Abby rose and stood in front of Sister Rosita, who in turn placed herself in front of Alice. "What have you been doing?" Abby asked him.

"Nothing more or less than the church and countless nations has done since the birth of civilization."

"You're selling these children," she accused.

"Let's go," he said waving his gun.

As Abby, Sister Rosita, and Alice moved forward, Thomas backed away giving them a chance to pass without getting in reach of any of them. He heard Alice whispering "Tea, tea, tea, tea, tea." As she passed him, Abby heard her whispering too and glanced back at her. Sister Rosita had shuffled the little girl between her and Abby, keeping her away from Father Thomas.

"Don't worry Alice," Abby said. "We'll get you some tea when this is over."

"She doesn't like tea," Rosita said. "She calls Father Thomas 'T'. I think it's because she can't say Thomas."

A light went off in Abby's head as she realized the little girl had been telling her who put the knife in the birdhouse. The child was a witness. She gritted her teeth as she felt her phone vibrate in her pocket. She let it continue, hoping it was Ziva and she would realize something was wrong. As they walked, she realized that the dead nuns must have figured out what Father Thomas was doing. Starting with Sister Teresa, he killed them off as they came close to discovering his secrets. Now, because she became suspicious, she had inadvertently caused the deaths of herself, Sister Rosita and probably Alice too.

_.-~=]})*({[=~-._

Ziva pulled up in front of the house on Morrison Street. She doubted that Dr. Jonathan Hyde was actually here, but she had to be certain. She had to hurry this confirmation if she was going to get to Johns Hopkins and check out Janet Davenport. She approached the door and peered inside as she rang the bell.

After a few moments, she saw a woman approach the door. "Hello," the woman said with a smile when she opened the door. The short blonde woman looked nothing like Noora Hyde from the photographs, but that did not surprise Ziva in the slightest. She showed the woman her credentials.

"Ma'am, I am Agent Ziva David from NCIS," she said. "I am looking for Jonathan and Noora Hyde."

"I'm Noora," she said. "Is there something wrong?"

"Your husband is Dr. Jonathan Hyde?"

"Doctor," Noora said. "Good heavens no, John is a district manager for a sanitation company."

Ziva brought up Dr. Hyde's image on her phone. "Is this your husband?" she asked the woman handing her the phone.

"I don't know who this is," Noora answered. "Maybe you should come in.

_.-~=]})*({[=~-._

It took Ziva an hour to get from Chevy Chase to Rosedale, Maryland. After spending a few minutes with Noora Hyde, she learned that the woman was a publisher who worked from their home while her husband, the real Jonathan Hyde managed several locations of a Virginia based sanitation company. She had no idea why anyone would use their names to stage a fake adoption, but she and her husband would cooperate with the investigation.

After leaving Noora, Ziva opted to save some time by calling Johns Hopkins. She got lucky and found an office that was able to check each annex of the campus and its satellites for any employee named Janet Davenport. As it turned out Janet Davenport was not a doctor, but she was a medical student. The young man she spoke with violated the rules slightly by giving Ziva her home address in Rosedale. Ziva pulled into one of the parking spaces in front of the townhouse and got out of the car.

_.-~=]})*({[=~-._

Father Thomas forced Abby, Sister Rosita and Alice across the yard and into the side door of the church. They made their way down the hall until they reached the intersection leading to the right. Father Thomas ordered the three of them into the door on the left. When Abby went through the door she gasped upon seeing ten nuns and fifteen children tied and gagged, sitting in the pews of the church.

"Sister," Thomas said grabbing Alice by the shoulder. "If you would, grab the duct tape and tape this young woman's hands together."

Abby spun in place but stopped herself when she saw the pistol pointed directly at Alice's head. While Sister Rosita wrapped the tape around her wrists, Abby glared at the man she once thought of as a modern saint. Her mind worked through one scenario after another trying to find a way to put an end to this before something bad happened. She winced slightly as Rosita taped her wrists. Again, her phone began vibrating, but now she was powerless to answer it. She said a quick prayer that Ziva would hurry.

When Sister Rosita tore off the end of the tape, Father Thomas grabbed Abby's wrists and checked them to make sure she was secure. "Now Alice," he told her. He took a step back but kept the pistol pointed at the young girl's head while Sister Rosita bound Alice the same way she did Abby. Finished, Thomas checked the girl's hands and ordered her and Abby to sit. He held out his empty hand and Sister Rosita handed him the duct tape.

"If you try anything while I tape your hands, I'll kill everyone in this room," he said to her before tucking the pistol in the front of his pants. "Now cross your arms."

In no time, he had her hands taped and all three of them gagged. He moved Abby and Sister Rosita over with the other nuns and Alice over with the other children. When he was finished, he pulled his cell phone out of his pocket and dialed.

"We're out of time," he said. "You need to get to the church." He looked back at his captives. "And bring some help."

When he hung up, he looked at Abby and smiled. "I'm willing to bed you're not really a nun are you?"

_.-~=]})*({[=~-._

Janet Davenport and her brother Kevin were still quite upset. Of the photos Ziva showed them, they recognized one. The man who pretended to be Kevin had visited them almost a year prior claiming to be a census clerk. He asked them many demographic questions and even delved into a few personal questions. He had been friendly and the questions seemed innocuous, so they felt no fear in answering him. Of course, he had never asked for important information like their social security numbers or driver's license.

Ziva asked if they had ever heard of St. Michael's Convent and Orphanage, but neither had. In fact they were raised Baptist. They did remember the census taker's name. It was William Rafferty. Ziva suspected that to be an alias, but she would run the name anyway. After she finished her interview, she thanked the siblings and promised to keep them informed in the event the identity theft becomes a bigger threat than it already was.

