Chapter 9
Three people crept along the tree line, tension almost palpable in the air.
"Are you sure this is the place McGee?"
"Yes Ziva, I'm sure. I got a good look at the coordinates, this is where the GPS brought us. It must be here"
"'Must be' Probie, 'must be'? We've been walking for two miles, and I have to tell you I don't see any warehouse. Why we couldn't have brought the car closer, I'll never understand"
"We couldn't have exactly driven straight in there, Tony. We mustn't be seen, remember? And stop whining!" It was the third time in half an hour that specific argument ensued, and McGee was getting tired of it.
Ziva raised her hand all of the sudden, frozen in place. "Shh. I hear something…a car is approaching. Go!" she pointed to the tree line.
Crouched behind the thick bushes, the three agents could clearly see a set of headlights slowing down as they were nearing their position. "They couldn't have made us, could they?" Tony pondered, hand tight on his weapon, any thought of his expensive suit soaking up the forest mud completely extinguished by now. The car came to a complete stop just a few yards further down the road, lights turned off. Nothing happened for a few moments, then both front doors opened and two men descended.
"You're sure that was a chopper you've heard?"
"Yeah, I'm sure. Heard it 'bout an hour ago further down the valley, came this way; very smooth bird, I'm guessing military. Add the fact that they got to Jer's place earlier…"
"Come on man, that was the Navy cops. Doesn't mean anything"
"Could be, which is why I'm not crying 'wolf' again till we find the damn thing ourselves. Come on, the only landing spot for miles except for ours is just behind this stretch of forest"
"Where're Kev and the Miles brothers? I thought they were with you"
"They took the west trail, on foot. We'll meet up in the clearing, see if the bird's there"
With the corner of his eye Tony could see Ziva's fingers slowly caressing the handle of her knife. He lightly touched her arm and shook his head – they needed to see where those two were heading and find the other three goons.
The walk through the forest was long and difficult. The agents had to keep a sufficient distance so the two men wouldn't hear anything, at the same time without loosing sight of them.
A large opening in the trees right in front of them presented an unwanted sight. A big black military helicopter lay in the middle of the clearing, doors opened, two bodies haphazardly thrown in the thick grass, blood splatters on the windshield. Three men emerged from behind the aircraft.
"I see you got here first"
"Yeah, took care of things for you man! Seems you weren't loosing it when you said you heard a chopper"
"What happened?"
"Well, these military types are always difficult. They wouldn't give up their flight, so we just took it" one of the figures supplied, amusement in his voice.
"Called 'home' to let them know?"
"Yeah, they're setting up the jamming gizmo, preparing to welcome the esteemed guests"
"Fuck" Tony thought "this is so not good"
Apparently he wasn't the only one with that thought, as Ziva was already back-tracking through the forest, trying to put some distance between herself and the goons before making a call.
McGee touched his shoulder, drawing his attention back to the scene in front of them.
"You realize we can't just fly this thing out of here, and even if we could there's no way we could ever use it… They'd track us down anywhere"
'Kev' just snickered. "I wasn't thinking of flying it. I was thinking more along the lines of booby-trapping the doors, so if they manage to leave the warehouse alive and try to get inside… boom!"
"You have what it takes?" the others didn't seem to need much time to agree.
"Already done, figured you'd agree. You just have to close the doors and it's set"
"Good. Place the bodies inside so nothing will seem out of place"
Tony was frantically thinking about the best course of action. They could try to take the men down, but they were vastly outnumbered and outgunned. Their service weapons were most definitely no match for the automatic weapons he saw the men carrying. Plus, Ziva was nowhere to be seen, and he figured she managed to place the call. Both he and McGee were still crouching behind the bushes when they heard the slam of at least one of the helicopter's doors being shut. And then all hell broke loose.
Some sort of blue electric arcs sprang from behind the trees in front of them, effectively knocking down three of the bad guys. The other two reached for their weapons and started firing randomly in the direction the attack came from. Both Tony and McGee grabbed their guns in a flash, intent on finishing them off if possible. They never had the chance to fire a single shot though before another blue arc enveloped them. In an instant Tony felt all of his muscles contracting, his body arching off the forest floor, the pain tearing at every bit of flesh and cutting of his breath. The blackness was almost a blessing for him.
….
Three minutes after the jamming device was activated SG teams 1 and 13 stormed the warehouse and four more minutes later everyone originally inside it was either dead or handcuffed. One tried to leave through the left entrance and never saw the sniper's bullet coming. With SG-13, Carter and Daniel still inside checking and packing the equipment they found, O'Neill finally had time to see to the other matter.
