Get your act.
Team one, go!
Clear.
Lieutenant, planning on joining us?
On my way. [credits]

TONY. Hey.
KATE. Morning.
TONY. How was your weekend?
KATE. Well, let's see. I paid bills, did laundry, went shopping, vacuumed. I bet you don't even own a vacuum.
TONY. I lease.
KATE. So what did you do this weekend that left that smile plastered all over your face?
TONY. I watched a great movie.
KATE. Let me guess, a horror flick?
TONY. Halloween VIII. I think it's the best Halloween ever. Makes Halloween VII look like Halloween V.
KATE. I can't even believe they made one of them much less eight. It's gotta be a men are from Mars thing.
TONY. Arianna liked it.
KATE. Arianna? I thought you broke up with her.
TONY. What makes you think that?
KATE. Oh, I don't know. Maybe because you came in the other day and said, "I broke up with Arianna."
TONY. Aw, you don't know much about dating, do you?
KATE. Why don't you enlighten me?
TONY. Well, there's always one phony break-up that precedes the real break-up. Everyone knows that.
GIBBS. Yeah, got it. Thanks. Grab your gear. Kate, get Ducky. Tony, gas the truck.
KATE. Where we going?
TONY. With Gibbs, you never know.

MARINE 1. I.D.? NCIS Special Agent Gibbs.
MARINE 2 ON RADIO. Clear.
MARINE 1. Okay. Thank you, sir.
COMDR. RAINER. Agent Gibbs? Commander Rainer, SEAL Team eight.
GIBBS. What happened here?
COMDR. RAINER. We were on a training exercise. Lt. Johnson, the team leader, was rappelling down the cliff when his D-link snapped.
GIBBS. You secure the top of the cliff?
COMDR. RAINER. I did.
GIBBS. That the rest of Lt. Johnson's squad?
COMDR. RAINER. Yes, sir.
GIBBS. I'd appreciate it if you'd tell them not to talk to anyone until I talk to them.
COMDR. RAINER. Already taken care of, sir.
KATE. Oh, what an awful way to die.
TONY. I can think of worse ways to go.
KATE. Like what?
TONY. Getting eaten by a shark, being buried alive, falling into a wood chipper.
KATE. You've given this some thought.
TONY. Well, yeah. So?
KATE. Nothing.
DUCKY. Someone moved the body.
COMDR. RAINER. After he fell, his squad members came to his assistance, see if anything could be done. Unfortunately, he died on impact.
DUCKY. That would account for a few inches, but someone's moved him further than that.
COMDR. RAINER. We pulled him away from the face of the cliff because there was falling shale. It's an old mine. We were careful not to disturb anything.
GIBBS. Was emptying his pockets part of the first aid effort?
COMDR. RAINER. The intel was classified. We removed it so the body could be transported. That's SOP under these circumstances.
GIBBS. DiNozzo
TONY. Yeah, boss?
GIBBS. Top of the cliff. Shoot and sketch.
TONY. Gee, boss, it's a long way up.
GIBBS. DiNozzo, was there something in my tone of my voice that made that sound like a suggestion?
TONY. On it.
COMDR. RAINER. Agent Gibbs, I realize you have an investigation to perform. From what we can see, that's pretty obvious that D-link had a catastrophic failure.
GIBBS. You're right, commander. We have an investigation to perform. What do you got, Duck?
DUCKY. Unfortunately for Lt. Johnson, it appears to be just what it looks like.
GIBBS. Eliminates the guesswork.
KATE. Is this a common occurrence, one of these breaking?
GIBBS. I've never seen it happen before. Doesn't mean it couldn't.
DUCKY. I think we can move him.
KATE. Gibbs, I got something. That a piece of the D-link?
GIBBS. Sure looks like it.
DUCKY. Don't worry, my friend. We'll get you cleaned up and presentable in a way that honors your service.

G. Special Agent Gibbs, Special Agent Todd. We understand you were on a training exercise.
SEAL TEAM. Yes, sir.
GIBBS. What was your mission?
SEAL 1. You'll have to talk to the commander about that, sir.
GIBBS. Other than Lt. Johnson's accident, anything out of the ordinary happen?
SEAL 1. No, sir. It was textbook. We were inserted by helicopter, secured our lines, rappelled down the face of the cliff.
GIBBS. What was your order?
SEAL 1. Vengal and Kenney went first, then myself and Pinkowski.
VENGAL. We can't believe this happened to the lieutenant.
KATE. After the four of you began rappelling down, was anyone on top of the cliff other than Lt. Johnson?
SEAL TEAM. No, ma'am.
GIBBS. Each of you will need to provide a statement detailing what you saw.
SEAL TEAM. Yes, sir.
GIBBS. I'd like Lt. Johnson's service record and the personal effects from his locker.
COMDR. RAINER. I'll have it in your office as soon as possible.

