A grown man (aka gaming nerd) is playing an online game. Suddenly his internet connection is lost. He yells for his mother about the internet being down. He bangs his modem, which is labeled from the company, Swift Cast.

At Swift Cast, a gunfight is in progress. Two guards against two gunmen and one guard is hit in the arm. The guard that is hit tells his partner he took down another gunmen and cuffed her to a pipe. They wonder what the gunmen want when one gunmen pulls out a remote detonator, pushes the button and the power goes off all around town.

In the squadroom, the power is out, backup generators are on. Tony keeps banging on his computer, hoping it will work and flipping the switch on his desk lamp. He takes out his cell phone and plays “Bing Ball.” Palmer walks up and tells Tony cell towers are down as well. “You don’t need a cell tower to play Bing Ball, which is about all I’m gonna get done today anyway. Who let you out of your cave?” Tony says. Palmer says Ducky let him out because he has his first CIT Rep. Tony points out everything that’s down and what the backup generators are covering. Tony says Gibbs will get ugly if McGee and Ziva don’t get there pretty soon. “You didn’t hear? Tony, they never left last night,” Palmer replies as he points at the elevator.

Ziva and McGee have been stuck in the elevator for 9 hours and 21 minutes, according to McGee’s watch. “Has it been that long?” Ziva asks. She takes McGee’s watch and smashes it. “Why did you do that?” McGee yells. “It was either you or the watch,” Ziva replies while McGee bends down to pick up the pieces. They are both frustrated with being stuck there for so long. She says it could be worse, they could be stuck in there with Tony. On the outside, holding a safety cone, Tony says, “I heard that.” Tony says he finds it interesting that the two of them left together the night before. Ziva tells McGee to ignore Tony, he’ll go away. “Ziva trust me, it’s been 5 years he’s not going anywhere,” McGee replies. Tony offers to sing a song for them but McGee would rather have an update. There was an explosion at a Potomac Electric Substation causing a cascade failure. Tony can’t remember the word but says it rhymes with parade. McGee yells out cascade. He tells them they hope to have the power back online soon. Ziva says it won’t happen soon enough but she’s sure Gibbs is feeling right at home. “Well you don’t need electricity to use hand tools or drink a bottle of bourbon,” Tony says. Listening through the elevator door, McGee says, “He’s right behind you isn’t he.” “Yes he is,” Tony replies and puts down the safety cone. “Boss you know there’s nothing wrong with the occasional cocktail,” Tony says. Gibbs walks away telling Tony to grab his gear. The electrician radios for someone to patch the elevator doors to the back-up generators. The elevator doors open and McGee stumbles out, thanking God. Gibbs walks by and tosses McGee his bag telling him he’s late. Then he tosses Ziva her bag and heads out the door.

McGee and Tony are processing the crime scene when Ducky and Palmer walk in. Ducky says, “I must apologize for my tardiness. Mr. Palmer has trouble navigating when the street lights aren't working.” “It was not my fault. Map chart was down,” Palmer tells them. Ducky wants an update and McGee tells him very little. The victim’s name was Navy Lieutenant Emma Paxton. She was identified by a credit card found in her boot. Gibbs interviews the security guards. Ducky wonders why she was taking part in the assault.

Gibbs and Ziva question two of the security guards. One guard is injured and tells them there were 3 assailants. He was able to cuff the woman but he believes one of her partners shot her. The last place they saw them heading was the farm, the server farm. It’s a restricted area, not even the security guards have access. One guard says it’s lucky for them the power went out but Ziva thinks it’s not. She’s going to call the electrical company.

McGee is taking photos in the “farm” (aka the server room). Ducky and Palmer zip the body into a body bag and take it away. Gibbs is watching all 3 of them. McGee tells Gibbs what the server farm is and Gibbs wants to know if anything was worth stealing. They need to wait until the company does an inventory to find out what is missing. Gibbs shines his flashlight on the access panel at the door. The door was uncrackable unless there was no power. McGee is taking photos of the security panel when his camera stops working. He left it on the charger all night and the power went out, so the camera never took a charge. Gibbs reaches into his backpack and hands McGee a Polaroid camera. McGee wants to know if he has food in there as well because he missed dinner. Gibbs reaches in and pulls out a can of sardines, which McGee passes on. Arguing, Tony and Ziva come through a side door. They found tire tracks from the getaway car and an eyewitness who can give them a sketch. Ziva alerted the electric company of the possible connection. The damage to the power is worse than they thought, the chain reaction has spread to the tri-state area. It’s possible they could be days without power. The team wonders who they are going to process the crime scene without their equipment and Gibbs hands them old equipment. “Wanna switch?” Tony asks McGee.

