"What Had To Be Done, Part Seven"
-Chapter Fifteen-
Ziva walked through the airport terminal on the other side of D.C., keeping her eyes on the man that she was currently following--Congressman Harrison.
Harrison had purchased a one way plane ticket to the West Coast, that's how McGee had been able to track him down.
As Ziva watched Harrison move around through the crowd, socialize, and other such things a fire inside her had begun to burn brighter and hotter the longer she followed him. This man had shot Tony. This man had tried to kill Tony--tried to kill the man that she loved. Big mistake number one in her book.
Yes. She would get the information that McGee needed from Harrison, but then once that deed was done--she would have her revenge. And she would enjoy it--maybe even too much she thought.
She watched as he stopped by a service desk, and picked up his plane ticket. After that he stopped twice to 'shoot-the-breeze' with random people before heading on, and eventually coming to what would soon be his final destination--the Men's Restroom.
Harrison placed the bag he was carrying down on the floor by the wall. He stepped up to the wall urinal opening his zipper as he did so.
The door opened once again, but this time it was Ziva who stepped through.
Another man was stepping out of a stall, and spotted Ziva standing by the door. He opened his mouth to speak, but Ziva flashed her piece and shot him a menacing look. The man got the hint, and quickly hurried out of the bathroom, dodging past Ziva as he ran.
Standing there, staring at Harrison's back, so close to the man that had put Tony in a coma--it was almost too tempting to just end him right then and there, but she knew she had a job to do first.
She took a few steps towards Harrison, brandishing the Sig Sauer that she had brought with her. "If I were you," she said in a low voice. "I would not move."
Harrison froze where he stood, looking straight ahead at the wall. "Who-"
"Who--is not important," Ziva said cutting him off. "You have something I want, and you are going to give it to me whether you want to or not."
Harrison swallowed hard, as he zipped up his trousers slowly.
"What is it you want?" he asked.
"The tracking frequency for the missiles you sold to the Russians." Ziva replied calmly.
A wave of calm seemed to settle over Harrison. "Ah," he said. "I see. NCIS. Ms. David--is it?"
Ziva shifted her weight from one side to the other as she kept the Sig aimed at the back of Harrison's head.
"I'm must say, first, that I'm terribly sorry about your...boyfriend."
"Although I did offer him a deal."
"What deal?"
"Hmm. His cooperation in return for keeping you and Agent Gibbs--alive." Harrison replied.
Ziva stepped forward, quickly, grabbed Harrison, spun him around, and slammed back against the wall urinal. She pressed the muzzle of the Sig she was holding ito the folds of the flesh around his neck.
Her eyes were red and moist, and it was obvious that she was fighting back tears.
"Pathetic really," Harrison choked out through Ziva's grip. "That someone of Agent DiNozzo's caliber would rather die than betray his mentor, and the...'woman he loved'." He added with a crooked grin.
"Shut Up!" she hissed in his face. "You have no right!"
Harrison just gave an evil chuckle.
"Now," he said finally. "The 'Tracking Frequency'--if you want it you'll have to let me go." he informed her calmly.
"Congressman," Ziva whispered, pressing the muzzle of the Sig more firmly into his neck/throat. "I have no intention of letting you go."
Harrison was definitely freaked out by Ziva's words, but he tried his best not to show it.
"Now, you have two choices--give me the 'Tracking Frequency' and I'll end you quickly." she informed him, still speaking in a low, menacing whisper. "Refuse...and it will be long and excruciatingly painful." she continued. "Choose that route, and I will make sure that by the end you'll be begging for me to end you--you will even be willing to give up the 'Frequency'. Either way...you will die." Her voice trailed off as she spoke the last few words right in his ear.
Elsewhere...
Abby sat at her desk down in the lab at NCIS HQ. Normally she would be pacing back in forth in front of her workstation in the outer section of the lab, but today she was being watched by a couple of goons hired by the Vice President to make sure that she did not interfere with 'the plan'.
The Vice President had done very well indeed to cover every base that needed to be covered in order for his 'plan' to move forward without a hitch of any kind.
A million thoughts and emotions ran through Abby's head as she stared through the glass door at the two thugs standing guard over her. She felt scared, angry, frustrated, and sad all at the same time.
She stood up, with an exasperated sigh, and took a few steps towards the glass door until she was nearly right up against it.
