Ziva, Tony, Gibbs and Jack rushed after the cloaked figure. Up ahead, whoever lay beneath the cloak darted into a shabby building. The team paused at the door, experience telling them to be more guarded when entering an enclosed space. Gibbs, Ziva and Dinozzo drew their guns and carefully followed the figure in, Jack behind them as he was unarmed. The four of them carefully edged down a grimy, unlit corridor. There was a single room at the end, the door swinging forwards and backwards as though someone had just hurried through it. They cautiously merged at the door, gesturing to communicate. Then they went through the doorway, guns in front of them. But the room inside was empty. There was another door to the side of it, but when they approached it, they found it locked.
The room they found themselves in had a strange, rusty smell. Jack suddenly realised that he recognised it. He started to shout out a warning but it was too late. There was a bright light, a wrenching sensation, and everything went black.
The light faded, revealing that the entire team had vanished – leaving behind an empty room and an even stronger smell of rust.
A few hours later, McGee and Abbey were starting to get worried. They had just tried to call Gibbs and found his phone was disconnected. Trying the other team members had given them the same problem.
"They should have called by now Tim!" Abby sounded frantic. "All of their cell phones are off. They never turn them off. Something must have happened."
"Maybe we should tell the director…" McGee felt like he was in over his head.
"No." Abby said firmly. She didn't like Vance. "We shouldn't tell anyone else. This is to do with aliens. I know it. We can't trust anybody."
McGee thought for a moment. Then he was struck by something obvious. "I'll try tracing their phones." He started the search. A few minutes later and they had results. "Their phones must be off. But it's strange. All four of them were here…" He highlighted a point on a map, a tiny building. "Then, at exactly the same time, their signals disappeared, like they'd switched off their phones. But immediately beforehand their phone signals fluctuated massively. I've never seen anything like it."
He and Abby looked at each other, neither of them knowing what to do.