Grimlock the great, you have stolen my magic meteor, plundered my elderberry fields and crossed into my land for the last time.
Meet your fate, you son of a half-gnome.
Mom!
What?!
Internet's down again!
What the hell is wrong now?
Come on, come on...
I got the jump on one.
Cuffed him to a pipe.
What do these guys want?
They're pissed with service?
Where's that backup?
Now what?
Don't bother, Tony. Cell towers are down, too.
Don't need a cell tower to play Bing Ball.
Which is about all I'm going to get done today.
Who let you out of your cave?
Dr. Mallard, set me up for a sit-rep.
It's my first sit-rep.
Lucky you. Well, the heat's out, the phone's out, Internet's down, no elevator, coffee or vending machines.
Backup generators are feeding basic lights, communications in MTAC.
And autopsy freezers.
Really? Yeah, that could get ugly, huh?
So will Gibbs, if McGee and Ziva don't get here pretty soon.
Get here?
You didn't hear?
Tony, they never left last night.
You see this? Nine hours, 21 minutes.
Has it been that long?
Why did you do that?
It was either you or the watch.
It's just, what's taking so long, you know?
We're not the only ones who need to be rescued.
Plus, things could be a lot worse.
Yeah, how's that?
Well, we could be stuck here with Tony.
I heard that.
I find it very interesting that the two of you left together late last night.
Just ignore him. He's like an annoying bug.
Eventually he'll just go away.
It's been 5 years. Trust me, he's not going anywhere.
If you want, I can sing a song for you guys.
Excuse me.
Sorry.
Would rather have an update, Tony.
There was an expl*si*n at a Potomac electric substation causing some kind of...
What is it? Begins with a "C", rhymes with "parade sailor".
Cascade failure?
Cascade failure.
God, you're good at this, McGee.
So that chain reaction knocked out power in half the district.
Pepco says they'll have it back online soon.
Could not happen soon enough.
I'm sure Gibbs is feeling right at home.
Well, you don't need electricity to use hand tools or drink a bottle of bourbon.
He's right behind you, isn't he?
Yes, he is.
Boss, you know there's nothing wrong with the occasional cocktail.
Grab your gear. Got a dead Navy Lieutenant... at an Internet provider.
So we're still...?
Working?
Yeah. Of course we are.
I didn't mean to suggest that I wasn't planning on being productive today.
No go.
Try patching the E-doors to the backup generator.
Thank god.
You're late, McGee.
I must apologize for our tardiness.
Mr. Palmer has trouble navigating when the streetlights aren't working.
It is not my fault.
MapChart was down.
And who do we have here?
Navy Lieutenant Emma Paxton.
And?
Actually, that's all we have.
NCIS servers are down, too.
Local LEOs identified her by a credit card found in her boot.
And as to why a Naval Officer was taking part in the as*ault?
That is the million dollar question, Ducky.
I was doing rounds when the alarm went off.
The next thing we knew, all hell broke loose.
How many?
Three I think. Armed to the teeth.
I tackled the woman. I was able to cuff her.
She was wounded?
No.
She was fine when I left her.
I think her friends sh*t her.
They did not want to risk leaving someone behind who would talk.
So...
She's dead, 'cause of me.
Hey, it was either them or us.
What were they after?
I don't know.
Last I saw them, they were heading into the farm.
The farm?
Yeah, kind of the brains of the whole place.
Real high security. Even we don't have access.
Lucky for them, the power went out or I doubt they would have made it inside.
Maybe not so lucky.
I will alert Potomac Electric.
They call it the farm.
As in the server farm.
Connects the Internet to Internet users.
Anything worth stealing?
Yeah, millions in proprietary trade secrets for one.
We'll have to wait till they do a full inventory to see what's missing.
That's the iris scanner.
Controls the magnetic seals.
Lock's uncrackable.
Yeah, so they blew the power.
Looks like it.
The camera.
Left it to charge overnight. Obviously it didn't.
I can...
I can run back to the car, see if...
Wouldn't happen to have any food in there, would you, boss?
