"McGee, how long ago did Kevin go for coffee?" Gibbs asked impatiently.

McGee looked at his watch. "It's been almost an hour Boss," he said with concern.

"Hey, did anyone ask him to stop and get something else?" Gibbs said sharply to Ziva and DiNozzo. The two agents looked at Gibbs and both said "Nope," at the same time.

A churning started in Gibbs gut, "shit," he said as he grabbed his Sig out of the drawer and holstered it. The other three all followed suit and raced for the door.

xxxxx

When they reached the coffee shop the seriousness of the situation became apparent. Three local police cars, all with lights going were parked at odd angles in front of the store. The cities ME's van was also pulled in at the curb.

Gibbs flashing his badge barged into to the store, "Gibbs, NCIS, what's happened."

The detective in charge, a man Gibbs had worked with before, walked up and said, "Gibbs? What are you doing here?"

"Frank, what's happened," there was panic in Gibbs' voice.

With a slightly surprised look on his face, the detective said, "one of the store employee's was killed, they just found him with his throat slit in the back room. What's NICIS' interest?"

"My kid…" Gibbs paused, then started again, "a kid we've had in protective custody is missing, he was supposed to be here getting us…," Gibbs noticed the coffee geek standing off to the side talking to one of the uniformed Police.

"Richard, was Kevin here?" Gibbs said walking swiftly over to him.

Richard looked up, surprised to see Gibbs. "Uh, yeah, just before I found…" his voice trailing off.

Gibbs said in a rush, "you saw him leave?"

"Yeah, maybe 20 minutes ago."

"What did he get?" by now the other agents were all standing around listening to the conversation.

"Just his usual, and a chocolate muffin for himself, I saved one for him." Richard looked up suddenly, "but he said it tasted weird, threw half of it away," he looked over to the trash that still had the half-eaten muffin sitting on top.

Gibbs put on a latex glove as he walked over to the trash can. Picking up the remains of the muffin he put it in a plastic bag he had grabbed from his coat pocket.

"Get this to Abby NOW!" Gibbs said as he handed it to McGee.

Gibbs turned to the Detective, "Frank, we need to be involved in this." The Detective started to say something but thought better of it and just said, "sure, we'll get you copies of everything."

"Tony call Ducky, get him over here, then help process the scene. Ziva you're with me," Gibbs moved swiftly out of the coffee shop and headed back towards the office. He and Kevin had been here enough that he knew the route Kevin would have taken. As they turned into the alley they both stopped and saw the remains of the drinks. They raced to the spot, it was then that Gibbs noticed the small splatter of blood mixed in with the remnants of the drinks.

xxxxx

When they were finally back at the office everyone was frantically trying to find a lead to follow except for Gibbs who was just sitting there staring at nothing. Finally Ziva walked up.

"Gibbs," she said. Gibbs broke out of his trance and looked angrily at her.

"Gibbs, he'll be ok," she said. Gibbs didn't look convinced.

"Look," she said, "Kevin was able to take us on remember. The scumsack will underestimate him, he won't know what he's capable of."

Gibbs looked at her, then said softly, "its scumbag."

"What ever," she said frustrated, "the point is Kevin is capable of a lot more than most other twelve year olds. He's a strong kid, he'll get through this."

Just then Gibbs phone rang, he lifted the receiver saying, "Gibbs." His eyes widened and he slammed the phone down and flew upstairs towards MTAC. The other agents all dropped what they were doing and followed him.

xxxxxx

Director Sheppard met him at the door of MTAC. "Jethro, take it easy."

"Damn it Jenny, I need to see it, now!"

She thought for a second, then stepped aside and allowed them into the room. "It's a video email. It was just emailed to me," then to the tech sitting at the control center. "Run it again."

The screen was black, then the image Kevin came on. He was in a plain room with lights focused just on him. He was dressed just in his boxers, tied to a chair. A rope held his feet together and there was a gag tied around his mouth. There was blood coming out of a gash above his right eye and running down his face. There were a few red strips across his body. The figure of the missing terrorist came into view, he walked from where the camera was to the boy, then turned and looked at the camera. He then drew his arm back and lashed out at the boy striking him with what looked like a long thin flexible plastic rod. As the rod struck Kevin everyone in the room drew in a breath. A new red stripe appeared and a pitiful moan broke from Kevin's muffled mouth. The terrorist walked over to the camera.

"Release Amade or the infidel brat dies a slow agonizing death," the missing terrorist said referring to the man who the team had captured. "You have one hour, I will contact you again only after I have heard from Amade." He turned and walked back to the boy, reached out and struck him again before finally walking out of view of the camera and then the screen went black. They all stood there silent.

Suddenly Ziva said, "Play it again," and stepped closer to the screen.

"Ziva…" the Director said.

Her voice quickened, "Play it again and zoom in on his eyes,"

"The terrorists?" came the tech's reply.

