Daniel Budd was a villain that appeared in the TV show NCIS as the main antagonist in the closing episodes of season 12 and the season 13 opening episode.
Biography[]
Daniel Budd was formerly a DJ whose career made him quite famous for a while, but eventually he fell from the public eye as a washed up has-been.
Budd desired to reclaim his fame by using his true talents of technology and charisma. To that end, he formed a cult known as the Calling, using online chat rooms to recruit troubled children and teens who he would groom to be dependent on him and obey his every wish.
Troll[]
NCIS learned of the Calling following the murder of Navy Ensign Janine Wilt, which led them to Bradley Simek, a teenager who had been recruited and groomed by the Calling. It turned out Ensign Wilt's death had been revenge for her helping another child escape from the cult and her shutting down a number of their recruitment chat rooms. Simek had given his father's knife to Calling recruiter Sadiq Samar to kill Ensign Wilt with. He was then given the plans to make a bomb and a 3D printed detonator and told to blow up a bus. Simek committed suicide by blowing up the bus with himself inside, but as NCIS had already evacuated all the passengers, only Simek died.
The Lost Boys[]
Following the bus bombing, NCIS met Luke Harris, a Syrian-American child who had been recruited by the Calling after being bullied by kids at school for his Middle Eastern heritage. After Sadiq Samar murdered his adopted parents, Luke agreed to help the authorities, and told them about The Calling's plan, to commit various acts of terror around the world using elaborate arrangements of specially modified "bouncing betty" explosives.
An international task force was called to discuss how to deal with the Calling, meeting at the Al Maha Hotel in Cairo, Egypt. While interrogating another captured Calling operative, NCIS Agent Tim McGee discovered that the Calling knew about the meeting and was planning to bomb the hotel. He called NCIS Agent Ned Dorneget, who began evacuating the hotel.
Daniel Budd was first seen at this time. He locked eyes with Dorneget, who realized from the look on his face that Budd was the mastermind. Before Dorneget could give chase, a civilian accidentally hit the laser tripwire, activating the explosive trap, killing a number of civilians. Dorneget was admitted to the hospital with severe injuries, and died during surgery.
Neverland[]
Sadiq Samar attacked Leroy Gibbs' house, where Luke Harris was staying, killing several NCIS agents and abducting Luke. Dorneget's mother, CIA Agent Joanna Teague, tracked down and interrogated Sadiq, torturing him until he revealed that Luke had been sent to "Neverland", the Calling's headquarters in Iraq. NCIS agents were dispatched to Iraq to recover the boy and capture Neverland.
In Iraq, Daniel called NCIS Agent Anthony DiNozzo, telling DiNozzo that he was nearby watching them, and that he was the true leader of the Calling with Sadiq and Matthew Rousseau being merely his lackeys. Unlike Sadiq who was a radical Islamist, or Rousseau who believed it was "proper" for the young and disenfranchised to rise up against authority as terrorists, Daniel was only in this for the power and fame, with his goal to become an internationally known and feared terrorist mastermind, the likes of Osama bin Laden.
As Daniel kept DiNozzo distracted, Luke Harris confronted Gibbs and shot him in the leg and the chest, hospitalizing him and nearly killing him.
Stop the Bleeding[]
Several months later, Gibbs returned to work. By this time the task force had already shut down Neverland along with several other recruitment centers, and captured the Calling's other senior operative, Matthew Rousseau, who was later killed in Leavenworth Penitentiary in a manner made to appear as a suicide. Daniel Budd, however, was still at large and could simply start up again.
Budd contacted DiNozzo again to taunt him, remarking that he got word Gibbs had survived. He later had his followers lure DiNozzo and Teague, along with several other CIA Agents, into a trap to attempt to kill them. They ultimately survived the trap and apprehended Luke Harris in the process. Upon learning that Gibbs had survived, Luke renounced the Calling completely and told the authorities everything he knew about Budd and the Calling.
Knowing his time was up, Budd enacted a new plan, hacking the US government's defense systems and creating a false report of a North Korean nuclear missile strike. The goal was to cause a war between the United States and North Korea, thereby showing Budd's ability to cause chaos and sell his services to a powerful terrorist group in China. However, NCIS found out and was able to cut off Budd's backdoor, ending the false alert and preventing a war.
DiNozzo contacted Budd in order to tell him in person that his plans failed and that he was coming for him. As Budd had done before, this was only a distraction. Budd looked up, realizing DiNozzo was already there. He attempted to flee, but was easily cornered.
Budd maintained his air of authority, taunting that his bombs were already in place and that nobody could stop them, which prompted DiNozzo to shoot Budd in the leg before mockingly telling him "that sounded like a threat, I had to defend myself." Budd continued to laugh and taunt, saying that he was skilled at manipulating the law and would be free within days. DiNozzo asked why Budd assumed the plan was to bring him back alive. Certain he was about to be executed no matter what, Daniel pulled out his pistol to defend himself and was promptly shot in the chest and killed.
What happened to the Calling is not known, but with its entire leadership now dead or incarcerated, it can be assumed the group fell apart.
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 Villains
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