The three special agents sat at their desks, each pretending to work, but all of them were too distracted to do anything but worry and wait impatiently for Abby to finish with the evidence that she was working on in the lab. Kate was tapping her pen on her desk loudly. It was driving McGee crazy, and he briefly thought about saying something about it to her, but one look at her distressed face stopped him.

"Guys!" Abby's voice came through loudly on the monitor and startled all of them. "Guys, come here! I've got something for you!"

Kate, McGee, and Gibbs hurried to the lab. They crowded around Abby, eagerly awaiting the evidence that might very well send them on their way to finding their missing teammate. "What is it, Abby?" Gibbs asked impatiently, voicing what the rest of the team was thinking.

"Well, I'll start with the bad news. I found no fingerprints that shouldn't have been there, so that means the intruder was wearing gloves." Abby said.

She picked up the rag with her gloved hands. "This was used to incapacitate someone, and the DNA from the epithelials I pulled off matched Tony. So I think it's safe to say someone probably waited for him at his house, knocked him out with this stuff, and then took him."

Abby set the rag down and picked up the good-bye note. "Now first, I analyzed the handwriting and compared it to the sample of Tony's handwriting that you gave me. The handwriting was not a match, although I think anyone with eyes could see that that was the case before I even compared the two samples under the magnifier. After I determined that, I checked out the paper that it was written on to see if that could give us any leads."

Abby slid the piece of paper under the projector and hit the zoom button. "Now for the good news. We got lucky, because this paper, well, it isn't any of your ordinary, run-of-the-mill Office Depot supply paper. It's pretty high quality stuff, and pretty distinct. Now," she zoomed in close and pointed, "if you look closely here, you can see a very faint watermark. It's a design. A circle of olive leaves, inside of which are the letters C and F. I scanned it, and as it turns out, the design is registered, and the letters stand for the name Cesario Figueroa. At first, I thought it might be someone's name—you know, kind of like personalized stationary for some mega-rich dude. But I did a little bit of research and discovered that Cesario Figueroa is actually a paper distribution company. In Columbia, South America. And before you ask, no, they don't distribute or ship to the United States. So someone had to have picked this stuff up in Columbia."

Abby's next discovery must have been good, because the lab tech was now almost bouncing up and down in excitement. Everyone was up to this point silent, just trying to process all of the information that was flying at them, except for Gibbs. "Can you get to the point, Abbs?" he asked quietly.

"Sure, Gibbs." She continued. "After I found out about that, something hit me. I remembered a test I ran the other day. I followed my hunch and re-tested that trace of heroin that we found on our victim." She slid the sample under the microscope projector. "As it turns out, this particular strain is grown in Columbia, the same country our piece of paper is from. Now, that might just be a coincidence, but I have a few more things to show you that lead me to believe otherwise. Now you can draw your own conclusions, but I think Tony's disappearance has something to do with that drug bust he made a few days ago. Because, see, the drug that our sailor tried to pass of on that psycho tripping drug dealer was methadone, it's way cheaper and has less of a kick. If you ask me, the sailor was the middle man, going behind his boss' back and trying to double the take and make a few bucks on the side by selling this heroin look-alike as the real stuff."

Gibbs nodded. "It's beginning to look that way, Abbs. Do you have anything else for us?"

She nodded excitedly. "The best is yet to come. I was double-checking my tests, running them all again, and I found a few more epithelials on the rag. Since the intruder was wearing gloves, this rag must have rubbed against his wrist or something. Honestly, I don't know how I missed them the first time around. I think the stress is getting to me. Anyway, I ran the DNA through the Combined DNA Index System Database and got a hit. The DNA belonged to one Enrique Murietta, who was arrested and convicted in 1997 for attempted rape. He did a few years in the slammer and got out on good behavior. I did a little digging and found out that he is now employed by a Damien Sande. Here's where it gets really good. Mr. Sande runs a shipping business out of the Port of Cartagena in Columbia. I'd be willing to wager that Mr. Sande's cargo is of the illegal variety. As in illegal narcotics."

