Dealing With Trust

5

The next day, Nick was tearing his desk apart, trying to find any trace of the diamonds that he may or may not have stolen from the Coast Guard's Evidence Locker, or so he was told.

"Nick, what are you doing?" McGee asked.

"Just making sure" Nick said, slightly glancing up to see McGee and Bishop before looking through his desk again.

"You didn't steal the diamonds, Nick." Bishop added softly.

"Really?, Just like I didn't break into some random fishing boat?, Just like I didn't get Jessica Ho killed?, Just like I almost didn't accuse Aurora into being the diamond thief because of a plastic jewel on a kid's project?" Nick asked. "At this point, I might as well check for the diamonds too" he added.

"Hey, just calm down, okay?" McGee said.

"No, McGee, you calm down" Nick said

"Hey" Gibbs said walking by with a coffee. "You done?" He asked "You're not a thief."

"If I didn't steal them, then who did?" Nick asked, calmer now that Gibbs was around.

"Same person who killed Jessica Ho and kidnapped you" Gibbs said.

"And how'd they do it?" Nick asked.

"Well, there's only three people that have access to that evidence room" McGee said.

"Commander Hendrix, the federal prosecutor assigned to the trial, and the NCIS agent who made the bust" Bishop listed before looking at Nick.

"Me" Nick said simply.

"We already did some digging, and the commander and prosecutor both have solid alibis" McGee said.

"Which leaves me, again." Nick said with a slightly annoyed sigh.

"Yeah, or someone posing as you." Gibbs said.

"The problem is the iris scanner. It's calibrated specifically to your eyes, and it's difficult to circumvent" McGee said right as Ducky and Palmer were headed up to them.

"Difficult, but not impossible" Ducky said.

"You did not steal the diamonds, Nick." Palmer said, while looking right at him. "Someone stole your eyes."

"What?, How?" Nick asked confused like.

"Well, not your eyes, your irises." Ducky corrected. "And they didn't steal them, they copied them."

"Which explains why you were drugged" Palmer ensued. "Someone needed you out of commision so they could take a high-res photo of your irises from a very close range." he added before him and Ducky lead Nick and the others up to MTAC, knowing that was the closest to an eye scanner that they would prove their theory.

"Kasie identified the compound in your blood. It's a rare drug called dapiprazole." Ducky started. "Optometrists use it to induce myosis. That's constriction of the pupils." He affirmed.

"A constricted pupil makes it much easier to examine the intricacies of the iris." Palmer further ensued.

"Using a high-resolution photographic image, it is possible to fabricate a contact lens imprinted with the unique characteristics of the person's iris. We fabricated this lens using your iris scan data NCIS has in your personnel file" Ducky explained as he handed a small white case to Palmer, whom had started to take his glasses off, to show them what they were talking about exactly.

"As you all know, Dr.Palmer cannot normally access MTAC." Ducky said as Palmer put in and adjusted the lens to circulate around his eye better.

"But, Special Agent Torres can." Palmer said with a small smile before turning and kneeling down a bit so the eye scan could work.

"Oh!, Impressive" Bishop said when the door opened after scanning Palmer's lensed eye. "Except, it still doesn't tell us how they snuck into Coast Guard Headquarters." She added truthfully.

"I'm guessing if they can fake an iris, they can fake an ID." McGee suggested.

"Yeah, but they'd still need someone on the inside, to tell them where the diamonds were stored" Nick said truthfully.

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