The Marines were going to war.
That's the way it looked to Ziva as she and Tony drove through Camp Lejeune. Humvees and deuce-and-a-half trucks rumbled up and down the streets. Marines poured out of their barracks in full combat gear. Helicopters flew overhead.
Yes, the Marines were most definitely going to war. War with the creature that had killed three of their own.
She pressed her back into the passenger seat of the SUV, staring out the window. Her mind still tried to digest everything that had happened. Never in her life had she seen an animal like that. How many rounds had she, Tony and the two Marines unleashed at it? And it still kept coming! What kind of animal could survive a fusillade like that?
Tony turned right and drove between a pair of barracks and into a paved assembly area. A couple dozen Marines had gathered near a row of elongated eight-wheeled vehicles, each one with a slender gun protruding from a rear-mounted turret. LAV-25s, the USMC's primary light armored vehicle. These particular ones belonged to the 2nd Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion.
The unit Corporal Chambers belonged to.
Ziva straightened in her seat, muscles tightening. After what had happened earlier tonight, she couldn't wait to interrogate Chambers.
God help him if he doesn't tell us everything.
Tony parked the car across from the row of LAV-25s. They got out, Ziva observing the Marines around her. They squatted in small clusters, checking their weapons. Her eyes widened when she noticed what they carried. M-249 Squad Automatic Weapons, AT-4 rocket launchers, M-203 grenade launchers attached under the barrels of M-4 assault rifles.
The Marines wanted to kill this thing really, really bad.
She and Tony walked past a pair of Marines handling what looked like a model airplane. In reality, Ziva knew it to be a small reconnaissance drone. She narrowed her eyes and scanned the assembly area, looking for Chambers.
No luck.
He is a driver. He's probably in one of the LAVs.
"Lieutenant!" She heard Tony call. She followed his gaze to an LAV-25, where she spotted Chambers' CO, Lieutenant Hackett, standing by the sloped hood.
"Agent DiNozzo. Officer David." He nodded to them as they approached. "I'm sorry, but I don't have a lot of time to spare. We're moving out ASAP to find this . . . hell, no one even knows what it is that killed our Marines."
"We think Corporal Chambers might," she stated.
"Chambers?" A harsh look came over the Lieutenant's face. "You have to be kidding me."
"No joke." Tony shook his head. "The creature that killed those Marines, we found an image of it on his buddy Conti's computer."
Hackett drew his head back. "How is that even possible?"
"We have no idea," Ziva answered. "That's why we need to talk to Corporal Chambers."
"You and me both, Ma'am."
She cranked an eyebrow. "Excuse me?"
Hackett snorted. "Chambers isn't here. I sent one of my men to check his quarters, had another call his cell phone. Nothing. He's gone."
She whipped her head to Tony. He met her gaze, a knowing look spreading over his face. "Any more doubt that Corporal Chambers is up to his ass in this monster business?"
Lieutenant Hackett glared. "Well if you find his ass, save a piece for me. Because I want to chew it out!"
XXXXX
While the Marines searched for the beast, she and Tony rendezvoused with Gibbs and McGee at Chambers' quarters. She learned from Gibbs that Colonel Walling had dispatched a few MPs to scour the base for the missing corporal. The operative word being "few." Nearly every Marine on base had been assigned to the search for the creature. And Camp Lejeune was a huge installation. Ziva doubted a handful of MPs would be able to find one man.
If he's even on the base.
Ziva figured Chambers fled Camp Lejeune when word got out about the latest attacks. So did Gibbs, apparently, as he put a BOLO out on the corporal for the civilian authorities. Hopefully, the police would find him soon.
Meantime, she rummaged through Chambers' foot locker, while Tony checked the small closet next to the bed, which Gibbs was looking over. McGee sat at a desk working on the corporal's lap top.
He must have been in a big hurry to leave that behind.
Ziva frowned with every article she examined. Socks. Underwear. DVDs. A handheld video game system. None of it gave her a single clue as to what Chambers knew about the beast, or where he might have gone.
"Boss, I got something," McGee announced.
Gibbs set down the mattress he'd been checking under and straightened up. "What is it?"
