"I forgot to ask," DiNozzo said as he, Loki, Bishop, and McGee worked to dig up everything they could on Captain Morris. The captain's truck was now in the evidence garage, waiting until Abby could examine it. "How's Lady Sif?"

"I thought you were going to ask Agent Romanoff out," McGee pointed out.

Loki snorted. "First of all, Sif's still not interested. Second, Romanoff? Really? You know what, ask her out when I'm standing there, I want to see her choke you to death."

McGee threw his hands up. "I told you, DiNozzo!"

DiNozzo narrowed his eyes. "You know, when she says yes, the first date will be to teach you two a lesson. I think that's a Russian assassin's idea of a good first date."

McGee and Loki exchanged a glance. "I'd be frightened," McGee commented. "If there was even the slightest chance of that ever happening."

Loki pointed to McGee. "Same. There's simply no way."

DiNozzo scowled right as Gibbs walked into the squad room. "Update," he snapped.

The four agents started out of their chairs. "Captain Samuel Morris," Loki said as he clicked the remote, the captain's picture and record appearing on the plasma screen. "Forty-two, never married, no kids, lives in Maryland. He's been working ashore for four months now."

"Doing what?" Gibbs asked.

"That's what we don't know," Bishop said. "It's classified, and NCIS doesn't have clearance to know what it is."

"Call Vance," Gibbs ordered.

"Already did," Bishop said. "He hasn't gotten back to me yet."

"I've contacted everyone I could think of, Boss," DiNozzo said. "But no one has any information on his schedule, what he was doing, and why he was on Ghost Street yesterday. So...uh, also no lead on who killed him."

"Does anybody have anything helpful?" Gibbs demanded, looking around at the four agents. "Anything?"

Loki, McGee, Bishop, and DiNozzo all looked at each other worriedly.

"No?" Gibbs asked. "Get to it!"

They scattered, heading to their seats, as Gibbs' phone rang. Flipping it open, he said, "Yeah, Gibbs." After a moment, he said, "Be right down, Duck." As he shut his phone, he barked, "Laufeyson, with me. The rest of you, find out what Morris was working on!"

Loki followed Gibbs over to the elevator, stepping on after the former Marine. As the doors closed before them, he glanced across at Gibbs when he started to speak.

"How are things in Asgard?"

Loki considered the question. "Better. Now that I know where my home is, I can stand not fitting in in Asgard. But it is good to be back." He smiled slightly. "I've missed NCIS."

"We've missed having you around, Loki," Gibbs said.

"Are you thinking the shooter is...her?" It was as if Loki said the words Agent Sniper, it would suddenly make her the shooter.

Gibbs just looked at Loki. "We'll see."

The elevator doors opened. Loki and Gibbs strode out and entered autopsy. "Ah, Jethro, Loki," Ducky said, glancing up from the body on the autopsy table. Jimmy grinned at Loki as they entered.

"What do you got, Duck?" Gibbs asked.

Ducky gestured to the body. "From my preliminary investigation, Captain Morris was in excellent health," he said.

"Until that sniper blew his brains out," Jimmy chipped in.

Ducky gave Jimmy a level stare. "Please, Mr. Palmer, have some respect."

"That's what happened, though," Loki said. "Isn't it?"

"Well, yes," Ducky said, gesturing to the X-rays on the wall showing the skull of the Navy captain. "The bullet penetrated his frontal lobe and blew out through the back of his skull. He was dead instantly. You have the bullet in evidence, I presume?"

Loki stared at the X-ray images for a moment as Gibbs glanced back at the captain. "Yeah, DiNozzo got it," he said. "Abby should have it by now."

Ducky looked at the captain. "Poor fellow, he never knew what happened."

"Well, we'll find out," Gibbs said, and jerked his head towards the door. "Let's go see Abby."

Loki trailed after Gibbs and, right before the autopsy doors closed behind them, he heard Ducky say, "Now, don't you worry, Captain Morris. Jethro will find who did this to you. He always does."

****

Bishop set down the phone and sighed in exasperation. "Well, that was the director," she told DiNozzo and McGee. "He says that he doesn't have the authority to tell us what the captain was working on."

"I'm going to bet even Vance doesn't know," DiNozzo hypothesized, spinning slowly around in his chair as he stared up at the ceiling. He glanced over at McGee. "McHacker, how about using some of your computer skills and getting us the intel?"

McGee raised an eyebrow. "You want me to hack into his records and find out what Captain Morris was up to?"

"Yeah, pretty much."

"That's illegal," McGee told him. "It's classified information for a reason."

"So?" DiNozzo asked, stopping his chair and sitting up straight. "You do illegal hacker stuff all the time, probie. Come on, take one for the team." When McGee still looked skeptical, Tony added, "You don't want to have to tell Gibbs we still have nothing on our dead guy, do you?"

"Fine," McGee said. "But if they come to arrest me, I'll tell them you talked me into it. I'm sure there's something they could charge you with."

"How about moral support?" DiNozzo suggested. "I'm pretty sure that won't get me any time."

McGee's fingers began to fly over the keyboard and DiNozzo and Bishop watched him work. After several minutes, they went back to following up what other small leads they had, each lead coming to a dead end.

"Uh oh."

Bishop and DiNozzo glanced up at McGee as his fingers abruptly stopped. "What?" Bishop asked.

"SHIELD," McGee said grimly, and the other two agents jumped out of their chair and scurried over to peer over McGee's shoulder. He glanced up at them. "Captain Morris was working for SHIELD, on contract from the Pentagon. This is Fury level clearance, guys. Like, Level 10 Alpha clearance."

"On what?" DiNozzo asked. "What was the captain working on."

McGee shot him a look. "I don't know. I'm not digging any further than this! I'll be arrested for sure!"

"Fine, be a McCoward," DiNozzo said. "We can tell Gibbs you chickened out, I'm sure he'll understand."

"Tony, this is serious," Bishop said reprovingly.

"We're SHIELD agents," DiNozzo said. "We should be able to see this."

"Level 6," Bishop reminded him. "Nowhere near high enough for what we're about to see."

"They'll know," McGee said. "And then we're done for, me particularly." Quickly, he erased his hacking activity. "How about Gibbs just goes to intimidate Fury and gets the information from him himself? That way, I don't end up in a covert SHIELD interrogation facility where they probably don't allow you your Miranda rights!"

"That could work," Bishop said with a nod.

"Yeah," DiNozzo said. "Now, let's get our stories straight concerning this hacking business. I was in the bathroom, Bishop was getting coffee for us, and McGee was hacking, the two of us completely unaware."

"Hey!" McGee exclaimed.

"I'm kidding. But I could use some coffee."

/**/

Sorry this chapter was late! But I hope you guys enjoyed it; what did you think of the beginning of the investigation? Do you think the team will get in trouble for their hacking?

Thanks for reading!

Skylar Wittenborn