NCIS

Hey, Zach. Zachary.

What did I say about wandering off? You have to be careful of strangers.

- Sorry. - Here.

Dad, balloons are for babies.

Right. What about that cotton candy? Is that still…?

Oh, no. That's fine. We could share it after my ride.

I'll try to save you some. It looks awfully good to me.

Dad, after the ride.

I'll be watching you.

Dad.

Dad.

A whole hour for a lunch run, Probie?

Yeah, while Ziva and I were out,

she asked me to show her the best routes to work.

Her driving has gotten a lot better. Barely broke any laws this time.

Let me get this straight.

Ziva asked you,

who can barely navigate the Navy yard, to show her the best way to work?

- That's right. - Well, what about me?

I know every shortcut in the metro area.

I could shave 10 minutes off her commute like that.

I don't know what to tell you.

It doesn't make any sense.

Unless,

maybe I intimidate her.

Yeah, I'm sure that's it.

I've seen it happen before. It's a chemical thing.

- Hard to explain. - I do hope you try.

I told you not to do that again.

Sorry, I was so intimidated by your presence, I must have forgotten.

Seriously, I do apologize for not asking your advice on my commute.

Don't worry about it.

If I would have known you would have felt so emasculated…

- Is that the word? Emasculated. - Yes, it is, emasculated.

I would have asked you first.

It takes a little more than an exotic accent

and some stealth ninja moves to emasculate me.

Only a little more? How disappointing.

Don't take sides, Probie.

Gear up. We have a missing person. Coleman Park Carousel in Arlington.

- A child? - Father.

Lieutenant Commander Alex Tanner.

Disappeared an hour ago.

Do you always respond to missing persons cases so promptly?

Special circumstances, Ziva. His 6-year-old son called NCIS.

He's in the park, alone, waiting for us. DiNozzo, you drive.

I think McGee wants to drive, Boss.

You know what, Tony? I would really rather have you drive.

Afraid to run over another fire hydrant?

I'm sure that wasn't your fault. It was, according to the police report.

- I'll drive. - One more word, you're all walking.

You got it, Boss.

I deserved that.

Zach.

Hey, I'm Special Agent DiNozzo, you can call me Tony, okay?

That's a smart thing to do, calling NCIS. Good boy.

I know this really scary, but I want you to be brave. Can you do that?

Okay, I want you to think back to what happened today.

Try to remember the details.

There's no wrong answer here.

- What do we know? - Nothing. I think the kid's in shock.

No, I'm not.

I'm waiting for Agent DiNozzo to ask me a question.

What kinds of questions was I supposed to ask?

What I saw. Why I called NCIS.

What did you see, Zach?

2 men were watching us. I think they kidnapped my Dad.

Describe them.

Dark glasses. One had a military haircut.

One had a shaved head.

- How old? - About your age.

They had iPods too.

It's like a Walkman, Boss, an iPod.

They were only listening in one ear like this.

Be back in a minute, Zach.

- Dark glasses, earwigs. - Sounds like feds.

You think the FBI would arrest a man and leave his kid in the park, DiNozzo?

Maybe our Commander took a walk.

My Father left me in the Maui Hilton for 2 days.

He didn't realize I was missing until he got the room service bill.

Sad, but enlightening.

Boss, I just spoke with the Commander's CO.

He's very concerned.

Apparently, Commander Tanner was working

on a highly classified DOD project.

What project, McGee?

I don't… he wouldn't say over an unsecured line

but I'm going to find out.

Footage from the security cameras?

Park Security released them to me.

Okay, get ahold of Zach's Mom. And then she can pick him up at NCIS.

Boss. Boss.

His Mother's dead. Killed 4 years ago in a car accident.

Primary next of kin?

There is none.

Just Commander Tanner and his son.

These guys are definitely pros.

They keep their faces from the camera.

All we've got to go on is the kid's description of them.

You know, it doesn't look like a kidnapping to me.

