Chapter 14
Tony couldn't stop the shaking, he pulled his legs up to his chest desperately trying to keep a stable core body temperature. Tony was long past the feeling of numbness, he had lost all sensation in his toes hours before. And yet he refused to give up. He breathed out, his moist breath condensing causing it to look like a white plume of smoke.
The man walked in, and sat down staring at Tony.
"Wh..hy a..m I….I ..lll …e?" Tony's teeth chattered uncontrolbably and he coughed up more blood at the effort of speaking.
"You are still alive Agent DiNozzo because I wish you to be." The man shrugged his shoulders like it was a matter of life.
"Aw grown close to me have you? I am very loveable." Tony gave him his most fantastic grin, the illusion would have worked if the sentence had not come out as "Gr..n…..coo…se,t,,,o..mmmeee..hav….z..u.?" Tony gave up knowing that while his teeth were chattering speech was pointless.
"Cold Mr DiNozzo?" The man repeated his question from earliar.
Tony decided not to risk speech so nodded his head.
"Good." The man stalked off and left Tony alone.
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McGee double clicked the power point. 'Team Gibbs' minus one had gathered around Ziva's bed as they watched the presentation the McGee was running from his laptop.
"Tzahal Chomsky was born in Tel Aviv in 1986. His mother a refugee who was killed in the Gaza Strip, This is when he and his younger sister were taken in by Mossad , Director David to be precise," all eyes fell on Ziva, her face showed no change in emotion so McGee continued. "Tzahal and his sister Golda were trained like any other agents, they learnt how to fight and assassinate." McGee watched Ziva again and then continued "Tzahal was sent to infiltrate a Hamas cell and bring it down from the inside. Director David was blinded so much by control and revenge he forgot that his puppet was in imminant danger, Eli David grew blind, fuelled only by his own quest. Much like Jenny with the Frog." McGee paused for a while allowing his power point to catch up.
"McGee, continue!" Gibbs ordered and McGee started clicking again.
"By now Tzahal has married and he has a 5 month old son. Golda is engaged, because they are infiltrating the Hamas camp they have to live in the port where 'Operation Indigo' is due to be held."
"As Gibbs read in the file before, Mossad had already tried, and failed to capture the port. In the days leading up to the attack Tzahal had sensed that something was brewing so he had asked Director David for the start date of the offensive, so he could get his family out in time. Eli gave Tzahal the dates, what Tzahal didn't know was the date he had been given was three days after the attack was actually due to begin. Tzahal had been away on a training mission at the time but when he returned he found his home had been destroyed, his wife and child where dead, even his sister Golda, apparently she didn't know the time of the attack either."
McGee clicked for the next slide. The room was completely silent apart from the faithful whir of McGee's computer. "Tzahal had lost everything, he went underground, Mossad presumed him to be dead."
The room was quiet and eerie for a while.
"Why," Abby croaked, "Why didn't they tell him?"
"I can only assume that they thought he would leak the information to Hamas.." McGee shrugged.
Gibbs looked at Ziva, she was staring out the window, her pupils not really fixating on anything in particular.
"Ziva?" Gibbs asked snapping his fingers in front of her eyes. She blinked a few times before turning back to the time.
"I remember where I know him from, " She whispered, nobody daring to interrupt her "we were operating out in Morocco, he saved my life on a few occasions," Gibbs sensed like there was more but he didn't want to push her.
Gibbs raised a comforting hand to her shoulder, showing her reassurance. In the next couple of minutes Gibbs explained all he had learned from the Operation Indigo folder which wasn't much.
After that the team had left Ziva with Gibbs in her room, they sat there in silence for a while, before she said;
"You will find him Gibbs, you'll find him won't you." She turned her head towards him, her deep pools of brown staring innocently and openly into his.
Gibbs was shocked, he had never known Ziva to have to be reassured, but then again the Ziva that he had found in a Dustbin was a very different Ziva from the one he had known before. "Yeah Ziva, we will find him." He then placed a arm around her shoulder and held her there, feeling her starting to relax.
"You do know there is far more to 'Operation Indigo' than the folder is letting on don't you?" Ziva questioned Gibbs.
"I gathered but I couldn't work out what it would be…" Gibbs replied.