ABBY. There's no sign of tampering.
GIBBS. That's it?
ABBY. That's it.
GIBBS. Then we can put this to bed?
ABBY. Not yet. I emailed the manufacturer for the specs on this particular D-link. When I get them back, I can do a comparative analysis and if nothing's hinky, then we can put this to bed.
GIBBS. Thanks, Ab.
KATE. You okay?
ABBY. I'm fine. Why?
KATE. You're not your normal, effervescent, cheerful Abby.
ABBY. That's because she's been replaced by the abnormal, dull and melancholy Abby.
KATE. Something you want to talk about?
ABBY. I don't want to bore you.
KATE. Who else you gonna tell, Tony?
ABBY. McGee is all mad at me.
KATE. Why? What happened?
ABBY. We went to Buzzed. It's a coffeehouse in old town. Sunday night's like a poetry night.
KATE. I didn't know you liked poetry.
ABBY. McGee likes it. So we're popping back double espressos and all of a sudden, out of the blue, he says, "I really, really like you."
KATE. What'd you say?
ABBY. "Thanks"? What was I supposed to say?
KATE. I don't know.
ABBY. Oh! Then he gets, like, all quiet. And we're leaving, and he wants to know where our relationship is going.
KATE. Oh, I hate that. Why do guys have to push the issue?
ABBY. Because they're insecure.
KATE. What'd you say?
ABBY. Well, I said, why does it have to go anywhere? Why can't we just enjoy what's happening now?
KATE. What'd he say?
ABBY. "Fine. Whatever."
KATE. Typical passive-aggressive.
ABBY. I know. I mean, what's next? We gonna be watching "Sleepless in Seattle" on a rainy sunday afternoon? Ugh!
KATE. What are you going to do?
ABBY. I'm not going to do anything. I'm going to pretend like it never happened and hopefully he's going to do the same.

DUCKY. The official cause of death was multiple traumatic injuries. But he was in horrible shape, Jethro. Lower leg fractures, hip fractures, severe skull fractures. I could go on and on.
GIBBS. No, no need, Duck.
TONY. Have you sent the blood up to Abby for a full tox screen? That's what you were going to ask, right?
DUCKY. The lifetime odds of dying from a fall like this are roughly the equivalent of the odds of dying from a collision with an asteroid.
GIBBS. And?
DUCKY. What kind of a person would I be if I had this knowledge and I didn't share it with you?
TONY. That's what you were gonna ask, right? About the tox screen?
DUCKY. You are late.
PALMER. I am so sorry, Dr. Mallard. I am so, so sorry.
DUCKY. Don't make me have second thoughts, Mr. Palmer.
PALMER. Second thoughts, sir?
DUCKY. About you coming to work full time as my assistant.
PALMER. It will never happen again, doctor. I promise. It was an extremely unusual situation.
DUCKY. They always are.
PALMER. I was in the shower and the doorbell rang, but I didn't know it at the time.
DUCKY. That you were in the shower?
PALMER. No, that it was the doorbell. See, my head cold in combination with my tinnitus made me think that it was the kitchen timer.
DUCKY. Very unusual.
PALMER. Yes, so I spent several minutes trying to figure out what it was I had finished cooking, and by the time I realized that it was the front door, I'd almost forgotten I'd taken a shower. It will never happen again.
DUCKY. Who was there?
PALMER. Where?
DUCKY. At the door?
PALMER. Oh, I didn't answer it.
DUCKY. I hope this won't become a habit, Mr. Palmer.
PALMER. No, sir. I always answer my door.
DUCKY. I was referring to you being late.
PALMER. Does this mean I have the job?