As she left the housing development, she called Abby's lab and asked Marty if he could run down the name the Davenports gave her. She then sent them his photo to compare against any results. She had just merged onto the 695-beltway heading back to DC when Marty called her back.

"Ziva, I got a match," he said. "The guy's name really is William Rafferty. He's a used car dealer here in DC."

"Does he have any connection to the church?" Ziva asked as she cut off a semi.

"Hold on," Marty said. It took a few moments to check, but Marty came back with, "Yeah, he sold a car to the church. Father Thomas Brewer signed the deal."

"Perfect," Ziva said, swerving into another lane and disconnecting the call. She did not get the chance to toss the phone into the seat beside her when it rang again.

"Ziva David," she answered.

"Ziva," the caller said. "It's Tony. We've been trying to get in touch with Abby, but she's not answering."

"She might be in trouble," Ziva said. "We've found evidence that indicates one of the priests may be trafficking children."

"What?"

"I think he may be selling children into slavery Tony."

"Where's Abby now?"

"I last saw her at the convent," she said flooring the accelerator and thanking God the traffic seemed to be cooperating with her.

"Alright, we're on our way there."

"I'll meet you."

There is little you can do to get a stock mini Cooper to go as faster than 130 mph. Fortunately, Ziva had many friends and they made certain hers was anything but a stock mini. As she neared the 200 mph range, the broken lines on the road became solid. She felt like she was back home and even the curves of the interstate seemed to straighten just for her.

_.-~=]})*({[=~-._

Father Thomas spun and aimed his gun at the door when it opened. Two Middle Eastern men walked in looking very unhappy.

"What took you so long?" he asked them.

"Never mind," the front one said. "What is going on?"

"I had to accelerate the sale," Thomas answered. "This new one got too nosey."

"So kill her like you did the others."

"It's not that simple. All of them know now." Father Thomas looked at the nuns and shook his head. Ten years of successful work was now out the window. He'd have to start fresh somewhere else. "Look, I've got three over eleven and thirteen ranging from six to ten."

"I have six passports," the man said.

"So sell the others domestic."

"Are you insane?" the strange man asked. "Americans who buy children have no idea how to cover their tracks. They almost always are caught. And when they do, they talk."

"So do something with them."

"No," the man said. "I will only take the six oldest. You take care of the rest."

"I guess they'll just have to get caught in the fire too."

"What fire?"

Thomas smiled as he looked out at the nuns. "Apparently one of the good sisters here secretly smokes. She's going to fall asleep with a lit cigarette tonight and the rest will perish before they can save the children."

Abby's head jerked up and a lump came into her throat.

_.-~=]})*({[=~-._

Ziva sped down Otis Street. She was amazed that no police officers were present, but not overly concerned. She pulled into the alley behind the convent and jumped out of her car as soon as it was in gear. She ran straight for the convent and burst through the doors. She realized right away that the building was empty as none of the sisters were milling about. She thought quickly and ruled out the dorms simply because there was little room to move around in them and controlling all of the nuns and children in such a confined space would have been unlikely.

Pistol in hand she ran to the side entrance of the church. As she opened the door, she automatically trained her weapon on the two figures at the end of the hall. She silently ran to catch up to them.

"Where is Abby," she whispered.

"We don't know yet," Tony answered. "This place is deserted. No one at the convent or the orphanage,"

"They must still be here," she surmised. "Father Thomas's car is still here."

"We saw two men coming in here," McGee added.

"One of them was Palestinian," Tony whispered. "Ahmad al-Zuhri's former bodyguard."

Ziva nodded, not allowing that information to distract her. "The door to the left is the nave," she whispered. "If they have all of the nuns and the children, they'll probably be in there." McGee nodded and Ziva and Tony slipped past him to hug the wall on the other side of the closed door. Ziva carefully twisted the handle and opened the door just a crack. She peered into the room and saw twelve nuns, eleven of whom had their heads bowed in prayer. She scanned the pews and found the children sitting bound and gagged.

_.-~=]})*({[=~-._

Abby sensed more than saw the door open a crack. She looked up at it and her eyes widened. She could barely make out the profile, but she would recognize Ziva anywhere. She thought quickly about how she could send Ziva a message, when it occurred to her. She flashed her eyes forward and brought them back to the door. She then blinked three times letting Ziva know there were three suspects in the room. She saw Ziva move away from the door, but her finger remained holding it open slightly.

A couple of seconds later, the door swung open and Ziva rushed in followed by Tony and Tim. Ziva and McGee fired quickly dropping all three of them. As Tony cleared the room and McGee covered her, Ziva approached the three men and cleared their weapons by kicking them away from them.

Tony ran to Abby and removed the tape from her mouth. "Are there any more of them?" he asked her.

"No" she said as he cut the tape off her. As soon as she was free, she threw her arms around him and hugged him close. "I knew you guys would save us," she cried.

"Abs," McGee said, coming over to her and pulling her into a hug. "Tell us what happened."

As Tony worked to release the rest of the hostages, Ziva placed Father Thomas and one of the others in zip-tie restraints. The third was dead and wouldn't need them.

"Father Thomas got the drop on us," Abby said. "He's been pretending to get these kids adopted and selling them to foreigners as slaves. I don't know who these two are."

"The smiling ray of sunshine there is Safir al-Ajami," Tony said. "Human trafficker and former bodyguard to one Ahmad al-Zuhri."

"Boss," McGee said into his phone. "We found Abby. And we have some news about Ahmad's bodyguard."