Poručík Seabrooková byla nalezena otrávená oxidem uhličitým v robotickém vozidle, jež bylo testováno jako součást unikátního projektu ministerstva obrany. Šéf firmy, jež vozidlo vyprojektovala, je přesvědčen, že dívka spáchala sebevraždu, jeho kolega si však je jistý, že by se Seabrooková nikdy nezabila, a líčí ji jako opravdovou perfekcionistku a profesionálku. V úvahu připadá tedy i sabotáž. Další směr pátrání vede vyšetřovatele k mechanikovi Jamiemu Jamesovi, kterého zachytily kamery, jak svou kolegyni sexuálně obtěžuje. Vyvstává řada otázek – kdo vymazal část záznamu, jak se dostalo tolik oxidu uhličitého dovnitř vozu a kdo měl zájem na smrti poručíka Seabrookové?

The episode opens with Navy Lt. Roni Seabrook (Jennifer Lynne Wetzel) testing a robotic Hummer prototype named “Otto,” in preparation for a demonstration to the Department of Defense. The outcome of this demonstration will provide the developers of Otto with an exclusive contract guaranteeing the company the much needed capital to get fully off the ground. Lt. Seabrook vocally directs the vehicle through several test scenarios, recording her results and observations to the project laptop. While parking Otto, Lt. Seabrook attempts to disengage her seat belt, setting off a sequence of events where the seat belt tightens on her, the doors lock, the windows roll up and the car directs its exhaust to the vehicle’s interior. Unable to reach the kill switch, Lt. Seabrook perishes.

At NCIS, the team is attending a required sexual harassment seminar being presented by a humorless woman who color codes personal contact as green, yellow, and red. This sets up the comedic allusions for the rest of the episode. The instructor is not used to the likes of Abby, who is instructed to now ask before she hugs a team member; Tony, who wants to know if it is inappropriate to slap his co-workers on the back of the head Gibbs-style; and Palmer, who wants to know if touching naked dead bodies is a red light behavior. When describing the most inappropriate “red” behavior, Ziva licks the reclining Tony’s ear, prompting him to make a scene at the same time that the team is called into action for the death of a Navy officer at a DOD subcontractor candidate facility - Lt Seabrook.

The DOD subcontractor is populated with the requisite oddballs. Project Leader Dr. Russell Pike is from the Ken Lay school of benevolence, fatherly and clueless. There is the arrogantly teutonic Torsten Engler, associate and rival of Lt. Seabrook, a blond-haired, blue-eyed anvil German. And mechanic Jaime Jones, with whom Lt. Seabrook carried on a lively and violent tryst, captured on camera getting rough with the Lieutenant the night before her death. Initially, it seems obvious the mechanic must be the murderer, though the security tapes in the garage where Otto was kept have been wiped from an hour before the death. However, Jonesis found tied up in her bed by Ziva and Tony, (Tony has just returned from the hospital where he was seeing his sweetheart, Dr. Jeanne Benoit ). Ziva suspects that Tony is not telling her something, though she is on the major wrong track, believing that his connection with hospital and doctor means he is seriously ill, maybe with a recurrence of the plague he suffered at the end of season 2. Jones claims all the roughness was just role play. When interrogated by Gibbs, Jones is shocked to learn of his girlfriend's death.

McGee and Abby figure out that a small bit of assembly computer code was added to the BIOS of the AI system that runs Otto, instructing the vehicle to behave as it did when Lt. Seabrook tried to remove her seat belt. Tim listens to the MP3 files recorded by the lieutenant in the closing minutes of her life while Abby regenerates those same closing minutes almost losing her life because Tim has the headphones on. Fortunately Gibbs appears in the nick of time and breaks the window of the Hummer with a fire extinguisher. Then they find the chip (an SD card) used to insert the code.

Meanwhile, Dr. Pike wants the car back and it is discovered to have been driven off by remote control. The team tracks it down and finds the chip (a copy of the original that is in the NCIS safe) gone. Abby and team track the remote control to the DOD subcontractor candidate site and to the particular computer used to drive Otto out of NCIS. Just when it appears that uber-German Engler is the murderer, Gibbs pulls a fast one with yet another memory chip that he gives to Dr. Pike. Pike examines the chip and says there is nothing on it. Gibbs agrees, because Pike just erased it - though there was nothing more incriminating on it than photos from Gibbs’ digital camera.

Caught, Pike admits that he killed Roni, but it was a mistake. Roni was supposed to have had the morning off, and Engler was supposed to be driving Otto. Half-crazed, Pike shouts to the rest of the team that he did it for all of them - Engler's family owns a controlling interest in the company, and if the project had succeeded, he would have gone from being their obnoxious, arrogant colleague to their obnoxious, arrogant boss. Engler, for once, is lost for words - like many obnoxious, arrogant people, he is totally unprepared for the knowledge that someone might actually dislike him enough to want him dead.

Jones flies at Pike in a rage, but is restrained, and Pike is arrested. Case closed.