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ARUNDEL MILLS SHOPPING MALL
OUTSIDE MOVIE THEATRE
1930 ZULU
Ziva took a look around at her surroundings. The shopping centre was packed full of young school kids and their families, just waiting for the 1945 session to start. Looking over at the wooden seat near a wishing fountain she spotted Gibbs. He was waring casual clothing and sat reading the paper. Tony was standing over by the pop corn stand, acting as though he was waiting for the the next movie session to be allowed in. Abby was pretending to do window shopping, while McGee was sitting outside in an unmarked van, his job was to view the many surveillance camera's that were set up throughout the centre and follow every move of Ziva's tracker.
He was now ten minutes late and Ziva was starting to panic, but finally she saw them. Rhani, Ali and Hymat were weaving in and out of the mass of shoppers. Coming to a halt approximately 15 meters away from her, and standing in between them was Ahelia, her bottom lip was quivering and her face was bruised near the temple and check bone. Ali and Hymat were holding her tightly by the arms. Ziva new that they were hurting her as evey now and then she would close her eyes and flinch every time they pushed and pulled her, as people darted around and between them.
Ahelia wanted to cry when she finally saw her mother. "Ima," she yelled, but quietened down quickly when Hymat tightened his grasp on her small fore arm.
Walking slowly towards her daughter she gave Gibbs a small smile and an inconspicuous nod of her head before continuing on. Coming to stand in front of the group she crouched down in front of her daughter. "Ima!" Ahelia mumbled.
"I'm so sorry baby," Ziva said as she bent over to hug her daughter. She whispered in Ahelia's ear, "there is a man sitting on the wooden chair near the wish pond, he will be watching you for a while ok, just until I can come back."
"Your not coming with me?" asked Ahelia as tears started to form in her eyes.
"Not right away, but I love you, just know that ok? No matter what happens, I will always love you," she didn't get to say anymore as Rhani grabbed her roughly by her arm and pulled her to her feet.
"Get out of here Ahelia," Rhani growled as he pushed her with great force into the crowed of people that had just exited the packed cinemas. Ziva didn't even get a chance to make sure that Ahelia had made it to Gibbs, as she was already being dragged away.
"Ima? Ima?" Ahelia was crying now, she could no longer see her mother, and she had no idea where this man, that she was supposed to find was. From her vantage point all she could see were swarms and swarms of people. "Ima?" she called again but this time two strong arms scooped her up into a tight hug, her first instinct was to fight as who ever had her was a stranger, so she kicked and punched with as much force as she could.
"Ahelia, it's alright, I'm your mothers friend," Gibbs repeated this over and over again until she finally settled down. "This lady here is Abby, she is another friend of your mothers, ok? Were going to get your ima now," he passed Ahelia over to Abby.
"Promise?" she looked at him with hope in her beautiful violet eyes.
"Promise," he said, then he and Tony started to head in the direction that McGee was telling them to go.
They pushed and shoved their way through the crowd, "McGee we have lost visual," Gibbs stated into his wrist as he scanned his surroundings.
"They took a left and are heading towards the south side exit boss," McGee's voice sounded over their ear wigs.
"Where McGee?" barked Gibbs a few minutes later.
"I don't have a visual on any camera's, but they have turned around and are headed back in your direction. They are walking past you right . . . . . . . now!"
"NCIS FREEZE!" Gibbs bellowed, as he and Tony pointed their weapons at a man that McGee had informed them was carrying the tracker.
The man put his hands on his head, "I haven't done anything wrong," he stated as Tony grabbed his arms from his head and cuffed them behind his back.
"Ahh boss," Tony signaled Gibbs. "They ditched us," he said as he pointed to the tiny tracking sticker that was now attached to the back of the mans jacket.
"Question him Tony!" Gibbs yelled as he bolted towards the exit, flew through the electronic sliding doors, just in time to watch the same blue Jaguar that had been seen picking Rhani and his goons up at the airport, speed out of the parking lot. Running through the mass of parked cars and out on to the middle of the road, Gibbs aimed his weapon and fired, taking out the back left hand side wheel. The car finally screeched to a halt and the occupants jumped out aiming their own weapons at him.