"Castleman, come in. Status?"
"Sir, got seven bogeys here, two are dead, the rest just zatted. Pilots are dead also, we didn't get the chance to check the helo yet"
"Seven?" O'Neill thought "we could've been sooo screwed"
Castleman came back on-line, his voice small.
"Colonel, we kinda… screwed the pooch here a bit"
He had a bad feeling about this. "Meaning, Major?"
"Two of the men we took down, they're, well, they're NCIS agents"
Gibbs was already on his feet and running down the hill, heart in his throat and stomach churning before he heard the next sentence.
"They're fine, just zatted, not dead"
O'Neill sighed. "At least there's that. It's all right Major, you couldn't have known. Just bring them back here, we'll see to the rest after"
Gibbs reached the warehouse just as SG-5 returned, carrying Tony and McGee, still out cold, three prisoners barely dragging their feet in front of them.
"What the hell were your people doing out there, Agent Gibbs? Do you realize the trouble they could have caused? Not to mention they could have very well be dead now!" O'Neill was beyond pissed.
"Yeah, they could have been, since your people seem to be the shoot-first-ask-questions-later type" Gibbs realized that was uncalled for as soon as the words left his mouth, but he'd been so scared when he heard they were shot.
"They weren't supposed to be there! SG-5 never even saw them before, how were they supposed to identify…"
Teal'c stepped between the two men. "O'Neill, AgentGibbs, this is not the time for arguing. AgentGibbs, your people came here on their own judgment, did they not?"
"Yeah, I certainly didn't ask them to show up"
"O'Neill, did we not also come to your aid on occasion even when you ordered us to leave?"
"Yeah, you did" he admitted grudgingly.
"If this matter is resolved, I will go back with Major Castleman and his team to retrieve the bodies"
Gibbs intervened "Wait a sec. Major, what about a woman? Was anybody else there?"
Castleman looked at his people, all shaking their heads. "No one else was there sir. We checked"
"Where was she?" Gibbs thought. He couldn't believe DiNozzo and McGee would have managed to con her into staying at home, plus this appearance act felt like something she would pull. Well, he just had to wait for his two sleeping agents to wake up. Speaking of which… "Colonel, how come the prisoners are awake and mobile and they're still out cold?"
"Nothing to worry about. The first time is always worse when shot with a zat. After a while you, I don't know, get used to it, build some sort of a tolerance. Always hurts like hell, but you wake up sooner. I'm guessing the bad guys were shot before, plus from what I understood your people were shot from much closer. They'll be fine"
Right on cue, Tony began to stir. First feeling he experienced was surprise – he really didn't expect to ever wake up again after being …shot, electrocuted, whatever. Considering the circumstances, the mother of all headaches he felt was almost a blessing. Somewhere to his left he heard McGee's groan and fought to open his eyes. There was something he still couldn't see very clearly looming over him, something…Gibbs! Tony suddenly sat up, headache forgotten.
"Boss…"
"I don't want to hear anything DiNozzo". The fact that Gibbs appeared not only angry but also shook up, and the fact that he could identify how Gibbs felt with just a glance was a serious motive for concern in Tony's opinion.
"But boss, they shot me, us…"
"Not now Tony, we'll talk later". He was afraid of that. "You'll be fine. Tony, where's Ziva? She didn't come with you?"
He jumped up from his barely sitting position, his eyes frantically searching the people around them. The sudden panic left him gasping for air as everything came back to him. Ziva, helicopter, bomb.
"Ziva…she wasn't there when…she doesn't know…you have to stop her…"
Gibbs grabbed his shoulders and shook lightly, starring straight in his eyes. Or glaring.
His voice was low and very controlled "Get a grip, DiNozzo. Now, where is Ziva?"
Tony took a breath, his eyes focusing on his boss. "She was with us, went back a bit to try to call you, wasn't there when we got shot, she didn't hear when the bad guys said they booby-trapped the chopper. She's …if she tries to open the door…"
O'Neill was already shouting something into his mike when Gibbs started running in the direction he saw Teal'c leave earlier.
He fell to his knees, heart jumping into his throat and suffocating him as they all saw and heard the explosion coming from over the lines of trees.
Note: I know, I'm mean, but I couldn't help it. Also, no updates for about 4-5 days – I'm going away for a while. Sorry…