Hopefully, the site is done being weird. Chapter 12 was posted on Friday and didn't show up completely until Sunday. Umm, I'll warn you, this is a cliffhanger.
McGee was just passing Dillsburg when he finally called. He was five minutes late and Kate was pacing in MTAC. "Tim, are you all right? You're late."
Sorry, Kate, I was hoping to stop for a few minutes in Dillsburg.
"Why didn't you?" She sat down next to Ducky as they listened carefully to him. Under normal driving conditions, Tim would have been pulling into the family driveway about now, but in this blizzard, he had another twelve hour drive ahead of him at least.
The on ramp is closed, so I wouldn't have been able to get back on the freeway. Some sort of accident. Any word on the stolen truck?
"No, not yet. The local LEO's are too busy with the accidents out there to pay much attention to the BOLO we put out." At first she was going to scold him for worrying about a case right now, then she realized it probably kept his mind off the situation he was in.
Does the Toys for Tots Foundation own the truck?
"I don't know, does it matter?"
It might. A lot of truck companies use GPS locators on their trucks. If the truck was loaned to them, it may have an onboard locator that they don't even know about.
"That's a great idea, I'll pass it along to Gibbs." Kate looked over at Ducky who was on another phone. He was nodding at her and she hoped it meant good news. "Hang on a minute, Tim, Ducky is checking something."
Ducky took the phone from Kate as soon as he hung up his cell. "Timothy, I just checked with a friend of mine in Harrisburg. If you take the second offramp into town, the road is passable. There is a fuel station right at the bottom of the offramp and a small dining establishment right next to it. I've already taken the liberty of ordering you a meal to go and it will be ready for you when you arrive. A snowplow driver will be starting his dinner break in about twenty minutes and if you time it right, you'll be able to follow him back onto the freeway and possibly all the way to the exit for I-81."
Thanks, Ducky. If I can get in behind another plow I might get home yet.
"Just be careful, lad. I understand that the snow is getting worse the further north you go." He had barely gotten to know the young man, but he was already fond of Tim.
It's the lake effect snow. They're predicting this year is going to be pretty bad. Has Kate called Gibbs yet?
"She's on the phone right now. We will be waiting for your next call, Timothy."
---NCIS---
Gibbs moved off to find some privacy to take a phone call, leaving Tony with Major Bryant and his son. "Where were you headed with the load of toys, sir?"
"St. Mary's over in the Columbia Heights area. There's a dinner being held for all the families and then Santa is arriving to hand out toys from the truck. We're going to have a lot of disappointed children tonight if we don't find that truck." Bryant looked up at the cloudy sky overhead. "I can't believe this. I've spent every Christmas for the last seven years delivering toys. I've never lost a single toy, let alone an entire truckload."
Perhaps it was the knowledge that McGee was struggling to get home for his mother's last Christmas, but DiNozzo was hit hard by that statement. "We're going to do everything humanly possible to find that truck, sir. I give you my word."
Gibbs rejoined them as he was closing his phone. "Who owns the truck?"
"Well, the trailer is owned by the foundation, but the truck is on loan from Stiles-Harmon Trucking. Damn, I need to call them."
"Yes, we do need to call them." Gibbs was grinning, which was a surprise to DiNozzo considering the circumstances. "They're a big trucking company and according to McGee, big companies usually have a GPS tracker somewhere on their trucks."
"We can tie into their system, and find the truck? It's that simple? Way to go, Probie. If he's helping us, does that mean he made it home safe and sound?" DiNozzo was grinning now, too.
Gibbs smile faded as he answered. "Apparently, he's just now coming into Harrisburg."
"He's still got more than two hundred miles to go, Boss. He's not going to make it, is he?"
"He'll make it, he has to, Tony." Even Bryant and his son noticed the concern and worry in both men.
"You've got a man headed north in this weather?"
Gibbs gave a short nod. "He's trying to get home to see his mother one last time before she dies. Let's see if we can get your truck back for you. Then we can focus on getting him home."
---NCIS---
"What if Tim doesn't get to the diner in time to be able to follow the snowplow?" Kate was staring at the weather maps, trying to understand the arrows and curved lines.
Ducky didn't seem overly concerned that the plow would leave before McGee arrived. "Don't worry about it, my dear." When Kate didn't seem convinced, he let her in on a little secret. "The driver is going to wait for him. My friend in town has it all set up."
Kate bent down and kissed him on the cheek. "You're wonderful, Ducky."
"Thank you, my dear. Now, let's get back to work, shall we?" Ducky returned to his extensive list of contacts to find Tim's next guardian angel. Kate was watching in awe when Gibbs called back to give her the information about the tracking system in the truck.
---NCIS---
"Hey, I'm Tony." DiNozzo carefully watched the teen as Gibbs was on the phone with Kate. The young man didn't seem too interested in him, but he was polite.
"I'm Matthew, sir. Did you mean it?" He stared at Tony. "I mean about finding the truck. Did you mean it?"
"Yeah, we're going to do everything we can." Tony considered how he thought most teenage boys would feel about giving up their holidays every year for a charity. "It must be tough, spending your Christmas vacation handing out a bunch of toys every year."
