Hey folks, sorry this chapter took me so long, it was a tough one, I have re-written it at least twice now. I'm sorry to say that the following chapters will take a while to put up as well. I am moving to somewhere where I will not have internet access, so I will have to go to the library to post. Hopefully I will be able to get there at least once a week, and my goal is to have a new chapter every time I go. Please continue to read and review though, I love the feedback; it really is an author's lifeblood. Anyway, hope you enjoy this, and thanks again for reading.
Erin
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As the tape ended, Gibbs turned to his team, "McGee, take that video to Abby, and get me something useful. DiNozzo, David, What did you find on Finnegan and his wife?"
McGee grabbed the DVD and headed back down to Abby's lab. Tony stepped forward and held out his paper for Gibbs to look over, earning himself another glare from Ziva. "I found something from back when they lived in Ireland. Finnegan was in the military there, and he was a member of a—"
Ziva cut him off, still angry about being hit by the door, and not willing to let Tony take all of the glory for the find, "Top secret operation gathering intel on Hammas."
Not to be outdone, Tony jumped back in, "The reason he came to America was someone found out what he was doing and threatened his family. The threats were directed at every member from the daughter and wife, to the dogs. I guess that explains why the dogs were killed. Anyway, they were hoping that the threats would stop if they left Ireland, and they did for a while—"
Ziva, getting more competitive with every second, cut Tony off again, "But within the last month, they have started again. He did not want to tell us because he was afraid that they would hurt his daughter if he said anything."
As she finished, the door to MTAC opened, and the director strode over to them, a determined look on her face, "Lance Corporal Finnegan is demanding to know what is going on, and I would like to know too. We're getting mysterious packages, you are all running around like chickens with your head cut off, and you left a witness sitting in interrogation for more than an hour and a half without so much as a bottle of water. What in the world is going on?"
Gibbs was on the verge of turning to leave without answering when Ziva began to talk again, "The package contained a video of Colleen Finnegan and her captor. They made no demands yet, but they informed Finnegan to expect a call from them in two hours with further instructions."
Acknowledging Ziva with a nod, the director turned to Gibbs, who headed for the door, with her right behind him "Who do you have at the Finnegan's house to answer the phone?"
Gibbs didn't break stride as he answered her, "Well madam director, before you came barging in, we were headed in that direction. We have to bring Finnegan with us. He has to be the one to answer the phone, or they may not talk."
Once they had retrieved Finnegan from the interrogation room and headed for the car, the director took her leave of them and made her way back to her office. Gibbs insisted on driving, and Ziva quickly claimed the front seat, leaving Tony to sit in the back with Finnegan, both of them holding on for dear life.
As they drove toward the Finnegan house, Ziva let her mind slip back to the events surrounding her addition to the team. She had an entirely different set of memories about those times than the others, but they were no less painful. There were very few people who knew it, but she too had lost someone very special to her.
Sure, she knew what Ari had done, and she knew who he really was, but that didn't change the fact that he was her brother. He had been the one who had always been there for her when she was younger. He always made it to her and Tali's dance performances, even when their father didn't. He was the one who had helped her with her school work, and taught her how to fight back when she was picked on at school. In other words, he did everything a good big brother was supposed to do.
Ziva would never be able to forget the betrayal she felt when she found out the truth about Ari, or, the moment when she had taken her brother's life in order to save a man who was a virtual stranger, Gibbs.
She was glad that Gibbs was the only other member of the team who knew her relation to Ari and the truth of who his killer was. The others would find out eventually, she knew that, but she was not going to tell them until she had to. She knew they were past blaming her for Kate's death, or at least she hoped they were, but she had worked hard to gain their trust, and she knew that trust would be completely destroyed when they found out she had been hiding the truth from them for almost three years.
She was jerked from her reverie when the car screeched to a halt in the Finnegan's driveway. Tony rushed inside to set up the tap on the phone, leaving Gibbs and Ziva to escort Lance Corporal Finnegan, who was technically still a suspect in NCIS custody, inside.
As they stepped through the door, the first thing Ziva noticed was the smell, or more specifically the lack-there-of. The crime scene cleaners did a good job getting the smell out. It was a good thing they had too, because the phone was in the kitchen. As they caught up to Tony, a flash of memory made her shudder. The massacre of the family's dogs had been brutal, and it had gone way beyond wanting Finnegan to suffer, whoever was responsible for this had wanted him to know they would make good on their threats, and that no one was safe from them.
When Kate woke up on the floor of her room, the first thing that came back to her was her hearing. She could hear the footsteps in the hallway outside, the rumble of the generators, and a sniffling sound that she could not quite place. She forced her eyes open, and found herself staring into a pair of scared green eyes. Colleen. That explained the sniffling she had heard. It did not however explain why she was on the floor, or why she couldn't remember how she got there. She tried to sit up, and Colleen scrambled backwards, using her good arm. Kate had to muffle a scream as pain shot through her, and the last two hours came back in a flash.
