In Too deep Chapter 3

The room spun wildly around him and Tony was barely aware of walking. The shapes around him all seem to blend and swirl into a sickening cacophony of color that made no sense. He felt himself stumble but a firm grip on his arm stopped him from falling. He shook his head in an attempt to clear away the strange floating sensation that he was experiencing. Nothing was making sense!

"Come on Marine, just a little bit further and than we can have some fun!" The soft voice echoed in his ear and he wondered to whom the voice was talking. Something was definitely wrong! He wasn't a marine or was he? The thoughts became muddled and he no longer cared as he was guided along. He was so tired!

He felt more hands grab him and than the strange sensation of floating. He moaned softly as he felt himself placed onto something cold and hard. Too exhausted to open his eyes and discover where he was, he allowed himself to drift to sleep as he heard the distant sound of a motor and felt himself moving. He sighed and allowed himself to drift into the darkness that beckoned him.

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"What do you mean they haven't come out yet, McGee?" Gibbs' anxious voice echoed through the small mic in his ear and Timothy McGee swallowed nervously.

"Boss, no one has come out of the back entrance. Tony must still be inside." He answered timidly as he watched the back door open and Kate step out, a frown showing her tension at the unexplained disappearance of her co-worker whose back she was suppose to be watching.

"McGee, they had to come this way!" She announced annoyed, "I followed them into the corridor, there is no other way they could have gone!"

McGee shook his head, "I tell you Kate, Tony did not…"

"If DiNozzo didn't leave by this exit than he must be inside!" Gibbs' gruff voice behind them made the two agents jump as he ignored the reaction. "Kate, you and McGee start a search but be careful, with DiNozzo's mic out we're not sure if he is with this woman voluntarily. If he is, I don't want to blow his cover. Abby is in the van trying to fix whatever went wrong with his equipment. I'm going to have a chat with the bartender, see if he noticed them leave."

"Right Boss."

"On it."

The two agents turned and hurried inside, followed at a slower pace by the lead agent.

"Where the heck are you, Tony?" Gibbs asked silently as he entered the main room of the nightclub and slowly looked around.

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"What were they drinking?" Gibbs asked as he watched the bartender pour a drink and serve a n impatient customer. He didn't acknowledge Kate or the small shake of her head she gave him as she joined him at the bar and waited for the bartender's response to the question.

"Bourbon. She bought in her own bottle, insisted that she was served only that?"

Kate leaned forward and stared the young bartender directly in the eyes, "Isn't that a little unusual?" She asked softly.

The bartender laughed softly and waved his arms around, "Look around, nothing that happens with this crowd is unusual!" He answered dramatically, "If she wanted to have her own alcohol and pay the cover charge on me serving it, that's her problem. All I do is serve. I ain't interested in their kinks!"

"Where are the glasses they were drinking from?" Gibbs asked, looking at the bar for the glass Tony had been drinking from only minutes before.

"Hey, I keep a clean bar! If I didn't I wouldn't have a job here long. The glasses are in the dishwasher being washed. All I can tell you Special Agent… Gibbs isn't it?" At Gibbs's nod, he continued, "All I can tell you is that the guy didn't seem to be able to hold his liquor. I mean two drinks and he was almost passed out on the stool! Anyway, I served them their drinks and she asked to keep the bottle, so I left it on the bar with them. I turned to serve another customer and when I turned back they were gone."

"What about the bottle of bourbon?"

"They must have taken it with them, probably decided to party elsewhere."

Gibbs rubbed his eyes in agitation; this was getting them no closer to Tony and the mysterious woman. "Is there another entrance out of the nightclub other than the back and the front entrances?"

The bartender frowned. "Only the small underground corridor that connects this place to the Boss' place but no one but the boss has the key. And the only way anyone would be able to find the doorway is if they knew it was there and believe me, the boss is very exclusive to whom he tells about it!"

"Is he now?" Gibbs said mildly, "Cause I want you to show me this secret corridor!"

The bartender blinked in surprise at the order and began to shake his head but the look in the agent's eye quickly warned him that the disobeying this man's order was not a good idea. With a small shrug of his shoulders, he nodded in agreement. "You really think that these two snuck out through the boss' apartment. Man, is he gonna be pissed when he finds out!"

Gibbs watched as he called for another bartender to watch the bar and than with a small nod at Kate to accompany them followed the young man out of the nightclub area and down a small flight of stairs.

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Kate carefully studied the small door that opened into a small and dark corridor. The bartender was right, the door appeared to be just a normal section of wall, difficult to find or even notice unless you were aware that it existed. The door showed no signs of being forced and so far she had been unable to bring up any fingerprints or even evidence that the door had been opened recently.

She winced as she heard Gibbs angry voice echo from the apartment and through the narrow corridor, ordering McGee to photograph and search the small apartment for any clues to the missing agent's whereabouts. The soft stuttered acknowledgement from McGee floated back to her and she could almost see him in her minds eye as he scurried away. "Where the heck are you, Tony?" She whispered quietly as she straightened and took a deep breath before entering back inside.

