NCIS s09e18 Episode Script

- That's one, two, three solid leads.
- Three? We'd need 30 private contracts to make up the kind of revenue we're out.
Hey, we're doing our best here.
You got 80 percent of the company in bed with the Navy, and And what, Ron? - We need that military contract.
- Not gonna happen.
Navy wants to go light.
Steel is out, polyfiber is in.
Dalton, did the contract expire, or did it expire? - Expired.
SATNER: Are we gonna get it back? - Don't see it happening.
- Legal doesn't see it happening, Ron.
Maybe we should stop yapping about a Navy contract we don't have anymore and figure out how to sell some damn steel! I have to go.
Give our best to the Secretary of the Navy.
And good luck with the speech.
WICKES: As president and CEO of Wickes Steel & Shipbuilding, I am proud of the work my family has put in to building these great machines.
They're an unshakable foundation upon which the Navy can take her fleet to new heights.
How was that? MAN: That was perfect, sir.
Thank you.
WOMAN: Good.
WICKES: Loud enough? JARVIS: Always are.
[WICKES CHUCKLES.]
Mr.
Secretary, I feel sorry for you having to follow that.
JARVIS: No, I was gonna have you take a look at my speech, - maybe do a little punch-up.
WICKES: Kind of like old times, huh? We made a great team.
I mean, older and wiser shows me how to hit the books.
Younger and more handsome shows you how to win the hearts.
WICKES: Ah, that was a long time ago.
- A less complicated time.
- Hmm.
Um, you know, we have business to talk about, Clayton.
Sure.
We'II, uh We'll do it privately.
I'll come over to the house.
Better hurry.
I may not own the place much longer.
[CROWD SCREAMS.]
- Get down! - Falcon down! He's been hit in chest.
[GROANS.]
Stop him! [SIGHS.]
Hey, McGee.
Vance is not here either.
Well, doesn't his son have a soccer game in Alexandria? No, that is next week.
Tony's ignoring my phone calls.
And it is very unlike Gibbs to just disappear like this.
[WHISPERS.]
Something is going on.
Actually, I think Tony said something about being on SECNAV's PSD today.
ZIVA [IN NORMAL VOICE.]
: That's probably a cover.
I think they must be at some kind of man day.
You know, when men take a day to do man things together.
- Really? ZIVA: Yes.
Just because I am a woman, they do not tell me where they are going or when they are coming back.
- I'm a man.
- That's right.
Which makes this even worse.
I'm gonna call Tony again.
[RINGING.]
We're doing our best to keep the investigation closed.
- Clayton? - Uh, no update yet, Mr.
Wickes.
We're trying to keep this out of the press.
The less the shooter knows, the better off we are, okay? We're asking these people to not say anything about what they saw.
I saw a man with a gun.
Right.
I got that.
So you're gonna be in this group.
Answer their questions, then you're gonna go home, okay? You're gonna lay low, tell your people you need some personal time.
No, I don't want that.
I want him kept separate from the group.
He was next to Jarvis.
He had a better view than anybody.
The gunman, he was wearing a blue hat.
I saw him.
Okay, okay.
We're gonna put you with a sketch artist.
You write down everything you remember.
Of course.
Anything.
LEON: Gibbs.
Massive blood loss.
Doesn't look good.
Family's been notified.
Gibbs, follow me to the hospital.
DiNozzo, you put him in a car back to headquarters.
I'll meet you there.
Gentlemen, welcome to the party.
It's BYOS, Bring Your Own Shooter.
I brought mine.
Tyler Elliott, my lead investigator.
Gibbs, Vance, NCIS.
Agent Gibbs, bravo.
Big doubts about you going in, but you did way better than expected.
- Meryl Streep better.
- Ah, take that as a compliment.
- This one tells it like it is to a fault.
- Been there for the real thing.
Are you confirming that all our marks were hit, doctor? [DOOR OPENS.]
On the money, Leon.
Break open the champagne.
- Opening night was a success.
- Well done.