GIBBS. Any prints besides Lt. Johnson's?
ABBY. I got a partial that isn't his.
GIBBS. Run it through AFIS and any other database you can think of.
ABBY. Done and done.
GIBBS. What else you got for me, Abbs?
ABBY. The D-link is electrolytically coated with a protective oxide. I used fourier transform infrared spectophotometry to compare the chemistry between the factory specs and the link that failed.
GIBBS. Is all this necessary?
ABBY. If I just came right out and told you what I found, you would be bored.
GIBBS. What'd you find?
ABBY. The chemical composition of the oxide isn't the same.
GIBBS. Couldn't that just be from two different production batches?
ABBY. Possibly.
GIBBS. I'm sensing a "but."
ABBY. You are correct, O great one. I used a scanning electron microscope. With an x-ray defractive attachment and did a composition analysis. The one on the left is the D-link I got from the manufacturer. The one on the right is Lt. Johnson's.
TONY. They're not the same.
ABBY. That's because one is steel and the other is 66-3T6 aluminum.
TONY. So the manufacturer makes the D-link in both metals?
ABBY. Actually, they don't.
TONY. Then how do you explain that?
ABBY. Easy. Someone handmade a D-link out of a much weaker metal and then swapped it with Lt. Johnson's real one.
GIBBS. It wasn't an accident.
ABBY. Nope. It looks like murder.

GIBBS. I know this is a difficult time.
KATE. When your husband brought his gear home, where did he keep it?
DENISE JOHNSON, WIFE. Usually in the garage. Sometimes he'd leave it in the car.
GIBBS. He ever bring it in the house?
DENISE JOHNSON. Why?
GIBBS. Someone may have tampered with his equipment.
DENISE JOHNSON. Tampered? Why would anybody do that? I keep expecting him to walk through that door.
FRIEND. I'm so sorry.
GIBBS. Take a look around, Kate. Tony, let's check out the garage.

TONY. Whoa.
GIBBS. Nice car.
TONY. Oh, it's not just a car, boss. This is a '66 Mustang. Revolutionary in its day.
GIBBS. You're not going to start giving me all the vital stats on this car, are you?
TONY. Thunder ball...
GIBBS. Let me rephrase that, DiNozzo. You're not going to give me the vital stats on this car.
TONY. If someone was gonna break in to get at his gear, their choices were limited. Garage door or back door. Lock works. No sign of forced entry. Whoever switched his D-link, I don't think it was done here.
GIBBS. Yeah, yeah, it does seem that way.

KATE. Oh.
FATHER LARRY CLANON. I'm sorry.
KATE. My fault.
FATHER CLANON. No, hi, um... Hi. Larry Clanon.
KATE. Kate Todd.
FATHER CLANON. Wow, I thought I knew most of Rick's friends.
KATE. Actually, I'm with NCIS. We're investigating his death.
FATHER CLANON. I thought it was an accident.
KATE. Still need to investigate.
FATHER CLANON. Oh. Right.
KATE. How do you know Rick?
FATHER CLANON. Oh, we've been friends... we were friends since high school. We played football together, got in trouble together. We, uh... I can't imagine life without him.
EDNA. Hello, Father.
FATHER CLANON. Hi, Edna. I'm a priest. Saint Matthews.
KATE. Why no collar? I was out running errands and I got the call. I just came right over. Rick was my best friend. He's the reason I became a priest.
KATE. How so?
FATHER CLANON. When I was 19, I was in a motorcycle accident.
KATE. A priest with a motorcycle. Sounds like a TV show.
FATHER CLANON. Right. Well, I ended up in a coma. Rick would come sit with me after school. Sometimes he would just talk to me, and other times he would pray. The doctors said that if I came out of it, I would end up in a vegetative state, but...
KATE. It was a miracle.
FATHER CLANON. Not according to Rick. Rick said it was because he had juice with the man upstairs. You should come by church some time. Yeah, I get a cash bonus for every person past a certain number.
KATE. You do?
FATHER CLANON. Wow.
KATE. I'm sorry, I'm not used to a priest with a sense of humor.
FATHER CLANON. Right. Well, the times, they are changing.
KATE. They certainly are.

