The taxi finally pulled up in front of the old abandoned warehouses just outside of Silver Spring, Maryland. Tim opened the door after handing the driver the correct amount of cash with a generous tip. The driver looked at him like he was crazy but Tim knew exactly what he was doing. There were four of these sites set up across Virginia and Maryland. He started walking in one direction and once he knew he was out of sight of the cab he turned and started heading for the warehouses.
"Number 14." He muttered to himself sliding through a hidden door in the fence.
Even though he knew no one was there he still cautiously looked around before typing in the seven digit pass code to unlock the door. The light on the electronic keypad turned green and he opened the door into the dark space. He waited as his eyes slowly adjusted to the lack of light before reaching for the heavy metal maglite flashlight on a table next to the door. His fingers slowly found the button and pressed it down to turn the light on. Inside the small space were two safes partially filled with cash. He'd put a lot of the money here by splitting his royalty check in two. He'd take half the cash and put it in one of their emergency spots and the other half would go into his bank account or his now defunct hedge fund. Also inside were four boxes. One box was for Ziva, one for Tony, one for Tim, and the last box was filled with cell phones. He opened his box and changed into the clothes that were stored there—they were a little loose but it just helped more to hide his identity. He also grabbed a ball cap from Tony's box—he'd replace it later…hopefully.
He went over and pulled out one of the prepaid cell phones in the box and activated it. He went to the contacts and stored one number in it—Gibbs' number. He grabbed a bag that was hung in a hook and put some cash, the never used laptop from his box, and a few other necessities inside of it. He turned the flashlight off and slipped out of the unit before locking it behind him. He walked to a nearby motel with free wireless to rent a room for a week.
"We have to find Gibbs and tell him." Ziva said as she and Tony exited the elevator.
"Where is he?" Tony asked, looking around the bullpen and not spotting their fearless leader.
"I do not know. Call autopsy and see if he is there, I will call the director's office." She said rushing to her desk and grabbing the phone.
She slammed her finger down on the buttons to dial to Vance's office. While the phone rang she looked to Tony who shook his head.
"No answer in Autopsy. Ducky probably went home and I doubt that Jimmy is here." He whispered as Vance's secretary picked up.
"Director Vance's office."
"This is Agent David. I need to speak with the Director and Agent Gibbs if he is up there."
"Director Vance and Special Agent Gibbs are in a meeting at the moment but when they are done I will let them know that you wanted to speak with them, Agent David."
"This is a life or death situation!" Ziva screamed into the receiver as Vance's secretary hung up.
"Is Gibbs up there?" Tony asked careful to stay far away from the upset Israeli.
"Yes, he is in a meeting with Vance." She hung the phone up. "Let's go." She then said leaving her desk and heading to the stairs.
"What are we doing?" Tony asked running to catch up to Ziva as she bounded up the stairs two at a time.
"We are going to tell Gibbs and Vance what has happened. Gibbs will not care that we are interrupting a meeting and this is more important than anything. McGee is in trouble and he needs our help."
It was at this point that she stormed into Vance's outer office. She barged right up to the secretary's desk and glared at her with cold eyes.
"I already told you Agent David, Director Vance and Special Agent Gibbs are in a meeting with Ms. Hart. They do not want to be disturbed."
"I am going in there and there is nothing you can do to stop it. I have something that is very important to tell Gibbs and a silly little secretary like you is not going to stop me." She said scanning the secretary's desk. She grabbed something and held it up for the secretary to see. "If you try and stop me I will be forced to kill you with this. Now I am going in there and you are going to sit right here and watch me."
The secretary looked at Tony for a moment to see if Ziva was bluffing. He shook his head and mouthed "eighteen" to the poor woman. She nodded her head to Ziva who stalked over to the door and pulled it open.
It wasn't easy to surprise Leroy Jethro Gibbs but the sight in the door did. Standing there was one Ziva David who was clenching a shiny silver paperclip in her fist. Behind her was a ridiculously dressed Tony DiNozzo who looked both frightened and worried which was never a good combination.
"Agent David, this is a private meeting." Leon Vance standing up from behind his desk.
"That is all well and good Director Vance but I have important news for Gibbs." she said opening her cell phone back up to show him the text message.
"What is so important that you had to interrupt our meeting?" Vance asked.
"Abby and Special Agent McGee's sister, Sarah have both been kidnapped." Ziva said taking her phone back from a silent Gibbs. "He believes it to be an attack upon himself and not the agency. That will not work, Gibbs."
The agent was pulling his cell phone out of his pocket in an effort to call McGee and find out what was going on.
"What do you mean it won't work?" he growled upset that one of his people was missing along with the relative of another and there was currently nothing he could do to help.
"By now McGee has turned off if not ditched his cell phone. He will have changed his clothes and will not be using any credit cards only cash."
