A reporter named Gage accompanies a group of ATF agents during a raid on a suspected drug lab. They breach the door to look for suspects and discover a room full of dead men wearing military uniforms.

Hanna arrives at work and learns that the rest of the team is waiting for him before they start the briefing. Hetty asks Hanna that they need his recommendation for someone to join the team since Dominic was kidnapped. Eric shows the team video footage that the reporter shot the night before. He says the uniforms that the dead men wore were real, but the people who were wearing them were criminals. Eric tells them that Vance wants them to figure out how the criminals got a hold of the uniforms.

Callen and Hanna go to the lab to investigate. Since there are no traces of drugs, they wonder what they were creating. Hanna notices several dead animals around the building. Kensi calls Callen and tells him they check out a suspicious address that belongs to a person named Balmore. Callen wonders if the lab was producing a bioweapon.

Callen and Hanna go to the home and hear glass break in the backyard. They meet with an elderly woman named Balmore who dropped a glass pitcher. Balmore recognizes the victims as the people who drove her to the research facility. She says in the lab, she was able to isolate a strain of botulism.

Balmore is brought to the safe house and questioned by Nate. Callen reports that the victims died from botulism. Hanna is worried they were exposed when they were at the lab. Balmore tells Nate she was tasked to work in the lab in order to find an antidote, but Hanna thinks she was tricked into making a bioweapon. Nate tells the team he thinks Balmore is suffering for Alzheimer's.