Nuclear Family

10

Gibbs and McGee looked up from their computers when Tony strode into the squad room with Tali on his hip.

Gibbs didn't say anything; McGee must've filled him in.

"Was Ziva there?" McGee asked.

Tony shook his head and set Tali on her feet. She ran straight to Gibbs.

"Strange."

It was more than strange. Why else would she have specified the street, if not to string Tony along? And why even give him a heads-up? Surely, she didn't want him to stop her?

"It makes no sense," Tony said.

"Unless maybe she just wanted to distract us?"

"From what? She left before I did."

McGee shrugged.

Gibbs got up, taking Tali with him as he crossed the bull pen. "Maybe you weren't the one she wanted to distract, DiNozzo."

"Then who?"

Their boss didn't answer immediately. He walked around McGee's desk to look over his shoulder. "McGee, what were you doing when Ziva took off?"

"I was... tracking Rechter. Or trying to. Boss—"

"And after she took off?"

"I tried to track her."

"Same window?"

"Well, no, I—"

"So you kept Rechter's search going?"

"Yeah. I... Oh." McGee reached under his computer, feeling around the edges. Then he froze. He pulled back his hand.

There in his palm sat a bug.

"When'd she bug me?" he asked.

Tony started to shake his head, but then stopped. "This morning. She was here before the rest of us."

"Okay, so she bugged my computer. But I haven't found Rechter."

"She might've seen something we didn't."

McGee pulled up his search window. It was still running the trace, too generalized to be of any use. "Boss, I really don't—"

"What about Ziva's?"

"I tried before, I think she turned her phone off—"

"No. There." Gibbs pointed to a tiny blue dot on the map.

To Tony's surprise, the dot was right on Fifth Street, though several miles north of Tali's school.

Maybe her hint hadn't meant what he thought.

Maybe she'd been leading him to Rechter.

But how did she know where he was?

"DiNozzo, run Tali down to Abby. We gotta go."

"On it, Boss."

***

Ziva sat in her car again, chewing on her lip as she watched the building across the street.

It was a business complex, floors and floors of offices.

And somewhere in that maze, Rechter was waiting.

She didn't have any firm evidence of his location, but McGee's general search was enough.

Where else in the city would Rechter go? No, he had to be here, biding his time in Elkin Kadish's office. She should've known.