"And how do you know this, Agent David?"
"I taught him how to go off grid. He should be calling either Gibbs or myself soon to let us know any pertinent information."
Right at that moment Gibbs' phone started ringing. The number was blocked but Gibbs knew in his gut that it was Tim.
"Gibbs."
"Boss."
"Where are you McGee?"
"Can't tell you that, Boss. I trust you, Ziva, Ducky and the Director but right now that's it. Abby was taken from her lab that means that whoever took her had inside help. You and Ziva need to process the scenes. I'll send you a text with my sister's address so you can go there too. I gotta go, Boss, but I'll call when I know more. If you guys get any information let me know okay?"
"Will do, McGee. Stay safe."
Gibbs hung up the phone.
"McGee is safe but he won't tell me where he is. DiNozzo, David head down to the lab and process the crime scene. I'm heading over to the other crime scene." Gibbs said starting to leave the office.
"Hold on just a minute there Gibbs. Agent David, do you have any idea where Agent McGee could have gotten a cell phone with a blocked number like that?"
"I know of four places he could have easily headed to the moment he discovered what had happened."
"Where is he, Ziva?" Gibbs asked not in the mood for word games.
"I can honestly say that I do not know. I said I know of four places he could have gone. I do not know which one he went to but I assume it will be either number one or number two." She said turning to look at Tony.
"Two probably. I don't think one will have had everything he needed and he most likely doesn't need what's in three and he shouldn't need what is in four." Tony responded.
"What are you two talking about?" Gibbs asked.
"Gibbs, Director Vance. Just remember that for this to work we cannot tell you everything. We have places around Maryland and Virginia that only the three of us can access. Each one has certain items in it for certain situations. One and two have simple items in them. Cash, cell phones, laptops, changes of clothes those sorts of things. Three has a motorcycle, a car, and a small arsenal of weaponry along with the things that are in one and two. Four is best described as the "I need to get out of the country" edition of these places. There may be documents there." She said trailing off. "These were spots made following the attempt to frame me for the death of two FBI agents and a man wanted by Mossad. I had nowhere to go after I escaped from the Israeli Embassy. Tony, Tim, and I talked after and decided that having spots like these could be very useful in such future situations."
Vance and Gibbs stood there shocked for a moment before Gibbs gestured to Tony and Ziva who headed down to the truck to get the supplies they would need.
"Director Vance, do you realize what you agent just admitted? They have secret spots set up all over two states to hide potential fugitives? Do you really plan to let this slide?" Allison Hart asked, voicing her opinion for the first time.
"I didn't hear that, did you Agent Gibbs?" Vance asked. "All I heard was that there may be places where they can go to get something they need."
"Director Vance, Ms. David admitted to having a small arsenal of weapons. You realize that this is illegal?"
"Ms. Hart, our meeting is over for now. This agency has its mind on finding its Forensic Specialist, one of our brightest agents and his sister safe and sound. Once this crisis is over than we will resume this meeting."
"Director Vance!"
"Ms. Hart! You may leave my office under your own power or you can be escorted out by two armed guards. You have been dismissed." Vance said.
She left without Vance having to call security up. Vance just looked at Gibbs as if wondering why he was still standing there.
"You do realize that Ziva's idea of a small arsenal of weapons could probably help the South rise again?" He said before stalking out and heading straight down to the garage to take the van to the address on his phone.
It was not easy to frighten Abigail Sciuto … after all, she slept in a coffin! But right now she was scared out of her mind. She had been sitting in her chair in her labs office flipping through some CD's when she heard someone enter the lab. Thinking it was Tim she hopped up and bounded through the automatic doors. Only to find a dark-haired man standing there…holding a gun. She stepped back into her office as he stepped towards her and before he could get close she managed to lock the doors. That didn't deter him though as he broke through the glass on one side and came at her. She threw both of her computer monitors at him but they didn't do any damage. She was behind her desks and the just moved them out of the way and dragged her chair into the middle of the floor. She started to feel lightheaded and noticed that there was a cloth with chloroform on it over her mouth and nose. She tried not to breathe in but it was too late and a few moments later she was down for the count. When she woke up later she was in the back of a SUV and there was someone next to her.
"Are you okay?" she whispered hoping that the other person was awake.
"I'm fine." The person whispered with a familiar voice. It took Abby a split second to realize who it was.
"Sarah?" she whispered, "It's Abby from—"
"NCIS. I remember you. You were the one who proved I had been drugged. I never got to thank you for that."
"It was no problem. I knew that no sister of Timmy could kill someone. Especially after seeing you. You both have the same softness to your eyes."
"Thanks. Listen, do you know what's going on?"
"No. I don't. But you can't be scared because Tim or Gibbs will save us. I know they will."
