As promised! Hope you enjoy!
Gibbs stormed into Vance's office, bursting through the door without knocking, and walked directly to his desk. "I want the Sec Nav on the phone." Then a bit quieter but even more menacingly he growled out "Now."
He was shaking with barely contained rage but his gaze never left the Director's eyes.
"I want to know what the hell he thinks he's up to."
On some level, he recognized that Vance did not seem surprised to see him, or confused about what he was talking about but it took a second for the realization hit fully and he continued.
"He's going to tell me exactly what kind of games he's playing with Mossad. He knows who this asshole that's got Ziva is and he's known it this whole time." He paused for a second, eyes narrowing "but now I know it too and he going to answer to ME."
Vance leaned back in his chair, fingers fiddling with the ever present toothpick in his mouth and said "Gibbs, you might want to calm down before you…"
"I WILL NOT CALM DOWN!" Gibbs thundered. "He brought this man into my agency and he's letting that asshole torture my agent."
Then the realization finally hit him and this time, when he spoke his voice was soft; dangerously soft. "You knew too. All this time, we've been beating our heads against a wall trying to find her and you knew."
Gibbs leaned over the desk; his face inches from Vance's. "This is not over, Leon. I am going to get her back and then you will answer to me for what you did."
"That won't be necessary, Agent Gibbs" said the Sec Nav as he rose from his chair at the table behind Gibbs. He didn't give Gibbs a chance to respond before saying "I know you're pissed right now."
Gibbs spun around to confront the man. "You're god dammed right I'm pissed." He answered without betraying his surprise at finding the Sec Nav behind him in the room.
"Listen Gibbs, just listen" he said smoothly. "We never meant for this to happen, and we're working on getting her out right now." He walked towards Gibbs as he started to explain what had happened.
"Asir was supposed to take the liaison position, not Ziva. We knew that he was working directly for Eli David and that he was going to attempt to kill an NCIS agent; you, in fact." He paused for a second to let that little bit of information sink in then continued. "We were going to catch him"
"Before or after he killed me?" Gibbs snarled.
The Secretary paused at this outburst, but continued as if Gibbs hadn't said anything. "and get him to confess that he was here on David's orders."
Gibbs knew then that Ziva was not the priority in their minds. She had never been. They had been willing to risk his life to get Eli David years ago and now they were risking hers.
"You son of a bitch" Gibbs swore softly as he advanced towards the Sec Nav, who backed away involuntarily. "You don't give a damn about who gets hurt in the process. You don't give a damn who YOU hurt in the process." He shook his head and shot a look at Vance before he continued "as long as the job gets done."
Neither man made an attempt to deny the accusation.
"Tell me." demanded Gibbs. "Tell me what the plan was. Tell me how you screwed it up so that I can fix it and bring her back."
The secretary was growing tired of Gibbs' demands and responded in a much harsher tone than he had been using.
"We didn't screw anything up, Agent Gibbs. There was always a risk; we just didn't expect them to go after Ziva."
He continued. "There was an inside group in Mossad, who were ready to take down David. They just needed a reason to get rid of him. He is too well-protected, too well-connected, to take him down in a more, direct, manner."
He paused "But he must have gotten wind of the plan somehow, because he took Asir, his most trusted agent, out of position and replaced him with Ziva."
Gibbs glared at him and said "You didn't know what to do. You had his daughter, but you knew that he didn't trust her as much as he trusted Asir."
"We decided to watch and wait. We were still watching and waiting when Ari came to kill you and Ziva proved her loyalty to you and to NCIS by killing him. The Secretary walked over to Gibbs and put his hand on his arm. "We will get her back Gibbs, but we have to be careful. We want Asir alive, so his testimony can take down David."
Gibbs shook off his hand and responded quietly, but firmly. "I want Asir dead and I don't want David taken down. I want to kill the bastard."
"Look, Agent Gibbs, I understand how you feel, but we have the cooperation of the CIA and the White House on this. We can't let you jeopardize the mission. We know where she is and we're planning to move in three days from now."
Gibbs started to interrupt but the Secretary cut him off. "They won't kill her. They are trying to lure you and your team to her. Asir is still trying to finish the mission that he was given four years ago."
He stressed the point, in an attempt to calm Gibbs down. "They won't kill her until they have you and that's why you are not going to get involved in this."
The attempt didn't work.
Gibbs exploded. "You're right. They won't kill her. They'll just torture her for three more days while you sit on your ass, worrying about Asir and Eli!"
He pointed his finger directly at the Secretary. "You could have stopped this weeks ago but you decided to wait." He shifted his glance to Vance, making it clear that he held both of them responsible for what had happened to Ziva and when he walked out of the room neither one tried to stop him.
Less than an hour later, Gibbs, DiNozzo, and McGee were on a military plane to Tel Aviv. Abby had given them the GPS coordinates where Ziva was being held as well as very detailed satellite images of the camp and surrounding area. She was currently monitoring it via satellite, courtesy of a friend at NASA. She would be able to get them a rough idea of how many men were there and how well guarded the camp was.
