Disclaimer: NCIS and its characters do not belong to me and I am making no money from this.
As always many, many thanks for the reviews, alerts etc, it really does help to know that people enjoy what you write and that the story does actually make sense. VP.
"Boss, they found another body."
"Got an ID?" Gibbs asked, his gut churning.
McGee paused before replying. "Boss, it's Taylor Stewart."
"Damn," Gibbs said succinctly. "They're playing with us again," he took a moment to gather his thoughts. "How was she killed?" he asked quietly.
"She was shot, in the back of the head, execution style," McGee reported.
"Get the body sent to Ducky," Gibbs ordered, tamping down on his frustration with an effort, "and then meet us at Dulles; we'll be at the entrance on the north side of the airport." He hung up without waiting for a reply and handed the phone over to his senior agent intent on having a quick look at the plans for the airport before heading over there. He watched as the younger man fiddled around for a moment or two, searching through the links until he found what he was looking for.
"He will come into the International Arrivals Building," Tony supplied a minute later. "He's on United Airlines' flight UA 923 out of London Heathrow. We could make sure that an airport bus picks up the passengers from the plane, gives us some measure of control."
Gibbs nodded at the idea, while they did want to draw out the hostage takers they needed to do so without putting innocent civilians at risk. "If we go anywhere near him we are going to be spotted," he began slowly, hating the implications of what he was about to say.
"I know Boss," DiNozzo admitted. "They've been so far ahead of us all along we have to assume that they'll be at the airport but we can't just let them take him, he's my Dad," he concluded quietly, looking for a moment like a lost little boy.
"I'm open to suggestions," Gibbs said, looking over his agent's shoulder at the airport plans, trying to come up with ideas of his own.
"How about we get customs to pull him in?" Tony suggested. "We've got time to increase the customs presence; they can be conducting random searches."
"You want to piss off the travelling public?" Jethro asked, a twinkle in his eye. He didn't give a damn about inconveniencing people for the greater good, as long as he could achieve his primary objective and still keep people safe.
"At least we can give him a chance to make up his own mind, and put him in a vest," the SFA insisted.
Gibbs smiled slightly. "It's a good idea Tony," he agreed, "Contact McGee and get him to set it up, we need to get going." Quickly he cleared all of their belongings back into the bag Ducky had provided and left it by the door. Once DiNozzo had finished with his call he helped him up off the bed and waited until he was steady on his feet. "As soon as we get out of sight you put that sling back on," he admonished. "We're gonna be in enough trouble with Ducky as it is."
Tony smiled back at his mentor and took a deep breath. "He may not like it Boss, but he will understand," he said with certainty, talking to cover his discomfort. While he felt a great deal better than he had on arrival at the motel he could acknowledge to himself at least that he was still as weak as a kitten and at the moment painkillers sounded like a very good idea. Trying his utmost to mask his limp he followed Gibbs out to the car in the dim light of early morning, focussing his thoughts on how best to keep his father safe while catching the bastards behind all of this.
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Two hours later Gibbs and DiNozzo sat with McGee, Ziva and Fornell in a small office behind the customs control point at Dulles airport. His team had been pleased to see him and Tony had begun to feel a little more normal once out of the hotel room and back doing something. The customs random searches had already begun, the custom's officers had been happy to oblige telling the agents that it was policy to hold searches at least once a week as it kept everyone on their toes. They had been given Senior's name and a photo so they knew to make sure that he was one of the people 'selected' for searching. Now the group found themselves in the position of waiting, for another few minutes at least, until it was time to go to their appointed observation posts. There were still three hours to go before Senior's plane was due to land and the team sat round the room quietly, drinking coffee and talking while Gibbs and Fornell studied the detailed airport blueprints.
"We have no idea how many people he's got at his disposal," Fornell lamented.
"Can't say for sure that DiNozzo will be willing to play the bait either," Gibbs pointed out, sparing a glance for his senior agent sitting quietly in the corner of the room. Tony shrugged imperceptibly, silently indicating that he had no idea what Senior would choose to do. They would only have a few minutes to talk to him and Gibbs was acutely aware that the man had no idea what was happening with his son at this point, as far as he knew Tony was still being held hostage. At least he hadn't been told that he was dead.
He looked over at his two junior agents; McGee was dressed in the uniform of Airport Security giving him the opportunity to openly carry his weapon and Ziva's badge proclaimed her to be a passport control officer. Both were due to be put through their paces by the relevant personnel in a few minutes before heading out to Baggage claim fifteen, where passengers entering the country from abroad would arrive and the customs control point respectively. Fornell had agents stationed around the terminal and out on the tarmac, Sacks had returned from New York and was driving the courtesy coach which would collect the passengers from Flight UA 923 when it, unexpectedly, couldn't reach it's normal gate to allow the passengers to disembark. Gibbs and DiNozzo would remain in the customs control office until they had talked to Senior and would then move to the security offices so that they could join Fornell and watch proceedings from the CCTV cameras. The plan wasn't flawless but, considering how little time they had had to put it together both senior agents were happy that it was the best that could be achieved on short notice. They looked up from their study of the blueprints as the officers came to escort Ziva and McGee into a quiet room for training and Fornell decided that he might as well begin his study of the CCTV, after all they were all already in place there was no reason to doubt that Franco and his minions would be just as organised.