"Why are you guys doing this?" she asked through the glass door.
No answer.
"How much money makes what you're doing right?" she asked again. Her voice rose an octave or two as she spoke.
"I mean, you gotta know this isn't right." she pressed. "You can't just stand there and let some PSYCHO cause the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people." she fumed.
Although her words sounded unselfish, as if she cared for each and every one of those people whose lives hung in the balance, but the truth was she felt selfish--very, very selfish. There was only a handful of people that she truly cared about at this very moment whom she could possibly lose if something wasn't done--soon.
"We don't have a choice," one of the men said finally. "We have our orders, and like'em or not we have to obey those orders." he said, turning to face Abby. "So just, please, sit down, shut up, and don't make this any harder than it has to be." he said very firmly.
In the Cyber-Crimes unit of NCIS, McGee sat alone, in the dim-light, staring at a computer screen his fingers dancing wildly across its keyboard. With every keystroke he hoped he was getting closer to breaking the code, but so far he hadn't had much luck. There were beads of sweat already collecting against his forehead.
His cell phone rang, and nearly startled him out of his chair. He fished out the tiny phone, flipped it open, and held it up to his ear. "Ziva?"
"Yes, its me." Ziva replied, over the phone.
"Thank God." McGee said with a sigh of relief. "Did you get it?"
"I did," she replied. "I'm sending it to you now. I think I have finally figured out this new cell phone you gave me."
"Good." McGee replied. "What about Harrison?" he asked next.
"It is probably best that you not know." she replied evenly.
"I see." Was all he said. "You coming back here, or are you going to be with Tony?"
"How are things there?" she asked.
"Well, I had to break into Cyber Crimes to be able to work undetected. Abby, Ducky, and Vance are all being held 'hostage'--I guess is the word you'd use--other than that this place is like a ghost town."
"Then I will see you as soon as I can." she informed him, before hanging up.
Back At The Airport...
"Please," Congressman Harrison was sobbing and moaning as he sat propped against the wall covered in his own blood--nearly from head to toe. He choked on blood as he spoke. He looked pretty bad to say the least.
Ziva shoved her cell phone back into her pocket, and then turned to face the congressman.
Ziva stepped forward, and leaned over him.
"Hey in there!" Came a voice from outside the bathroom. "Open Up! Police!"
Ziva had thought ahead, and blocked the door of the bathroom from the inside so that no one would be able to get in from the outside to disturb her.
"Please..." Harrison moaned again.
Ziva stooped over, and whispered menacingly in his ear. "I was right...wasn't I?" she whispered cruelly in his ear.
Harrison whimpered uncontrollably as he felt the muzzle of the Sig Sauer being pressed against his temple once again.
Then there was a loud bang that echoed throughout the bathroom, filling it with a terrible, gut-wrenching sound.
Now the banging and yelling coming from the outside of the bathroom was even louder than before as those on the outside tried desperately to get inside to see what had happened.
Ziva stowed the Sig inside the waist band of her trousers, and then entered once of the stall-areas. She stood on the toilet seat, and reached her hands upwards, pushing aside the ceiling tiles above her.
After she had managed to pull herself up and out of the bathroom to safety, she replaced the tiles back in their rightful positions before continuing onward.
Vance's Office...
Director Vance sat in his office, guarded by two thuggish goons as well, staring at the plasma screen mounted on the wall on the other side of the room.
The biggest concern on his mind, at the moment, was of his family. His wife and kids had been taken hostage by the Vice Pres. hired men as a way of coercing him into doing as he wanted him to.
It was as he had told Gibbs days earlier 'his hands were tied'. But oh what he would do right now if they weren't. If only he could hear Jackie's voice--hear the voice's of his kids...
His desk phone rang, and he answered it--even if he wasn't supposed to, he did it anyway. "Vance." he said into the receiver.
"We've got the 'Tracking Frequency', but I need Abby's help to unscramble the jammer that the Vice Pres. is using to keep us out." McGee informed his boss over the phone.
"I can't help you. I'm sorry." Vance apologized. "You're on your own."
"But sir-" McGee started to protest.
"Not another word," Vance said sternly. "End of discussion!"
He hung up the phone, and then noticed that the two goons were staring at him.
"Crime Scene Junkie," he told them, pointing at the phone. "Been dogging me about a job here in our lab for weeks now."
