Chapter 28

Thirty years ago...

Sam stood in the jungle, waiting for his team to land and join up. Charlie was already checking the perimeter to be sure that no one had observed their landing, and as soon as they had a secure base camp, he could tell his men what they were doing. He'd finally been informed on the plane, and while he was still ambivalent, if everything was truly the way he'd been told, then, he could handle it.

"It's clear," Charlie said softly.

Sam nodded and waited.

Within two minutes, his team had reassembled on the ground. They had moved through the jungle as silently as it was possible to move. There was very little noise beyond the regular jungle sounds.

"Good," Sam said when they were all there. "We have a two-mile march to the space designated for our base camp. We will then secure the area. After that, I will inform you of our mission here."

There was no verbal acknowledgment, but it was unnecessary. They had worked together for long enough that Sam knew that they would follow his words to the letter. He set off into the jungle, confident that he had his bearings right and that they would get to the spot he'd marked from the plane before they'd jumped.

It was dark in the jungle, and he brought them to a halt on occasion to have Charlie check the bearings on the compass. They had to correct their course a couple of times, but there was no other need to stop. No one was tired or even winded by the trek. This was what they had trained for. The only difference between this place and San Diego was that it was a little cooler.

...and it was the real thing, not training.

They got to the spot and, again, checked a wide perimeter. There was no one nearby. Some animals, but otherwise, they were completely isolated. Exactly what they needed.

They didn't rush, but they were quick and efficient. After they had secured the area, they gathered around Sam and Charlie.

"All right. The government has been trying to suppress communist groups in Central America. The Sandanistas in Nicaragua have been funding communist rebellion in El Salvador and appear to be moving closer to direct conflict. Our mission is to do recon of a possible Sandanista base about twenty miles from here. We are to assess the situation and destroy the base to send a message to them that we will not tolerate their interference in El Salvador. We have two full weeks to do recon. We miss nothing. Commander Leadore is our home base. Dillan and Archer will stay on site while the rest of us set up a secondary camp closer to our target. We will maintain contact to give reports via Commander Leadore and to get orders from our superiors. Otherwise, there is no outside contact until we complete our mission. Any questions."

Silence.

"Good. You have two minutes to prepare to move out."

x.x.x.x.x.x.x

Present...

It was dark when Tim woke up. He sat up, forgetting where he was for a moment and then realized that the rain had stopped. The wind had stopped. ...and nothing had crushed the car. He was okay.

Briefly, he wondered where that feral cat had sheltered during the night. With all that rain, it would have wanted a safe, dry space, just like he did. Surely, it would have places like that if it was living out here.

As he sat there, he found that he had absolutely zero desire to leave the car until it was light. He berated himself for being wimpy, but at the same time, he just couldn't do it. He had to wait until he could see how much damage there had been to the shack, until he could see if he was going to be able to remain in this spot or if he'd have to move on to another one.

How much more damage had been done during the night? It was about four a.m. and he had a couple of hours until sunrise. He was kind of hungry though. Some of his food was on the front seat, so he leaned forward and grabbed a few granola bars and ate them. There was some water, too, and that was good because he was definitely thirsty. After eating and drinking, he lay back down to keep himself hidden. As he stared up at the roof of the car, he tried not to think about anything. For right now, while he couldn't actually bring himself to do anything worthwhile, he didn't want to be dwelling on the things he couldn't do. Instead, he lay there, letting his mind wander.

To his surprise, after a few minutes, it settled on something. A poem. It wasn't long, which was, he had to admit to himself, why he had chosen to memorize it. There had been times, as a teenager, when his father's devotion to memorizing quotes and inflicting them on his family had been a bit too much, especially those times when he had pushed Tim to memorize every word ever written, or so it had seemed to him at the time.

Tim smiled as he thought of those days. Before the car accident, those years when things had been normal and wonderful. No moving around, no military, no injury, and his dad was finished with school and working. All those things that had combined to make, what seemed to him now, an idyllic life. Idyllic was probably just not meant to be his lot in life. He had gone from military to wonderful to paralysis.

Which brought him back to the poem he had remembered. It was by Henry van Dyke. Very softly, he recited it aloud, remembering how Sam had told him that these weren't meant to be read silently but to be shared aloud with others.

"'Let me but live my life from year to year,
With forward face and unreluctant soul;
Not hurrying to, nor turning from the goal;
Not mourning for the things that disappear
In the dim past, nor holding back in fear
From what the future veils; but with a whole
And happy heart, that pays its toll
To Youth and Age, and travels on with cheer.

