CHAPTER FIVE
The take-over had happened quickly. Tony was coming out of the safe deposit box vault, and had just begun chatting up the clerk, when the gunmen came in. He'd been instantly made as a cop, the badge on his belt clearly visible due to Tony's "comfortable laid-back flirting stance." He was going to need to work on that. The leader of the terrorist team had been pleased, and had announced to the others that they had a very valuable hostage. They'd taken Tony's badge and gun, keeping the gun and giving the badge to the pregnant teller to take out with her. Just so that the feds knew that the gunmen knew who they had inside the bank.
Tony had tried to talk the gunmen into trading his life for everyone else's, but that effort fell flat.
"You're valuable," the terrorist leader said. "But I won't know how valuable until I see how much your boss and his friends are willing to do to get you back in one piece. For all we know, they don't even like you." Then the leader looked at the safe deposit box clerk. "You might want to move, honey," he said. "If I take anyone out, I'm thinking the cop's first on the list. And with his inflated ego, he might just explode all over you."
The cute clerk looked at Tony with a mixture of regret, fear and distaste, and quickly moved to join the remaining hostages on the other side of the room.
Tony looked at the leader. "You don't have to be insulting," he said.
The leader laughed, and then he ordered Tony to collect any phones, pagers, Blackberrys, or other electronic devices that the rest of the group had. It was an impressive collection, really, and many of the items were not handed over easily. One woman literally burst into tears when Tony took her cellphone from her, and another nearly fought him over her iPod. One bank executive flat-out refused to hand over his Blackberry.
"My entire life is on this thing!" the executive said, angrily. "I'm not giving it up."
Tony looked at the man incredulously. One of the three armed men started towards him, but the leader of the group held him back. He wanted to see what Tony would do.
Tony cocked his head to the side, regarding the small handheld. "Is that the new 8705g?" he asked. "I thought those were only available in England."
The banker shook his head. "Nope," he said smugly. "They came out in the States three days ago." He held it out to show Tony while also keeping a tight grip on it.
Tony raised his eyebrows and whistled in appreciation. "Expensive?" he said with a slight grin.
"A little pricey," the banker admitted, with a slight smile of his own. "But worth it."
"Cool," Tony said. His light demeanor didn't change as he collected the rest of the electronics and turned back to the hostage-takers.
"Got them all but that guy's," Tony said to the leader as he indicated the banker, still standing by the desk, holding his Blackberry. "But it's a very cool piece. Definitely worth dying for." He glanced over his shoulder at the banker, who paled considerably.
The leader of the group smiled a half-smile and pointed to the corner. "Put them over there," he said to Tony. And then the leader walked towards the banker, who was still clutching his hand-held computer. "Last chance," he said, quietly.
There was a beat of silence. Then, "Hey!" the banker called, trying to get Tony's attention. "You!" he said. "You – cop!"
Tony turned. The banker tossed the Blackberry to Tony, who caught it easily and put it with the others.
"Good choice," the leader said calmly. "Very good choice." The banker sheepishly sat down.
"Put yours on top," the leader instructed as Tony piled all the phones near a potted plant. "I'm thinking that you're going to be pretty popular with your FBI pals in a little while."
Tony sighed. He hated hostage negotiation. He'd done it a few times in Baltimore, and he was pretty good at it. But he really didn't like it. It was high-stress and unpredictable and it really depended on who was on the other end of the phone. This time, it would be Fornell on the phone with Gibbs and the rest of the team standing close enough to hear. And as soon as the bank robbery hit the news – which it probably already had, judging from the crowd gathering outside – there would be press and police and other agencies and protesters and … shit. And Jess. Tony blew out a breath and looked to the ceiling. She was probably already on her way. If it was Jess hostage inside a bank somewhere, Tony would do everything he could to get there. So, yeah … Jess would be there too. Tony suddenly found himself glad that Gibbs seemed to have enjoyed his date last night. Because if he hadn't, Jess showing up would not be something his boss would easily tolerate.
