Original subtitles

Look, I'm telling you guys,

Deputy Director Laroche is dirty.

It's time you know the truth.

He was a double agent working for SecDef this entire time.

Olivia Garcia-- she's an old girlfriend of mine.

My name is Mateo. I'm 18 years old.

Why didn't you tell me I had a son?

I know. And I'm sorry.

I would like to be a part of Mateo's life.

(grunts)

DUCKY: You didn't give up your life for nothing,

dear boy, you saved your agency.

To Leon.

All right, order for Stephen with a P-H,

Jenn with two Ns, and

sadly, just Mike.

Here you go.

Oh. It's a capital morning

at Capitol Oaks Coffee. How may I help you?

Mobile order for Kayla.

-With a "K." -Coming right up.

Sorry. He's got a strong arm.

(chuckles)

Here you go, cutie.

-Aw, it's... -(chuckles)

Oh, he sees your badge.

Thinks you're a superhero.

Oh, smart kid. What's his name?

-DAD: Evan. -KAYLA: Well, Evan.

You can be a superhero, too.

-Sound good? -Thanks.

-(chuckles) You're welcome. -BARISTA: Order for Kayla with a "K."

(Kayla chuckles)

Have a capital day.

(both chuckle)

(phone buzzing)

Duty calls.

See you around, Evan.

Bye.

(sighs)

You couldn't text, Director?

I'm calling as Dad.

We still on for dinner?

Well...

it depends. Who's picking?

I am.

In that case, I'm busy. (chuckles)

Kayla.

Kayla!

* *

-(Kayla exhaling sharply) -(buzzer sounds)

(ball bounces)

(grunting)

Started without me.

You're still having trouble sleeping?

-I'm fine. (grunts) -It's been a month.

You barely walked away from a suicide bombing.

Other people didn't. (grunts)

Well, maybe this will help.

The FBI and ATF just closed the case.

And their conclusion?

A disturbed kid with a bomb in his backpack.

A lone wolf.

-Lone? -Yes.

I read the ATF report.

That bomb was sophisticated. Professional.

It had parts you can't just buy at Home Depot.

This wasn't just some kid googling at 3:00 a.m.

This was training. Or guidance.

- Or both. -Now... (sighs)

-you're making assumptions. -No. They are.

They missed something.

Just like I did.

Kayla.

It's not your fault.

Sometimes agents don't see everything.

If the FBI misreads this bombing,

they'll misread the next one.

What if this wasn't a one-off?

Kayla.

What do you want?

I want to do everything I can

to make sure it never happens again.

(exhales sharply)

(indistinct radio transmission)

MPD says the vehicle belongs to Navy Petty Officer Victor Lee.

Worked at the Naval Research Lab.

Pretty sure this man was carrying the explosive.

Extensive damage to the torso.

A piece of fabric fused to his shoulder.

Looks like it could be remnants of a bag or a backpack.

Young man. Backpack bomb. Sounds familiar.

Coffee shop bombing from last year.

Yeah, and FBI thought that was a lone wolf.

Well, maybe the lone wolf had some friends.

Careless ones 'cause unless their target was an empty alley,

I'd say the device went off early.

Then what was the real target?

Phone and laptop aren't gonna help.

(phone chimes, buzzes)

-(laughs) -Is that Mateo?

Ah, you guys are getting thick as thieves.

Yeah, we've been bonding lately.

So what is it? Baseball? Laser tag?

-Geohash. -Oh.

I am so afraid to ask.

Geohash is a form of coding. Latitude

and longitude compressed. I'll tell you what, this kid

got some pretty amazing computer skills.

Hmm. Who could've guessed that?

Even told him about the internship program, you know,

in NCIS Cyber, so Mateo's gonna come by tomorrow, take a tour.

That's a big step.

But it's just a tour. You know?

Don't know for sure that it's gonna happen.

We got a Navy bomber to deal with here.

Negative on the Navy part.

Petty Officer Lee is alive and well.

Currently holding Warrior Two

in a hot yoga class two blocks over.

If our bomber isn't Navy, who is he?

Got one wallet here. Extra crispy.

Ryan or Bryan Wallace. 19.

Organ donor.

I'd say the ship has sailed on that one.