GIBSS. Who had access to your climbing gear?
COMDR. RAINER. That depends. Lines and harnesses are usually kept in a rope locker.
TONY. What about D-links?
COMDR. RAINER. Not a controlled item. Most of my men take their personal gear like that home with them.
KATE. Anyone in the unit could've had access to Johnson's?
COMDR. RAINER. I suppose so.
GIBBS. How many men in your unit, Commander?
COMDR. RAINER. That information's classified, Agent Gibbs.
SEAL. Commander Rainer!
COMDR. RAINER. I'll be right back.
GIBBS. Enough ammo here to take over a small country.
TONY. How small?
COMDR. RAINER. Open it up. I appreciate that you have a job to do. As far as we're concerned, this was a training accident.
GIBBS. What if I was to tell you it wasn't?
COMDR. RAINER. I was there, Agent Gibbs. I saw Johnson's D-link. It was broken.
GIBBS. What you saw was a fake.
KATE. Someone substituted Lt. Johnson's d-link with one made from inferior metal.
TONY. Metal that was designed to fail.
COMDR. RAINER. Sergeant.
SERGEANT. Sir.
COMDR. RAINER. Security badges.
SERGEANT. Yes, sir.
COMDR. RAINER. Anything you see or hear is to be considered classified at the highest level. I'll assist you in any way I can as long as it doesn't compromise our primary mission.
GIBBS. Which you can't tell us.
COMDR. RAINER. I will tell you it's absolutely vital to national security.
KATE. Not much help in a murder investigation.
COMDR. RAINER. Well, it's the best I can do. I've got a backup team waiting. If there's someone deliberately trying to sabotage this mission, I need to know. Get Admiral Barnes on a secure line. Tell him task force x-ray may have been compromised.
SEAL. Yes, sir.
GIBBS. Who else knew Johnson was going to be rappelling last night?
COMDR. RAINER. No one outside this unit. My men have been in total isolation for the past ten days, no contact with the outside world.
KATE. Any security breaches?
COMDR. RAINER. One petty officer made a few unauthorized calls to his wife.
TONY. He was in Johnson's squad?
COMDR. RAINER. He was. Petty Officer Vengal. Lt. Johnson counseled him on following orders.
GIBBS. What kind of a sailor is Vengal?
COMDR. RAINER. Young, headstrong... likes to be the center of attention.
GIBBS. Basically, a SEAL.
COMDR. RAINER. Johnson rode him pretty hard but that was his job.
GIBBS. I'll need to talk to him as well as anyone else on Johnson's team.
COMDR. RAINER. Not a problem. They're no longer the primary team on the mission.
GIBBS. What's our time frame here?
COMDR. RAINER. We're inside a 38 hour window. If you don't find out what happened by then, we scrub the mission.
GIBBS. Tony, get with whoever's in charge of the climbing gear. I want every rope, D-link and harness checked.
TONY. You got it, boss.
SEAL. I'll escort Agent DiNozzo. Bravo team's bunked in here.

GIBBS. How'd you get along with your lieutenant, petty officer Vengal?
VENGAL. He was a good SEAL, sir.
KATE. But you didn't like him.
VENGAL. We had different styles, ma'am.
GIBBS. His style was to ride your ass.
VENGAL. Yes, sir.
GIBBS. Why'd you breach security?
VENGAL. Excuse me, sir?
KATE. You called your wife. Why?
VENGAL. She's pregnant. I wanted to check up on her, ma'am.
GIBBS. I checked your service record. Lt. Johnson wrote you up for an unauthorized absence two weeks ago.
VENGAL. I had to take my wife to the doctor. Why are you asking me about the lieutenant?
KATE. Because we're looking for the man who murdered him.

KATE. Lt. Johnson's last two calls were made while in isolation. Both were to Father Clanon.
GIBBS. The lieutenant writes up Vengal for calling his pregnant wife during lockdown then makes two calls himself? It doesn't make sense.
AGENT KRAMER, CIA. Agent Gibbs. Agent Kramer, CIA. Is there someplace we can talk?
GIBBS. Yeah. How about right here? Whatever you can say to me, you can say to my team.
AGENT KRAMER. Okay. Your investigation into Lieutenant Johnson's death is very important to us.
GIBBS. Yeah? Why's that?
AGENT KRAMER. These SEALs are part of a multiagency task force that's been training for a very specific mission.
GIBBS. Which you're not going to tell me about.
AGENT KRAMER. You'd have to be read into the program and we don't have the time.
KATE. And you think that someone inside this task force tampered with Johnson's equipment.
AGENT KRAMER. I'm very concerned. There's an initial vetting process for SEALs. And for this mission, they were further vetted by the CIA.
TONY. If they've gone through all that...
AGENT KRAMER. Then we're dealing with someone who's very clever. In 34 hours, a C-141 will be fueled and ready to go. We need to know who swapped that D-link out and why, otherwise four months of planning will go out the window. I'll tell you everything that we know as long as you do the same.
GIBBS. Sure. Sounds good to me.
AGENT KRAMER. Let me give you this. Abbs, what's up?
ABBY. Something very unexpected.
GIBBS. He's okay.
ABBY. I ran the print off Johnson's D-link through the military database. No match.
GIBBS. Yeah, what's the unexpected part?
ABBY. When I ran it through the criminal database, I got a hit.
GIBBS. Anyone we know?
ABBY. Absolutely. Lt. Johnson's wife.