Hey, where have you been? We've been calling.
What's going on? Man day is over and he's still ignoring us.
I'm not going to be ignored.
Glenn Close, Fatal Attraction.
That's a good one, Ziva.
Your impression of "hot lady with crazy eyes" is dead on, by the way.
You are a, uh, sphinx of a minx.
Game time, fellas.
Just like we planned it.
Tony, do not try to talk your way out of this by calling me hot.
McGEE: He also called you crazy, Ziva.
ZIVA: Ooh, I will unleash crazy on him if he does not apologize for leaving me out of the loop.
That won't be necessary, Special Agent David.
Today marked phase one of a joint PsyOps-NCIS directive.
A staged assassination attempt of yours truly.
- So that's where you were.
- Welcome to the need to know.
The target is Philip J.
Wickes of Wickes Steel & Shipbuilding.
I want it known that Philip Wickes is a personal friend.
I signed off on this op under the condition that we look just as hard for his innocence as we do for his guilt.
- Understood? ZIVA & McGEE: Yes, sir.
Director Vance.
One week ago, a page from a highly classified file surfaced online.
That same day, SECNAVgot a love letter demanding that he put the brakes on the Navy's green initiative, which is to build all new subs and ships with lighter alternative materials.
If the SECNAV refuses to play, the e-mail threatens to release more pages from the file.
- Straight-up blackmail.
- What is in this document? The file was remotely lifted from a database at AUTEC.
That's Atlantic Atlantic Undersea Test and Evaluation Center.
It's a facility where they test military technology.
Unmanned submersible drones, Mark 48 torpedo simulators Easy, McBradbury.
The file details a simulated warfare test done at AUTEC.
First page, no context.
But you throw in a couple more, suddenly you're announcing the weaknesses of every port on the Eastern Seaboard.
Cyber Division couldn't ID the source of the breach in AUTEC's firewall, but they did tell us the blackmail message was e-mailed from Wickes Steel.
Last month, the Navy said that they were done with Wickes.
Goodbye, government contracts, hello, bankruptcy.
So the blackmailer is Philip Wickes? It's his company.
He's got a pretty good motive.
How is pretending to shoot SECNAV going to lead us to our blackmailer? Seeing his childhood friend shot, Wickes is highly vulnerable.
The idea is to tell him that we've connected the shooting to Wickes Steel and AUTEC.
If Wickes is part of this blackmail, then he's gonna wanna know - why his people pulled the trigger.
- Eyes and ears on this guy 24/7.
Anyone he connects with is a suspect.
What if Wickes isn't involved? Oh, he'll tell us something, even if he doesn't intend to.
RYAN: Got your earpiece.
No.
I don't need you in my ear, doc.
- Oh, you don't know what you need.
- Oh, yes, I do.
- Really? - Yeah.
Hey, you think you don't need me, Agent Gibbs, but you're wrong.
But now I'm curious.
What do you need? Well, that question works both ways.
I need you to go in there and man-to-man, establish a bond with Wickes.
I need you to say what I tell you when I tell you.
I need to study Wickes' language and his body, and most importantly, his limbic physical response the first time he hears the word AUTEC.
And from that, I need to decide whether or not he's involved.
Hmm.
Usually, I just get them to say they did it.
It's easier.
Breakfast the other night.
Did I or did I not deduce that you like powdered sugar and not syrup on your pancakes before the pancakes were ordered without you saying one word? I rest my case.
His hat was definitely blue.
I wrote in my notes, um: [SIGHS.]
"More royal than navy.
" I think that's correct.
Oh, don't tell me you can't last longer than this.
GIBBS: Now, we've been at this a long time, Mr.
Wickes.
It's unfair to see a guy go through this for over two hours with nothing in return.
I wanna help all that I can.
See, he's a giver.
Okay, keep him rolling.
Repeat after me.
[OVER RADIO.]
How many employees from your company were aware of today's symposium? A lot of your people know about this thing today? WICKES [ON SCREEN.]
: Yes.
