AN: Yes, this one's a short chapter. That's on purpose. And yes, we will finally see Arkady next chapter before action move to Hawaii for the final set of four acts. Thanks to everybody who's been reading and reviewing!

Eric watched McGee race up the stairs, but then Danny's rant distracted him.

"You see, Steven?" Danny said, hands flailing. "This — this is why I hate the CIA. They come in, they keep secrets and every time they do, you almost get killed."

"Don't worry, Danny," Tony said. "We'll find out what's going on soon enough. McHacker's on the case."

"You can't just hack the CIA," Steve said. "How do we know the hacking he did earlier isn't the reason the file was locked down in the first place?"

"I am not hearing this," Hetty said. "Jethro, if he gets caught-"

"Oh, McGee never gets caught," Abby said. "Even when Leon doesn't give him a get out of jail free card."

"Really?" Eric headed for ops. This he had to see.

"Come on, Nell," Abby said. "Why let the boys have all the fun." He could hear them following behind, Abby's boots clomping up the tiled steps.

Eric ran into ops, sandals skidding on the polished floor, to find code he couldn't even begin to imagine up on the screen.

"Whoa!" he said. "Dude."

McGee didn't even look up.

"What can we do to help, Timmy?" Abby asked.

"Eric, can you and Nell set up a series of Trojans to bombard a server?" McGee said, rattling off an IP address.

"Sure," Eric said, dropping into his chair next to McGee. Nell was across the way, and Eric wished McGee hadn't picked the computer next to his chair for his hacking.

"Nell, can you-"

"Propagate the bots? Yes," she replied.

It was all quiet except for keys clacking for a few minutes until Eric looked over and-

"What-? How-?"

Abby turned to look at him, her long arms still looped around McGee's shoulders so they were both typing… on the same keyboard?

"It's faster," she said. "Gibbs always wants faster."

Before Eric could say anything, McGee jerked his head up so fast he knocked Abby in the chin.

"Sorry, Abbs," he said. "But look!" He pointed at the screen and Eric's eyes widened as he saw what was on there.

"Dude, are you kidding me?" he said.

"Get the others," Nell said from behind him. "This is big."

Eric left ops and headed for the steps to whistle.

~NCIS~H50~LA~NCIS~H50~LA~

Tony wondered what the geeks would find — and if it would happen before Danny Williams spontaneously combusted.

"Time out," Danny said. "Steve, if this is CIA, there is one really big possibility that we need to consider."

"No," Steve said, shaking his head.

"Just like that, no?" Danny said. "No, you cannot say that. After everything that has happened, you cannot rule the possibility out without considering, at least for a moment, that it might be possible."

Callen stepped forward. "Does somebody want to fill in the rest of us?" he said.

"My mother was CIA- Is CIA," Steve said. At Danny's hand wave, he sighed and kept talking. "She got out when she married my father, then the Yakuza tried to kill her on Wo Fat's orders — he's an arms dealer — so she faked her own death when I was in high school and went into hiding for twenty years. I found her a few years ago, after Wo Fat ordered my father killed, and last year she went back to working for the CIA. I don't know where she is."

"Thank you, Steven, that was very basic and efficient and doesn't begin to reflect the amount of chaos your mother causes," Danny said. "Now, I ask you all, does it seem possible to anybody other than me that Doris McGarrett might — just might — be involved?"

"She wouldn't try to kill Steve," Chin-Ho said. "She can't be the one behind this."

"No, but she might be the target," Steve said. "If they get me, there would be a funeral and they would have to figure my mother would find a way to be there."

"Steve," Kono said, her voice quiet. She tipped her head toward Grace, walking over from Hetty's office.

Steve lowered his voice. "If Wo Fat wanted another shot at her, it would be a good play: He gets a valuable bioweapon he can sell and he gets me and her at the same time." He looked around the room. "If this is Wo Fat, he's not taking any more of my family."

The last time Tony had seen that look on somebody's face, he could still remember the taste of Kate's blood on his face, but with a child now within earshot, he kept his comment light. "Great. Commander Ahab to go along with Captain Ahab," he said.

"Who's Ahab?" Grace asked as she walked up to Danny.

The detective crouched down so he was eye-level with Grace. "He was a very silly whaleboat captain who kept chasing a whale that he was determined to catch even though it meant he wasn't doing all the other things he was supposed to do."

"You mean like when you and Uncle Steve chase the bad guys and Mommy complains because you have to drop me back at home?" Grace said.

Tony thought he might have ruptured something from holding in a laugh, and Deeks and Kensi looked like they were in the same state.

But before Danny could reply, a whistle split the air.