Chapter 5

Just as Tim was sure he was about to be found and killed, there was a shouted voice again.

"All right, forget this. They're late. This place sucks, and now the door's open, meaning that there could be someone else in here. Well, they're welcome to it as far as I'm concerned. Let's blow this place."

"But the money!"

"They want the stuff, they'd better meet us in a better location next time. I'm out of here before cops show up. If they want to get arrested, they can."

The man stomped away with his compatriot following along worrying about what would happen if their buyers showed up and they weren't there. Then, the voices cut off abruptly as the door closed.

Tim sagged down behind the fridge and for a moment thought he might throw up. Then, he leaned his head against the back of the refrigerator and almost cried. After a few minutes, he got a hold of himself. Those two guys had been talking about other people coming. Buyers. Clearly, this was not a good place to be holed up. He'd have to get out of here, but he was afraid of going out onto the street where just anyone might see him.

Cautiously, he slid out from behind the fridge and then carefully made his way to the back of the house and went out into the alley again. Once he was there, he decided that he would have to move on to somewhere else. He had no idea where he was, but he knew that he needed to get away from here. Now that it was clear that he was not in a safe area, he needed to find somewhere that would be safe.

He decided that he needed to at least try to find out where he was. Slowly, he walked to the end of the alley and then peeked out onto the street. There were some row homes, apartments, but they all looked really rundown. In fact, a couple of the row homes were missing windows, a couple of others were completely boarded over. Great. Well, he'd already figured out that he wasn't in a safe place. It was definitely living up to that first impression.

A group of people suddenly appeared and Tim pulled back into the alley and crouched behind a trash can and then stayed as still as possible. The group were young and all talking and laughing. Maybe he should ask for help but he was still afraid to do it. Besides, he probably didn't look at all trustworthy.

They passed by and he crept back to the street. Then, he looked both ways and didn't really see anyone. Cautiously, he started to walk. He still felt terrible (and a little hungry and thirsty) but he was at least walking more or less in a straight line. He crossed the street and looked around for somewhere that might be a safe place to hide, so far, he wasn't seeing anything promising. He dearly would like to knock on a door and get help but he wasn't so sure that anyone would give him the time of day, not with him looking and smelling like he did.

He kept walking until he was out of the row homes and into an area that looked more industrial... but still almost abandoned.

Actually, it was looking somewhat familiar. Why?

Tim furrowed his brow and looked around more. What was it about this place that was seeming familiar? He just couldn't keep his mind in gear enough to figure it out.

Finally, he was feeling very tired and so he trudged over to a bench and sat down. Where had they taken him? How long had he been unconscious before waking up in that place? He was pretty sure that this wasn't DC or Silver Spring.

A car drove by him and Tim looked at it and then his eyes registered the license plate.

Maryland.

While that was no guarantee, since he wasn't in a tourist area, it did seem more likely that he was in Maryland. Did that narrow it down? Maybe a tad, but not much. He looked around again and then glanced at another house that seemed empty. There was a bright orange sign tacked to the door. In large letters, he could see the word condemned. Maybe that would have city information on it. He got up and walked over to the door. The sign was quite clear.

CONDEMNED: This structure is unsafe and its use or occupancy has been prohibited by the Building Official.

Then, there was an address and a date and then...

"Baltimore Building Official," Tim read in a whisper. "I'm in Baltimore."

He looked around again and realized that he'd driven through this part of the city not long ago when he was looking for inspiration. He sank down onto the crumbling steps and dropped his head into his hands. It was 40 miles away from DC and it might as well be a million miles.

For the moment, he could think of nothing but the apparent hopelessness of his situation.

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

"Hey, look at this," Tony said from his position by Tim's writing desk.

"What?" Ziva asked. She was crouched on the floor by his computer, checking to see if something had fallen behind it.

"Look!" Tony said again.

Ziva looked up. "What, Tony?"

"McGee's writing again!"

"He still has the typewriter, Tony," Ziva said, a little pedantically.

"No, listen to this," Tony said and started to read. "'McGregor knows that he's on his own. No one is there to help so it's all about what he can do, how he can survive. So why is he on his own? Where is his team? Wrong place at wrong time? Maybe. On the run. Needing to get away.'" Tony looked up. "He's been free-writing. With his Deep Six stuff. I thought he'd stopped all that after the crazy guy got obsessed with him."

"Apparently not," Ziva said. "That is unlikely to be the reason for McGee's disappearance."

"Yeah, what are the odds that there'd be two obsessed Gemcity fans?" Tony said. He put the paper back into the desk.

Gibbs was listening to the conversation but he was looking around. This simply made no sense to him and it was bothering him that he couldn't make it all mesh in his head. Tim had clearly been attacked and abducted for a reason, but why? As Ziva had said, it was unlikely that there was someone else after Tim because of his writing. And yet...

His phone rang and he grimaced when he saw that it was coming from the Public Affairs office. Why now? But he answered.

