A Breed Apart:
Chapter 12
Jen met Dominic’s cold grey eyes hesitantly as she said, “I should leave, so that my cover remains intact.”
Hard eyes met nervous ones as Dominic arched a brow, before he nodded once, giving Sheppard his permission to leave. “Don’t be unreachable; I may have need of you later.”
“Of course, Dom.” She murmured. “Officer David,” She spoke coolly as she brushed past the other woman. Once out of the observation room she made her way to the stairway.
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“Sheppard just entered the stairwell.” McGee murmured his voice crackling through the com-unit.
“I’ve got her.” another voice spoke.
“Stay on her, but do not intercept. I’ll deal with her later, after we get Tony out of here.” Gibbs’ growl came over the com-unit. “McGee, Kate, do you have a visual on Tony or David?”
“Not yet Gibbs. We saw Officer David enter the room that Sheppard just left, but neither has come out yet.” Kate answered quietly.
“We don’t move until we have a visual confirmation of Tony.” He ordered.
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“Do you think Agent Gibbs is going to be a problem?” Dominic asked Ziva.
“I think he is unpredictable and a bit unstable, and that is a dangerous combination.” Ziva responded.
The door to the inner chamber opened and Dr. Crayton walked in leading a very docile Anthony DiNozzo behind him. “I do believe he is ready Mr. DiNozzo. I was worried a bit, due to his susceptibility to the conditioning, but now I don’t believe we have anything to worry about. Would you like to take him to finish his field testing?”
Dominic nodded slightly before he spoke, “Anthony?”
“Yes Sir?” Tony responded quietly, his voice dull.
“Relieve Officer David of her weapons and any other equipment she might be using to betray our purpose.” DiNozzo Senior ordered, watching Ziva’s dark eyes widen slightly.
“Yes Sir.” that same stultified voice murmured. Tony moved quickly and effortlessly, shoving her up against the wall as he removed her guns. He patted her down, searching for any hidden weapons, but stood back when he didn’t find any. “She’s clean Sir.” He told his father.
Ziva kept her face passive, her eyes clear of any emotion as she stared ahead. She was confused, the agent hands had ghosted over her knives, both at the small of her back and at her wrist, yet he acted as if he hadn’t found them. She also knew that he had felt the wire that she had going down her side, that allowed Atlas to listen, but that was it. The agent stood, his arms by his sides, staring at her a moment, before he gave her one deliberate wink. Years of training kept the confusion off her face, but she couldn’t help the smirk that appeared as comprehension of what he was doing dawned. “Are you happy with your prototype Mr. DiNozzo?” She asked.
“For the moment, yes. The true tests will come later, during our demonstration.” He told her smugly. “Come Anthony.”
Tony and the doctor followed the elder DiNozzo out into the corridor. Tony kept his eyes averted to the floor, while he focused on the information his other senses were gathering. He could hear a faint crackling in the air, the hair on the back of his neck rising in awareness. His sense of smell, however, gave him the information he was hoping for. Kate’s perfume, the expensive French stuff her last boyfriend had given her, drifted through the air, blending nicely with McGee’s own cologne, telling him that they were together. He knew that they had back up as other scents floated to him, unfamiliar, yet non-threatening. He followed as they passed a door to what he assumed was an office when he smelled them. Coffee, sawdust, and Gibbs. The scents of his lover brought an internal grin to his face; he knew the older man would come for him. His entire body loosened at the thought of his mate.
A door opened and Atlas Vincent stepped into the hallway. “Hello Dominic. Ken.” He greeted the elder DiNozzo and the doctor calmly. “I suggest Doctor that you get your hands off Tony and step back. I refuse to let you destroy him like you did the others.”
“Now Atlas, you must remember what happens when you make demands of me.” Dominic told him coolly. “Besides, I doubt that young Anthony wants anything to do with you.”
“Come on Tony, Gibbs is waiting for us. Let’s go.” Atlas tried unsuccessfully to get Tony’s attention. “What did you do to him?” He growled.
Tony continued to stare at the floor, his senses reeling with new information. He was only half aware of what the older breed was saying. He could hear the hurrying of footsteps stirring the air and vibrating the floor. Whoever they were, they were not here to help them, and he barely suppressed a menacing growl at the threat that was neatly surrounding them. His body flexed and tense instinctively preparing for a fight. His fingers twitching and curling as he tried to count the interconnecting scents and footsteps.
“Do to him? Nothing, he simply knows the art of obedience now.” Dominic replied smugly.
“Tony?” Atlas tried, again getting no response. He growled the sound rumbling through his chest as he snarled at Dominic. “What in the HELL did you do to him?! Destroying Bella wasn’t enough? You had to go and destroy her son too?!”
