Parker sprung over the back of the sofa and landed softly next to the hitter. "So did you catch the guy that was trying to nab your CDs?"

Eliot turned to her, a scowl taking over his expression as he thought about that unfortunate windshield he'd had a run in with. "No, lucky punk managed to get away. But if I ever see his sorry ass again they won't find his body."

Hardison couldn't help but overhear the conversation as he brought over an overflowing bowl of popcorn and set it between them. "Whoa whoa whoa, it's just some discs man. I'm pretty sure that doesn't warrant the death penalty."

"It's not about that, Hardison. No one goes through my stuff. What if Chaos started digging his sticky fingers in your...computer crap, how'd you feel?"

Just then Nate walked in, getting right to the point as usual. "Welcome back, guys. So where are we at with Caldwell?" He took a seat on the sofa next to the others, a steaming cup of coffee in his hand.

Hardison handed out copies of police reports showing similar incidents at other companies, most of them listing the CEO as a suspect before the cases were eventually dismissed for lack of evidence. "Looks like this ain't the first time something like this has happened, but he always seems to be just a few steps ahead of the authorities. They've never been able to prove any of the allegations," he said.

Sophie skimmed a few, then looked up from the papers. "So either he's innocent and all these things randomly happened to occur while he was working at each of these companies, or..."

"He's been bribing his way out of investigations," Nate finished for her. "It's definitely not because of his stellar lying abilities, guy's horrible."

Eliot added his take on it. "That, or he has someone in law enforcement keeping him informed. Giving him a chance to make a move or destroy evidence before they get too close."

Parker only flipped through two of the pages before she started folding one of them into an intricate paper swan. "But what's the point of taking your lead engineer out of the picture? Won't that only hurt the company in the long run?"

"Nah mama, Caldwell usually left shortly after these incidents occurred," Hardison said. "All he'd be worried about is what new 'opportunities' were available to him at the next company." The hacker used air-quotes to highlight the questionable legality of said opportunities.

Sophie finished skimming the last report and turned to the team. "So he frames the engineer for the theft, cashes out on the intellectual property policy, likely pocketing some of that for himself, and at the same time sells the designs for a hefty price on the black market?"

Hardison nodded in agreement. "Seems so."

Parker smiled, thinking about the cash flow that must allow for. "A triple-dip, I like it."

Sophie didn't necessarily disagree with the thief, but chose to move on to her next question anyway. "So where is he keeping the files?"

Hardison aimed his remote at the screen and clicked play, bringing up photos of a large glass-sided building. "Now this is the Reliant Building, a multipurpose office building and exhibition hall. The first floor features a spacious lobby, several rooms to host events, meetings, or gatherings, and staging areas in the back for caterers, event staff, etc." He clicked through a few photos of the building's interior, and then the screen switched to blueprints. "The office levels each have identical floor plans. Here we got a central hallway, an office on the side, a server room, central elevators and access to the staircase on the end. The floors are all leased out to various companies, but one of them, Dalco Enterprises, just so happens to be a shell owned by Caldwell."

The pieces were fitting together nicely for the mastermind. "That's far too coincidental. If he had his personal files moved to a company in the Reliant Building, that's gonna be the one. It would be too risky to keep them at SenTech."

The building was large, and if they were going to run a job there Eliot wanted to make sure he had all the bases covered. He leaned forward and studied the floor plan. "How's the security?"

Hardison turned and clicked his remote again, bringing up dated security logs. "The entire system was upgraded to closed circuit after a breech a few years ago. Apparently someone exploited a backdoor in the security network's VPN to gain access to the servers used by Rockstar Games. They got away with copies of their latest project six months prior to the game's scheduled release to the public."

Nate stopped sipping his coffee and shifted his gaze from the screen to the hacker. "Please tell me that wasn't you."

Hardison paused, then cleared his throat and hastily turned back to the screen. "Soooooo moving on...we'll need to get to the fourth floor to hack the camera feeds from the inside. Guards do rounds on each floor about once every thirty minutes, and access to the server rooms is controlled with RFID cards. The staging areas are the only spots that don't have any camera surveillance."

Parker wasn't really listening, too busy fantasizing about the opportunity to try out her latest harness on the reflective glass edifice. "We should go when the building's empty, rappel down, enter through the window. A quick snatch and grab."

Hardison was trying to think of an excuse to get out of that one when Sophie addressed him. "And just how exactly are we supposed to get in unseen if we can't cover the cameras until we, you know, get in?"

Happy to change the subject from rappelling to literally anything else, he clicked to the next screen and highlighted the building's event schedule. "Already way ahead of you. There's a fundraiser for the East Coast Guide Dog Association on the main level this weekend, so they'll be all kinds of people coming and going. Caldwell's got tickets, too."

Nate was already forming plans in his mind. "That's perfect. We won't have to worry about the cameras on the first floor, as long as we blend in with the guests or event staff the guards won't take notice. We get in, access to the cameras, then make a move on the server room and his office."

"But how are we gonna take Caldwell down?" Sophie asked. "As soon as he realizes the files are missing he'll skip town."

"Yeah," Parker agreed, before bringing up another hole in the plan. "And we can't just walk up to the judge at Scott's trial and be like 'here you go, these files we illegally stole prove the engineer was framed.' They'll throw that evidence out so fast…"

Illegally stole, Nate thought. Like there's any other kind of theft. "I'm still working on that part," he said. "For now let's focus on getting Scott off the hook and back to his family, then we'll deal with Caldwell."