Colby addresses him immediately as the trio head towards the bank. "Five man crew hit the bank just after opening," Colby begins. "Left two bodies, a woman we think was going for the silent alarm and the branch manager shot execution style in the center of the lobby."
"Right, okay so it was the same as the last one then," Don replies. "How much did they get?"
"One and a half million, exactly." David answers him, a bit of concern in his voice.
"So they hit two banks in the same week," Don thinks aloud.
"Hit both banks for the exact same amount," Colby adds.
The three men enter the bank, heading straight towards the blood soaked body of the bank manager. "But why execute the managers?" David asks them. "You think they're sending us a message?"
Don kneels near the pooling blood. He notes the red caked hair covering the gunshot wound. "I don't know, but we better find out fast."
*****
Charlie Eppes stands alone in his garage, scribbling on a black board. He pauses, deep in thought. He doesn't notice Amita enter behind him.
"Any luck on the robbery?" she interrupts him.
He watches her, losing his concentration. "Not yet," he admits. "There's nothing in the FBI files that seem to match."
"You think they've done this before?" she asks curiously.
"I think there's a very high probability of it," he responds. "It was too efficient for this to be a first."
She gives him a gentle kiss. "Sounds like you need a break."
"What I need is a vacation," he says smiling at her. He wraps his arms around her, holding her closer. "Speaking of which, are you ready for the week long getaway. No students, no blackboards."
"No bullets," she adds playfully.
"Just you and me, a whole week with nothing but golden beaches and blue skies," he says.
"How long until you try and count the grains of sand?" she jokes.
"Well that should only take about an hour, so the rest of my time is yours," he says, drawing a beautiful smile from Amita before they share another kiss.
They hold each other a moment before his ringing phone interrupts them. "But first." He opens the phone and holds it to his ear. "Hey Don."
Amita watches him elated, until his smile disappears. "What's wrong?" she asks.
"I'll be right there," Charlie says before closing the phone. "They hit another one."
*****
Charlie sits in the briefing room with David, Colby and his brother Don. They all watch the huge screen intently as five unmasked men exit the bank. Don pauses the video.
"In and out in under five minutes," Colby says.
"Maybe that explains why they took what they did," David correlates.
"Yeah, but still," Don interrupts them. "With the amount of money in the first vault why not just take it all at once. I mean a second robbery is risky."
"I have to agree with Don," says Charlie. "A simple risk/reward analysis shows that one big heist has a higher payout for the risk involved than two smaller ones."
"Unless the acts themselves have meaning," Colby concludes.
"Which means it's likely they'll hit again," David adds.
Liz enters the room. "Background check on our victims just came back. No correlation between the two from this morning and the manager from the first bank."
"Okay, well there has to be some connection," Don says, unwilling to accept otherwise.
"I think in these instances the similarities might be the bank operations themselves," Charlie responds. "I can run a finite state machine minimizing algorithm to determine the process similarities and predict which bank they will probably hit next."
"A finite what?" asks Colby.
"It's like a fast food restaurant," Charlie responds. "Each restaurant has its own process for preparing a hamburger, but the ultimate goal is the same; a quick burger. Based on things like grilling procedures and condiments used we can determine how long it takes the burger to be prepared and which restaurant prepared it. In this case we would examine the process of the banks and find out which ones best fit the procedure used by the robbers to reach their ultimate goal in the time allotted."
"A one and a half million dollar burger," Liz finishes.
"Exactly," Charlie replies.
None of the team had noticed Special Agent Matthew Reed enter the briefing room. Reed is a perfectly poised statue of a man, very fit, very handsome. "Wouldn't a simple intersection detection algorithm make more sense?" he asks.
The whole room shifts their attention to Agent Reed, especially Liz who is quite taken with the man. Charlie stares at him a moment before responding. "Come again?"
