Chapter Text
Chapter One
McGee slammed the phone down and hurried to the plasma screen, pulling up a live broadcast from the local news station.
"Boss, Abby heard a call come in over the police scanner about a bank robbery taking place right now."
Gibbs stood and looked at the screen. "And this concerns us... how?"
"It's Tony's bank..."
Ziva spoke up, "Didn't Tony say something about getting a money order when he was leaving for lunch?"
McGee nodded. "Yeah, he did. I just tried to call him on his cell, but it went straight into voicemail."
"What does that mean?" asked Gibbs.
"It means his phone isn't turned on, the battery's dead or it's broken."
Gibbs pulled his gun out of his drawer and snapped a fresh clip into it. "Come on," he called, striding purposefully out of the squad room. "We're going to the scene. Keep trying DiNozzo on his cell, if he's goofing around and turned it off I'm going to kill him."
Grabbing their gear, McGee and Ziva hurried to catch up, barely making it on to the elevator before the doors closed.
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He hated waiting in line. If there's one thing he hated, it was waiting in...well, there were worse things. He could be waiting in line with Gibbs. Yeah, that would be worse. Would Gibbs even wait in a line? Probably not. Oh, look...hmmm, very nice...dark hair, large blue eyes, full lips, but not Angelina Jolie puffy. Now there's a beautiful woman, but those lips are a bit much. Still, wouldn't kick her out of bed for eating crackers. Crackers...haven't had lunch yet. Probably have to pick up a burrito on the way back to the office. Damn, this line is slow. Why would they only have two tellers working at the height of lunch hour? A lot of people do their banking on their lunch hour.
Tony shifted uncomfortably, then smiled at the petite woman in the line behind him.
"Kinda slow," he said, looking pointedly at the tellers.
"Mmm, hmmm," was the vague reply.
"You'd think they'd have more people working, wouldn't you?" Tony gave her his most ingratiating smile.
"You'd think." She wasn't buying it. This one was going to be a challenge. He cocked his head and gave her a cheesy grin. "So, you come here often?"
Blinking, the woman looked at him as if he'd grown another head. "No," she muttered. "Just stopping by to get a money order."
Tony nodded. "Me, too," he confided. "Spending my lunch hour in a line is not my idea of a good time." He paused. "So, what do you do?"
"Do?" She was definitely not into this conversation. Gotta impress her, or something.
"Yes. For a living. You know, work? I'm a Federal Agent." Ahhh, that got her attention.
"What Agency?"
"NCIS - that's Naval Criminal Investigative Service."
"Don't know that one." She turned and started leafing through a magazine she was carrying.
"Kinda like the FBI, we work with them you know, but we handle cases involving the Navy and Marines." Tony leaned down. "Don't worry, you're safe with me, I'm armed." He patted his jacket covering his gun and smiled.
"Mmmm, glad to hear it." She continued reading.
Ouch. Crashed and burned. Oh well, he wasn't at his best on an empty stomach. Tony looked around idly, moving forward as the line grew shorter. This sucked.
There was a commotion over in the corner, Tony turned to see what it was. A man was waving a gun in the manager's face. Eyes narrowing, Tony started to reach into his jacket when he felt the unmistakable poke of a gun in his side.
"I don't think so, hot shot." He turned his head slowly to see the woman who gave him the brush-off holding a gun on him.
"Grandma, what a big gun you've got there." Smiling, he started to turn his body, stopping when the gun was jammed into his side harder.
"Very funny," she snarled. "I want you to reach in with your thumb and forefinger, and very carefully pull your gun out by the handle."
By this time three other men had pulled out automatic weapons from bags and were yelling for the customers to get down on the floor. One of the men leaped over the counter and ordered the tellers to back away from the alarm buttons. One young teller had already started reaching for the alarm, punching it as he backed up. The earsplitting sounds of sirens resounded through the bank, causing a panic. The gunman panicked, firing a few rounds at the teller, killing him instantly. Pandemonium erupted, the screaming and crying customers made the gunmen even more edgy. Standing on a desk, the leader of the group started yelling for quiet.
Tony was about to make a move amid the chaos when he heard a loud explosion and felt his side and stomach catch fire. Eyes wide with shock, he looked down to see a red patch blooming on his shirt through a blackened hole. His knees buckled and he landed on them, looking up at the woman who had just blown a hole through him.
"Shit," was all he was able to say, before he fell to the floor, unconscious.
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The black sedan pulled up to the assembled police cars with a screech of brakes. Gibbs got out of the car and strode over to what appeared to be the command center.
"Who's in charge here?" he barked.
"Who's asking?"
Flashing his badge to the burly officer, he said, "Special Agent Gibbs, NCIS."
An older man in shirtsleeves and bullet-proof vest approached them. "NCIS? This is a local matter, no sailors involved, that we know of."
Gibbs turned to the man. "I have reason to believe one of my agents may be in there. I need to speak to the officer in charge."
The man scowled. "I'm in charge here. Captain William Harding, Metro PD. What's your agent doing in there?"
"In the wrong place at the wrong time," replied Gibbs. "He was running a personal errand on his lunch. We're not even sure he's in there, but we can't reach him on his cell."
"Boss," McGee ran up, out of breath. "Tony's car is in the parking lot. He's around here somewhere. No answer on his phone yet."
"Damn it!"
Harding held up a hand. "Wait a minute, you think he might still be in the bank?"
"Yeah. DiNozzo seems to get into more than his share of trouble."
"Well, maybe it's a good thing. Is he armed?"
Gibbs looked sharply at the detective. "He is. He's one of my best agents. He's probably assessing the situation, waiting for a chance to make a move."
Harding nodded thoughtfully. "We're establishing communications with the bank robbers. Some shots were fired, we don't know if anyone was killed or wounded."
"How will you find out?" asked Ziva. "Maybe Tony was already in a firefight, he could be hurt, or worse."
"We know that at least some shots were from an automatic weapon," replied the detective. "We think they panicked when the alarm was set off. We're trying to patch into the security camera network, see if we can get a look at the situation."
Surprised, Gibbs asked, "They didn't disable the cameras?"
"They shot the primary cameras," Harding nodded, "but corporate headquarters had some hidden surveillance cameras installed about a month ago. They've had problems at this branch and they wanted to see exactly what was happening without any of the employees knowing they were being watched. The branch manager doesn't even know about the secondary system."
Gibbs turned to him. "Is there any way we can help with that? I've got the best electronics tech in the country. We could get a survey of the layout and the position of the perps."
"Yeah, sure," Harding agreed. "I'm not one of those guys who's big on jurisdiction. I'll take all the help I can get."
"McGee, get Abby and bring all the equipment she'll need out here."
"Right away, Boss."
TBC