Ziva swallowed, "The Mossad attack a few years ago was not to wipe out Hamas, that was a bonus, it was an operation to sought out the inside of Mossad, all the mistrusted or tarnished record officers were sent to that area to work different operations…." She trailed off but Gibbs remained silent not wanting to pry things out of her.
"Tzahal was one of those agents, his sister had been accused of leaking information and it was assumed that they were an inside team." She paused for a moment before continuing, "In the middle of the night a pair of agents would burst into each agents residence and assassinate the officer and his/her family." She hung her head in shame, "A lot of innocent blood was spilled that night, My father called it a 'crusade' for a new and better Mossad, it was a purge of all the 'filth' from the organisation, he said he wanted to build a new Mossad, I now realised he wanted complete control, he wanted everybody loyal to him." She took in a deep breath, Gibbs could see that this was difficult for her.
"I believe this is what Vance plans to do, all the SEALS and the marines will probably be accused of a petty crime or have accusations placed again them. I think Vance and the SecNav plan to purge the Navy…" She whispered "With Mossad as their executionary force.
Gibbs nodded in shock, it all began to make sense, "And what would Mossad get out of this?" Gibbs asked.
"It is common knowledge that my father has a strong relationship with my Father, I can only assume that he is gaining secrets of undercover operations or insurgent camps."
" I will get McGee to look at this." Gibbs began to feel the anger building up inside him at the enormity of the project, Vance was planning a Holocaust. Gibbs shook his head in disbelief at the events folding out before him.
"Get some sleep Ziva." Gibbs said before leaving the room, he had some phone calls to make.
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Tony had been moved out of the freezer, he now found himself tied to a chair again in a gloomy, dank basement. Tony's body was so weak the men had to carry him, Tony knew that it had not been an act of mercy moving him out into the warmth, the damage had already been done to his lungs.
Another ghastly cough racked Tony's lungs and the sound bounced around the room. Tony brought up move blood and bile and he tried to spit it from his mouth, he just hung loosely in his chair unable to find the energy to lift his head as he heard the door opening and heavy boots descending the steps down to the basement floor.
"Ah good evening Mr DiNozzo!" The man boomed.
"Ah good evening," Tony had stopped shaking now but his voice still sounded dry each syllable croaked and sent pain shooting through his windpipe.
Tony was so hungry, he had eaten hardy anything since he had arrived here, he had managed to grab a few bites of raw beef that he could reach while he was being held captive in the freezer, it had tasted disgusting and Tony was repulsed by the fact he was eating raw flesh. But his stomach won the battle and he engorged himself on it. As for water he had managed to catch drops which had fallen from a leaking cooling vent that was in the ceiling when he was in the freezer.
This didn't mean Tony wasn't thirsty, his throat screamed at him to have something to drink.
"Mr DiNozzo what was Officer Davids purpose in 'Operation Indigo'?" The man asked.
"You said 'was'?" The man looked confused so Tony continued "The operation has not occurred yet so it should be 'is' but you said 'was' implying that the operation has happened before…" Tony trailed off.
The man punched Tony round the face several times. "A simple grammatical error!" The man screamed at him.
"Now, now nobody goes to fits of rage like that over grammatical errors, also you have been talking to several days and you have not made mistakes, so I am assuming you think that 'Operation Indigo' has happened once before…" Tony left it at that it was a stab in the dark but he was hoping that the man would reply.
"Not think, know," The man confirmed Tony's suspicions.
"What were their names?" Tony asked the man looked confused so Tony continued "You are doing this for some people you held close to you, men are not born killers."
The man snarled and whacked Tony across the face. He pulled out some electrical cord and wrapped it around Tony's chair, She neatly tied it around, the wire was thick and heavy, he man wrapped so it resembled a etiquette spiders web or cocoon. The man then connected the wires to a large generator that Tony had only just noticed sat in the corner. Tony instantly felt electricity surge through the wires, it made his hair stand on end.
"Through these wires is running 300 volts of electricity, if you move any part of your body a fraction of an inch you will be electrocuted." The man smirked unpleasantly "Their names Mr DiNozzo were Amit and Netanya." Tony heard the click as the door was shut behind the man.
The basement was silent, silent apart from the hum of electricity that Tony could hear running centimetres away from his ears.