"NAVIGATION VOICE:" "Proceed straight on Seventh Street." "Are you sure you gave me the correct address?" "All I see are warehouses." "Hmm." "NAVIGATION VOICE:" "In 200 feet, your destination will be on the left." "Well, I don't get it." "My GPS says I'm pulling up right now, and I haven't seen a house for a few miles... (gunshots)" "NAVIGATION VOICE:" "You have reached your final destination." "♪ NCIS 12x16 ♪ Blast From the Past Original Air Date on February 24, 2015" "== sync, corrected by elderman == @elder_man" "♪ ♪" "TONY:" "No, you didn't cry?" "Nope." "Not a single tear?" "BISHOP:" "Nada." "¿Por qué?" "What's this?" "We're talking Top Gun." "I just saw it." "Her virgin viewing." "Tony's frustrated I didn't cry." "And you were speaking Spanish why?" "Oh." "No lo sé." "TONY:" "Okay, ignoring the fact that you spent your entire life without seeing 1986's undisputed action masterpiece, let me just ask you one question:" "What took you so long?" "Busy, I guess." ""Busy, I guess."" "What-what?" "I bet she carved out a little time to see Frozen last year." "Ooh, great film." "Classic film." "You can't miss with a singing snowman." "(laughs) Everybody loves Olaf." "Stay in your lane, McGee." "No problemo, senor." "Why are you talking bad Spanish, McGee?" "Uh, not sure, boss." "Good news though." "Got your new smartphone almost ready to go." "Yeah, it's Gibbs." "Smartphone?" "Gibbs?" "Yeah." "I talked him into trying out this bad boy for a couple days." "All the latest technology, top of the line." "I'm telling you, he's going to love it." "Cool." "You've met Gibbs, right?" "GIBBS:" "Come on, let's go." "We got a dead civilian in the warehouse district." "Civilian?" "Why us?" "'Cause Metro asked for us." "Hey, boss, if we rode together, we could do a short phone tutorial." "Its' not going to be in Spanish, is it?" "Not to beat a dead horse, (sighs):" "Too late." "but how did you feel when Goose's jet went down and Maverick is holding dead Goose in his arms?" "Goose died?" "Yes, Goose died!" "What do you think the point of the movie is?" "!" "Didn't you watch it?" "Yeah, I did, most of it." "I got bored." "Oh, Great Balls of Fire." "Lieutenant Cody Oaks." "You must be Agent Gibbs." "(chuckles) No." "DiNozzo." "I understand the deceased isn't military, so what are we doing here, Lieutenant?" "Uh, the victim, Leland Spears, was found by a passerby." "Wallet's intact, but his ID was flagged." "By who?" "You." "Said, "If arrested, immobilized, or deceased, notify NIS immediately."" ""NIS"?" "Our agency changed its name to NCIS way back in '94." "'92, actually." "Why was it flagged?" "I was hoping y'all could tell me." "TONY:" "What, did you come by way of the Panama Canal?" "Ye olde dragons." "Looks like something from your online computer gaming world." "McGEE:" "Could be a gamer." "First person's sweeping the country." "In fact," "Robert Morris University has an E-Sports Varsity Squad..." "Focus, McGee." "Why did Metro call us?" "It's got something to do with NIS." "Hey, you guys stop somewhere?" "Well, I wanted to show boss his new smartphone's built-in navigation system." "Mm." "Didn't work out?" "You think?" "GIBBS:" "Two to the heart." "TONY:" "Yeah, we didn't find any shell casings." "I don't think you will." "Trained shooter." "Who's the victim?" "Leland Robert Spears." "Spears?" "Born 3 March 1959?" "Uh... yeah." "That's his birth date." "How could you possibly know that?" "McGee, tell Metro this is now an NCIS crime scene." "Call Ducky down here." "You know this guy, boss?" "Leland Robert Spears... that's me." "GIBBS:" "Back in the NIS days," "Director Morrow formed a small undercover unit." "As part of that, I was issued a backstopped identity." "Leland Spears." "McGEE:" "Well, this new Leland Spears has no arrest record." "Not much of a record at all." "Living under a stolen identity, not surprised he laid low." "What was your case, boss?" "Cases." "Worked at least a dozen, everything from drug trafficking to a double homicide." "I