"That image we found of that, um, animal on Corporal Conti's computer? Well, Corporal Chambers has the same image on his."
Gibbs leaned closer to the computer screen. "So maybe Chambers sent Conti a copy of this, or vice versa."
"Not by e-mail," McGee noted. "I would've found that on Corporal Conti's computer. He might have passed it along to him on a thumb drive."
Gibbs silently nodded. "Anything else?"
"Actually, yes. I was going over Corporal Chambers' internet usage, and it looks like he was also visiting the DIA web site."
Tony's brow furrowed. "Okay. So why are two Marine corporals so interested in the DIA?"
"More importantly," Gibbs glanced at him, "does it have anything to do with the animal that attacked you and Ziva?"
Tony lowered his head, appearing deep in thought.
Is that even possible for Tony?
"I got it!" His head snapped up. "That thing's some sort of bio-weapons experiment that got loose."
She, Gibbs and McGee gazed at him in silence.
"C'mon. You know, like in Watchers." His eyes flickered among the three of them, eager for a response.
"Watchers? Corey Haim, Michael Ironside. The movie based on the Dean Koontz novel. A monster escapes from the government lab and kills a bunch of people. Oh yeah, and it's also psychically linked to a Golden Retriever. They also made a sequel to it."
Ziva rolled her eyes.
"DiNozzo." Gibbs held up his index and bent it back and forth.
"Oh, c'mon, Boss. I was just . . ." Tony sighed and leaned forward.
Gibbs whacked him upside the head. He then looked to her and McGee. "Does anyone have a theory that actually makes sense?"
Ziva stifled a sardonic laugh. Nothing about this case made sense. The only one who could probably make sense of it was Corporal Chambers.
And God only knew where he was.
XXXXX
Ziva lay back on her blanket, the cool, salty sea breeze washing over her bikini-clad body. She lazily looked left and right. Not another soul occupied this beach in Eilat.
She smiled and closed her eyes, savoring the day. No work, no stress. Just absolute, total, wonderful relaxation. What she wouldn't give for more days like this. Many more days.
Something growled close by.
Her eyes snapped open. She sat up.
The beast crouched mere feet from her, teeth bared, its yellow eyes blazing.
She looked around. Where was her gun?
The beast roared and rushed toward her. She watched, frozen, as it bore down on her.
Something slapped her legs.
"Hey! Ziva! Rise and shine."
Her eyelids peeled back. The beach, and the creature, had vanished. She now found herself in a small lounge, lying on a couch. Tony stood over her, clutching a rolled up magazine, and wearing a goofy grin.
She groaned and rubbed her eyes. A glance at the window revealed sunlight filtering through the blinds. How long had she been asleep? Probably not long. It had been well after two in the morning when Gibbs dismissed them. With the Marines out hunting the beast and Corporal Chambers still on the run, it seemed the perfect time for the NCIS team to get some much-needed rest.
Unless . . .
"Did they find Chambers?"
Tony shook his head. "Nope."
"The animal?"
"Nope again. But we got a call from Abby. Looks like she may have turned up something. Gibbs wants us in the conference room."
Ziva stretched her arms over her head, exhaled, then got to her feet. "Let's go."
They exited the lounge. Tony looked over his shoulder. "Hope I didn't ruin any good dreams."
"Actually, you didn't. Well, parts of it weren't too bad."
"Really?" He spun around, walking backwards. "So was there a certain someone who made those parts not too bad?"
A sly smile creased Ziva's lips. "Yes. Someone not named Tony DiNozzo."
He frowned at her. "Oh well, better luck next time, David."
She moaned and shook her head.
Gibbs and McGee were already in the conference room when they arrived, with McGee's computer set up for video conferencing.
"All set?" McGee looked to the others. When Gibbs nodded, he tapped a couple keys.
Abby appeared on the screen, a bright smile on her face. "Good morning, sleepy heads!" She bounced on the balls of her feet.
Ziva winced. It was too early in the morning to be that cheerful. Of course, the huge cup of Caf-Pow on Abby's desk probably had something to do with the forensic scientist's disposition. And knowing Abby, that sugar and caffeine-laden drink was probably her second of the very young day. Maybe even her third.
