This chapter starts out personal... But then it just gets weird. FAIR. WARNING. If you don't heed this warning, *head-slap*
Ari's head was still reeling. Ziva was burned, meaning she was out of a job. Thanks in part to a head-slap from Gibbs, Ari managed to wrap his head around the situation. After another minute, he pulled a piece of paper out of his pocket.
"McGee, initiate a video-conference with this person," Ari said, handing McGee the paper. "It's my Director," he added.
"Boss?" McGee asked.
"Do it," Gibbs replied.
McGee started working his magic, which took all of five minutes. He gave Ari a thumbs-up, and the feed went live. Mossad Director Eli David did not look at all pleased.
"Officer Haswari, this better be an emergency," Eli snapped.
"That depends," Ari snapped back. "Is your daughter being served a Burn Notice considered an emergency to you?"
"It comes with the territory." Eli's tone was indifferent, like he didn't even care.
Ari's blood pressure spiked and hit a boiling point. He snapped. "Did you not understand me?! My sister, your daughter, is in trouble! And you have the nerve to just sit there and say 'it comes with the territory?!' You are a BASTARD!"
"What are you implying?"
"I think you know what I am implying, Eli. Do you not care about your family? If you just managed to act like a father for once in your life, you would see that your daughter needs your help."
"Do not take that tone of voice with me, Haswari."
"Get your head out of your fucking ass, Eli. Do you need a hearing aid or-"
"If you insist on addressing me in this disrespectful manner-"
"I WILL ADDRESS YOU HOWEVER I PLEASE! This is not some faceless operative that we are talking about-"
"STAND DOWN, HASWARI!" Gibbs ordered.
"And you are?" Eli asked Gibbs.
"Special Agent Gibbs," Gibbs replied. "Ari is filling in for one of my Agents: Special Agent Anthony DiNozzo. He's leading the op that your daughter is on right now. I will only warn you once: If my Agent gets killed or seriously wounded because you didn't clean up your mess, I will come after you myself."
"Agent Gibbs, I want to see if I have this right. You are saying that my operative getting burned is my mess, and if anything happens to Agent Meatball, you are going to come after me?"
"You're damn right I will. Because you may know how to be the Director of Mossad, but you sure as hell don't know how to be a father."
Gibbs looked at McGee and made a slashing motion across his throat. The feed was cut, but not before Eli delivered an onslaught of profanity that could be heard by the corpses in Autopsy.
Gibbs smacked Ari on the head again, harder than he'd ever smacked anyone, including Tony.
"What was that for?!" Ari yelled, tacking on some Hebrew profanity.
"Rule Number 10," Gibbs snapped. "Never get personally involved on a case. I understand that we're talking about your sister, but if you ever pull another stunt like that, I will kick your ass back to Israel. Do you read me?"
"Like a cheap novel." Ari was still rubbing his head; Gibbs had given him a concussion.
...-_-...
Westen pulled up outside the safe house and saw Tony banging his head against the door. Repeatedly.
"What's this about?" Sam asked.
"Eli David just made contact," Tony replied. "It seems he got wind of Ziva's situation and is blaming everyone under the sun, including Ziva. Gibbs got into it with Eli, and apparently, he's on the verge of starting an international incident between the U.S. and Israel. So, how'd it go with your guy?"
"Arkady gave us Cruz's location. He's holed up in an old KGB safe house outside town. What's the call?"
"Stakeouts, alternating 12-hour shifts. Ziva and I will take the day watch; you two take the nights. Day shift starts at 0700, night shift at 1900. Once we have enough evidence that Cruz is there, we grab him."
The shouting match between Ziva and Eli was escalating, and pretty soon, Tony, Sam, & Westen could hear every word of it.
"We should probably let Eli know that we've found Cruz," Tony suggested.
"You want to take the heat off your girlfriend?" Sam asked.
"That, and I want to tell Director David to keep his plane on stand-by. As soon as we grab Cruz, we have to let Eli know."
The three men walked inside as Ziva released another profane tirade. Tony tapped her on the shoulder and made a "move over" motion with his hand.
"Agent DiNozzo, you had better have a good reason for my daughter getting Burned," Eli snapped over the feed.
"Director David, if I had all the answers, I would've run for President to replace George W. Bush," Tony joked. "But on a more serious note, we have found Ray Cruz."
"You have?"
"Yes, we have. We'll deliver him to you personally at the NCIS Building in Washington after we grab him. And as an added bonus, I'll even deliver the bastard that Burned Ziva."
"I would greatly appreciate that, Agent Meatball."
"Meatball?" Tony repeated, feigning insult. "Meatball? Did you just call moi a meatball?"
Ziva turned away from the computer and burst out laughing. Eli shook his head as a small smirk crossed his face.
And then Gibbs' MTAC Feed came through.
"DiNozzo, you're not being paid to be a comedian," he said.
"Hey, boss," Tony said. He then spoke without thinking. "This just became a three-way, didn't it?"
"That's what she said!" Ziva said between fits of laughter.
"Anyway..." Tony was trying (and failing) to keep a straight face.
"You feeling okay, DiNozzo?" Gibbs asked.
"Agent Westen, take over here," Tony said, unable to contain his laughter.
Westen stepped up to the monitor and briefed Gibbs and Eli. "We have located Ray Cruz. He's holed up in an old KGB safe house just outside of town, so we're going to stake it out to make sure the intel's good. If it is, we're going to grab him and turn him over to Director David at the NCIS Building."
"That's good to hear," Gibbs said. "Shifts been set?"
"They have. Shifts start at 0700 and 1900, respectfully."
"Good. Don't screw it up by killing him."
"We won't." Westen cut the feed and turned to Sam. "If that safe house is where I think it is, we should get going."
"It's that far away?" Sam asked. The look on Westen's face seemed to answer the question.
Coming up: Stakeouts, the spies from Ch. 10 are named, and 3 little words that will change everything. STAY TUNED! REVIEW! TODA!