Why? Are you suggesting that someone from my company could be involved? No, tell him it's unlikely.
Make him your friend first.
We'll get to that later.
Tell him.
Not likely.
Wickes Steel is going through a pretty tough time, but we'll push through.
I mean, this company was built on simple pride.
My grandfather started with an idea.
My father worked there until he died.
The old man loved his female employees.
I have more relatives and half-relatives working for me than you can imagine.
[CHUCKLES.]
What am I talking about? This is about Clayton.
Even though I was older, he always looked out for me.
We used to call him The Mayor.
[SIGHS.]
I just wanna see him pull through this.
RYAN: Okay, let him go.
Gibbs, Gibbs, let him come back to you.
Just be patient.
Think about something else.
The sweater I wore to your house the other night.
What color was it? I know you remember.
No No.
No.
[SIGHS.]
We think the shooter has a connection to AUTEC.
You know what AUTEC is, Mr.
Wickes? I do.
A lot of unhappy folks from your company knew exactly where SECNAV was gonna be today.
Do any of them have a connection to AUTEC projects? Lawrence Ridgeway.
He wasn't the man with the gun, but Details.
[WICKES SIGHS.]
Wickes built something for AUTEC back in the '70s, before my time.
Ridgeway was the only one still around that worked on it.
Last month, I had to lay him off, two weeks shy of retirement.
Lawrence did not take it well.
What the hell was that? Doc, I don't have all year to figure this out.
I told you I needed to study Wickes.
- You watched him for two hours.
- Yes.
And then you blocked my view at the critical moment.
First mention of AUTEC, all I saw was the back of your big fat head.
I can't even confirm now that he was involved in the blackmail.
Looks like Ridgeway might be.
Oh, you think Wickes was rattled enough to give up a partner just like that? Or he's just telling us what he knows, and he's innocent.
I didn't try to block your view.
I didn't try to ruin anything.
- That's it? Is that all you have to say? - No.
Lawrence Ridgeway.
TONY: Say hello to Lawrence Ridgeway.
A spry 62 and loving it.
Third-generation steelworker hired at Wickes Steel when he was just a kid.
Dedicated employee, sort of like yours truly.
By the way, I wanna thank you for allowing me to participate in the SECNAV op.
That was Thank the doc.
She's the one who chose you.
Yeah.
I thought your game-show-host quality would be good for the stage.
- Ziva.
ZIVA: Ridgeway has had a rough year.
Lost thousands in company stock.
He was recently laid off.
And if Wickes Steel goes under, he will likely lose his pension.
SECNAV's green plan ruined this guy.
Sounds like a motive to me.
McGEE: If Ridgeway did it, he had help.
There's no way he's got the skills to break through AUTEC's firewall.
I found a post of his on a PC forum asking what a cookie is.
Heh.
Old people.
Old people entertain me.
Wickes didn't have the know-how to pull off this AUTEC job either.
We're looking at a team.
So you determined from the interview that Wickes is involved? [SIGHS.]
My findings were inconclusive.
GIBBS: Any contact between Wickes and Ridgeway? Not a peep since we let him go.
Wickes is a chess player.
It doesn't surprise me he's taking some time before he makes his next move.
McGee, get me a location on Ridgeway.
- On it.
- DiNozzo, Ziva, get going.
Oh, um, instead of Wink Martindale here, I think I'd like to send Elliott.
Wink? Come on.
At least go Chuck Woolery.
No, let me at him.
I'm the king of nonverbal indicators.
Yes, he is.
Unless, of course, somebody blocks his view.
[GIBBS SIGHS.]
Ziva, take Elliott with you.
Come on.
Game-show host.
Did you see that? Is she serious about this whole game-show-host thing? Oh, the doc does not mess around when it comes to people's personality traits.
Gibbs smiled at her.
I saw it.
And the way he walked to the elevator, it was It was what? ZIVA: Bouncy.
Gibbs' walk definitely had a "bounce" to it.
Yeah, happy feet.
