untying them. Gibbs shortly explained their situation and already spotted the officer they knew in the crowd of cops.

"I honestly have no idea about what could have happened to your agent," he admitted but then added, "and unfortunately, I have to tell you some other bad news. As far as I have been informed, the Israeli embassy in the United States has been attacked. All peace treaties are not valid anymore and Mexico has declared to be neutral after a request of the American army. I'm sorry that I have to accompany you two to the border in the North and that Tony DiNozzo will be sent back again when we find him. But you can't stay any longer in this country."

While Katarina was walking quickly back, she noticed that someone was watching her. She didn't dare to turn around but used a broken street mirror to get a better look on her follower. She walked left and right immediately and ended up in a very small way, on both sides of her high buildings that seemed to collapse every second.

She felt so small but funnily the shillouette was still behind her and now he didn't care if he was being seen by her or not. Her steps grew faster and she wanted to get out of here but when she turned around the corner, she nearly ran into a very tall and muscular man.

He was staring down at her with his huge and angry brown eyes, waiting slowly until the man behind her grabbed Katarina's shoulder so that she couldn't try to run away.

"Who are you?" the man in front of her asked.

"Who are you?" she answered rebellious.

The man just laughed. "What were you doing at the warehouse? As far as I am informed, Andrei doesn't employ women. He despises them."

"Not me."

"Why not?"

Katarina remained silent and the guy behind her pushed her against the wall. "Why do you want to know, you fucking assholes?" she moaned when he searched her.

"This is a nice gun," he commented when he found something under her jacket. "Far too nice for a pretty girl like you. Who are you? Were you going to meet Andrei?"

"N-no," she coughed when the second man started to hit her and she stumbled down on the ground.

"Why were you there?"

"Who the fuck are you?" she asked and touched her lips, she rubbed the blood between her fingers.

"Shouldn't we just kill her?" her shadow suggested.

"No. When she was there for Andrei, she might have friends. Andrei never meets women. Why you?" obviously the boss of them asked.

"My sister fucked his brother, satisfied?" Katarina said and stood up, but was pushed back on the wall immediately.

"That's funny. But Andrei's dead, his brother's dead, why shouldn't we start with you now?" the first guy asked.

Without hesitation, Katarina spitted at him and freed herself in the same moment in which she also grabbed back her gun. "You're Israeli," she suddenly said. The accent has sounded so familiar.

The man stared at her as if they'd never heard a woman talking.

"You're here because the Agent was your mole inside NCIS," she began to understand. "What did you do to Agent DiNozzo?" she asked furiously. Why kidnap him? That hasn't been their original plan, as far as she thought. The men looked at each other and nodded.

Suddenly, the younger one grabbed into his jacket but before he could point his gun at the woman, she shot him right into the chest. He stumbled backward and fell to the ground. Katarina kicked the gun off his feet and pointed hers at his boss so that he wouldn't try the same. The man on the floor curled around and spitted blood, moaning silently.

"Why have you kidnapped DiNozzo?" she asked in anger.

"This isn't your business," the older man answered, unaffected by the pain his colleague was suffering.

Katarina sighed and kicked hard into the man's shot wound. I have to wash my shoes again, she thought while the blood was flowing out faster of the wound.

"Fuck. It wasn't planned. But he killed our director," the man screamed in pain. He coughed blood on the pavement and Katarina redirected her gun toward him and shot him into his head. Blood and a little piece of brain were flowing out.

She turned back to the other man. "Where have you brought Agent DiNozzo?"

"What does it interest you? What is your affiliation toward him? You're a criminal!"

"I–" she started but suddenly heard a noise behind her. She turned around just in time to recognize persons leaving the shadows and suddenly, she felt warmth.

She stumbled backward but got hold again. She looked down at her body and touched her belly. But instead of feeling her jacket, she felt something sharp and metallic and something very hot warming her skin.

"What about him?" she heard one of the man ask.

She dropped her gun and bent forward.

"Leave him here. He's dead," the boss said and walked over to the others.

She kneed down and had the urge to vomit but she only spitted blood on the man she has just killed.

"What about her?" "She'll die."

The voices were becoming lower and seemed to be far away. Her vision got blurry, she hardly recognized the light of some street lamps. When she opened her eyes, the men were gone and she was grabbing hold on the corpse in front of her.

She vomited a flush of blood on him and tore out the knife off her stomach. Knowing that the blood loss already was immense, she got rid of her jacket and pressed it against the wound. Stumbling, she got up and tried to reach the wall.

She pulled out her cell while trying to stay awake. She dialed a number and her eye sight went black again and again.

The phone rang and rang. Suddenly, there was a "Yes?"