Oh, Ryan Wallace.

Lives in Reston.

Uh, registered vehicle's a blue Honda.

You mean like that one?

Oh. Uh, yeah, could be.

Be careful.

Maybe our bomber left behind something useful,

like info on his actual target.

Targets. Plural.

Better clear the area. Get the bomb squad back in here.

I don't think those backpacks are filled with school supplies.

KASIE: I found a manufacturing defect.

This capacitor was cracked before the explosion,

causing the premature detonation in the alley.

Mm, bad luck for the bomber.

Very good luck for everyone else.

Because the other six devices-- all fully functional.

If he had made it to his targets...

We would be counting dozens of bodies, not just his.

I confirmed our bomber's DNA-- Ryan Wallace.

-19. Single. No next of kin. -Device data?

Laptop and phone were completely destroyed in the blast.

Apartment was basically a mattress and a router.

All we've got are the contents of his car.

Trash, receipts, and this.

KNIGHT: Agnors Bliss.

It's a sci-fi space opera that's a little too niche, even for me,

and I read the Dune glossary.

So we've got nothing?

Not nothing. Keep walking.

I compared all of the alley bombs

to last year's coffee shop device.

Same parts. Same soldering technique.

Same assembly sequence.

That's not a coincidence.

Oh, no. That's a signature.

Someone's training people to build these.

So it's not one bomber, it's a network.

Which means we need to reopen the FBI's coffee shop case.

Figure out what got missed.

I already pulled the original witness list,

and look who's on it.

The director's daughter was there?

Mm, according to this, she stepped outside

just before the blast.

-And we never heard about it? -Oh, Vance and Kayla probably wanted

to avoid the media attention.

Haven't seen her since his funeral.

I heard she took personal leave.

Okay, so maybe we don't make Kayla relive

the day that almost killed her.

There are plenty of others to start with.

Maybe they can help.

The FBI was wrong about that coffee shop.

They called my son a lone wolf. My Danny

detonated that bomb-- I'm not denying that--

but he didn't do it on his own.

NCIS agrees, Mr. Hammersmith.

Uh, call me Hank.

Listen, Hank, we are investigating

a second backpack bombing. We believe

that it may be connected to the one from last year.

I knew it wasn't just Danny.

Well, these are the items that we recovered...

from the latest bomber.

Does anything look familiar?

Anything connect to your son?

None of this rings a bell.

Danny...

kept things to himself.

His whole life was online.

He talked about chatting with friends,

but I never bothered to check in.

Told myself it was just a phase.

The mood swings, the anger, him

pulling away from family.

Whatever was going on with my son, I missed it.

It's hard to know what's going on in any teenager's head.

But I could have asked.

(phone chimes)

Don't let me keep you.

Oh. It's, uh, it's actually my son.

Just checked in for an internship tour.

(chuckles) That's good.

Stay close.

If family doesn't fill the space...

...someone else will.

Like these, uh, "friends" your son met online?

Yeah. On that website Archive.

That's where he said they talked.

KASIE: Archive is a private online community. Invitation-only.

FBI looked at this last year.

They only checked the lobby.

I found an encrypted back room

where the real conversations happen.

Isolated, angry young men

find each other, validate each other, and spiral.

Only managed a glimpse so far,

but I'm tracing traffic spikes.

Sorry to interrupt. Uh, you guys remember Mateo.

How could we forget?

Last time you were here was eventful.

Yeah, well, you guys saved my mom's life.

She says that I should thank you every chance that I get.

Well, then she's raising you right.

Though I'm guessing she's not the one

who taught you geohashing.

Actually, Mateo taught himself.

He, uh, also taught himself Python,

-C++. -Right. Dad, you're doing the thing again.

-What, bragging? -Saying tech stuff that nobody else understands.

-(tablet chimes) -Oh.

Ooh, hold my beer.

I am about to go full technobabble.

My server trace just came back.

Archive's traffic is bouncing through

a physical relay node in Bethesda.

-It's a server farm. -PARKER: I know that corner.

Used to be a flower shop. Best peonies in the tristate.

Point being it closed last year. Been vacant ever since.

Apparently not.

According to GPS, our alley bomber's Honda was

parked at that address the day before the explosion.

