Thursday
Chapter 17
The Hummer is speeding down a long dirt road in the direction of the southern boarder of North Korea. Ziva is driving. Yair is in the passenger seat. Jael, Gibbs, Tony and Chioke are in the back. A couple vehicles, which belong to the North Korean army, are speeding after the escaping Hummer.
One of the army vehicles slams into the left side of the Hummer as another vehicle slams into the right side creating a Hummer sandwich. A man from each of the army vehicles pops out. The two vehicles move away from the Hummer, yet remain in line with it.
"They have rocket launchers!" Tony exclaimed. Chioke holds onto Tony as tightly as he can because he's scared.
"Hold on!" Ziva shouted. She stomps her foot to the brake pedal.
The Hummer's speed decreases. The two army vehicles continue moving forward. A rocket launches from each side of the road. The rockets project away from the vehicle it was launched from and races toward the opposing vehicle. The vehicle on the right side flips off the road because the rocket landed close to the bottom. The vehicle on the left side slides into the middle of the road because the rocket hit the back as the driver was steering toward the right. Ziva presses on the gas pedal. The front of the Hummer rams into the piece of the dead vehicle sliding into the middle of the road. The vehicle is forced to the side as Ziva quickly regains control after the impact.
One of the remaining five army vehicle slams into the vehicle the Hummer hit a couple seconds ago. The vehicle flips over. The four remaining army vehicles continue their pursuit of the Hummer.
A couple miles away the dirt road leads to a gate at the southern boarder of North Korea. Guards are already on high alert at the gate. The gate isn't as heavily guarded as most because the road is hardly traveled.
Some time passes.
The Hummer drives over a hill as it continues speeding down the dirt road toward the southern gate. The guards at the gate prepare their weapons.
One vehicle speeds to the right side of the Hummer. Ziva quickly turns the steering wheel to the right. The vehicle is bumped. The driver loses control and slams into a tree. Only three army vehicles are still following the Hummer. Ziva's eyes fixate on the gate area up ahead.
In front of the gate, off to the side of the road is a broke down vehicle which is almost completely buried by dirt. Ziva's eyes locate this mound as she continues to analyze the upcoming area.
"You guys better be here." Ziva said softly to herself as she sees the gate guards preparing their weapons. She presses on the gas pedal even harder; flooring it.
The Hummer enters into the vicinity of the gate. The gate guards aim their weapons at the Hummer. Three army vehicles continue to follow down the road, toward the gate. Ziva steers the Hummer in line with the mound of dirt in front which buries a broke down vehicle.
Flash-bang grenades go off at the gate; temporarily blinding the guards. The Hummer advances to the dirt mound. Two bodies pop up from the leaves behind the dirt mound; the side facing the gate. A rocket is launched from behind the dirt mound. As the Hummer is halfway launched from the dirt mound, a hook is tossed up. The hook catches to the bottom of the Hummer. An army vehicle explodes as the rocket which was launched aimed directly at it. Another rocket is launched. As the Hummer flies in the air with a cord being pulled behind it, the second army vehicle explodes.
"Brace yourselves!" Ziva yelled as a couple more flash-bang grenades go off at the gate. The cord finally pulls something out from the leaves. It's an impact bomb with detonator buttons surrounding the explosive. The bomb is pulled through the air. Finally, the last army vehicle launches from the dirt mound.
Both vehicles float through the air toward the gate, along with the bomb being pulled by the Hummer. Everyone inside the Hummer braces themselves for impact.
The Hummer floats over the gate; with only inches to spare. The cord continues to be pulled behind it. As the Hummer continues floating through the air on the other side of the gate, the bomb is inches away from the gate. The last army which is also floating through the air is inches away from the gate as well. The bomb explodes upon impact. The army vehicle and a large portion of the gate are destroyed. Gate debris flies outward in all directions.
The end of the cord is caught in a piece of the gate. As the cord is pulled more, the piece of the Hummer it's attached to rips off. Due to the tension of the pull, there's a slight balance loss. The front of the Hummer, the left side, hits the ground. The top of the Hummer moves forward and to the left. The left side of the Hummer, the driver's side, hits the ground. The Hummer slides on the driver's side before it rolls over.
After rolling over a couple times, the Hummer finally stops. The vehicle is upside-down. The driver's side door pops open. An injured Ziva crawls out. While still inside the Hummer, Tony, who is hurting, unfastens his seatbelt. He falls to the roof of the Hummer which is pressing against the ground. Tony looks up at Chioke.
"Are you alright?" Tony asked in concern.
'Shoulder hurt.' Chioke signed with his hands.
Tony leans upward. Chioke wraps his arms around him. Tony unfastens the seatbelt. Chioke's lower portion of his body falls down, on top of Tony.
"I love you, Chioke." Tony said. "I'll never let anything bad happen to you ever again. I promise." He kisses Chioke on the forehead, remains in the upside-down Hummer and just holds him tight.
Gibbs, whose entire left side of his body is hurting since he was sitting behind the driver's seat, approaches the other side of the upside-down Hummer. The passenger door opens. Yair crawls out. He tries to stand. Gibbs grabs Yair and slams him against the Hummer. Yair swings his arm at Gibbs, but the attack is blocked. Gibbs' knee is thrust into Yair's stomach. Gibbs' fist whips into Yair's face. Yair falls back unto the Hummer. A gun is drawn. Gibbs points the gun at Yair.
