Somewhere out there on the bottom of the ocean is a two million dollar prize …
Summary: Don’s team investigates the suspicious death of a diver looking for the wreck of a yacht off the California coast.
Original air date: January 12, 2007 (US)
Written by: Andrew Dettman
Directed by: Colin Bucksey
Opening numbers:
11,346: Nautical miles
22: Ports
14: Racing yachts
1: Sunken treasure
Family Concepts: (character development)
- Dr Finch does not know how to play chess, though she learns quickly
- Dr Finch took a three month sabatical from MIT to sail the South Pacific with a friend
- Liz Warner has been transferred to the LA office, seems to be investigating drug crimes.
- Don and Liz decide to try making a relationship work, but they want to keep things low key to avoid gossip.
- Alan: I remember the damage some of those fluid dynamic experiments did on the pond in the backyard.
Charlie: All the koi lived. - Colby: Nah, you gotta let him run with it. He’s fun to watch when he gets going.
- Charlie: NSA never say anything … I get it.
- Colby: All right Captain Nemo, let’s go up on the dock.
The body of a salvage diver is discovered during an oceanography field trip for a group of junior high school students. The FBI thinks he was part of a larger search for a missing racing yacht, the Cheetah. According to her locater beacon, the Cheetah went down about 40 miles from the California coast; she was a very expensive yacht and even as salvage could be worth as much as two million dollars. The problem is even after several days, no one has been able to find it.
In the course of the investigation Don and Agent Liz Warner meet again. Liz states she has been transfered to the LA office and is currently working a drug case along the pier. Don and Liz decide to try to make a relationship work, but they also want to keep the idea to themselves to avoid the office gossip.
Don’s team suspects the company the diver worked for, Morris Salvage, may know something about the man’s death. The owners, two brothers, Chris and Robert Morris, haven’t been seen for several days. Don and Colby check their slip and find the barge has returned but no one has seen the men. An inspection of the barge leads to several blood stains; the Morris brothers are no longer suspects but possibly additional victims. Charlie offers to help figure out where the barge traveled to see if a search of that area will lead to the Morris brothers bodies. Before he can get too far with his research, Charlie is approached by Agent Cordero and Agent Graves from the NSA to help them find the missing yacht. Don isn’t happy when he finds out Charlie is working on another project, one he can’t tell Don about due to national security.
Charlie works out a search area for the NSA, and then works another search area for Don’s team to find the barge crew. The FBI is successful in finding the bodies of the Morris brothers, however, surprisingly enough they also find the Cheetah, close to shore where no one ever expected her to be. Graves and Cordero are not happy with Charlie or Don for what they see as a wild goose chase, but relent when Don points out they are now working the same case. Graves and Cordero explain they think the Cheetah was smuggling something into the States for a Pakistani terrorist; when Charlie works out the yacht probably picked up the smuggled load in Singapore, Graves and Cordero think the boat was bringing in a guidance system for missile launching.
Colby points out the locater beacon could have easily been turned off by the Cheetah‘s skipper, Reed Sarasin which means Sarasin did not die at sea. Sarasin’s wife tells Megan and Colby about a boat Reed has been hiding on for several days and Colby finds him hiding underwater. Sarasin admits he carried the smuggled goods, but claims he did it under duress. He tells Don the men who took the goods drove off in a yellow panel truck and that they planned to stay in the LA area for awhile waiting for the missiles to come into port. Charlie is able to locate the truck and the FBI and NSA arrest the two men responsible for three deaths and smuggling.