KATE. Hmm. she was 18 when she was arrested for joyriding.
TONY. Joyriding. Sounds so much better than grand theft auto. There's something almost spiritual about it.
KATE. Well, she said she didn't know the car was stolen. Her boyfriend said he borrowed it from a friend.
TONY. The old "blame it on the boyfriend" excuse. One of the classics.
KATE. Well, that's usually who is to blame.
GIBBS. Anything else?
KATE. I was saving the best for last.
GIBBS. Why?
KATE. Denise Johnson works at a jewelry store. She makes custom metal jewelry. Oh, and yesterday, when I was in the den... I saw some things that made it seem like Johnson may have been sleeping in there.
GIBBS. What kind of things?
KATE. Alarm clock, pillow, blanket.
TONY. Something's really been bothering me. What kind of sick and twisted logic makes you think the boyfriend is always to blame, huh?
GIBBS. Could we just have a minute?

DENISE JOHNSON. Of course my fingerprints were on there. And you'd find my fingerprints on almost anything Rick owned, except maybe his hunting rifles.
KATE. We had to ask.
DENISE JOHNSON. You're not married, are you, Agent Todd?
KATE. No.
DENISE JOHNSON. Well, a lot of husbands leave a trail when they come home. I was constantly picking up after him.
GIBBS. How was your relationship with your husband?
DENISE JOHNSON. It was fine.
TONY. He wasn't sleeping in the den?
DENISE JOHNSON. We had our problems, like any married couple.
GIBBS. What were they?
DENISE JOHNSON. None of your business.
KATE. I'm sorry if we upset you.
DENISE JOHNSON. What were you expecting? You come into my home and basically accuse me of having something to do with my husband's death.
KATE. We're just trying to tie up any loose ends. Your fingerprints were on the D-link, we came, we're not accusing you of anything.
GIBBS. Did your husband have a computer?
DENISE JOHNSON. We have a laptop.

K. Her explanation made sense.
GIBBS. Doesn't mean she isn't guilty.
KATE. Do you honestly think she had anything to do with it?
GIBBS. I've seen a single mother drown her children because her new boyfriend didn't like them. Nothing surprises me.
TONY. Interesting how she pegged you for unmarried.

TONY. Here's a page 13 Lt. Johnson wrote after Petty Officer Vengal got into a fight in town. He said he didn't start the fight, he was just protecting himself.
KATE. It's not in Vengal's service report.
TONY. There's more. This is from an undated fitness report. Under comments, Lt. Johnson wrote, "Though Petty Officer Vengal is an outstanding sailor and no doubt will make a fine petty officer first class, at this point I think he needs a little seasoning and I am not recommending him for promotion."
KATE. Also not in his service report.
TONY. So, how can that be?
GIBBS. Rainier said Johnson rode Vengal pretty hard. My guess is that was part of his carrot and stick approach. He wrote the page 13, showed it to Vengal.
KATE. But never formally filed it.
TONY. So if the guy cleaned up his act, Johnson would just toss the page 13 like it never existed.
KATE. Okay, why did Johnson include the counseling sheet he wrote when Vengal was late?
TONY. That's just a slap on the wrist. A page 13 is serious.
GIBBS. Anything else?
TONY. No. Paid the bills, sent emails to friends, normal stuff.
GIBBS. You seem bothered.
KATE. That was Mrs. Vengal's doctor. Petty Officer Vengal did take her to see him, but not on the day that he told Lt. Johnson he did. He lied.
GIBBS. Get Vengal in here.
TONY. Eee, boss. I'm not sure those guys are going to let...
GIBBS. Convince them, Tony.
TONY. Okay.
ABBY. I was down in the evidence locker looking for a fingerprint kit and this started vibrating. Freaked me out.
GIBBS. Thanks, Abbs.
KATE. Thanks, Abbs. Lt. Johnson got a text message. "Why weren't you there?"
GIBBS. Who sent it?
KATE. This is weird. It's an email message forwarded from an Internet account that shows up as a text message on his cell phone.
GIBBS. English, Kate.
KATE. Okay, I can set up my Internet account so that if somebody emails me on my computer and I'm not there, the email will automatically be forwarded to my cell phone.
GIBBS. What's the weird part?
KATE. Well, the email account that this was forwarded from is davesmith@concealmail.com. That's not Johnson's email address.
GIBBS. You're sure?
KATE. Let me rephrase that. It's not Lt. Johnson's email account on his home computer. But he could've opened an account on another computer.
GIBBS. Under an assumed name?
KATE. Anybody can. But why would somebody with a top security clearance have an email account under an assumed name?
GIBBS. What if I wanted to get into that account?
KATE. Get a search warrant for the servers.
GIBBS. We don't have time for a warrant. What's a quicker way?
KATE. Hack into the servers. I can't believe I just said that. I would've never suggested that before I started working here.
GIBBS. You're welcome. Get McGee over here. Have him work with Abby. Tell him to do whatever it takes to get that information.
KATE. I...Are you sure we need to do that?
GIBBS. You have a problem with McGee?
KATE. Not me.
GIBBS. Well, then tell him to get his butt over here. When you're done with that, we're going to pay a visit to Father Clanon.