Abby called Gibbs about halfway through the flight. As far as she could tell, the only men there were the ones they had already seen and identified on the tapes. When Gibbs relayed the information to Tony and McGee, they were relieved. "Well Gibbs, fifteen to three isn't the worst odds we've faced." Tim said.
Tony flicked his eyes towards McGee and spoke for the first time since boarding the plane "fifteen to four, McGee. You're forgetting to count Ziva."
Gibbs was touched by Tony's faith in Ziva, but he didn't respond. If Ziva could fight, she would, but he was not at all sure that she would be able.
A little while later Tim finally asked the question that had been on all of their minds since leaving D.C. "Do they know we're coming? I mean, I know they expect us, but they can't know how fast we found them… Can they?"
Tony had picked up the first video at 05:00 that morning. They were on a plane 13 hours later. There was no way anyone could have expected them to put the information together that fast.
Their confidence increased even more when they heard from Abby again. A homeless man had just been apprehended dropping off a tape at Gibbs' house.
They were still leaving clues for them to follow, obviously unaware that the team was already ahead of them.
"Have you watched it yet Abby?" Gibbs asked.
"No. The director hasn't released it to me yet. Ducky and Jimmy are going to be here with me and I'll forward it to you as soon as I can." She paused. "Um, Gibbs?"
"What Abby?"
"The Secretary of the Navy was here a few minutes ago. He was looking for you and, um, he seemed kinda pissed, Gibbs."
"Well, I do have that effect on people, don't I?" responded Gibbs with a slight smile. "Send us the video as soon as you get it. And Abbs? Don't worry about Sec Nav and don't tell him where we are."
"As if I would rat on you guys! I don't care what's going on between the Sec Nav and the CIA. I want Ziva back!"
"We all do. We'll get her Abbs." He reassured her and then before he hung up, he asked one last question. "Abbs? How did you know that the CIA was involved in this?"
Tony and Tim could only hear Gibbs' end of the conversation. His question left them confused.
When he hung up, Tony looked directly at Gibbs and said "CIA."
Gibbs' only answer was a short nod.
Tony responded with one more word. "Kort" and Gibbs sighed and nodded again. Then he looked up at the two best agents he had ever had a chance to work with and told them what he had learned in Vance's office.
Tony's reaction was worse than he'd expected.
As the story unfolded, he became very still and very quiet. The only evidence of the rage boiling inside of him was in his eyes.
Anthony DiNozzo had seen evil. He understood that there were evil men in the world. Asir was an evil man. Eli David was an evil man. And he knew how to deal with evil men.
But Gibbs knew that Tony, fiercely loyal Tony, would never be able to handle the betrayal of men like Vance, Kort, and the Secretary of the Navy.
These men were supposed to be the good guys. They were supposed to protect people like Ziva from the evil men in the world.
He would never forgive them for what they had done. Gibbs could see it in his eyes. After Ziva was safe, Tony wouldn't stop. He wouldn't stop until he had destroyed these men; or been destroyed by them.
And that frightened Gibbs.
Ziva was sitting in a chair in the center of the room. She was gently cradling her broken left hand in front of her, but her upper arms and torso were tightly bound with rope. Her ankles were cuffed to the legs of the chair and her head was drooping. It was difficult to tell if she was conscious or not.
Asir came into view carrying a syringe filled with clear fluid. She barely moved when he injected it into her arm, but she did say something to him. Abby had to play it back twice before they could catch it. Her voice was low, weak, and her speech slurred.
"No. Please…" but it was too late.
Asir turned to the camera and explained that he had just given her an injection of a powerful hallucinogen. When Abby heard the name of the drug, she immediately paused the video and started researching the effects. What she found was not encouraging. It was illegal in most developed nations, including the US, but not in Israel. In Israel, they were allowed to use the drug for interrogation purposes.
Abby didn't know it but they had also given her an injection of a drug that caused temporary blindness.
Ziva didn't know it was temporary. All she knew was that she had rapidly lost her sight following the first injection. They were steadily taking away her hopes and desire to get out of this situation alive.
At this point, she had been captive for over a month. Her hand was crushed beyond repair, and now she was blind.
When she restarted the video, Abby heard Asir tell Ziva "You are going to die here. You are not going to escape. Your friends will find you, but when they do, it will be too late. All they will find is your dead body."
He paused, leaned closer to Ziva and continued. "I will be nice enough to leave them a video of how you died though. I think they would like to know."
He looked at his captive. Even now, with her face bloody and mangled, her clothes dirty and torn, her hopes of getting out of this alive almost gone; she was still fighting. He loved that about her. But he would enjoy killing her even more.
Please please review! I really want to know what you think!
The next chapter will be up soon, and I must say, our boys have no idea what they're in for...