Missed dinner last night.
I'm gonna pass.
I don't offer it, we don't share it.
I understand. Thank you for offering.
Found tire tracks from the getaway car in the alley.
And an eyewitness who can give us a sketch of one of the gunmen.
I also alerted Potomac Electric for the possible connection here.
So power's going to be back on soon?
Actually, they said the damage was a lot worse than they thought.
The chain reaction has now spread to the entire tristate area.
We may be without power for days.
So how are we going to run fingerprints through AFIS?
Or facial recognition software? What is that?
Or access our photos from our digital cameras?
Want to switch?
Lieutenant Emma Paxton.
According to her record, which I found in the annex misfiled in a box with a rat trap stuck to it, she works for AFE.
Armed Forces Entertainment.
It's a DOD agency that sets up concerts for m*llitary overseas.
Yeah, Tim, I think he knows what it is.
She was a booking agent.
What was she doing at Swiftcast?
Appears to have been robbing it.
You mean why was she robbing the place?
Background does not shed a lot of light.
Has a squeaky clean record. Never saw combat.
Married her high school sweetheart, Anthony. Nice name.
She's also an upstanding member of her church.
Sounds like a criminal mastermind.
What about the other two gunmen?
Abby's working on the tire track from Swiftcast and wants to talk to you.
I've got the gunman sketch from our eyewitness.
DiNozzo, BOLO.
On it.
Lieutenant Paxton's bank statements and credit card... on it.
Ziva, I want to talk to the husband.
I will arrange it.
Fax is dead.
Phone is dead.
Computer's dead.
It's going to be a long case.
What do you got?
Better question is, "what do you not got, Abs?"
And the better answer would be a Caf-Pow!
I'm trying to make my own here, but I'm missing, like, 400 ingredients.
You all right?
No, I'm not okay.
I'm not going to be okay until the power comes back on and I can run diagnostics on my babies.
These aren't like light bulbs. You can't turn them on and off.
They're complex pieces of machinery that require precise shut-down sequences.
I don't understand. Why does autopsy get backup power and I don't?
MTAC, OK, but what does Ducky have that I don't have?
Corpses.
I'll get some corpses.
Okay, I'm gonna start this again.
What do you got?
Nothing.
You called me to say you have nothing?
That's why I called you.
To say nothing?
Well, I have something. A tire track.
Tony brought the mold down. My babies could I.D. this thing in like 2 minutes, but at this point, I'm going to have to do this by hand... by hand!
Do you understand what that means?
Maybe you know what that means, but I just need to know that you know not to expect my normal miracles.
Yes.
Great. I'll see you in an hour.
So, this makes copies?
I don't know.
For some reason, I'm flashing back to fourth grade.
There's no scanner.
Sister Maryanne thought I was cheating on my geology test.
Well, maybe this is it.
Hey, boss. Lieutenant Paxton's husband's up at the conference room. I was just about to come get you.
We are still working on distributing the BOLO sketch.
E- mail's down.
We found this in storage.
We're just need to find a brontosaurus who knows how to use it.
Boss, that was very impressive. McGee, did you get that?
One of the men she was with. It look familiar?
With?
What is that supposed to mean? My wife was a victim here.
I'm sorry.
I don't expect you to understand... but you do, don't you?
You want answers.
I want my wife back.
My wife was a proud American.
Third-generation Navy.
One of the good guys.
If there is one last thing I can do for her...
I can bury her... with the full m*llitary honors she deserves.
Spoke to Swiftcast's CEO.
They finished their inventory of the farm and every other room the gunmen were in.
What did they grab?
Nothing.
So why... was his wife lying dead on the floor?
Hey, guys, look what I found.
Look at this.
What's the map for?
What are you talking about?
You can't have a corkboard and no map. Haven't you ever seen Dragnet?
Baretta?
Kojak? Then this'll mean nothing to you.
Who loves ya, baby?
Right, boss? Telly on the Telly?
Sorry.
So what do we got?
A break-in at a facility with millions-of-dollars worth of equipment, but nothing appears to have been stolen.