"No Kevin's, watch them," the director nodded to the tech who quickly started the tape again. This time as they watched they noticed Kevin's eyes staring directly at the camera and blinking repeatedly.

"He's sending us a message!" McGee exclaimed, "what is that? Morse Code?"

The director looked around the room and said, "who here knows Morse Code?"

Gibbs and Ziva said nothing but both watched fixated on the screen. As the techs in MTAC scrambled to find someone, Tony and McGee noticed the other two. Tony stepped closer, "what's he saying Boss?" he asked quietly.

"He was drugged, doesn't know exactly where he is…" Gibbs watched for a second, "shipping noise and water" at that point Gibbs stopped and his face hardened.

"What is it Jethro?" the Director said. Gibbs was silent.

"He said it was his fault, he got lazy," Ziva said softly, at that point Kevin's eyes shut tight and his body heaved as he was struck with the rod. His eyes opened once again, tears were streaming from them, but he continued the message then the screen went black.

Gibbs said quickly, "a plane just flew over, he's got to be near Reagan, it's the only airport close enough. McGee, you and Abby try and trace that email and see if you can get anything else off the video, Tony, Ziva, lets go" They all flew into action.

xxxxx

McGee burst into Abby's lab. She had been testing the muffin and looked up when McGee came in.

"Where's Gibbs?" she asked franticly, "I figured out what was in the muffin,"

"He was drugged, we know," McGee said quickly moving to a computer terminal and punching keys frantically. He looked at her seriously, "Abby, Kevin's been kidnapped, we just got a video email of where Kevin's being held, its somewhere near water and Reagan International." Abby looked at McGee with shock and fear.

McGee then said quietly,. "Abby, I need to warn you, it shows Kevin being tortured." Abby froze then rushed over to the set next to him and with a look uncharacteristically serious; she they started to analyze the video.

McGee glanced over to Abby after a few minutes, tears were running down her face, but she continued to work.

"He's blinking his eyes in Morse code isn't he, that's how you knew all those details?" she said in a hushed voice.

"Yeah, you got anything?" McGee asked.

"I'm not sure, look at this," she had been working on the video itself, while McGee had worked on tracing the email. She pointed to an area she had paused, enlarged and lightened; it was behind Kevin's head, "what does that look like to you?"

McGee looked at the plasma image. A window was barley visible.

"Can you sharpen it any more?" McGee said.

Abby's fingers flew across the keyboard. The image sharpened some, the outline of a large freighter smokestack came into focus, on the smokestack was what looked like a globe.

"That's a ship! We can trace the symbol," Abby said.

McGee's computer beeped and he ran back to his station, fingers pounding at the keyboard. Abby hit the auto speed dial on her phone and Gibbs' voice came on the line.

"Give me something."

"Gibbs, there's an open window behind him, and we can see a ship with a…" Abby started.

"Wait, GOT SOMETHING! McGee shouted, "I've traced the location the email came from, 557 North Fairfax, near the Tide Lock Park." The Line went dead as Gibbs hung up.

xxxx

The sedan came to an abrupt stop, but not severe enough to make a skidding noise, the three agents bailed out and moved tactically towards the building. It looked like an abandoned warehouse with a globe with "Global International Importers" written in script around the globe on the wall near the entrance. Gibbs ran up and flattened himself on the left side of the door, Ziva took the right side. DiNozzo took up a position about five feet from the door, just off to the side, all had their weapons drawn.

Gibbs looked at Ziva and nodded, she withdrew her lock picking kit and had the door open in seconds. She slowly opened the door and moved swiftly inside, Gibbs going in the opposite direction. The warehouse was dark, save for a light coming out of a room off to the side.

As they moved over towards the room they could see a video camera on a tripod and some filing cabinets through the window but nothing else. They took up positions on either side of the door. Gibbs held up three fingers, then started dropping them, as he dropped the last, DiNozzo opened the door and they all rushed in.

Kevin was still gagged and tied in the chair, but it was tipped over and he was on the side. As the agents rushed forward they saw that Kevin had worked his legs out of their binding and locked between the boy's legs was the head of the missing terrorist. His man's contorted body was limp on the ground stretched between the legs of the chair below Kevin. There were claw marks on the boy's legs where the terrorist had tried to claw the clamped legs open, but now his arms hung limp at his side.

"Kevin!" Gibbs shouted and moved in towards the boy. "Tony, call an ambulance!" Gibbs rushed to the boy pulling out his knife. He pulled out the gag and cut the remaining ropes that bound the boy to the chair. As he gently lifted the boy, Ziva pulled the dead terrorist out from underneath him. Gibbs wrapped his jacket around the boy.

As Gibbs carried the boy out of the room and towards the arriving ambulance, Kevin's eyes fluttered open and looked up at Gibbs. "What took you so long…?" he said in a soft slightly croaking voice.

"I had to stop and get some coffee…, someone spilled mine," Gibbs responded smiling at the boy.

- THE END –