"Did you manage to trace the cell phone signal?"
"Well, I narrowed it down to a one kilometer radius. But I'm afraid we're not going to get much better than that."
Catherine peered at the computer screen. Sure enough, there was a translucent blue circle stationed on the map displayed there. Half of the circle was covering urban area. The other half was over a forest, a few houses scattered about inside of it.
"Well, it's got to be one of those ones," said Catherine, pointing to the latter. An electronic beeping announced the map's arrival from the printer. "Thanks a lot."
With that, Catherine strode out of the room. She bolted down the hallways to Grissom's office, where he was pacing back and forth. This was a bad sign; it took a lot of stress to get Grissom worried. Warrick was there too, simply leaning against a wall and taking deep breaths.
"We narrowed it down to this radius," she said, not bothering with greetings.
"Well, it has to be one of these six," said Grissom, circling each of the small houses in the forest. "In the pictures of Greg, there was a forest outside the window."
"So all we've got to do is check out each one of those houses," said Warrick.
"That'd waste a lot of time," said Catherine.
"Unless we split our officers up," said Warrick.
"We want to keep our manpower intact," said Grissom.
"There isn't exactly going to be much manpower to split up." Brass had just entered the office, looking grim.
"What do you mean?" asked Grissom, removing his glasses. Brass' tone didn't sound good.
The detective looked extremely uneasy. "I just got off the phone with the sheriff," he said.
Grissom shut his eyes. This was getting worse every second. "And?"
"Don't tell me..." Warrick was beginning to look mutinous.
"He says he's not going to provide us with any manpower," said Brass, like he was trying to get the sentence over with.
A deathly silence hung in the already tense air after these words ceased.
"What...?" said Catherine finally, in a hollow voice.
"You heard me," said Brass. "He says he isn't willing to risk losing any more officers like we did last time. Doesn't want to chance it."
"Son of a bitch!" roared Warrick so loudly that techs two rooms over looked up.
Grissom sat down in his chair, rested his elbows on his desk, and put his head in his hands. He massaged his temples until they were sore with the constant kneading of his fingertips.
"I don't believe this," he muttered.
So that was it? Two CSIs were missing, two were in hospital, two men were dead, and he was just going to let it go? Did he even care?
"He says we should just work with the evidence we have," Brass added.
"What evidence?" said Grissom. "We don't have any evidence!"
"I told him that. He just shrugged and said, 'Then wait till he attacks again.'"
"That's it?" Catherine blurted out. "Just sit around and wait to be picked off?"
"I'm going to have a talk with him!" snarled Warrick, and had actually started out the door when Grissom spoke.
"You can't do that, Warrick," he said. "We can't lose you."
"What are you talking about?"
"If you lose it with the sheriff, he might put you in a cell. And we can't have you there. We need all the manpower we can get."
Brass, Catherine, and Warrick all looked at Grissom, puzzled.
"Gil?"
"To save Sara and Greg," Grissom continued, as thought this settled the matter.
"Gil, what do you – " Then it dawned on Brass in mid-sentence.
"You're suggesting we go find them ourselves?" asked Catherine.
"No one else is going to help us," said Grissom. "And they've only got so long. What else can we do?"
"Gris, I'm not sure about this," said Warrick. "If the sheriff finds out – "
"You were ready to kill him a second ago," said Grissom, slightly amused. "Why's going over his head such a problem?"
The three of them considered this for a moment.
"I'm with you, Gil, but if we get caught..." said Brass.
"I know. We all go on probation or end up in jail. But that's a chance I'm willing to take."
They were all in awe of Grissom's stoicism. But there was something else brewing in their hearts as well...Grissom's words were instilling a new kind of daring into them. Who cared what the stupid sheriff said? Their friends' lives were on the line.
"Who's with me?"
"I'm game," said Warrick.
"Count me in," added Catherine.
"With you all the way," said Brass.
Grissom smiled and stood up. "Let's go get the bad guys."