Sarah curled up into Abby's side and Abby put an arm around her. Abby knew she had to be strong for Sarah—even if it meant pretending she wasn't scared when she was. But she knew that once Tim knew that she and his sister had been taken he would work double time on the case until he found them.
Tim felt a little better after having spoken to Gibbs. He was currently sitting on a bus that would stop near his apartment. He knew that there was a chance he was being watched but he needed to see if any clue as to Abby and Sarah's whereabouts had been left there. When the bus reach the appropriate stop he clambered off the crowded bus and stepped into the late evening's fresh air. He walked slowly to his apartment keeping an eye out for anything suspicious.
He made it unharmed to his door where he found a third note. Hasn't this person ever heard of email? He thought while pulling the note off his door.
Still no ideas on who I am, how to find me, or how I got into NCIS?
Silly federal agent.
Tim growled in response to the note and decided to send a text to Gibbs to let him know to come and pick it up. He headed back out to the front of the building before an idea hit him. The person knew him obviously…so he'd get security footage for the past few weeks from places he frequented and hope to find someone that seemed to be following him.
Leroy Jethro Gibbs was not having a good week. First, he'd had to run off to Mexico to make sure that Mike was alright only to find him missing. Second he'd been sent back to the US, with no real knowledge of what they wanted him to do. And during the one bright spot in those days, the celebration of Ziva, a woman who just like Abby had become his daughter, becoming an American citizen he had received a call that Paloma Reynosa had taken his father hostage in his general store. Then he'd been forced to watch as she broke his father's fingers. He'd finally gotten his revenge though by shooting her. He'd returned to NCIS only to be dragged into a meeting with the Director and M. Allison Hart about what would happen with the Reynosa situation since it couldn't be ignored. Needless to say halfway through that meeting things had taken a turn for the worse when Ziva David had appeared in the doorway and informed him that not only had Abby and Tim's sister Sarah snatched but that Tim was now invoking Rule 40 just mere days after he had.
And that was how he found himself in his car on his way to Sarah's apartment to dust for fingerprints and bag and tag anything he deemed important. It was also how he found himself dialing one of his few friends at 7PM on a night when he had his daughter.
"Fornell."
"It's Gibbs."
"What do you need Jethro?"
"Abby and McGee's sister Sarah have been kidnapped. I'm gonna need a lab tech to go over our evidence and any information you might get about sightings of the girls. I'll have their pictures sent to you in the morning."
"No problem, Jethro. That McGee's a good agent. If it weren't for the fact that I know he'd never leave NCIS I'd have tried to get him to join the FBI a while ago."
"Good to know, Tobias. I gotta go but get that tech in your lab soon. We're gonna need results fast."
Gibbs hung up and pulled into a parking spot. He headed up to the fifth floor and knocked on the appropriate door. A young woman with shoulder length reddish-brown hair and blue eyes opened it. He flashed his badge and ID.
"NCIS Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs."
"Please come in. Sarah's brother said that either you or Agent David would come. He also told me to tell whoever came that if she wasn't with them I had to have them call her to tell her something. And that if you were with them I was to say plausible deniability to you by way of explanation." She said in a jumble.
"I'll do what I need to do and then I'll call Agent David for you."Gibbs said.
There wasn't much for him to do. There were a few things he bagged and tagged and dusted for finger prints over the whole apartment. Just as he was finishing up Ziva called.
"Gibbs, what are we doing with all of the evidence?"
"Send it to the FBI. I called in a favor with Fornell. Sarah's roommate has something she needs to day to you."
"Me?"
"A message from Tim."
He handed the phone to the young woman.
"Agent Ziva David?" she asked cautiously.
"Yes?"
"My name is Elisabeth Bennington and Agent McGee told me to tell you emergency emergency spot."
On the other side of the call Ziva let out the breath she had been holding. Tim had gone to the warehouses in Silver Spring then. This meant he wasn't planning on or didn't have enough information to do anything drastic.
"Ziver? You there?"
"Yes, Gibbs. Tim is safe and currently has no plans on doing anything but try and found out the mystery kidnappers identity."
"You got all that from two words. Get that evidence to the FBI and then you and DiNozzo go home. Get some sleep and be in by oh-five hundred tomorrow and be ready to work and not rest until we've got Abby, Sarah, and Tim back safe."
"Yes Gibbs. Oh-five hundred."
Ziva hung up the phone.
"So what are we doing with the evidence?" Tony asked
"We need to take it to the FBI lab. Then we are to go home and sleep and be in at oh-five hundred tomorrow morning."
"Then lets load up my car and I'll take you home."
"No. You live closer than I do. I will stay at your apartment tonight. I have a bag of spare clothes in my trunk. I will grab that and meet you at your car."
Tony nodded and grabbed the box of evidence while Ziva headed to the garage to get her bag. Tony knew it would be a long night for him. Not just because Ziva was sleeping over but because he was worried about Tim.