Author's Note:
First up – thanks for all the support for the story you've given me so far. I do tend to critique my stories fairly heavily and as such end up rather unhappy with them even if they're ok.
And whoa! Ease up kiddos. I'm not actually a LEO – I've worked with the Queensland Police (State Coppers) but didn't do any sworn police officer duties – mainly I did a bit of writing police reports and flagging vehicles and people with BOLOs. Right now I've actually left law enforcement to pursue a more stressful, but better paid job that's a bit more interesting (though writing homicide reports was pretty cool!), with the intention of going Federal in five years.
The meeting was staged in a theatre-like auditorium, hundreds of Australian police filled out the seats waiting expectantly for Dunn and DiNozzo to arrive. In typical DiNozzo fashion, it seemed he was running late, and Ziva started tapping her foot impatiently. Gibbs, sitting next to her, looked like he was already planning the words he was going to shout at the NCIS agent for holding up the meeting. Ziva went to ring DiNozzo on her cell phone but the building itself was shielded from reception and she couldn't get a signal. After a few more minutes, one of Dunn's men took the stand and declared that instead of waiting, they may as well start the briefing.
It became apparent that while no progress was being made with the video footage of the offender, Mossad and Australian Intelligence had made progress in leaps and bounds. They'd identified three persons of interest potentially involved in the bombings. Two were Australian citizens; something, which caused a sudden spate of dark mutterings by the Australians as they contemplated the betrayal by two of their countrymen, and the third, was a Hamas-turned-Al Qaeda terrorist. Ziva watched intently as they flashed the picture of the man up on screen but she didn't recognize him. It wasn't unusual, Hamas and Al Qaeda were continually recruiting new people to their cause and it was a struggle just to keep up, let alone keep track of everyone.
Ziva sighed as the meeting dragged on and wished Tony would turn up soon. She liked being able to rest her head on his shoulder; it was amazing how quickly it began to feel natural to her – to find an excuse to make physical contact with Tony. She liked to think that she was just mirroring his flirtatious nature, but the truth that she had found a deep connection with the American agent was getting harder to ignore.
Dunn had stopped beating the steering wheel pad with his hands in tune to the music on the radio and silence descended on the car. After a while, Tony began to notice that the Australian was continually checking his rear view mirror.
Seeing Tony start to look around, Dunn said warningly, "Don't. There's been a white Ford Explorer following us for the past few blocks. Looks to be five people in there. I'm not sure if it's anything, but this doesn't feel right. Keep your head low DiNozzo, this might turn ugly quickly."
Dunn, on reaching the next set of traffic lights, activated the red and blue lights on the car without using the siren and proceeded through the red lights, making a right turn at the next intersection. Switching the lights back off, he checked the rear view mirror and was satisfied as he saw the Ford Explorer drive past without making any attempt to follow the unmarked Australian police car.
Waiting a little while at the next intersection for the traffic to clear, Dunn turned left and suddenly everything went to hell. Both agents heard the sound of tires squealing and looked to the left in time to see the Explorer dodge in and out of moving traffic, heading directly for them at high speed. The man in the front passenger seat leaned out of the SUV and, clutching his hands around an Israeli-made Uzi machine gun, opened fire on Dunn and DiNozzo without mercy or warning.
DiNozzo was lucky. Dunn's reflexes had been automatic, as he saw the SUV emerge from the traffic, he was already shifting into reverse and accelerating, swinging the wheel around so that if rammed, the driver's side would take the brunt of the force, hopefully protecting his American charge in the passenger seat.
As it was, most of the gunfire ended up spraying the bitumen all around where the car had originally been, but a few stray bullets hit the cabin. Roland, who now sat between him and the gunman, protected DiNozzo but Tony saw Dunn convulse as a number of bullets slammed into the Australian agent.
Dunn's foot floored the accelerator and the car shot backwards in reverse, only to slam into one of the many other cars attempting to flee the gunfire. Staring at Dunn, DiNozzo saw the white SUV fill the driver's side window as the four wheel drive barreled down on the stuck vehicle and closed his eyes, waiting for the impact.