I saw it.
Feet are the most honest part of a human's body.
Eyes are not bad indicators as well.
I saw Ryan's dilate when Gibbs walked into her office the other day.
- So, what do you think this means? - Oh, interest, excitement.
You know, it's a neurovascular response.
Only one who knows what a person is thinking is the person who's thinking it.
I thought you PsyOps could interpret everything.
No.
And even if we could, we wouldn't tell you.
Mm.
So Dr.
Ryan, is she? The best.
The annoying big sister I never had.
I'd do anything for her.
If Gibbs hurts her, I'll kill him.
- Heh.
- Oh, sorry.
I shoot straight and hope that it'll be tempered by my teddy-bear cuteness.
Uh-huh.
Bullet hole through the window.
- Clear.
- Clear.
Well, that's Ridgeway.
Looks like he's been dead a few days.
What else do you see, Mr.
Observant? This guy's not gonna be painting any time soon.
He's not gonna be answering any questions either.
DUCKY: Dr.
Ryan.
From the moment Jethro first mentioned your name and told me of your passion for the inner workings of the human mind, I knew I had found a A kindred spirit.
That's exactly what I was gonna say.
Plenty of time for spirits later, Duck.
DUCKY: Oh, thank you, Jethro.
Ever diligent in the war on small talk.
Single gunshot wound to the chest.
The bullet pierced the sternum, headed straight through the dorsal side, and lodged itself in an adjacent wall.
Happily, it is now in the capable hands of Miss Sciuto.
GIBBS: Is that it? DUCKY: Based on the rate of decomposition, he expired approximately GIBBS: Before we started playing Wickes.
Oh, please.
Mr.
Ridgeway, do you mind if I call you Larry? [WHISPERS.]
Oh, I like this woman.
So Elliott tells me you never saw the bullet coming and that you were getting ready to paint.
So let's just say you were involved in a plot to blackmail the Secretary of the Navy.
Are you with me, Larr? Is brightening up the den really at the top of your priority list? I'm pretty sure that Larr-bear here wasn't involved.
I think he just knew something that someone didn't want him telling us.
She's phenomenal.
But can she make assumptions like this? She just did, Duck.
[CELL PHONE RINGING.]
GIBBS: Yeah, Abs? ABBY [OVER PHONE.]
: In my lab.
GIBBS: I'm on my way.
"War on small talk.
" Classic.
[IN NORMAL VOICE.]
Impressive.
[BELL DINGS.]
Gibbs, Gibbs, Gibbs.
Look, I know that McGee thinks that AUTEC is just a military facility.
But I have possible proof of an actual sighting of a USO.
That's an unidentified submerged object Oh, hello.
Hello.
I'm Dr.
Samantha Ryan.
I know.
So, what am I thinking? You're thinking I can't possibly know what you're thinking.
- You're good.
- Abby, come on.
- What have you got? - A lot.
AUTEC is like crazy amazing.
You got your Bermuda Triangle, your wormholes, you've got your magnetic field deviations.
I just wish there was a way to contain it all.
You're a mapper.
Oh, I'm warning you.
You should get out of my head while you still can.
You map the bullet back to the shooter? Slug that killed Ridgeway.
It's.
30-caliber.
Definitely unusual.
One thing I do know is that it's not military specs.
I'm still trying to track it back to the exact weapon it was fired from.
Track faster, Abs.
You know why you're so gruff all the time? You need more sex.
- Not answering that.
- You just did.
ZIVA: I'm telling you, I saw a bounce in his step.
And Elliott, Elliott was sure about Ryan's pupils as well.
How am I gonna survive Gibbs dating a woman who thinks I'm a game-show host? What does that mean? Does she think I'm cheesy? That I like pencil-thin microphones? See, I don't buy it.
Gibbs is a Ione wolf.
You have to be observant.
The next time they come in here, you need to open up your eyes and really look.
GIBBS: Okay, what are we looking at? Updates on Ridgeway's shooter.
Go.
