Ch. 5 Round Two

McGee was already at the parking lot when Ziva and Tony arrived. They were caught in traffic and therefore only had five minutes until they could go into Ziva's apartment. It was a small building, filled aminly with older people. Ziva liked it for its quiet. So much for that she thought.

"Are you guys okay?" were the first words out of McGee's mouth. His face was etched with worry.

"Yeah probie, we're fine." McGee was obviously relieved by there presence. He didn't like to let on, but he'd feel horrible if he somehow lost Tony or Ziva. He looked up to them both and they were a huge reason he enjoyd his job at NCIS.

"We should go up yes?" Ziva was impatient and wanted to get to Gibbs. He couldn't die for her mistakes.

Ziva's apartment was on the top of six floors at the end of the hall. The three of them drew their weapons when they reached the floor. they didn't know how it would help, but it gave them a little bit of security. Ziva examined every inch of her door for a trip wire or detonater before inserting her key. The clue Abdul left was evident as soon as the door swung open. It was a pile of C4 with a camera on top. Immediately McGee went to the camera with the laptop he had brought with him. There was always the chance he could trace the feed that Abdul was using to watch the door. A note was taped to the camera.

Press Play

Ziva noticed her television was left on and that there was an old vcr hooked up to it, left there by Abdul. Tony wasted no time in complying with the note's wishes.

The video flickered on, showing a cemetery with seemingly endless rows and hills of graves shining in the brilliant winter sunlight. Then it cut to a smiling Abdul.

"Hello NCIS. So nice to see you. I am sure you know where we are. This round is less of a riddle but more of an obstacle course if you will. A sort of live size Stratego. Only, you do not have to worry about running into any one. Only trip wires and bullets. You will not see me or my friends. The entire cemetery is wired, except of course a very specific route that I have chosen. Navigate through that route safely, with out tripping a wire or being shot by me or one of my friends, and the bombs are deactivated. Here is the catch. You have from when this video ends until seven o clock to get to the your boss. No, the bombs do not go off if you are late. They begin counting down. Then you have a choice: disarm the bomb at a central control switch or grab your boss. It is one or the other. If you chose your boss, you may or may not escape before the bomb detonates. If you do not, he comes with me and we play round three. Your last warning is, do not shoot me or you will all die." The screen went blank.

"How in the heck are we going to get though Arlington Cemetery in the dark without tripping a wire?" Tony yelled as the movie cut off.

"We can do it Tony, easy," replied McGee firmly.

"Please, share with the class," replied Tony, rubbing his tired eyes.

"Well, when I've been working on a personal project for a while. I've been experimenting with old sonar equipment. Basically, I've developed a system that shoot out sound frequencies silently and then recives them back. The pitch is too high to be heard of course, and I've never tested it on such a..."

" Does it work McGee?" Tony cut McGee off.

" Yes. When the sound waves return to the emitter, it creates a 3-D picture up to fifty feet."

"Good McGee. Go get it and grab your police armor as well. If this man is shooting at us, we cannot afford to be hit." Said Ziva. Tony just noticed that Ziva had left the room just before the video ended. She was fully decked out in what was her personal combat gear, courtesy of Mossad. It was all black, which fit the occasion. Her pants were cargo and she had two 9 millimeter Jericho 941 handguns strapped to each thigh. There was a combat knife at her back. She had two more hand guns strapped to her ribs, one of which being her NCIS issued Sig Sauer. She had knives hidden on her wrists as well as around the rest of her body. The final piece was an efficient looking bullet proof vest.

"Going to war Ziva?" stated Tony, slightly in awe of her combat gear.

"I will not let myself or those around me get hurt Tony. We are wasting time here. Do you have any combat gear?"

" Uh, yeah, I've got some riot gear from when I work Baltimore PD."

"Then let us go."