was told that the origin of the identity was untraceable." "It probably was back then." "With the online landscape the way it is nowadays, hackers can access just about anything." "You think cyber-geeks did this?" "Definitely." "Any physical files would've been destroyed years ago." "Whoever it was went to a lot of trouble to secure the ID." "Well, let's find out why." "Spears' apartment-- you and McGee, go." "Abby find anything on the car or on the cell phone?" "I don't know." "That's my cue to find out." "Where's Gibbs?" "Well, he sent me." "Are you disappointed?" "Never." "Something different about you?" "Well, I got a new tattoo, but it's strategically placed somewhere that you can't see, so..." "Oh, these?" "Yeah." "They're old NIS coveralls, blue, instead of red." "They belonged to the guy that came before me, Doc Ward." "He was like a legend-- one of the main reasons that I applied for a job here." "But they've been in the closet forever, so I figured I'd wear 'em since we're working on an old NIS case." "Excellent choice." "Did you find anything?" "Yes." "Doc's glasses." "It's like I'm seeing through his eyes." "Though I..." "I can't really see anything." "Did you find anything in the car?" "Oh." "I'm getting there." "Whoa, whoa." "Take it easy, Magoo." "Um..." "Doc was almost blind." "So, Spears was talking to someone on the phone when he got shot." "Unfortunately, he was talking on a burn phone as was the person he was talking to." "But save that frown, because I found this puppy buried underneath the hood." "What kind of puppy is it?" "It's a very sophisticated and expensive GPS tracking puppy." "It's not even available to the public." "It's used by government agencies, foreign and domestic." "But someone planted it on Spears." "But someone planted it on Spears." "Precisely." "Who the hell is this guy?" "DUCKY:" "Well, Leland Robert Spears." "Although no one should die in this manner," "I'm glad that it's you and not your predecessor." "That makes two of us, Duck." "You find out who he really is?" "No." "Fingerprints came back "no-hit."" "We'll have to rely on DNA." "Do you think this could be connected with one of your old cases?" "Anything's possible." "Do you ever miss your undercover days?" "The adrenalin rush, the unrelenting fear of suddenly being exposed?" "The real danger, Duck?" "Losing focus of what matters, being buried deep undercover for too long." "Losing focus of what or whom, Jethro?" "I recall one case when you had no choice but to run off to Prague with a gorgeous redhead." "(laughs)" "You were clearly forced to go above and beyond." "Ah, no such thing." "Why do you think this fellow went to so much trouble to resurrect your former identity?" "(glove snaps) (sighs)" "I don't know if I could ever go deep undercover." "Have you ever done it?" "Not really." "I mean, not with a backstopped ID." "Tony did once, as Tony DiNardo." "He doesn't like to talk about it, but he actually fell in love." ""Love"?" "Did he get... intimate?" "No." "Tony DiNozzo didn't." "Tony DiNardo did." "Oh." "What's this guy doing with a black light?" "He's got sports memorabilia, video games." "He's like a teenage boy living in a 50-something-year-old's body." "Hmm." "Tom Hanks in Big." "Hah." "Tony would be proud you actually saw that one." "Well, half of it." "Well, I got something." "A security access card?" "Maybe Abby can figure out what he used it for." "(door rattles)" "Whoa!" "Who the hell are you?" "NCIS Special Agent Timothy McGee." "Who are you?" "Robbie Hale." "I live across the hall." "Is, uh, is Leland here?" "When's the last time you saw him?" "Last night." "I mean, I didn't actually see him," "I heard him." "He was in here playing, uh," "Dragon Age." "My... my walls were shaking." "How well do you know him?" "Is Leland in some kind of trouble?" "Yeah, he's dead." "Wow, that's ultimate trouble." "We need to ask you some questions." "Are you usually around?" "Yeah, man." "I work out of my pad, when I work." "I'm a