Death silence

Disclaimer: I don´t own any characters or anything

Summary: Someone abducts a member of the team to take revenge on Gibbs. A cruel game begins. Will they be able to locate their friend before time runs out?

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3- Aggression Management

Gibbs had taken the rest of his team down to the lab. "All right, Abby doesn´t need to hear us talking. I guess there´s some comm device up there, so whoever did this must have access to this building. Ideas?" He asked and looked at the other two men.

"I´m trying to isolate the stream and trace it back, but whoever did this is a genius. He´s using about every server on this planet to mask his source, but I´m on it." McGee said as he typed away on the computer. "That device must have a wireless link to your computer or anything –never seen anything like it, probably some new toy."

Tony was at the other computer. "I´m trying to see how much air there is in a coffin. That should give us an idea of the timeframe we got for this. It´s not going to be a lot though, boss." He said and calculated several models.

Gibbs continued to pace up and down in the lab for a while. He tried to think of a person capable of something like this, but didn´t get any result, no matter how hard he thought about it. "I´ll be up at my desk, I need to check the cases we worked on over the last months." He told them and disappeared into the elevator.

Once the doors closed, McGee let the mask fall off. He put his head onto the desk. "Oh god..." He sighed and had to fight to hold back the tears. He didn´t want to lose her, not before talking to her. Abby was more than just a friend to him, much more.

Tony looked at his co-worker for a moment before putting a hand on his back. "We´ll find her, Tim. We just have to find her." He told him and continued to flip through the different calculations. What he got from that wasn´t very promising. "Damn...that´s not good." He muttered, pulled something out of the printer and ran upstairs.

Gibbs was sitting at his desk, reading something on his computer. He had his face so close to the screen that his head was almost completely hidden. "You really need to get glasses, boss." Dinozzo commented and was rewarded with a darting look over the edge of the monitor.

Kate was at her desk too, head resting on her arms. She seemed exhausted, but Tony knew that it was mainly because she felt helpless and was scared. He had seen her like this before, but nobody else knew. After the assignment where Ari had taken her hostage, she had actually called him and asked him to come to her apartment. She had allowed herself to cry in front of him, which was something he had never expected from her.

Tony stood between the desks for a moment. "Abby, listen. I need to know about how large that coffin is. I´ll just read the measurements to you and you only have to say yes or stop when I reach something that´s close." He said and noted that Kate looked up at him. He read down the figures on his paper until there was a faint yes from Abby. "All right, thanks, Abbs. Don´t worry, we´ll have you back in no time." He said and then motioned Gibbs that he had to talk to him.

Both men walked into the elevator. "What you got, Dinozzo? Why those measurements?" Gibbs inquired and leaned against the cool wall as the elevator descended.

Tony sighed. "The amount of air in the coffin depends on the volume, which depends on the measurements. From these figures, I´d say we have 5-6 hours left, if not less." He said and jumped a bit when Gibbs slammed his fist against the wall, leaving a considerable dent. "Ouch..."

"Find her, Dinozzo. I don´t care how, but find her." Gibbs rushed out of the elevator and towards the morgue, biting his lip when he tried to move his hand. Beating something sure helped with aggressions, but it also hurt a lot. "Duck?" He walked into the morgue and saw Mallard standing in front of a number of x-ray pictures.

The doctor turned around and looked at him for a moment, his eyes resting on his right hand with a frown. "Jethro, you should really consider some aggression management training there." He said and took a closer look. "I do believe you have finally managed to fracture something. There is a considerable amount of swelling here. Mr. Palmer, I need the portable x-ray in here." He called to his assistent.

"Duck, I don´t have time for this..." Gibbs insisted, but the look on Mallard´s face told him it was no use to object. He bit his lip again as Ducky made him put his hand onto the x-ray set. "Dinozzo said we have about 5-6 hours to find Abby." He told him while waiting for the picture to be developed.

"That is not much time. Is there anything I can do to assist?" Mallard asked and pulled the x-ray out of the liquid, studying it closely. "Ah, yes. A hairline fracture near the mid-bone. You will need at least a tight bandage to keep this fracture from expanding, Jethro. I would recommend a cast, if you...all right, a bandage it is. Mr. Palmer..."

10 minutes later, Gibbs walked back into the bullpen, mood even worse than before. He noticed Kate´s questioning look when she noticed the bandage on his hand. Before he had to answer any questions, his cell phone rang. "Gibbs."

"It´s Tony, boss. We need you at the lab, probie got something." Dinozzo said and he immediately spun around and returned into the elevator. When he came into the lab, both agents were already waiting for him. "Probie, you go."

McGee was still at the computer and looked up. "I didn´t manage to trace him yet -he´s really good at what he does. But I managed to identify that comm device. It´s a wireless audio adapter pinned beneath your desk, boss. It´s connected to your computer, that´s how it was activated. The thing is, it only has a working radius of about 5 miles. And that with no walls or other interferences. Taking a good guess, I´d say the other unit has to be within 4 miles." He reported and smiled a bit.

"That´s a start. Keep trying to trace him, McGee." Gibbs said and walked back upstairs. Picking up a piece of paper, he started to write a message for Kate, but winced as he tried to pick up the pen with his injured hand. She gave him a questioning look and he gestured her to follow him to the other side of the bullpen. "I need you to check a radius of 4 miles from here for any places that could be used to bury a coffin without many witnesses. We got less than 4 hours, and that´s if we´re lucky." He told her in a low voice, noticing the horror in her eyes. He knew that she was professional enough to put her feelings back for the moment.