Chapter 3
Gibbs' awoke with a start. A sound on his basement stairs had disturbed his slumber. He stretched his neck from side to side and tried to massage to the stiffness that had built up where he had fallen asleep sat on his workbench with his head tilted against the box shelving containing bottles of paintstripper, thinners and a half empty bottle of Jack Daniels.
The noise that had awoken him so abruptly was Kate coming down the basement stairs, her heels clicking loudly as each one made contact with a different step. She carried two cups of steaming freshly made coffee. Black for him, and white for her. Gibbs gratefully accepted the cup and gulped down half the scalding liquid with satisfaction. Only then did he realise what had been troubling him. His 'gut' had never failed him in the past and Gibbs had learned to trust it's deductive powers. What it was telling him now made him slam his coffee down, snatch up his jacket, keys and cell and dash for the door leaving a bewildered Kate in his wake.
"Gibbs? I didn't think my coffee was as bad as all that," she grimaced to herself sniffing at her own cup of java, not daring to sample the heady liquid.
"C'mon Kate," Gibbs barked. "It's not me this psycho's after, it's McGee!"
"Oh my god…"
Gibbs gunned the accelerator as he sped away from his home. Kate was holding on frantically to the hand hold above the door with one hand as she attempted to dial McGee's apartment with her other. "No answer."
"Try his cell."
Again Kate tried to dial as she was violently buffeted around in her seat as Gibbs took one of his notorious short cuts. McGee's cell rang four times before someone turned it off. "I think he's in trouble," Kate said as she relayed what had happened.
Gibbs drew out his own phone and pressed a number he had pre-programmed into his speed dial. "I need a GPS location on a cell phone. The number is 0771 555 8326. I need the exact position of that phone's last incoming call," he checked his watch, "two minutes ago." Gibbs waited whilst whoever was on the other end tried to back trace its location. Gibbs obviously got an answer because he snapped his cell shut and violently swung the vehicle 180 degrees. They were no longer heading for McGee's apartment, but toward the NCIS office.
The lab was relatively quiet when Susie approached from the stark concrete stairs. Only the feint hum, whirr or click form the various pieces of machinery broke the silence that was normally out of place down there. She could see her target clearly, slumped over the desk where he had been working. The lab tech, however, appeared to have left for the night.
Silently, Susie approached behind 'Gibbs' and drew his weapon swiftly from it's holster on his belt. McGee woke with a start only to find himself staring down the barrel of his own weapon.
"I see that you found me," Susie smiled indicating the fingerprint identification. The computer had completed its scan of the AFIS database, and returned a positive match - Susan Jakes, a former naval nurse at Bethesda Naval Hospital. "You were not quite what I expected. For a Special Agent in charge of an investigation, I expected someone older." McGee suddenly understood - she thought he was Gibbs!
In the other room, Abby stirred, surprised by the amount of talking going on in her lab. As she sat up, however, she saw McGee looking down his own gun barrel held inches from his forehead by the woman in the security video. Abby hid beneath one of the tables in the room, she had to get help, but she had to do it without alerting McGee's captor. Peeking over the edge of the table, Abby reached up and pulled the phone toward her. Quickly, she dialled Gibbs' cell. He answered after the first ring.
"Gibbs, listen," Abby whispered. "I may not have long. The woman who has been stalking you is in my lab, pointing a gun at McGee's head. I don't think…" Abby's voice trailed off to silence as she felt the cold bluing of McGee's side arm against the side of her neck.
"Abby…ABS?" Gibbs' heart raced as he worried what was happening to his friends. "We're coming to get you!" he called down the dead phone line.
"Kate, get Tony and call the HMT's. We've got a hostage situation in the lab."
"Abby?"
"And McGee…" Gibbs gunned the accelerator once more. He had to get there, before he had to investigate another murder, or worse, two.
Gibbs skidded the Dodge sedan to a halt and raced up to his office. Tony was already there and had a live feed from the lab displayed upon the plasma screen.
McGee had a bruised and bloodied forehead where he had received a sharp blow from the butt of his gun when Susie had noticed the movement in the side room.
"I had planned to put this little device on you, Special Agent Gibbs, but now that your 'girlfriend' has shown up, I think it would be more fitting that she wear it." Susie opened her briefcase and withdrew a vest packed with C4 that had numerous wires trailing from it. "Put it on!" Susie demanded thrusting the vest at the scared technician.
"Don't Abs," McGee pleaded. A shot discharged from his gun, the bullet entered McGee's left thigh and he dropped to the floor, his face contorting in agony; blood rapidly oozing through his pants. He unstrapped his belt and applied a tourniquet to his wound.
"Put it on, or I'll put another bullet in your boss."
"He's not my boss," Abby grumbled through gritted teeth taking the vest and putting it on over her lab coat.
"Turn around," Susie instructed. She attached the wires to a box around the zipper. "It's an anti-tamper device; you try to remove it and it's bye bye for you and anyone within a twenty foot radius!"
Upstairs, Gibbs, Kate and Tony could only watch in horror as the terrifying scene unfolded.
"What are we going to do, boss?" Tony asked.
"Tony, I want you down there outside the lab. Take the stairs, I don't want to spook this bitch. Kate, get a hold of EOD, I want someone to get that jacket off of Abby without blowing her to bits!"
"You got it." Kate acknowledged.
