When a Marine Colonel dies in an explosion at a military golf course, the NCIS team must investigate a suspected terrorist attack with the help from the Army Criminal Investigative Division (CID). The CIA gives them a lead to an abandoned warehouse, but it turns out to be a trap---the warehouse is set to explode. McGee uses his computer skills to break into the secret government files to uncover the terrorist cell.

When a burnt and mummified body of a missing and wanted person is found on a Marine base, in a furnace, NCIS must work with FBI. The burnt man turns out to be a serial killer. The both teams visit the man's family and discover something shocking. Also, the NCIS team must deal with the book McGee wrote about them, using "fictional" characters.