Ridgeway was shot three days ago.
Ryan's had eyes on Wickes for the last week.
- He wasn't the triggerman.
- He could've ordered it earlier.
McGee, e-mails? Wickes has contacted three people since we suggested the AUTEC connection to the SECNAV's shooting.
ZIVA: Bob "Smitty" Smith, Ronald Ostrowski and Vice President Frank Satner.
All haunt the Wickes Steel boardroom.
A whole lot of motive going on.
Working to clear their backgrounds.
But so far, all talks have been work-related and clean.
- Look for codes.
- Yeah.
And cross-reference keywords with recent e-mails.
Whoever shot Ridgeway wanted to keep him quiet for a reason.
It could be this.
Report detailing the project Ridgeway worked on for AUTEC.
- Well, it's been redacted.
- Yeah.
- Can we get access? - Hmm, it won't be a cakewalk.
Leads on the AUTEC hacker? Whoever he is, he's good.
Hid his IP behind a wall of alternating secure servers.
We need to get into this report.
Okay.
RYAN: Bad news.
There's more red tape around that thing than I have ever seen.
The good news is, I have a talent for badgering people until they give me what I need.
Hard to believe.
Wickes is lying low for a reason.
I think he eliminated the only remaining connection between his company and AUTEC.
I think he saw us snooping around.
I think he sent us to Ridgeway's door.
- I mean, who would suspect him? - You.
[CELL PHONE CHIMES.]
Your son? You're not the only one who can spot a tell.
Parker's a funny kid.
He's trying to wrangle fast food out of my sister.
Heh.
No.
You got pictures? Your surveillance pictures weren't good enough? By the way, bad of me.
Well, that's not the kind of Kodak moment I was thinking.
He was just little when he gave it to me.
He used to love boats.
Almost as much as you do.
He said it was the two of us, and that we were on this boat, sailing away, happy.
He wanted to take you away.
Who's playing doctor now? [CELL PHONE RINGING.]
- Yeah, McGee? - Boss.
I finally got the IP for the computer used to hack into AUTEC.
It belongs to a consultant named Amanda Baylor.
So that's our computer genius? McGEE [OVER PHONE.]
: An encryption specialist.
And you are never gonna believe where she works.
[BEEPING.]
Yes, I can confirm that one Amanda Baylor is in the "hizzouse.
" Very unattractive, in case you were wondering.
By the way, are you aware of a little film called The Graduate? Mike Nichols.
Fantastic.
Would you like me to seduce you? Wait.
What? Were you quoting the movie, or was that real? Where's Baylor? Secure encryption room.
She's in the middle of a 72-hour shift.
Logged in 14.
5 hours ago, before I got here.
Once an encryptor goes in they don't come out.
Department policy.
Probably well on the way to being ripe in there.
Did you know that your hair sparkles under these fluorescents? - Really? How much does it sparkle? CURTIS: So much.
- So much? - So, so much.
- Oh.
- Open it.
Can't.
No in, no out.
Encryptors even have their own private commode.
There's a lot of confidential crap in there.
Heh.
Here.
I can make sure you don't lose your job.
There might be something else we can talk about you losing.
I've decided to open it.
Thank you.
[BEEPING.]
[ALARM BEEPING.]
Where is she? This did not happen on my watch.
When she clocked in, I was still in my p.
j.
's, jamming to Luther Vandross.
Wow, this is a beautiful setup.
- They're running themselves? - No, Mrs.
R.
They're being run remotely.
GIBBS: Amanda Baylor.
Are you there? "Amanda Baylor, 28, unmarried, freelance encryption specialist.
Graduated from MIT with a degree in Applied Mathematics.
" - What else? - Well, that's pretty much it, boss.
With the exception of a few personnel files from the Iron Crypt, it's like she doesn't exist.
Well, she existed enough to have stolen that file from AUTEC.
And set up a pretty good alibi.
How often was she logged in at work when she wasn't actually there? Can we link her to Philip Wickes? We have not been able to tie Baylor to anyone at Wickes Steel.
