A/N: There's only going to be one or two chapters after this, sorry! Me and Nikki are running out of ideas, and I'm thinking of going on a Safari to look for the elusive plot bunny. Enjoy!
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Greg was nearly plowed over by Grissom as he rounded a corner. "Hey, Gris, where's the fire?"
"In the morgue, of course," Grissom said in a falsely cheerful voice. Alarmed, Greg fell into step beside his supervisor. Only after a few moments thought did he come to the conclusion that there probably wasn't actually a fire in the morgue.
"So what's really up?" he asked quietly. He half-expected Grissom not to answer, as that was usually his M.O.
"That car crash Warrick scoped, the two guys in the Cadilac are George and Doug, two of our kidnappers."
"Which leaves one question. What happened to Regan?" Greg was surprised that Grissom had disclosed the information, but no reaction showed on his face.
As the two men entered the morgue, they found David and Dr. Robbins examining two slightly charred bodies. They were, as Grissom had said, George and Doug, Regan's hired help. As Greg and Grissom watched the autopsies, both concentrating on every detail, they held a whispered conversation. Greg was looking over all the crime scene photos Warrick had taken, blessing him for his thorough prescision.
"Judging by the position of the car and where the bodies are, neither of our vics were driving," Greg said thoughtfully, pointing at one of the photographs.
Grissom nodded. "Regan was probably driving. The open driver's side door suggests he jumped out before collision."
It was Greg's turn to nod. In this manner, the two men examined all the photographs, trying to detirmine what Regan had done after he'd left the scene. "Logically, he would have gone straight back to make sure the girls hadn't escaped."
At that moment, Archie burst into the morgue. "The girls are up. Nick's already in the lab, I can't find Brass."
Greg and Grissom took off running behind Archie, skidding to a halt in the A/V room and peering over Nick's broad shoulders to see the screen in front of him. Gil immediately began to translate the conversation, which mostly included profanities from the girls and laughter from their abductor.
Once he slapped Pamela across the face when she'd said something particualrly nasty, causing Nick to shed a tear at her painstricken look, but for the most part Regan kept off the girls. Gil was still translating when the door opened.
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Brass was looking at the addresses of the ten warehouses still open, reasoning that Natasha and the others were in one of the closed ones. He pushed open the doors of the Las Vegas crime lab, walked quickly down the long corridors, and sat down behind Nick in the A/V lab fixing his eyes on the footage coming through to the computer before him.
He listened closely to Grissom's commentary, then looked at the clock. An hour had passed til. They only had three hours to the time set for Maddy's execution. He took Greg and Nick aside, leaving Archie to record the video feed as it came in.
"Look. We have three hours left or Maddy's going to be killed. I need everyone in the lab, I'll call in dayshift, I don't care. We're going to find them, and we are going to get that jerkwad if it's the last thing we do." His voice was intense, ferocious, and the two younger men nodded when he'd finished speaking.
"There are ten abandoned warehouses that use those boxes." Brass couldn't bring himself to name the company, but he continued without hesitation. "Our girls have got to be in one of them, I'm sure of it. We need to find out which one, though, and get a warrant."
"Archie," Greg said, "We need more time. Set up a message and tell them to give us ten hours to get the money."
Archie nodded, then set to work typing a short email and sending it.
Grissom was still watching the feed, then he noticed an ant walk across the screen. "Damn," he swore loudly, squinting closer. " Solenopsis Invicta. Fire ants. It has to be near a nursery."
Nick shivered. He remembered all too well the particular pain the fire ants' bites had caused him, the weeks he'd spent rubbing calamine lotion all over himself, trying to rid his skin of the itchy red bumps that had blanketed it.
Meanwhile, Brass and Greg had pulled out the map marked with the warehouses and were frantically searching for nurseries near the warehouses. None could be found, even near the open ones.
"So much for your hunch," Greg snapped. Brass almost wilted under the younger man's gaze. He thought of Natasha, tied to a table, being beaten by a violent mailman.
"Greg!" Grissom said loudly. "Maddy's talking to you."
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Regan was behind the laptop, furiously replying a request for more time. "Six hours is all you get. Have the money there or the lab girl is history."
Maddy turned her head, looking directly into the webcam. "Greg," she whispered. "If you can hear me, I want you to know this. I love you."
Feuled by the power of love, Maddy dug her fingernailsinto the ropes at her wrists, tearing at the threads. "Break free!" she shouted, and her fellow captives did the same. They each had gotten their hands free before Regan acted.
He hit them hard on the backs of their skulls in turn, and pain filled them before darkness filled their vision and the each slumped back down to the tables where they lay, unmoving.
Regan laughed maniacally, holding his gun aloft and waving it around, doing a sort of victory dance. He glanced down at Maddy, the one who'd dared to make the rebellion cry. "Six more hours," he thought villainously, barely containing his excitement. "Six more hours, and I can kill the one who turned me down."
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"Well, we can start by circling all the nurseries in West End," Nick said hopelessly. His eyes were red from crying, and his nose was beginning to run. Sniffing, he continued. "They've got to be somewhere that has those boxes, near a nursery, in West End."
"Vinyl Fetish?" Brass said skeptically, pointing to one of the shops.
"No dice, Brass, it's a record shop," Greg said, smiling in spite of himself.
"So where can they be?" Nick almost shouted. He was growing frustrated. He missed Pam's smile, her clear blue eyes, the swish of her thick brown hair when she turned to give him a kiss. Nick knew that he couldn't live without Pamela much longer, and with that he broke down, allowing the tears to flow freely again.
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