Gibbs picked up his phone and dialled the lab. It rang five times before it was answered by Abby on the speaker phone, her laptop stood directly beside her.
"Forensics."
"Hey Abby, its Jethro."
"Oh, hi Jethro. What can I do for you?" Her voice sounded a little strange, even to her.
"I was wondering if you had the test results back from Special Agent Fornell's bombing victim, he's been giving me a headache over the results, so I was hoping I could come down and sign for them."
"Erm…no, they're not ready yet. I've had some problems with one of my machines. I'm waiting for a service tech to check it out. I'll let you know when they're ready," Abby replied.
"Thanks." Gibbs hung up. "Alright, if Abby got my message okay, then she is going to keep us informed from now on. McGee is alright, but is going to need medical assistance soon."
"He looks like he's lost a lot of blood," Kate remarked, gloomily.
Gibbs kept his eye on the screen. Even though Abby was scared, unarmed and shut in a room with a bomb around her chest and a gun wielding psychopath taking pot shots at McGee, he knew she would indicate to them any information she could using sign language.
Abby was prone to exaggerating her audible voice with her hands, but tonight she had to rely on them to give Gibbs all the detail she could about their situation, and all without getting caught!
"That's good Abs. What else…" Gibbs whispered to himself as Abby subtly signed that McGee had been shot once in the leg; the bomb she was wearing was trigger detonated and that Susie Jakes was there alone. It was at that point, Susie noticed Abby's movements. She raised her gun to fire at McGee again. Abby dove at their captor, a bullet fired and hit one of the labs computers sending electrical sparks fizzing into the air. The gun bounced across the floor, sliding under one of the tables. McGee dragged himself toward it in an effort to regain control of the situation.
Gibbs had seen everything and was now bounding his way downstairs and instructing Tony to 'move in' over the headset they each wore.
McGee reached his weapon just as Tony entered the lab, Gibbs only a second behind them both.
Susie grabbed Abby's hair and attempted to use her as a shield against the three armed agents barring her escape. With her free hand she drew out a small black box with a single switch. It was the remote to activate the bomb!
"Why'd you do it, Susie?" Gibbs asked.
"I was working my way up the food chain," Susie answered with a smirk. "Each one came into my hospital and flashed their charm, but as soon as they were well again they left without so much as a second look. When I left the navy and opened the flower store, they would come in and buy flowers and bouquets for their wives and girlfriends - they didn't even recognise me…"
"So, you'd kill them?"
"They'll remember me now!"
"Put the remote down and you and I can talk about this," Gibbs offered.
"I'll only talk to Gibbs," Susie indicated McGee, who was still laying on the floor, his face pale and clammy.
"He's in no condition to talk right now, and besides, I'm Special Agent Gibbs." He tossed his ID over to Susie so she could check it.
"You're Gibbs? I should have guessed," she chastised herself. "So who's…?"
"Special Agent McGee."
Susie laughed derisively. "That doesn't change anything though does it? I'm dead if I do and I'm dead if I don't, so…" Susie raised her thumb to depress the button on the remote.
Shots fired simultaneously from all three guns.
Ambulances, EOD vehicles and NCIS agents swarmed around the Washington building.
McGee was stretchered away wearing an oxygen mask and an intraveinous saline drip. A second body was being zipped into a black bodybag by Ducky's assistant Jimmy Palmer.
"I'm sorry Jethro," the ME patted his friend on the shoulder and escorted the body down to autopsy.
Tony sat on the floor, his legs folded up to his chest and his head resting on his knees. "I'm sorry boss…We all thought this loony was after you."
"It's okay, Tony." Gibbs' tone unusually soft. "Even Susie Jakes thought she was after me. McGee and Abby were just in the wrong place at the wrong time…"
"What about McGee?"
"He'll be fine, it was a through and through."
The lab doors opened and a disgruntled Abby walked in. "Look at this place! It will take me months to get some of this equipment replaced."
Gibbs smiled. He was just happy to have Abby back in one piece. He signed a silent greeting to her.
"Ahh, that's so sweet," she replied as she signed back.
Gibbs signed again and she frowned. "Did he now?"
"What did you just say to her, boss?" Tony asked.
"I could tell you, but then I'd have to shoot you!"
Kate was next through the sliding doors. She was carrying a computer print out of Susie Jakes history. "She worked as a nurse at Bethesda Naval Hospital from '92. She was dishonourably discharged in 2003 following a series of sexual harassment claims, from male patients, were made against her and upheld. She disappeared for about 6 months, then returned to Washington and opened 'Jakes Florist'." Kate read from the report.
"Ooo, creepy," Abby shuddered. "How did she get in?"
"Yeah," Tony interjected. "We all saw her leave on the security tape…"
"Whilst we were all watching the footage from the main front entrance, she snuck in around the side, conning a young lieutenant into holding the door for her so her security pass wouldn't show up on the system."
"Smart," Tony admitted.
"She must have hid out in one of the offices until everyone had gone," Kate surmised.
"How could she be sure that Gibbs, I mean McGee, would stay late at work today?" Abby asked.
"Because he doesn't have a social life!" Tony smirked.
"No Dinozzo, it's so he could get some work done without any juvenile interruptions!"
Tony's face fell as he contemplated Gibbs' comment.
The End
by
Holstered .38