Not even the board stooges.
Wickes is still only talking to them, and only about pushing paper.
What about a line from Baylor to our dead guy? [CELL PHONE RINGING.]
Baylor does not have a history with firearms, but it is still possible that she shot Ridgeway.
- Yeah, Ab? - Tell her you're on your way.
I'm on my way.
There.
There it is.
- I don't see it.
- She's right.
- There was a bounce.
- Damn it.
Welcome to AUTEC and the surrounding areas of the Caribbean.
- What is this? - The Bermuda Triangle.
And an ode to my inner mapper.
I'm marking the site of each and every amazing thing that happened here.
Well, you can't just say that and not give us a little taste.
I wouldn't dream of it.
Okay, so this bullet marks where the USS Cyclops vanished in the Triangle.
And this bullet is the Bimini Wall.
It's a possible location for Atlantis.
And this bullet, Gibbs, this is the Tongue of the Ocean.
It's like an underwater Grand Canyon.
And we think that AUTEC is running cables down more than 6,000 feet.
To what, we don't know.
Any of these bullets have a point, Abs? ABBY: The bullet that killed Ridgeway.
I traced that back to a company called Vita Foras.
Vita "Foras.
" It's Latin.
Rough translation: Great outdoors.
I'd guess we're looking at hunting weapons? You guess right.
More specifically, extremely rare hunting rifles.
The kind that crazy hard-core collectors would trade.
- Hard to track.
- Exactly.
GIBBS: Love your triangle, Abs.
Uh, I just have to ask.
You're in the business of proving things with science.
Why this need to chart the unexplainable? Wait, you're in my head, right? I'm just gonna answer you in my thoughts.
[BELL DINGS.]
Wow.
I get it.
You are a trip, Miss Sciuto.
That's a good thing, right? Ah.
What now? Where is Baylor, who shot Ridgeway? Wickes might be able to tell us, if we ask nicely.
Oh, I'll ask.
[RYAN SCOFFS.]
I've seen your nice.
I'm going with you.
You said man-to-man.
Oh, right.
I'm sorry.
We haven't met.
Hi, I'm Elizabeth Brighton, SECNAV's public affairs officer during this time of crisis.
Wickes and I are gonna form a special bond of our own.
[RYAN CHUCKLES.]
GIBBS: We think she might have a connection to whoever shot the secretary.
Do you know her? WICKES: I don't recognize her.
Did you talk to Lawrence Ridgeway? He's dead.
He was murdered? The murder weapon was a hunting rifle.
It's rare.
Do you know anyone with something like that? [CELL PHONE RINGING.]
WICKES: No.
Yeah, this is Gibbs.
What have we got? Do you think she shot both of them? We don't know.
As I mentioned, I'm serving as the Secretary's public affairs officer.
And he asked me to thank you for your help with all of this.
And he wanted me to pass on a message that the mayor was sorry that he missed your birthday last month.
Uh, I don't know what to say.
There were complications with the second surgery.
Nothing more they can do.
Interesting day on the World Wide Web.
A second helping of the AUTEC file has been leaked.
Page is a table of contents listing all the ports analyzed in the file.
They're toying with us.
First leak was Baylor.
Second one's gotta be her.
So let's grab her.
- Working on it.
- Well, work harder, Gibbs.
I'm about to go down as the ass who took a fake shot for nothing.
I think "nothing" would be stretching it, sir.
- Where did you get this? - Borrowed it from Wickes.
He took a good look at it right after Gibbs updated him about your condition.
Well, that makes sense.
Picture of the two of them together.
He also looked at it directly after he heard that Ridgeway was shot with a rare hunting rifle.
Can you think of any possible connection between that photo and a weapon of that type? Picture was taken at his family's cabin.
We were on a hunting trip.
Are you gonna try to tell me that Wickes was implicating himself? Wickes didn't pull the trigger.
The rifle could've been his, so could the hire.
The plan was to monitor Philip's communication after the mention of AUTEC.
