In the back of the wildly pitching van, Tony consoled Tali, as she was understandably frightened by the whole ordeal, and Ziva took a moment to compose herself. Noticing that there were no windows that they could see out, Ziva looked at the corporal, who had an expressionless look on his face.
"What's the purpose of this?" Ziva asked the corporal.
"Orders, ma'am, to protect you and your family. We're taking the long way around to the airport. Intel came in that someone's looking for you and your family. I'm sorry, I can't say more." The corporal looked away.
"Alright, you do realize we're perfectly capable of taking care of ourselves?" Ziva said.
The corporal looked back in her direction. "Sorry, orders, ma'am."
After an hour and half drive, the van made a turn, onto the tarmac of the Cairo Airport, and after a short drive, the van door was opened, the sight of a business jet greeting them. Tony and Ziva came out of the van with Tali in tow, then walked up the stairs to the Gulf Stream. The captain flying the plane started going through the preflight checklist for engine start as the door was closed behind them. As soon Ziva sat by the window, Tali got to sit her seat in middle of her and Tony, they looked at each other as they held their hands to prepare themselves for the take off. Moments after the plane got on the air, Tony looked at Ziva, noticed her looking out of window,
"Well, I guess that escalated pretty quickly..." Tony reached out his arm around Ziva, as he looked at Tali doing her coloring papers.
"I wonder if this situation is serious enough to rate a Gulfstream, and I wonder of this whole thing got to do with Gibbs?" Ziva looked around to Tony, as she asked him.
After being in the air for hours, they came in for a landing at Dulles. The trio stirred awake from resting during the flight, and when the plane had landed and taxied to the hardstand, and Tony noticed a couple of people walking to the plane.
"I think I see a couple of familiar faces there..." Tony muttered to himself, then as he realized who it was, he added, "Oh. It's Gibbs coming with McGee".
"Oh Gibbs and McGee are here, Tali, look who is here," Ziva looked around to see them walking closer.
Tali ran towards Gibbs and McGee, screaming "Papa Gibbs! Uncle Tim!" They hid their surprised looks as Gibbs and McGee walked toward them. As Gibbs approached Tony, he reached out and gave him a slap up side the back of his head.
"Oh that head-slap, what did I do now?"
"Never let your guard down! Tony, we tried to call you and Ziva many times – no response - we had to send the cavalry and it's a good thing we got to you first. I am just glad you three just went to the restaurant, and not off grid, or God forbid, D-E-A-D!" Gibbs shot back in an authoritarian tone, spelling the last word out so as not to scare Tali.
"Ahh I see, I am sorry I had my phone on silent mode, I am sorry I did not answer the phone, we were working on our bolt plan, you guys found us first. Why now?" Tony held back the anger in his voice.
"Gibbs, can you tell us what this situation is? Does it involve any of our old cases?" Ziva asked Gibbs, reaching out to Tali and trying to keep her anxiety in control.
"Not here. Too sensitive." Gibbs guided the group to the awaiting vehicles. Ziva shot a look at Gibbs, who said nothing further.
"This whole situation smells of fish," Ziva said.
Tony interjected, "Smells fishy," which earned him a look from Ziva that said "are you serious?"
After they arrived at NCIS, Gibbs and McGee stopped by their desks to pick up some folders, then motioned for Tony to follow them. Ziva, holding Tali, motioned for Tony to go on ahead, then took Tali to the break room.
As they were walking on the way to Vance's office, Tony spoke up: "Well, for your information, I was about to do something special for Ziva, you know, maybe propose to her at the restaurant, and then in comes the cavalry, rushing in to sweep us up and fly us across the pond, now what's the big deal?" Tony asked Gibbs in a slightly irritated voice.
Tim's eyes brightened. "Nice, proposing to Ziva, congrats!"
Gibbs gave McGee a head-slap for that. "Situation's changed. That's gonna have to wait. Wait, you said propose to Ziva?" Gibbs suddenly stopped mid-stride.
"Uh, yes? As in, ask her to marry me?" Tony said.
Gibbs shook his head, and said, "Focus on the situation at hand right now. It will all work out."
Upon entering Vance's office Vance welcomed everyone his office, but before he could close the door, Ziva walked in.
"Tali?" Tony asked.
Ziva smiled at Tony and gave both him and McGee a quick look. "Delilah showed up, and offered to take Tali off my hands for a bit while I – we – got to the bottom of this."
Ziva, and Tony was wondering what was happening as they asked Vance and Gibbs what was really going on here. So Vance went to them, sat down to let them know something.
"Alright, a situation had developed that we had to get you both and your daughter out here. You'll be headed to a safe house somewhere near Cheyenne, somewhere close to the mountains soon as soon as this meeting finishes, and you both will be in good hands, we will make sure of it."
Vance carefully explained to Tony and Ziva as Gibbs sat quietly. Ziva and Tony looked at each other, in worried look.
"Cheyenne? What's way out there? It doesn't make sense here?" Tony muttered to Vance as he sounded puzzled.
"Vance, what is really going on here? Is it one of Sahar's, one of Ari's? I was positive that Sahar's people are dead, and Adam died because of them, I don't understand what is going on here," Ziva stepped in to speak up in a tone where she would want Vance to be more specific.
