A Son for a Son

Chapter three

On the street outside the restaurant

When they arrived at the location they checked with the restaurant employees but they were of little help. Tony's car still sat abandoned in the alleyway along with about a dozen other cars. The scene had already been cleaned and there was no trace of Tony. They found the location where they thought the video camera had more then likely been set up, probably on top of the car Tony had been put into. They also found three smoked cigarettes at the scene as if someone had been standing there for a while. Possibly the man, and they were assuming it was a man by the way he had easily drug Tony over to the car, had waited there while Tony placed his order. It shouldn't have taken more then ten to fifteen minutes to receive the food so either the man was a chain smoker or had nervously smoked the cigarettes. They were in the process of bagging them when Gibbs's cell phone rang, it was McGee.

"Agent Gibbs, you just received a few more e mails with a blank subject line. It could be from the same source."

"We'll be right in." Gibbs hung up.

"What's up?" Kate asked.

"My e mailer is back."

They drove back in silence, each hoping if there was another video attachment, this time it wouldn't show Tony dead.

NCIS Headquarters

They dropped the cigarettes off with Abby so she could run a DNA screening on them. Hopefully it would match someone in their database.

Gibbs mentally tried to prepare himself for whatever was in the e mail. He glanced over at Kate before clicking on the attachment. The video showed Tony hung up by his wrists, blindfolded and gagged, his feet attached to something on the floor making it impossible for him to move. Tony's head hung back and to the side. It was obvious he was either unconscious or………….Gibbs didn't want to think of the alternative. The camera then zoomed in on Tony's stomach and a figure could be seen walking in front of the camera with a knife then standing in front of Tony blocking the camera's view.

"What's he doing to him?" Kate asked, not really expecting an answer.

After a few minutes the man stepped away from the camera. It looked like letters had been carved into Tony's stomach but there was too much blood to make out the words. The man once more walked over to Tony and threw a bucket of water onto his stomach exposing the words, 'Gibbs' and 'payback' appeared briefly before fresh blood leaked out of the cuts and the letters were once more obscured.

Gibbs leaned back in his chair and rubbed his hand over his face. Tony was suffering in revenge for something he had done. He drew a deep breath and held it for a few seconds before exhaling.

The video then once more showed Tony's entire body. Even with the cutting he hadn't moved.

"Gibbs, you don't think he's…………?" Kate said but the words caught in her throat before she could continue.

"He's gagged and blindfolded, you wouldn't think they'd do that to a dead man. Tony's alive Kate." The last statement was said for both their benefits.

"Oh ……….thank God." She breathed a sigh of relief, she was too upset to have even thought of that. "Gibbs, maybe it's a good sign he's blindfolded. It they were going to kill him why bother blindfolding him? It wouldn't matter if he saw them."

"That could be true, and I hope it is, but they could be using psychological torture on him. What better way to make him suffer even more then keeping him in the dark, not being able to see what was going to happen next."

Gibbs stared at the screen, he knew he had told Kate that Tony was still alive but he needed to see some sign of life from Tony himself. Finally he saw it; Tony moved his head slightly apparently starting to come around. The person filming must have noticed also because the camera was immediately turned off.

An abandoned warehouse

Tony finally awoke to a blinding headache. He tried to put his hand up to his head but for some reason he couldn't. He couldn't open his eyes either. What the hell was going on! Was he dreaming? He also was freezing. Where the hell was he? Think he said to himself. The last thing he remembered was driving to the Chinese restaurant. What had happened? Had he been in an accident? Was he in the hospital? Why couldn't he move? He started to panic and tried to move something, anything. His legs felt like they weighed a ton. Was he paralyzed? He couldn't see, he couldn't talk……….that's what it had to be. He was paralyzed or in some kind of a coma. A sharp pain shot through his head and he was glad to give into the darkness, it took him away from the horror of waking up.

A little while later

Dawson had noticed Tony regaining consciousness and turned off the camera. He then walked over to him. But Tony's consciousness only lasted a short time. Now let's see Dawson thought as he positioned the camera behind Tony and turned it back on. He then picked up one of the numerous buckets of water he had already stored at the warehouse and threw it on Tony's face waking him up.

Tony moaned as he was abruptly brought back to consciousness. Once more he tried to move but this time he figured out why he couldn't. He struggled frantically to free himself but it was impossible. He was totally helpless to what ever was going to happen to him. Dawson walked over and ran his hand over Tony's chest and stomach. He smiled as Tony tried to pull away from his touch but couldn't.

Tony attempts to pull away were futile. He shivered from the cold and the uncertainty of what this man had planned for him. When Dawson took off Tony's belt he really started to panic. Was he in the hands of some kind of sadistic rapist? His heart was pounding with fear of what was coming next. Dawson took great delight in doing everything slowly, allowing Tony plenty of time to worry. He then walked behind Tony and began beating him as hard as he could with the belt, over and over. Tony visibly flinched every time the belt touched him. What did they want from him? If they wanted information about something why didn't they ask him? Or, was this some sick person who enjoyed inflicting pain and he was taken because he was just in the wrong place at the wrong time? Finally the person stopped and Tony listened as they walked away for a few minutes. He could hear clicking sounds but had no idea what was going on. He then heard the door shut and he was left alone with his pain in the warehouse.

Dawson had downloaded the video to his e mail then set the e mail on a timer and was hoping to be back at NCIS headquarters so he could be there when Gibbs opened the next e mail. He wanted to see his face. He had dropped his ring near Gibbs's door yesterday under a table in the hallway, and that was going to be his excuse for coming in early. He drove slowly toward NCIS headquarters; he didn't want to get there too soon. He had set the timer to send the e mail in one and a half hours. He parked outside and waited till ten minutes before the e mail would arrive then entered the building and showed his ID to the security guard before heading toward Gibb's office.

TBC