In chapter 7, I have a little exercise for you, guys. Don't worry, you don't have to actually do them to continue with this story. I will give you the answers in the chapters, but I'm curious about, who will try my exercise.

Until then, enjoy the new chapter :)

I don't own anything. The characters belong to CBS.

Chapter 6

"This man is good. He knows how to hide his location," Nell explained, while she typed something on the keyboard "It took us a while to find something useful."

The image of the shadow man appeared on the big screen of MTAC, but they didn't play the video. Gibbs hoped they would know how hard it would be for him to watch it again.

"He never puts his face into the light. The room is dark. Apparently, he closed all louvers. You can say a lot about this guy, but he is clever," Eric said.

"Could we please stop acknowledging the cleverness of this bastard?!" asked Gibbs angry "This guy is a psychopath and he has my team! I don't even know if he works alone, or if there is a group of psychopaths out there! Nonetheless, there is nothing to applaud to!"

"You're right. I apologize, Agent Gibbs."

For a second, Gibbs thought about telling him not to apologize, but he was too exhausted to explain his rules to this boy. He knew he overreacted, but it had sounded like he would be a fan of the shadow man. So instead of a lecture, he gave him a small nod, and Eric carried on.

"Even when he walks to another room, which has to be on the same level because we never see stairs, we never see anything that could help us identify where the house is."

"I'm still waiting for the part, where you tell me that you found the house. All I hear is `we have no clue´," Gibbs sighed.

"That's the best part, Agent Gibbs," Nell explained "We couldn't find the house because of the images. We found it because of the connection. It took us some time to analyze the data. This guy has to have some knowledge of technologies. Otherwise, he couldn't have done this."

"Or he has a partner."

"Or he has a partner. We don't know the answer to this riddle, but we were able to trace the video call to this place."

The excited woman opened the map of Washington, where they saw a small bungalow.

"This is where the signal came from. It's a house in Annandale."

"How long until we arrive?" asked Gibbs, while his fingers tapped on the steering wheel.

"We should be there any minute."

"Where is the other car?"

"I lost them a few minutes ago, but I got a message from Detective Deeks. They are not far away."

"Then why can't I see them?"

"Because you drive as if the devil is after you?"

"No Pride, he is in front of me, waiting, and I will shoot him if he hurts one of my agents."

"There is the house."

Gibbs almost jumped out of the car, as soon as they reached the building. He pulled his gun and walked over to the house. The ex-marine wouldn't waste any more time. Pride, Chris, and Brody were right behind him.

"Shouldn't we wait for Agent Callen and his team?" whispered Brody.

"If he is in there, he has already seen us, and I won't give him the chance to kill my team. I go in with or without you."

The two younger agents looked at each other insecure before they followed the older ones. They understood Gibbs' intention, but the right way would be to wait for back-up. Pride told them to cover the back door, while the ex-marine and he would go in through the front.

At this moment, the car from the LA-team arrived. Gibbs noticed them, then he crushed the door. He couldn't wait.

"NCIS!"

Only seconds later, they heard Brody and Chris yelling the same. Surprised the NCIS-agents searched every room, but there was no one shooting at them or running away. The house was empty. No kidnappers and no team. Gibbs' family was gone.

Frustrated Gibbs sat on a big stone and watched how the people of forensic went through the house. Even the LA- and NOLA-team helped, but Gibbs couldn't. He knew that he should, but it hurt too much to know that they had been in this house. If he only had found them earlier, then maybe he wouldn't have come too late. Wouldn't have failed them.

The team leader looked up when he saw Pride walking over to him. He wasn't wearing a happy face, so it couldn't be good news.

"Did you find anything?"

"We found blood. It's not much, but it is there. The lab will analyze it to tell us to who it belongs. Maybe we are lucky and one of the kidnappers left his own blood for us."

"If he is in the system, then we could be lucky, yes. Otherwise, we have nothing. Again."

"They will call you. I can feel it. They wouldn't go through the trouble to kidnap four NCIS-agents if they wouldn't call."

