The team got into the car and sped away. Gibbs seemed to never take his foot off the gas as they maneuvered between other cars. The speed got higher and higher by the minute. The team cringed whenever another near miss came a little too near for their better liking. The music of car horns blowing seemed to never cease.
They reached their destination, an old abandoned warehouse in record time.
The building was very old and had probably not been in use for God knows how long period of time. It looked about ready to fall apart completely.
They got out of the government issue car and ran to the building. It wasn't big, so this made their search easier.
They sneaked in through the front entrance, having decided to make as little sound as possible. It turned out the warehouse only consisted of one big storage room. There were several big boxes in it, making it impossible to see the whole room at once.
If they would've looked at the room form above, they would've seen the maze the boxes created, and perhaps even a man slipping out through the back, where was a hole in the wall. He was carrying a little girl in his arms. But the agents didn't see either of those things.
Instead they split up to search for anyone who might've been there
Pretty soon they realized the room was empty. Ziva found a note taped to the far wall.
"Did you really think I was that stupid. It is a little disappointing. I knew you would trace the call. Rachel is okay. Cute girl, by the way. I left something of hers for you to keep. Something that would remind you of her during those long days without her to come. I'll call again soon, so we can continue the chase, it's just getting interesting."
Ziva felt anger and hatred flare inside her. For a moment she forgot everything else, she just wanted to catch that man and do… what? What would she want to do to him? She didn't even know what would be horrible enough.
She looked back at the letter. "Something of hers for you to keep." She glanced around to find anything that might be Rachel's. She didn't see anything.
She was just praying that it wasn't a part of her, like a finger of something, when she looked down to the floor. With those bastards one could never know. But there it was. In the dust before her feet lay a golden necklace. She pulled on a rubber glove and picked it up. It was definitely Rachel's. it was the exact copy of Ziva's own with only one difference. On the back of the star was a tiny engraving with Rachel's name and birthday. It had been Tony's present to her when she was born.
Ziva placed the necklace into an evidence bag, considering it evidence. Maybe there was something on it that would help them find Rachel.
Then she did the same with the note. She extracted it carefully from the wall, taking the pieces of sticky tape with it and bagged the piece of paper.
Suddenly she heard footsteps behind her. She spun around, drawing her gun from its holster and pointing it at the person who had sneaked up on her.
She relaxed a little when she realized it was only Gibbs. He headed over to her, holstering his own gun in the process.
"He's gone," he informed her, frustration clearly audible in his voice.
Ziva held out the letter for him to take. "I know."
Gibbs took the note from her outstretched hand. His face grew darker as he read the letter. "Bastard," he muttered.
Gibbs and Ziva both turned around suddenly, their guns drawn once more as they heard another pair of feet making sound behind them. They had both acted on instinct.
McGee's eyes widened considerably as he took in the weapons aimed at him. He put his hands up automatically. It took him a little time to see the people behind the guns. It was always like that for him. He saw the gun before he saw the person holding it.
"Hey," he greeted his teammates, his tone unsure. Both Gibbs and Ziva lowered their weapons with a sigh. Gibbs passed the note on to Tim.
They saw his eyebrows raise as he read the writing on the piece of paper. When he finished reading he looked up, clearly at a loss for words.
"We should get back to NCIS," Gibbs finally noted, breaking the silence.
Ziva and Tim complied, realizing there was no chance that Rachel was still there. They silently followed their boss out of the building to their car.
The ride back to NCIS was filled with a dead silence. The hopes that had arisen in all of them had been violently crushed by the failure at the warehouse.
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