The next morning, Ziva walked into the room she and Tim were sharing with coffee and bagels. She found Tim on one of the beds on his computer. "What are you doing?"

"I've just sent Kort an email. By now, Eric will have worked his magic. Kort will be on the run," Tim said with a smirk.

"And he will be gunning for you. Why would you do that? He will run a trace on your email and he will be able to find us. Not that it would be that hard regardless seeing as you checked in under his name," Ziva said. To her, this was beyond reckless. He was going to get herself killed.

"I'm counting on that, Ziva. In fact, I installed a program to let me know when he hacks my system to get the trace," Tim said. Once that happened, he would make sure the hotel was vacated. That way no innocent lives would be risked.

"You want Kort to find us here? Do you have a death wish?" Ziva asked. Just when she thought he could get no more reckless, her former colleague proved her wrong. She understood the need to prove his innocence and make Kort pay for what he did, but there had to be a way to do that without endangering himself further.

"Not at all. I know what I'm doing, Ziva. I got rid of Kort's terrorist friends for a reason and it wasn't just to make Kort squirm. That was just an added bonus. I did it because without them, it's us against Kort," Tim explained.

"But Kort is dangerous even on his own. He may not be the smartest, but he fights dirty. And you have given him more than a little incentive to try even harder to kill you," Ziva said serious.

"True, but we have an advantage. I know what Kort's thinking right now. It's like you said, I've given him reason to be very, very pissed, which means he's going to make a mistake. A man's biggest weakness is his temper. Add that to Kort's other big flaw. His arrogance. Kort thinks he's better than me, but he's going to find out he's wrong. I'm gonna snap that little weasel like a twig," Tim said with a smirk.

Ziva snorted. "And Kort's the arrogant one."

Tim laughed. "Oh, I don't deny I'm arrogant. I'll tell you the same thing I told your dad. My arrogance can be backed up by the work I've done. Kort's arrogance is more like that of DiNozzo's. It exists because no one bothered to take him down a peg. Also, I don't underestimate Kort the way he does me. I know he's a threat. The fact that he was able to frame Callen and then me is proof of that. I know that I need to be careful and I intend to me. Kort, on the other hand, sees me as nothing. Well, he might see me as slightly more than nothing now. The point is that he underestimates me in the worst way. He doesn't think I stand a chance against him in fight. That's where I have the advantage."

"Okay, you may have a point, but I am still worried. This is dangerous," Ziva said.

Tim shrugged. "I've faced worse and so have you. It'll be okay."

Just then there was a knock at the door.

Tim stood up and he and Ziva immediately drew their weapons. Tim motioned for Ziva to take cover behind the door. He then went to the other side and slowly opened the door. He jumped out with his gun pointed at the person on the other side. He breathed a sigh of relief when he realized who it was. It was his team. "Hey, guys."

Callen, Sam, and Kensi immediately walked inside. "You don't look like Trent Kort," Sam said.

Tim chuckled.

Ziva, meanwhile, holstered her gun and moved towards them.

"You guys remember Ziva," Tim said.

The rest of the LA team gave her dark, hard stares before turning back to Tim. "So have you completely lost your mind?" Callen asked.

"Yeah, you remember what I said before you left. I said to bring yourself back too," Sam added.

"I intend to. It's just taking me a little bit longer than I thought," Tim said.

"You shouldn't have done this. You should've just left well enough alone," Callen said. He was grateful for what Tim did for him, but at the same time, he wished he hadn't. The younger man was now paying for saving him and he never wanted that.

"Well enough. You would've been killed eventually. There was no way in hell I was going to let that happen. You would've done the same for me. Besides, it's gonna be fine. I'm this close to nailing Kort's ass to the wall," Tim said.

"I must say, it was good work getting Kort to Iran. By the way, you totally flipped Nate out by following Kort," Kensi said.

"So I guess he told you," Tim said. He wasn't surprised. He expected it.

"Which you knew he'd do. That's why you waiting until you were on the plane to tell him," Callen said knowingly.

"Yes. I knew telling Nate that I was going to Iran would be a deal breaker and he would go to you immediately. I needed to make sure he couldn't stop me. By the way, try not to be too mad at him for keeping it a secret that we were in contact. It was my idea," Tim said.

"I'm too mad at myself to be mad at him," Callen said. He was still feeling guilty for how easily he'd believe Nate had betrayed him. "I should've known he would never turn his back on you or this team."

"But you didn't know that because we didn't want you to. I need you all to be in the clear. It was bad enough that I'd involved Nate. The only way I knew to keep you all out of it and to exonerate Nate was for him to make everyone, including all of you, believe he had turned on me," Tim said.

"Yeah, we get that now. We should've known the whole time though," Callen said.

"So what's the play? How are we kicking Kort's ass?" Sam asked.

Tim quickly filled them in on what he'd had Eric do and how he'd set in motion a plan to lure Kort to him.

"Not bad. We'll just have to get the hotel evacuated and get the rest of us in position," Callen said.

Tim soon heard his computer beep. He immediately went over to it. "Kort's into my system. He'll have our location soon enough. It's game time."

"I'll head downstairs and get the staff to leave," Kensi said.

"I will assist you," Ziva said before the two women quickly left the room.

"Alright, let's start getting the rooms vacated," Tim said. He, Sam and Callen then left as well.