The safe house was a modest two-story building that reminded Ziva of her brief stay in Gibbs' home when she was under suspicion from the FBI. When she first arrived, she had been tempted to check the basement for a boat. Instead she had settled herself on the edge of the leather couch, and removed a pack of playing cards, tattered from years of stakeouts, from her backpack. She went through the familiar motion of laying out a game of solitaire, spacing the cards evenly with the tips of her fingers.

In her peripheral vision, Agent Balboa had directed his team to patrol the perimeter of the safe house. He took his place outside the open door to the living room, giving Ziva a semblance of privacy.

A day later, nothing had changed, except that Ziva was getting restless.

She placed the Queen of Spades on top of the King of Hearts.

The motto of Mossad was, "Where there is no guidance, a nation falls, but in an abundance of counselors there is safety," but Ziva knew from experience that sometimes one soldier could succeed where an army could not.

She placed the Seven of Diamonds on top of the Eight of Spades.

Eight was practiced in misinformation and sadism, but she had not been trained by Mossad.

If Ziva apprehended Eight, then she could go home, and McGee could stop jumping at shadows, and Gibbs could stop looking at Tony like he was a stranger. Instead of waiting for Eight to contact them, Ziva could make the first move. She could change the rules of the game.

The Six of Clubs on top of the Seven of Diamonds.

She knew that Gibbs and Tony would disapprove, but they had always underestimated her abilities. They would forgive her when Eight was in custody. After all, Rule Thirteen was, "It's better to seek forgiveness than ask permission."

Ziva glanced at the doorway, making sure Agent Balboa was still in the hallway. Remembering Laurie Niles' escape from her home, she made her way to the window. She waited for the shadow near the edge of the property to move out of sight before opening the window and dropping herself lightly onto the grass. She kept low as she ran to the driveway. She knew the agents would hear the engine, but they would notice she was missing as soon as Balboa checked on her anyway. She was only losing a few minutes.

As she pulled out the driveway, She ignored the shouts coming from the direction of the house. She had already decided to focus her search on the area surrounding Tony's apartment, since Eight was clearly surveying her partner. Ziva turned in the direction of Tony's home.

She had driven less than a mile, when she saw something in the middle of the road. She realized that it was a person, standing in front of her vehicle, smiling into her headlights. The part of her mind that had been trained as an investigator registered blond hair and a small build before she twisted the steering wheel instinctively.

In the minutes that followed, Ziva heard her car door open, and felt the pressure of the seat belt being released, but her head hurt too much to understand the significance the sensations. She had one coherent thought before she lost consciousness.

Tony had been right. She actually did drive up a wall.