At the squadroom, McGee pins Paxton’s photo on one of the divider panels. He found some background information on her in the Annex, stuck to a rat trap. Paxton was labeled Armed Forces Entertainment (AFE). She was a booking agent. Gibbs wonders what she was doing at the crime scene. McGee pins up the papers with information on the board. Gibbs shines a flashlight on it, while Tony uses the overheard remote, pretending he’s clicking through information on the screen. Paxton has a squeaky clean background, she married her high school sweetheart, Anthony and is an upstanding member of her church. Ziva walks in with the sketch from the eyewitness so Gibbs sends Tony off to “BOLO” it. McGee sets out to check on credit card statements and other information in Paxton’s background. Ziva is arranging a meeting with Paxton’s husband and Gibbs. Tony tries to fax the sketch and realizes it’s not working. Ziva picks up the phone and it’s dead. McGee sits at his computer and realizes it’s not working either. “It’s going to be a long case,” McGee says.

Gibbs walks into Abby’s lab and she is upset. He asks if she needs anything and she wants Caf-Pow. She’s trying to make her own but is missing 400 ingredients. He wants to know if she’s okay. Abby says she isn’t and rants about not having her equipment and the sequence of shutting it all down. “What does Ducky have that I don’t?” Abby asks. “Corpses,” he replies. Gibbs begins again and asks what Abby has for him. She tells him she has nothing. She wants him to be aware that it will take her longer doing everything by hand. He tells her he understands and she says she’ll have something in an hour. Gibbs leaves and Abby picks up her Caf-Pow concoction. Suddenly, she yells “no” as the batteries die on her radio, killing her music.

McGee, Tony and Ziva are standing over a manual copier. None of them have a clue what to do with it while Gibbs stands nearby smirking. He walks up and McGee says, "I found this in storage. We just need to find a brontosaurus who knows how to use it.” Gibbs grabs the sketch and operates the machine. He picks up the case file, then walks into McGee before heading off to talk to Anthony Paxton. Anthony is upset, he wants his wife back. He wants to bury her with the full military honors she deserves. McGee calls Gibbs out to the hallway. He tells him the company finished their inventory sweep and the assailants got away with nothing. Gibbs looks back at Anthony and wonders why they have a dead Marine then.

Tony comes running into the squadroom, all excited about finding a map. He tells McGee you can’t have a corkboard and no map. “Haven’t you seen Dragnet? Beretta? Kojak? Then this will mean nothing to you,” Tony says. He holds lollipop up to his mouth and tries to engage Gibbs, who isn’t amused. The company Swift Cast, swept for bombs, bugs, etc. and came up with nothing. Nothing was stolen or left behind. Tony wonders if the alarm was triggered before they took anything. Gibbs wants to find the other two gunmen, he wants someone to talk to Paxton’s CEO. Tony apologizes for the Kojak comment and says he’s on it. McGee wants to know where Tony thinks he’s going, someone needs to go through Paxton’s financial and credit card statements. Tony thinks it’s McGee’s job and McGee replies, “I don’t do hard copies.” They agree to flip for it and while McGee is going to get a coin, Tony grabs his coat and leaves. Ziva apologizes to McGee.

