As Gibbs and Abby exited the elevator, Gibbs noticed that Tony and McGee were back already. That was either a very good or a very bad thing. Judging by McGee's ghost white face, Tony's haunted eyes and the complete lack of any amusement on Ziva's face, Gibbs was going to bet that it was the latter. Abby picked up on the negative atmosphere in the room instantly.

"Hey guys, what's up?" Tony looked at her, regret covering his face.

"Ducky's missing. The CIA believes that he may be dead." Gibbs breath caught in his throat. Abby's eye's filled with tears, which she would never allow to fall.

"No! There's got to be a mistake! Ducky's just chilling out in a small Scottish town. Why would the CIA be tracking him?" Abby gave Tony a death glare, unrivalled by anything he or Gibbs could dish out. Turning the glare on McGee and pointing her finger accusingly, she watched as the young agent turned an even paler shade of white - something she hadn't thought possible. "You," she growled at him. "Did you know about this?"

"Yes," he told her, before his brain had had a chance to engage. Under her increasingly more lethal gaze, he quickly began to clumsily back-pedal. "I… uh… I mean… I only just found out today just before Tony told Gibbs!" he quickly threw the blame on the older men, breathing a sigh of relief when Abby turned her sight on the man standing next to her. Gibbs didn't blink.

"Nuh uh Abs! It wasn't my place to tell you. Hell, I wasn't even supposed to know." Abby turned back to face Tony.

"Sorry Abby but I needed as many people as possible to believe that Ducky had retired to Scotland. It was safer for Ducky that way. Hell, even the Director didn't know." Tony had been winning Abby over, until that last sentence.

"Oh! Well if Madame Director doesn't know! What, am I the last one in this food chain? I want to know these things Tony!" Tony folded his arms and instantly transformed into his 'boss' persona.

"Abigail Scuito! I didn't tell anyone what Ducky was doing because in my opinion, as the boss of this team, that was the best course of action to take. I only told McGee and Gibbs because I had no choice and I am only telling you all now because Ducky is in trouble. He missed his scheduled time to report in and he missed the one after that too. The group that he was undercover in has gone underground and the CIA has lost track of them. They have filed Ducky under 'Agent lost in the field' and will leave it at that unless any new leads surface." Abby forgot she was supposed to be angry and just looked at Tony in horror.

"We're not gonna just leave him out there are we?! We can find him can't we?! We're better than the CIA! Tony!" Tony strode over to stand in front of Abby. Putting his hands on either side of her face, he forced her to look him in the eye.

"Abby. We will get Ducky back. We will not let the bad guys win. I promise you." Abby nodded, calming down.

For two days the NCIS team trawled through dead ends and false leads. For two days no-one went home and Coffee and Caf-Pow was their main form of sustenance. At the end of the second day they found the breakthrough they had been after. It turned out that the leader of the group that Ducky had gone undercover in was an avid MMORPG player and it just so happened that McGee had played against him on numerous occasions.

McGee and Abby linked their computers together. After McGee logged an, the rest of the team waited for him to find their perp's character.

"Got him!" McGee yelled suddenly. Abby jumped to her computer and began to typing as furiously as McGee.

"How long's this gonna take Abs?" Tony asked impatiently.

"Fifteen minutes," she stated, not looking away from the screen.

"I'm going for coffee." Tony got up and left, as did Gibbs. Ziva remained in the lab, she wanted to know the instant McGee and Abby found something.

Ten minutes ticked slowly by and still Tony and Gibbs hadn't returned. "Abby, how far from here is Gibbs' favourite coffee shop?" Ziva asked Abby because she knew Abby could hold a conversation without loosing concentration from what she was doing on the computer.

"Depends how fast you walk."

"If you walk at Tony and Gibbs' pace?"

"About two minutes." Ziva nodded, even though she knew Abby couldn't see her, she was beginning to get worried.

"And how long are the queues?" At that Abby had to laugh.

"Gibbs doesn't queue. He walks in the back door and they serve him straight away." Ziva pulled out her phone and hit the second button. Pacing nervously up and down the lab, she hoped for a reply but was beginning to fear there would be none.

