Disclaimer: NCIS and its characters do not belong to me and I am making no money from this.

Many thanks to Mr VP for the Beta. Any remaining mistakes are mine.

AN: Thank you so much for your kind comments, I really appreciate them. Another shortish chapter, sorry but, hey, two chapters in two days.

DiNozzo leaned back in the narrow cot in the ship's infirmary, his hand reaching up absently to pick at the dressing on his shoulder. It was slapped away as Gibbs came in and sat down beside him.

"Leave it," Gibbs ordered as Tony opened his mouth to complain. He turned to the corpsman before asking, "How is he?"

"He is fine," DiNozzo interrupted but Gibbs ignored him and waited for a reply.

"The stab wound in his left shoulder bled profusely Sir but hasn't caused any serious damage. The slash on the right needed a dozen stitches and Agent DiNozzo will need to keep it immobilised for a while."

Gibbs nodded his thanks and looked assessingly at his agent. "How do you really feel Tony?" he asked at last.

DiNozzo stared at his boss, knowing better than to try and be less than truthful. "I'm a little tired," he admitted, "but I've taken the painkillers and I'm good to go."

Gibbs looked at him a moment longer before reaching behind him for a white T shirt he had commandeered, he handed it over without another word, helping Tony to lift it over his head when he struggled to raise his arms.

"It seems that the third member of the engineering team was alone in the engine room. The chief's men recovered him when the smoke cleared."

"You want to have a go at Michaels first?" DiNozzo asked, stumbling slightly as he got to his feet.

Gibbs gave him a look but said nothing as he reached out a hand to steady him. "Yeah, Doc here has checked him over," he said indicating the medical corpsman. "Nothing worse than a hangover. Captain Root has altered course to rendezvous with the destroyers but they may have had to alter course to avoid the storm. We've submerged again to periscope depth."

"I don't think he'll talk," DiNozzo mused. "I think he's too far gone, he was almost fanatical when he attacked me, unbalanced."

"He certainly hasn't said a word yet," Gibbs replied. "What worries me is that he's too calm, too complacent, he knows he hasn't lost yet."

"Well, that's true enough, all we've done is take back control, his friends are out there somewhere."

"Let's see if we can't ask him the right questions to find out where then," Gibbs replied, "or maybe 'who' he added as an afterthought.

Tony smiled across at Jack who occupied the only other cot in the tiny compartment. "Thanks Kid," he said quietly. "You did good."

Williams smiled back wanly, lifting his hand in a careful wave as the NCIS agents left the room.

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Michaels had been tied to the same chair in the wardroom that Stevenson had occupied. He had been moved to his berth. Bossman sat upright and impassive staring straight ahead. Gibbs sat down opposite but Tony stayed behind him leaning against the hatchway, neither man spoke.

They stayed that way for almost five minutes before the urge to gloat became too much for Michaels. He smiled over at Gibbs and the older man could see the fanaticism in his eyes. This may have been a man planted as a sleeper agent but, if so, he had been left too long before being activated and his fervour had tipped over into insanity. He was now a liability to whoever controlled him but that was fine by Gibbs, he had no qualms at all about using whatever worked. He didn't have to wait long before Michaels spoke.

"They will find you, you have solved nothing"

"On the contrary," Gibbs' voice was calm. "You no longer hold any hostages."

"Ha," the reply was gleeful. "You are mistaken my friend, I hold the entire crew hostage."

Gibbs looked up at DiNozzo. "He's full of fancy talk isn't he?"

"Rambling I'd say Boss," DiNozzo agreed without moving. "Far as I can see it's only Michaels here and his friends that are imprisoned now."

"You think you are so clever," boasted the former chief engineer. "Trying to trick me with fancy words."

Gibbs looked puzzled. "Nothing fancy about the truth," he said bluntly. "We're holding you, not the other way around."

"You may hold most of the cards now but I have a winning hand," Michaels held Gibbs' impassive gaze without flinching, neither man breaking eye contact until Gibbs abruptly stood and nodded at DiNozzo.

"Thank you," he said simply and left the wardroom followed by his agent. "Keep a close eye on him," he ordered the guard. "Any change in his manner report it at once."

Gibbs moved far enough away to be out of earshot before speaking. "He's sure his 'friends' will find us, must have planted a homing signal or something."

"It makes sense Boss," DiNozzo mused. "He couldn't have guaranteed taking hostages and the odds of keeping them certainly weren't in his favour."

"Trouble is, we have no idea how long ago he could have planted it. Could have been in place since commissioning then he simply waited until Surreptitious was deployed in the right area before triggering the explosion."

"Wouldn't there be too big a risk of someone picking up the signal early?"

"Do I look like McGee, DiNozzo?" Gibbs retorted. "Most important thing now is to find it then we either disable it or use it to lure them into a trap."

"Well, it can't be relying on the ship's internal communications system," Tony reasoned.

"We'll get Root to detail the crew to look, they might recognise it when they find it," Gibbs said tightly. "Go and fill him in then come and join me, I'll be talking to the MM."

DiNozzo nodded, adjusting his sling as he headed for the control room. His shoulder was beginning to throb again but he could feel the tension as adrenaline was pumped through his body. Things were coming to a head; he just hoped they'd be ready for them when they did.

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Two hours later and the search had yielded no results nor had Gibbs elicited any further information from the other conspirators. Clearly Michaels was in charge and had recruited the others in the same way as Stevenson, either for money or, in the engineer's case, by appealing to a highly subversive nature. Both were only too keen to talk but neither had been told any more than they needed to know to do the job. Gibbs sighed in frustration as he and DiNozzo made their way back to the control room. The younger man looked about ready to drop but Gibbs knew that his stubbornness was almost a match for his own and decided not to call him on it, for the moment.

Root was bending over the chart table talking to his navigating officer. He looked up when they arrived, grimacing at Gibbs' shake of the head.

"Damn, I was hoping," he trailed off. "Nothing this end either, we've almost reached the rendezvous, I was just about to take a quick look with the attack periscope."

Gibbs nodded again, moving to stand with DiNozzo off to the side as Root pressed his eyes to the viewer and asked for the periscope to be raised. The captain did a quick 360 degree turn before ordering "Down scope," and reporting back. "We're still in the thick of the storm, visibility is down to less than a half mile but there are no surface ships in sight. They'd be making heavy weather in these seas, probably had to leave the area until the storm passes." He turned to the sonar operator who was both watching and listening intently to his equipment. "Anything Peters?" he asked calmly.

"No Sir, only contact is a school of dolphins, they followed us for a few minutes but they've gone now."

Root looked puzzled. "Are you sure?" he asked. "Dolphins can sense the weather, they shouldn't have been anywhere near a storm like this."

Peters paled slightly. "The readings were just like those we picked up a couple of weeks ago Sir," he said. "But you're right Sir, they shouldn't be there."

"Check your equipment," Root ordered. "Get someone to help you."

"Aye Sir."

"Captain?" Gibbs queried.

"I'm very much afraid that we've just found Michael's ace in the hole," Root said. "Without sonar we're as good as blind in this soup."

TBC