A man selling a house hires an exterminator to clean out a hot tub, leading to the discovery of a DB in uniform. Tony (Michael Weatherly) attempts to access Ziva's (Cote de Pablo) e-mail and Ziva catches him in the act with McGee (Sean Murray) watching. He set up a camera to her laptop and it has filmed Tony. At the scene, McGee is told to climb into the tub by Gibbs (Mark Harmon) and pull out Petty Officer Bick. Tony and Palmer (Brian Dietzen) make fun of him having to climb in and the water rises over his wellies. Bick's abdomen was cut open and something removed. Ziva and Tony talk to his wife Tara Bick (Tracy Middendorf) and are interrupted by Petty Officer Jason Crosby (John T Woods). He tells them Bick was under special assignment. He wasn't working on the ship.
Ducky (David McCallum) discovers he was drowned elsewhere and was suffering from an allergic reaction. An imprint on the side of Bick's head could be from a bolt and a fragment of a $100 note is found lodged between his teeth. Gibbs needs to pull out Abby (Pauley Perrette) from under her desk as she was mimicking a contortionist and got stuck there. She found the gun used was a rare English Webley. The water in Bick's lungs was salty and fresh and had traces of oil used on British ships. The marks on his head were caused by a valve handle. No one has any leads to follow since it's a CIA operation and they have no clearance. One British ship, the Sparrowhawk is docked in Norfolk.
Vance (Rocky Carroll) introduces Gibbs to Marine Major Peter Malloy (Daniel Gillies) and they have a heated exchange. With Malloy mentioning John Wayne and Gibbs corrects him, Gary Cooper in Sergeant York. Malloy won't allow Gibbs to board the ship. Vance must call in SecNav to keep the peace. Ziva seemed particularly eager to make his acquaintance (she does that a lot especially if it's a man, tending to flirt.) Vance asks if she's been to Switzerland cos she's this between Gibbs and Malloy.
Abby finds the CIA has marked the money with tracking powder, traced by radio waves and by touching it. The powder is only visible under black light. Gibbs recalls he built a crystal radio when he was little. Bick swallowed one note before it was cut from inside his abdomen. CIA agent Loretta Tennison (Kristin Ariza) tells Gibbs she doesn't know Bick and that the CIA doesn't operate on domestic soil. She confides there was an operation to send money to Afghanistan via a British ship but it was scrapped.
Ziva gets Malloy to allow them onto the ship and she and Tony find the valve in a room which is flooded with water; enough to drowned Bick in. The ship prepares to depart but not before Gibbs puts a spanner in the works. There's a problem which he caused. "There's no such thing as good luck." Ziva and Tony have enough time to process the room and find traces of the powder under black light, proving Bick was killed there. Gibbs speaks with Loretta again (a credible suspect for me, knowing she was aware of the money and she lies to Gibbs the first time about not knowing Bick and then admits they were on a mission, or meant to be on one.) Gibbs posits Bick swallowed the money to show its presence eon board. She points the finger to Malloy saying only three people knew of the money, Bick, Malloy and her. That was just to cover her tracks and her back.
McGee finds Malloy's phone records show he made a call near where Bick's DB was found. Malloy claims he has a gun but it's in his London flat. Gibbs gives Abby his teabag for analysis and Abby comments about not dumping your tea at NCIS. His real name is Elston and he's MI6. The phone is tracked to a hotel - which is empty but there signs of the powder showing the money was here. Vance warns Gibbs they don't want an international incident with its ally. Another niggle, how quickly did their system spew out Malloy's real name and ID, especially since MI6 records wouldn't be that easily accessible by anyone other than MI6.
Gibbs finds Malloy at his house and he is being framed. Giving Gibbs a wad of the missing cash so he can use it to track the remaining money. Gibbs orders Ziva to watch Malloy like Syria. He and Tony bond over movies and actors. He posits Peter Sellers' best movie was Dr Strangelove and Tony thinks Being There. Also mentioning Peter Cook and What's up Pussycat? Ziva couldn't really believe what she was seeing. Thought she had him to herself, 'ey.
Abby has a new gadget which she calls her 'squeeze.' Ken the SEM (Scanning Electron Microscope) and finds Bick had a particle of pollen in his lungs, hence the allergic reaction, from a plant native to Diego Garcia. Bick's never been there so he had to have contact with someone who has. The CIA station chief there was Loretta. McGee traces the money to various stores around the city - spent by Brit sailors, since it's been exchanged with their payroll. McGee tracks Loretta's phone to the USS Tripoli, having made calls to the ship's disbursement officer. (Why are ship disbursement officers always crooked!? See NCIS episode The Curse and the JAG episodes mentioned therein.) He was her accomplice. But instead she meets Malloy and pulls a Brit gun on him. She killed Bick cos he knew too much.
Ziva finishes another e-mail and Tony is curious to read it. She asks what he'd say to her friend if he met him and he thinks, "be careful...handle with care...contents priceless." Sounds like he could be reverting to the Boxed In episode. Ha. When she leaves, Tony attempts to access her computer and sirens sound. McGee set a camera so wouldn't she have seen him on that anyway, or did Tony forget?
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