Viva Mexico
Disclaimer: I don´t own any characters or anything!
Summary: Post-Hiatus. Gibbs moves to Mexico after resigning from duty. The team is ambushed and soon news are out that an old enemy is back. Will Gibbs come back to save them or does it need a little more to convince him that the team needs him?
10- NCIS to the rescue
An hour later, Ziva David arrived at the office. She still had her right arm in a sling, but seemed relieved to see Gibbs back at NCIS. "And you are?" She wondered when she saw Kate sitting at her desk.
Gibbs was a bit quicker on the uptake and walked up to her. "I forgot to introduce you. Officer Ziva David, Special Agent Caitlin Todd." He said and grinned when he noticed the puzzled look on Ziva´s face.
She turned towards him. "You´ve got to be joking." She said, but then noted the look on his face that told her that it was the truth. "I was told that you were shot." She added as she turned back towards Kate.
Kate smirked. "That´s what everyone thought, but it was a setup to bust an El Quaida cell. It looks like both sides used stand-ins to make the other side believe that they succeeded." She explained and looked at the map that was on the plasma screen. "Gibbs, that area...wasn´t that the same place we found those officers who had been left in the sewers?"
He looked at it for a moment, then nodded. "I think so...are you thinking they are held down there? Like that mad woman held Tony hostage?" He asked and she slowly nodded.
After not being on duty for a year, it seemed difficult to come to conclusions that made sense, but for some reason Kate didn´t want to miss that anymore. "How about a little trip down the sewers again?" She asked and put her gun into the holster.
Half an hour later Gibbs parked the MCRT truck behind an old warehouse and looked around. "Looks good to me." He said and pulled his gun out, scanning for any signs of other people around. "How long have they been missing, Ziva?" He asked and looked at her.
"57 hours, 34 minutes, I forgot to count the seconds." She replied and smiled when he looked a bit startled. "If they were left to die, we will need an ambulance. Dehydration will be severe." She added and got her gun out as well. She knew Ari better than most others and was aware that he could be watching them right at this moment. Gibbs was about to object, but then realized that she would come along anyway –and that he might need her help.
They found an open hatch and climbed down into the underground. The stench was breathtaking, but nobody spoke a word. Every sound echoed back and they tried to be as quiet as possible. Gibbs had taken one from Balboa´s team with him while Kate and Ziva were looking into the other direction. It was really dark and even the flashlights seemed less efficient somehow. The darkness seemed to swallow the beams of light after only a couple of yards.
After a while, there was a sound coming from somewhere right ahead, causing Kate to stop. She looked at Ziva, who just nodded. Even with her right arm injured, she was prepared to protect themselves against whatever would lie behind that bend. Her muscles tensed up as she approached the crossing where several pipes came together. At first it seemed empty, but then she noticed a hatch in one of the walls which seemed to have been opened recently. Some rats were obviously fighting over something eatible. Ziva looked at the other agent and gave her a nod. It was the sign that she was watching their back, just in case someone decided to walk out on them as they searched whatever lay behind that hatch.
Kate nodded and walked over, carefully scanning their surroundings. She was almost sure to recognize this place, but yet it looked like just some intersection of the city´s bowels. The hatch had been opened recently, that much was for sure. She probed the handle and when she gave it a slight pull, the hatch opened with a creaking sound. The sight behind it was relieving and shocking at the same time. Two bodies were chained to vertical pipes, hands and legs tied to the back.