Gibbs heads down to autopsy. Ducky takes it Gibbs knows the power is out. Palmer looks at Gibbs and chuckles, which gets him a “Gibbs” look. Ducky tells Gibbs two gunshots, fired at close range, tore through Paxton’s heart. The contusion on her wrist collaborates the security guards story but, there is evidence that the gunmen tried to free her first. A man walks in humming and Ducky tells him to go ahead. Ducky gave the staff drawer #107 to use to store their food. The man goes to the drawer, opens it and takes out a snack. Still humming, he leaves. Ducky points out the swelling on Paxton’s legs. There are medical explanations but she doesn’t meet the criteria for any of them. Ducky sent the blood work up to Abby. Another man walks into autopsy and Ducky chuckles. The man starts to point to drawer #107 and Palmer nods his head no. The man leaves as Ducky continues explaining his findings. He found extensive evidence of trauma to the woman’s body; gunshot wounds, broken bones, etc. but Paxton has never been in combat.

Tony and Ziva question some of Paxton’s CEO, Commander Resnik. She says she had just spoken with Paxton last when she called in sick. Ziva asks about Paxton’s scheduled trip to Baghdad, but Resnik says she wasn’t scheduled to go there. Resnik says she’s feeling sick because she’s allergic to perfume and Ziva is wearing quite a bit. “I’m not wearing any,” Ziva says and looks at Tony. “I don’t have any hot water. And it’s not perfume it’s eau de cologne,” Tony says. He wants to know how the AFE has power. She says it’s portable generators they use when they do performances. Ziva and Tony wonder why Paxton lied to her husband. Resnik says the day Paxton called in sick, she saw Paxton an hour later walking down 30th Street with a man, she didn’t look sick at all. The only description she can provide is that he was a male. “A male man,” Tony says.

McGee is going through boxes of Paxton’s financial paperwork. “I don’t know how people survived before search engines,” he says. McGee gets another paper cut so Gibbs tosses him a box of Band-Aids. Tony and Ziva return to the squadroom. Tony sees a stack of files on his desk and knocks the top few off onto the floor, which makes McGee unhappy. Gibbs wants to know if Tony is taking a little break. Tony whines about the dead end and his feet dying. He wants to know how people survived before email. McGee says all of Paxton’s bank and credit card statements are clean. “So basically we got nothing,” Gibbs says. “Do blisters count?” Tony says. Abby comes in with information on the make and model of the getaway car. Abby wants to know if Tony and Ziva got her batteries. “Sorry the entire city has been de-duracelled.” Tony says. They are looking for a 99 Chevy Impala. McGee had been listening to the police band and he heard a report about an abandoned Chevy Impala.

The team goes to check out the location of the Impala. They notice the back window has three bullet holes, which is consistent with what the security guard told them. There is nobody in the car but Tony notices a blood trail, leading to a container. Guns drawn, Gibbs and McGee open the container and enter. There is nobody inside but McGee calls it like the “Tardis.” He references Doctor Who. Tony says it’s more like the “Lord of War” with Nicholas Cage and quotes it, “You have the gun that Rambo used?” They find weapons, a computer and McGee pulls out multiple false passports for Paxton. “This looks more like a Jason Bourne identikit,” Tony says.

McGee takes Polaroid photos of the contents in the container. Ziva says Mossad calls them sanctuaries, each operative maintains their own to prepare for their ops. Ziva wonders who Paxton was running it for. McGee is thrilled when he finds a switch and turns on a generator, which fires up the computer. The generator shuts off, which frustrates McGee. Ziva holds up a passport and says she found a new question to ask. Tony feels like Davey Crocket tracking down a second set of tire tracks. Gibbs pulls the detonator out of the car. McGee tells Gibbs they found something he needs to see. They show him blueprints for Swift Cast and the power company. It appears all the plans were made from the container. Ziva says Paxton wasn’t the only one with a fake passport and hands Gibbs another one with Paxton’s husbands photo on it.

Gibbs meets with Anthony in interrogation. He pulls out and turns on an old cassette recorder. Gibbs tossed the fake passport for Anthony on the table. He claims he’s never seen it before. Gibbs tells him they found the container and tosses photos from inside on the table. Anthony wants to know what Gibbs expects him to say. “The truth,” Gibbs says. Anthony insists his wife is the victim. “You want answers, you're going to have to give some,” Gibbs says. Anthony says he had a feeling because some things weren’t adding up. He thought she was cheating on him but he had evidence to prove she was doing nothing wrong. He hired a private investigator to follow her and has the tapes.

