A Breed Apart:
Chapter 10:
Tony glared at Officer David a moment before tightening his hand threateningly then releasing her. Stepping back he smirked at her scowl. Then his green eyes widened as what she said registered. “What do you mean the perfect weapon?”
“It is in your new genetic make up.” She told him. “Your new abilities, combined with the psychological conditioning he has planned, enable you to be a one-man army.”
“Are we ready?”
“Yes sir, we are ready to proceed. Our men are in place.” Director Sheppard assured him.
“Then go get my son!” Dominic hollered.
Tony turned sharply toward the door a moment before they heard a knock. A low growl rumbled, causing Jethro to pull his side arm, tensing. Both Atlas and David prepared for what was coming through the door. Atlas’s green eyes narrowed to slits as he echoed Tony’s growl.
“Yes?” Atlas asked through clenched teeth.
“Atlas, it’s Rhea, we may have a problem. Our men along the parameter sent a distress signal. We have a breach.”
Atlas opened the door and looked at her. “Dominic’s people?” He asked shortly.
Rhea nodded, then added “Sheppard’s too.”
“What do you mean Sheppard’s too?” Gibbs asked, his gut churning, anger burning at the implication.
“We believe that Tony’s untimely undercover operation was due to the fact that Director Sheppard is working for Dominic DiNozzo.”
“I knew she wanted me gone!” Tony exclaimed angrily.
“Where is the rest of my team?” Gibbs demanded shortly.
“They are safe at the moment. Your other two agents Todd and McGee are guarding the M.E. ‘s and the Goth woman in a side bedroom off the kitchen.” Rhea assured the ex marine.
“How did they get past our defenses?” Atlas demanded.
“We’re not sure at the moment. I’ve pulled in our men toward the house in order to protect the house and those in it.” Rhea told him as DeMarcus came through the hall, his face tense, his voice angry as he spoke into a com-unit.
“We have a small force here at the house Sir. The rest are occupied.” DeMarcus told them.
“Good work, both of you.” Atlas told them, and then looking to Tony, Gibbs, and David “Looks like Dom has decided he doesn’t want to wait for a more opportune time to come and get his boy.”
“He’s here for me?” Tony asked, an idea forming in his mind.
A rough hand grabbed his bicep, swinging him around to face piercing blue eyes as those same rough hands shoved him against the wall. “No! What ever is going on in that head of yours; NO!” Jethro growled as he stepped nose to nose with the younger agent.
Tony looked at him, trying to use his best innocent `who me’ look, but seeing the determination and possessiveness in Jethro’s eyes, sighed as he tried reason. “Jet, it’s the only way. Let me go to him, the rest of you would be safe and …”
“I said no.” Gibbs told him. “You don’t get to sacrifice yourself for us. Not gonna let that happen.”
“But,” Tony tried again, bringing gentle hands to cup the older man’s cheeks, “it would buy us time to form a plan of action.”
Jerking his face away from gentle, clinging hands, Gibbs looked straight into clear green eyes, knowing that if he looked around, he’d see the same. “What if it doesn’t work? I just got you and now you’re asking me to let you go into the lion’s den?” He asked incredulously. “I can’t do that, Tony, I just …” He trailed off.
“You have to let me do this, besides if you can’t then, we have no hope for working in the field together. And I refuse to work for anyone else.” Tony told him quietly. “You’ve always trusted my instincts before, trust me now. Besides, now you have help to save my ass.” He laughed slightly, trying to lighten the moment.
“I could order you to stand down.” Jethro stated.
“You could, but you won’t.” Tony assured him.
“No, I won’t, but if all I find is your body, I’ll kill you.” Jethro promised.
“Of course, wouldn’t have if any other way.” Tony assured him. They made their way to the side bedroom, to inform the rest of the team of their plan. As expected none of them were eager for Tony to risk himself, but also understood that it was necessary at the moment. Tony looked to Atlas and asked, “Is there someway that you can help me block out their psychological conditioning?”