Okay, so it's not a flower shop.

Uh, more like backpack bomber HQ.

All right, let's find out. Grab your gear.

McGEE: All right, well... (sighs)

Mateo, sorry, I didn't think we were gonna jump into this

-so quick. -No. No. Go.

Uh, this totally beats a tour. Go.

I'll get him down to Jimmy. That man

-lives to play a tour guide. -Nice. Thanks, Kase. All right.

-Federal agents. Hands up. -What?

Hands now!

McGEE: NCIS.

O-Okay. We're cooperating. This has to be a mistake.

McGEE: Not from where I'm standing.

-You need to talk to the boss. -The boss?

KNIGHT: Easy. Let me see your hands.

KAYLA: Whatever you say, Agent Knight.

Kayla?

-One. -(Kayla exhaling sharply)

One, two.

One, two, three.

You've been late for two force protection briefings this week.

You left early yesterday.

Took three calls in the middle of a security update.

Is this mitt work or a performance review?

-(grunts) Keep your guard up. -(scoffs)

Distraction makes you vulnerable. Let's go.

(exhaling sharply)

You've been moonlighting.

(buzzer sounds)

Are you having me followed?

I'm the director of a federal agency

and I'm also your father.

It's my job to know things.

You've been building a private operation outside NCIS.

Moonlighting is against agency policy, Kayla.

And doing it as the director's daughter, that's worse.

We're not hacking banks or wiretapping phones.

My group monitors online activity.

Creating accounts and using aliases

to infiltrate extremist chat rooms.

Something that most agencies already do.

Not like this. I checked.

They only look for threats. We look for patterns,

people on the path to violence,

so we can stop them before they get there.

It's not easy. Or cheap.

I applied for private grant money.

Totally legal. Fully independent.

Very smart.

So you're not gonna tell me to shut it down?

No.

But you can't live in two worlds.

There's a reason it's against policy.

Things get missed.

First you didn't want me working at NCIS at all.

Now you only want me working at NCIS?

You've earned your place.

You have a future.

Maybe even in the director's chair one day.

Wow. Seems like my future's already been decided.

-Kayla. -What about what I want?

What do you want?

(buzzer sounds)

We're not building bombs.

We're trying to stop them.

We monitor extremist rhetoric online.

Separate noise from credible threat.

Then pass leads to the appropriate agencies.

How come we haven't heard of you?

We're privately funded,

and not hearing about us is the whole point.

When do you have time for all this? You're still an agent.

I can do both. I'm good at it.

Maybe too good.

Our latest alley bomber was parked outside this storefront.

KNIGHT: We thought he was using this place as a staging ground.

Now it looks like he was casing it.

One of these bombs was likely meant for you and your team.

That's not entirely bad news.

It's not?

If someone's targeting us,

it means we struck a nerve.

Which proves I was right to build this operation.

These attacks aren't isolated.

Your people are still in danger.

You need to consider their safety.

Emergency shutdown.

Go home and wait for further instructions.

What about you?

I'm not going home.

I'm going back to NCIS. We've got work to do.

JIMMY: "Okay, we are now entering

the main Cyber operations bullpen."

Um, Dr. Palmer, you really don't have to read from the cards.

Well, Kasie insisted that I stay on script, so... (chuckles)

Uh, "If accepted into our internship program,

you would work here."

That is a lot of screens.

Oh, yeah, yeah. We-we love our screens.

So, are you thinking about, uh, cybersecurity as a career?

Uh, honestly never thought about it at all

until recently.

Mm.

I'm sorry. The cards say that Curtis

is supposed to take over from here, and I don't

see a Curtis, so, um...

Tell you what, you stay put,

and I will track him down.

You would be great down here.

Agent Torres.

You gonna be my next tour guide?

Oh, no. No, no, no.

Just came to grab some reports from Cyber.

But if you got that tech gene from your dad...

...we could use someone like you.

I very much doubt that.

Hey.

You good?

Yeah. Yeah.

It's just this place-- NCIS.

It-- The... the weight of it can be a little overwhelming.

You know?

Yeah.

KAYLA: When we went back and analyzed the traffic

after the coffee shop attack, Archive chatter had surged.

Anger. Validation. Escalation.

