A Son for a Son

Chapter five

Warehouse

Every bone in Tony's body hurt. His shoulders and arms were killing him from hanging for so long and his back stung from the whipping. He had been unconscious during the cutting of the words into his stomach and had no idea what the man had done to him other then the fact that his stomach burned. He didn't know which was worse, the pain or the complete feeling of helplessness. He had been through survival training as part of his NCIS training but this was different. He was hanging like a slab of beef waiting to be slaughtered and there was nothing he could do about it. Totally vulnerable to what ever this person had in store for him. He swore the worse part was the blindfold and duct tape over his mouth. He could only breathe through his nose and it was starting to cause a terrifying claustrophobic feeling.

A short while later Tony could hear someone enter the room. There was nothing he could do but wait for what ever was next.

Dawson whistled as he set up the camera then put on his black mask and hooded sweatshirt. Tony could tell the person was enjoying this which made his terror even worse.

After the camera was up and running Dawson walked over and ripped the duct tape off of Tony's mouth causing him to flinch in pain. But the pain was only momentary and he gratefully sucked in a deep breath of air. He licked his dry cracked lips that now bled slightly from the removal of the duct tape.

"May I please have some water……….I'm thirsty?" Tony asked hoping the person would give him some water but prepared himself for a slap across the face which he figured would be coming but didn't.

Tony could hear the man pouring a liquid. Maybe the man did have a heart after all he thought. Dawson then held the cup up to Tony who took in a mouthful hoping to quench his thirst, but immediately spit it back out. Whatever it was, it wasn't water.

"Why are you doing this?...What do you want from me?" Tony asked.

The man didn't answer but instead picked up a piece of wood that was on the floor which had nails driven through it. The nails only protruded about a quarter of an inch, not enough to cause any serious damage but enough to cause a lot of pain. He held it up in front of the camera then moved the camera behind Tony. Tony could hear the man walk behind him but had no idea what to expect. The blow came swift and painful. Tony cried out as the nails and board slammed into his lower back. He clenched his teeth as the man continued to strike him on the back where the welts from his previous beating were still evident. Trickles of blood ran down from the puncture wounds. Tony tried his best not to cry out, he didn't want to give the man the satisfaction of hearing the pain he was inflicting. But with each blow he couldn't help but throw his head back in pain, his back now completely covered in blood. When the man was finally finished he moved the camera to the front of Tony and zoomed in on his pain etched face.

"Why are you doing this? What do you want?" Tony yelled angrily at the man.

The man pulled the camera back revealing Tony's entire body then slammed the wood into his chest, right above the carved letters which had begun to scab over. Tony unprepared for the blow, cried out. Blood dripped down his chest over the letters.

"Oh God." Tony moaned.

That was the result that Dawson wanted. He smiled as he turned off the camera and fed the video into his computer.

NCIS

Gibbs called the police department. Earlier when he had received the second video he had contacted them asking for help in searching the numerous warehouses in the city in hopes that one of them was where Tony was being held. They could only assume it was a warehouse from the way it looked on the video, but it could also be someone's private residence, they had no way of knowing but they had to start somewhere. When an officer answered he explained who he was and why he was calling.

"I'm sorry Agent Gibbs, we haven't heard anything yet. We have officers out searching twenty four-seven, but it's a big city, it could take days."

"Just keep looking." Gibbs hung up the phone and ran his hand over his face. Where are you DiNozzo? He got up and walked over to Kate's desk.

"Any luck?" He asked.

Kate had been going over old case files of Gibbs hoping to find a suspect, so far she had found nothing.

"Not yet. All I can say is you have a lot of enemies Gibbs but no one I can pin point."

"The police aren't having any luck either."

"What are we going to do Gibbs?" She looked at him and he could clearly see the worry written all over her face. "Tony's going to die if………"

"He's not going to die." He interrupted her. "Who ever is doing this is going to make a mistake, and when he does we're going to be there."

Kate looked back at her screen.

"This is like looking for a needle in a haystack. Anyone of these cases could be connected to Tony's disappearance, I just don't know."

"Just keep looking. Hopefully when Abby gets the results from the DNA back we'll have something to go on."

"But what if the DNA doesn't come up with a match? How are we going to find Tony then?"

"Kate." Gibbs put his hand on Kate's shoulder trying to calm her. "I told you, we're going to get him back, trust me."

Warehouse

Tony could hear the man working on something. He listened carefully and could hear him typing. Did he have a computer here? And if he did, why? What could he possibly be typing? And why wouldn't he talk to him and tell him what he wanted? Did he know the man? And was it a him, or could it possibly be a her? Tony didn't think so. Who ever it was had to have the strength to string him up like this. Unless there were more then one. A million questions flashed one after the other through Tony's brain. Then suddenly something seemed awfully familiar, a smell. He had smelled that cologne before, but where? He knew it might not mean anything but it kept his mind off of his discomfort for a while. The cologne had triggered something in Tony's memory but he couldn't quite grasp it. It was a different kind of cologne, he didn't really care for the smell, but he knew he had smelled it before. He then heard the man get up and walk over to him.

"Please tell me why you're doing this?" Tony thought he'd try again to get the man to answer him. "Just tell me what you want?"

In answer, the man slapped another piece of duct tape over Tony's mouth, patted him on the side of his face, then left and Tony was once more left alone in his misery.

TBC