- They don't have guns. - Barely touched the Commander.

They could have threatened his son.

Explains why they left him alone in the park.

What do we know about Commander Tanner?

Well, Boss, he is a brilliant man.

A dual PhD from Caltech in Number and Chaos Theory.

I was reading his thesis online.

He manages to link non-relativistic quantum effects…

Well, that's useful to this case, McGee.

Last 3 years he's been the Navy's liaison

with a defense contractor, Q & R Software.

Been the project lead on “Honor”.

- Which is? - Classified.

I put a call to the head of security over there. No one's gotten back to me.

So I thought I would pay them a visit?

Yeah, that's a good answer. Tony go with him.

The sketch artist is done with Zach's descriptions.

The boy has a remarkable memory.

There's also someone here from Social Security to pick him up.

Services, Ziva. Social Security is for older people.

Noted.

- Do you want me to tell the boy? - No, I'll handle it. Here, sit down.

Put out a BOLO on the composites.

Hey, Zach.

- Good job on the sketches, man. - Thanks.

That's Social Services?

They'll take care of you until we get your Dad back.

I can take care of myself.

I don't doubt that.

- But I still have to go. - Yeah, just for a while. Come on.

What if you… what if you don't find my Dad, Agent Gibbs?

I'll find him, Zach. I'll find him.

Hey.

If you ever need me or even if you just want to talk,

you call, okay?

I'm sorry we didn't get back to you right away.

We’ve been having some problems of our own.

- What kind of problems? - Honestly, I don't know.

I'm only Mr. Connell's assistant. I'm sure he can…

That's been happening for the last half-hour or so.

They should snap back on.

Are you all right, Ms. Osgood?

- It's Laura. - Laura.

Ms. Osgood.

I'll take it from here.

- Frank Connell, Q & R security. - You certainly got here fast.

We just found out about the break-in ourselves an hour ago.

At 0300 this morning, our network was breached.

We didn't detect the intrusion until we attempted to boot up our main servers.

Since then, we've had our hands full tracking the viruses

they embedded in our system.

Do we know yet what data's been compromised?

It's clear they were after a working copy of “Honor”

but fortunately, it's protected by a key that exists outside our system.

Key doesn't sound very high tech.

An asymmetric algorithm key that's committed to memory.

Without it, the software won't work.

It's just random ones and zeros, completely worthless.

So, you see, NCIS has nothing to worry about, gentlemen.

Great, except that's not why we're here.

Who has the “Honor” key committed to memory?

Our project leader, Lieutenant Commander Tanner.

- Yeah, Gibbs. - We may have a problem, Boss.

- May have? - The “Honor” code thingy

Commander Tanner was working on may have been stolen.

I’m trying to confirm it right now.

- What's it supposed to do? - Break any encryption in use today.

Well, yeah, DiNozzo. I'd say that sounds like a problem.

And it gets worse, Boss.

According to the people here

Tanner's the only one who can make it work.

All right, I’m heading your way.

Just got to drop off Zach's pod thing first.

Agent Gibbs.

You calling about your pod thing you left on my desk?

No, he's here, the man from the park.

Let me talk to your social worker, Zach.

I'm not in her office. As soon as I saw him, I took off.

- Where are you? - Outside on the street.

Zach, I'm a few blocks from you. Stay right where you are.

- I can't, he's leaving. - Zach, listen to me.

- I need you to… - He knows where my Dad is.

We can't let him get away, hurry.

Zach.

Help. Help.

- NCIS, let the kid go. - Gibbs.

You little bastard.

Go. Go. Go.

It's okay.

New hires just keep getting younger, Madam Director?

Obviously, you didn't get the memo, Agent DiNozzo.

What memo?

The one where it explains the next person

who calls her madam gets keel-hauled.

Whatever that is.

- It's… - Unpleasant.

Tell Gibbs I want him upstairs.

- What did the Director want? - You.

Upstairs.

I better check on those sketches.