"I just hope that they are still alive."

"He won't kill them. At least not yet. He wants you to suffer. So he will let them die slowly."

"That's not calming me down, brother."

Softly Pride squeezed Gibbs' shoulder. He could only imagine how his friend was feeling.

"We are almost done here, then we can drive back to the Navy Yard. Do you want to wait here?"

"Yes, talk to Callen. I'm not going anywhere."

Pride hesitated for a second and watched his 'brother' skeptically. When Gibbs didn't move, he walked back to the house.

It was strange to be in Abby's lab without her. Gibbs leaned against the table, while he watched how Sebastian Lund, the forensic scientist from New Orleans, used Abby's keyboard. He and Dr. Loretta Wade had arrived this morning after Pride had called for help. They needed the best in Washington, and after the famous Miss Sciuto, Sebastian was a close second. Gibbs was thankful for the new support, but he didn't like the sight of this newbie at the working place of his little girl. Especially because he knew how much Abby cared for her lab. Gibbs wanted to tell him, that he should be careful, but instead, he pushed his fingernails into his palms and listened to Lund's babbling.

"… which is insane. I mean how am I supposed to get quick results? I'm alone down here and…"

"Sebastian, please. Just show us the pictures."

"Sure, sorry. So, these are your photos. They are pretty cool. Who made them?"

"Sebastian," Chris interrupted the forensic scientist.

"Right, here we have the first one. Does anyone want to say something?"

This time, Brody went towards the screen to give a short explanation.

"We still don't know with how many people we have to deal. Although, it looks as if only one man was sleeping there. We found one mattress, but I don't think that the house belongs to him. Maybe he noticed that it was empty and thought he could use it for his plan.

We took many fingerprints and hopefully, we can identify them with Sebastian's help. In the guest room, we didn't find many prints. The most of them were smeared, so we think that they are from our missing agents."

"Sadly, we found blood too," carried on Sam "It's not much, so none of them will die because of blood loss. Which is good if it belongs to our friends."

"I will work on the blood at first because this analysis will take a while. I assume that the blood from the missing agents is already in the computer, so… why is he looking at me like that?"

Everyone turned to Gibbs, who was still looking as if he was ready to kill Sebastian. Sighing Pride walked over to his friend and put his hand on Gibbs' shoulder to calm him.

"Brother, please, you need to relax. I know that you don't like having Sebastian here, but we need him. I promise that Abby will get her lab back just like she left it."

It took the team leader a few seconds before he could release his fists. He knew it was stupid, but he couldn't suppress the urge.

"Carry on."

"Alright, so I think that I will be able to give you some answers very soon."

"Those are good news, Sebastian. Maybe you can ask Loretta and Ducky to help you with all of this," Pride suggested.

"Thank you, Sir. I will."

"Good, now we should think about our next steps. What can we do?"

"It's still hard for me to believe that those four men are responsible for the kidnapping of four agents," Callen said "I mean we are not talking about some newbies. Agent DiNozzo and Agent McGee are good agents for years now. I don't believe that they would go down without a fight."

"They wouldn't. Neither would Bishop, although she is new, nor would Abby. I taught her how to fight, so she could… that she… she…"

"I'm sure she fought like hell, brother. I know her and she knows how to fight."

"My point is: we only know what happened to Agent Bishop, and her kidnappers refuse to talk. But what happened to the others? We need to reconstruct their last evening. Gibbs, you could talk to Nell and Eric. Maybe they can do some magic on the video to identify the man."

"And what am I supposed to do? Shall I watch them how they work, while I twirl my thumbs?"

"You can find out who is behind all of this and maybe this helps you to remember how many people are working with him."

"I would rather find out what happened to my team."

"You really want to SEE what happened to them?"

Gibbs thought about this a few seconds before he shook his head. No, he really didn't want to see that. He was already angry and as long as he could kill the kidnappers after he found them, he would be alright.

"I'll talk to Mr. Beale and Miss Jones."