day-trader." "Buy low, sell high." "It looks like, uh, Spears lived here alone?" "During the days, at least." "At night lately, he's had what I called a barrage of bunnies." "They all seemed really smart." "Do you know where Spears worked?" "No, he isn't a talker." "But I don't think he was working much lately." "He's been home a lot." "Doing?" "Mostly playing video games and listening to terrible top-40 pop music." "Miley Cyrus, One Direction," "Flo-Rida." "I'm, like, "Dude," ""try The Doobie Brothers," "Bob Dylan, anyone who owns a guitar."" "(laughs) (phone beeps)" "Oh, man." "NASDAQ-- it is dropping like a rock." "I got to scoot, brother, but, um, I'll be next door if you need me." "Stock trader?" "Really?" "The times, they are a-changing." "ABBY:" "These are the 5.56 by 45 slugs that Ducky pulled from Spears' body." "Um, most likely from a sniper's rifle." "I ran them through NIBIN, and they don't match any weapon anywhere." "GPS tracker you found hidden on his car tell you anything?" "Oh, yes, sir." "It was installed a week ago, and I can tell you everywhere that he's been." "Other than his apartment, he's been to two Washington Wizards games, three strip clubs, and several visits to the Beltway Burger on Phoenix Boulevard." "That it?" "That is not it." "On Monday morning, he drove from his apartment to a remote area, 32 miles away." "He stayed there for precisely 56 minutes." "Oh, what's way out there?" "Trees and leaves..." "and trees and leaves." "Yeah, yeah, Abbs, I get it." "Pull up a satellite image." "Push in on that right here." "Huh." "That looks like a cabin." "I will have McGee and Bishop check it out." "Do you know McGee's cell number?" "So, I'm married." "Do you think Gibbs would still ask me to go deep undercover for months at a time?" "You know, I learned a long time ago not to try and guess what Gibbs is gonna do." "Mm." "All right, should be about a hundred yard this way." "So, hypothetically, I'm undercover." "Everything is going fine, but then, the mark hits on me." "I have to make a decision." "Think the key word is "hypothetically""" "Gibbs hasn't asked you to do anything." "I wouldn't worry about it." "There it is." "Let me try this scenario." "What if...?" "(explosion)" "If a dead dude's shed explodes in the woods, and there's no one around to hear it, did it make a sound?" "McGEE:" "Bishop, you realize if we'd arrived 15 seconds earlier, we'd both be dead." "Now, aren't you glad I made you stop for coffee, McGee?" "He's venti grateful." "GIBBS:" "Got a DC Chronicle sports section." "September 13 last year." "Hmm." "Spears must have been trekking out here for months." "Maybe it's his man cave." "A place to get away from the wife." "(laughing):" "In the middle of the woods?" "Uh, anyway, you haven't seen his apartment." "That's his man cave." "And there was no evidence of a wife." "Well, Spears wasn't just kicking it back here." "He was working." "TONY:" "Yeah." "I got a computer." "What's left of one." "What do you think, McGee?" "Looks like this was shoved in between the cushions on the couch before the explosion." "Oh." "(camera shutter clicking) He was hiding it." "From whoever left this." "McGee, come here." "(clearing his throat)" "Here's the trigger." "(door opens)" "I know, I know." "I'm late." "Punctuality was never your main event, Tom." "Punctuality is the great thief of time." "Oscar Wilde said that." "Waste your time, not mine." "Jackson Gibbs said that." "Ah. (laughs)" "I liked him a lot better." "(laughs)" "Think maybe it's time to upgrade to a smartphone?" "Yeah." "You know what?" "I just did." "Turns out, it's not smart enough." "Ah." "Good to see you, Gibbs." "Or should I be calling you Spears?" "Yeah." "It's a flash from the past, huh?" "Yeah." "A whole different life." "Those early, uh, NIS years, Tom-- you sure threw us to the wolves." "Ah, but those wolves are all in prison or dead, aren't they?" "What the hell's going on?" "I wish I knew." "I'm pooling Homeland's resources to get answers, but