In MTAC, McGee is reviewing the surveillance tapes. Tony comes in and wants to know if McGee needs help. McGee says he doesn’t. McGee pushes the remote for the big screen at Tony. “You know that that means? It means that I’ve got it covered. So I want you to go do whatever it was that you were doing. What exactly are you doing again?” McGee says. Tony was hand filing evidence custody documents from the crime scene as he holds up his index finger with a Band-Aid on it. “Yeah have fun with that,” McGee says. “I hope you blow a fuse,” Tony responds. Tony is leaving and tells McGee the generator won’t last forever. McGee aims the remote at Tony and keeps clicking. When Tony is gone, McGee turns around smiling and stops when he sees Gibbs standing brings back there. He tries to explain what he was doing. “Just what, rubbing it in. Because he left you with the paperwork earlier,” Gibbs says. “Yeah,” McGee replies. “Huh,” Gibbs says and asks if he found anything. They review some of the footage but Paxton appears clean. Gibbs notices something and makes McGee back up. There was another man following Paxton at the same time. Gibbs notices the man puts his hand on the building. He tells McGee they got his prints, go pick him up. McGee wants to know if he wants Tony or Ziva to go pick him up. Gibbs turns around and stares at McGee who says he’s on it.

Tony and McGee show up at Abby’s lab with finger prints and other evidence. Abby is looking for lemons and Ziva comes running in with them. “Are we making cocktails?” Tony asks. It brings back memories of his 4th grade science fair. Abby puts the lemons into a box and turns on her boom box. Abby puts on her headgear and is ready to go. Tony tells her to be careful with a box he brought in as he’d just filed them all alphabetically. Abby dumps the contents on the floor. She hands them each a bin to narrow down the finger print cards to find a match from the print on the wall. She blows a whistle telling them to go. They begin at 10:40pm and are still going at it at 6:20am. “You never see this crap on Columbo,” Tony says. “Is this me or does it look like a squirrel,” McGee asks. Ziva laughs and refuses to comment. Abby finds a match and the man’s name is Donovan Graham. He is a small time hood, sells guns and has a reputation as a gun for hire.

The team shows up at Graham’s house. Guns drawn, they approach the front door. Tony looks in and whispers to Gibbs. They see 2 dead bodies on the floor and enter. Graham and his partner are both dead from gunshot wounds. A blonde haired woman steps in from the kitchen, Commander Resnik. The second man is Leo Harper. It appears the men were roommates and shot each other. Tony wants to know if she got a makeover. Resnik holds up her ID, which shows she’s an agent with the National Security Agency. She says she and Paxton were colleagues, the AFE was their cover. They were working on a highly classified project and it’s much bigger than NCIS thinks.

In the evidence garage, Resnik tells them NSA had an agreement with all major biometric security companies to program a back door into their Iris scanners. Paxton was one of two people whose irises were hard coded into the devices, like a master key. Resnik was the second one she reveals as she opens the elevator door. They can travel around the world without suspicion, assisting other agencies with covert activities. They have no idea why Paxton was in Swift Cast but clearly their mission has been compromised. Gibbs wonders if it’s the husband. Resnik says maybe but to not read to much into his fake passport. Paxton had it created in case her cover was blown and they needed to disappear. If she had gone rogue, there’s no telling what damage she might have done. McGee points out that Paxton used her access to get into the farm, but that’s not why the power went out. Resnik feels NCIS has gotten further in the investigation and wants to pool resources so they can find out what the endgame is.

Gibbs goes back to autopsy and wants answers from Ducky. Ducky has them, starting with whether or not the two men killed each other. The crime scene was staged. Both bodies were moved after they were killed. Both victims were shot repeatedly in the chest. The actual kill shots were shot from behind. “I imagine their services were no longer required,” Ducky says. “Tied up loose ends,” Gibb says. Standing behind the second autopsy table with his arms crossed, Palmer says, “The question is who.” Ducky shines his flashlight on Palmer as Gibbs turns around. “Well I don’t know who Jim. Do you have any ideas?” Gibbs asks. As Palmer starts to respond, Gibbs shines his flashlight in Palmer’s eyes. “It was rhetorical, never mind,” Palmer says. Ducky says he doesn’t know who killed them but he knows how one victim spent his last hours, digging. He found a lot of dirt under the man’s fingernails. Gibbs thanks Ducky and leaves.