"Morning, Abby," Gibbs greeted her.
Now a distressed look came over her face. "Oh! Tony. Ziva. Oh my God, are you guys okay?"
"Well," Tony replied, "since we're not moving through some monster's bowels right now, I'd say yeah, we're fine."
"Okay, first, ew. Second, thank God, because I was so worried . . ."
"What do you have for us, Abby?" Gibbs cut her off.
"All right! Well, I did all sorts of data base searches using those photos McGee sent over. And Tony, I heard you were using the camera to distract that thing, but oh my God, these shots are amazing. Man, this is one scary-looking monster. I don't know how you did it, but I woulda been running away . . ."
"Abs!"
"All right, all right. Jeez, Gibbs. Anyway, I ran the photos through every data base I could think of. No match."
"So you called us before seven just to tell us you have nothing?"
Abby put her hands on her hips. "Gibbs, you know better than to ask that. I didn't find any matches with the photos, but I did type in a description of our mystery animal and ran it through a search of all web sites that specialize in cryptids."
"And you found something there." It was more a statement than a question from Tony.
"Yeah, I did." Abby's black pigtails bobbed as she nodded. "Did you know that in the 1890s, Theodore Roosevelt published a book where he quoted a story this hunter told him about an encounter with a creature that may have been a Bigfoot. Oh! And then there were these miners back in 1924 who say a bunch of Bigfoots, or would it be Bigfeet? Anyway, they said they were attacked at their cabin near Mount Saint Helen, and . . ."
"And the point?" Gibbs demanded.
"Oh. Actually, those are just really cool facts I stumbled across. The one story I found that could be relevant to your case is from this site called Monster Attacks dot com. I e-mailed the link to McGee. In a nutshell, the guy who runs this site interviewed a college professor who used to work at Horlicks University."
"Where's that?" Tony wondered aloud.
"Princess Anne, Maryland."
"Hm." He canted his head. "Wonder if their basketball team's any good."
"And what did this professor have to say?" Gibbs asked before Tony could begin reminiscing about his basketball days at Ohio State.
"Well, according to him, he came across a creature matching the description of your cryptid back in 1982. He said he found it in some old wooden crate, and it got loose and killed three people."
"What happened then?" This from McGee.
Abby shrugged. "Don't know. The professor says the cryptid just disappeared."
The corners of Gibbs' mouth twisted. "It sounds a little far-fetched, Abs. Some animal popping out of a crate and going on a rampage at a university. You'd think something like that would make the news. Besides, how many web sites are there out there that put out bullcrap stories they pass off as the gospel truth?"
"Ah!" Abby held up a finger. "But I did some checking with the Princess Anne Police. It turns out that in 1982 there were three people connected to Horlicks University who vanished without a trace. A janitor named Mike Latimer, a grad student named Charlie Gereson, and Wilma Northrup, who was the wife of one of the English professors there. None of their bodies were ever found."
Ziva's lips tightened. Could this story be true? Could this creature, or another like it, have gone on a killing spree at this school? Without the public even knowing about it?
Just when this situation couldn't get any stranger. She sighed to herself, yearning to investigate a simple murder that didn't involve monsters and science fiction-type stories on the web and conspiracies involving the DIA.
"Do you have the name of the person running that web site?" asked Gibbs.
"I've got something better. They named the guy who they interviewed for this story. Dexter Stanley. I checked, and he was a biology professor at Horlicks for fifteen years. He's not there any more, but he is at an assisted living facility in Ocean City."
A thoughtful look came over Gibbs' face. "DiNozzo. Ziva." He said no more. A simple look conveyed what he wanted them to do.
Tony grinned. "All right. I'll grab the Bob Seger CDs, Ziva, you grab the chips and the Doctor Pepper. We're goin' on a road trip."
TO BE CONTINUED
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Okay. Now you have some clues to work with as to where this monster came from. If you're into certain horror movies from the 1980s, you may already know. If not, all will be revealed soon. Also, the "monster attacks" web site is a product of my imagination. Any resemblance to a real-life sight is purely coincidental.