And nothing left behind.
Swiftcast swept for bombs, bugs, everything. Place is clean.
Alarm was triggered during the break-in.
Maybe the gunmen split before they got what they came for.
Need to find those missing gunmen.
Still waiting on the BOLO, but our best lead is Lieutenant Paxton.
Talk to her CO.
Okay. Sorry about the Kojak, boss. Talking to her CO.
Excuse me.
Where do you think you're going?
Didn't you hear the boss?
I'm gonna go talk to Lieutenant Paxton's CO.
Then who is going to go through her bank and credit card statements?
I figured since that was your area or expertise, you might look through her credit cards and bank statements.
I don't do hard copies.
Then let's flip for it.
Last time we flipped, you used a trick coin.
We'll use your coin.
Fine.
I flip, you call it in the air.
If you touch me, I automatically win, and...
Sorry, McGee.
Ah, Jethro.
I was wondering when you'd come down.
I've been busy, Duck.
Yes, I imagine.
I take it you noticed that the power has gone out?
Yeah.
Well, luckily for me, the main tool of my trade does not require electricity.
Observation.
And what I have observed is two g*nshots fired at close range, both tore through her heart.
They weren't taking any chances that she'd talk.
She still talks.
This contusion here corroborates the security guard's story of her capture.
However, these handcuff bruises are... far too profound for her to have done them herself.
Gunmen tried to free her before they k*lled her.
Yes, which shows they did it as a last resort.
Which suggests a concern for her welfare.
Go ahead.
With the power out in the rest of the building, I offered 107 to the staff.
Anything else?
Well, you know how I strive for balance, Jethro, with two things that I can explain followed by two that I cannot.
The first, this swelling of her extremities.
Well, there are medical conditions that would explain such edema, but... the Lieutenant shows no anatomical indications of having any of them.
Blood work?
Well, I sent it out to Abby.
But with her Mass Spec down, I think it might be quite some time before we get results.
I would...
The second thing?
I discovered extensive evidence of severe and widespread trauma: broken bones, s*ab wound scars, g*nsh*t wounds.
But according to her records...
She's never been in combat.
There's more to this woman than meets the eye, Jethro.
I can't believe it.
I just can't believe Emma's dead.
When was the last time you spoke to Lieutenant Paxton?
I mean, yeah, this is the m*llitary, but this is the entertainment division.
When people die here, it's on stage.
Just the facts, ma'am.
I'm sorry.
We last spoke three days ago.
Before she was supposed to leave for Baghdad?
She wasn't going to Baghdad.
We spoke when she called in sick.
Which is kinda how I'm feeling right now.
I'm sorry. I'm allergic to perfume, and you're wearing quite a bit.
I am not wearing any.
I don't have any hot water.
And it's not perfume. It's Eau de Cologne.
Noted.
How exactly do you have power?
Portable generators.
We deploy them for concerts overseas.
Tony, if Lieutenant Paxton was never supposed to go to Baghdad...
She was lying to her husband.
I know she was to me.
She said she was really sick, she need to stay home a few days.
But an hour later, I saw her walking down 30th street... with a man.
She didn't look sick at all.
Did you get any descriptions?
He was a male.
A male man.
Anything else?
It's okay.
Well, let's get crackin'.
How did people survive before search engines?
Sorry, boss. I got another paper cut.
Keep 'em.
Thanks, boss.
Almost done going through these bank statements, I promise.
Taking a little break, are you, DiNozzo?
I would very much like to.
We were running down a lead from Lieutenant Resnick's CO.
More like walking down a lead.
And walking.
How did people survive before e-mail?
Needless to say, it was a dead end.
Is it possible for feet to die when they're still connected to your body?
I think I've hit a dead end, too.
Paxton's credit card and bank statements are clean.
So, basically, we got nothing.
Do blisters count?
Then we have nothing.
Speak for yourselves.
I finally I.D.'d the tire tracks from the Swiftcast getaway car.
I got the make and the model.
It only took me...
72 times longer than it usually does.
