Ziva heard the slamming of the hatch doors and made her way back around the house, quickly. The last thing she'd expected, was to see McGee being held from behind with a gun to his head; blood dripping from his temple, where Smith had undoubtedly struck him, first.

"Drop your weapon, Agent David," Smith demanded, "Or he dies."

Her eyes met McGee's for a moment before looking back at Smith's. "And if I drop my weapon, how am I to know you will not simply kill us both?"

"If that's really all I wanted to do, here, I would have shot Agent Gibbs when I had the chance," he replied.

"Where is he?" she asked, still holding her gun.

"Same place you'll be, in a minute. Now drop the damn gun!" he raised his voice.

The look on Tim's face told her that he didn't want her to give in to the demands, but there was no clear shot, and Smith was pressing the barrel harder into his skin. She slowly separated her hands in a surrendering motion, "Why are you doing this?"

"You found me," he told her. "That means I slipped up somewhere, and I haven't had enough time yet. I'm not going to prison... It wasn't my fault; it was an accident..."

"What was?" Ziva pressed as she set her gun on the ground and began to stand again.

Smith cocked his head a bit, "Just get in..."

*~.~*

The hatch doors closed above them, bathing them back into darkness. McGee searched his pockets for his flashlight, but Ziva had hers out before him. "Are you alright, McGee?" she asked, shining the light in his direction.

"Yeah, I'm fine," he replied, shielding his eyes from the beam, then turning on his own light. Coincidentally, his beam hit Gibbs' unconscious form. "Boss!" he scrambled over, as did Ziva. Gibbs groaned as he reentered a wakened state. "Boss, are you okay?" he helped him to sit up.

Gibbs rubbed the ache at his brow, pulling his fingers away to see that it was bleeding. "What happened?" he rasped.

"Smith," Ziva sighed. "It seems that he is behind all of this."

"He must've knocked you down here," McGee continued, "Then clocked me from behind, making me drop my gun, and held me at gunpoint in order to get Ziva to drop hers."

"That is when he forced us down here," she finished.

Gibbs moved to stand, with possibly unnecessary assistance from McGee, and took the younger man's flashlight for a moment, shining it on the ground until he found his own. Tim fetched it from the floor for him, shaking it a bit until it came back on. "So this guy," Gibbs said as they all surveyed the sub-level prison, "Is either really smart, or really out of his mind."

"Perhaps both," Ziva said. "I still have my backup weapons."
Gibbs glanced at her, using the flashlight to see her face. The he crouched down to check his ankle, "He left mine, too."

"Crazy or not," Tim chimed in, "At least he hasn't killed us."

"Yet," Gibbs said as he began walking through. McGee and Ziva shared a glance...

11 00 11 00 11

"Where's the 5-0?" Tony asked as Berk pulled the car up the long trail toward the cabin.

"Well, we told them not to be obvious," Berk replied. "Guess they're just really good at their job?" he raised a brow.

"They should've called by now..."

"There's no signal up here," Berk argued. "If they've tried to call us at all in the past ten minutes or so that we've been lost, we wouldn't have gotten it."

"Right," Tony's gut kept churning.

"If they're not up here, maybe they checked it out and everything's fine," he suggested.

"I dunno...maybe," he replied. The cabin came into view beyond the trees. "Look," Tony said. "That's the agency car... And there's Smith's rental."

"Think we should park back here?" Berk slowed the car to a stop. "If they're in trouble, it might be better not to let them know we're coming...right?"

"Right. Listen, Berk, I don't have anything but a knife..."

Berk reached over into his glove box and grabbed a pistol from it, checking the clip and loading it back in before handing it to Tony. "Do me a favor?"

"What?"

"If anyone asks, I didn't give that to you..."

Tony smirked, then turned to get out of the car. Once out, he tucked the gun in the back of his pants, and signaled to Berk that they should split up and go around the sides of the cabin...

11 00 11 00 11

"Over here," McGee called out as he pulled a heavy box from high on a wall shelf, down from its place. Behind it was a window.

"Too small, McGee," Gibbs said as he approached.

"Perhaps not, for me," Ziva said as she tucked her flashlight away. "I can hear Smith walking around upstairs. If I can get out, I can surprise him. He should not be a problem. Then I can get you out."

How she'd get them out, was still a mystery. Unless Smith had a ladder somewhere around the cabin, there was seemingly no way out of that basement. No door led to the inside of the house. Just the hatch that led outside. But there were no stairs and it was too far up. Their earlier attempt to put Ziva on Gibbs' shoulders and push it open, had failed. Smith had locked it from the outside, and attempting to bust through it would only ruin the surprise attack.

So, even though Gibbs didn't like the idea of Ziva going it alone, he had to let her try. She could get them out afterward. He nodded to her, then stood behind her as she began her climb up the shelving toward the window.

It was a tight squeeze, but she managed to climb through the small opening. She looked back at her teammates and gave a slight nod, then stood, making her way around the side of the house, quietly. She was startled when she bumped into someone, suddenly on high alert.

"Ziva?"

She looked up and put a hand over her chest as she sighed, letting out a small laugh, "Agent Berk... What are you doing here?" she whispered.

He gave her a small, sad smile, "Family stuff," he told her. Then, without warning, he raised his gun and fired into her chest...

11 00 11 00 11

Tbc...