-What about the alley bombing? -The opposite.

Traffic fell into what we call a "coordinated quiet."

-Everybody knows something's up. -So they stay low.

My group knew a storm was coming.

Just not where. We missed it.

So what's fueling this storm? Why are these guys so angry?

Anti-corporate rage.

Young men who feel powerless and invisible.

They think that big companies are in control of their jobs,

their debt, their future, and that's why they can't get ahead.

The coffee shop was a, a corporate chain.

Exactly.

And around the corner from your alley bombing?

A major corporate headquarters.

Coordinated symbolism. Identical bomb building.

Someone is leading this group.

More like instructing them. Grooming them.

-Fueling their anger. -What, you got a name?

KAYLA: I've got five.

All influential usernames.

No real identities yet,

but that's where I was hoping NCIS could help.

Kasie and McGee are already digging in.

And we struck gold.

No real names yet, but all five usernames share

the same encryption fingerprint, same key and checksum.

He's doing that thing again.

These five users are all the same person.

Great. How do we find them?

No idea. We've exhausted every digital lead.

Maybe we stop looking online.

One of those usernames-- they mentioned

a favorite coffee shop in Glen Echo.

Oh, I thought you said they hated coffee shops?

Corporate chains, so this one must be local, mom-and-pop.

Well, if we stake out that shop, we can monitor their Wi-Fi

for that same encryption fingerprint.

Our puppet master logs on, and we grab him.

We should loop in the local chief of police.

Keep media exposure minimal and avoid a turf war.

What? It's smart.

Your dad would agree.

Let's go fishing.

KNIGHT: Moonbeams and Coffee Beans?

(chuckles): I can smell the patchouli from here.

(chuckles): It's definitely not a franchise.

Anything?

KAYLA: No hits on the Wi-Fi signal.

I still got nothing.

I haven't really, uh, checked in since your dad's funeral.

How are you?

I miss him.

The small things most of all.

Going to dinner together, movies.

You know, we used to box once a month, rain or shine. (chuckles)

I haven't been back to that gym since.

Well, for what it's worth,

I think he'd be proud of what you built.

I'm not so sure he was.

So he knew about it?

(sighs)

Yeah.

My dad was NCIS, too. Different office.

Same shadow.

Okay, your dad's shadow's a lot bigger.

There's always the question,

are we honoring the legacy...

...or trying to outrun it?

(phone chimes)

That's him. Our puppet master is inside.

He's logging into Archive.

On a laptop. You see anything?

KNIGHT: No way.

You got to be kidding me.

Wait, that's...

Gabriel Laroche.

The former NCIS deputy director.

What's he doing here?

I think we are about to find out.

Can we help you?

You need to shut down this operation immediately.

Oh, we don't work for you anymore.

Well, Agent Knight,

apparently you didn't get the memo.

PARKER: You just burned our best lead.

Because of your stunt, the man that we were about to identify

walked out of that coffee shop and we never got eyes on him.

You're welcome.

What gives you that authority?

I'm the new U.S. associate attorney general.

I can terminate any investigative line

I believe has been legally compromised.

Compromised how?

Kayla Vance's private operation.

Turns out, it's been funded with criminal money.

I'm assuming you have proof

because that is a serious accusation.

It's a serious problem.

Dirty money contaminates the work.

Now every case her group touched is compromised,

including yours.

Any arrest that we make based on her intel

collapses in court.

I spared you a humiliating defeat.

Financial reviews don't usually require an associate A.G.

to personally crash a stakeout.

Unless there's something bigger.

The money trail is real.

-I intend to follow it wherever it leads. -Uh-huh.

And meanwhile, we let a network of domestic terrorists walk?

NCIS is free to continue the bombing case

without Kayla Vance.

She and I need to talk.

There are plenty of places in this building to do that.

You chose here?

I'm sure you heard. Latest interim director

just accepted an ambassador post overseas.

This office just became vacant.

Huh.

McGEE: You got to be kidding me.

I thought we were done with Laroche.

Associate Attorney General Laroche.

I don't get it. I vetted every grant,

every donor, every transfer.

I built that operation carefully.

We believe you.

So where did dirty money suddenly come from?

