"I was wondering if I would be hearing from you," Tom Bailey, manager of the local coffee shop Gibbs frequented, answered Ziva's inquiry. "Agent Gibbs comes here often, as do many of the other NCIS agents. When we saw the van stop and Agents Gibbs and the other guy get inside, it looked like they were going willingly. I didn't think much of it at first, until time went by and Gibbs didn't come back in. I had already thought back to the last time I saw him, and now that I consider it, I can't believe I wasn't more suspicious."
"Did you get a good look at the men who took them? Make and model of the van? License plate number?" Tim prompted.
"No; I'm sorry. There were only two men, that I saw, but I don't remember anything else. You may be able to pull information from our security surveillance data, though," Tom offered. "Everything from the surveillance cameras during the time in question should be on this disk," Tom shared, happy to cooperate with the investigation. "I had just gotten it together, and was planning on calling NCIS to see if I could help…"
"Thank you so much for your cooperation," Tim said. He took the disk from the man and nodded, nearly dragging Ziva to the door in his haste to get the information back to headquarters.
"May we call you if we have further questions?" Ziva asked, almost as an afterthought.
"Of course," the manager agreed. "Happy to be of assistance."
"Thanks!" Tim added, as he and Ziva headed directly to Abby's lab with the new information.
***NCIS***NCIS***NCIS***NCIS***NCIS***NCIS*** NCIS***
Tony shambled into the forensics lab, determination fueling each step.
"Tony!" Abby exclaimed, as she hurried to his side to assist him.
"You shouldn't be out of bed," Ducky chided. He and Jimmy had been bringing Abby an update.
"I had a memory," Tony told them.
Abby gasped. "Don't hold out on us; spill!"
"Well, it isn't much. Just a fuzzy sort of fragmented image. But Gibbs and I were together, in some sort of warehouse."
"A warehouse," Abby repeated. "Well, it's something. Any idea of what kind of warehouse? Was there anything at all in the background that could give us another clue?"
"I'm a trained investigator, Abs. If there was something else there, I would have told you," Tony replied.
The door chimed and slid open as Tim and Ziva joined the others.
"Abby!" Ziva blurted, unable to contain her excitement. "We have surveillance video of the coffee shop where Gibbs and Tony were taken."
"Hallelujah!" Abby said as she swiped the disk from Tim's hand.
They were interrupted by the sound of Abby's mass spectrometer sounding an alert.
"Voila!" Abby said, leaving the disk on the desk and rushing over to get the results from the Major. "Perfect timing, since we're all here. Europium oxide!"
"What?" Jimmy asked, confused.
"The pink powder we pulled from Tony's clothes is europium oxide," Abby explained, hurrying to her keyboard. "There are different kinds of this particular chemical and it has several commercial uses, but this precise nanopowder is used in red and infrared-sensitive phosphors and in the control rods for nuclear reactors."
"That sounds bad," Tim said.
"Could be, but it could help us find Tony's warehouse that much more quickly. Let me just see which companies in the area produce these particular phosphors and rods, and then see if any have closed any warehouses in the recent past."
"That could take a while," Ziva lamented.
"Science takes time," Abby reminded them.
"Gibbs may not have time," Ducky reminded her.
Abby's chin set with renewed determination. Her eyes stung with the threat of tears. It felt as if her throat had transformed into a fist that was tightening, squeezing off her air supply. Ducky's words hurt. She knew he was only trying to encourage her to keep working, but she knew better than anyone what was at stake. Gibbs would make it. They would find him in time. Save him. It's what he would do for any of them.
***NCIS***NCIS***NCIS***NCIS***NCIS***NCIS*** NCIS***
Ziva and Tim drove to the third potential warehouse on the list Abby provided, only to find another dead end. They had four more addresses on the list.
"Maybe we should go with the last one on the list and work backward. When you lose something, you always find it in the last place you look," Tim suggested.
"That is because when you find it you stop looking, McGee," Ziva explained.
"True," Tim said with a smile, just as his phone started ringing. "It's Abby!"
Ziva could hear Abby's excited voice, even though Tim didn't have the phone's speaker function activated.
"I found him! I traced the license plate number of the van from the surveillance video, and it was registered to a company that is also on our warehouse list. That has to be it, McGee!" She went on to give the address of the company.
The sound of squealing tires echoed through the streets as Ziva turned the car around.
"Have SWAT meet us there," Tim ordered, disconnecting the line. "Simmons Eckhard, on 33rd."
"I heard," Ziva said as she floored it. They had time to make up. Gibbs' life was on the line.
***NCIS***NCIS***NCIS***NCIS***NCIS***NCIS*** NCIS***
Tony found himself alone, yet again. He was so frustrated. He knew the answers were there – just beyond his reach, but he was no more able to retrieve them than he had been before. His every thought came back to Gibbs and all he had done for him. His imagination kept going where he wasn't ready to go, taunting him with thoughts of being too late to save Gibbs. The idea of being the one to let Gibbs down when something minor was at stake was bad enough, but being the one he was counting on to save his life and not coming through was pure anguish to Tony.
Gibbs had always been more than a boss. A friend. A confidante. When they first worked together they had their issues, as is always true when two strong personalities learn to work together. But they had developed a strong friendship, the depth of which the others on the team really had no idea. Abby and Ducky had some clue, but no one really knew the camaraderie between them behind closed doors.
Tony knew he was close to breaking down. He had to have a breakthrough soon, or this uncertainty would kill him. Even though he knew he shouldn't, he strained to go over every detail of what he could remember, hoping to jog something loose that would help him find Gibbs.
***NCIS***NCIS***NCIS***NCIS***NCIS***NCIS*** NCIS***
Ziva and Tim arrived at the scene at the same time as the SWAT team. Ziva signaled them forward, she taking the front and Tim the back, each with back up.
"Clear!" Tim's shout came from the back side of the warehouse.
"Clear!" Ziva shouted almost simultaneously.
It was obvious this is where they had been holding Gibbs. There were ropes and chains, as well as a number of different utilities for torture. Blood marked the area – more than should have been there.
"Darn it!" Tim said, with a frustrated look around.
The warehouse was empty.