A/N: A quick apology for anyone who lives in Mitrovica - I've never been there, and have made everything about the place up. It may well be the loveliest place in the world. I do know that it is a hotspot for trouble in Kosovo though, because it is so close to the border. Edvina's story is also made up, although that sort of thing did, unfortunately, happen during the war. The tear gas incident, however, is not made up but was told to me by a friend out in Kosovo. As always, please let me know what you think.
Abby was missing the team, and feeling a little left out, and so to cheer herself up, she was dancing around her lab to the sounds of Led Zeppelin. For some unknown reason, classic rock always cheered her up when she was feeling low. It was blaring so loudly through the speakers that she totally missed the phone ringing. It was only after she had sung her way through the Whole Lotta Love that she noticed the blinking red light that showed a call was coming in. Stairway to Heaven was just starting when she picked up.
"Hello!"
"Abby?" Gibbs hollered to be heard over the music.
"Hey Gibbs, how's the case?" Abby shouted back happily.
"Turn the music off!"
"But Stairway to Heaven is one of the greatest songs of all time, and has one of the best guitar solos!"
"Abby, I swear, if the music isn't off in the next five seconds, when I come back, I will shoot your record player!" When the music continued to boom out, Gibbs yelled, "One! Two! Three!" The music clicked off. "Thank you," he breathed, in a far more normal tone of voice.
"So, how's the case?" she repeated her question. "And it's a CD player, not a record player. They went out with the dark ages."
Gibbs decided to ignore that last comment as it would only lead to a ten minute conversation he didn't have time for. "Well, we've got one leak, but I doubt he's responsible for everything that's gone wrong. He's too low level. Can you get me files of every CIA operative working on Operation Floodgate?"
"Gibbs! I'm going to get in so much trouble for hacking into the CIA again," Abby complained, already beginning to type in the script that would get her past the first firewall.
"I'll say it's all my fault," Gibbs reassured her, a smile in his voice. "Can you do it?"
"Are you doubting me?"
"Never," he chuckled. "Thanks Abs."
"Hey! Can I ask you a favour, as I'm so wonderful?"
"Go on," he said warily. The last time Abby had asked a favour he had had to pick her up from a party at 4am. He'd been invited inside and had spent a confusing ten minutes talking to someone who apparently only spoke Klingon. Surprisingly, they had got on quite well, despite the language barrier. Abby later told him that his new friend believed he was the Klingon equivalent of a Marine, which would explain a lot.
"Can I come with you next time you guys go on a trip? I miss you all," Abby said, pouting at the speaker phone.
"Abby…" he groaned. "You're not a field agent."
"Pleeeease!"
"How about I bring you back a present, and we'll talk about it later?" Gibbs always found himself wondering why he always caved in to Abby's requests, however outlandish they were. She always put a smile on his face, though, and he hung up the phone smiling and shaking his head. He knew he'd never let Abby out in the field. There was too much danger, and he wouldn't risk her getting hurt.
Isak and Tony had been dispatched to pick up Castirovic, while Kate and McGee tried to find Mandic. In the end, it was McGee's computer skills that tracked him down. Mandic may have been in hiding, but that didn't stop him having a cell phone. The GPS locator beacon placed Mandic in the town of Mitrovica, near the Serbian border. Kate drove, and McGee relaxed in the front seat – this was far pleasanter than Gibbs' driving.
"I can't believe he tried to stop me going," Kate complained. Gibbs had needed to be convinced to let Kate and McGee go by themselves, and had only grudgingly given in.
"Well, Mitrovica is the main trouble spot in Kosovo," McGee said. "It's where most of the ethnic trouble still is. I guess he's a bit concerned."
"He's sent me and Tony out to the Tri-Border Area in Paraguay without a second thought," Kate pointed out.
"Mitrovica is very dangerous," Edvina said quietly from the back seat. She had been very subdued since the raki had started wearing off, and was very pale. "It was where my parents were shot."
"Oh my God, Edvina, I'm so sorry," Kate said, her tone horrified. The poor girl was having a horrific day. "What happened?"
"He was in the KLA and his troop got captured by the Serbs. We used to live just outside Mitrovica, and the Serbs took my father and his friends back to their village and shot everyone. I was lucky, I was at school in Pristina when it happened." She looked out of the window, and a single tear rolled down her cheek. "I lost most of my family that day."
"That's terrible," McGee said, twisting in his seat to look at the translator.
She shrugged. "It was war. Such things happened all the time. Once, when I was at school, the Serbs threw tear gas through the window, just because they could. They were laughing at us as we ran outside." She paused for a second and seemed to give herself a mental shake. "But Mitrovica is still not a nice place. You must be very careful there."
Mitrovica was a grey, dirty town that had little sign of the prosperity of Pristina. Pristina was not the cleanest city, but it was possible to see progress being made, as satellite dishes sprouted from almost every building and the economy was booming. For McGee, who had seen the pretty mountain town of Prizren, Mitrovica was a shock. In Prizren, the Kosovans appeared to have noticed that litter did not attract tourists and had made the centre of town a pedestrian area that was clean and well-lit. Mitrovica was neither.
According to the locator beacon, Mandic was hiding out in the town's only hotel, a dank, dingy establishment called the Hotel Zvecan, after the medieval fortress just outside the town. McGee and Edvina went in through the front of the hotel, while Kate covered the back. The receptionist looked startled to be confronted by an American federal agent bearing a gun, and it quickly became apparent that Mandic was the only guest, staying on the top floor.
Motioning for Edvina to stay behind the corner, McGee banged on the door. Edvina peered around the corner of the corridor and called out in Albanian for Mandic to open the door. Muffled bumps could be heard from inside the room, so McGee took a deep breath and shot the lock off. Dashing into the room, he was just in time to see Mandic clambering out of the window, balancing on the ledge that ran around the top of the hotel.
McGee rushed to the window and found Kate staring up at him helplessly. She shrugged and shouted, "We can't just shoot him McGee! Do something!"
"Uh sir?" he called out, as Mandic shuffled along the ledge, obviously making for the large tree that grew close to the hotel. "Sir, please come back."
Edvina peered anxiously out of the window and repeated his comment in Albanian. Mandic paid no attention and kept moving forward. Swearing under his breath, McGee holstered his weapon and started to climb out on to the ledge himself. "What the hell are you doing?" Kate yelled. "You'll get yourself killed!"
Mandic looked around in shock that anyone would follow him and made a desperate grab for the tree. For a moment it looked as though he had made it, but the branch he was holding on to snapped under his weight and he plummeted to the ground, smashing into the grass below with sickening force. Kate rushed over and checked his pulse. Grimly, she shook her head.
"Oh God," McGee said, half exclamation, half prayer.
"McGee, get back inside now!" Kate watched apprehensively as he inched his way back along the ledge and let out a long sigh of relief as he slipped back into the hotel.
"You were very brave," Edvina said admiringly. McGee nodded once, before rushing into the bathroom, and throwing up. Kate found him taking a couple of grateful sips of water.
"Let's get back to Pristina and tell Gibbs the good news," she said tiredly, patting him on the back.