12. The Gibbs Says Uncle Affair

Part 1. McGee

While Ziva and Tony had been watching the ODU basketball game, and before Tony and Gibbs had talked with Sykes (AKA, although not to them, Napoleon Solo) the next morning, Agent Timothy McGee had spent the evening driving back to Washington DC with his cargo of material for Abby.

Under normal circumstances, they could have put all the information into a box and sent it air express, but they'd missed the last Air Express deadline that evening, and besides, with the preciousness of this particular cargo, it was best if he never let it out of his sight, anyway. Air Express had never lost one of their shipments yet, but this was no time to give them the opportunity to ruin their perfect record.

McGee liked to drive, especially when he was all alone with no clever quips from Tony, and no wincing from Ziva as she applied invisible brakes. Who was she to get nervous at the way he drove?

As the miles passed by, his mind began to wander. At first he'd been thinking about what could possibly have happened to Ducky…but then he started thinking about what could possibly have happened to a character named Ronald Drallam, who checked into a hotel room during an important scientific conference and then disappeared from a locked room.

McGee's hand began to move toward chest pocket where he kept his digital recorder. Then he stopped, clenched it into a fist. Jesus! Ducky had been kidnapped, and God knew what was happening to him right at this very minute. They…whoever they were, could be torturing him right this very second.

Sure, the note attached to that cassette tape had not promised torture, and since they had been ordered to look for somebody named Ilya Kuryakin, there'd be no need to torture him… he probably wasn't being tortured.

McGee grinned as he replayed that tape in his mind. Ducky had demanded that they upgrade his menu, and they'd complied…good old Ducky. British stiff upper lip as usual. Then his grin faded. The note from the bad guys had been very clear, though. If they didn't find this Kuryakin fellow, Ducky was doomed…

He couldn't use that plot in a book anyway, McGee thought. His readers would never believe that a man could have an exact double. That worked fine in TV shows, when some narcissistic actor wanted to show off his acting chops by portraying two different characters at the same time, like in Double Impact with Jean-Claude van Damme, or …or….that could be it, thought McGee. Not some accidental double, but a twin brother… that could be plausible…every young toddler of an actor on TV was actually played by identical twins… people would accept that.

McGee actually managed a smile. What a hoot it would be if Ducky actually had a twin brother…and that's who this Kuryakin guy was…

Not that that could be possible, his thought process continued. After all, Ducky was English and Kuryakin…that was a Russian name if he'd ever heard one…

But Ronald Drallam, now. He would have a twin brother…and one would be genius scientist and the other would be some schmuck who worked a 9 to 5 job, but who'd have to pretend to be his brother…

McGee took out the digital recorder and began brainstorming out loud.

Part II. McGee and Abby

As McGee (and indeed, the rest of the NCIS team) had suspected, Abby had never left the office that night. When McGee walked into her lab at 2 am that morning (the morning during which Gibbs and Tony interviewed Sykes (AKA Napoleon Solo), she was there, surfing the web. A sleeping bag on the floor indicated that she'd intended to try to get some sleep while she waited for him to arrive, but she had been too keyed up to do so.

McGee put the box down and Abby hugged him tightly.

"Don't worry, Abby," McGee said. "We're going to find him."

"In 48 hours," Abby said, nodding. "I've been trying to hack into the KGB's computers for the last four hours, with no luck."

McGee's eyes widened. "Not the KGB!"

"Why not?" demanded Abby, her hoarse voice rising. "He's got to be KGB or GNU or something like that, doesn't he, this Kuryakin guy?"

"GRU," McGee murmured.

"GRU," repeated Abby. "Anyway, no luck yet. Don't worry, I've been careful."

"Yes. Well, let's get to work on all this stuff," he opened the lid of the box, "and see what it tells us."

Abby snapped on her white gloves and tensed her fingers into fists. "Right, McGee. Let's get started."