Chapter Four

Thus Begins The Hunt

7:30 pm. An exhausted, young James Drake pulls up to a gas station, turns off his car, takes a final puff of his cigarette and gets out of his car. Just as he's walking toward the doors of the shop a voice calls out from behind him.

"Mr. Drake?"

Drake turns around to see a young man, who looked to be the same age as him, with his hands inside the pockets of his long black trench coat that reached to his feet. But what really caught Drakes' attention were the man's green eyes. They stared at Drake with an expression of anger.

"Can I help you?" Drakes responded

"I'm looking for some friend of yours, Mr. Erick Red and Johnny Briggs, I was wondering if you can tell me where they are?"

"And who exactly are you?"

"I'm a federal agent, my name is not important. What is important is the location of Red and Briggs."

"What if I don't know?"

"You're a young guy, around your 20's, so I'll give you a choice, we can do this the easy way or the hard way."

"What's the hard way?"

The man simply smiled and pulled out a pair of handcuffs from his pockets.

"Put your hands behind your back."

"Why am being arrested?" Drake asked, doing what the man said.

"Just a precaution." The man said cuffing him.

He had Drake take a seat on the curb as he walked to his car.

"You have nice car here." The man said pulling out a metal baseball bat from the back seat.

"Ugh, thanks." Drake said, starting to get worried.

"A BMW right?"

"Yeah."

"It would be a shame if you got a scratch on it."

"What do you mean by-?"

But he was interrupted when the man swung the bat as hard as he can hitting the drivers' side door, leaving a huge dent.

"What the fuck are you doing," Drake yelled getting up.

"Sit down!" the man yelled pointing the bat at him.

"Now," The man said as he made his way to the back of the BMW, "are you going to tell where Erick is?"

"I told you before I don't know!"

The man responded by smashing the tail light.

"What about Briggs?"

"I don't know!"

CRASH! There goes the other tail light

"I don't know!"

CRASH! Goes the passenger side window.

"I SAID I DON'T KNOW!"

CRASH! Goes the windshield.

"WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS?"

The man sighed as he dropped the bat.

"Get up," he said to Drake angrily.

As he got up the man grabbed him by the arm and took Drake to his car that was parked nearby to Drakes' car.

"Where we going," Drake asked as the other man opened the passenger door of his car.

"We are going for a little ride," the man answered with a smile that made a shiver go up Drakes' spine.

After starting up the car, the man opened up the glove compartment and pulled out a pill bottle.

"These are what's keeping me from shooting you," the man said to Drake smiling as he popped a couple pills into his mouth.

Drake simply stared at him as he put the pills back into the glove compartment and pulled out of the gas station.

"Where we going," Drake asked as they were pulling into the freeway.

"Now, are you going to tell me where Erick and Johnny are?"

"Look man, I already told you I don't know."

"Wrong answer."

With that the man floored it, making Drake get pulled back into his seat.

Drake screamed in terror as they nearly missed the car they were passing. Miss after near miss as the man speed down the freeway barely missing every car they passed.

"Where are they?" the man asked.

"I don't know!"

The man responded by violently swerving from one lane to the other, almost hitting another car. Drake wanted to hold on tight to something but the handcuffs denied him that.

"Tell me!"

"Help me God!"

"Tell me!"

"Your a fuckin' psycho!"

Frustrated, the man swerved across the dividing line unto oncoming traffic.

"Are you going to tell me now," the man yelled as he swerved back and forth across the dividing line avoiding oncoming cars.

"OH GOD, HELP ME. HELP ME GOD, HELP ME!"

"TALK!"

"Okay, okay, I'll talk! Briggs always hangs out Eagles Bar. It's a biker bar. He's a big motorcycle fan. You'll find him there."

"And Erick?"

"I don't know."

The man speed up as he drove toward an 18-wheeler coming their way as if playing a giant game of chicken.

"Tell me!"

"I swear to God I don't know. Please, I'm begging you. I don't know."

"Are you sure?"

"YES. PLEASE GOD, HELP ME!"

At the last moment the swerved away missing the 18-wheeler by inches. He pulled over to the side of the road and uncuffed Drake.

"Now get the hell out of my car," the man demanded.

"Thank you God," Drake said getting out of the car as fast as he can, "thank you, thank, thank you, thank you."

And with that the man drove off leaving Drake running along the freeway.

XXXXXXX

"Yeah, this is Gibbs"

"Boss, it's DiNozzo, I got the results back for the pills."

"And?"

"Turns out they been laced with a substance that's a cross between heroin and a steroid-like substance. Some of the side effects include increased rage, paranoia, and suicidal and homicidal tendencies."

"Alright thanks. Any more news?"

"We found James Drake but it looks like McGee got to him first."

"Do you know where McGee is?"

"From what Drake tells us, he after Briggs next. He's heading for the Eagles Bar."

"Alright, head over there to see if you can find them."

"Right away sir. Um, boss?"

"Yeah DiNozzo?"

"Do you think McGee will be alright?"

"I'm sure he will be. Right now we just need to find him."

"Alright boss. I'll call you if I get any more news."

And with that Tony hung up. Gibbs just entered Abby's room in the hospital to find a tired Ducky half asleep in one of the chairs next to Abby's bed. He stood as he saw Gibbs enter the room.

"How's she doing Duck?"

"She's doing just fine."

"Has she woken up yet?"

"Not yet I'm afraid. How's McGee holding up?"

"Not well. He stolen some ammo and guns from the weapons locker, and he ruffed up a young suspect not to long ago. We still don't know where he is."

"Well it's almost understandable considering the feelings he has for her and the way he was talking earlier, but still."

"What do you mean?"

"Well Jethro, it seems he feels responsible for Abigail getting hurt. It seems as though he sees himself as her shield willing to quite literally lose an arm for her and destroy anyone who harms her and he feels he should make up for his failure by going after the man who shot her."

"Well it seems some other things have also contributed to his rage."

"What do you mean?"

"Apparently some anti-depressant pills that he got contained a steroids-like substance."

"Oh dear."

"They apparently cause increased anger, paranoia and homicidal and suicidal tendency."

"Is McGee going to be okay?"

Both Gibbs and Ducky turned around in surprise to see Abby, who unknown to them has been listening to the their conversation, sitting up on the bed.

"Abby!" they both said rushing toward her.

"Is McGee going to be okay?" she asked them again.

"It's hard to say," Gibbs said, "it's bad enough he's taking this hard but with those pills inside him he's become unpredictable."

"I have to go find him," Abby said trying painfully to get up but the pain in her chest made it difficult.

"Abby, lie back down. Me, DiNozzo, and Ziva are on it. You need your rest," Gibbs assured her.

"But McGee's in trouble," Abby said once again trying to get up.

"You can't do anything for him under your condition," Gibbs told her trying to get here to lie down again, "you need to lie down and rest. We'll find him and help him, alright."

"Alright," Abby said finally giving up.

"I'm going to meet up with Tony and Ziva," Gibbs told Abby and Ducky, "I'll be back later if I have news."

As Gibbs was starting to leave, Abby spoke up again.

"Promise you won't hurt him," she said to Gibbs, "it's not his fault."

Gibbs paused for a moment. He saw in her eyes that she had true feelings for McGee as she begged him not to hurt McGee.

"I promise."