A Naval Intelligence Officer is ambushed on a dark, lonely stretch of highway, and the team is called in to investigate his disappearance.

The missing officer, Captain Jennings, is reported missing by his daughter's ex-fiance. The daughter, Rebecca, had been fighting with her father the night he disappeared. Kevin, the ex-fiance, is more concerned about the officer's disappearance than Rebecca is.

When Captain Jennings' body is found in Shenandoah Park, it appears that someone really really wanted him dead: he has a head wound, has been disemboweled, and ultimately died of carbon monoxide poisoning. And he has a large pentagram on his back.

Tony and Ziva investigate the Captain's house, and interview the housekeeper. In the basement, they find a vintage toy that has been modified for use as a "freak box", used for computer hacking.

In his role as naval intelligence officer, Captain Jennings designed high tech surveilance gear by day, but his international travel logs and email trail suggest he was up to something covert. McGee discovers that the dead captain was using the primitive electronics in the bear as a "freak box" to hack into a homeland security department mainframe. And his co-worker reports that a very small, top secret sensitive piece of equipment has gone missing.

Abby matches tire tracks left at the scene to a '72 Buick Skylark, and the pentagrams to an aftermarket hubcap. But when a bolo turns up the a car that matches that description, the body count rises, and the case leads the team in a direction no one expected....

This episode is an excellent who dunnit that kept me guessing up to the very end. The twists and turns don't seem related, distractions and red herrings that seem absolutely convincing, and many clues that are seemingly unrelated.

You've got ta love this show's sense of continuity. Even in the stand-alone episodes, there are little reminders of previous episodes, such as Ducky's bandanged hand, from the injury he received in the previous episode. Earlier in the season, Gibb's wounds were still visible in the episode that followed the demise of Agent Lee.

The chemistry between the characters is part of the attraction of NCIS. McGee has a new online girlfriend, but it's just Tony is just messing with him -- and its priceless. Gibbs and Abby share their memories of the Christmas of the talking bear toy, and it's obvious that Gibbs regards her with the affection a father shares with a daughter.

(Tony's movie references in this episode includes Wargames, Sneakers, Hackers, Wierd Science, Poltergeist, Fatal Attraction and the ubitiquious horror movie cliche -- the nice guy with the nice house, hides a deep dark secret in the basement.)

(Original air date: 1/27/2009)