Plot

A foreign agent enters the autopsy room via an unconventional method; he then takes captive Ducky, Gerald, and, later, Kate. He demands evidence pertaining to a body in the room. He eventually asks to see Gibbs, who obliges him.

An agent of a foreign power enters the autopsy room via a clandestine and unconventional method; he then takes captive Ducky, Gerald, and, later, Kate. The intruder demands every bit of the evidence, including the blood, pertaining to the body of a terrorist who arrived late the previous night, and whom Gibbs had shot while capturing him at the Naval Amphibious Base at Little Creek in Norfolk; the intruder seeks to prevent the USA from discovering that his sponsor, using an infectious virus, contaminated the terrorist, who had begun working among the population aboard the base. The intruder eventually asks to see Gibbs, so Gibbs confronts him in the autopsy room; Gibbs and others regain control. Abby finally overcomes a fear.—DocRushing

Ducky is called out in the middle of the night to perform an autopsy on a body of a Royal Navy officer that the Israeli Embassy has sent to NCIS. Gerald is there to assist. When Gerald unzips the body bag, he is staring into the barrel of a gun held by a very alive terrorist, Ari Haswari. He has Ducky lock the door and illuminate the red-light sign on the autopsy room indicating that an infectious case is in process. Haswari is interested in the only body present in the cooling chambers, another terrorist whose body arrived late the previous night. The dead man had been shot after Gibbs apprehended him at the Naval Amphibious Base at Little Creek in Norfolk. When the gunman does not find what he's looking for in the personal effects of the corpse, he demands that all evidence that was sent to lab be returned, including any blood samples. He is trying to cover up a scheme his group has cooked up in which they will place members in the food service of various U.S. bases and then have them inoculate themselves with a deadly pathogen. The fatal germs will be served up with the food. Ducky calls Abby to bring all the evidence down, but she is reluctant to do so as she has an aversion for autopsies. She talks Cait into taking it for her. Soon Cait is also a hostage. Before the evidence is returned, Gibbs has many of the items switched out. This allows Abby to identify the lethal infection is a strain of smallpox. Gibbs has assembled a team of hostage SWAT specialists. Ari invites Gibbs, as the lead investigator, to come into the lab. He taunts him before giving him an opportunity to have a shoot-out with him, even providing him with a gun. This, too, is part of his plan. He has a bulletproof vest on. He will fake his death and hope to be carried out in body bag by a couple of ambulance assistants he has planted at the scene. Gibbs shoots at him, getting hit in the shoulder himself. Haswari falls as if dead. But Cait is onto the ploy having felt the vest beneath his clothes when he threatened her up close earlier.—Garon Smith