“Yeah,” Abby answered quickly, “there are ways to implant cerebral blocks hypnotically that will help you reinforce resistance to subliminal suggestions, which is what Officer David is referring to.”
“Yes, I can do that; however, I must warn you that without the proper preparations and time it probably won’t last very long. Most of it will depend on you and your natural resistance.” Atlas informed him.
“Well, then that should be easy. Tony has a thick head and is always resistant to doing what he’s told.” Kate laughed thinly.
“Perhaps it would be better to let someone who knows young Anthony well put up the mental blocks?” Ducky suggested.
“Couldn’t hurt.” Atlas agreed as he moved aside to let Ducky stand in front of Tony.
“You need to hurry Doctor, the parameter is deteriorating.” DeMarcus said as he joined them.
“Of course.” Ducky took a deep breath, then looking to Tony asked, “You trust me do you not Anthony?”
“Of course Duck.” Was Tony’s quick response.
“Good, then close your eyes and think of a place that is peaceful and safe. Breathe deeply in through your mouth and out through your nose. Once you have your place firmly set in your mind I want you to begin counting your breaths while listening to my voice.” Ducky instructed in a calm sedate voice.
Tony waited a moment before meeting the eyes of each of his family members. Abby hugged him tightly, whispering dire threats if he didn’t take care of himself. “I will Abs, promise.” He whispered back.
“McGee.” He held out his hand, and then slapped him on the back. Meeting Kate’s chocolate brown eyes, his green ones made a somber request. She wrapped both arms tightly around his neck and promised “I’ll take care of them.”
Smiling at her, he pulled back, flinging her hair in her face as he said, “I know.” He shook Gerald’s hand, and then he wrapped Gibbs in a tight embrace, burying his face in the side of the older man’s neck inhaling deeply before pressing gentle lips just below his ear. “I’ll be waiting for you.” He whispered, and then he looked to Ducky, nodded once and said “Let’s do this.”
“Right, well find your safe peaceful place.”
“Already here Duck, no place more peaceful or safe than here with my family surrounding me.” Tony stated as he closed his eyes and began concentrating on his breathing, counting slowly with each breath.
“Anthony, I want to imagine yourself drifting above us, safe and secure but also able to leave. Concentrate on each of us, what we normally do, how we make you feel. I want you to wrap yourself in those feelings, imagine them as armor for your mind. You can pull them out and submerge your mind with them whenever you feel the need and it’ll be like we’re standing there in front of you. Abby with her hugs, Caitlyn with her loyalty, Timothy with his, as you say geek speak, me with my stories, Gerald with his strength, and Jethro with his head slaps all of us with love and friendship. Use us as a shield, one that neither your father nor Director Sheppard can penetrate.” through this address, Ducky kept his voice steady and calming, and slowly Tony’s breathing deepened until he seemed asleep. “Anthony?”
“Yeah, Duck, I’m here.”
“Where?”
“In the bullpen.”
“Where is everyone else?”
“We’re all here Duck, Katie and I are making fun of Probie, Abby’s laughing, sitting on my desk. She just gave me a huge hug; I just had another close call. Gibbs is at his desk, trying not to laugh, Gerald’s laughing, and you are taking a deep breath, preparing to launch into another story that our last case reminded you of.”
“Good. How are you feeling?”
“Good. I feel good, like life can’t get any better.”
“Good, that is the place, the memory I want you to keep in mind. Can you keep it in the front of your mind while talking about something else?”
“Don’t know, I can try. Ask me something else.”
“Okay. What is the square root of 361?”
“Math? No one said there was going to be a test. Gotta tell you Duck, math was never my strong suit, I’m more of a Phys Ed kind of guy.” Tony muttered, and then flinched as if he expected a slap to the back of his head, so Gibbs obliged him with a gentle one. “Okay, okay, the square root of 361 is… ohm, 19.”
“Good, now tell me where you are.”
“I’m still in the bullpen with everyone, only now Kate and Probie are trying to tease me.” Tony told him, then anticipating his next question he said, “I still feel good, Duck.”