"Gibbs," he said tersely, hoping that his gruff tone would put off whoever was calling.

"Agent Gibbs, this is Grace Lamb, from the Public Affairs office. I have a phone call for you."

Gibbs was surprised at that. Who would be trying to reach him and do it through Public Affairs? That seemed strange.

"Who?"

"A 911 operator in Baltimore. Blanche Whitman."

Could this be about Tim? Could it possibly be anything else?

"Put her through," he said, ignoring Tony and Ziva who were both now staring at him.

"All right."

There was a click.

"This is Agent Gibbs."

"Agent Gibbs... uh, my name is Blanche Whitman. I work for 911 dispatch in Baltimore."

"Yes, Ms. Whitman. What can I do for you?"

"Well, I got a call today from someone named Tim McGee."

Gibbs snapped his fingers at Tony and Ziva and then put his phone on speaker.

"He was talking strangely but he said he needed help and that someone was trying to kill him. Then, he asked me to tell you about it. I tried to get more information but he hung up and I couldn't get the phone to reconnect when I called back."

"Where was he?"

"In a vacant row home. The police went there, but when they arrived, the place was empty with no sign of occupancy. They've looked around a little, but they haven't found anyone yet. However, we don't know who he is. It took a while to figure out who he was asking for when he asked for you."

Tony and Ziva looked very concerned.

"Can you give us the exact address?" Gibbs asked.

"Of course. I can also put you in touch with the BPD if you'd like."

"No, we'll contact them ourselves."

Blanche gave the address to an area on the east side of Baltimore. Tony copied it down and nodded silently. He knew the area.

"I hope you can find him. I've never had anything like this happen before."

"Thank you," Gibbs said and then hung up. "Well?"

"That's a bad area, Boss," Tony said. "One of those neighborhoods where there's a lot of blight. When I was there, it was full of foreclosures, abandoned properties... A guy died when a decayed wall fell on him while he was walking on the sidewalk. Lots of drugs in that area, too. If that's where Tim is, I don't know why he would be... unless he was taken there."

"Then, we should hurry, no matter the reason," Ziva said.

"Definitely. Even the cops are careful in that area."

Gibbs nodded. Whatever had led to this was mostly irrelevant. They just needed to track Tim down.

Quickly, they left the apartment and started toward Baltimore.

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

After a few minutes of wallowing in despair, Tim forced himself to sit up. It didn't matter that he was in Baltimore. It didn't matter that he was still hurting. What mattered was that he needed to get back and he needed to find some way to contact Gibbs. He needed to get somewhere safe. He couldn't operate on the idea that the 911 operator would be able to get him help. He had to assume that he needed to get help all on his own. How could he do that?

He could try knocking on a random door, but he was reluctant to do that when the first place he'd gone into had ended up being a meeting place for some kind of shady deal. Plus, more than half of these buildings looked empty anyway. It didn't exactly instill confidence in getting the help he needed.

And then, Tim suddenly realized that just walking around in plain sight probably wasn't a good idea for staying hidden.

Just how impaired am I right now? he wondered to himself. Surely, he would have thought of staying out of sight sooner if he was thinking clearly. ...wouldn't he?

And hadn't he already asked himself that question before?

He took a deep breath and then forced himself to stand up. Where would he go? Not back where he'd been. That was for sure. He had to go away from this area. Maybe if he was lucky, someone would offer to help him and he could accept that generosity.

Okay. That was the plan. While staying out of sight, of course.

So for now, that meant getting off this porch and out of this area.

Still feeling a bit unsteady, he started walking toward a different alley, one that was going the opposite direction from the house he'd been in before. As he walked, he noticed that he was definitely not walking toward an affluent area, but it was still away from where he'd been and that was all that mattered.

After a few minutes more of walking, he was tired again, but he didn't dare do anything like just sit down and rest. He had to be hidden. He saw an old garage with the door hanging half off its hinges. The interior was dark but as his eyes adjusted, it seemed that it was empty. There were probably bugs and such but at this point, Tim didn't care. He just needed to rest.

He sat down on the ground in the shadow of the broken door and leaned his aching head against the wall.

He sighed. While he was still determined to get through this, he really didn't know how it was going to happen.

Maybe if I just rest for a few minutes, I'll be able to think better.

He closed his eyes.

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

"He has your gun! If he gets away, we're both dead because I'll kill you before anyone else can."

"You were the one in charge! How was I to know that he was alert enough to make a run for it? He seemed completely out of it!"

"All you had to do was not have your gun visible. That was it!"

"All you had to do was keep up with a guy who was nearly unconscious the whole time we had him!"

There was a moment when it really looked like death was a possibility and then the one in charge took a deep breath.

"We're going back to where we lost him and we're going to figure out every step he took and I don't care how long it takes. We're in big trouble if we don't find him and get those pictures from him. Got it?"

"Got it."

"Good. Let's go."

They left the apartment and headed back out onto the streets of Baltimore, intent on finding their captive.