How did people survive before there was pattern-recognizing sparse representation algorithms?
Did you get my batteries?
Sorry, the entire city's been de-duracelI'd.
We are looking for a Chevy Impala.
Wait, a '99 Chevy Impala?
I'm not sure of the year.
Why?
I've been jonesing since our links feed went down.
I been listening to the police band all day until my batteries d*ed.
Got a report here of an abandoned car from Baltimore PD, boss. It's a Chevy Impala.
One of the Swiftcast guards said he hit the rear window.
Engine is cold.
Looks like we got a blood trail.
Clear.
This is like the Tardis.
Tard what?
It's a contraption that Doctor Who travels through time in.
Never mind.
Doctor Who?
Who watches that?
This is more like Lord of w*r.
Nic Cage movie from a few years back. Packed with g*ns.
"You have the g*n that Rambo use?"
It's a good movie.
Take a look at this.
It's our dead woman.
Multiple passports. Multiple identities.
That's a regular Jason Bourne identi-kit.
Not exactly standard-issue for m*llitary's entertainment division.
I don't know, I heard showbiz can be pretty rough.
Perhaps that would explain why Lieutenant Paxton has been moonlighting.
Yeah, but moonlighting as what?
Well, I've used sites like this before.
Mossad calls them sanctuaries.
Each operative maintains their own as a place to prepare for their ops.
What, you think Paxton was running some kind of op?
Well...
I think... at this point, we should be asking, who was she running it for?
It's got its own generator.
Think I might be able to get us some answers.
All right.
Come on, baby, you can do it.
Well, so much for answers.
I think I just found us a new question.
They came here in this car.
And then, it looks like they left in a hurry in a second one.
Hey, boss, I feel like Davy Crockett... trackin' 'em down.
Got a second set of tracks. Abby's gonna be thrilled.
We got something.
Blueprints for Swiftcast.
And the Pepco substation where the power was cut.
Whatever the plan was, looks like it was planned here.
Husband's not gonna like hearing he was married to Mata Hari.
He's not going to like what else we found, either.
His wife was not the only one with a fake passport.
You're recording this?
We record all interrogations.
Interrogation?! You said you just had a few questions.
I just have one.
That's not mine. I've never seen that before in my life.
It's your picture.
Yeah. Where'd you get it?
Your wife had it.
She kept a container off of route 50.
Why would my wife...
What do you want me to say?
The truth.
I told you before, my wife is the victim here.
You want answers?
You're gonna have to give some.
Okay, look...
It's...
Some things weren't adding up.
How?
Nothing I could put my finger on.
When you live with someone, you just... You get a feeling.
I didn't say anything before because I know Emma was a good person, and damned if I was gonna give you help proving otherwise.
But you still had doubts.
I don't know what I had.
I thought may... maybe she could have been cheating on me.
But she wasn't.
She wasn't doing anything wrong. And I can prove it.
How?
I hired a private investigator to follow her.
I have his tapes.
You can see for yourself.
Little more contrast on the big screen, please.
Little less.
That is perfect.
Need any help?
No, I do not.
You sure?
I mean, technology's not my thing, but...
Maybe I could be your techno wingman.
Do you know what that means?
No.
It means that I've got it covered.
So I want you to go do whatever it is that you were doing.
What exactly are you doing, again?
I was hand-filing evidence custody documents from the crime scene.
Yeah. Have fun with that.
I hope you blow a fuse.
Generator can't last forever.
Then you'll be in the dark with the rest of us.
I was just...
Just what?
Rubbing it in?
Because he left you with the paperwork earlier?
You found anything?
Well, there's hours of video from the private investigator...
Lieutenant Paxton at the park, getting a manicure, shopping.
Nothing out of the ordinary. Just as her husband told us.
You still think he's covering for her?
His wife's dead and doesn't know why.
I spoke to the P.I. He told him exactly what he told us.
Freeze it.
Back it up.
There.
The guy in the hat?
That guy was in the street, too.
Back it up.
There.
Different days.
Someone else was following her. Who do you think it was?
