The man searched the faces of his captives for one Special Agent Anthony DiNozzo to no avail. He angrily stepped up to one of the kidnappers, their faces mere inches away from each other. "Where is Agent DiNozzo, Abdul?" he spat. "I a-am not sure sir, Omar and Jamil were in charge of capturing him. They aren't answering their phones." he stammered. Just then, one of the other kidnappers spoke up, "Sir, local police reports say that two Middle-Eastern bodies were found inside Agent DiNozzo's apartment. I think he killed them."
The man stood straight in front of Ziva, grabbing her by her cheeks, forcing her to look at him. "Do you know who I am, Agent David?" the man questioned.
"No, I do not know who you are!" she spat angrily. Immediately the man angrily backhanded Ziva across the face, then forcing her to look at him again.
"I believe you are familiar with my brother. Saleem Ulman." the man fired back. Just the words Saleem Ulman caused the color to drain from Ziva's face. How could she forget the man who tortured her for months in that terrible camp in Africa? "My name is Arash Ulman, I am Saleem's older brother. I was recently notified that my brother was killed during an NCIS rescue mission led by Special Agent Anthony DiNozzo. As you can imagine I was very angry to learn of my brother's death, and thus seek revenge." Arash stated. "Abdul! Load them onto the plane. Once you do that, stay here with Amir and track down DiNozzo. We need him alive!" he ordered.
As they were loaded onto the plane, all of them were scared not for their own lives, but for Tony's. If they were correct, Arash blames Saleem's death on Tony, meaning he's going to want to hurt him in every way possible.
The next day...
In spite of the fact that seven of the most important people at NCIS were missing, the building was buzzing with activity. The whole agency was trying to find the missing personnel, and even the CIA and FBI were helping with the investigation. The two kidnappers at Tony's apartment were identified as Omar Yasim and Jamil Usman. They were on the FBI watch list as professional kidnappers with ties to Hamas. So far, that was the only thing they could find on the kidnappers, but nothing could be found on both the whereabouts of Tony's team or who kidnapped them.
Tony was sitting at his desk working on his report, but all he felt was an emptiness in his heart. His team, his family, had been kidnapped by some terrorist for no apparent reason. He already finished his report hours ago, and against the Director's orders, he was searching for connections between his team and the two kidnappers. After an hour of searching, he made a breakthrough.
Tony decided to look for an 'outside of the box' connection as to their motive for attempting to capture him. The kidnappers were Middle-Eastern, so they obviously had to do with either a previous case they did or an op they ran. Thinking of all the ops they ran in foreign countries, he then remembered the op they ran to rescue Ziva from that awful camp in Somalia. Maybe they were hired to enact some kind of revenge on us? But who would want revenge? All the terrorists in the camp were killed?
Thirty minutes later, he was sitting in the Director's office with the SecNav explaining his idea. As he went on with his idea as to the motives of the kidnappers, the look on both Vance and Jarvis's faces were hard to miss. Vance had a look of understanding while Jarvis was getting angrier with each word Tony spoke.
"...So I believe that one of the members inside the terrorist camp had a close friend or relative that found out about the op, and now they want revenge on us for killing one of them. Odds are it's someone Saleem knew since he was in charge of the camp. Maybe a relative? I think that whoever it was, they kidnapped my team and brought them back to Somalia, where Saleem died." Tony finished.
Immediately Jarvis spoke up, "Agent DiNozzo, that is enough. I can see where you are going with this, and I don't approve. You think that running an op like this can go without consequences? We're already on shaky grounds with Africa for that rescue mission you ran to rescue Agent David! An entire SEAL team plus three NCIS agents to rescue one Israeli!? That op almost created in international incident that may have resulted in war! I'm afraid I cannot grant you permission to run it, so you better get your mind out of the gutter and move on!" Jarvis shouted.
Anger was boiling in Tony's veins. Secretary of the Navy or not, he was mere seconds from beating the crap out of Jarvis. "So what!? You're just gonna leave them there to die!?" Tony screamed.
"If that is what I have to do to avoid another incident, then so be it! They are replaceable, so I suggest you take up my offer on a promotion to become Supervisory Agent of the MCRT and start adding members!" Jarvis yelled. He then stood up and left the room.
"That bastard!" Tony shouted. "He's just going to let them die!" The look of determination, anger, and violence was evident in both Tony's tone and eyes. It was clear that he wasn't going to give up on his team, SecNav be damned. Vance cleared his voice to gain Tony's attention.
"Agent DiNozzo, as much as I agree with you, I cannot disobey SecNav. You will not be allowed to run an NCIS op to rescue your team." Vance stated, hoping Tony would pick up on the hint he was giving him.
"Screw you!" Tony screamed. "Looks like he didn't get the hint." Vance thought to himself. "I'm not abandoning my team! Over the years they've become my family! Gibbs is like a father to me, McGee and Abby my siblings! Ducky is like a grandfather to me, and even Jimmy is like a cousin to me. Breena is like my sister-in-law, and Ziva is like a..." he trailed off. What was Ziva like to him? Definitely more than a partner or friend, but a lover? Is that what he really thought of Ziva?
Vance cut him off when he trailed off at Ziva, "Tony! Listen to me. Although I cannot allow you to run an official op to rescue them, I will offer you a choice. You can go on an off-the-books op on your own to try to rescue them. Keep in mind that this will almost definitely result in your death, however. But if you are truly willing to do whatever it takes to save them, I will make sure Jarvis doesn't know about it. Do you accept my offer?" Vance inquired.
Immediately a hint of both hope and happiness shone in Tony's eyes. "Well why didn't you say so earlier? Hell yes!" he nearly shouted in joy.
"Good. Now get out of my office before you start giggling your ass off!" Vance said with a hint of hope in his own voice. Even though he was director, he too thought of the MCRT as family, just not to the degree that Tony did. Tony nearly sprinted out of the office to his apartment where he could start packing.
Unbeknownst to either of them, a mysterious man planted a bug inside of his office, hearing the entire conversation. And he knew exactly what one Very Special Agent had planned.