We need to rebuild any of the evidence

provided to us by Kayla's group.

Yeah, before whoever's behind these bombings

-strikes again. -(phone chimes)

We might be too late.

Archive's been quiet since we got back from the coffee shop.

Quiet? Like before the alley bomb?

Something's coming.

And you've been sidelined.

More like summoned. Laroche wants me upstairs.

You go deal with that. We'll handle the rest.

(phone chimes)

-(sighs) Damn it. -What?

Mateo. I missed his entire tour. He's on his way out.

(sighs) I'm-I'm so sorry about this, okay?

This is not exactly the day I had in mind.

Yeah, me neither, but, hey,

I got to see a real investigation,

I got to, uh, go to the Cyber basement,

and I saw two fights outside of HR, so...

(chuckles) Well, I was hoping for something more convincing.

Right. About that, uh...

I think there's something that I got to tell you.

Oh.

Hey.

You don't got to say anything.

-I... I don't? -No.

Look, I, I know that I've been excited about you

applying for this internship and everything,

but I, you know, I don't want you doing something

just because you think it's gonna make me happy.

You got to figure out what works best for you.

Right.

I-I don't think NCIS is for me.

Well, that's okay.

You know?

Nick, hey, you need me, or...?

Just that Kasie found something

on the bomb schematics, but, uh, it can wait.

Thanks. Come on.

(door opens)

KASIE: I found these plans sitting in an open thread

on Archive, and they're not just blueprints.

It's a step-by-step guide to building a pipe bomb.

I'm tracing everyone who downloaded the file.

Him questioning her in that office.

If Laroche is pulling stunts,

that means the case against Kayla's thin.

Maybe, but the dirty money is real.

Kayla's grant funding didn't all come

from private foundations. Some of it

was routed through a slush fund.

Not so much "dirty" money as "opaque."

"Dirty" plays better in a headline.

And on Laroche's résumé.

If he can prove Kayla knowingly took tainted funds,

and right now, that's what it looks like.

Her name's the only one on all

-the filings and applications. -You believe that?

No, not for a second,

but if this goes public, belief won't matter.

Oh, Laroche is ambitious, not reckless.

He wouldn't move without more.

There's more.

Access logs just came back on the slush fund.

According to this, the last time

anyone looked at the dirty money account was two months ago.

Tell me it wasn't Kayla.

Uh...

I don't think Laroche is going after Kayla.

The last person to access that dirty account was your father.

Two days before his death.

Credentialed login. Two-factor authentication.

No.

Record is clear.

My father would never knowingly

touch dirty money.

Perhaps he believed the ends justified the means.

You don't get to rewrite his legacy based on guesses.

Not rewriting or guessing.

I'm following the evidence.

A powerful man, a father, used

untraceable funds to help his little girl.

It's not hard to imagine.

You're wrong. There's another explanation.

Then let's hear it. Otherwise,

I have to assume you were involved.

(door opens)

This interrogation is over.

Agent Vance and I were simply talking.

Well, from now on, you can talk to her lawyer.

I think I already have what I need.

Pretty sure "sidelined" doesn't mean overtime.

I'm not working the case. I'm reviewing my mistakes.

The coffee shop. The alley.

I missed something.

Just like I missed the dirty money.

You did not build a slush fund.

Apparently, I built something that used one.

And my dad knew.

Nobody believes that your dad was moving dirty cash.

Belief doesn't matter. Proof does.

(scoffs)

My dad warned me.

The last time we talked, we argued.

He tried to warn me about living in two worlds.

Things can get missed.

Which is why I was gonna leave.

I was gonna quit NCIS.

I took his warning to heart.

I was going all-in on my new initiative,

but before I could tell him...

...he was gone.

After that, leaving NCIS felt like betrayal.

Like I was walking out on him twice.

You think he'd see it that way?

I don't know.

And now, I never will.

What's this?

Uh, that's from the alley bomber's car.

It's a cheap Star Wars knockoff.

No.

I've seen this before.

The coffee shop bomber, Danny Hammersmith,

he was reading this same book.

-Kayla... -We have to go back

through Archive. There might be a connection.

Kayla, you cannot work this case.

If Laroche finds out, that is your badge.

Do not hand him that win.