Baria had left for a minute, and when she had come back she had a black gym bag. Paul and troy followed her in, one carrying a small table, the other carrying the same video camera they had used to film Colleen. They set up the camera so it was facing Kate, and Baria turned to her with a grin, "What do you say we put on a show for your friends back at NCIS? I'm going to leave Paul and Troy in here with you for exactly two minutes before we make our little movie, they have some issues they need to work out, and I think you would be the best person to help them." She turned on her heel and walked out, closing the door behind her.
Paul walked behind Kate, pulling a key out of his pocket as he moved, "Every time you look at us, I can see in your eyes that you want to hit us, that you would hurt us if you ever got the chance. Well, here it is the one chance you are going to get to fight back. It makes no difference if you fight or not, either way we will hit you, but I find it is always more satisfying to hit someone when they have caused me some pain, knowing that what I am doing to them is more than fair payback."
As Kate glared at him, massaging her wrists, trying to get the blood flowing into her hands properly again, he unlocked the cuffs holding her feet to the chair. She didn't waste a minute; she swung her left foot up to connect with his ribs. As Paul went down, Troy hooked his ankle around the chair leg and pulled it out from under her. Kate hit the ground with a thud, landing on her shoulder, knocking it out of the socket. Not one to give in to pain, Kate pulled her knees under her and pushed to her feet. Turning to face Troy, she brought her right leg up to connect with the back of his knee, bringing him crashing to the floor. He and Paul wasted no time getting back to their feet, and the three of them squared off again. Paul moved up behind her and yanked on her right arm, sending a jolt of pain through her dislocated shoulder, and Troy aimed a fist at her face. The punch was not as hard as she would have expected, but it still split her lip. Paul, who still had a grip on her arm, pulled it up behind her and forced her to her knees, "You are lucky that Baria needs your face to be recognizable for the video, Troy has to hold back on the face hits. Unfortunately for you he doesn't need to hold back for any of the others. You do however have time on your side, so let's make this last little bit memorable."
Kate barely had time to register what that meant when Troy's foot connected with her stomach, and Paul let go of her arm, leaving her to sag to the floor, trying to regain the use of her lungs. As Kate fought to control her breath, the door opened and Baria walked back in, surveying the small room and its three occupants.
Walking over to Kate, she pulled her up off of the floor, and motioned for Troy to right the chair. She forced Kate back into the chair, and cuffed her again, causing Kate to hiss with pain when she roughly pulled her right arm behind her. Before moving away from Kate, Baria pulled a roll of duct tape from a side pocket of the bag and covered Kate's mouth. She then pulled out a cloth bag and covered Kate's head, so that her body was visible, but her identity was hidden. Setting the gym bag on the table, Baria motioned for the others to leave the room. Paul and Troy left, smirking at Kate as they closed the door.
Turning the camera on, Baria situated herself between it and Kate, blocking her from its view. "Hello NCIS. I hope I am talking to the members of Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs' team, because I have a special surprise for you. Most of you do not know who I am, but at least one of you has met me before. You may not recognize me now; it was many years ago, you were not much more than a child really, but we will get back to that later.
Gibbs… I heard that name a lot in the past. It is a name that will forever haunt my memory, the name of the man who is the reason I lost my husband. He was obsessed with making you suffer, but what he did not realize was that I was suffering too. But that is history, and we are here to talk about the present, and the future. I know you are searching for Colleen Finnegan, and let me assure you now, she is fine, relatively speaking, and she will not be harmed any further, she was merely a means to an end, I just needed to catch and keep your attention. As long as you do what I say, she will be back with her father before end of day tomorrow.
Turning to face Kate, but still blocking her from view, she spoke to Kate loudly enough for the camera to pick it up, "There are four basic mediums for torture, and over the next four days we will explore each of them, while your team watches, unable to help." Baria opened the bag and pulled out a set of knives, "The first medium is sharp objects. This is the most basic and least creative method, so we will begin with it and work our way to the others."
Baria moved around behind the chair and Kate could feel the cool steel of the blade against her neck. Baria made a very shallow, short cut in the skin over Kate's collar bone. She continued to make small shallow cuts over Kate's neck and shoulders. When this failed to elicit a response from Kate, she moved around to the side and drew the blade across the top of her leg, just above the knee, making this cut deeper and longer than the others. She made more cuts parallel to this one, and matching ones on Kate's other leg. When Kate finally began to shift in the chair, in a vain effort to pull away from the blade, Baria stopped for a moment, and turned back to the camera, "I'm sure by now you're all wondering who this poor woman is, and what she has to do with you aren't you? I'll show you, but that is all you get for now, when I am sure that you have seen this video I will send a messenger with my next instructions."
Baria moved behind the chair once again and grasped the top of the bag that was covering Kate's head. As she pulled the bag up and off, revealing Kate's face, she pulled the knife back, and sank it into Kate's lower back on the left side. Kate slumped forward and Baria walked around to the camera and shut it off before turning back to her victim. Kate struggled to pay attention to what "The blade was short, and did not pierce any vital organs…" Kate knew Baria was still talking, but her words were no longer making any sense, and the room was starting to spin. The last thing that Kate heard was, "He will suffer," and then she let the welcoming blackness claim her.