FATHER CLANON. I guess I was more persuasive than I thought.
KATE. Actually, I'm here in an official capacity, not to go to confession.
FATHER CLANON. Well, you can always kill two birds with one stone. I'm hearing them in 15 minutes.
KATE. You should be in sales.
FATHER CLANON. I am.
KATE. This is Special Agent Gibbs.
FATHER CLANON. I think I saw you at Denise's house.
GIBBS. Yeah.
FATHER CLANON. Welcome to St. Matthews.
GIBBS. Thank you. Do you mind if we ask you a few questions about Lt. Johnson? No. Please, go right ahead.
GIBBS. His death wasn't an accident. Someone switched a piece of his equipment with an inferior version.
KATE. That's what broke when he was rappelling down the cliff.
GIBBS. Did Lt. Johnson ever tell you anything that might be able to help us?
FATHER CLANON. Rick and I talked about many things. As a priest, I can't break the seal of confession.
GIBBS. So he confessed something you can't talk about.
FATHER CLANON. No, I didn't say that.
GIBBS. Okay, okay. What about the two phone calls he made to you just before he died.
FATHER CLANON. Were you in the service, Agent Gibbs?
GIBBS. Marines.
FATHER CLANON. Semper fidelis. Always faithful. That was your motto, your code?
GIBBS. Yes, it is.
FATHER CLANON. And did you ever have circumstances that allowed you to turn your back on that code?
KATE. I guess there's no way we could phrase the question to allow you to answer it.
FATHER CLANON. No, there's not. Are you sure you won't stick around?
KATE. Maybe next time.
FATHER CLANON. Very good. Ah, thanks, Steve.
KATE. Who was that for?

McGEE. Abby.
ABBY. McGee.
McGEE. Gibbs said you needed my help.
ABBY. I don't need your help. He just asked you to help me.
McGEE. Okay. What am I helping you do?
ABBY. Hack into ISP servers. We have to get into an email account, download the activity.
McGEE. What are we looking for?
ABBY. Just anything that's hinky.
McGEE. Why do you use that word?
ABBY. What word?
McGEE. "Hinky". It's a made-up word.
ABBY. All words are made-up words.
McGEE. Well I think it's stupid.
ABBY. Well, maybe I shouldn't say anything then.
McGEE. Fine.
ABBY. Fine.
McGEE. Good.
ABBY. Great.

AGENT KRAMER. Is there any reason why you couldn't do this at Little Creek?
GIBBS. Evidence pertinent to the investigation is all here.
AGENT KRAMER. Okay.
GIBBS. Okay.
AGENT KRAMER. Turn that off. We're not taping this.
TONY. Go ahead. Shut it down.
GIBBS. Your future in the Navy is clear. You don't have one. The question is, do you have any future at all. You don't have anything to say?
VENGAL. I didn't hear a question in there, sir.
GIBBS. Well, okay, then, Petty Officer, here's a question. Why did you lie about taking your wife to the doctor?
VENGAL. I do take my wife to the doctor. She's pregnant.
GIBBS. I'm talking about April 28. You remember that date?
VENGAL. No, sir.
GIBBS. Well, here, let me refresh your memory. You were late for a squad meeting. Your excuse was taking your wife to the doctor. Lt. Johnson wrote you up. Want to reconsider your answer?
VENGAL. I went to see a doctor off base. For a medical problem.
GIBBS. What sort of medical problem?
VENGAL. Inner ear infection.
GIBBS. They would've yanked you from the mission if they knew that.
VENGAL. I could've worked through it.
GIBBS. Yeah, maybe. But you would have been putting everyone else at risk.
VENGAL. I had it under control.
GIBBS. What happened on the cliff?
VENGAL. I told you what happened.
GIBBS. Your track record for the truth is unimpressive.
VENGAL. We were inserted by Huey...we secured our ropes, went down in pairs. Lt. Johnson's D-link snapped. End of story.
GIBBS. You had access to Lt. Johnson's gear.
VENGAL. So did everyone in the unit.
GIBBS. Yeah, but you were the only one that Johnson was writing up. He wasn't recommending you for promotion. He made multiple page 13 entries that only you knew about.
VENGAL. Why would I kill Lt. Johnson? If he dies, the whole squad's off the mission. I risked my career so I could stay on the mission.

