Chapter 19
Tony looked over at Abby who was trying to put together a bunch of places that Maliek may have taken Ziva. He knew that everyone was on edge, everyone wanted to get Ziva back, she was part of their family, they were a team and no one was allowed to take away a member of their team. They were sure that they only had a short amount of time, or they would be burying her the way they had buried Kate. Tony could tell that Abby was wondering how he was holding up, considering he and Ziva were engaged to be married.
Tony was lost in thought, attempting to come up with something to say when he felt the familiar thunk to the back of his head.
"Get your head out of the clouds DiNozzo, we have a missing agent." Gibbs stated simply.
"Yes sir." Tony said, understanding that Gibbs was attempting to keep him calm, by treating everyone as he normally treated them. He didn't want anyone to lose it, and they would lose it if anyone softened up and attempted to pretend that this was as different than their other cases, even though it was.
"Abby, tell me what we have." Gibbs stated as he set another Cow Pow in front of Abby.
"Thanks Gibbs." Abby said as she sighed. "There are abandoned warehouses within 30 miles of the safe house, there is also a bunch of storage houses at the docks that are miles from the safe house." Abby said as she winced. "I can't really tell you if she will be at either of those two locations, but those seem like our top choices at the moment, unless he took her there for the first night and then moved her. Do we know if he really plans to kill her or if he has other plans for her?"
"We don't know anything for sure right now, Abby." McGee spoke up, giving her a very soft look of understanding.
Ziva could tell there was something going on as Maliek laughed into the phone he was holding. Ziva was wondering why she was still alive. She had been beaten badly and she knew she was injured but she was still breathing and he knew it. She had a feeling that Maliek was up to something and it would be far worse than if he had actually killed her, which meant he was going to hand her over to someone else who wanted to kill her.
"Ms. David, you're awake." Maliek said sarcastically. "I bet you're wondering why you aren't dead yet?" He asked her with a smirk on his face. "Well I made some calls, trying to figure out what would be the best way to take you out and I learned there is someone who really wants to kill an NCIS agent, since you are no longer a Mossad officer but now an NCIS agent, well I couldn't resist making a deal. I mean I get money while you die a slow painful death anyway, that was the best news of all." Maliek said laughing evilly.
Ziva wasn't sure who would want to kill her but if it was someone that hated NCIS then they would make sure she was killed in a slow painful manner, but it would also mean they were on NCIS radar, which would mean there was a slight chance that an agent would be listening in on all the phone calls this creep made, and that could mean they knew there was a deal for an NCIS agent going down out here, they would call Vance and Vance, who was the Director now, would notify Gibbs, it had to go down like that, she had to trust that her team would find her somehow, she had to believe she would see them again, she had to believe that she would get to marry Tony, she had to.
"What's the matter? Are you hoping that somehow, someone is going to make sure that your precious team can find you? Ha! Not going to happen Ziva." Maliek said laughing, obviously not having any idea who he was messing with. Ziva realized immediately that he had no idea who Gibbs was and he didn't know that Tony would be ruthless, he wouldn't let anything happen to her without fighting for her. She knew her team was looking for her, she had to believe they would find a way to get to her.
Tony was going crazy looking over all the notes they had been sent by Mossad on Maliek. There didn't seem to be anything in there that was useful, except that he was a greedy person and that he would trade his own mother for money if he could. Tony wasn't sure why that was an important detail but for some reason that was the detail that stood out in his mind and it was the one repeating through his head over and over, he had a feeling it was real important for some reason.
There had to be something that he was missing, something that could lead him to Maliek and that would lead him to Ziva, there had to be. Tony looked up as Gibbs walked into the area where their desks were, he had been in Vance's office for a long time, Tony knew it was probably a phone call to Ziva's father that had taken that long. Vance had been handling Mossad, but Gibbs was Ziva's immediate supervisor and he had been the one in charge of her protection detail, her being taken right from under his nose was a real bad thing.
"Gibbs?" Tony asked getting up slowly and walking over to his bosses desk.
Gibbs looked up at him, leaning back in his chair and it was clear that there was something on his mind. "Yes DiNozzo?"
"Is Mossad taking over?" He asked softly.
"No, they are threatening to run their own investigation and if they find her first, they plan to take her back to Israel, but that's about it. Vance is holding them off for right now." Gibbs informed him. "Those warehouses and the storage lockers were all empty." Gibbs also spoke up. "There was no sign that anyone had been there."
He looked over as he waited for the contact meeting with Maliek. He was going to be 'buying' an NCIS agent, that was something that was going to be interesting. He wasn't even supposed to be in town, but he was there and he was going to take care of this, because he had been asked to personally by his boss and that meant a lot more than anything.