So let the way wind up the hill or down,
O'er rough or smooth, the journey will be joy:
Still seeking what I sought when but a boy,
New friendship, high adventure, and a crown,
My heart will keep the courage of the quest,
And hope the road's last turn will be the best.'"

Life. It definitely hadn't turned out the way he had originally planned it, but then, things rarely turned out as planned.

He lay there, letting other poems flit through his mind, as he waited for the Sun to rise.

Hopefully, by then, he'd have his nerve back.

x.x.x.x.x.x.x

Gibbs was waiting for Tony to get to his place. He wasn't telling Vance about their trip to Norfolk because Vance needed to have as much deniability as possible. He couldn't tell anyone anything if he didn't have anything to tell.

The door opened, and he looked up...and was surprised to see someone other than Tony.

"Good morning, Jethro. I was hoping to catch you before you left."

Gibbs raised his eyebrow. "Ducky?"

"Is it safe to talk here?"

"As safe as it can be. I checked. No obvious bugs so far."

"Could you give me any update on what you're doing?"

"Captain Coleman is taking the case and she found out about McGee."

Ducky came down the stairs.

"I imagine she wasn't happy?"

"No. She threatened to walk away if I kept her out of anything else."

"I don't blame her. I understand your reasons for not telling her, but she probably should have known from the beginning."

"Yeah, probably."

"Did she accept what you told her?"

"Yeah."

"Good. I'm glad because there's a definite benefit to having a JAG lawyer ready and waiting."

Gibbs nodded.

"She doesn't know about what you found."

"That's risky, given her ultimatum."

"If we find him, we'll tell her. "

"All right. Is there anything else right now?"

"Not yet." Gibbs hesitated, but then, he decided to see what Ducky thought. "I'm thinking of having Abby hack some satellites."

Ducky's eyes widened.

"For what reason?"

"To track him down. The longer it takes us, the more likely that they'll find him, first. His parents think it's possible that the people involved will try to kill him."

"Oh, dear."

"If we can get to him, we can keep that from happening."

"Be honest. Are you surprised that Timothy has managed to hide from you?"

Gibbs grimaced. It wasn't just surprise. It was closer to shock. Tim was always so straightforward, but he had shown a completely different side with this situation. He was willing to go a lot farther than Gibbs would have thought he could, let alone than he would be willing to go.

"Yeah."

Ducky smiled.

The door opened again, and this time, it was Tony.

"Hey, Duck. You coming with us?" Tony asked.

"No, I'm afraid not. Some of us still have to work."

"We're working!" Tony said. "Just...on something else."

Ducky chuckled. "Have no fear, Anthony. I am not criticizing."

"Yeah, I know. I'm ready to go, Boss," Tony said.

"I'll get out of your way," Ducky said. "I hope you can find some way to let me know what comes of this."

"Will do," Tony said.

Ducky left the house and Tony looked at Gibbs.

"So...how much are you planning on this trip, Boss?"

"Depends on what we find."

"Right. If his car is so close... I mean, I know it makes sense that he wouldn't want to be too far removed, but still..."

"Let's go," Gibbs said.

Tony nodded and they headed out. The drive toward Norfolk was as long as it usually was. Gibbs didn't make much conversation, and Tony didn't seem disposed to talk, either. Gibbs was thinking about how successful Tim had been in hiding up to this point. He'd dumped his car, but he obviously had to get a different one if he was going to go anywhere. However, there had been no evidence of any new title or anything. So he'd bought a car kind of under the table where neither party made it official. Technically, that meant that Tim was driving illegally without any insurance, not that it would matter if he didn't get in an accident. It was just that disregard for the law. Again, he wouldn't have thought Tim could manage something like that.

As they got closer, Tony began navigating and telling him where to go. They ended up in a suburban neighborhood on the outskirts of Norfolk. It was almost in the country, but not quite.

Parked near the back of the house, but still visible from the road, was Tim's Porsche. It had clearly been in the recent rainstorm (although Norfolk had only got the edges, not the brunt as farther inland had), but it didn't look like anyone had driven it in at least a week.

They parked and walked over to the car.

"Definitely McGee's," Tony said. "Hey! Look on the windshield."

Gibbs walked over and saw a note under one of the wipers, almost out of sight unless one came right up to it, as they were. Gibbs pulled it out and opened it. There was some water damage, but not as much as there could have been, all things considered.

The note wasn't long, but it was definitely Tim's handwriting.

