emerald_green37 | Catalyst 23/?

Tony's phone rang the second he turned it back on as he was leaving the prison. After almost dropping it in surprise, he managed to answer it by the third ring. He didn't get a chance to say anything, as Vance's voice was coming over the line almost instantly.

~DiNozzo, where are you?~

"Just leaving the prison, Sir. What's wrong?"

~Local LEO's reported a car accident. It's ours, run off the road.~

Tony stumbled to a stop, breathing hard. "The Boss and McGee?"

~And their protection detail. We're in route, that's all I know. Meet us there.~

Once Tony had the location, he took off running across the parking lot to where he'd left his car, knowing that he would be too late.

---NCIS---

The two Agency vehicles only added to the chaos when they slid to a stop, flinging gravel as the wheels locked. Vance didn't wait for his security detail as he scrambled down into the ditch, Ducky and Palmer right behind him. Balboa and his team and the Director's security detail were only a few feet behind. They all arrived as paramedics were carefully extracting an unconscious Ned Dorneget, tightly strapped to a board. On the other side of the car, several more medics were tending to Ziva, who was beginning to show signs of regaining consciousness.

The passenger side of the car was heavily damaged from an impact, but there was no other damaged vehicle at the scene. The back door on the driver's side had been obviously wedged open and Vance looked around for the rest of the victims. Not seeing either Gibbs or McGee being treated, he grabbed the arm of one of the uniformed officers. "Have the others already been transported to a hospital?"

The officer looked confused and shook his head. "It was just the driver and passenger. The other vehicle apparently took off, probably drunk."

"No." Vance pulled out his badge as did the other agents with him. "The driver and passenger are my agents and they were on a security detail. Where are the men they were guarding?"

---NCIS---

Patterson pushed the heavy metal door back down, sinking the abandoned warehouse into semi-darkness. As his eyes adjusted, he caught his breath. He'd only planned on taking McGee, but when he saw that all of them were unconscious, he couldn't resist taking Gibbs, too. He had plenty of rope and chain and it would be fun to let Gibbs watch a real man use the little fag's ass. Maybe he'd give Gibbs a go, too, if McGee didn't last long enough.

Getting excited at the prospect, he poked at Gibbs before picking up the handcuffed man and throwing him over his shoulder. He dropped Gibbs in front of a pillar, grinning as he landed on his obviously dislocated shoulder. Threading a chain through Gibbs' own handcuffs, he secured him to the pillar before checking him for other weapons. Both Gibbs' and McGee's SIG's were tucked in Patterson's belt, but he knew the older man often carried a back-up. He removed the small Raven from an ankle holster and tossed it on the seat of the pick-up before lifting McGee out of the bed of the truck.

It had been so easy, he had to laugh. He'd hit the agency sedan hard, forcing it off the road and down a slope that was enough to make it roll. The four wheel drive truck had easily made it down into the ravine and he'd used the tire iron to pry the least damaged back door open. He'd been prepared to split open some skulls with it, but all four of them were already unconscious. Removing their weapons, he carried McGee, then Gibbs, to the truck. They'd both been dumped in the bed of the truck and then the cover snapped back in place.

Anybody seeing him driving down the road would have been totally unaware that he had two kidnapped men with him. There was hardly any visible damage to the truck, even. The heavy brush guard did its job for the most part. The transmission cooler had twisted, causing a slight leak in the line, but he'd take care of that later. Now he wanted to have a beer and rest while he waited for McGee and Gibbs to wake up and realize what he had in store for them.

---NCIS---

Once the kidnapping was discovered, the accident scene became a crime scene, but most of the damage had been done. Emergency vehicles and the wind had wiped most of the tire tracks from the dry ground and rescue efforts had crushed the vegetation beyond what the attack had caused. Balboa and his team were fingerprinting the car, concentrating on the door that their perp had obviously opened, when DiNozzo arrived.

With a grim look on his face, Balboa looked up and shook his head when Tony appeared at his side. "Sorry, man, looks like Gibbs and McGee were grabbed."

"Damn it, what about their protection detail?" Tony looked inside the car, noting the deployed airbags, blood on one of them.

Balboa used his phone to photograph the best of the lifted fingerprints and sent them to Abby to speed up the identification of their kidnapping suspect. There really wasn't any doubt, but they needed the official confirmation before getting a warrant for his arrest. "Alive, both of them. Dorneget looked pretty bad, but David was starting to come around when they pulled her out of the car. Ducky went to the hospital with them, in case she's able to tell him anything."

"All right, thanks, man." Tony spotted Vance talking on the phone and clapped Balboa on the shoulder before scrambling back up the ravine to join him.

Vance was just finishing the call when DiNozzo jogged up to him. "Prints confirm that it was Patterson."

"That was quick."

"McGee has been developing a phone app and computer program for quicker suspect identification out in the field without needing the scanner. Balboa's team has been testing the prototype for him."

The question popped out before Tony even realized it. "Why them and not us?" He winced when his brain caught up with his mouth. "Sorry, not important. Any witnesses? Can we ID the vehicle?"

"Miss Sciuto is trying to pull every possible traffic cam and we've already got people canvassing the area. If any private businesses have a security camera trained on the road, they'll pick it up, but if there were any witnesses, they didn't stick around."

Tony nodded, but didn't say anything as he turned to return to the damaged car. Vance watched him for a moment, then called his secretary to pull in more agents.

---NCIS---

Tire tracks had been totally obliterated by now, but Tony stood with his back at the worst of the damage on the car, looking back at their attacker's probably path. Jimmy walked up to him. "Did you find something, Tony?"

DiNozzo pointed back across the road. "He was waiting for him."

"An ambush? But there's a half dozen ways to get from the Yard to Gibbs' house. How'd he know which one they would take?" Palmer stopped and thought. "How'd he even know they were going to Gibbs' place?"

Tony's first thought was that it would be obvious – they always go to Gibbs when they were in trouble, but how would Patterson know the details? "Good question, Palmer. Hey, Balboa, anybody been checking on known associates of Patterson?"

Balboa looked from where he was working with one of the local LEO's and checked his notepad. "Talked to everyone but one that we haven't found yet. He took today off from work and nobody's seen him."

"Works aboard the Yard?"

Another check of the notes. "Yes. In fact, Patterson got him the job. Balboa exchanged a look with DiNozzo. "We'll find him."

Tony nodded, looking back down at the ground at the crash site. Both Palmer and Balboa watched him closely.

"Did you find something, Tony?"

"DiNozzo?"

Instead of answering right away, Tony bent down and picked up some of the dirt, rubbing it between his fingers. An oily clump remained and he showed them. "Transmission fluid."

Returning to the paved street, he walked back and forth, looking for more. Eventually, he bent down. "He went this way." Continuing down the road, he found another drop, then another. Jimmy was jogging to keep up.

"It's not leaking very fast, Tony. He could probably drive a thousand miles before he ran it dry."

A sedan pulled up behind them. "Then it's a good thing we've got a car. Come on, let's go." With Vance behind the wheel and the agents and Jimmy trading off, they slowly began to follow the tiny trail while Abby and Cybercrimes studied various video feeds, looking for additional leads.

a/n - Now we'll know how closely you were paying attention in the early chapters :)