"Well you're assuming these guys will hit again," Reed says, motioning to the frozen frame of the men on the screen. "Five guys rob a bank; don't go through the trouble of putting a mask on. My guess is they don't plan on sticking around long enough to get caught."
"Who are you exactly?" David asks.
"Sorry, Matt Reed," he introduces himself.
"Ah, the new guy," says Colby.
"So what's this intersection thing you were talking about?" Don asks.
"Intersection detection. Find out who these banks had in common that made them a target," Reed explains. "Maybe find out who did it before they skip town."
"Can you do that Charlie?" Don asks.
"Of course," Charlie states. "I'll get started right now."
Don nods his approval to his brother. "Okay good. Reed, let's get some coffee."
Reed nods and the two of them head out the door. Charlie watches them go in quiet contemplation. "Is he a new analyst?" Charlie asks once the two men are outside.
"New field agent," Colby responds.
"He's smart," Charlie says.
"Cute too," Liz adds, drawing the attention of everyone in the room. She stands there embarrassed. "What?" she blushes.
*****
Don and Reed stand outside the FBI building. Don leans against the concrete barrier and Reed looks out over it. Don takes a moment before speaking. "So how'd you know about that math stuff up there?"
"I figured if I was transferring here I should probably brush up a little," Reed answers. "To be honest I have no idea what I said."
Don laughs. "Well it sounded good." He gets a little more serious. "So why here?" he continues. "The director gave you an open ended ticket to anywhere. Why us?"
"Are you kidding? Who would pass up a chance to work with the legendary Eppes brothers," he jokes, getting another small chuckle out of Don. "I don't know," he continues, "this team is a little unorthodox, what with mixing the math and the crime. I like unorthodox."
"So what else can you tell me about yourself?" Don presses.
Reed looks at him and smiles, knowing what he wants to hear. "I'm afraid I can't tell you much more than what you read in my file."
"There's not much in your file," Don continues, "Everything's classified."
"Which is why I can't tell you more," Reed explains coyly.
"You're not really telling me anything," Don says. "I think we might run into some serious trust issues here, you know?"
"I'm used to it," Reed replies.
"So, what, covert ops then?" Don asks. Reed looks away uncomfortably. "You gotta tell me something."
"Look, it's not that I don't want to tell you," Reed says. "I can't. What I can say is that someone thinks I'm good at what I do or I wouldn't be standing here talking to you."
"Fair enough," Don says.
David approaches the pair in a hurry. "I think Charlie's got something."
"That was fast," notes Reed.
"That's Charlie," Don says as the men head back to the building.
*****
Charlie, Liz and Colby sit in the briefing room when Don and the others enter. "What do you got for me Charlie?"
"I ran the intersection detection against the two banks, and neither of the banks have any staff in common," Charlie says. "Going deeper, looking at other things like security systems and training programs we found a match."
"Both banks use the same IT outsourcing company to maintain their computers," Colby adds, "Beauford Tech."
"Ok, so we start there," Reed says, triggering a laugh from Liz. Don grins at them. "What?"
"Definitely the new guy," Colby says.
"I ran a search against Beauford Tech's employees," Charlie continues, "checking their records against the FBI database. Again, no matches. However this guy..." a picture of a young man wearing glasses and a pocket protector appears on the screen.
"That's a little clich ," David says.
"Marcus Ezykowski," says Charlie. "He has a brother, Lyle Ezykowski who served five years for armed robbery." Charlie hits some keys and brings up a picture of Lyle.
"So is this our guy?" Don asks.
Charlie pecks at the keyboard and a picture of the men from the bank appear next to Lyle's. The picture zooms in on one of them men and a facial recognition process runs. "93% sure," Charlie states. "And we have an address."
"Okay, get everyone together and call SWAT," Don says. "We leave in twenty." The team stands and collects their things. Reed begins to head out with the team when Don stops him. "Reed, why don't you sit this one out."
Charlie notices a quick flash of disappointment, maybe even anger in Reed's face. Reed hides it quickly. "You got it," he says.
