Chapter Two
Amber Alert
Saturday before Christmas
The calendar is unforgiving, and since NCIS must be fully staffed every day there's a weekend rotation of Agents on every shift in addition to normal weekdays. This weekend immediately before Christmas that unenviable Alpha Shift duty falls to Gibbs and his team. And though the winter weather frequently translates into a reduction of activity, this time the call that comes in is a particularly unpleasant one. "Let's go, people," Gibbs orders, putting down the phone and opening his desk drawer, removing his shield and weapon. "A Sailor's five year old daughter vanished from her home. Metro Police already have an APB out and two teams are already on site. We're joining the search."
The five Agents snatch black coats, hats and gloves, each feeling much the same sense of foreboding. Each has faced Terrorist threats, deadly danger and mass murderers, but nothing hits the heart worse than a missing child.
xxx
When Gibbs' blue Charger pulls to a stop on the outskirts of the Maryland suburbs; closer to the outer edge of a National Park than to the actual town it's considered to be a part of, the black and white Major Case Response truck stops inches from its bumper. There is little free space on the normally quiet street of manicured lawns and recessed houses for another vehicle to fit. Metro PD, NPS, Fire and Volunteer Ambulances are represented, as are three NCIS teams. Gibbs notices the official limo of the Agency's Director. Added to that total are fourteen other vehicles of seemingly every variety.
Gibbs has already been told that those agents who are off duty but who reside closer to the scene than the Naval Base have been summoned; he isn't surprised by the turnout.
As the MCR team crosses the street to the obvious center of activity, Gibbs spots Ducky Mallard's vintage Morgan approaching from the other direction with Jimmy Palmer in the left hand passenger's side. Already several men and women in a multitude of uniforms, mixed civilian attire or NCIS black are exiting the front door, dispersing toward various cars. They make no attempt to slow any of them to obtain answers.
The air is crisp and cold, but there's no snow upon the ground. At times like this, everyone could wish for a nice even coating of virgin white.
x
The front door opens into the living room and they find a woman and man, apparently in their mid-thirties, seated upon the couch against the far wall; with them in nearby chairs are a uniformed MPDC Officer and Chaplain O'Mallory. To the left the kitchen is visible through the open arch and a knot of men and women surround the center table. Gibbs signals his team to find out what they may and he heads to the kitchen.
Director Jennifer Shepherd is in conference with a MPDC Captain, a Fire Chief, NPS Captain and several others. Shepherd turns to brief her Deputy SAIC. "Four hours ago Petty Officer Carolyn Selamanca, assigned to Norfolk, called to report she had come downstairs from cleaning to find that Natalie, age five, wasn't watching cartoons and the back door was open. Though the girl's coat is missing from the front rack, I've instructed Special Agent Kelman's team to treat this as a kidnapping. Everyone else will consider it a straight walkaway and search accordingly."
She indicates the map spread out on the table before them even as she hands another folded one to Gibbs. From the point which represents the house they occupy, a series of concentric rings have been drawn and these in turn have been quartered by the compass. She points to the large segment in the upper left. "These are at mile radii, I want you and your team to cover miles two to three in the northwest quadrant."
Leaning over, he studies the map for about a minute. The area is in the woodlands of the park this community borders. "Petty Officer Selamanca," he calls loudly and doesn't even wait for a reply "you got a flashlight?"
The brown haired woman wearing a white housedress appears in the doorway. "There's one in the upper right drawer," she points to the cabinet under the sink. "why?"
Gibbs steps to it and pulls it open. The junk drawer contains a variety of odds and ends – but no flashlight.
"Director Shepherd, why?" Selamanca asks again, not knowing the man's name so she'll address the only one from NCIS whose identity she does know. Her apprehension is high in her voice and Gibbs isn't doing much to ease it.
Returning to the map, Gibbs points to a spot upon it, one not in the arc Shepherd had directed, but the one closer in. "Who did you assign to that sector?"
"Martinson and his team; PD and Fire as well as volunteers." She too wants to know what's on his mind, her tone making that quite clear.
x
Gibbs knows the man well. Thorough and meticulous; Keith Martinson will start at the nine o'clock position, spread his team at five hundred meter intervals and sweep the sector clockwise with a fine toothed comb. "We'll start our search there." The point he indicates is near the northern end, up about eleven-fifteen. It will take several hours for Martinson's team to reach that point; Gibbs neither knows nor cares how the other searchers are conducting their sweeps.
Shepherd is annoyed; now isn't the time for maverick tactics. "Special Agent Gibbs, I as–"
"That mark indicates natural caves and the flashlight is missing."
"No, Natalie knows she's not allowed near there," Carolyn protests, not understanding the man's refusal to cooperate with a systematic search. Natalie would never disobey her; that area has always been off limits. "She knows where it is, everybody does, but we tell her she can never go there."
Gibbs, however, remembers what it's like to be a father. "When does a five year old ever do everything she's told?"
He looks pointedly at Shepherd and receives her sharp nod of assent.