Matthew shrugged at the question. "The first couple of days are kind of hard because I miss my friends, but then we get in the groove. I get to spend an entire week on the road with my dad, which is really cool. The stop here in Washington DC is the last one, so my mom always meets us and helps with the dinner." Matthew had a wistful look on his face. "To see those kids when we help hand out presents, there's nothing else quite like it. You should come with us, I mean, when you find the truck."
"Maybe, but first we need to find the truck. Is there anything else you can remember, maybe something that you didn't want your dad to know about?"
It was evident that something was eating at Matthew. He scuffed his shoe at the pavement before admitting what he had held back. "I'm not suppose to have my cell phone with me, but I've got it hidden in my jacket. I wasn't playing video games, I was around back, texting with my girlfriend. I told you the truth about what I saw, but if I'd called my dad instead of running over to find him, maybe they wouldn't have gotten away with the toys."
Tony couldn't remember being this young. "Does your dad even know you have a girlfriend?"
"No. Are you going to tell him?" The challenge was obvious.
"If you're doing something stupid with her, I'll kick your butt all the way back to Camp Pendleton. Is that understood?" Tony tried to look serious, but the smirk took the edge of his expression.
---NCIS---
"Abby, thanks for coming back in." Kate smiled and accepted the hug as Abby swept into MTAC. "We need you to help track the GPS for a truck of toys that was stolen from the Marines."
"The Toys for Tots program? I love that group, they do so much for the kids. What kind of lowlife would steal toys from them? Abby was instantly furious. Every month she bought toys and set them aside for the annual toy drive at the Yard. This year she had dragged McGee into helping her deliver all the toys when the big Marine Corps truck arrived. "Why isn't McGee tracking it down, where is he?"
Kate looked to Ducky for help. They hadn't meant to leave Abby out of the loop, but she and Tony had rushed to complete their plans after they found out the truth about McGee's family. Tracking Abby down while she was giving a presentation at Quantico was something they hadn't had the time to do.
Ducky kindly rescued Kate from Abby and took the Goth off to the side to bring her up current with McGee's situation. Abby ranted and raved for a few minutes until she realized how much they had gotten done for her friend in a very short amount of time. By the time Tim called from behind the snowplow, she was calm enough to sort through various ideas and work with him to come up with a plan to track the stolen truck.
---NCIS---
After Mrs Bryant picked up her husband and son, Gibbs and Tony got back in their sedan to start tracking down the truck filled with toys. "What have we got, Boss?" Tony hadn't heard the latest plans from Gibbs' phone call to headquarters.
The car fishtailed slightly as Gibbs pulled out of the parking lot. "According to McGee, that type of GPS sends a signal out every time the truck passes a hotspot, whatever the heck that is. The last signal was about fifteen miles north of here, so that's where we start."
Tony checked his seatbelt as he struggled to not tell Gibbs what a hotspot was. The older man didn't care about wireless signals and the younger one got a flash of what it must be like for McGee to have all this knowledge his team didn't understand. Hopefully the thieves would stay near somebody's unsecured Wi-Fi and they could catch up to them pretty quick. Or at least before they decided to open a corner discount store someplace.
Abby monitored the truck's signal, the blips they received each time it passed within range of a hotspot were translated to a point on the map by Kate and relayed to Tony. The hours passed as Gibbs plowed through the increasingly impassable roads while Tony and Kate debated different destinations for the wayward truck. Eventually they agreed that the truck was headed for a row of abandoned warehouses near the Anacostia River. Dispatch sent several Metro black and white units to meet up with them to start searching on foot.
---NCIS---
"See anything, DiNozzo?" Gibbs let the car roll down the slight downhill slope as they approached the first of the seven warehouses.
Tony squinted in the rapidly dimming light. The snow was coming down heavier, but it looked like the indent of tire tracks between the first two buildings. "I think so, take a look over there, Boss." He pointed at what he was looking at. Gibbs didn't respond except for a grunt, and turned the car that direction. Once they were on the back side of the buildings, the tire tracks were more apparent.
The large semi was able to get through the snowdrifts between the buildings, but by the third one, the sedan was hopelessly stuck. Abandoning the vehicle, the two men continued on, walking in the rut left by the truck.
Tony listened to Kate over the phone before relaying the message. "Boss, Kate says that Metro is about five minutes out. They've got four wheel drive, so they should get here okay."
Gibbs peered around the corner. "Have Kate tell them that the suspects are in warehouse five and are still with the truck"
He repeated the information to Kate and then settled in next to Gibbs to wait. He checked his watch one last time, it was less than an hour before the dinner was going to start for all those children whose only Christmas was sitting in that stolen truck.
---NCIS---
Meanwhile, just north of the border between Pennsylvania and New York, an overweight truck and trailer began to slide on the snowy road. Behind it, a small green car managed to stop in time. The SUV that was third in line was unable to stop and rear-ended the small Datsun, sending it forward into the path of the truck and trailer as it slid off the road, taking the car with it.