Good. Now I want you to begin counting your breaths backwards from 50 to one. Breath deeply and slowly in through your mouth and out through your nose.” They all waited until Tony blinked a few times, his green eyes blurry a moment. He looked around to each of them, getting a small niggling suspicion as he took in his team.
“What?” He asked cautiously. Then gasped as Abby enveloped him in a bone crushing hug that only she could give.
“I love you, Tony.” She told him seriously.
“I love you too, Abs.” He assured her. Puzzled he looked to Jethro, who only nodded his agreement with a small smile.
“I hate to break this up, but whatever it is that you have planned, needs to happen now. DiNozzo’s force has broken through our parameter, and his making their way to the main house.” DeMarcus told them, just as they began to hear the shouts and gunfire echoing outside.
Atlas motioned to a side panel in the far wall. “There is a false wall that leads to a narrow tunnel under the house and plantation. It leads all the way to the neighbor’s house, some ten miles away. There are plenty of stops along the way that have stores of food and water. We found it while renovating this house and decided it would be good to keep it in good repair, just in case.”
“Atlas, take them out, make sure they get to safety.” Tony told him.
Green eyes met green and the older man nodded as he whispered, “They will be safe, I promise. Although, I don’t know how long I’ll be able to keep your mate from coming after you.”
“You won’t need to worry about him; he can take care of himself, besides he’s use to saving my butt. But the others…”
“Consider it done, my friend.”
“Go, now. I’ll do my best to stall them.”
“Don’t get killed.” Jethro demanded.
“You know me Boss.” Tony scoffed.
“Yeah, so I’ll say it again. Don’t. Get. Killed.”
“Do my best.” Tony promised, and then watched as they slipped through the false panel. He slid it back into place and took a deep breath. He could feel a calm slide over him, the same way that it always did right before he went undercover. He could feel his friends, his family, as if they were all standing there with him, and he smiled a small true smile that caused his eyes to glow, then it faded and his usual cocky playboy grin took its place as he stepped into the hall.
He waited until he heard his father on the porch, then he opened the front door with a smirk and said, “Hello Father.”
Dominic stood there dumbfounded for a moment before he responded “Get him!” Then he strode over to his son and muttered “You will regret the day that you disobeyed and betrayed me.”
“Yeah, well show me something you did that earned you my obedience and loyalty and maybe I’ll obey.” Tony smirked innocently.
Dominic raised his fist and backhanded Tony hard across the cheek. Then he stepped back as his men stepped forward and clamped cuffs onto Tony’s wrists. “You will show me respect!” he growled.
“Yeah, yeah.” Tony muttered insolently, only to receive another blow, this time to the side of the head. The men holding onto his arms led his to his father’s big black escalade, practically tossing him inside. He grunted through the pain, and then smirked as he saw that he wasn’t alone. “Well, I should have known you would be here to admire your handy work. Tell me how much money did he give you to sell out one of your own? Or was it power that he promised. You should know right now, that I plan to be the one who comes out of this alive and the winner, so if I were you I would be reevaluating my position, Madam Director.” He scoffed at the redhead.
“You will be the one who comes out of this dead, and then who do you think will be there for Jethro, while he grieves?” She told him smugly.
“Our team if it comes to that. Of course after working with us for the past few years, and seeing how hard it is to kill me, one would have thought you’d have gone about getting rid of me another way. Besides, killing me is only going to put Jet in a revenge seeking rage. He won’t grieve until he’s killed or destroyed everyone involved in my murder. But then you’d know that if you knew him, like I do.” He told her.
“You think you’re so smart, but Dominic has plans for you. Plans that are worse than death, but it’ll have the same effect of Jethro. And it’ll be me he comes to, because he won’t be able to show that amount of weakness to his remaining team, he’ll want to be strong for them.” She assured him snidely.
“Maybe, but he’s a brilliant investigator, and he’ll figure out that you had something to do with all of this, so I’d be careful getting your hopes up and start planning out some really good excuses.” He paused as if considering some of those nonexistent excuses, then shook his head continuing, “Nope, I don’t even think good excuses could help, because we all know how Gibbs hates excuses.”