AGENT KRAMER. Gibbs. Kramer. What's the status?
GIBBS. No change.
AGENT KRAMER. Team's in the air. Touchdown is scheduled in eight hours. If we don't have a definitive answer by then, the mission is scrubbed.
GIBBS. That's not gonna happen.
AGENT KRAMER. Well, I hope you're right. It's a hostage rescue situation. Opportunities like this don't come along very often.
GIBBS. All right... Let's pretend we don't know anything.
TONY. Not much of a stretch.
GIBBS. Start from the beginning.
KATE. Someone substituted a phony D-link for Lt. Johnson's real one.
GIBBS. When?
TONY. They had a rappelling exercise two weeks before without a problem.
GIBBS. It was in that two-week window.
KATE. Nine days out of the two-week period, they were in isolation.
GIBBS. If someone outside the unit pulled the switch, they had a five-day period to do it. Who had the best opportunity?
KATE. The wife.
GIBBS. What about the best friend, Clanon?
KATE. Gibbs, he's a priest.
GIBBS. Yeah. So?
KATE. Okay, he had opportunity, but no motive.
GIBBS. That we know of. What was the wife's motive?
TONY. Well, they were sleeping in different bedrooms. Would indicate they were arguing about something. You know something about that. Sorry, boss.
GIBBS. Who had the skill to make a D-link?
KATE. The wife made metal jewelry. She could make a D-link.
GIBBS. The wife wasn't having an affair with someone at the jewelry store? A jealous husband?
KATE. Our investigation indicates nothing like that.
GIBBS. Financial?
TONY. Normal.
GIBBS. Motive, method, opportunity... the wife had all three.
DUCKY. Ice cream's here.
TONY. Thank God! I'm starving. I can wait.
GIBBS. Duck, what are you doing here? It's the middle of the night.
DUCKY. How could I be at home in my warm and comfortable bed knowing my brethren were here, toiling away in the name of national security?
GIBBS. Couldn't sleep, huh?
DUCKY. Not a wink.
GIBBS. Neighbors again?
DUCKY. Or as I like to refer to them, the devil's spawn.
GIBBS. Well, it's good to see you, Duck. We could use a new pair of eyes around here.
DUCKY. I'm afraid the freshness date on my eyes expired a while back. However, I do have corrective lenses.

McGEE. Any luck with the port scan?
ABBY. Still trying to find an opening.
McGEE. You going after the sockets or the firewall itself?
ABBY. Firewall. You?
McGEE. Connected. Trying to authenticate.
ABBY. APG or keystroke capture?
McGEE. I tried APG but the admin had limits on how many times you could go in.
ABBY. How're you gonna cover your tracks?
McGEE. Putting in a program bot which will call another host infected with a similar bot...
ABBY. ...and so on and so on and so on...
McGEE. ...until it reaches the remote.
ABBY. And afterwards, it'll self-destruct?
McGEE. Yeah, but before it does, the bot knows what files to delete from the host system so it can delete the logs.
ABBY AND McGEE. Look, I'm sor... / I'm sor...
McGEE. Go ahead.
ABBY. No, you go ahead.
McGEE. I'm sorry that I got upset at you.
ABBY. It's okay. I understand. You're insecure.
McGEE. You think I'm insecure?
ABBY. Well, in a cute way.
McGEE. I'm not insecure. What makes you think I'm insecure?
ABBY. That whole "where is our relationship going" thing.
McGEE. So it's insecure to want to know the status of your relationship when one of the people in that relationship can't accurately communicate her feelings?
ABBY. Yes!
McGEE. Okay, I guess my poem didn't mean anything then.
ABBY. Oh, no, I loved your poem.
McGEE. You did?
ABBY. Of course I did.
McGEE. Which part did you like?
ABBY. All of it.
McGEE. Even the finger snaps?
ABBY. Especially the finger snaps.

GIBBS. Looks like we're back to square one.
DUCKY. I don't seem to have been much help.
GIBBS. That's okay, Duck. DiNozzo there sure enjoyed the ice cream.
DUCKY. Well, if I have any brainstorms...
GIBBS. Yeah, we'll be here.
KATE. I wish I had a better idea of how all this rappelling stuff worked. Might be easier to figure out what happened.
TONY. I have kind of a crazy idea.
KATE. Those are never comforting words coming from you. What?

