Act 1, Scene 4b
The weary band of investigators assembled on the palace steps as the dawn broke above the frosty horizon. "What'cha got, DiNozzo?" Gibbs barked, wishing he had a hot cup of coffee.
"We followed Prince Hamlet into the woods, Boss, but we lost him almost right away. Even Ziva couldn't find his trail. I guess the wind blew the snow over his tracks. We heard crashing, but it seemed like it was coming from all around us. We couldn't find the source of it. When we finally found Prince Hamlet, he was in the custody of Horatio and Marcellus. They were asking him about what he saw, but Boss; the Prince looked like he'd been hit over the head. He looks like he's got a turret loose in his upstairs battlements." DiNozzo pointed to his temple and made a circular motion for effect, but gulped and continued as Gibbs' glare darkened. "He said something about an arrant knave living in Denmark, the ghost being a good ghost, and then he swore everyone to secrecy and headed back home like everything was just fine."
"My sound amplifying device wasn't broken, Boss," McGee reported, when Gibbs turned his attention to him. "I think it was picking up sounds from deeper in the woods, from the way it was angled when I first saw it."
"Off that angle, I found a series of sticks bent into bows with waxed twine strung to them," Ziva reported. "Those make a moaning sound when twisted around a piece of metal. That could have been the source of our mystery groaning."
"That makes sense," McGee agreed.
"Those noise-makers were in the same area we met up with you, M'lord Gibbs," Ziva added. "It seems you found something as well?"
Gibbs nodded. "That line went from the wall out to the woods. It didn't have ice or snow on it, which means something dragged across the top of it since the snow started falling. When I got back to the fortifications, the line had been taken down. None of the guards had seen anything."
"How very strange," Ziva voiced. "It appears we have a shrew!"
"A mole, Ziva!" DiNozzo corrected.
She frowned. "Wait… which one was Alchemist Abigail attempting to tame?"
DiNozzo ignored her. "An inside man inside the castle. Great; just when I was starting to think we'd gotten this place locked down!"
Gibbs stilled everyone with a look. "If anyone hears anything, I want you to report to me immediately!"
His three elite team members nodded, and at Gibbs' wave of dismissal, they scattered back to their posts.