Dominic smirked at his outburst, raising cold, calculating eyes to meet angry green ones as he said, “Not just Bella’s son, but then you were away, thought to be dead. You really can’t blame her for wanting to make sure your child wanted for nothing.”
Atlas’ eyes widened in surprise at what Dominic told him. He quickly looked to the agent behind Dominic and Crayton. He could see his beloved Bella all over the boy, but it was there in the green eyes that were so like his. He’d always wondered, every time he’d watched them from afar, but to be told in no uncertain terms that what he’d wanted was his. Rage like he’d never felt filled him at the thought of all she had suffered, all his son had suffered at the hands of the man before him. Everything he knew about his son’s life, everything Bella had tried to do to protect their child, threatened to overwhelm him and he bared his teeth in a roar. His body tensed, ready to lung at the man who was responsible for his rage, when the distinctive feel of cold steel settled at the base of his neck.
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“Atlas has them distracted Boss, but Tony isn’t going to him.” McGee told the senior agent.
“I can see that McGee.” Gibbs snapped. “Can you see what he’s doing with his hands?”
“He’s tapping his fingers to his thumb.” Kate put in.
“Each finger? How many has he tapped?” The rapid questions were thrown at her. Then a muttered. “Never mind, I need to get closer.” And he prepared to change his position.
“We’ve got company Boss,” McGee said, hearing the low beeping of the motion detector they’d placed in the stairwell. “Looks like about …”
“Ten.” Gibbs interrupted, watching Tony’s fingers clench into a fist, his thumb sticking out, and shaking slight back and forth. `When did he learn to count in sign?’ Gibbs wondered to himself, before refocusing on the task at hand.
“How did you …?” Kate asked.
“Tony. What are they saying Kate?” came the curt reply.
“Tony’s father and Atlas are talking about a woman, Bella, Tony’s mother?” She told him.
“Shit.” Gibbs muttered softly, then “We need to get in there. McGee, you take Stryker and Adams, try to separate some of Dominic’s men.
“Gibbs.” Kate said. “They’ve stopped talking, Atlas is really still, and there’s someone behind him.”
“Kate, you take Lowell and Jackson and work your way around to the other side. Abs, you need to direct them, let them know where to go. I think it’s time that DiNozzo Senior and I had a conversation.” Gibbs told them as he stood to give them a distraction. “Take out any and all threats; we are not going to lose any people over this.”
Gibbs stepped out into the corridor, his back straight, his gun drawn. He saw Tony tense, raising his head to stare at his father. Gibbs moved stealthily, not wanting to draw attention to him and inadvertently cause an escalading of action. As usual he was tuned into Tony’s body language, the little nuances of movement that most would have missed, but that Jethro knew to pay attention to.
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Tony sensed the movements of his lover, even as he focused on the men in front of him. Crayton moved to the side, pressing up against the wall, trying to appear part of it. His father, `no’ he thought, `the man he’d thought was his father’ stood erect, confident of his position; while Atlas, stood quietly and proud, his emerald eyes tracking back and forth between Dominic and Tony. He’d only heard part of the conversation, but enough to know that the man who had raised him, done this and so much more to him, was not his father, and he couldn’t help but feel relieved at that fact, even if he didn’t know how he felt about the other breed being his father. His mind flashed to the pictures on the wall he’d seen the other day and a small smile graced his lips as he thought of the love he’d seen reflected in them.
He knew Gibbs was getting closer and if he wanted to be ready for what ever the older man had planned he knew that he would have to keep everyone else focused on him. Drawing himself up to attention when he heard DiNozzo Senior say his name, he knew he had to keep up the guise of being under the other man’s control.
“Anthony, come here.” Dominic ordered, confident that the younger man was his.
Stepping to the man, Tony held himself at attention, the way he knew the older man wanted. “Yes Sir?” He queried keeping his voice low.
“Relieve Atlas of any weapons and secure him.”
“Yes Sir.” Tony moved to do as ordered. Stepping in front of the older breed, jade eyes met emerald briefly, before dropping to the task at hand. A moment was all that was needed to communicate the necessity of following the younger breed’s lead. Tony heard a low purr, too low to carry beyond the two breeds, but he knew that Atlas had understood. Once Tony had confiscated the weapons and clicked cuffs into place, he stood back, apparently guarding Atlas.
Dominic watched as son cuffed father with immense satisfaction. “Good boy. Now move back and we’ll let Carson deal with your father.”