Once the room was quiet again Gibbs went over and sat down beside his SFA. "You okay?" he asked quietly.
"Fine," came the predictable response but then Tony looked up to see the exasperated expression on his boss' face and decided to elaborate. "I hate waiting," he admitted, conveniently forgetting to mention how he was feeling.
Gibbs wasn't fooled and looked closely at the younger man, seeing the pain in his eyes that he wasn't completely able to mask. He also saw the near desperation hidden in the green depths and understood that, whatever Tony's relationship with Senior, the man was still his father and he felt a strong need to protect him. Jethro understood that, his own protective instincts were at the forefront of his mind at the moment after all. Finally he nodded slightly and looked away allowing Tony his deceit, at least until they had met with the elder DiNozzo. He looked at his watch, 08:00, two and a half hours until the plane was due to land, he needed coffee.
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Alone in her lab Abby studied the bullet recovered from the scene where Taylor's body had been found. Once Metro had discovered the body in the same area where DiNozzo had been concealed they had called NCIS, accepting for once that it was their case. Ducky had declared that she had been killed at the scene. There was evidence that she had been restrained with what looked like handcuffs, though those had clearly been removed. The bullet had pierced her skull from behind but had been found by the team working the scene and brought back to the lab in an evidence bag.
Abby didn't have a weapon to compare it with but was running the bullet through her databases anyway, if the gun had been used before it was possible that it would be in the system. She was just about to process the next piece of evidence when her computer chirped; turning back to the machine Abby was pleased to see a confirmed match appear on the screen. Taking a closer look she smiled, the smirk deepening as she realised that their hostage takers had, at last, made a mistake.
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"Yeah, Gibbs," the senior agent answered the phone, carefully handing off the two cups he held to DiNozzo. "Hey, Abs slow down," he protested, casting a glance over at Tony as he put the phone on speaker. They were alone for the moment in the Customs Office and could talk freely. Gibbs sat on the edge of the desk near his agent and asked Abby to begin again.
"Are you ready Gibbs," she said, slowly this time. At the lack of response she continued anyway, pleased and excited with what she had found. "Ducky is doing the autopsy on Taylor Stewart," she began in earnest. "He hasn't got back to me yet but they found the bullet at the scene and I've just got a match. It came through really quickly because it searches through our own database first."
"Abs," Gibbs warned.
"Right, focus, sorry Bossman. Anyway the bullet came from Tony's gun which is really silly on their part because it means that the killer must have been in contact with the hostage takers to get the gun. So all of their trying to hide their tracks by killing everyone involved has backfired."
"They've gotten over confident," Gibbs mused, a glint in his eye. "That's good work Abs," he complimented closing the phone and looking at his SFA. Tony was holding up well, he looked tired but determined and was clearly pleased with the change in their fortunes.
"I suppose they thought that it would be another way to get at Dad," he said, thinking aloud. "Frame me for murder, again. Too bad I've got an alibi."
"Whatever the reason it was a mistake," Gibbs agreed, as Abby said it ties them in to the murders of their accomplices or, at the very least, to the attack on you."
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The hours dragged on and Gibbs watched DiNozzo with concern as his earlier enthusiasm turned to agitation as 10:30 drew nearer. The younger man had been unable to leave the room for fear of being spotted and he had little to occupy his time other than to think. Never one for small talk Gibbs nevertheless sought to ease his friend's discomfort and cast about for something to talk about. DiNozzo, however, took pity on him and spoke first.
"Plane's on time," he said, looking away from the screen displaying arrivals and departures on the office wall.
Gibbs grunted and looked at his watch, again, 10:15. He tapped his wrist mike and checked in with all of the agents stationed around the terminal building and outside. Receiving an affirmative from all he checked finally with Fornell, knowing that he would have been informed if the FBI agent had spotted anything suspicious but wanting to cover all of the bases.
"Nothing yet Jethro," his friend reported, "but bear in mind that I'd only recognise Franco himself and Spinelli. Unless he's stupid enough to employ known criminals."
"I don't think he wants to call attention to himself this time Tobias," Gibbs agreed. "Let me know," he commanded finally, tapping the mike again to close the connection.
"I wish we could see what's happening," DiNozzo said quietly, his frustration evident.
"Can't be helped," Gibbs replied, trying to keep his agent's spirits up. "We'll have plenty to do soon enough."
"Yeah," Tony muttered thinking about the upcoming meeting with his father. "That's what I'm worried about."
Gibbs remained silent, having nothing to say that would help. He looked at his watch again, cursing himself for his lack of patience, 10:29, the game was about to begin.
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High above the terminal building in the control tower Vincent Franco smiled as he watched as flight UA 923 safely touched down, there were benefits, he decided, in having a brother in law who worked air traffic control and was only too happy to show off his skills. Silently he looked down to the main entrance to the terminal and raised his hand.
TBC