The Protector

Sliced once more

Time jump:

McGee was currently under the dash of the car. His nerdy senses going haywire with excitement. "Ziva you really gotta see this."

"See what, McGee?" Ziva on the other hand could have cared less.

Alex laid beneath the car. Staying out of the way, but in earshot of everything going on. Sadly, that included McGee's nerd talk. She spotted Ziva approach him. She raised a brow seeing her straddle his leg, yet the nerd boy didn't even flinch.

"It's an Atlas-Seven CPU." McGee basically spewed the words. "It's the same one developed for the Martian rovers."

"And how does this pertain to the case?" Ziva asked.

McGee paused for a moment. "Well, it doesn't. I just thought it was cool. See the thing about..."

Alex raised her head at hearing a loud commotion. It appeared Tim had moved his leg, causing Ziva to fall flat over him. 'Damn Ziva, just be glad Eyal isn't here to see this.'

Of course, Tony wasn't about to miss out on this. Appearing out of nowhere, he took a quick picture of the two. "I believe this is a classic yellow light situation." He continued taking his pictures, while the two struggled to separate.

"Stop moving McGee, my hand is stuck!"

"It's not the only thing that's stuck." Tony laughed, snapping a few more pictures. "Make that a red situation."

Ziva broke free with a loud growl. "You are so dead Tony!"

Just then one of the engineers appeared around the car. "What are you doing?"

Tony stuttered a bit to get the right words. "Investigation a...dead Naval officer."

"That's a $22-million piece of equipment, you."

Alex crawled out from under the vehicle with a threatening growl. 'Watch the tone.'

He exhaled slowly, taking a few steps back. "You people are jeopardizing my entire project."

'Pretty sure the happened the second that naval officer was killed, bud.'

Tony shrugged. "We are doing our jobs. What'd you find McGee?"

"Ah, there's a USB cable, still attached to the console on the passenger side." The poor man's hair was bed messy.

"Also bagged a battery for a laptop in the front seat." Ziva added.

"I removed the laptop." The engineer stated.

"We'll need it."

He shook his head. "Absolutely not. It contains a backup copy of Otto's AI."

Tony was quiet for a moment, clearly not caring. "Well, whatever that is, we'll need that, too."

He gestured to the car aggressively. "That is Otto."

'I am now going to rename you jackass.'

Ziva smirked. "Already got it covered Tony. Tow truck should be here any minute now."

"This-This is our only prototype!" I swear the man was about to cry. "You people...You people are...You're..."

"We're cops." Tony said.

"Federal agents." McGee joined.

"Police Officers?" Ziva offered.

"Maybe if you sound it out, it's easier." Tony said. "You know, English as a third language is always the trickiest one."