Chapter 7: A Breakthrough
The entire video feed had been captured at NCIS and analyzed. Abby was able to trace the IP back to a five square mile area of Winchester, Virginia. The kidnappers had made their first mistake.
The other team members started picking apart the isolated area, trying to find anything that might be housing the concrete cells.
Gibbs had one of the staff get a sandwich and tea for Ziva. She needed to eat, and she needed to sleep. He doubted that she would sleep, as the video most likely awakened memories of Saleem and her captivity. He worried that she would fight sleep to avoid the nightmares returning. He wasn't sure he would be able to help. Only Tony had been able to calm the nightmares. Gibbs had witnessed it first hand, and marveled at how Tony knew instinctively how to calm Ziva.
Ziva sat at Vance's conference table, staring at her hands. She had her phone and there was a picture of Tony on the screen. "Ani ohevet otcha." Ziva whispered the Hebrew phrase over and over. Gibbs wasn't one hundred percent sure, but he'd bet she was telling the picture of Tony that she loved him.
The food arrived and Gibbs thanked the agent that brought it up. He opened the sandwich wrapper and placed it in front of Ziva. "Eat, please, for both of you."
Ziva looked up at Gibbs at the word both. 'What did he know?' she wondered. 'How did he know?' She took a sip of the tea and then a bite of the sandwich. She ate the entire half quickly. Gibbs had a sandwich as well. Ziva reached for her other half and bit into it. She did not even realize that she had been that hungry until she started to eat. Gibbs watched Ziva as she ate. Her eyes were red and she looked exhausted. She sipped the remainder of her tea and smiled at Gibbs.
"Thank you for the meal. I did not realize that I was even hungry." Gibbs handed her one of the chocolate chip cookies that was in the food bag. Her eyes lit up as she spotted the treat.
~BROTHERS~
Abby had isolated background sounds in several of the phone calls, as well as in the videos. The thumping sound that Ziva had picked up on was most likely some sort of pump or ventilation unit kicking on. The thump was followed by a low hum, and Abby would bet it was an HVAC unit running.
Ziva's search for the make and model of the van had produced three possibilities, which narrowed the thirty five hundred tag hits down to only one hundred eighty three.
Just as Abby was getting ready to call Gibbs, her fingerprint search had a hit. She looked at the name and her first reactive thought was to scream. She couldn't scream, but she knew it was bad; very bad.
She dialed Gibbs' cell.
~BROTHERS~
Tony looked at the cup of dirty water in front of him. He looked at Tim, who appeared to be sleeping. He slowly picked up the water cup in both hands and lifted it to his mouth. He sipped the water, trying to ignore the taste. To him, it tasted like blood. He moved slowly, trying to assess his injuries. His back was stinging, and he put it out of his consciousness. He knew that he could shut out the pain by retreating from reality. He had been good at that from a very young age. His ankles were raw from rubbing on the metal shackles. He could feel the swelling in his lip where the leader had backhanded him. He was also fairly certain that he had a black eye from getting an elbow in the face from one of the black clad grunts.
He moved to get as comfortable as he could in his concrete corner, and tried to sleep. Hopefully, the water was drugged and he would slide into a drug induced sleep soon.
While he was trying to sleep, he pictured Ziva in his mind. Her hair blowing in the wind and her smile as they rode horses last weekend brought a smile to his face. His ninja was so beautiful. The morning of the day he and Tim were kidnapped, Ziva had stepped off the elevator as he and Tim left to go to talk to the suspect's mother. Ziva had told him that she had a surprise for him. He wondered what it was, thinking maybe she was going to cook one of his favorite meals. He pictured her cooking, and him helping, and maybe getting in the way a little bit, kissing her as they worked together to fix a meal. He pictured himself whispering into her ear, "Ani ohev otach." He drifted into a drug-induced sleep with thoughts of his Ziva in his mind.
~BROTHERS~
"Whatta ya got, Abs?" Gibbs entered Abby's lab with a Caf-POW! in hand. She ran up to him and hugged him.
"Gibbs, this is so not good. So bad; you gotta save them, Gibbs." Abby was getting more agitated. Gibbs put a hand on her arm.
"Settle down, Abby. Tell me what you found."
"Okay. The thump that Ziva noticed in the calls is most likely a heavy duty HVAC unit kicking on. That may help narrow our possible buildings down.
"The van is probably an early to mid 1990s Ford cargo van; most likely a 1992 or 1993 model from what we can see of the shape of the tag area and the light above the tag.
"Finally, we got a hit on the fingerprint inside the envelope from the pictures and on the DNA from the gum. Pedro Reynosa, Paloma's son and Pedro Hernandez's grandson. Gibbs, tell me you are going to get him. Don't let him hurt Tim or Tony. Please Gibbs; I need to know they will be okay."
Gibbs pulled Abby into a hug. "I can't promise Abs, but I will do everything I can to get them back. Good work, Abs." He kissed her forehead and turned to go upstairs and share the news with the rest. He thought about it, and turned around, "Come with me, Abby, and show the others what you found."
~BROTHERS~
Abby finished showing the agents her discoveries and looked around for Ziva. She really wanted to give her friend a hug, knowing that Ziva was probably worried sick about Tony. She caught Gibbs' eye and signed to him, "Where is Ziva?" Gibbs pointed to Vance's office, but shook his head, letting Abby know that she should leave Ziva be. "She is sleeping," Gibbs signed to Abby. "Let her rest." Abby nodded and headed to the elevator.