*****
David and Colby's car move along the road swiftly in a procession of federal and local law enforcement vehicles. Both men wear their flak vests in anticipation of what lies ahead. David interrupts the silence. "What do you think of the new guy?" he asks.
Colby shrugs, "Still too early to tell."
"Liz seems to have taken a liking to him," David continues.
"Yeah, Charlie too," Colby adds. "He's gotta have something."
"What do you mean?" David asks curiously.
"Well the director personally vouched for the guy," Colby explains. "That's not nothin'." David nods, considering the notion.
The line of cars comes to a stop near a secluded home. The team rallies around Don. "SWAT will be here in three minutes," Don says. "Then we go."
*****
Charlie sits in the briefing room with Reed, who is repeatedly watching video of the robbery. "How long do you think your brother will keep me on the bench?"
"Hard to say," Charlie replies. "Probably wouldn't look good if he let you get shot on your first day, though."
Reed laughs at him. "Well kid, it ain't my first day."
Charlie laughs; he understands where Reed is coming from. "That was a good idea you had, about the intersection detection. You study math?"
"Me? God no," Reed chuckles. "My brother was an egg head, good with math and computers and that." Charlie notes the use of the word 'was' but decides not to press. They sit there in silence a few moments as Reed watches the video intently. "There's one thing that just don't add up here though."
"What's that?" Charlie asks.
"Why execute the managers?" Reed wonders.
Charlie shrugs, he doesn't really know. "David thinks they were sending a message."
"To who?" Reed continues, deep in thought.
*****
Don and Liz approach the front door of the rural home with a number of agents. Colby and David lead a tactical team at the rear of the house. "We're in position," David says through his microphone.
"On three," Don says. "One, two, three." Uniformed SWAT members break in the front door of the house and enter, guns at the ready. "FBI," Don yells.
In the back of the house Colby and David enter with their team. They efficiently make their way from room to room, giving the clear signal as they progress. Each room as empty as the last until they meet up with Don's team in the hall.
Both teams now stand before a closed door in the middle of the hall. The door flies open as the agents break through. Their faces immediately go pale. Each looks at the other for answers but no one has any.
*****
Reed sits in the briefing room staring intently at the video. Charlie stares at him. "Why do you think they were shot?" Charlie asks.
"I don't know," Reed admits. "But we're lucky they were."
Charlie doesn't know what Reed could possibly mean. "How so?"
"Well, they don't kill that manager, we never see this," Reed explains. Charlie continues to stare at him, confused. "This is the violent crimes division," Reed continues, "They don't kill that manager this case goes to the bank robbery task force. You never get involved and we don't put two and two together."
"So you think someone wanted us on this?" Charlie asks, beginning to realize where Reed is going.
"Could be," Reed says. "Could be someone wanted us to find Lysle."
"So it wasn't a message," Charlie reasons.
"It was an invitation," Reed finishes.
"But why would anyone want..." he stops short. Terror takes control of his face and a chill runs down his spine. He pulls out his phone, dialing frantically.
*****
Don and his agents stare in horror at the image before them. The five men from the bank video all lay lifeless around the room. Each of them having been executed.
"That's definitely our guy," Liz says regarding one of the men.
"Looks like someone found him first," Colby states.
"But why?" Liz wonders.
"Maybe so they don't lead back to whoever they were working for," David reasons.
Don stares at the mess when his phone rings. "Let's get forensics in here," he says before answering the phone. "What is it Charlie?"
*****
"Don you have to get out of there now, it's a trap," Charlie yells, pacing frantically around the briefing room.
"What?" Don asks.
"It's a setup," Charlie continues, "All of it. Get out of there now!"
*****
Don takes in the scene, slowly putting it together in his head. His face freezes in panic.
*****
Charlie continues to pace. "Don?" he asks, getting no response. "Don!? Don!?"
Charlie stands still, frozen in a panic of his own.