Warning: contains seriously bad pun
McGee and Abby watched the three dots on their screen representing the positions of Gibbs, Ziva and Tony. Abby reached out to the microphone connecting them all.
"OK, signal is on in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, go."
On another screen McGee saw the spike rise from the noise and hover for precisely the right amount of time.
"Gotta lock," he called out. "Sending positions now."
The three field agents received their identical position readouts at more or less identical moments, give or take a nanosecond and three car engines started. They converged on a small apartment building in the city. Three car doors opened and three agents emerged. Blending to form one synchronous mass, they headed for the stairs and up into the apartment block.
They stopped when they reached the correct address, Ziva on one side of the door frame, Gibbs on the other. Tony took a deep breath and broke down the door with one stamp of his foot. He peered in cautiously. The room was empty except for a mobile phone with a piece of paper on it. Gibbs stepped around the door jam with his gun raised.
"What the..," he began approaching the phone while Tony kept him covered. He looked down. The sign read 'Congratulations, you are our winner!'
"McGee!"
The atmosphere in the bullpen was electric, which explained why McGee was in shock.
"Ring them," Gibbs demanded shoving the phone under McGee's nose.
"Could be a bomb, boss," Tony warned.
"All the more reason it should be McGee."
McGee took the phone and swallowed hard. "I think I'll use the hands free," he said nervously. "Then we can use the speaker phone."
"You still gotta dial," Tony pointed out with a grin. Sure it might blow them all up, but if his last dying moments were spent watching Probie wet his pants in fear, it might be worth it.
McGee set the mobile up and then used a pencil to dial the number on the paper.
"Afraid it might be sensitive to your fingers, Probie?" Tony teased.
McGee stopped tapping and looked up. "No," he said. "I still have no feeling in my fingertips; it's easier if I can see what I'm doing."
"Dial," Gibbs commanded.
McGee shot Tony a dirty look and continued. He paused briefly to compose himself and then hit the dial button. They stood motionless, waiting for the ringing to be answered.
"Hello, and welcome to 'Catch the Spike', the fun treasure hunting game you can play at work," it was a pre-recorded message. "Our records indicate that you have found the winning phone! Congratulations! Your workplace will be rewarded with a free laptop with all the signal processing power you could ever need. To collect your prize just take the phone to the following address between 12 noon and 1pm on any work day. Congratulations again for a job well done!"
There was a pause and McGee rustled about to find a pen and notepad on his desk. He was just in time to jot down the address clumsily with his numb fingers. The phone went silent. And they all stood expectantly for a moment waiting for something to happen.
When nothing did, McGee sighed and sank in his chair, relieved. He did not notice Gibbs looming over his desk.
"McGee: If I find out that you have had us chasing our tails for two days so that you could win a Goddam competition, you will be busted so far the moon will seem like a warm tropical vacation spot." There was a malevolence in Gibbs voice that McGee hadn't heard since the days of Ari.
"I ah, boss, I would never, ah you can't think…," McGee flustered, any respect he had ever won from Gibbs had just flown out the window to be replaced by resentful, angry, vengeful Gibbs.
"Can it!"
Gibbs was furious at the waste of valuable time. "We have real cases people, get back to them."
Tony and Ziva scuttled for their desks.
"Tomorrow, we nab those bastards," said Gibbs ominously.
"I thought you said it was just a silly game….," Tony began.
"They kidnapped a federal agent, DiNozzo," Gibbs rounded on Tony. "Forget the waste of government resources by who knows how many of these blasted computer geeks," he waved his hand in McGee's general direction. "These guys could have killed someone and they still might if we don't stop them right now."
McGee sat stunned, hurt and rejected by Gibbs outburst. He thought he had made a valuable asset to the team. Apparently not.
Gibbs turned on McGee again. "Get down to autopsy."
McGee frowned, the death penalty seemed a bit harsh, even for Gibbs.
"McGee," yelled Gibbs in exasperation. "Ducky wants to check out those bandages. Then you might as well go home. There's no REAL danger and you're of no use to us here." He stormed off to his desk.
McGee pushed his chair out slowly. He saw Tony looking at him and he averted his eyes. He didn't want anyone to look at him. Shoulders slumped his wandered aimlessly in the general direction of the elevator to look for Ducky. At least Ducky might be nice to him.