Suddenly the phone rang again. He let it ring once, twice, and then finally answered it with an exasperated groan. "What!?" he growled into the phone.
"Leon." The voice on the other end of the line was female. She sounded frightened and shaken up.
Vance turned his chair around, away from the two goons, to face the window. "Jackie?" he said in a low voice. "How-"
"We're okay, Leon. We're okay." Her voice sounded shaky even though she was trying to sound strong and confident.
"But how?" Vance asked.
"Gibbs...came to the house yesterday morning. He helped us. He told us not to call you until we were somewhere safe." she informed him, sniffling as she did so.
There were tears in Vance's eyes as he listened to his wife's voice. He could hardly believe it--his family was alive, they were okay. Thanks to Jethro Gibbs his family was safe and sound, and out of harm's way--well sort of.
"Jackie I-" he started to say.
"Leon," she said, cutting him off. "You have to stop them. You can't let these people win. We're okay--we'll be fine. But you--you need to do your job." she told him, trying to sound firm.
There were a few more words between the couple, and then Vance finally hung up the phone.
Vance turned his chair back around, set the phone back down on its base, and then reached down, and pulled open the bottom drawer of his desk.
When they'd taken over his office, they had searched his 'person', but not his desk. And this was a good thing because he had a spare side-arm hidden in his bottom desk drawer.
"Who was it?" One of the goons asked.
Vance did not answer.
"Hey," the other goon said in a husky voice. "He's talking to you. Who was it!?"
"Hey!"
Vance pulled the side-arm out of the desk drawer, and primed it (without showing it to the two goons).
"Hey, whatcha got there!?" the goon with the husky voice asked, holding his own weapon up at the ready now.
Vance suddenly stood and fired a single round into the chest of the husky-voiced goon. The thug fell backwards to the floor, and the other thug, startled by what he had just seen, struggled to react. But before he could Vance put a round in his chest as well.
Now, having dispatched of the immediate threat (there in his own office) he had some other business to take care of.
Meanwhile...
Gibbs, Mike, and Tobias stepped through the doors of the Greenbrier Hotel, and found themselves in a rather luxurious-looking lobby.
"You two warn the management," Gibbs said quietly. "I'll find the bunker."
"Sure. We come all this way, just to let you have all the fun." Mike snorted.
"That's Gibbs for ya." Tobias replied with a grin.
"Three of us moving together will spook these people," Gibbs pointed out quietly. "Don't wanna cause a panic do we?"
"No, I guess not."
The three men split up, and went their separate ways.
Vance stepped into the lab at NCIS HQ, and before the two goons guarding Abby could react properly he planted a single round in each of them.
Abby stood in stunned silence at what she had just witnessed.
Vance crossed the room, and unlocked the glass door. Abby did not move at first she was so shocked at what had just happened in her lab.
"Abby," Vance said.
The sound of his voice jolted her back to reality almost immediately.
"Director-"
"No time," Vance said quickly. "McGee needs your help."
Abby nodded, and sprinted to her workstation. She switched everything on, and then turned to Vance. "Do you have your cell phone with you?" she asked quickly.
He pulled his own cell phone out of his pocket, and handed it to the Goth Forensic Specialist. He did not even bother to ask what had happened to her own cell phone.
Abby quickly dialed McGee's number, and within two rings he answered.
"Director-"
"No, its me McGee." Abby said quickly.
"What do I need to do?" she asked, as she hurriedly switched the cell phone to its speaker-phone mode. She set the phone down on the table top beside her.
McGee didn't waste anytime. "My computer, here, should be linking up to yours--now."
Abby stared at her computer screen for a moment until a tiny window popped up in the center of the screen. "Got it." she said aloud.
"Good." McGee replied, over the speaker-phone. I need you to do some heavy-lifting for me okay?"
"Okay." Abby replied. "What do I do?"
"When I plug in the frequency, wait for it to ping, when it does I need you to track the jamming signal back to its source and block it. Think you can do that for me?"
"Just give me a sec."
Abby's fingers danced across the keyboard of her computer console as she punched up a program, developed my McGee himself, that had been installed on Abby's computer several years before hand.
"Okay," she said finally, looking over at the cell phone laying on the table/desk top. "Go for it."
Across Town Somewhere...
Gibbs walked slowly towards the entrance to the bunker located in the first level of the 'basement' of the Greenbrier Hotel. It was an elevator.
