3 shots, execution style.

That's another spectacular way Adrestia gets rid of witnesses to her crimes, or in this case, a patrol officer who was diligently following up on a broken taillight of a suspicious vehicle. His body worn camera later confirmed it was her, and from the creepy conversation that I had Kasie amplify of the recording, I was certain that she had Gibbs and Sloane in the car with her.

But that wasn't good enough – I needed to work out where they were now. I knew hoe much damaged Adrestia could do – my residual pain and the image of Bishop unresponsive, along with the fear over the fate of my fellow agents, kept me determined to capture Adrestia and ensure she could do no harm to anybody else.

I was so engrossed in my thinking that I hadn't realised that Kasie had come up to me.

"Torres. Earth to Torres." If I wasn't injured, I felt that Kasie would grab and shake me, to get me away from my thoughts.

"Oh, yes, sorry, Kasie."

"I understand, lots is going on. But anyways, McGee wants us back. He says we need to stop chasing Adrestia's tail and start trying to get on the offensive before Adrestia starts escalating even more. Let's go."

But before we could even reach the car to head back to HQ, McGee called us, speaking in an urgent, yet perhaps with a sliver of excitement, tone: Adrestia had started a live stream (ugh, what was her and making distasteful criminal decisions in front of an unwilling audience?), and he was patching us in whilst tracking her signal.

"You two are the closest to her location," he stated, "so I need you two to rush over and apprehend her."

As if anticipating my question, he added, "Yes, this in all likeliness is a trap, allowing us to track her, but I've also got REACT in route who will meet you on scene. Torres and Kasie, be careful. I don't need anyone else injured anymore than they already are."

Torres drove like a madman. And whilst I might have chastised him any other day for the jolting pain my shoulder was getting with every swerve he made, today was not the day.

"Torres look out!" I yelled for the fifteenth time, as he barely avoided colliding with an HGV on the freeway. Deep down, I understood how much he also wanted to watch the livestream, but if we were to track down Adrestia, we needed to stay alive and get there in one piece.

I turned my attention back to the livestream, trying to ascertain who the mysterious victim was to the rear of Adrestia, who was talking in that obnoxiously calm, and cold, tone, addressing us all by name. My brain failed to register any of the words she spoke; I was fixated on the male FBI agent she had posed so artistically, yet so grotesquely. He was alive.

10 long minutes. That's how long it took us to get to the warehouse. When we got there, REACT had already arrived, and had secured the warehouse. The FBI agent was being wheeled out by the EMTs, thankfully with only minor injuries. The REACT Commander, a burly individual who I'd seen around HQ from time to time walked up to us, and informed us that Adrestia made a rather hasty exit, leaving behind her hostage and 4 of her goons, whilst speeding off in a car that matched the description of the one the patrol officer had stopped.

She still had Gibbs and Sloane. But at least we stopped her killing her hostage, and we had 4 of her people to grill for information. We were gaining on her, with small, baby steps, but we were gaining. This was a small victory, but we couldn't stray from our main goals: getting Gibbs and Sloane back, and stopping Adrestia at all costs.

I turned around to see Kasie walking up to me. Whilst I was getting a lay down of the situation, Kasie was on call with McGee and Bishop, who had managed to finally unlock the secrets of the classified file we were struggling with.

"So, the bullet that Jimmy managed to retrieve from Agent Devlin was unable to be analysed, as its analysis was deemed classified, as you know. Whilst we were here, McGee and Bishop managed to hack into the file and find out what was up with the bullet. Turns out, last year, a high-ranking naval officer was shot in his office. That day, it turns out, he wasn't supposed to be on base, but he was there for a nefarious reason – he was selling state secrets to an unknown individual. And on that evening, it turns out he was planning to come clean – there was an unfinished email explaining what he'd done, but he never had the chance to send it. It seems that whoever the buyer was, they found out and silenced the officer before he had the chance to oust them."

"Why was the analysis classified then?," I asked, confused.

"I'm not entirely sure to be honest. But when McGee asked Vance about it, he told us that there were rumours circling about this individual, and his connection to other, even more senior, naval officers, who didn't wish to be implicated in this. That seems to be the plausible explanation. Nonetheless, at least that mystery is solved. Now we need to focus on Adrestia."

"I agree. Let's regroup and take everything into account. Let's go."

He stumbled away, dropping unceremoniously in front of me – it seemed the bullet was a through and through in his abdomen. The other guy had obviously decided that running away would be the best option, however failed to account for the fact that Gibbs was an expert sharpshooter. Long story short, the goon didn't get too far.

But now that the immediate external danger was over, I needed to make sure that we were safe too. I took a long and hard look at the explosives hanging around us, trying to ascertain a way to defuse the situation, literally. A few minutes of fumbling around, and I realised that it was a distraction – the explosives on us were fakes. They were a distraction.

Whilst Sloane was busy fumbling around with the explosives, I dove through the pockets of the closest goon, reaching for his phone. I dialled the number, and waited for the voice on the other end.

"Director Vance. How do you have this number?"

"Vance, it's Gibbs. Me and Sloane are here. I think we're in the southwest parking complex opposite the main building on base."

"Understood. Backup will be with you shortly."

If the explosives on us were a distraction, what were they a distraction for? Were we not the endgame? My mind was much too jumbled up to think straight, but I sighed a very shallow sigh of relief that me and Gibbs were no longer in immediate danger.

It was too early, that sigh of relief; in the distance, I saw a burst of blinding light before I heard the explosion rattle the relative calm of the night.