as of now, I'm as in the dark as you are." "What I can tell you is, someone went to a great deal of effort to unearth your ghost." "You forged my covert identity" " Spears." "When we cleared our last investigation, you told me you burned it." "Well, you're half right." "I didn't invent Leland Robert Spears." "He was delivered to me." "By who?" "Michelle Stark." "She was also known in the spook community as" ""The Architect"" because, for decades, she built these intricate, untraceable identities for the..." "CIA." "Yeah." "Stark created your Spears identity, along with a whole slew of other backstopped" "NIS IDs for me back in those days." "She was the best." "Well, she was because..." "she retired a few years ago." "You got an address?" "I'll text it to you as soon as I get it." "Thanks." "That phone of yours is capable of receiving texts, right?" "Oh, yeah." "(chuckles)" "This is a vintage, late-'30s parking timer." "Swiss made, reliable." "What were they for?" "Well, originally, to remind you to put money in your parking meter, usually attached to a keychain, and they could be set for up to 60 minutes." "But, then, in the '70s, terrorists from Northern Ireland started using them as triggering devices for IEDs." "Gave the bomber time to get away safely." "Yes." "This one was connected to a classic, black-powder pipe bomb." "I can tell from the blast pattern that the bomb was placed three feet inside the front door." "And I found traces of alkylbenzene used as an accelerant." "That's kerosene." "I know." "I feel like I'm channeling Doc Ward." "Maybe it's 'cause I'm wearing his coveralls." "And he was the fire and bomb investigative specialist." "He investigated the fire on the USS Forrestal." "Really?" "Mm-hmm." "Oh, my father used to talk about that all the time." "So, do you think you can channel Doc and find out who rigged the cabin?" "I can certainly try." "GIBBS:" "Thanks for seeing us, Ms. Stark." "Call me Michelle." "And please, you've made my day." "Since I retired, I've got nothing but time." "You know, I thought I would do so much, change so much." "But, then, one day I blinked, my career was winding down, and I had become the neighborhood cat lady." "Is Theodore bothering you, Agent Gibbs?" "No." "Come here." "Come here." "Come to Mama." "Yeah, that's a good boy." "Come on, sit down." "Now, listen, you're gonna be nice to those visitors, you promise me?" "So, how long were you with the CIA, Miss Stark?" "30 years." "A lot of hard work, made a lot of sacrifices, but loved every minute of it." "Just didn't have a lot of time for a personal life." "Don't you make that mistake, young lady." "Okay?" "Oh, already taken care of." "(laughs) Good for you." "So, you said on the phone you wanted to talk about a burn identity" "I created 20-some years ago?" "Leland Robert Spears?" "I knew you looked familiar." "Remember those blue eyes from the photo IDs I whipped up." "I used to keep the undercover persona as close as possible to the agent adopting it." "That's why Spears was a former Marine from..." "Stillwater," "Pennsylvania." "How do you remember that?" "They were my creations." "Does an artist forget the details in her paintings?" "Certainly hope not." "Well, someone's been using my old backstopped identity." "We're trying to find out how they got it." "He was murdered last night, and we have no idea who he really is." "What happens to an identity when it's no longer being used?" "It's burned." "Removed from everywhere except the CIA's classified, secure network." "So, it shouldn't be able to be retrieved easily?" "It shouldn't be able to be retrieved period." "TONY:" "No, I don't think I can, Zoe." "Oh, yeah, yeah." "No, I just don't think I can 'cause-cause we..." "'cause we got a case?" "No, it's just that the... the case that we're working on is heating up, and I am probably working tonight and tomorrow night?" "Yeah." "You know how it is." "It's just..." "Yeah." "Listen, I'd love to talk, but I got to go 'cause I got a