A/N- Here's the next chapter - hope you enjoy! If you do, please R,MMD,&R (Read, Make My Day, and Review)! Big thanks to all new alerters, favoriters, and reviewers - well, not just the new ones, big thanks to ALL of you - each and every review is greatly appreciated and puts a smile on my face.
A/N2- I know NOTHING about bombs, making them, placing them, exploding them - NOTHING. And I'm not about to look that kind of stuff up on the internet, cuz I don't want any law enforcement agencies thinking I'm a danger to national security (Hello, agencies! Appreciate all your hard work, keeping this wonderful country safe!).
DISCLAIMER- Own nothing, get nothing from no one, nowhere, no how.
WELL-SCHOOLED IN MURDER
CHAPTER 7
Team Gibbs (minus McGee, who was sent to bring in the Admiral), Tobias Fornell, and Col. Ferragamo went to the FBI's bomb squad truck, where the leader was putting video from inside the school up on a monitor. "Whadda' we got, commander?" Gibbs barked.
"Well," the head of the unit sighed, "there's more than one bomb, and they all seem to be centered in and around the elevator area." He pulled up footage from the robot cam used in tight or dangerous places. "You see here, there's a whole line of them going up the inside of the shaft."
Ziva stepped closer for a better look. "They are all pipe bombs, yes? Easy to dismantle."
"Yeah, you'd think so, wouldn't you?" The leader pulled up more footage, this with what looked like a fuse or power box. "Most of those pipe bombs are just that - regular, ol' pipe bombs. But there are three that are attached to other, more…..elaborate, for lack of a better word…. incendiary devices." He pointed to wires sticking out every which way. "The good news is, the devices are all placed so that the only real building damage will be centered in the immediate elevator area. There should be minimal or no damage anywhere else in the building."
Tony was incredulous. "There's three little kids and a teacher in the elevator, how is that good news?" He shook off the hand Gibbs placed on his shoulder to calm him down. He knew he had to keep his cool. He was trying.
Every member of the bomb squad present looked down or away, knowing what was coming next. And it wasn't good. "Unfortunately…that's the only good news there is." He pulls up more video. "This is looking down onto the elevator from the floor above."
Ziva squinted, trying to make out the pieces. "There is no timer, no wires…it is directly on the pulley….that is that new clay, is it not?" The squad leader nodded. Ziva turned to Gibbs.
"What's it mean, Ziver?"
"There is a new form of incendiary clay, much like C-4. Only…."
"Only?" Fornell asked.
Ziva was very concerned. "It has no timer, no wires, no ignition switch. The clay is it's own bomb. It is ignited by temperature change. When it reaches a certain degree of heat….."
"It explodes." Gibbs frowned.
"Placing it on the pulley….if the elevator moves up or down, heat will be conducted through the pulley," Ziva continued quietly, "causing the clay to ignite."
Tony followed the logic. "So the heat from the pulley ignites the clay, it goes off, it incinerates the pulleys….."
"And the elevator drops like a ton of bricks," Gibbs concludes, thinking of ways to get the kids and the teacher out without having to move the elevator mechanically.
The squad leader cleared his throat. "You haven't seen the worst of it." The video changes to the underside of the elevator. There are gasps all around.
"Are those…." Tony began, unbelievingly.
"Pressure plates," the squad leader finished. "There's 3 attached to the bottom of the elevator itself. The weight of the compartment changes…."
Fornell frowned in concern. "Boom," he said quietly.
Tony looked on the bright side. "Ok… you go in and dismantle the plates, we get everyone out…what do you mean, 'no'?" he asked when the squad leader shook his head.
Squad leader pointed to some wires on the center plate. "See these here? They go to the operation box." At everyone's confused look, he says, "The operation box in the elevator. If this plate is disabled…..it triggers a short in the operation box, which causes a spark….."
"…..which creates heat, which in turn ignites the clay," Ziva said matter of factly. "Disarm one…."
"It triggers one of the others," said the squad leader. "To keep any of the devices from firing, every single one would have to be disarmed at the same time."
Gibbs turned away in disbelief and frustration, running a hand over his face as he turned back. "Chances of that happening?" He grimaced at the raised eyebrow the squad leader gave him. "Thought so. Who we looking at, Commander? What kind of guy does this kind of thing?"
The squad commander thought for a moment. "Actually, taken individually, each different device is simple. Easy to make. Might have to do a lot of work to get some of the material, especially this new clay, but other than that, it's pretty much Bomb Making 101."
"So the person is not as experienced with incendiaries as he's leading us to believe," Ziva concluded.
"That's my thinking, yes," said the squad leader. "The placement, the wiring….. All points to overkill. This is someone who is more about making a statement. Damage confined to one area, devices overdone…..I'd guess that more than one of those devices isn't actually armed. But, since we can't get all the way in there to check, we have to treat it as one hundred percent live artillery."
"So you're saying that the kids trapped in the elevator….."
The commander bowed his head. Sometimes he hated his job. "There's the very real possibility that….they won't make it out of that elevator alive."
Gibbs looked at Col. Ferragamo. A trained marine, Ferragamo knew how to hide his emotions, but one agonized father could read the signs of another agonized father. Tony's emotions, on the other hand, were plain as day on his face. Anger, anxiety, fear, sadness…. He put a hand on Tony's elbow and pulled him away from the group a few feet. "Do not fall apart on me now, DiNozzo," he ordered, giving the SFA a small shake.
Tony looked up at his mentor, begging him to tell him what to do. "What do we tell Gracie, boss?" he worried.
Looking back at the school, where just about everyone was now gone, Gibbs answered, "nothing."
"Nothing?" Tony couldn't believe Gibbs would say something like that. "So, what? I'm supposed to sit there on the phone with her and her kids, singing songs, acting like everything's fine, when I'm really just waiting for them to explode?"
Gibbs got in Tony's face. "'Ey!" he all but shouted. "You ever known me to leave a man behind?" His blue eyes pierced into Tony's green ones.
"No, boss."
"Well I won't now, either," he nodded once, still holding Tony with that steely gaze, until he could see the younger man believed it. "Don't say anything about the bombs, when they're getting out…. Nothing. Understand?"
"But boss…they've already been in there almost 4 hours…..the kids are already hungry, and getting more restless by the minute. Not to mention any health issues going on."
Gibbs raised an eyebrow. "You not confident in your new girlfriend's abilities as a teacher now, DiNozzo?" he teased lightly.
"Of course I am," Tony stated. "It's just…she can only take so much too…." Realizing the most important part, he muttered, "and she's not my girlfriend." When Gibbs just smiled, he added, "yet."
Hands on Tony's shoulders, Gibbs gave them a squeeze. "Look. Just go over there and do what you do best….."
"But there are little kids, boss!….."
WHAP! "Talk, you idiot, waste time!"
Tony rubbed the back of his head. "Oh, the other thing I do best….gotcha.' On it, boss," he said as he turned and walked toward the command center truck.
Gibbs rolled his eyes and shook his head. Kids. He was about to walk back to the bomb squad truck when Ziva rushed up to him, the principal close behind.
"Gibbs! There has been contact from the bomber….."
Gibbs took a deep breath and let it out slowly, trying to stay calm. "Let's hear it, David."
********************NCIS**********NCIS********************
A/N - Short I know, but now I have to think how to get Gracie and the kids out of the elevator! Any ideas?
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