Chapter 9

# # #

"That's all he could tell us? That he and McGee were being held in a country house somewhere in the woods?" Gibbs frowned as he spoke on his phone.

"That's it, Gibbs. Darrow and his cronies had some plans, and they picked McGee for it, and rejected Tony. Urban dropped Tony some ways away, he believes in hopes that he'd die of exposure. Sadistic bastard. So when Tony left him, McGee was still alive, though he'd been beaten pretty badly."

"Okay; thanks, Abbs." For the first time in two days there was hope. Not that it narrowed down the search any.

# # #

Moyers studied the playback of the vid he'd shot. He tinkered with it a little more…he'd spent an hour editing it…and pronounced it ready to go.

"Where is this place we're going to?" asked Urban.

"I found a coffee shop that's open today until noon that has free wifi," said Moyers. "That'll be good enough for us to upload this, most likely. But it's the only place I found that's open on Christmas."

"How far away is it?"

"It's in Lanaberg, about 40-50 miles from here."

"Well, if it closes at noon, we'd better get moving."

"What about him?" Urban jerked a thumb at Tim. "Time to get rid of him?"

"Not until we know that the upload to the net is successful," said Moyers, surprisingly forcefully.

"Good point," said Darrow. "Lock him back up, Urban."

With Tim once again handcuffed to furniture in the dining room, the three men departed. They would probably be gone about three hours.

After the first hour, Tim started to feel chilly. He realized that the fires in the fireplaces had gone out. In their haste to get on the road, the captors had forgotten to check the fires on their way out.

The chilling house made him lethargic, and worried. Moyers seemed to have tech skills; he'd probably succeed in getting his vid uploaded the first time. Then the men would return to the house, and have no more use of Tim…

Clouds rolled in, dimming the sun. Tim found his mind wandering in loose anxiety, knowing that the end was nearing.

He wasn't one to put his religious faith on display; it was a personal matter for him and his family. But the songs of Christmas…the serious ones…always touched him, and gave him comfort. In his mind, he ran over several of them, and he sang softly.

"Mother her vigil is keeping
Hush, little babe, to her song;
Rest thee secure in thy sleeping,
Grow thee more stately and strong…

#

"There are angels hov'ring 'round;
There are angels hov'ring 'round;
There are angels, angels, hov'ring 'round…

#

"While angels watched their flocks by night, flocks by night;
All seated on the ground…

#

"Det kimer nu til julefest,
Det kimer for den høje gaest,
Som steg til leva hytter ned
Med nystårsgaver: fryd og fred…

#

"In the bleak midwinter, frost wind made moan.
Earth stood hard as iron, water like a stone…

He paused as a tremor shook his body. Maybe it didn't matter if the thugs came back to kill him. He might be dead before then.

There was so much he'd done in his life; so many accomplishments. And so much he'd left undone. He'd wanted to find a nice girl and get married, and have a couple of kids. He'd wanted to move from his apartment into a house with a yard (the wife better be someone who makes a good salary). He'd wanted to grow old in this job, and rise in the ranks. Maybe someday be Director.

He'd wanted to be home for Christmas with his parents and sister, just as he had been on every other Christmas since he was born. He wished he could see them one last time. There was always so much left unsaid.

Time wore on, and still Darrow's crew did not return. Tim started to get nervous. What if they decided to leave him here to starve to death?

# # #

Shortly before noon, Vance called Gibbs on the landline. "Get up to MTAC—now. Bring Ziva. And Abby."

"Abby's at the hospital, with Tony."

"Blast. We're going to need her here. I'll call her back shortly. But come on up."

In darkened MTAC, as Gibbs and Ziva came in, they saw what looked like a YouTube spaceholder on a large plasma screen. "This just came in to the NCIS email box," Vance said grimly. He signaled to an analyst who pressed the play button.

They jumped as Tim's voice boomed out, and a slightly fuzzy picture played. Tim sat in an armchair in what looked like nice surroundings. He was holding up a newspaper, and the camera zoomed in on it. The date was unmistakably December 25, and someone said she recognized the Washington Post front page for that day.

Gibbs grimaced at the look of Tim. His face was bruised and he appeared to be in pain. "This is Timothy McGee. I am being held against my will, but I have been treated well," Tim intoned. "In exchange for my continued safety, NCIS is to arrange the release of Roy Jasinski from Quantico…"

Vance swore, but Gibbs only shrugged. "At least he was alive at the time this was made," he said when the clip had ended.

"Then we still have a chance to save him."

"Are you going to respond to them?"