thing." "Mm-hmm." "Yeah." "Me, too." "Bye." "You know something I don't?" ""Working tonight and tomorrow night"?" "No, Tim." "It's just that Zoe's parents are in town, and they want to have dinner." "I'm not ready for all that." "So you deceived her?" "I was put on the spot." "I was not prepared." "Whoa, whoa, whoa." "Hey." "What are you afraid of?" "I don't know." "They're probably really nice." "I'm sure they are." "I've just..." "I've just never had dinner with the parents of a woman I'm seriously involved with." "That is not true." "What about Jeanne Benoit's?" "No, technically that wasn't me because I was undercover as Tony DiNardo, professor of film studies." "I wasn't myself back then." "Meeting the parents for dinner." "That could trigger a whole chain of events." "It's just dinner, Tony." "You have dinner yet with Ranger Burt's parents?" "I didn't think so." "Then put down the gavel, take off the robe, and stop judging, both of yous." "Okay." "Where's Gibbs?" "He's on his way back with Bishop." "Why?" "You got something?" "Yep." "Finally broke into a partition on Spears' laptop hard drive." "Found that he was gathering Intel on a semiconductor called Gallium Nitride." "Mm." "Gallium Nitride." "Science-y." "It's used in aerospace." "Everything from anti-radar to missile applications." "It's bad." "It's, like, really bad." "Coveted by militaries worldwide." "Information you do not want in the wrong hands." "Sounds like it already is." "Stolen undercover aliases from 20 years ago" "I can sell to SecDef over the phone, but advanced Gallium Nitride in enemy hands is a different beast." "Requires a house call." "One that I'm not prepared to make until we know that this is what it's about." "Okay." "Let's go." "Uh, Gallium Nitride-- or "GaN," for short-- is a highly dangerous compound originally developed..." "To brighten LEDs in prototype electronics." "Plasma TVs, phones." "Uh... yeah." "Yeah, all the electronics we now take for granted." "But the Navy..." "Knew that it could have other uses." "Deadly, military uses like... radar, anti-radar or missile applications." "(chuckles) What?" "Nothing." "Except that that was..." "that's a lot of technobabble, and, generally, people with your particular hairstyle in this room don't... d-don't..." "Correct babble." "How?" "I was investigating a company doing that kind of research." "Back when you were undercover as Leland Spears." "The theft of that particular alias was intentional." "This is all about Gallium Nitride." "Spears is already in that world." "Even 20 years later, it could make Intel easier to access." "Depending on how deep your cover was back then, Gibbs." "MORROW:" "Deep enough." "Maybe it's time to pay that visit to SecDef, Director." "Yeah." "Excuse me." "Good to see you, sir." "was your cover on that case, boss?" "Who was Leland Spears?" "Black market Gallium Nitride dealer?" "Hit man?" "I.T. guy." "As in "information technology"?" "You-you went undercover as a..." "You were a computer nerd?" "Computer technician." "(chuckles) Right." "Of course." "Technician." "(chuckles, clears throat)" "(snorts)" "There a problem?" "No, the politically correct term No, I just had a thing would be "computer technician"" with my..." "How 'bout an update from Abby." "Still with McGee pulling Intel from the burned drive." "Maybe you could lend a little I.T. finger." "A-a hand." "I meant, like, a computer..." "Huh." "Hmm." "McGEE:" "I.T.?" "As in "information technology"?" "Yeah." "Those two words aren't really Gibbs-compatible." "Do you think he's just been putting us on this whole time?" "What, you mean Gibbs' techno-aversion is fake and he's secretly known about computers all this time?" "No." "No way." "Well, he had to know about computers back then." "What makes you say that?" "GIBBS:" "I didn't blow my cover." "Uh, of course you didn't, boss." "I'm-I'm sure you made a very convincing computer nerd." "Computer technician." "Okay." "Moving on." "We found your former undercover ID on the