He pressed the button, and it opened up. He stepped inside, and pushed the 'down' switch on the wall.
When the elevator doors opened up he found himself standing in front of a massive door. The massive door had not yet been sealed shut yet. If the Vice Pres. was here, he was probably in a hurry to prep his 'missile'.
He walked past the massive door, and entered into the main compound area. he swept his eyes and side-arm from side to side searching the dimly-lit area(s) for any immediate threats--nothing.
As he continued to move forward past several of the devices, for dealing with radioactive contamination, that had been installed when the shelter was first built way back in the 50s-60s, he soon found himself in the first open space area that was actually well-lit compared to where he'd just come from.
"I know you're down here Agent Gibbs," boomed a voice over a set of loudspeakers. "I heard the elevator as you were coming down."
Gibbs rolled his eyes at the Vice Pres. 'theatrics'.
"But you're too late," the voice over the loudspeakers continued. "The missiles' already been launched--and I've already reset its targeting coordinates."
Gibbs began moving through the endless maze of giant rooms searching for the source of the voice.
"There's nothing you can do now." the voice continued. "Soon, this will be my world, and I will re-establish this country as it was meant to be--without corruption and bias."
"I agree with you," Gibbs said loudly. "The corruption on the 'hill' is staggering, but...this isn't the way to fix it."
"OOOOH, that's where you're wrong Agent Gibbs," the voice on the loudspeakers replied. "Its the 'perfect' way."
"You really think that sacrificing thousands of innocent lives is the right thing to do?" Gibbs asked loudly, as he continued his search--room by room.
"The end does not justify the means this time!" Gibbs yelled. "It only makes you a murderer!"
"Think what you like, Gibbs," the Vice Pres. said clicking his tongue against his teeth. "You can't see the 'bigger' picture like I can. You don't see the full extent of what our 'commander-in-chief' (said in a mocking tone) has done!"
"Think so hunh?"
"No. I know so." the Vice Pres. replied, harshly.
Gibbs finally found himself staring in through a large opening/doorway that led into what somewhat resembled the 'War Room' at the Pentagon. At first glance around the room there was no one around, but this seemed like the most likely place for the Vice Pres. to be.
Gibbs crossed, slowly, to the center of the room looking carefully from side to side; but the room looked completely empty--except all of the electronic equipment had been turned on.
Suddenly he felt cold steel pressed against the back of his neck.
"Don't move Agent Gibbs." said a calm voice from behind him. "Drop your, uh, weapon--on the floor--if you please."
Gibbs did as he was told, and dropped his gun to the floor by his feet.
"Nice try," the Vice Pres. said. "Now go on and kick it away."
Gibbs obeyed, and kicked his gun across the room.
"Ya know," the Vice Pres. spoke very calmly and very smoothly. "You and I could have been great allies--in another world. Don't ya think?"
"Nope." Gibbs replied evenly. "I'm probably just as much a bastard there too." he added, humorously.
"Too bad."
The Vice Pres. started to wrap his finger around the trigger of the gun that he was holding, but stopped when he heard the voice coming from behind him.
"Yeah. Quite a shame." Tobias said from the doorway of the room.
The Vice Pres. turned to see who was behind him, and before he could correct his mistake Gibbs spun around, grabbed his gun hand, and slammed his elbow down into the crook of his arm. He dropped his weapon immediately for the sharp pain that shot up through his limb. Then Gibbs slammed a fist, hard, into his face.
Gibbs rushed forward then, and grabbed the Vice Pres. He kneed him in the gut, and then maneuvered him into a 'sleeper-hold'. He held him there just until he went limp and unconscious.
Gibbs released the Vice Pres. and let him slump to the floor. "Nice timing, Tobias."
"Don't mention it." Tobias replied with a grin.
"Where's Mike?" Gibbs asked, as he whipped out his cell phone, and quickly dialed McGee's cell number.
"He was right behind me." Tobias said, as he checked behind him.
Tobias walked over and picked up Gibbs' gun, and handed it back to him.
"McGee!" Gibbs barked into the phone once the younger agent answered.
"The missiles' on its way," he explained quickly. "Can you knock it down or what!?"
"We're working on it Boss," McGee replied, the sound of his fingers banging against the computer keyboard as he typed clearly audible. "We're working on it."
--------To Be Continued--------
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.