The lights went out after McGee had made a few adjustments to the generator.
"Good work Probie," whispered Tony.
Then the alarms started to go off.
McGee was annoyed. "Sorry Tony, I thought I had disabled the alarm."
"Don't worry about it Probie, so long as the back up generators don't start up we will have time to do what we have to," said Tony.
McGee managed a smile. "It'll take a good engineer about an hour to get the backup generators started," he said.
"Shhhh! Guards coming," said Ziva quietly.
Four guards rounded the corner; they wore Army uniforms and carried automatic weapons. They entered the generator room and failed to notice the three NCIS agents hiding on either side of the door.
Ziva, with frightening swiftness, incapacitated two of the guards from behind. They fell to the ground. The remaining two turned, one was knocked unconscious by Tony who used the butt of his hand gun, the second fell to the ground as McGee griped his neck with his right hand.
Tony looked at McGee with surprise. "Neat trick," he said, failing to totally hide his admiration. "You'll have to show me how you did that."
McGee smiled shyly. "Pressure points. I have been taking lessons." He looked at Ziva who smiled at him.
They started stripping the uniforms off of the guards and putting them on then McGee & Ziva tied and gagged the guards whilst Tony kept look out at the door.
-----
Gibbs sat in the ready room adjacent to the portal room. As soon as the lights went out he moved swiftly and incapacitated one of the two guards watching over him the second drew his weapon and pointed it at Gibbs.
Shannon appeared beside the guard and appeared to whisper something into the guard's ear; he looked surprised and fell to the ground.
There was no hesitation, Gibbs armed himself. He thanked his wife for her help; she smiled and vanished again.
-----
The emergency lighting came on it the portal room. Ritzmann was visibly surprised to see Drake still standing in front of him.
"So what's happening?" asked Drake.
"I don't know," answered Ritzmann, rushing to a communications panel. He pushed a button "Security unit 4 report…" There was no reply.
Suddenly the emergency lighting dimmed and the huge electromagnets around the time portal hummed. The air seemed to shimmer within the giant ring. Ritzmann looked mystified.
"Where is the portal drawing its energy from?" he asked a technician.
The technician obviously close to panic checked his control panel and shook his head. "I have no idea sir. This is impossible."
Kelly appeared in front of the portal, she turned to Drake and smiled then walking forward, she vanished into time.
"Where was the portal linked to?" Ritzmann directed the question to another frantic technician
"I don't know sir, all of my controls are blank. According to my panel the portal is inactive…"
Ritzmann was confused and angry; turning to Drake he asked, "Who was the little girl?"
"Awww, now you're shaking my faith in you. I thought you knew everything." Drake was waiting for a signal.
"What has she gone to do?!" Ritzmann shouted.
The lighting brightened and the portal stopped humming. Drake smiled at Ritzmann and walked over to the ring. The lights dimmed again and again the portal hummed and Drake walked through and vanished.
Ritzmann knew that his only chance of finding out where the two activations went lay in the chair room. He picked up he antique revolver and rushed off to interrogate Darrel Ritter.
-----
Gibbs looked into the portal room, technicians rushed around trying to locate the cause or the power source for the two portal activations that had just occurred. He watched as Ritzmann rushed out of the room.
Two guards stood at the exit of the portal room. Gibbs walked out of the ready room and headed for the door. The guards looked and barred his way.
"Stand down." Gibbs commanded. The guards looked confused.
"Sorry sir you have no authority to give orders." the guard said, trying to sound like he was sure.
Gibbs smiled. "Capitan Ritzmann has a situation and he needs my help. Do you two think he will be very forgiving if you hold me here?"
"But sir…." The guard began.
"Stand down now!!" shouted Gibbs in his best gunnery sergeant voice. The guard stepped back in shock and allowed Gibbs to pass.
Gibbs stood and thought for a moment, then headed off towards the stairwell. As he rounded the corner at the junction of three corridors he saw three guards. He approached silently; all three of them had their backs to him and appeared to be deep in conversation. He put his weapon to the head of the guard closest to him.
"Gibbs!" exclaimed McGee, smiling broadly.
"Hey Boss…" said Tony looking at the gun at his temple. "You're not planning on shooting me are you?"
It was at this point that Gibbs saw the collection of explosive charges that his team was in the process of arming. "It's good to see you all…. I think," he said, smiling at them and lowering his pistol. "What do you plan to do with those?" he asked pointing at the charges.
"Well we… ummm I was told that we would receive further instructions once we had armed them," said Tony.
"Oh? And who told you that DiNozzo?" Gibbs asked.
Tony hesitated and smiled sheepishly. "Mrs. Mallard…."
"What!?" said Gibbs in surprise.
"She said that Drake had told her what to tell us…." said Tony expecting Gibbs to explode at him.
"Oh…Ok… So who was to give you further instruction?" He asked.
"Well I was hopping it was going to be you boss." answered Tony, surprised at Gibbs reaction
"Well I'm making this up as I go along…" said Gibbs. "But I would guess that we should put a stop to the operation here."
"What do they do here boss?" McGee asked.
"Tim, if I told you I don't think you would believe me…. I'm not sure I believe it." answered Gibbs.
Shannon appeared beside Gibbs and much to his surprise they all reacted to her. They could all see her.
Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. No money is being made from this work. No copyright infringement is intended.