"Ziva's missing," said Gibbs, succinctly.

"Well, shit," said Fornell, as Gibbs hung up the phone.

Tony and McGee didn't say anything. They'd been listening to the half of the conversation that they could hear, and even though Gibbs knew he hadn't done anything more than grunt, they'd known that it was bad news, and this was the bad news they'd been waiting for.

The two agents sat down and started typing before Gibbs had slipped his phone back into his pocket.

"Nothing on the BOLO," said McGee. Fornell was leaning over his shoulder, staring at the screen.

"I haven't gotten a message from Shelley," said Tony. "But you should check your email too."

Gibbs nodded and pulled up his inbox. He clicked on a reminder for a conference on interoffice communication because he didn't recognize the sender, but then he realized that was just because he tended to avoid anyone who tried to make him talk.

He glanced at McGee, but the junior field agent shook his head.

Gibbs sank into his chair. "Doesn't she always send a clue?"

"Maybe she doesn't want us to find her," said McGee.

"No," said Gibbs. "She wants Tony. She wants Dinozzo to find her."

"Maybe she thinks I should already know where she is," said Tony.

Gibbs wondered briefly if this was what Tony's campfires had been like while he was in Mexico, worrying about tropical storm season and leaky roofs. Things like that had seemed important then.

"How?" asked Fornell.

"Would she take Ziva to the same place she took your partner?" asked Gibbs.

"No way she's getting on a plane with the BOLO, Boss." Tony looked at him like he was the psychopath.

"I mean the same kind of place."

"Oh. Right. Not unless there are any cornfields on the hill."

"What if she already gave us the clue?" asked McGee.

"Keep talking," said Gibbs.

"Um," said McGee. "She said she was going to attack Ziva earlier, so maybe she gave us the clue earlier too. That's all."

"It's a place to start," said Fornell.

"It narrows it down anyway."

"To what?" asked Fornell. He answered himself. "The crime scene, the publisher's office, the coffee shop. Anywhere else?"

Tony was frowning at McGee, who looked down at his rumpled dress shirt.

"What?" he asked self consciously.

"When we find her, keep your mouth shut," said Tony.

In an inadvertent show of rebellion, McGee's mouth fell open. "What?"

"You're a hell of a lot smarter than me, and she doesn't need to know that."

"You think she would target me?" asked McGee. He sounded slightly nauseous, and Gibbs was glad to hear it. At the beginning of the case, the way Tim talked about Eight was almost awestruck.

"Probie, I don't think Freud could have told you what she would or wouldn't do. But keep your mouth shut anyway, okay?"

Without giving McGee time to answer, Tony turned to face Gibbs. "Call your house, Boss."

Gibbs didn't question his second in command. He pulled his cell from his pocket, but it took him a minute to remember the number for his landline, and another minute before he heard the tone that told him Tony was right.

"Phone's disconnected," he said.

Tony made a noise that might have been laughter. "She's in your basement, Boss. She's got Ziva in your basement. I can't believe you left your door unlocked when there's a serial killer targeting people I work with."

"Grab your gear," was all Gibbs said.

As the elevator doors slid shut, he turned to Fornell. "Tobias. You get backup, and then tell Ducky and Abby what's going on before you follow us."

"Is the backup for the confrontation with Eight, or with Abby?"

Gibbs allowed himself a small smile. "She'll be even worse if she's left out of the loop. I want Ducky to meet us at the scene, and an ambulance too."

Fornell shook his head, but he stayed in the elevator when they disembarked. The team was silent as Gibbs led the way to the car.

He exited the parking garage, veering between pessimism and optimism almost as quickly as he changed lanes. He felt guilty for thinking it, but he was almost glad that Ziva had been taken, because if anyone could change the rules of the game, it was Ziva. She didn't even understand the rules of most games, save the unexpected exception of Scrabble.

He glanced to his right, trying to read Tony.

"Don't worry, Dinozzo. I've got your six."

"Not the number I need right now."

Gibbs pressed his lips together. He'd never seen his agent so tense, and he was afraid of the implications. Tony was letting Eight get to him.

Gibbs knew there was something fundamentally wrong about being jealous of this woman with the short blond hair and the history of violence, but he couldn't help it when he realized that in some unexpected way, she knew Tony better than he did.

The car was quiet for a moment, before Tony said, "You remember the Fuentes case?"

Gibbs blinked. "When you jumped?"

Tony raised an eyebrow. "I didn't jump, Boss."

In the backseat, McGee had moved to the edge of his seat, as if proximity would make their words make sense.

"What about it?"

Tony laughed and Gibbs would have closed his eyes if he wasn't driving. He knew what it meant when his agent acted like everything was fine, but it still scared him when Tony forgot how to stop.

"I wish we were in China," said Tony.