Thanks everyone for the comments and for reading ! My apologies for the huge delays; I completely forgot about this story until very recently… The story is already written and complete though; there is still one left to post after this one, and then it's over.

Chapter 8

"So, Probie, now you let the ladies rescue you?" exclaimed Tony as he entered the experimental facility where McGee had been taken by his kidnappers. Both McGee and Major Carter answered him with dark glares, before getting back to examining the various devices that had been at use in the clandestine laboratory.

As for Gibbs, who had just got here as well, he gave him a slap in the back of the head. "Why don't you leave McGee alone and do your job instead, DiNozzo?" He pointed at the suspects, who were handcuffed in the back of a corridor leading to the lab. Mr Murray, Ziva and Dr Jackson were keeping an eye on them: two men, and two women, who -according to O'Neill- all used to work for a governmental organization called the NID. "Those people could stay in our NCIS detention rooms until the Air Force can arrange an escort to their high-security facilities, why don't you and Ziva drive them there?" he said, making sure O'Neill had heard him.

The Colonel nodded, giving his silent agreement to the underlying message given by Gibbs to Tony: Interrogate them while we can.

"Got it, Boss," replied Tony.

Gibbs watched his senior field agent leave with Ziva, Dr Jackson and Mr Murray in tow. Both he and O'Neill hoped that they would be able to extract some information from these people before the Air Force could make up a story to cover for everything that had happened.

Gibbs was about to check what McGee and Carter had found when his cellphone rang. He frowned upon seeing the caller ID and almost didn't answer, but a gut feeling told him the timing of the call was not a simple coincidence.

"Gibbs," he said.

"Hey Boss," said Stan Burley's voice.

"What's up, Stan?" Gibbs appreciated Stan for many things. One of them was that he was not a man who gave calls without a purpose 'just to chat'.

"I... look, Boss, are you in DC? There is something you definitely need to see for yourself... "

"Now is not exactly the good time, Stan. I am in the middle of an investigation. What is it?"

"... I would really prefer for you to see but - oh, well, I suppose that you will understand what I mean if you talk to her. I'll put you through to her."

Gibbs was about to ask Stan to explain, but when he heard the voice at the end of the line, he became speechless.

McGee joined him just as he hung up. When he saw his boss's expression, the younger agent hesitated at first, but eventually started speaking. "Boss, Sam- I-I mean, Major Carter and I found something important. As expected, they had the entry device. What we hadn't expected was that there seems to be multiple -"

"-exit devices," completed Gibbs, at McGee's surprise.

"Well, hum, y-yes, exactly, Boss. How did you-"

"Because, McGee, I just got off the phone with Kate."

--- to be continued (only one chapter left !)

Note: For those who don't remember who Stan is, he was a former member of Gibbs's team (before Tony's time). He appears in the episode High Seas (Season 1, episode 6)