(sighs)

(sighs)

Where's Parker?

Why? What happened?

I traced the bomb schematics. The last person to download them

didn't bother to mask their IP address.

Hank Hammersmith.

-The grieving father? -Of last year's coffee shop bomber.

It looks like he's picking up where his son left off.

(disconnected tone plays over phone)

Hank's cell phone is still off.

Agents swept his home and found bomb parts.

Grieving father builds a bomb and disappears. He has a target.

Wait, so he's part of the bombing network?

-Or a father out for revenge. -Against who?

People who radicalized his son.

Been running language analysis on Archive posts.

Take a look at this.

KNIGHT: Those are the posts we got from Kayla.

(chuckles) We're not supposed to use that intel.

Oh, I know, but the same phrases keep repeating.

Right? "Violence is the language of power."

"Martyrs are the seeds of tomorrow."

These are all lines quoted from the same source.

PARKER: Agnors Bliss.

Yeah, book is about the "Jondafarian Resistance"

violently rising up against "The Cric."

Alien overlords who enslave citizens with debt crystals.

So space capitalism?

Exactly. And "Agnors Bliss" is the book's version of heaven.

Reserved for martyrs who fight back.

Bombers think they're dying for a cause.

But how did they go from space opera to pipe bombs?

Grooming.

Take a look at this photo

just posted online by a fan.

That's the author, Isaac Wren.

And he's outside of the mom-and-pop coffee shop.

McGEE: Well, timestamp matches our stakeout from yesterday.

It was him. The author's our puppet master.

-We need to bring him in. -McGEE: Knight's right, though.

This all traces back to Kayla. We can't use this for an arrest.

Yeah, but we can use it to stop a bomb. Hank saw this book,

and if he figured out that Wren is behind this...

The author's the target.

McGEE: Okay, Isaac Wren

is speaking at a sci-fi convention downtown right now.

All right, alert convention security.

Have them conduct a fire evacuation.

ANNOUNCER (over P.A.): Attention. A fire alarm has been activated.

Please proceed calmly to the nearest exit.

(indistinct chatter)

Torres, McGee, south corridor.

Knight, with me.

Does this mean the Hall H panel has been cancelled?

It moved. Outside.

NCIS. Isaac Wren,

-where is he? -He was on the main stage. He's being escorted out.

-Escorted by who? -One of your agents.

She said it was a security precaution.

Kayla.

Two bombers died with your book in their hands.

I don't know what you're talking about.

I write fiction, and that is it,

and right now, I'm just trying to get to my car.

You need to come with me to NCIS.

I'm done talking now.

You're not just inspiring these attacks,

you're directing them. Aren't you?

What is that? Uh, driver, that's not mine.

I think it is.

-Mr. Hammersmith? -He's not my driver.

-Keep moving. -There. She's in the SUV.

-Yeah, with our bomber. -Wait.

If we move in, we could spook this guy.

And we don't know the play.

All right, then let's find out.

-(door handle jiggles) -Touch that door again,

and you can die right here.

(phone buzzing)

KAYLA: Mr. Hammersmith, please put down

that detonator that's in your hand.

He killed my son.

He filled his head with poison.

I got a clear shot on the driver.

Negative. You shoot,

and that detonator goes off.

Hank, please.

Let us help you.

Help?

Nobody helped my son.

-I didn't even help my son. -(phone chimes)

It's Kasie.

Oh, you got to see this.

The FBI pretended to care, and then moved on.

Danny was just a... another statistic.

He wasn't to me.

Your son changed my life.

The coffee shop attack is the reason why I built a team

to find kids like Danny before people like Wren get to them.

(phone chimes)

What are you doing?

Who are you talking to?

People who can get justice for your son.

You're lying.

NCIS just pulled Isaac Wren's financials.

He shorted stocks before both bombings.

He set the attacks in motion and then cashed in.

And we have the proof.

You used my boy...

-...for money? -No.

No. No.

Hank.

Please listen to me.

He's going to prison for the rest of his life,

which means you can live the rest of yours.

-For your son. -(sobs)

(crying)

I-I miss him so much.

I know what that feels like.

But we have to move on.

For them.

KAYLA: Detonator secure.