Tony and Ziva return from Graham’s place. They found a server under the shed in the backyard. Nothing was reported stolen or left behind but the gunmen yanked out one server and replaced it with a duplicate. It doesn’t make sense to McGee. “Think McToma, it’s a classic cop show switcheroo. You take something at the target location and you swap it with a bugged copy. Paxton was bugging the internet. Can you do that?” Tony says. The power was cut because it was the only way they could switch out the server without it being detected. “The blackout is not a prelude to a terrorist attack,” Ziva says. “No at least not the kind your thinking of. No this connects directly to the internet backbone. Every bite from every government agency that uses the internet would be exposed,” McGee adds. ”Our countries entire electronic infrastructure would be at risk,” McGee adds. Tony comments how Paxton spent a lot of time overseas, she could have met a lot of people who would pay for the Intel. “I’m sure she did but I don’t think she was the one trying to sell it,” Abby says.

Abby walks into her lab with Gibbs. She pulls a beaker out and asks Gibbs if he smells anything. “Whiskey?” Gibbs asks. Abby pours some into a shot glass and downs it. “I’m not an alcoholic but I needed that,” Abby says. She ran Paxton’s blood work and found large amounts of high blood pressure medication in Paxton’s system. It wasn’t suicide but something else. Abby thinks Paxton was trying to stop the break-in with the only thing she had, the blood pressure medication. It appears she was kidnapped and found the medication in the kidnappers medicine cabinet and used it to prevent the break-in. The blood pressure medication changes the blood vessels in your eye, which would have blocked her access to the iris scanner. Abby found traces of the medication from a blood swab at the Swift Cast shootout. “From who?” Gibbs asks. Abby hands him a file.

Ziva and Gibbs return to Swift Cast. Ziva holds up Anthony Paxton’s fake passport and asks if he knows him. The security guard says he recognizes the eyes. Gibbs asks if he’s sure and the guard says yes. When he finds out it’s Paxton’s husband, he calls them a real life “Bonnie & Clyde.” Ziva says they have forensic evidence and now an eye witness, enough to go and make an arrest. As they are leaving, the power comes back on in the building. Ziva tells him enjoy his sandwich.

The guard goes into the farm and opens up one of the cages. He pushes a button rerouting the signal for the server. “Ladies and gentleman what you are about to hear is true, only the names have been changed to protect the innocent,” Tony says and rounds the corner. He asks the guard if he has a buyer yet for all those zero’s and one’s. Gibbs and Ziva come around the other corner. Ziva tells him getting shot during the break-in was a nice touch. “Til it bit you in the ass,” Tony says. Gibbs says his blood was at the crime scene. Tony says. “You should really watch your blood pressure,” Ziva says. “Next time you kidnap someone you should really keep them away from your medicine cabinet,” Tony adds. “Book em Dano-zo,” Gibbs says. “Nice Hawaii-Five 0 reference boss,” Tony replies and cuffs the security guard. Gibbs radios McGee and tells him to kill it. Outside, he nods to Resnik and she turns off the generator.

In the observation room, Anthony wants to know who the security guard is. His name is Dimitri he worked for Russian counter intelligence until 2 years ago and he decided to freelance. He learned about Emma when she was on an OP in Kiev. He found an asset he could exploit. With the national security data she gave him access to, he could name his price to U.S. enemies. When she couldn’t stop him, she cuffed herself during the break-in. She knew they’d find her body and dig deeper. Anthony says there’s a lot he didn’t know about his wife, but she was a fighter, stubborn as hell. Gibbs smiles and says, “Yeah, been there.” Gibbs says she had a choice, it’s what makes her a hero.

“High tech case, low tech ass-kicking,” Tony says. Kind of ironic, McGee says. “You know I actually kind of enjoy being unplugged,” Tony says. They all remark how nice it is when the power comes back on. The minute the computers are back up, all 3 of them jump onto their computers and start checking data and emails. Gibbs comes in, sits down and packs his gear. He puts his bag down and looks around. He starts to use his computer, then shuts down the monitor. He sits back, folds his arms and smiles.