burned-out hard drive." "Spears was using your old name and background info to pose as a seasoned I.T. guy." "He took a part-time tech support job at Longview Technics." "It's an advanced research company." "Which just happens to use Gallium Nitride." "Spears wasn't fixing computers." "No." "He was using them to steal data." "Could be what got him killed." "Find out." "Well, we'd have to access Longview's network file storage, something they're not gonna be eager to share." "So how do we see what Spears was accessing without raising any eyebrows?" "We show up to work." "You mean we pose as Spears?" "Company doesn't know he's dead." "So we can go in during the night shift-- after-hours, less people, hopefully no familiar faces." "We can access their network and find out what Spears was downloading." "In and out. 15 minutes tops." "I already have" "Spears' access card scanned on my computer." "McGEE:" "All right, all we need is a photo." "My NCIS ID should be scanned into the system, so you can just copy and paste." "Nope." "I don't need yours." "W-We're not sending Gibbs undercover." "No offense, boss." "No, none taken, McGee." "I agree." "We send McGee." "No." "If we send in McGee, names, dates, nothing will match." "I'll have to change everything." "This is faster and smarter." "It was your identity in the first place, Gibbs." "You made it work back then." "I studied." "Perfect." "Technology may be faster and smaller, but, in truth, nothing's changed that much." "You don't need McGee." "C-colon-slashback still apply?" "McGEE:" "Okay, we've got good video." "Testing." "Testing." "Come in, boss." "Relax, McGee." "It's not NASA." "McGEE (over earpiece):" "Okay, the night staff should be the only ones in the building." "You have Spears' badge, which should give you access to the lobby elevators." "Can I help you?" "Let's just hope that security guard doesn't know" "Spears personally." "I.T. guy." "Got to go up to my office." "Fifth floor." "Uh, maybe the card has to touch the sensor." "Having trouble?" "I thought you were supposed to be fixing these things." "Okay, tell him that there's probably a malfunction with the proximity sensor and that you'll have to come back tomorrow with a new RFID reader." "Not my department." "Mind if I ask what you're doing here then?" "You're here to reboot network protocols, which will shut the Internet access off completely." "That's why you have to come during off-hours." "Not a clue." "My boss e-mails me in the middle of the night," "I shut up and I show up." "He's not saying anything that I'm saying." "Mind if I see that e-mail?" "No, boss, we don't have that." "We don't have the e-mail." "What's he gonna show him?" "I don't know." "His gun?" "His badge?" "Worse?" "I don't know." "Sure." "No problem." "You're welcome to anything on there." "Wh..." "Did I mention that my boss woke me up?" "(chuckles) You're telling me." "(chuckles)" "They say, "Jump." You say, "How high?"" "I'm right there with you." "(sighs)" "Don't work too hard now." "(chuckles) Yeah." "Maybe in another life." "(sighs)" "McGEE:" "Well, at least the card reader problem wasn't system-wide." "Does it matter which computer?" "Well, you have Spears' username and password, so you should be able to sign in using any networked computer." "Okay, so, uh, open the log-in menu." "Okay." "How?" "Uh, tap the keyboard." "Then say that, McGee." "Uh, sorry, boss." "You weren't listening to me in the lobby." "I figured you knew what you were doing." "With people, McGee." "Not computers." "Okay." "Go slowly." "Enter the username and password." "You still think this was faster?" "All we have to do is walk him through accessing" "Spears' log-in history, recording the download records, and mirroring the files." "It'll be a piece of cake." "Where the hell is the caps lock?" "(sighs)" "(elevator doors opening)" "Morning, sunshine." "You been up there a while." "Everything all right?" "(chuckles)" "Oh, I hate computers." "(chuckles) You're a funny guy." "I hear