I hope my last chapter caught everyone off guard. I think it's easy to forget what Ziva's been through. She and Tony have overcome so much to be where they are now.
Shmeil provided them with a phone number to reach Adam. Ziva called him from the couch in the front room. She sat between Tony's legs, with his arms protectively wrapped around her waist. He argued that he should be close enough to hear Adam's words on the other end of the line. She didn't protest. Tony's impulse to hold her while she made this difficult call was one of the many qualities she loved about him.
Adam was unaware that Ziva knew the truth of what he'd done to her. As far as he knew, she was still oblivious, and thought of him as a loyal friend whom she turned to for help. Ziva's goal was to set up a meeting. She would improvise, and go with what Adam gave from his end. She would play to his ego. She called from her personal cell phone so her name would show up on his caller ID.
"Ziva?" Adam answered.
"Hi Adam." Ziva spoke brightly. She was a great actress when she needed to be.
"Why are you calling me?" he asked suspiciously. He was on a burner cell that she shouldn't have the number for.
Ziva played it perfectly. She let out a sigh so heavy that Adam could to hear it on his end of the line. "Shmeil found your number for me. It has not been easy lately. I am going through a tough time. I killed Bodner. I could not let it go without getting my revenge against him." She fake confessed to him. "His death was supposed to end that chapter and make everything right again. Instead, I ruined my life."
"I heard that he was dead." Adam relaxed, believing that Ziva had called him as a friend. Her act completely convinced him that she didn't know any of his true roles.
"They fired me from NCIS." She lied. "I am sorry to call you out of the blue, but you have always been there for me, especially after my father died. I guess I was just hoping that I could see you. I need a friend. I can come to you. I do not have a job anymore. There is nowhere I need to be." She let herself sound needy, and a bit desperate.
Tony smiled. Ziva was great at this. He held her tighter. She clasped her free hand over his and gave it a squeeze.
Adam's ego would to be the death of him. His voice took on a soothing tone. "Of course Ziva. I'm always here for you. I'm actually in the US. And I'll be in D.C. later this week. We could have dinner." He offered.
"That would be perfect. Thank you Adam. I have nobody else." Ziva sold it. She let herself play the damsel in distress. Not to the point that Adam would know she was faking, but just enough to sound truly vulnerable.
"What about your friends? You and Tony seemed close." Adam fished for information.
"I was fired from NCIS. None of them want anything to do with me. I thought they were my friends. Tony will not even return my calls." She said sadly with another sigh. As she spoke she intertwined her fingers with Tony's and pressed her body back into his.
"Well I'm going to be there for you. I'll call you when I get to D.C. I should be there on Thursday."
"Where are you now?" she asked wishfully. Ziva let a hint of need creep into her voice, as if she longed to see him so badly that she couldn't wait.
"Unfortunately, not close to D.C. Just a quick business trip. I'll plan on seeing you on Thursday for dinner. Maybe a movie afterwards?"
"I cannot wait." Ziva spoke with grateful enthusiasm, but the smile that played up on the corners of her mouth was Machiavellian. She ended the call. "It was not all a lie." She spoke coyly to Tony as she relaxed back into his arms. "I truly cannot wait to see him."
Tony and Ziva's next call was to Gibbs. It was brief, but what conversation with Gibbs wasn't short? Tony spoke to him.
"Hi Boss. We have something. We're heading back to D.C. today. We'll come directly to your place."
"Okay." And Gibbs hung up.
They didn't waste time. They closed up the house, hoping to be back as soon as possible, and drove back to D.C. They went directly to meet Gibbs.
They stood in his basement. "So, what's up?" Gibbs tried to add a confident voice to the difficult situation.
"Boss, how much do you know about Adam Eshel?" Tony asked.
"Less than the two of you, but more than you think I do. I know what happened when Ziva was in Israel."
"Do they all know?" Ziva asked, referring the rest of the NCIS team. Her stomach tied into a knot and squeezed tight. She didn't want anyone else to know that she'd been with him.
"No. Just me." He assured her.
"Adam is a pathetic excuse for a man." Tony spat out. "And what happened in Israel was that he drugged and raped her."
Gibbs ground his teeth as Tony and Ziva explained what they knew. Ziva told him what she had already arranged for Thursday. She outlined her plan. It was simple: get him back to his hotel, and then do whatever was needed to get the name out of him. She also mentioned that Adam would be leaving the room in a body bag.
Gibbs listened. "You two go home. I have some calls to make."
Tony brought Ziva to his place. They entered to find the remnants of a bed frame and old mattress littering his main room.
"Dammit." Tony swore. "They were supposed to take this away. I paid them for it."
"Why is there a disassembled bed in your apartment?" Ziva asked.
"I hoped you'd stay over some nights. As much as I love to snuggle with you, it would be quaint on my twin bed. I ordered us a king."