(exhales)

-(doors unlock) -(exhales)

TORRES: Uh-uh. Hands up.

WREN: Hey. Look, I didn't do a thing.

The guy was trying to kill me.

-Spin around. Hands. -Whoa.

(handcuffs click)

(sirens approaching)

(sighs)

Agent Parker.

You're early.

Isaac Wren pled no contest.

Securities fraud and domestic terrorism.

Turns out, he was broke,

but instead of waiting for book royalties, he

radicalized and then monetized

his most passionate followers.

Lucky for us, he didn't go into politics. (chuckles)

I trust the case will stick?

We rebuilt everything from the ground up.

-Nothing tied to Kayla. -Good work.

Tell that to Kayla.

-She disobeyed orders. -She stopped a bomb.

Firing her won't play well.

She's not being fired.

For that or anything else.

There's no concrete evidence that she knew those funds

flowing into her account were tainted,

or that she knew her father was the one who moved them.

He didn't.

There's no evidence that Vance ever touched that money.

So the fact it's connected to his daughter is...

just a coincidence?

I think he was looking out for her.

Found the dirty money and died before he could warn her.

Interesting theory.

Yeah, more plausible than yours.

I agree.

Which is why I'm dropping my investigation.

I thought you'd be pleased.

You came in here guns blazing,

making accusations, threatening careers.

Now, you just walk away?

Hmm, like you said,

there's no evidence that Vance moved that money.

Then who did?

That's for someone else to find out.

Right now, my job is to restore confidence in this agency.

-I didn't know that was a problem. -(scoffs)

Well, it will be tomorrow morning,

when news of Vance's connection to that slush fund

hits the media cycle. Whew.

Thankfully, I'll be there to step in,

publicly clear his name, protect his legacy,

and safeguard this institution.

Mm.

You came to play the hero. Why?

What do you get out of all of this?

(sighs)

But everything is a game to you. Political chess.

Then you know the rules.

Start turning over pieces...

...we both lose.

Me? I got nothing to hide.

Why do I find that hard to believe?

(chuckles)

I figured this was neutral ground.

For what? Laroche backed off.

I don't have to sneak around NCIS.

No.

But you still have a big decision to make.

(sighs) My organization.

The funding's tainted. The reputation's shot.

It needs rebuilding from scratch.

Sounds like a full-time job.

A job I'd love.

(sighs)

But not one I'm sure I can take.

Well, while you decide...

you said that you miss your monthly boxing sessions

with your dad.

Looking for a new, uh, sparring partner?

(laughs) You serious?

Well, I mean, I'm no Leon Vance, but I got my gear in the car.

Well, before you grab it, let me make sure mine's still here.

Like I said, I haven't been back in months.

Oh, my God.

Everything okay?

KAYLA: That's his handwriting.

(breathing heavily)

It's from my dad.

He must've left it here after our last session.

It's an NCIS discharge form

with my name on it.

He filled it out and signed it.

Dated just before he died.

He wasn't choosing for me.

(inhales)

He was making room for you to choose.

(sighs)

What up, Jimmy?

You're adding something to the wall of fame?

Yeah, like father, like daughter.

Yeah, who knows, maybe Mateo will be up here soon.

-(chuckles) -Well, after his visit, he didn't seem too convinced.

Yeah, that's what I thought, but then, Curtis called me.

He said that, right after I left,

that Mateo asked to use a workstation

to fill out an internship application.

Hmm.

That's not what he said to his dad.

Maybe he wants to keep it a surprise.

Or, maybe, like Kayla,

he just wants to earn it on his own.

-Have a good night, Nick. -Don't tell me what to do.

Okay.

Hey. Mateo.

Wait up.

Agent Torres? What are you doing here?

We need to talk.

About what?

About your internship application.

Why?

Like I told my dad,

NCIS isn't for me.

Yeah, well, that's not what you told Curtis.

Well, I started an application, and then, I...

changed my mind. Can I go now?

What were you doing at that workstation?

Nothing.

Drop it.

Why are you lying to me?

I said drop it.

Mateo, keep your hands where I can see them.

Turn around and walk away. They...

...they could be watching.

Who could be watching?

Don't make me do this.

Mateo, don't.

Don't do it.

(gunshot)

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