"Do we know when La Grenouille is going to call the Director?" Ziva asked Gibbs. The three agents had been working hard to find Tony, with no luck, and were now waiting impatiently for word from the man holding their teammate. Abby Scuito had wandered up from the lab to join them, having nothing to do for the moment.

"No idea," Gibbs replied gruffly.

"I thought Tony's undercover op was finished when we got called off the case in Montreal," McGee said.

"Apparently the Director chose to keep the rest of the op a secret from us," Gibbs replied.

"Don't forget Tony," Ziva corrected. "He never said that his new girlfriend was a part of it."

"No," Gibbs agreed, "he didn't."

"I can't believe you didn't know, Boss," McGee said. "You usually know everything that's going on around here."

"Yeah," Abby added, "You're like the Great Oz, or something."

"Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain," Ziva said in a loud, deep voice.

"What?" she said in response to the looks she received from the others. "Someone had to make a movie reference, since Tony's not here to do it."

Cynthia appeared at the top of the stairs. "The Director's on the phone with La Grenouille," she called out urgently.

Gibbs sprang up from his seat. "McGee, trace the call," he yelled as he ran up the stairs.

"On it, Boss," McGee began typing furiously as Abby ran to Tony's computer to run a parallel trace.

Cynthia motioned that the Director had the caller on a speaker phone, stopping Gibbs from bursting into the room. He entered quietly, noting the tense set of the Director's jaw.

"... was really beneath you, my dear," Benoit's silky voice flowed from the speaker.

"I'm sorry to disappoint you, Monsieur Benoit," Jen replied sarcastically, motioning for Gibbs to take a seat. He glared at her and leaned against the conference table.

"Family is strictly off-limits, Director Shepard," Benoit said disapprovingly. "Any civilized person should know that. My daughter has nothing to do with my affairs."

"And my father?" Shepard shot back angrily.

"Your father chose to do business with me," Benoit replied smoothly. "He was not an innocent bystander."

"That's a lie," Jen said angrily, "he would never betray his country willingly. You must have had something on him."

"Your father wanted the good things in life that he couldn't get on a military salary," Benoit replied. "He saw an opportunity and he took it. I was only too happy to take the weapons off his hands."

Gibbs caught the Director's attention and mouthed Tony's name.

"I'd like to speak to my agent," Jen said, "to make sure he's still alive."

'You know I wouldn't just kill him," Benoit replied reprovingly. "I'm afraid I can't say the same for my daughter, however. She's quite upset with him."

"Let me speak to Agent DiNozzo," Jen repeated firmly.

"I'm afraid I can't do that at the moment," Benoit sounded regretful, "I must cut this call short. I know you're trying to trace it and I've probably been talking too long. I'll be in touch again and we'll discuss what you can do to guarantee the safe return of the delightful Agent DiNozzo." The line went dead.

"Damn," Jen slammed her chair back and stood up angrily.

"Did he give you an idea of what he wanted from you before I came in?" asked Gibbs.

Jen shook her head. "He was reprimanding me for having someone seduce his daughter."

"That's just one of the bad decisions you've made on this, Jen," Gibbs replied, moving to leave the office.

"That was out of line, Special Agent Gibbs," Jen said angrily.

"What?" Gibbs turned back. "Telling you that you screwed up this whole operation? That you let your personal feelings interfere with your professional responsibilities?"

"I did not..."

"Why is The Frog so important to you, Jen?" Gibbs interrupted. "Because he's an arms dealer or because he did something to your father?"

"That's none of your business..."

"It is my business, Jen," Gibbs yelled. "You put my senior field agent in a dangerous position, with no backup, for a personal vendetta."

"La Grenouille's business is a potential threat to the security of this country," Jen shot back heatedly. "It's our job to keep the weapons he deals out of the hands of those who would like to bring us to our knees."

"That's a great sound byte," Gibbs scoffed, "but that's not the reason why you're so obsessed with bringing him down, it's a convenient excuse. You'd go after him if he was pirating movies."

"Jethro," Jen began, tiredly.

"No, Jen," Gibbs interrupted. "There's nothing you can say right now that will make this whole situation right. Not until we get Tony back, alive."