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Ducky looked up from the autopsy he was performing as Gibbs entered the room, followed closely by both Kate and McGee. One quick glance at the tension in the gunny's face told the M.E. that the search of the apartment had not offered any substantial clues to Anthony's current whereabouts. He sighed quietly and looked down at the poor unfortunate soul who had the misfortune to be the previous guest of the people who now held Anthony in their place of terror.

"I was told we have a fourth victim, Duck." Gibbs snapped as he walked towards the table to stare at the bodily remains of the yet unidentified marine. "What can you tell me?"

Ducky placed down the scalpel and turned to face the trio as he slowly removed the face guard and gloves he was wearing, dropping the gloves into the small bucket beside the table. "Our poor boy here died a hard death, Jethro. I'm sure Abby will find evidence of both Rohypnol and
Phencyclidine in his blood. He was then beaten severely over a period of several days. Judging from the layering of bruises I have found, each beaten grew progressively worse causing extreme internal bleeding as well as breaking ribs, his sternum, his left ulna and radius probably occurred as he raised his left arm in an attempt to protect himself, "Ducky explained lifting his own left arm in a demonstration, "and he suffered from a skull fracture. All the result of several beatings with a blunt instrument, maybe a baseball bat but some of the beatings was definitely done with fists. He also showed signs of torture with some type of an electrical instrument, by the marks left I would say some type of stun gun."

McGee swallowed hard trying to fore back the bile that burned at the back of his throat as he cast a quick glance at the two other agents trying to gauge their reactions to the clinical report of what Tony may be enduring even at this moment in time. He noticed Kate had grown pale and was nervously biting her lip and Gibbs was ramrod erect in posture, only his eyes betrayed the fear and anxiety for Tony's safety that he was feeling.

Ducky continued with his report almost as if he did not notice the effect it was having as McGee did. "But Jethro the drugs and the torture were not what killed our young man here." He announced.

Gibbs sighed impatiently, not in the mood for riddles as he urged the older man to speed up his report, "If he didn't die from that, than what precisely killed him Duck?" he growled.

"He died from a massive Cardiac Infarction…"

"A heart attack?" Gibbs interrupted incredulously.

"Why yes, probably induced by fear, Jethro. You see the Phencyclidine in his system would have caused extreme hallucinations. The poor boy probably thought that he was being attacked by some wild monster only he could see when he was being beaten. In combination of the hallucinations, beating and drugs, the boy literally died of fright. This reminds me of a case I once saw in Timor or was it Vietnam? Anyway a…"

"Ducky!" Gibbs cut off the story, "Over what period of time was he abused?'

"Ducky looked down at the body before looking back at the tense gunny. "Possibly three to four days, Jethro, a much shorter time period than the previous victims."

Gibbs nodded. "Thanks, if you find anything else…"

"I'll contact you immediately of course." Ducky said as he watched the three agents turn and hurry from the room. Turning back to the body, he continued his story, "Your unfortunate death does remind me of…"


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Stepping into the elevator Gibbs turned to his two agents. "McGee, I want you to run a full background check on both the bartender and the owner of that nightclub. I want the works on them from the time they were born to now. I also want the full report of what was found at the scene where they found this victim and anything else that might interest us. Than run another check on the other three victims," He held up his hand as McGee opened his mouth to speak, "I am aware that we have already run one but run it again!"

He turned to Kate, "I want a complete profile done on our perps. Anything you can think of that might link them to each victim. Anything they might do in the future that could help us. Than I want you to bring in the bartender. I want to chat with him again."

"Do you think he is involved, Boss?' Kate asked.

"Someone at the bar was!" Gibbs growled. "I'm going down to Abby's lab, Going to see if she has been able to match the video with anyone in the databank yet. Maybe she can match some of those latent fingerprints from the apartment. I also want to find out what went damn wrong with the surveillance equipment DiNozzo was wearing! "

The elevator stopped its upward assent and the doors chimed as they slid open. Gibbs stepped swiftly from it calling back over his shoulder as he strode briskly away, "I want answers when I get upstairs, understand?"


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He dropped his heavy burden onto the cold cement floor before rolling the limp body and ensuring the ropes he had tied around the marine's wrists and ankles were still tight. Satisfied, he kicked the young man back onto his back and began to methodically search through the pockets and clothing. He suddenly cursed and with a violent yank tore open his victims shirt exposing a small chip that was stuck to the man's chest. "This guy's no damn marine!" He cursed, kicking the man hard in the ribs as he straightened and swung angrily towards the blonde woman watching,' This guy is wired! He's either a cop or more likely NCIS!"

The woman gasped, "You sure?" she asked.

"Of course I'm sure," He snarled angrily reaching down and pulling the mic loose before searching the rest of the man's clothing carefully, "He's wired for sound and for video!" He announced pulling a small button free from the shirt and holding it out for inspection. "Luckily I made you wear that magnetic jewelry! That would have interfered with their equipment." He chuckled, "I bet this guys disappearance is driving them nuts!"

"What are we going to do?"

The man smiled and reached down pulling the unconscious man to his feet, shaking him a little before throwing him down onto the chair. "We're going to have some fun. The game has just reached a new level!" he announced excitedly, slapping the face of the agent hard in an attempt to bring him back to consciousness so the fun could begin.