you." "It took you four hours?" "Yeah." "Gibbs is a hunt-and-pecker." "BISHOP:" "Anything stand out?" "Confirmation that Spears did steal data on Gallium Nitride." "BISHOP:" "Mmm." "Bad but not surprising." "McGEE:" "This is." "According to the user log Gibbs downloaded-- that's just odd" "Spears used company computers to transfer several documents to a second party using FTP software." "TONY:" "Name?" "No names." "Just an FTP site." "A traceable one?" "It's secured, but now that I'm on the keyboard, yes." "Federal agents!" "NCIS!" "TONY:" "Clear." "McGEE:" "Clear." "And clean." "Too clean." "Like it hasn't even been lived in." "Dead end?" "Another safe house?" "GIBBS:" "Both." "Call Ducky." "Another execution?" "BISHOP:" "Another spy?" "I wonder who this John Doe is." "Got junk mail." "Name's not John." "It's Edgar." "Edgar Bron?" "Another undercover alias?" "Spears was created for you, Gibbs." "Who used that name?" "Mike Franks." "No hits on any facial-recognition databases." "Fingerprints?" "Nothing." "Spears was sending this guy information on Gallium Nitride." "Were they spies?" "They were using fake IDs." "Well, these two don't have much in common, boss." "Bron's place appears to have hardly been lived in, practically staged." "Whereas Spears' apartment looks like an overgrown frat boy's man cave." "TONY:" "All the makings of a cover." "Wait." "Stop." "Go back." "There." "Spears had tattoo magazines all over the place." "He had dozens of books marked on the subject, yet he didn't have a tattoo himself." "That's weird." "Bishop, go get your BLUESTAR kit." "What are you thinking?" "McGee, find out everything you can on a Miranda Flemming." "Who's that?" "Just do it, huh?" "Anyone have a clue?" "Nada." "No sé." "Hmm." "Hey, Duck?" "Spears" " I need to see him." "Yes. (chuckles)" "I can see you do." "GIBBS:" "No tattoos." "Correct." "What about the other side?" "No, none there, either." "Maybe." "Maybe?" "Is your gut telling you something, Jethro?" "Ultraviolet tattoo." "Well, that explains why we found a black light in his apartment." "(Ducky speaking Serbian)" "That's Serbian." "GIBBS: "For king and fatherland." Yeah." ""Freedom or death""" "MICHELLE:" "So another identity has been compromised?" "We have reason to believe both Spears and Bron were Serbian." "What was Franks' role in the original mission?" "I seem to recall backstopping him as a..." "Bartender." "He was identifying possible suspects we thought were trying to sell Intel to the Serbians." "Can't be a coincidence." "Serbians then, Serbians now." "Oh, it was all smoke, no fire then, so we closed it down." "Someone reopened it." "These victims have real identities." "We need to find out who they were." "(knocking) Yeah?" "Boss." "Got something?" "There was another agent working undercover with Mike Franks and me." "Jenny Shepard." "Yeah." "Yeah, her backstopped name was Miranda Flemming." "You remember that name, Michelle?" "Yes, I do." "I asked McGee to find out if there were any current hits on her." "Tim, why don't you tell them what she's been doing?" "Well, Miranda Flemming is alive and well." "In fact, she has a flight booked to Buenos Aires tomorrow morning." "MORROW:" "So, we pick her up at the airport." "I don't think we're gonna have to wait that long." "MORROW:" "But you were so good at what you did." "Worked so hard with such dedication." "Why would you turn on the agency?" "I didn't turn on the agency." "I gave my life to it." "And I was pushed out." "Mandatory retirement." "What else was I gonna do?" "There's not much use for my unique talents in the private sector." "Did you approach the Serbians?" "No." "They approached me." "Who?" "An attaché from their embassy." "He offered me a lot of money for two backstopped IDs." "Did they say what they wanted them for?" "They were trying to get information on Gallium Nitride." "That's old stuff." "What could it hurt?" "Guys you backstopped are dead." "Did you deal with either of them?" "No." "Only their