Chapter 18
Ziva woke up slowly but the pounding in her head caused her to attempt to cry out, but no sound left her lips. She opened her eyes finally and looked around her, she realized where she was immediately and winced even more. She knew she was in major trouble, and that was where she was. She looked around, the unfamiliar territory causing her to worry. If she could get a hold of something to call for help, she had no idea where to tell them to go. She looked down at herself and winced. She was sitting in a hard chair, her arms were chained down to the metal arms and her legs were each chained to the legs of the chair. She could see a band across her middle, holding her in place and as she attempted to turn her head, she realized that there was a strap around her throat holding her head still and in place.
"The little assassin is awake?" Maliek said in a sarcastic voice.
"Maliek, please, listen to me." Ziva said softly. Her only chance was to try and talk him down, to make him understand that she was upset over what had happened his family as much as he was. She was not a cold blooded killer, and she was someone who had paid for the guilt and anguish that she had felt over those deaths.
"There is nothing for you to say Ziva David. What, you get to be happy and make new friends and start over in the United States when those you murdered don't get to?" Maliek spat at her angrily.
"I thought you were going to kill all those close to me, make me watch them die?" Ziva asked, wondering why he had finally chosen to just grab her rather than go after her loved ones.
"I realized that if I killed them, it would make me like you." Maliek said sneeringly.
"You killed my sister." Ziva pointed out as pain ripped through her chest at the thought of her innocent sister.
"Well, that was different, it also hurt others besides you so it was beneficial to my cause." Maliek said smugly. "Your friends out here have nothing to do with the others I want to hurt so their deaths or brutal tortures would not be beneficial to my cause." Maliek stated simply, the logic he was using told Ziva that Tony and the others would be safe, Maliek would leave them alone once he killed her.
"Maliek, I swear to you that I did not…" Ziva stopped when she saw the rage building and braced herself for what she knew was coming. Sure enough Maliek slammed his fist into her face and Ziva tasted blood as she heard her nose breaking. She made sure not to wince, not to show any emotion or pain. She was going to have to become the old Ziva David, the cold and calculating Mossad officer. It might be the only way she could get herself out of this or stall long enough to give her team a chance to find her, because if they didn't find her, then she was going to be delivered to them, in a body bag.
Tony was beside himself as he paced back and forth. He was often running his fingers through his hair and glancing at the screens around him. With Ziva being kidnapped they had agreed they should head to NCIS headquarters and now Tony could see how just how much people had come to respect and care about Ziva, like he had. Vance had put all agents on alert, APB's were broadcasted everywhere and all federal agencies were on alert for any sightings. They were still trying to decide whether to go to the media, but quickly nixed the idea when they realized it could do more harm than good at this point. Mossad had been contacted and they wanted to take over the whole case, considering who was involved. But because everything was going on, on American soil their request was denied.
"Tony, we are going to get her back, you'll see." Abby said as she sat on McGee's desk.
"DiNozzo, stop pacing and feeling sorry for yourself and help us find the probie." Gibbs practically barked at Tony.
McGee winced, and they all realized what Gibbs was doing. He was trying to get their heads in the game and reminding them that Ziva was no longer Mossad but she was the new probie on their team. It was meant to get them to stop thinking of her as their friend and like an agent who was trained and capable to taking care of herself.
"I don't understand, she could take this guy without so much as breaking a sweat. How did he get her? How did he take her down without much of a fight if any?" Tony asked softly. He knew Ziva, they all knew Ziva and she was not a woman to be messed with. She could take any one of them down on hand to hand alone. She always carried some sort of weapon, a weapon hidden on her body and most of the time they could never ever find it. She drove the metal detectors at places nuts because they would always go off but no one found anything she was waved through with no problems.
"It means that Ziva probably was surprised or her guard was down and he managed to get to her." Abby said softly as she tried to think of her big bad Mossad assassin and how she could have let a creep like this take her.
"It means that Ziva might have made a choice." Gibbs spoke up.
Ziva felt like her face was on fire. After the first punch he had snapped, his rage becoming clear and he had just kept punching her over and over in the face. Now Ziva had her left eye swelling shut, pretty soon she would not be able to see out of that eye. She knew there were multiple fractures in her face, including her nose and jaw. She tasted blood, and she could feel blood dripping down her face and streaking from her head down the side of her face. She knew that he had hit her hard enough to break the skin on her face in different places, he was wearing the brass knuckles after all. Ziva was struggling to stay conscious as she watched him start to set his tools out, she knew what was coming and she was ready to die, she knew it was going to happen and Maliek was going to make it slow and painful.