"You're under arrest you piece of shit." Gibbs stated. Yair looks at Gibbs with an expression of anger.
"The last person to point a gun at me ended up with a knife in neck and three bullets in his heart." Yair said. "Unfortunately for you, I won't be taken in. Not today."
Gibbs hears the cocking of two guns behind him. Seth and Seff are there with weapons pointing at his head. Yair knocks the gun from Gibbs' hand. He kicks Gibbs in the chest; causing him to fall to the ground. Yair picks up Gibbs' weapon and points it at him. Three guns are pointing at Gibbs.
Ziva finally stands. She sees what's going on.
"Stop!" Ziva exclaimed in Hebrew. She walks around the upside-down Hummer. She continues speaking in Hebrew to her friends. "Killing him proves nothing! By killing him you're not stopping NCIS from pursuing you. He'll be replaced and you'll still be on the run. Killing him makes absolutely no difference." She approaches Yair.
"He knows you have ties to us, to the group." Yair stated in Hebrew. "The other guy doesn't. Obviously we're classified Intel. We kill him, we save you from being prosecuted."
"Yair, I know you want to protect me. I know you all want to. But I can't allow another NCIS agent to die at our hands. Especially not like this."
"Come with us, Ziva." Yair said.
"You know I can't." Ziva said in reply. "Maybe we'll bump into each other someday."
"No… We won't." Yair leans toward Ziva and kisses her on the forehead.
Seth and Seff help Jael out of the Hummer. The three men say their goodbyes to Ziva. Yair stays long enough to allow the others to vanish from the area.
"It appears the nine captive proved to be useful." Yair said in Hebrew as he looks at the approaching captives who are holding unused flash-bang grenades. Yair pulls the clip out of the gun and empties the chamber. He throws the clip away. Yair drops the gun on the ground, next to Gibbs. "Until next time, Agent Gibbs." He communicates in English for Gibbs to understand.
"I won't stop until you're behind bars." Gibbs stated as he finally stands.
"We shall see."
Yair walks away. Gibbs looks to Ziva with an expression of disappointment. Ziva looks away before eye contact is made.
"We should get going." Ziva said. "We need to get further into South Korea and out of sight of the North Korean boarder." She walks away.
Gibbs watches Ziva walk away from him. In his mind, Gibbs is slightly confused by the whole ordeal. He knows Ziva risked everything to save him, Tony and Chioke from North Korea. She exposed her darkest secret in order to save them and he doesn't know why. Many questions about loyalty, family, lies, truth and what's real bounce around through his mind. Even though he knows Ziva lead the death squad in the assassinations of eight NCIS agents in total, it confuses him. It confuses him as to why Ziva exposed the secret. It wasn't her responsibility to save them, but she did it. She did it at the risk of losing everything and she isn't running away from it. Gibbs continues to watch Ziva as she helps Tony and Chioke to get out of the Hummer.
Hours later they arrive at the airport in Seoul, South Korea. The nine captives are left in the care of South Korean officials who plan to work with the U.S. government in making sure they get back home to where they belong and were abducted from. Gibbs walks to the locker number one hundred, fifty-six. He puts the key in and unlocks it. Inside the locker is all the information Cal collected on the slave trading in North Korea. Gibbs places everything from the locker into a bag which he'll bring to the U.S. government. Even though Cal lost his life in trying to help them escape from North Korea, at least his work will make sure the slave trade is put to an end. Cal's hard work is not in vain.
Gibbs, Tony, Chioke and Ziva hop onto a plane in order to go back home. Gibbs has the window seat. Tony has the aisle seat. Chioke has the seat in the middle. Gibbs leans forward. He looks across to the opposite set of seats. Ziva has a window seat with no one sitting next to her. Gibbs can tell a few things from the expression on Ziva's face; she's worried, sad, scared and lonely. Gibbs has never seen Ziva so vulnerable before. He looks at Chioke and Tony who couldn't be happier about going back home. Chioke clings to Tony and Tony loves it. Gibbs looks over at Ziva. As Ziva's head hangs and she looks down at the floor, Gibbs can't help but feel some type of sympathy for her.
Minutes later, the plane takes off.
While in the air, Tony quickly falls asleep. Ziva sits on her side of the plane, alone by the window. She feels like an outsider now. Gibbs remains looking at Ziva and trying to figure out what to do with her; arrest her or let it slide.
Chioke, who has Tony's arm wrapped around him, looks at Gibbs. Chioke looks to the other side of the plane. He realizes Gibbs is staring at Ziva. He also realizes Ziva looks sad.
'I go make happy.' Chioke signed with his hands to Gibbs. Chioke tires to unfasten his seatbelt but is having difficulty. 'Can help work belt?'
Gibbs smiles and unfastens Chioke's seatbelt. Chioke stands up, leans forward and kisses the sleeping Tony on the forehead. Chioke walks across the aisle. He sits in the middle seat next to Ziva whose head finally moves from the depressing position of just looking downward. She looks at the smiling Chioke.
'Thank you.' Chioke signed with his hands. Ziva has a confused expression on her face as she's unsure what Chioke is trying to communicate to her.
"He said; thank you." Gibbs said loud enough for Ziva to hear.
Ziva doesn't make eye contact with Gibbs. She fixes Chioke seatbelt. Chioke leans his head against Ziva. He wraps his arm around her. Ziva does the same. Gibbs leans back and tries to go to sleep. Chioke falls asleep in Ziva's arm. Ziva remains awake; thinking of Isaac.