Before someone else could say something, Gibbs pushed himself away from the table and left the lab. He had to get out of there before he would do something stupid, which he would regret later. After all, he was the one, who had called for help and now he acted like he didn't want them. This wasn't the right time to act stupid.

Well, he didn't actually twirl with his thumbs, but he drank a lot of coffee, while the computer geeks worked on the video. Gibbs didn't understand one word they were saying or doing and he had to admit that he felt helpless. He was running out of time and he was still not one step closer to finding his agents.

"Got it!"

Surprised Gibbs turned his attention to Eric. Did he really hear what he thought he heard? Eric's big smile gave him the answer. Immediately, he stood up and walked to the two geeks.

"Show me."

He heard how they were typing on their keyboards, then the dark silhouette of the man appeared on the big screen.

"I thought you got it. This is the same shadow face I saw two days ago."

"Wait a second. We are not done yet. What do you see now?" Eric wanted to know and pressed a new button.

Suddenly, the picture got brighter, so they were able to see the face of the shadow man.

"This… could be anyone! Damn, he is smarter than I thought!"

Angry the team leader left MTAC, while Nell and Eric stared at the screen.

"Agent Gibbs is right," Nell said sadly "This could be anyone."

The man from the video wore a mask!

At the squad room, Gibbs found the LA- and NOLA-team, which were all working. Either on the phone or on the computer. Pride stood in front of a board, which showed the timelines of Gibbs' missing agents. Bishop was the first one since they already knew what happened to her thanks to her husband. But the others were more difficult. Especially Abby's line was pretty empty. Kensi noticed Gibbs and saw his desperate face. Carefully, she went over to him.

"Don't worry, they are still alive."

"What makes you think that, Agent Blye?"

"Apparently, he knows that you would do anything for your team. He would be stupid if he would kill them before he could finish this game with you."

"He said he would call again. That was two days ago. Why isn't he calling?"

"He had to move them to a different location. I don't think he took them home, where his neighbors could get suspicious. He needed a new place."

"I just want them back."

"I know, we do our best to find them."

"I've got something!" Brody said.

Immediately, everyone turned to the plasma screen and listened to Brody's discovery.

"I couldn't understand why we weren't able to find anything on Miss Sciuto. So, I watched the cameras in this building to get the time of her departure. Look what I found."

Abby's lab appeared on the screen. The forensic scientist was working on her computer, and suddenly, Gibbs remembered.

"She wanted to work longer on some evidence, which she already had for days. She promised she wouldn't stay the whole night."

Two masked men entered the lab. Sadly, the video had no sound, so the agents could only see what happened four days ago. Strangely, they couldn't see any guns or weapons. Apparently, the kidnappers had thought that Abby wouldn't be a problem.

The forensic scientist noticed the intruders and tried to escape to her middle lab. She didn't come that far. The men grabbed her, and one of them had a washcloth in his hand. Gibbs didn't need to be a genius to know that it was full of chloroform. Suddenly, Abby got one arm free and gave the guy in front of her a heavy punch on the nose. Then she stepped on the foot of the second kidnapper on purpose, which allowed her to loosen the grip. Finally, she gave him a kick to his private area. At this point, all men in the squad room flinched. Everyone knew how painful such a kick could be.

"Nice punch and kick. She really knows to fight," Kensi said acknowledging "Did you show her this, Agent Gibbs?"

"I gave her some lectures and now I'm glad that I did."

Again, Abby tried to run away, but her kidnappers were quick. They caught her and this time, they blocked her attack. Instead, she took a punch to her stomach before the bloody nose guy pushed her head against the glass doors.

Gibbs gritted his teeth's when he saw how his little girl landed on the floor. Blood was running from the wound on her temple around her eye to her ear. He should have trained more with her. Why hadn't he taken the time?