Vance slapped a folder down onto his table and slid it to Ziva. "What about Ray? We suspect that he may be sending communications to people outside the prison, despite extreme security measures."
The picture on the folder, along with the name, was like a slap to Ziva's face. Tony must have seen the look, for he said, "Wait, you mean Ray, that CIA Ray?"
"Oh my, that despicable character. What's he trying to do now?" Ziva replied as she tried not to think too hard about Ray, happy that he is behind bars.
"Well, there's a couple of hitmen escaped a max-security prison. Classic laundry truck, guard overpower type escape, only it went kinda sideways, ended up killing a couple guards. The catch? Ray's guys." Gibbs said.
Vance walked around and sat on the edge of his desk. "Which means, they are out there to do whatever Ray asked them to do: stalk you both, then tell Ray all the intel. The other danger, related to this, is Ray has also escaped with the two henchmen. That is not being covered in the news – just the two henchmen – and let me tell you. He is very obsessive and angry man, he got pictures of Ziva all over in his cell. One of those people was at your farmhouse property but, and I stress, but it was by good fortune that you left when you did. That man is no longer in the equation, thanks to our SEALs. Now, allow me to show you something..." Vance explained carefully to Ziva and Tony about what was happening. Tony and Ziva just sat there in disbelief of what they just heard, then saw the TV screen as they heard the news report saying the farmhouse had been destroyed in a fire and explosion, and that an investigation determined that the fire and explosion was caused by a man before he was killed by military personnel in a brief firefight that set off the explosion. The news reel continued on with the account that the man had started a gas leak and was in the process of setting a fire when he was caught and engaged in said firefight. Before everyone expected it, Ziva got up pacing around the room, and screamed in tears as she spoke and cursed in Hebrew. Tony got up, walking to hold Ziva from falling apart, and comforted her, keenly aware of her anxiety attacks that still strike on occasion. Tony kept his cool, looking at Gibbs and Vance.
"Farmhouse number two. What is it with people and blowing up farmhouses? Isn't one enough? That house, I built, with my own two hands! How dare that sleaze blow it up? How dare they? Why a target on our backs?" Vance went to Tony closer as Gibbs got up to be in middle, and told Tony that he should be glad Ziva is alive and in his arm for once again, Tony just stood there having Ziva crying in his arms, just too much information for him to digest. Tony comforted Ziva, then sat down with her, then he looked at the window, pondering.
"Alright, wow, this is a lot to take on right now, but if you think it's best that we mosey on over to Cheyenne, then so be it, and are you guys going to leave us hanging there, or what?" Tony questioned Vance at the same time Gibbs looked at Tony, tossing some files to Tony. Vance sat down, and composed himself and took a deep breath, then looked at Gibbs and Tony.
"Tony, here is the papers that we have worked on so far, sorry about all these redactions but a lot of it's classified. The thing is here, Ray probably thinks you guys got away by killing that man, but what he does not know is that we had intel that led us to him and thus us being able to back you both up, so for now it's Cheyenne. McGee and his family will be there also, so Tali will not be as alone, having the McGee twins to play with," Vance said.
Gibbs added, "The only people that will know where you will be are in this room. When it is all over, you both will hopefully be done with hiding then you both are free to live wherever you want, but right now there are people looking for you both – don't know how many - and I can't stand losing you both all over again, especially Ziva." Gibbs explained as much he could to make things easy for Tony and Ziva. Vance and Gibbs then got all the necessary paperwork for the travel ready, including identification papers for the destination.
"Alright, what will we do in the mountains? What will we do there?" Ziva asked Vance and Gibbs.
"Papers for you guys. McGee, I am putting you in NORAD where you'll use their MTAC to loop in to NCIS remotely, Tony, stay with McGee and help him. Ziver, we need your hookup with Israel, you're the liaison, work with Tony and McGee."
Ziva looked around briefly, then asked, "What about Tali?"
McGee said, "Ziva and Delilah can rotate as needed, but Delilah can handle it, no problem. We could also use her help with NSA if need be."
After the meeting broke up, they all left the building, leaving in separate unmarked vehicles, all heading different directions, all finally arriving at Dulles, where they boarded a different Gulf Stream, taking off at a very late hour. Once airborne, they were escorted by fighter jets almost the entire way to the Cheyenne airport.
Arriving at the Cheyenne airport at oh-dark-thirty, they met a military transport which took them to the NORAD facility, carved deep inside the hard granite mountains, they were brought deeper within the complex until they reached an office space a couple of levels down. They were suitably impressed by the scale of the facility, essentially a small city, self-contained, self-reliant, underground, a nexus of activity and communications that stood at the ready in case of the unthinkable. They were shown their respective work locations, and then MTAC itself. After they did the tour on some areas there, they went to other side of that NORAD facility, there was an elevator going one level down, it would be filled with many living quarters for staff and their families living there, there was also a gym, swimming pool, clubhouse, movie media room, nice cafe being provided and a mini mall to buy clothes needs. Once they found their own living quarters that is only across the hall from each other, they opened the door, Tony and Tim had a handshake as they sent their own family into their units.