Ziva turned to Tony and smiled. How did this man, whom she knew so well, continue to surprise her?
Gibbs called Captain Wayne. They set up a meet with Leon Vance and Tom Morrow. They met that evening in a public park. Just four men having a casual conversation over coffee at a park bench. It wasn't likely that any passing civilians would choose to sit neat them while they talked. They were an intimidating sight.
Gibbs gave the men a quick run down of the new information. He didn't tell them what Adam had done to Ziva that night in Israel. They didn't need to know, and Gibbs had no intention of violating Ziva further by telling a single person more than absolutely necessary. Adam was involved in helping both Bodner and the mystery man they were all searching for. Even if he hadn't hurt Ziva, he'd still be a criminal for his other actions.
"Why won't the CIA just give us the name of this fucker?" Vance let the obscenity slip from his tongue.
"Trust me, I've asked." Morrow added. "It's the CIA, and they're always up to something. And don't forget how the Attorney General and Inspector General have their hands in the cookie jar too. Plausible deniability? Who knows, but we're not getting any help on this."
"Eshel has the name we need." Gibbs summed it all up.
"We're searching for him. The guy's good. He's a god damn ghost." Tom Morrow told him.
"My people have already contacted him. He'll be in D.C. on Thursday. Ziva has dinner plans with him."
Morrow looked back at Gibbs with shock. He was impressed.
Vance spoke. "I assume Ziva is planning to get the name. Smart: she'll meet him, go back to wherever he's staying, and take him down in the privacy of the room. That bastard will probably even hang the 'do not disturb' sign on the door." Vance knew what had happened between Ziva and Adam in Israel. It was in Parson's investigation file. His reference was subtle enough that none of the other men questioned it. Ziva was beautiful, and it was a given that Adam would want to sleep with her.
"Eshel is a hunted man. The entire alphabet soup is after him, minus the CIA, and we're nothing compared to what foreign agencies are on his trail. We need him taken out after we get that name. Can your girl do that?"
Gibbs looked Morrow dead in the eye. "The only problem would be if you needed him alive. Dead, yeah we can do that." Gibbs assured him.
Gibbs grabbed Vance and pulled him aside as the men dispersed. "Adam drugged her in Israel. It was rape." Vance was one of the people who needed to know. "I should also give you a heads up that Tony and Ziva are together."
"Perfect." Vance replied with a smile, shocking Gibbs. "That way when I get them back to NCIS they'll already be a couple. It's a lot less paperwork when the relationship doesn't start when they'r my employees." He grinned at Gibbs and patted him on the shoulder. "And honestly, it's about damn time for those two."
"That's exactly what I said." Gibbs said with a laugh.
Tony and Ziva discussed their options. They argued about it for hours. Well, Tony argued while Ziva reasoned with him. Tony hated every possible scenario. The simple fact was that Ziva was right. She had to go meet Adam alone. She had to play him and get him to bring her back to his hotel room. They needed the name from Adam. They couldn't simply ambush him at the restaurant and take him into some official custody. The name would need to be coaxed out of him. Adam would take her back to his room and probably look forward to getting laid. And Ziva made it very clear to Tony that she needed to settle this score. She wanted to kill him, and it wasn't up for discussion.
"What if he drugs you again?" Tony argued.
"He will not do that. You know that is not a concern."
"Well excuse me for having no faith in the integrity of that asshole." He dripped sarcasm.
"He has no integrity. What he has is a large ego. Adam needed it to happen that night is Israel. He could not take the chance that I would refuse him. But he has always been arrogant. He thinks I want to be with him. And I will play my part and make him believe that I do. I need this Tony. I need to kill him myself. I need this closure. I never got it in Somalia. He dies by my hand."
Tony wanted to scream. He'd happily tie her up and knock her out while he went and killed the bastard. But, he knew her. She had to kill him herself. She'd never forgive Tony if he took that away from her. He had to let his reason for waking up each morning draw one last card. She'd been recklessly betting with her life for too long, but now she also bet with his. If she died he'd likely run into the darkness after her. Otherwise, he'd be Gibbs, building boat after boat in his basement in desolation. And he didn't even have a basement.
"Ziva, I don't have a basement!" he blurted out to her.
"What?" She almost laughed at his absurd words.
"Z, if anything happens to you, I'm Gibbs. You're it for me. And I don't have a basement to build a boat."
"Tony, you know I need this."
"I know. And I'm going to help you. But please keep in mind," he held her at arms length to speak to her, "that if anything happens to you I'm going to need to need to get a basement. Those things flood. And wood is…hard." That was really all he knew about wood. He tucked her back into his neck and the sound of her light laughter made him love her even more. Fuck, he thought. One last card and he'd fold his hand forever. "You are the one thing I can't live without." He whispered to her.