Chapter 7
"We will find you, you got that, Tony."
We will find you.
Four simple words that kept the struggling Agent going, kept him moving away from them people.
Gave him a minute spark of hope.
Whether that flicker of hope would actually outlast the agent however, was unknown, but possible in the Agent's current condition.
Special Agent Anthony DiNozzo's time was running short, and he knew it. His muscles screaming along with his head, telling him to let them rest, let them stop. But he also knew that to stop would be tantamount to ending his life that much sooner.
Except, the stern assurance the last voice he had heard held, kept his wavering limbs filled with the last of his adrenalin. Something that had given out on him when he had fallen, breaking the cell he had managed to get hold of in the process, as he'd been talking to Gibbs.
Limping onwards, Tony took a brief look at his newly wrapped leg wound. They had come back at some point and given him the medicine that had seemed to have stopped the infection that had been brewing for now. All he remembered from that was a strange cacophony of sounds, mashing together, making no sense in his fevered mind.
Pain shot up his leg, nerves setting alight all the way through his body, as he stepped off a slight rocky ledge. Breathing through it he winced as his ribs protested against the calming breaths, and the skin on his back seemed to stretch around circular burns which he had recently acquired.
He giggled a little at the fact that acquired seemed to insinuate that he was happy about it…he really was going mad now.
Rustling behind him forced him into high alert, crouching down he looked around him. Trees loomed tall in the darkness but the moon gave him some light to work with. Shadows seemed to wisp between the trees but no more sounds bar the usual animals could be heard. That, and the slightly unusual speed of his own heartbeat.
He continued cautiously, not wanting to have been followed. Especially after the threat he'd been given if he were to escape. He really didn't like the sound of being cut up into little tiny pieces, even if it was just a threat to stop him trying to escape. He'd figured out that they wanted him alive when they'd stopped the infection festering within him. That, however, would not stop them from doing more damage if they did catch up to him.
Noticing that he was on somewhat of a barely trodden foot path, he decided that staying just to the side of it was best. He didn't want to run the risk of the bad guys thinking he'd be stupid enough to actually follow one, but nor did he want to be too far away from something that could lead him back to civilisation. Back home.
So, the weary Agent continued on his journey, twigs snapping underfoot; and living solely on the conviction his Boss' voice had held.
And wondering why in the world he'd been left in this position. Mark was to suppose to have had his back; his mind flickered back to the place where water seem in abundance and thought he saw him standing, watching them slowly try to break him and his spirit.
But why? Why would he be there if Mark hadn't been in on it…
His thoughts stopped like a crashing train; almost falling over himself he had to take a moment to compose himself.
Anger rose up within him at the prospect that Mark had been in on it all along, and he hadn't seen it coming. It left him with a distinct cold feeling towards the man. What were his motives? Money? Power? There was always something.
The betrayal cut him deeply enough to make him want to scream at it. He couldn't however, it may draw unwanted attention.
Are you sure you didn't know. I mean, really?
Tony truly did want to say that he hadn't, but as soon as they had entered where ever they had gone, that little detail seemed to have left his mind completely until now; probably something to do with the torture and repeated questions that he couldn't answer over the days following that one. He hadn't fully trusted Mark from a twinkle in his eye but their years of friendship, Tony had hoped, were enough for him not to have put Tony where he was now.
Well at least you only put yourself in danger. Right? The team weren't in danger too were they?
God, he hoped not. Gibbs would head-slap him into oblivion if they were. With his new found strength from depleted reserves, Tony, somehow, increased his pace, hoping that someone friendly would be walking the barely trodden path.
He needed to know if his team were safe…
x-X-x
Mark was furious, all they'd had to do was watch the Agent and gather any information they could about what Tony knew. He'd already made unnecessary, in his mind anyway, adjustments to his perfect plan.
Well, it had been perfect until the people who he'd left in control had messed it all up. If it wasn't for them then he'd still be sitting on the beach in the sun, not heading back to West Virginia where the holding place had been to clean up their mess.
He knew that Gibbs would have caught on to what happened, so any help they may have given him was now out of the window. But that didn't mean that he wouldn't be able to use the team to get what he wanted. Though it wasn't time for that yet.
He'd planned it for years, the friendship with Tony had been real to start with, but when Tony had transferred he felt like he'd been betrayed and didn't see any problem in getting pay back for it. He'd used Tony's friendship to get into NCIS where they had information on more, high end cases, and ones where you could get more money out of it, if you were careful enough.
He placed his seat belt across his waist as the light came on, signalling that they were about to land. He knew coming back was risky but he hadn't been able to contact anyone since they had told him that his 'friend' was now well enough to be questioned again. And that worried him.
He laughed however, at the fact that he would be much closer to DiNozzo than Gibbs was and knew that it would be killing the marine in Gibbs….
TBC
Well, Tony is alive for now but who is closer to finding him now that he has escaped wherever he was…you will all have to wait and see MUWAHAHA. Please review!