I don't know.
There.
But we got his prints. Go pick 'em up.
Right off that wall.
You sure you wouldn't want Tony or Ziva to maybe... They want to...
On it.
Latent fingerprints from the suspect in the park?
Check.
Fingerprint cards from local LEOs matching the suspect's description?
Check.
Lemons?
Did she say lemons?
I hope not. Paper cut.
But we can't start without the lemons.
Lemons, check!
Though I still do not understand.
Are we making cocktails?
Now I'm the one flashing back to the fourth grade.
Mrs. Johnson's science fair.
Lemons!
How could I miss that?
Okay, people, it's showtime.
So, careful, I arranged these alphabetically, so they would all...
DiNozzo, your whorls.
Arches.
Loops.
I'll take the composites.
We'll use the bins to narrow down the fingerprint cards, and find a match to the print from the park.
Go.
You never see this crap on Columbo.
Is it me or does this look like a squirrel?
I would rather not answer that.
Wait. Wait.
I got it.
I got a match.
And it only took all night.
Our camera-happy tourist's name is...
Donavan Graham.
And he looks familiar.
That is our gunman from the break-in.
Small-time hood, used to sell g*ns, has a reputation as a g*n for hire.
Well done.
It's Graham.
This must be the other gunman.
His name is Leo Harper.
Appears they were roommates.
Until they sh*t each other.
Commander Resnik?
Agent DiNozzo.
I'm impressed.
So am I.
Did you have some kind of makeover?
Despite my attempts at diverting you, here you are.
That's Lieutenant Paxton's CO at AFE.
Not quite.
National Security...
Agency?
Paxton and I were colleagues on a highly classified project.
AFE was our cover.
This is much bigger than you think.
NSA had agreements with all major biometric security companies to program a back door into their iris scanners.
Boss, "back door" is...
Yeah, I know what it is, McGee.
Paxton was one of two people whose irises were hard-coded into the devices.
Like a master key.
Who's the other?
That is cool.
Our eyes can open any lock protected by any iris scanner.
So, with AFE as your cover, then you can...
We can travel around the world without suspicion, assisting other agencies with covert activities.
Like the Swiftcast break-in.
We have no idea why Paxton used her ability to break into Swiftcast or what she was trying to accomplish.
But clearly our mission has been compromised.
Her husband?
Maybe.
But I wouldn't read too much into the fake passport.
Lieutenant Paxton had it created in case her cover was blown and they needed to disappear.
But if she has gone rogue, there's no telling what damage she might've done.
Or was planning to.
What are you thinking?
Paxton used her back door to get into the farm, so that's not why the power was knocked out.
Why is it?
That's why we're so concerned.
Power is down. Communication's hobbled.
Tactically, DC is in a very vulnerable position right now.
We noticed.
Well, we had hoped to get to the bottom of this in-house.
Yeah, I bet.
But you and your team seem to be making more progress than we are.
We need to pool our resources, find out what the endgame is.
And fast.
Talk to me, Duck.
Do I sense increased urgency in your step?
I need some answers.
Those I have.
Starting with whether these two k*lled each other.
They didn't.
Crime scene was staged.
Postmortem lividity suggests that both bodies were moved after they were k*lled.
Additionally, though both victims were sh*t repeatedly in the chest, these two were postmortem.
The actual k*ll sh*ts were delivered from behind.
I imagine their services were no longer required.
Tying up loose ends.
The question is, who?
Well, I don't know, Jim. Do you have any ideas?
No, sorry. And...
It was rhetorical. The... Never mind.
Well, I certainly have no idea who m*rder*d these gentlemen. But, I can tell you how this one spent his last hours.
He was digging.
Copious amounts of dirt beneath his fingernails.
Thanks, Duck.
Left agents digging at Graham's place, I'm sure this is what we're looking for.
We found it under the shed in the backyard.
Open it.
It's from the server farm at Swiftcast.
Except nothing was reported stolen.
And nothing was supposedly left behind. But I think something was.
The gunmen yanked this thing out.