Two other men appeared in the lab. They didn't wear any guns either just like their friends. They really must have thought that Abby would be an easy target. The four men talked – although it looked more like fighting – while Abby was regaining her strength. Carefully and as silent as possible, she used the distraction to sneak to her second lab. One man noticed her actions and grabbed her pigtails to pull her back. She landed on her butt, then Mister Bloody Nose was in front of her and gave her a hard punch to her face. This time, she didn't stand up. Helplessly Gibbs watched how one of the bastards threw his little girl over his shoulder and left the lab with his friends.

Brody stopped the video, and silence filled the room. Everyone turned their heads to the ex-marine, who was still staring at the screen as if it would show him a different ending.

Finally, Pride broke the uncomfortable silence.

"Alright, we know what happened to… Abby. Do we know which car they used?"

"No, but I can ask the guards, which cars left the Navy Yard at this time. Since it was in the middle of the night, I highly doubt that there were many," Kensi explained.

She looked at Gibbs for giving his approval, but his attention was still on the paused video. When he didn't move, Callen gave her the order to go.

"Chris, go down to Sebastian. I want you two to check the lab. Abby hit one of them pretty hard. And I'm pretty sure that I saw how some drops hit the floor. I can't believe that there are no signs of blood. "

"On it."

"And the rest of us works on the evenings of Agent DiNozzo and McGee," Callen said, "There are still some gaps to fill."

Angry Gibbs watched the interrogation from the other side of the window. Pride and Brody were in the room with the guy, whose nose was broken. It didn't take the team long to find the car from Abby's kidnappers, and the broken nose helped them to be certain. The idiots didn't even get rid of the treacherous car.

"Where is she, Paul?" Pride asked while he walked up and down behind the kidnapper.

Gibbs saw that his friend was close to killing the guy. His nerves were really thin. Pride wouldn't let their suspect get away.

"I don't know what you are talking about."

"Are you sure? Why don't you tell us what happened to your nose?" Brody continued the interrogation.

Obviously, she had noticed how close her boss was to kill this guy. They couldn't risk such an attack.

"I missed a lantern."

"You are a terrible liar, Paul. Shall I tell you what happened?"

"Sure, enlighten me, sunshine."

The guy was playing with his life. Not only that he made the older special agent angry, now he pushed his luck with Brody too. The female agent grabbed the remote control and started the little video from Abby's lab. Then she returned to the moment where Abby broke Paul's nose.

"This is my favorite part. Did you see this? Wait for it… there. Wonderful punch to the face. Do you want to see it again?"

"Are you done?"

This time, Paul sounded angry. It seemed as if Abby's little attack hurt his ego.

"Don't you like it? I could watch it the whole day. But let's move on. Let me tell you what happened. You and your friends sneaked into the Navy Yard and attacked this woman. Sadly for you, she fought back and broke your nose."

"I didn't kidnap her."

"Who said anything about kidnapping, Paul? I spoke about attacking."

Immediately, Paul shut his mouth, but he glared angrily at the female agent. He walked into her trap just like she had planned.

"But you're right. She was kidnapped, and we know that you and your friends did it."

"You can't prove that."

"Sure, we can. Remember the blow to your face? We found blood in the lab. Your blood. You left a few drops for us, and we compared them to your DNA."

"She bluffs."

Surprised Gibbs turned around. Ducky had entered the room without making a noise. Gibbs cursed himself that he stopped being careful. It was a bad sign when people could start sneaking up on him.

"I spoke to Dr. Wade. The cleaning stuff was faster than us. There was no blood left."

"But he doesn't know. Do you see how pale he became? He really believes that we can put him in jail."

"I want a deal," Paul said angrily.

"Tell us what you know, and we think about it. Where is the woman?"

"I don't know."

"Try again," Pride hissed in Paul's ear.

Mr. Broken Nose shrugged when the furious agent appeared right behind him.

"That's the truth. It was our job to kidnap her and to bring her to him. After that, we haven't seen him or her ever again."

"Who is he?"

"I don't know his name. I met him on the street. He said he has a job for my friends and me. All we had to do was to get the girl and when it was done, we should drive her to the woods. He waited for us. We got our money, and he got the girl. After that, we left, and I've never seen either one of them since. And that's the truth, man."