Gibbs was on his cell phone in an instant. "Get me a chopper now!" His voice was authoritative, and he spoke with that rare "mess-with-me-and-I'll-have-your-balls" tone that let you know he was deadly serious. He looked at Abby. "Where does that shipping business dock, Abbs?"

"Baltimore."

"Come on guys, we're going to Baltimore. We can be there in about 15 minutes." Gibbs turned quickly to Abby and gave her a pat on the shoulder. "Good work, Abby."

She yelled at them as they left. "Let me know what happens, ok guys?"

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

The struggle seemed interminable to Tony. It seemed as if it went on for hours, when in reality, mere minutes were passing. His arms ached and sweat dripped off of his forehead. But with pure desperation spurring him on, the struggle began to go his way. He finally managed to wrestle the gun out of Enrique's hands, and he leapt to his feet, panting heavily and staggering a little from pain and exhaustion. His hands trembled as he held the gun on the guard.

"Don't—move." Tony warned tersely. He motioned with the gun. "Put your hands behind your head and lay still. Now!" As Enrique obey with a look of pure hatred, Tony began to back away towards the door on the other side of the boat shed. He feared he was running out of time. He was right.

Tony heard the noise behind him and didn't turn until it was too late. An explosion met him. The impact of the bullet knocked him backward a little bit, and it felt as if someone had hit him in the side with a hammer. His gun hit the ground first, slipping out of his suddenly limp fingers and hitting the cement with a sharp clatter. He looked down at his shirt, and strangely, wasn't surprised to see the red stain beginning to spread. His legs suddenly refused to hold him up any longer, and he collapsed to the ground, unable to support himself.

Damien Sande approached his nemesis, lowering his gun, its barrel still hot. Tony looked up weakly and tried to focus on the man who had shot him, but his eyes were slightly dim and there was a roaring in his ears.

"So, Agent DiNozzo," he addressed his prone captive, "I leave you for only a couple of hours and this is what happens. I fear I have underestimated your skills. But no more. You have made me use my gun, and someone may have heard. Therefore, I must leave as soon as possible. But not before I have the satisfaction of knowing that I have put a bullet in your brain."

Tony closed his eyes and waited for the explosion that would send him into darkness forever. A gunshot shattered the air. Tony wondered why he hadn't felt the impact of the bullet hitting his head. So am I dead? But the pain was still there. He heard yelling and opened his eyes painfully. He saw Sande above him, clutching a bleeding wrist. He turned his head slightly and saw a familiar face coming towards them, gun outstretched.

It was Gibbs, holding his gun on Sande. He was yelling at him, fury and desperation evident in his voice and demeanor. "Give me an excuse, any excuse, you bastard, and I'll send you straight to hell without a second thought!"

Tony saw Kate come in, followed by a tactical team. The SWAT team quickly took over Sande and Enrique, handcuffing them. The acrid smell of gunpowder from the two shots that had been fired hit Tony, and he coughed weakly.

"Kate! He's alive!" Gibbs called, and he and Kate were at Tony's side in a second.

Tony looked up and saw her face leaning close to his. "Oh my God, Tony!" She was crying. He tried to tell her not to cry, but his lips refused to form the words.

"We need an ambulance! Get one here now!" Gibbs harsh yell cut through the fog that was beginning to envelop Tony. A dizzying pain shot through him as Gibbs pushed down on his chest, trying to stem the flow of blood that was quickly escaping his body and pooling beneath him. He cried out in pain. It was a sound so agonized that Gibbs winced to hear it. "I'm sorry, Tony," Gibbs whispered. "Help is coming. Stay with us."

Kate was at his side, gripping his hand tightly. Tony's eyes began to flutter as the pain began to overtake him. "Stay with me, Tony," Kate cried ferociously in his ear. "Don't you dare leave me, DiNozzo!"

Her beautiful, tear-stained face was the last thing he saw before the darkness swept him up and carried him into unconsciousness.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

TBC…

R and R!