handler." "Okay." "Who?" "I have no idea." "We communicated by encrypted mail." "Last time I heard from him... or her, they were shutting the operation down." "Leland Spears was getting sloppy." "We saw his apartment." "He was going American on them." "They probably thought he was going to defect." "So, they killed him." "Believe me," "I didn't know that." "What happens next?" "You help us, and you help yourself." "What do you want me to do?" "E-mail the handler." "Tell them that Edgar Bron didn't die, that he's on life support at Washington General, and he's expected to pull through." "My, Grandma, what big eyes you have." "McGEE:" "Tony, cut it out, or I'll strangle you with my big hands." "You're grouchy." "Well, what do you expect?" "This is a waste of time." "No one's coming here, and I have to go to the bathroom." "Oh, okay, I'll get you a nurse." "She'll put a catheter in you." "Hey!" "Get back here!" "Get that stuff off of me!" "The patient's getting restless." "I don't blame him." "How much longer are we gonna do this?" "I'll find out." "Hey, boss?" "Yes, I heard." "McGee is getting restless." "He'll be fine, but..." "Ah, let's give him a break." "Your turn, DiNozzo." "Go, get in bed." "Go on." "(fire alarm sounding)" "What's going on?" "Fire alarm, this floor, other end of the corridor." "Check out the alarm." "Bishop, stay there with him." "Uh... what are you doing?" "Uh, prepping the patient for evacuation." "You need to get back to your station." "It's Hale." "Spears' neighbor." "Freeze!" "(grunting)" "(loud grunting)" "(grunting, panting)" "(door closing)" "Who is this guy?" "Name is Robbie Hale." "He's the Serbian handler?" "Yup." "MORROW:" "Just showed up at the hospital." "With a hypodermic needle." "He was gonna jab it into my little buddy." "We haven't tested the hypodermic yet, but..." "HALE (groaning):" "You can't just keep me in here!" "...Hale says that it was full of potassium chloride." "Would have given me a heart attack." "How did you get him to offer that up?" "We beat it out of him." "No, we didn't." "No, we didn't." "He talked freely." "He doesn't care what we know." "He claims that he has diplomatic immunity." "Where is Gibbs?" "He's in MTAC, talking to the State Department's Operations Desk." "So, was this guy on your radar?" "Bishop and I questioned him." "He lived next door to Spears." "Once we got him back here, he told us he moved in a few weeks ago to keep tabs on him, and he admitted to putting the bug on Spears' car." "So, did Hale confess to the murders?" "He did." "What was his motive?" "That they finished their mission and were supposed to return home to Serbia." "HALE:" "Is anybody in there?" "Anybody at all?" "Huh?" "Tom?" "What did State say?" "They have no record of Hale being registered as a member of the Republic of Serbia's diplomatic mission." "He may be working for them, but he has no right to diplomatic immunity." "HALE:" "Are you deaf?" "!" "I know you can see me!" "MORROW:" "We'll take care of him from here." "Been a long day, folks." "Get some sleep." "We'll do the paperwork in the morning." "Great!" "Ah, fantastic." "You know, there's a midnight showing of one of my favorite films over at the art house." "Huh?" "What's that?" "(a lá Don LaFontaine):" "In a world weary of war, there was one man who didn't care." "He was a soldier of glory." "Oh, I'm in." "I am in." "Hmm." "Don't rush." "First half sucks." "Huh." "All right, we'll see you tomorrow, film critic." "Huh." "You need something, Bishop." "Nope, I'm all good." "Wasn't a question." "Deep undercover work, like Tony did years ago, hypothetically, would you ever put me in that position?" "That's tough to answer." "I'm only saying, I..." "I know the big picture, and eventually, everyone's time comes, and I understand and accept that." "Forget the big picture." "Look at everything close up." "Do you think that working undercover for so long affected your marriage?" "Go home to Jake, Bishop." "== sync, corrected by elderman == @elder_man"