All roads lead to Paris

Part 9

After a few minutes Tony had shown everything to Gibbs. Gibbs said: "The only thing we know is that this man, Agbari is after Ziva?" "Yes, and the number on the paper. I donr know what it means." Abby will find it out." Gibs walked to Tali's room where Abby and Tali were playing chess. "Hey Abs, we need you now." "Hey Gibbs. Tony, why didn't you tell me that she is such a smart girl?! She won three times in a row and I don't even let her win." Tony smiled at Tali who smiled back. Tali said: "The next time you gonna win Abby!" "We'll see." Abby got up from the floor: "Now, I have to help your Dad to find Ziva." She turned to Gibbs and Tony and asked: "What can I do for you?" Gibbs gave her the piece of paper. "Find out what this number stands for." "That's all? Wow this should be easy." Tony laughed: "This is from Ziva. It can't be easy." Abby opened her laptop and tipped something. Tony said to Tali: "Is it ok if we leave you alone for a bit?" Tali nodded. "Ok, and please do not open the door... I don't want to involve you in this." She nodded again and started sorting the chess figures. Tony closed the door. Gibbs looked at Abby who seemed confused. "What do you have Abby?" "I don't know. This number is a coordinate for a small house in a village outside Paris. I don't know what this could mean." Tony bent over to have a look at the screen. "I don't recognize this house." Gibbs said: "To whom is it registered?" Abby tipped in her computer. "It is listed to a man called Bruce Wayne." Tony recognized the name immediately: "Seems like this guy is funny and had watched to much superhero movies." Gibbs looked at him. "Oh, I forgot. You don't know movies so well. Bruce Wayne is the name of Batman; you know the guy with the bat costume." Gibbs stared at him. "That's not important. It's an alias." "Really Dinozzo?" "You knew that, of course. What is the real name, Abs?" "Our dear friend Agbari." Gibbs gave Abby a kiss on the forehead. "Good job Abs." Gibbs and Tony walked out.

Gibbs drove fast as always. No one was talking. Tony broke the silence first: "What are we going to do if they are there? Should we shoot him? Or should we let him alive to torture him till death? I would prefer the second way." "Stop joking Dinozzo. We will find out soon." Gibbs stopped the car a few meters away from the house. They got out of the car with their weapons in positions. They walked fast, but quietly to the house and leaned against the wall. Gibbs nodded to Tony. Tony pointed his gun at the door and kicked the door open. They rush inside. Gibbs went in the living room, Tony went upstairs. Tony shouted: "Clear!" There was nobody in that house. Tony went back downstairs. "There is nothing, Boss." "No not nothing Dinozzo." Gibbs took the clothes he found on the sofa and showed it to Tony. He gasped as he recognized it. "That are Ziva's clothes. She was here." "Yes, but there aren't any clues of kidnapping." "She came here by herself." Gibbs went into the kitchen. Tony followed him. "Empty fridge, but many food rests. What does that tell you Dinozzo." "They were here. But they left before we came here." Tony looked worried. Gibbs said: "We're gonna find her Tony. Stop worrying and move on. I need you to think clear, do you understand me?" "Yes Boss." "Good." They took a few pictures and drove back to Tony's apartment.

Meanwhile, somewhere in France. It was dark. She could not see anything. The scent of blood came up to her nose. She felt the rope on her wrists and ankles. Then there were footsteps coming towards her. The darkness disappeared as someone took the bag from her head. The brightness of the room hurt her eyes. She blinked to get a clearer vision. She saw a man standing in front of her with a bright smile on his face. "Shalom Ziva. It's good to see you again. I have to admit that I didn't thought that you would find out my secret. I'm surprised and glad that I've found you again. It would be a shame if we could not work together again." Ziva tried to curse, but the tape on her mouth didn't allow her to. The man seemed amused of her pointless attempt to talk. He got closer to her and said: "What did you say? I couldn't understand. What if I make it easier for you?" He grabbed the tape and ripped it a tiny bit off of her face. Ziva moaned in pain. The man stopped and said: "Wait. It makes more fun to let you be silent." He pressed the tape back on her face which caused her even more pain. The man walked around her and said: "You probably ask yourself: 'Why am I here? What did I do to him that he would do that to me? What is he going to do to me? Am I in danger? What about my family? Will he hurt them?' Well, these are good questions, but I'm not going to answer them all at once. So maybe the first one: Why are you here?" He was no behind her. He grabbed her by her hair and whispered in her ear: "Because you are in my way and I need to stop you. I figured out a fun way to do that. And you can do nothing about it."

Gibbs and Tony came back to Abby and Tali. They were playing chess again as they came in. Abby jumped up: "Hey. Did you find anything? Any clues? Are you alright?" Tony went to her and grabbed her shoulder and made her sit down again. He calmly said: "No we don't have clues for you. We only have pictures that you can analyze and yes, we are alright. Nothing happened, the house was empty." Abby seemed relieved. "Ok, great. Give me the pictures. I will start doing my job as I should." Tali looked at Tony with questioning eyes. Tony went to her and took her on his arms. He said to Gibbs and Abby: "Excuse us for a bit. We need a father-daughter talk." He walked to Tali's room and closed the door behind them. They sat on the bed and Tali started questioning: "What did you find? Is Ima ok? Did you find her?" Tony sighed. He didn't want to drag her in that much so he said: "Tali, you know this is a difficult situation and I want only the best for you, so I can't tell you what we found. I don't want to disappoint you, but we don't know where she is or if she is ok or not. We need to find this out." "I can help you with that." Tony smiled. He caressed her head and said: "I know that you would be a great helper, but I can't let you do this Tali. I love you and I don't want you to deal with all of this. This is my job, as a dad and as a NCIS super special agent." Tali smiled and nodded. There was silence for a moment before Tali proudly said: "I won against Abby. She is good but not as good as I am. When are you going to play with me?" Tony laughed: "That's great. I don't know maybe, now? But don't play to harsh against me. I don't even have a chance to win." Tali giggled and went out to grab the chess board.