Disclaimer: NCIS and its characters do not belong to me and I am making no money from this.
Thanks to Mr VP for the Beta, any remaining mistakes are mine
Many thanks for the reviews, this chapter is a little shorter than I'd like but is the right place to stop, more soon I promise.
Not wanting to be caught out again Tony approached the light carefully, fully aware that there were unlikely to be many lights around at this hour of the morning. As he drew nearer he slowed his pace and watched carefully, he was still too far away to hear anything over the wind but his patience was rewarded as a shadowy figure crossed in front of the light, moving deliberately. Another light appeared briefly revealing the figure again before both disappeared from sight. Tony breathed a little more easily. A door had just been opened and the figure had gone inside.
Taking a deep breath he eased his aching body down the slight slope towards the light. As he reached the end of the field he realised that he could make out the door outlined by the light inside. He looked away from the sight and tried to make out more details. He had reached a dirt track and the ground beneath his feet was now rutted earth rather than the stubble he had been stumbling over for so long. He could see none of this however; his knowledge came entirely from feel. Looking closely to the right and left of the doorway he could just make out a deeper shadow indicating a large building. Perhaps a barn he surmised. It would make sense that there would be farms around here.
Tony let his eyes travel past the buildings but couldn't make much out, the moon had been obscured again and the air threatened more rain. Involuntarily he shivered, his body reminding him that he needed to make a decision on whether to approach the farm or not. A sudden wind squall made his mind up for him and he made his way as quietly as he could towards the barn, picking his way carefully over the uneven ground.
Halfway there he froze as his sensitive hearing picked up the sound of voices, something about the lilt disturbed him although he couldn't make out any actual words. Cursing as he realised what was bothering him Tony turned and began to make his way back towards the field only to freeze again as a softly accented voice spoke from barely a few feet away.
"Can I help you?"
The words were polite but the menace behind them was clear and DiNozzo froze again in place cursing his bad luck. Where the hell was the recovery team? The tracker must have fallen out of the truck he realised as he turned slowly to once again face the Spaniard who had warned him off earlier.
"Look Mister," he began, preparing to bluff his way out. "I'm just trying to get home, the rest of my stick should be around here and coming for me any time now, we all jumped at the same time."
"You are a long way from where you should have landed."
The Spaniard's voice was cold and Tony felt his heart sink, the man wasn't even trying to pretend any more which meant that his chances of surviving the night had just plummeted. Thinking quickly he said, "Dafelmair's not coming, the cops got him. Some guy called Gibbs, Navy cop."
"Why didn't you tell me this earlier?" the sound of a gun cocking near his ear was unmistakable.
"Look Man, you didn't exactly give me a chance now did you," Tony put just the right amount of desperation into his voice, his years of undercover training giving his words a ring of truth. Not that feeling desperate was far from the truth right now. "I been watching him," he continued. "I figured out what he was up to, thought maybe I'd take his place." He held his breath, hardly daring to breathe. Now it all depended on how integral Dafelmair had been to their plans and whether they could manage short term without him or not.
The silence stretched interminably but Tony fought the urge to fidget, the man behind him had a gun and wasn't afraid to use it. Finally the quiet voice spoke again. "You know too much," he said simply and pushed hard at DiNozzo's back causing him to stumble and fall as his knee gave out. "Get up," the voice came again. "You have bought yourself a few more hours and then, we shall see."
Drawing in a deep breath Tony forced himself up again to his feet and limped slowly towards the barn door. Once inside he squinted as his eyes adjusted to the light. The truck from before was parked in the centre of the space and three other men were loading it up with crates. Again he wondered just what exactly Dafelmair had been intending to do had he made the drop. He certainly couldn't have hidden a fraction of what was here. Surreptitiously he took in the details of the barn with a practised eye. There was another exit to the rear, large double doors that must have been used for the truck. The space above their heads was stacked with hay which smelled fresh, the farm had certainly been used until recently at least. The usual farm implements were neatly hung on the wall to his right making it less than surprising when he was dragged over to the wall on his left. A gesture from his captor had one of the men running over with a coil of rope in his hands.
"Hey," Tony protested, figuring it would be expected of him. "I'm here to help you, there's no need for this."
"Maybe, maybe not," the reply came in the same softly accented voice. "In the meantime, better safe than sorry eh?"
DiNozzo allowed himself to be tied without further complaint, he knew better than to push his luck too far. He let his eyes drift towards the rear of the truck, praying that the tracker was still there, it was small after all and he was sure that he had seen it land towards the back. Maybe it was still there. If so, he thought again, where the hell were the recovery team?
Author's Chapter Notes:
Tony finds the source of the light.