"DiNozzo," she heard on the on the other end and she breathed a sigh of relief.

"Tony! What's taking you so long? McG…" she was interrupted when the voice mail message continued.

"Ha! Gotcha! Well either my phone is switched off or I don't want to talk to you so leave a message after the beep and I might get back to you." Ziva didn't wait for the beep; she hung up, cursing in several languages.

"Abby have you found him yet?" Abby ignored Ziva for a moment, typing even faster.

"Yes! Got him! He's in an abandoned warehouse 8 miles from here." The map popped up on the big screen.

"Okay Abby, you take over from McGee. Make sure that he keeps playing until we have him." Abby nearly said something in response to Ziva's commands but she took one look at Ziva's face, which was all business, and changed her mind. "McGee with me, grab your spare gun too." McGee moved and Abby took over the game, but then he stopped.

"Uh… Ziva? I'm the next in command after Tony."

"Whatever! We have to move now! I think they may have got Gibbs and Tony too." Abby's fingers almost skipped a key.

"McGee, shift your butt now! Ziva's dealt with this stuff before, you haven't!" McGee gave up and grabbed his gun from the draw in Abby's desk before following Ziva out.

On their way out of the building, they bumped into a very dishevelled looking Tony.

"Tony! What happened?" Ziva asked, staring at what looked like blood on the side of Tony's head.

"They've got Gibbs."

"What?! How?"

"Gibbs doesn't have a gun any more and they had two guns each."

"You think it was the same people who have Ducky?" McGee asked, determined to beat Ziva to the punch.

"I don't know McGee," Tony bit back. "They didn't exactly flash their ID cards as they held their guns in our faces or when they smacked the pistol grip into my temple."

"I didn't mean… I just… We…" McGee stammered through trying to explain himself, until Ziva got annoyed and finished it for him.

"We know where the leader is Tony."

"Then let's move, now!" The field agent and the MOSSAD officer followed their boss out of the door and, when he turned right, they corrected him and dragged him left.

When they reached the warehouse, the team split up, circling around to cover all of the exits. There were no hostages inside, just the bad guys' leader and it looked as though he had been living in the warehouse for a while.

They hauled him back to NCIS and locked him in an interrogation room. McGee got first dibs at interrogating him.

"I'm going to make this very simple for you Mr. Smith." McGee told the suspect. "By the end of today you will have told us where our friends are. The only real question is which of us you will tell." Mr. Smith snarled his response at McGee.

"I'm not telling any of you anything." He informed the special agent, his voice low and threatening. McGee was surprised to notice that he didn't feel any fear or at all intimidated by the hard man who he was alone in the room with. In fact, he found himself smiling at the threat.

"You will tell us," McGee confidently told the man, "because when I get bored of you Ziva David will come in here and she could make anyone give up anything."

"Ziva David?! That's not an American name." McGee's smile widened.

"No, it's not. She's Israeli and a MOSSAD officer." McGee watched Mr. Smith's face visibly pale and wondered it, perhaps, he was enjoying this too much.

"Okay! Okay! I'll tell you!" Mr. Smith said quickly before adding, "on one condition."

"What?"

"You don't send the Israeli in." McGee appeared to think about that for a moment.

"Okay."

"Dr. Mallard is in an abandoned Sentry post one mile from Norfolk Naval station on the main westbound road. Your boss will be joining him there in about an hour's time. McGee left the room and, as he was about to close the door, he heard Mr. Smith mutter "They weren't supposed to have an Israeli working here. It's not fair!"

McGee walked around and into the observation room. "Any idea why he's so scared of Israelis?" He asked Ziva, really wanting to know the answer. Ziva smiled and walked towards the door.

"We better start driving to Norfolk if we want to get there near to the time that Gibbs will get there." McGee looked at Tony but Tony just shrugged.

"Ziva's right. Now move if you don't want Ziva to drive!" McGee looked at Tony in wide eyed horror before rushing out of the room after Ziva. Tony laughed softly to himself and followed what was left of his team. He knew that he was going to be the one driving to Norfolk not Ziva, but he did enjoy winding McGee up.