A large man stepped up from behind Atlas, his copious hands gripping the cuffs. Tony raised his eyes to steal a look at the newcomer, what he saw had his eyes widening. The man was huge, easily towering over the others in the corridor, broad shouldered and muscular, but it was his face that had Tony stifling a gasp. A thick beard and sideburns covered most of the man’s face, but didn’t disguise the flat nose, extended jaw and chin, creating a muzzle-like shape. His breath was a raspy rumble; his black eyes were dull and defeated. He jerked upwards on Atlas’ arms and began pulling him backwards. Atlas tries to hold his ground, digging his heals in proudly, but he was no match for the much larger breed.
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“We’re in position Gibbs.” Kate started then gasped as she saw the large man grab a hold of Atlas. “My God!” she breathed.
“Yeah, I think he’s one of the first hosts.” McGee put in as he settled in his position across the hall from Kate. “In position, Boss.”
“Good. Let’s get them out of there. DiNozzo Senior is mine.’ He growled as he stepped into the middle of the hallway, gun raised. “Freeze! NCIS!” he snarled.
Dominic turned to look at Gibbs a brow cocked and a smirk emerging as he said dryly. “Ahh, Agent Gibbs, I presume. It’s good to finally meet you. I’ve heard quite a bit about you from Jenny.” He paused shaking his head slightly before he continued. “Somehow from all that I’ve heard, I thought you’d be bigger.” Dominic commented as he raised himself to his six foot five height.
Gun still raised, aimed at DiNozzo Senior, Gibbs took a couple of steps closer as he spoke. “Yeah, and from the intelligence of you son, I thought you’d be smarter. Apparently, we were both wrong.” He turned his attention to Tony and asked, “You okay DiNozzo.”
Green eyes stared into blue a moment before Tony pointedly looked away, to Dominic DiNozzo’s satisfaction. “This is better than any test I could come up with.” He looked to Crayton and praised, “Your conditioning methods have surpassed my expectations Doctor.”
Dominic was too busy gloating and he missed the silent communication that passed between Gibbs and Tony, and the fact that their teammates had closed in, surrounding the few men he had as backup. “At last the worthless whelp has learned the art of silence and obedience.” Dominic triumphed. “Secure him Anthony.”
“Yes, Sir.” Tony responded as he stepped to Gibbs. He reached out, making as if to relieve his boss of his gun, but grasped the older man’s forearm for balance as he swung his leg out in a wide arc. His leg extending with enough force to drop one of the men guarding Atlas to his knees. As if on cue, Kate and McGee, with the help of Ziva and a few of Atlas’ men, swarmed the remaining guards, neutralizing the threat that had surrounded them. Dominic grabbed Tony around the neck, squeezing painfully, as a gun appeared from no where. Using Tony as a shield, Dominic pressed his back against the wall, and edged his way toward the outskirts of the commotion.
Gibbs growled, his gun raised, his whole body tensed as he registered that Dominic had Tony. “Let him go!” He barked.
“I may not be as smart as you expected, but I’m far from stupid. I’m not letting him go until I get out of here.”
“That just shows how stupid you are Father. Gibbs is a marine, a sniper, he never misses.” Tony commented conversationally.
“Yes, well, if he wants to shoot me, he’ll have to shoot you first. And while that would suit my purposes at the moment, he doesn’t look inclined to shoot.” Dominic taunted.
“Damn it, DiNozzo.” Gibbs growled at Tony, knowing that the elder DiNozzo was right; he wouldn’t shoot while the other man held his lover.
“You haven’t seen the man angry yet. And believe me; he’s truly pissed at me. You see, I wasn’t supposed to get hurt and well …” Tony trailed off with a slight apologetic shrug, meeting Jethro’s eyes.
Seeing the standoff, Atlas rushed to Gibbs side snarling. “Let him go Dominic!”
“Tell him to put down the gun and maybe I’ll consider it.”
“Gibbs! Put it down.” Atlas ordered.
“I put it down and Tony’s a dead man. Not gonna happen.” Gibbs’ voice was harsh with emotion.
“Yeah, at least this way he’ll be able to shoot the bastard afterwards. Of course, you could just shoot me now, Boss, and save everyone the tension of waiting.” Tony continued in a calm conversational tone, but his emerald eyes never left the azure ones of his lover. Silently, he encouraged the older man to shoot, knowing that his team stood ready to back up their leader. “Could always look at as an experiment. How many injuries can I sustain in my altered state? Think it might be information worth knowing.” Tony shrugged as his Father tightened his hold around his neck.
“Shut up!” Dominic grumbled. “You never knew when to keep quiet. Nothing but an idiotic, insignificant, worthless bastard, I am damn glad that you are no son of mine!”
“Damn it DiNozzo, we are going to have a talk about this later, you and I.” Gibbs promised between clenched teeth as he aimed.
A shot echoed through the corridor, bringing a stop to the commotion and tension.
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