"Soon. Let them fret a bit. I'll then give them the usual bumf. Find that house, Gibbs. Get Abby back here; have her analyze the tape."

# # #

Abby was soon pulling apart the vid, with Jimmy's help, while Ducky went to visit Tony. "Gibbs, this is going to take time. The picture quality isn't good. I'm not sure any of the knickknacks in the background are personally identifiable."

"Try, Abby."

"I will," she said, swallowing the lump in her throat. "Timmy is out there, somewhere…"

# # #

Around 2 p.m., as Gibbs was sitting down with a dreaded cup of vending machine coffee (the M Street Café being closed for Christmas), his phone rang.

"Agent Gibbs? This is Deputy John Ingalls with the Lanaberg, VA Police. Noticed you had a BOLO out on guys named Darrow and Urban. We stopped them for running a stop sign. Got 'em in custody."

"Give me directions…we're coming out there. Anyone else with them?"

"Yeah, a third youngster. His Navy ID says his name is Moyers."

"Okay. See you shortly." He nodded to Ziva, and they both got up. Then his phone rang again.

"Hi, Agent Gibbs? Lt. Sally Janda of the Virginia state police. Saw your BOLO. We just got a call from the SafestKingdom Alert company…one of those firms that monitors houses electronically when the owner's away, you know? There's an unexpected tic in a country home owned by snowbirds; a retired Navy man and his wife, in fact. We were going to go out and investigate, but since your BOLO involves home invaders, we thought you might want to meet us there."

"I do," said Gibbs, feeling relief that things were at last coming together. He directed another team to go to Lanaberg to take Darrow's group into custody. He and Ziva would be going to the country estate. If that's where McGee had been held…

- - - - -

The house looked beautiful from the outside; weathered wood immaculately maintained; the design a pleasing shape. Lt. Janda spoke to Gibbs and Ziva at the end of the driveway. "If Lanaberg has your suspects in custody, it's probably safe…"

"…unless they left someone behind," said Gibbs. "They've kidnapped one of my men, and are holding him for ransom. I believe he's in there. Tell me about the home security system."

"Well, a number of people in this area use SafestKingdom Alert. In a case like this, people away for months at a time, it monitors certain changes in the house. Like abnormal changes in temperature that might indicate a broken window. Of course there's the usual alarm wires at the doors and windows, though sadly, a really clever, tech-minded crook can get around those. That's while the other systems monitors are relied on."

"What tipped them off about this house? The lights?"

"No, the homeowner has to keep the electric service running to power the alarm system. Here, it was water use. Someone turned the water back on. Probably to use the bathroom. Crooks rarely think of that."

# # #

The door lock was easily picked. Gibbs took the front entrance with Janda, while Ziva and two of Janda's men took the back door. "Federal agents!" Gibbs called. "State police!" called Janda.

A voice, more like a croak, came from another room. "Clear!" Janda called as she moved through the living room and left it for a bedroom. Gibbs turned to the right, into the dining room…

"Boss…"

Gibbs holstered his gun, grinning from ear to ear. "McGee."

"I thought I'd been abandoned here. They all left hours ago, all three of them, and didn't come back. Damn; I'm whining. Boss, Tony. They…" He broke into sobs and was unable to continue.

"We found him. He's in the hospital, but he's going to be fine." Gibbs carefully unfastened the handcuffs that held Tim prisoner. He wasn't sure how badly Tim was hurt but he didn't want to take any chances.

"The house is clear," said Janda, coming in. "This your missing agent? Well, good. I like happy endings."

Gibbs only smiled, fearing that if he said anything, he would tip over into mushyness.

Ziva came in and ran to Tim's side, giving him a gentle hug. "We had no new cases these last two days," she scolded him lightly. "Just you and Tony. And you made us bushel cases."

"'Basket cases'," Tim corrected, smiling.

"Are you certain? Is not a bushel bigger than a basket?"

Janda called for a medevac helicopter, and Gibbs called Ducky at the hospital.

# # #

"Dear me," said Ducky, and that was all he could say. He dabbed his eyes with his handkerchief and handed his phone to Tony.

"Boss? That you?" Tony said.

"I like the sound of that. You can call me 'boss' anytime."

"Probie??? Probie, is that really you???" Tony whooped and almost leaped out of the bed.

"In the flesh. Man, Tony. When they took you away, I thought…"

"Yea, me too. You okay?"

"No worse than when you saw me, but I'll be on my way to GW Hospital shortly, I guess."

"That's great…" Tony was still grinning. "Got a bed right here next to mine. Promise me you won't snore. And, by the way… Merry Christmas, Probie."

"Merry Christmas, Tony."

- THE END-