Still holding the branch in one hand, Spurling took a cell phone out of his pocket with the other and shook it open. He peered at the screen, then shook his head in exasperation.
"Gates!" The other man looked up. "Keep an eye on our friend here, I'm going to see if I can get some reception. Wouldn't want to keep Baker waiting for his report". He threw the branch away and headed off down the river bank.
Gates hauled himself unwillingly to his feet. He slouched over to DiNozzo and toed him viciously, then, enjoying Tony's reaction, picked up the branch Spurling had let drop and began to lay on with it.
Something about the way he stood, unsteady on his feet, told Gibbs he was high on something. His guess was confirmed when Gates began to hurl a barrage of garbled insults at the man on the ground at his feet.
Gibbs' gut tightened as he heard the branch come down viciously again and again, but he forced himself to concentrate. Gates was unfocused; Gibbs was not. He could use that to his advantage.
He wriggled further along the plateau until he found what he was after, a sizable clump of bushes directly below him on the canyon floor. Big enough that their foliage would shake and rustle when he dropped a shower of pebbles down on them, which he then proceeded to do.
Gates was still having fun with DiNozzo, but at the sound from the bushes his head snapped up and a feral grin spread across his face. Taking out his gun, none too steady on his feet, he headed towards the bushes in what he obviously thought was a stealthy manner.
"Come out, come out, wherever you are". The sneer would have sounded more menacing if it hadn't been so slurred. "I know …"
Whatever Gates knew was cut off by a sickening thud as the large rock Gibbs dropped on him landed on his head. He dropped to the ground and lay unmoving, blood beginning to stream from the wreckage of his skull.
Gibbs stared down at his handiwork for a couple of seconds, then began to examine the rock face below him, looking for the easiest way down. He hoped his muscles were up to it. The bad arm would just have to do. He pushed aside the little voice that told him he was a fool to try.
He was within an inch of beginning his descent when Spurling and two other men walked up the river bank and into the canyon. Gibbs drew back from the edge and waited to hear what would happen next.
It wasn't long in coming.
"No reception anywhere, Baker will … Gates!" Spurling shouted. "I thought I told you to … GATES!!!"
Gibbs risked a peek over the edge. Spurling was standing beside DiNozzo, his eyes raking the canyon. He dropped into a crouch, gun in hand, and motioned the others to spread out and search.
Gibbs waited.
A shout from the clump of bushes told him they'd found Gates. It was instantly clear what had happened.
Spurling's head shot up and he scanned the rim of the plateau.
"Gibbs! I know you're up there now, Agent Gibbs. Very clever dropping the rock on poor old Gates here, but you gave away your position".
Gibbs said nothing. By now, NCIS would have called in help from the Navy for a search. It wouldn't be much longer till reinforcements arrived.
"I want you down here now, Agent Gibbs". Spurling waited. Nothing moved in the canyon except the two men carrying Gates' body back to the river bank. One of them muttered a curse as he stumbled and slipped on a smooth rock embedded in the earth, and for a moment the body dragged along the ground.
Silence.
"I'm a patient man, Agent Gibbs, but right now I'm in a hurry and the big city's calling. Throw down your gun, if you have one, and come down now".
Only the insects moved on the plateau.
"All right then, if that's the way you want it. Contarino, Muller, come here, I've got a job for you". Spurling motioned the men to his side and pointed to DiNozzo. "Put him in with Gates where the sun don't shine".
Contarino and Muller turned and headed for the river bank. Using whatever dead branches they could find, they began to scoop out a shallow grave in the soft sand. It didn't take them long.
"I guess that's it, then, Agent Gibbs", Spurling shouted. "Your man, your call. Too bad you didn't make the right one, for him, that is".
Contarino and Muller carried Gates' body to the grave and laid it flat on the bottom. Then they advanced on the now only semi-conscious DiNozzo and cut him free.
For a wild moment Gibbs thought they were releasing him, but Muller picked him up and slung him over his shoulder and headed back to the river bank. They dumped DiNozzo unceremoniously into the grave face down on top of Gates and began to fill it in. Within minutes the sand on the river bank was level again.
Gibbs had no chance of getting to DiNozzo in time, even if he could make it down the cliff unharmed.