Hey Ben,

If you're reading this, then, I'm sure you're wondering why in the world my car is parked in your driveway. It's a long story, but since you were on vacation, I figured I could leave it here and have it be pretty safe. I also thought that I'd be back to get it before you got home. If I haven't, then, I apologize. You don't need to do anything with the car, though. If you need the space, then, you can call my boss, Agent Gibbs, at 202-555-3829. He'll take care of it. If not, then, at some point, either I or my parents will come and get it.

At this point, you're probably wondering what in the world Overlord is doing, and if you find this note, I promise you'll find out. :) It's been a while since we've hung out together, but this would be a pretty long story.

Long story short (Too late!), thanks for your driveway and hopefully, you don't even know I've been here.

Tim

Gibbs passed the note over to Tony who read it quickly. He looked up.

"I'm impressed," he said. "He gave information without actually telling anything. There are a couple of details so that his friend knows it's him, and the only information he actually tells him is your name and number, and anyone looking for him would already know that stuff."

Gibbs nodded.

"So...what now? This tells us that he drove from Ohio down here, but where did he go from here?"

Gibbs looked around the neighborhood and saw a curtain twitch in a house across the street. Nosy or at least concerned neighbor. He smiled and started off. Tony followed.

They crossed the street and walked up the wooden steps to a bright yellow front door. Gibbs knocked and they waited. The curtains twitched one more time and then, finally, the door opened, revealing an old man. He was really short and he peered up at the two of them suspiciously.

"Who are you and what are you doing, looking around Ben's house? He's not home and hasn't been for a few weeks. He's off galavanting around with his family in South America."

"That's fine. I'm Agent Gibbs. This is Agent DiNozzo. We're with NCIS." He pulled out his badge and ID so that the man could examine it.

"NCIS? What's that?"

Tony laughed. "I love that question. It's Naval Criminal Investigative Service."

Unexpectedly, the man's expression cleared. "Navy, huh? I was a Navy man, myself. Long time ago. I was a lieutenant back then. Jake Walton." He shook Gibbs' hand. "What's the Navy doing with Ben? He's not Navy. He's kind of a computer guy, actually."

"Why am I not surprised?" Tony said. "A friend of McGee's? Gotta be another geek. Actually, we're not here looking for Ben. We're here about the car parked in his driveway."

"It's not his. He's not that fancy."

"Did you see the man who left it there?" Gibbs asked.

"Sure did. Ben never asked me to, but I keep my eye on his place when he's traveling. You never know about people."

"Sure don't," Gibbs said. "What did you see?"

"Well, it was just over a week ago. A man drove up in that fancy car. He sat in the car for a few minutes. I was about to go over and tell him that Ben was gone, but then, he got out and walked away."

"He walked?" Tony asked.

"Yeah. Just walked. I don't know where he was going or what he was doing, but he never came back and you can bet that I watched for him. He just walked away, left a car that probably cost a year's salary sitting in Ben's driveway. I figured that it could be that Ben was buying the car and had made arrangements. So...he didn't?"

"Nope."

"Why is the car there, then?"

"A friend of his left the car there because he needed a place to park it," Gibbs said. "He figured that it would be safer here than in a garage."

"Well, that's true enough. Not a lot happens here."

Gibbs thought about it for a few seconds and then made a decision.

"If you see anyone else looking at the car, would you call us?"

"Sure. Could you tell me why?"

"Not right now, but you may find out later."

"That sounds interesting. A real mystery. So if anyone I don't know starts looking the car?"

"Yep."

"I can do that."

Gibbs handed him his card.

"Thanks."

"No problem. Always happy to help out a Navy man."

Gibbs shook hands with Jake and then he and Tony headed back to the car.

"So he just walked away," Tony said. "He either had the new car already lined up or he just got a taxi and rode to where he could search for the car or just saw it along the road."

Gibbs nodded.

"So, what now, Boss?" Tony asked, as they got into the car. "We know he was here. Maybe he didn't get a new set of wheels. Maybe he's right around here, somewhere."

Gibbs thought about it as he drove away from the house. Then, he shook his head.

"No. He'll want to be in a place that's completely isolated. If there are people around, there's a much better chance that he'll be seen."

Tony smiled a little. "Yeah, by nosy neighbors."

Gibbs smiled a little, too.

"He doesn't want to have that chance at all, so he'll be somewhere that he can rely on seeing no one at all. It's safer."

"Yeah," Tony said, grimly, "until the people in charge find him and can take him out because he doesn't have any backup."

Gibbs nodded.

"That's why we have to find him, first."