And they put a duplicate in its place.
That doesn't make sense.
Think, McToma.
It's a classic cop show switcheroo.
You take something at the target location and then you swap it with a bugged copy.
Paxton was bugging the Internet. Can you do that?
That would explain why the power was cut.
The only way to swap the server without it being noticed would be when the system was down.
Which means the blackout is not a prelude to a t*rror1st att*ck.
At least not the kind that you're thinking of.
This connects directly to the Internet backbone.
Every byte from every government agency that uses the Internet would be exposed.
Which means...?
Our country's entire electronics infrastructure would be at risk.
She spent a lot of time overseas. Imagine she met a lot of people who would pay for the intel.
I'm sure she did.
But I don't think she was the one trying to sell it.
So, I finally finished running Lieutenant Paxton's blood work.
Smell anything?
Whiskey.
Good.
It's nonalcoholic, but I need that.
I have not manually distilled this much plasma since the mass spec in high school blew a Friedrich condenser.
That's actually really funny if you have a PhD in chemistry.
Paxton's blood work.
She recently ingested massive amounts of a vasodilator.
It's prescribed for high blood pressure.
That explains the swelling that Ducky found.
su1c1de attempt?
The drug is nonlethal, so that wouldn't be smart.
I think that she was attempting something way smarter.
Tell me...
What do you see?
Your eyeball.
Blood vessels.
Every person has a specific pattern.
That's what allows an iris scanner to identify you.
Now, Paxton knew that.
Commander Resnick said that they are forbidden from taking any kind of vasodilator, because of the affects it has on the vessels in their eyes.
Paxton tried to OD on one.
I think... she was hoping to block her ability to unlock an iris scanner.
She wasn't part of the break-in.
She was trying to stop it.
I identified her prints at Graham's place, but only in the bathroom.
So, I think that she was kidnapped, and then the kidnapper held her there.
And she fought back with the only thing available...
What was in the kidnapper's medicine cabinet.
It didn't work, but a-plus for the MacGyver.
The label's peeled off, but I know who this belongs to.
I found traces of this drug from a blood swabbed at the Swiftcast sh**t-out.
Who?
Do you recognize him?
I couldn't see the face, but I remember those eyes.
I think he sh*t me. Who is he?
Lieutenant Paxton's husband.
Husband?
A real-life Bonnie and Clyde.
You're sure that's him?
Gibbs, we have forensic evidence, now we have an eyewitness. It's enough to make the arrest.
Let me know when you need me to testify.
Nice timing!
Wizards are playing tonight.
Not a moment too soon.
Enjoy your sandwich.
Ladies and gentlemen, the story you are about to hear is true.
Only the names have been changed to protect the innocent.
It is something you're not.
You got a buyer yet for all those zeros and ones?
Getting sh*t during the break-in to divert suspicion was a nice touch.
Till it bit you in the ass.
Had your blood from the crime scene.
You should really watch your blood pressure.
Next time you kidnap someone, keep them away from your medicine cabinet.
Book 'em, Dan-Nozzo.
Nice Hawaii Five-O reference, boss. What are you looking at?
Red-handed?
They don't come much redder.
k*ll it.
Who is he?
Dimitri Verenikin.
Used to work for Russian counterintelligence, until two years ago.
And then he decided to freelance.
We think he learned about your wife while she was on an op in Kiev.
And he found an asset he could exploit.
With the National Security Data she gave him access to, he could name his price to our enemies.
Your wife tried to stop him.
And when she couldn't, she cuffed herself during the break-in.
She knew we'd find her body. She knew we'd dig deeper.
There's a lot I never knew about Emma, but one thing's for sure, she was a fighter.
Stubborn as hell.
Been there.
Emma had to do it, right?
She didn't have a choice.
No, she had a choice.
That's what makes her a hero.
A hero.
High-tech case, low-tech ass-kicking.
Kind of ironic.
You know, I actually kind of enjoy being unplugged.
Gives you time to think.
Slow down.
No e-mails to return.
No spam.
It's nice.
It's alive!