KATE. No. No way.
GIBBS. You'll do fine. Push this down, clamp it on to your harness like that. There you go.
KATE. Okay, remind me... this is gonna helps us solve the case again because...?
TONY. It's fun!
GIBBS. You want to understand what happened. This is how you understand.
TONY. You used to protect the president?
GIBBS. I've got to check your harness. Turn around.
KATE. Oh, g-d.
GIBBS. How's that feel?
KATE. Uh...like I'm about to throw up.
GIBBS. Face me. DiNozzo, you're on belay.
TONY. Don't worry, Kate. I got your back.
KATE. Yeah, that's what I'm afraid of, Tony.
GIBBS. Okay. Guide hand, right here. Break hand. If you want to stop, clamp down on this, put your thumb right at the center of your butt.
TONY. All set down here, boss.
GIBBS. Remember what I told you.
KATE. Todd on rappel.
TONY. DiNozzo on belay.
GIBBS. Ready?
KATE. You know, Gibbs, I kind of think I got the gist of it now. It's fine! Ah!
GIBBS. You're doing great!
TONY. See? Well, now you know what it feels like. What?
KATE. The fake D-link is lighter than the real one.
TONY. Okay.
KATE. Johnson was an experienced climber. Why didn't he notice the difference?
GIBBS. Get out of that. We have less than an hour.

ABBY. No, no, you have to change the bit to on.
McGEE. I know, I know.
ABBY. Embed to the bios, then flash the bios.
McGEE. We can have it runaway into memory and link everywhere on the system from there. Even if they kill it in memory...
ABBY. ...they have to take it one step further and kill it in bios. Yes, we are kicking ass.
ABBY. Yes, we are. Can you type any faster?
McGEE. Not unless I grow another hand.
ABBY. Here, let me.

GIBBS. Right here in front of us the whole time.
TONY. Lathe, vise, acetylene torch.
KATE. Everything you need to make a D-link.
GIBBS. Yeah. Gibbs. You got the emails? What'd they say? Love letters to who? Abby and McGee cracked Johnson's secret email account. We got our answer.

DENISE JOHNSON. I suspected something a couple of years ago. I'm not sure what I saw. It's not the type of thing a woman thinks about her husband.
GIBBS. How did you find out?
DENISE JOHNSON. Two weeks ago, Rick told me he was going quail hunting for the weekend. Which wasn't unusual except...
GIBBS. ...you knew that it wasn't quail hunting season.
DENISE JOHNSON. I knew. He had once told me about a GPS device the seals used for surveillance. I bought something similar online, and I hid it in his car. He drove to downtown Baltimore. His car didn't move for two days. I saw Rick come out with him. They hugged. He watched Rick leave, waved good-bye. You want to hear something funny? I was hoping it was another woman.
KATE. What happened after that?
DENISE JOHNSON. I confronted him. He didn't try to deny it. I guess he felt relieved. He said me he had an email account, and that's how he communicated with his... I told him he had to make a choice.
GIBBS. Why didn't you tell us that?
DENISE JOHNSON. I didn't want to embarrass his friends, his family... I mean, Rick was very religious. And I was hoping that didn't have anything to do with his death.
GIBBS. Yeah, but you knew it did.
DENISE JOHNSON. Yeah. I saw him working on his D-link. Rick dedicated his life to the Navy. Five generations of his family have served honorably. Maybe if I hadn't confronted him... I wake up every morning and I can't stand to look at myself in the mirror. I mean, why couldn't he tell me?
GIBBS. Yeah. Gibbs.
AGENT KRAMER. They're ten minutes from touchdown. We need an answer.
GIBBS. It was suicide. You're good to go. Thank you, Agent Gibbs.

KATE. I enjoyed your sermon.
FATHER CLANON. Because I worked in Mel Gibson?
KATE. It didn't hurt. I realized that in the midst of all the things that were going on, I never got to tell you how sorry I was for your loss.
FATHER CLANON. He was the best man I have ever known. I feel like I failed him.
KATE. You didn't.
FATHER CLANON. How can you know?
KATE. I have faith.

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Much thanks to Team NCIS (Tom, Brice, Nath, Jordanas, BadGOne, Plissken, Ugo, Moustou, Max, and especially Sébastien Gaillot) - kim1047 - for the closed-caption scripts.