You did that, you came up with nothing.
[RYAN SIGHS.]
Sir, there is a good possibility that Wickes looking at this picture was a tell.
I suggest that you press him further.
- Search his house - No.
- If he's involved, l JARVIS: I said no.
I'm not gonna rest this entire investigation on a glance.
Maybe he was looking past the photo, through the wall, down the street to a church to ask God what in the hell he did to deserve this torture.
What then, Dr.
Ryan? I'm done.
Get Wickes in here.
Now.
Agent Gibbs, why am I here? [WICKES SIGHS.]
[DOOR OPENS.]
WICKES: Clayton.
My God.
Bad information, Phil.
They got it wrong.
I'm sorry.
No, no.
I'm just so JARVIS: Someone is trying to blackmail me.
Blackmail the United States Navy.
Phil, they think it's you.
Are you involved? No.
He believes him.
You? Yes.
[SIGHS.]
Wickes say anything else? He signed a nondisclosure agreement.
Oh.
So he's being cooperative.
Is that why you came down here? No.
I came to see what you were doing.
You mean you came to gloat.
Oh, come on, Gibbs, don't make me do it for you.
You thought Wickes was innocent the minute you left that first interview.
And based on the lack of evidence we have against him and the indicators in the room with Jarvis, you were right.
- We need to focus on Baylor.
- No.
No.
You need to say it.
We all thought he might be clean.
None of us knew for sure.
I knew for sure.
That's why you need to say it.
- Say what? - That I was wrong, Gibbs.
And I'm never wrong.
And today, of all days, I was wrong.
Today, doc, is as good a day as any.
[RYAN SIGHS.]
No, it's not.
I keep telling myself Wickes looked at this picture for a reason.
But he didn't.
Not once have I thought this man anything but guilty.
What kind of person does that make me? Human.
Hey, doc, your black belt in badgering people pays off once again.
Ridgeway's AUTEC report, sans redactions.
- You find anything? ELLIOTT: In the late '70s, Ridgeway was paid to keep quiet about a classified technology he inadvertently saw while at AUTEC.
The report says the government paid dozens of people off.
Cash makes people forget.
Yeah, well, for 500K, I'd keep quiet too.
Even if I did see little green men on a destroyer.
Anyway, Ridgeway knew the money came from a pool of government funds used for AUTEC payoffs.
An off-books account, hasn't been touched in decades.
But this money's been accruing interest? How much money? TONY: Three hundred and twenty-seven million and change.
Boss, I'm seeing multiple attempts to hack into this account over the last week.
It's gotta be Amanda Baylor.
Baylor was hired to steal the AUTEC file and this money? Blackmail was a diversion.
Explains why they never said anything that hurt us.
We're watching the AUTEC files.
They have a better shot at getting in and out of the bank account undetected.
All about the Benjamins.
Looks like Baylor's taking another stab at the account right now.
She's accessing remotely and she didn't bother burying her IP so deep this time.
She did not expect us to look for her there.
All right, I got her.
I'm getting a Wi-Fi ping.
Ziva, DiNozzo, go get her.
She's off l-95.
I'm texting you the coordinates.
ZIVA: Are you sure this is the place? What happened? You don't trust the authority of McMaps? [WHISPERING.]
All right.
It's like Silence of the Lambs meets Scooby-Doo.
Freeze! Hands up! Do I look like I'm running? Amanda Baylor, you have the right to take a bath.
- You smell like a wild goat.
- I've been busy.
Too busy for personal hygiene? When I am focused, I am focused.
McGee likes them gamey, but I'm not sure he'd go for this one.
Oh, I clean up nice.
Put the computer down and step out here.
Uh-huh.
Let's go, Animal Kingdom.
Come on.
- Oh.
- So who are you working with? Ah.
Um - I don't know.
- Well, we know some stuff.
About the blackmail and about the AUTEC account.
We know that you're in cahoots with someone inside Wickes Steel.
- Right, um - Did you just use the word cahoots? - I did.
