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All hands on deck

Chapter 2            Looking at it from a different angle

Director Vance makes introductions and leaves the team to talk over things.  McGee tells DiNozzo what they know so far, which isn’t much, and Craig Porter outlines their next move.  Tony listens to both of them and thinks for a few minutes.  He moves to the front of the room and starts to go over point by point the things that they’ve covered and lists them on the board that they’re using for this meeting.  Once done he tears that sheet from the board, throws it in the garbage, replaces it with another, starts writing and says, as he’s writing,

“It is evident that we’re missing something.  Let’s look at this from a different perspective but first let me review the things that the team has done thus far to find Agents Gibbs:

-Interviewed hotel staff for their check out time and procedure and identified their check out receipts

-Reviewed camera shots of them leaving the hotel and boarding the airport shuttle

-Reviewed camera shots at the airport and found no sign of them at the airport and they did not board their plane for the return flight or board any other plane from that airport or surrounding airports

-Interviewed known enemies of Gibbs, with special attention to Alejandro Riviera but with no results.   NCIS staff has reviewed other cases worked by Gibbs where the perpetrator is now incarcerated and none of them claim knowledge of their disappearance.  The CIA has broadened the scope of their search internationally for Mrs. Gibbs’s enemies and has no leads.

With all that considered perhaps we’re not asking the correct questions or not looking at this from all angles.

-How does one capture two highly trained law enforcement agents and keep them hidden for over two weeks?

-How do two highly trained law enforcement agents fail to escape from their captors for over two weeks?

-Who captured them?

-Where have their captors hidden them?

-How do we rescue them and bring them home?

Before you all answer at once allow me to purport my theories on each of these items:

-They were caught unaware.  How did that happen?  They were in a plain and simple environment where everything was straightforward and then the unexpected happen.  We need to determine just what that situation was.

-Why have they not escaped in all of this time tells me that they can’t which means that either they are physically detained or mentally detained.  As we know both of them have had cases of amnesia.  Did the amnesia return and they don’t know who they are?  Maybe they are physically restrained either by handcuffs and ankle cuffs or held in a bunker or isolated area somewhere.  Or maybe they are drugged and can’t escape.

-We’re looking for enemies from their cases but consider that just maybe it’s as simple as they were in ‘the wrong place at the wrong time’ and were abducted.  Maybe someone has a grudge and took that moment to strike out and chose the Gibbses as a way to satisfy their grudge.  But we don’t know with whom they have a grudge and how does kidnapping satisfy that grudge.

-Seeing as none of the previous searches have turned up anything just maybe they are holding them somewhere not far from Charleston.  There are a lot of little towns in that area and secluded areas that we may need to search.

-Let’s review everything that we know and prepare ourselves for the worst-case scenario.  And before any of you say it, I do not think that they are dead.  We will need to consult with Dr. Mallard’s thoughts on their mental state when we do rescue them and have staff in place to handle that.  Also going on the theory that this is a spur of the moment abduction we will want Dr. Mallard’s opinion of the mental state of the captor.

Any questions?”

McGee and Porter look at each other, look at the list of items on the board and say nothing.  Torres is the first to respond.  He stands and walks over to DiNozzo and shakes his hand.

“Thank you DiNozzo.  I was going crazy here trying to think of some way to find Gibbses and you’ve given me hope.”

Then everyone in the room breathed a sigh of relief and starting talking about the things that DiNozzo suggested.  Tony was glad to help but his heart felt heavy considering the circumstances. 

A/N:  Wow, I liked this chapter!  Tony adds some new light to the situation.  I really hope that they rescue Jethro and Margie soon.  Next up we see how everyone is handling the stress of this situation.  We won’t see Jethro and Margie for another two chapters or three so stay tuned.  Reviews are welcomed.  Thnx for reading.