Ducking behind a parked vehicle he had to be careful where he aimed, as Rhani would no doubt try to use Ziva as a human shield. He sat patiently as a volley of bullets impacted the side of the car that he had taken cover behind. When the weapons fire ceased he crept from his hiding spot, only to see them pull the occupant of another vehicle out of her car and confiscated it. Rhani and two of the men were already climbing inside. The forth man was loading something into the boot of the newly stolen car. Gibbs knew exactly what it was when he saw long chocolate curls being pushed in just before he closed it. Taking careful aim Gibbs squeezed the trigger on his weapon, and with a bang the man clutched at his shoulder. Spinning around he started to stagger towards the rear drivers side door, but lost his balance and he tumbled into on coming traffic. With a squeal of rubber tyres and the sounds of a thud and braking glass, he finally came to rest on the foot path, he was dead. Gibbs' eyes left the man that had just been hit by the car only to realise that the vehicle that had held Ziva in, was now gone.
He was angry with himself for loosing Ziva, he was angry that the man that he was going to take in for questioning had gone and gotten himself killed. And now he had to explain to a nine year old that he had failed to keep his promise to both her and her mother. Clenching his hand into a tight fist he swung his arm and impacted the glass window of the vehicle, that he had been hiding behind. The throbbing pain that coursed through his hand gave him very little relief from the guilt that had now settled upon him.
Ten minutes later he sat beside the deceased body waiting for Ducky and the rest of his team to show up. Tony was first, "that man that had Ziva's tracker has been cleared boss. I showed him a picture and apparently Rhani had patted him on the back, saying that he had something on his shirt and was just getting it off for him."
"Hey boss man," Abby said quietly as she held Ahelia's tiny hand in hers.
"Where is my ima?" she questioned softly as her eyes never left the body lying in front of her.
"Don't look at that Ahelia," Gibbs said as he turned her around to face the other direction.
"Where is my ima?" she demanded.
"They took her but we will get her back, ok?" Gibbs stated, and she just nodded her head as he brushed away a few tears that had trickled down her cheeks with his thumb.
"Can you tell us anything about where you were being held?" Tony questioned.
"Your strangers, how do I know I can trust you," her answer made Gibbs smile.
"This man here is Special Agent Anthony DiNozzo, but call him Tony or DiNozzo," Gibbs introduced him as they all pulled out their badges and showed her.
"Your the one that likes to tease my Ima!" Tony just nodded as he shook the little girls hand.
"Hello I'm Special Agent Timothy McGee," Tim said as he tweaked her nose causing her to giggle softly.
"I'm Special Agent Gibbs," Jethro introduced himself.
"I know you, my ima is always talking about you," stated Ahelia innocently, causing Gibbs to smirk and the others to laugh.
Ducky headed over to the group that was huddled around Ahelia. "Hello my dear, my name is Ducky, " Ducky said as he started to check the young girl over for injuries. "Well you look to be perfectly healthy, just a little dirty and that bruise on your face is a nasty one but it will heal in time." Ducky said as he gave her a pat on her shoulder before heading over to the deceased.
"They kept me in an old warehouse and that mans name is Abdeel," she whispered as she twirled a chocolate curl around her finger, her head occasionally peaking over Gibbs' shoulder to look at the dead man.
"You know who he is?" Gibbs questioned and she just nodded.
"They called him Abdeel in the car, but I had heard them talking about him when I was hiding from the bad men."
"What did they say?" She was hesitant at first but if her mother trusted them so could she.
"They said that he had burnt his hands when he mixed," she scratched her head as her face contorted as though she was thinking, "hydrogen per, per."
"Hydrogen peroxide?" Abby suggested.
"Yeah hydrogen peroxide and acetone, I'll always remember that one as it's in nail polish. Apparently it sparked when he pressed them together and he got burnt. I don't know how you can press two liquids together though."
"Can you remember anything else?" Gibbs asked.
"One of them said that the first two will be ready in less then 24 hours, but they wont ship them until they have five, but I don't know what it is they are shipping out," she shrugged her shoulders, she didn't know why nail polish was so important.
"I'm taking Ahelia back to mine, she needs to get cleaned up, have a decent meal and some rest. I'll be in early tomorrow morning. Tony can you put a BOLO out on a red ford sedan license plate number Yankee, Whisky, Delta 091." Tony nodded as Gibbs walked over to the ME, "Ducky?"
"Yes well, it was definitely the impact of the car that caused his death. It looks as though a piece of glass severed his arteria carotis interna," Gibbs gave him questioning look, "the internal carotid artery Jethro. Any way his hands seem to have second and third degree burns, but I wont be able to confirm how until we get him back to autopsy I'm afraid," the Scottish man replied.
"Ahelia said that he burnt them combining hydrogen peroxide and acetone," Gibbs stated as he crouched down and looked at the damage to the mans hands.
"Now that you mention it, they do look like chemical burns." There was a pause, "what are you thinking Jethro?"
"This man was compressing Hydrogen peroxide and acetone Ducky," Gibbs scrubbed his hands over his face. "Their making god damn bombs!"
TBC
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