Back in the squad room, Gibbs and his team were frustrated. The note from the hostage-takers had specifically requested FBI, and Fornell had been just a little too happy to be on the receiving end of the situation.
"There are three men with guns holding innocent people hostage, Fornell," Gibbs had said. "You don't have to be so happy about it."
"Oh come on, Jethro," Fornell had replied with a small smile. "If you were running a hostage op from the front of the FBI Building, you'd be puffing out your chest like a peacock."
"Just don't hit anything you shouldn't be hitting when you piss on your territory," Gibbs had said, with a surly expression. And then he had gone back upstairs to try and figure out how to keep the FBI from getting DiNozzo killed.
The elevator dinged, and Gibbs looked up in time to see Jess walk out of the car and into the bullpen. He closed his eyes for a moment and sighed. While he'd expected her to materialize once she'd heard that Tony was a hostage, he just didn't have time for this.
"You've obviously seen the news," he said, in a voice that sounded far less annoyed than he felt.
"Yeah," she said, cautiously. She wasn't sure she'd be welcomed.
"You'll be in the way here," Ziva said, bluntly confirming Jess' fears. "We don't have the personnel to help Tony and keep an eye on you too."
"Ziva," Gibbs said, hoping to nip this conversation in the bud quickly.
Jess turned a steely look on Ziva. "I'm an expert in strategic operations, Ziva," she said quietly. "I can help you." Ziva's eyes narrowed.
Jess' tone carried a little bit of desperation. She wanted to stay. She needed to stay. Gibbs had to see that. Jess turned to face Gibbs. "No one needs to 'keep and eye' on me," she said, pleading her case. "But I can't just sit in my office, watch the news and do nothing …"
There was no response.
"Look," Jess said, ready to turn and head back outside. "I can work with you here, or I can go downstairs and offer my services to the FBI. But I'm not leaving."
"I can have her in cuffs in 15 seconds," Ziva said to Gibbs, her eyes not leaving Jess.
"Ladies," Gibbs said, tersely. "Can we save this for later? After Tony and the other hostages have been released?" He stressed the words 'other hostages', reminding them that Tony was, really, the least of their problems. Tony knew how to handle himself in situations like this. The other fifteen people didn't.
There was a beat of silence as Jess and Ziva called an unspoken truce. They turned to look at Gibbs. McGee let out the breath he'd been holding.
"McGee," Gibbs began, "get me the blueprints for the Virginia Savings & Loan. I want to know every single way in and out of that building."
"You got it, Boss." McGee instantly went to work.
"Ziva," Gibbs continued, "coordinate with the FBI and keep us in the loop. I want to know what's going on without them necessarily knowing that we know what's going on."
"On it." Ziva said.
"And Jess," Gibbs said, with a look and a tone of voice that made it clear she was there at his discretion, "as long as you're going to be here, take Tony's desk. I want you to find similar take-over scenarios on the east coast over the past few years, and then expand to cover the rest of the country. I know the FBI is looking for them, but another set of brains won't hurt."
"Thank you," Jess said, quietly and sincerely. Gibbs' body language softened a bit. He gave her a small reassuring smile.
Jess sat at Tony's desk and glanced at the photo of her and Tony that he kept in a small frame near his phone. Then she logged in and got to work.
"I'm going back downstairs to see what's going on," Gibbs said, as he took his coffee and headed to the elevator. He stopped and looked at Ziva and Jess. Then he looked at McGee. "You're in charge," he said to the younger agent. McGee looked up in surprise. "Keep them from killing each other, will you?" Then Gibbs got in the elevator.
The elevator doors closed, and both women looked at McGee, who suddenly felt very small and very much alone sitting behind his desk. "Let's … um … let's get to work and get Tony out of there," he said, in a more commanding voice than he'd expected to come out of his mouth.
Jess and Ziva looked at him, then at each other, and then all three of them turned to their tasks.