- Nice.
All right, somebody hired me through Wickes, but, uh, I don't have a name.
Didn't want one.
Was it Ridgeway? Did you kill him? I don't kill people.
I hack.
- I haven't really left the van.
TONY: No kidding.
Next time, hacker, why don't you crack a window? This is all of Baylor's computer hardware.
No sign of the rifle used to shoot Ridgeway in her van or in the apartment.
Abby, you do know that AUTEC is just a facility - where they run tests, right? - No, Tim.
It is a potluck of the unexplained, and this scientist is eating it up.
You know why? Because there's a lot of really important things that can't be explained.
GIBBS: Like what, Abs? ABBY: Like Atlantis.
Like the disappearance of the Lady Hampshire.
Like love.
- Abs.
- I don't have anything yet, Gibbs.
- The computers just got here.
- Well, maybe this stuff will help.
It's all the files we've compiled on the case so far.
What are you doing? I'm taking a picture of you with my map.
Trust me, you will thank me later.
Oh, I know that look.
I like that look.
The photo of Jarvis and Wickes.
Where is it? Right here.
Why? What just happened? Another unexplained phenomenon.
Sometimes you just have to believe.
- Who took the picture? - Haven't we already done this? Gibbs, be careful.
The tell.
Wickes looked at the picture because of who was behind the camera, not in front of it.
Who took the picture, sir? Carl Dalton.
He used to go hunting with us.
Does he have a connection to the company? He's Wickes' half-brother.
And in-house counsel for Wickes Steel.
Philip, what's going on? You said you were in trouble.
I'm not in trouble, Carl.
You are.
Please tell them they're wrong.
Did you kill Lawrence Ridgeway? - I'm sorry.
- No.
You shot him.
It's my job to look out for you, to look out for this family.
People depend on me.
When they told me about the rifle, I thought But I didn't want to believe it was you.
Ridgeway told me about the account.
If that money disappeared and they came asking, he would have pointed to me.
He was a loose end.
I had to protect us.
And why not blackmail the Secretary of the Navy while you're at it? It was nothing.
It was an empty threat.
It was a diversion.
A man is still dead.
But that AUTEC money is just sitting there.
And we're about to lose everything.
I did this for both of us.
We needed it, Philip, didn't we? Didn't we? Oh, no, Vance nailed you with the shredding detail, huh? Yes.
From redacted to unredacted to recycling to - Tony, I have a question.
- Hmm? Do you believe? Believe in what? [SIGHS.]
Well, unexplained things.
Secrets.
Occurrences that we're really not supposed to talk about.
Oh.
Well, I believe that there are moments, experiences, that someone like McGee with his trusty computer couldn't justify.
When Gibbs left tonight, I thought I saw it again.
- Saw what? - The bounce.
Yeah, I've been thinking about that.
Boss don't bounce.
You cannot expect a person to keep things bottled up inside forever, can you? RYAN: Mm.
Charades.
Let's play.
- Now? - Yeah.
It's as good a time as any.
[GIBBS CHUCKLES.]
- No.
- Why not? Because I don't play games, doc.
[CHUCKLES.]
Like hell you don't.
You know, people keep looking at their watch, usually means they're worried about something.
- You gotta run? - Oh, I've been running.
Maybe it's time you stopped.
Wish I could.
You can.
Parker can.
You have no idea.
You still wanna play charades? Yeah.
- I gotta go.
- Oh, really? RYAN: Mm-hm.
Parker.
You know, I can help you, doc, with your ex.
[SCOFFS.]
- No, you can't.
- Oh, yeah, I can.
I need to go home and check my judgment.
It's about Wickes again? You were right about the tell.
He looked at that photo for a reason.
Yeah, he did.
But that's not enough.
Well, you were wrong about the guy.
No one here likes you any less.
I wanna stop running, Gibbs.
Really.
See the people around me and not just blurs as I fly by.
Really see them.
I just don't know if I can.
Not yet.
I'm here, doc.
I know.