“Enough! Both of you shut the hell up!” DiNozzo Sr. bellowed as he entered the vehicle. “You keep that insolent mouth shut, before I have it surgically closed.” He ordered pointing to Tony, who only smirked in response. Then looking to Jen he said “Do not let him bait you. You are not to speak to him.”
“Of course Dominic.” Jen replied.
“Let’s go. To the Centre and quickly.” Dominic ordered his driver.
Meanwhile, underground in the slave runner’s tunnels Gibbs and his team watched the little red dot, that was Tony, move along the computerized map of the area. Gibbs gut was churning, but he knew that the only way to end this for good was to follow Tony’s lead on how to deal with his father. If he’d had his way, he’d kill them all, but he also had to think of the rest of the team, their family. The team was the only reason he let his lover go, Tony’s confidence that he would find him was astounding. Granted he hadn’t failed to find him yet, but it wasn’t a guarantee that he would or could find him, and for Tony to have that level of trust in his abilities amazed him. Deep in his own thoughts, Gibbs started slightly as he felt a small warm hand slip into his and squeeze reassuringly, as Abby leaned into him.
“We’ll find him Bossman, then we’ll never let him out of our sight.” she told him.
“I hope so Abs. I really hope so.”
“We’ve got his GPS and we know that Madam Director is involved so we can play that side to find him as well.” Kate spoke up, not liking the air of worry and grief.
“They are correct Jethro, young Anthony would not have entrusted his life to you and your team if he did not have the utmost confidence in your abilities.” Ducky put in.
“He’s told me several times that here at NCIS is the only place he’s never had to worry about who had his back, that he knew without a doubt you and your team would always come looking for him.” Gerald put in.
“You are speaking as if the man is going to his death! Apparently you do not have the faith in his abilities as he has in yours.” Ziva stated angrily.
“You don’t understand Officer David, Tony has a way of getting himself almost killed on practically a daily basis. So you’ll have to forgive us if we are worried about him!” Kate threw at her.
“If this is a regular happening then you should be used to it by now. However, you are right in your insinuation that I do not know him as you do, but what I saw was a man sacrifice himself for his family and that family seems to be giving up on him!”
“No we aren’t!” Abby growled, stepping into the Mossad’s face, “We are worried, because there is nothing we can do until they stop and the farther away he gets the more danger he’s in. Besides, the last time his father got his hands on Tony, Tony was nearly mentally broken and we’ve had to fight just to get him back. We are all afraid that this time it’ll be worse!”
“No, Abs, Officer David is right, we are feeling sorry for ourselves and this doesn’t help Tony at all. We have to trust that he knows we’re on his trail, and that we’ll be there when he needs us. McGee, what have you got?”
“There still moving Boss. They are headed north towards the city.” McGee reported.
“Good, that’s the same direction we’re headed, now let’s get moving.” Gibbs commanded, nodding his gratitude to Ziva.
“He was right about you.” Atlas told Gibbs quietly.
“What?”
“Tony. He said you would take care of yourself, and I have never seen a person push their own feelings aside like that for the sake of someone else’s. You are a good mate for him.” Atlas told him, pride leaking into his voice a moment before it was gone. “My people and I will keep your team safe while you and your field agents collect your mate, of that you should have no doubt.”
“Thank you.” Gibbs stated.
Atlas simply nodded and moved ahead to speak to Rhea. Ziva stepped up next to Gibbs and stated, “When you go after your fellow agent, I will go with you. You will need the help and I have been in and out of their facility several times over the past months.”
“I appreciate it.” Gibbs assured her.
McGee stopped to check his computer again, when he noticed that the red Tony dot had stopped. Quickly he looked up the location of the dot and called out to his boss. “Boss. It appears that they’ve stopped at a hospital of sorts. It’s called …”
“The Centre.” Ziva supplied for him. “It is where Dr. Crayton is waiting to finish the psychological conditioning of the Subject.”
“Tony.” Abby stated stubbornly, “Not the Subject, Tony.”
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.