Chapter 8

The others watched as the ants crawled all over Greg's shoes, pants and clothes. Greg dug into his pocket and took out a latex glove. Sara was stood just behind Grissom and Nick as they both watched Greg over the monitor. They could see the ants covering Greg's face; he kept his eyes shut tight and tour off something to shove into his nose. Although he's in pain, Greg forced himself to stop moving.

"That's it, Greggo," Grissom said, approving. "Stay still," he paused. "They won't bite," another pause, "As much."

Warrick walked into the room, frowning at the screen. "Ants, as if he didn't have anymore worries, other than being in a glass box, something else happens."

"What else does he have to worry about another than being in a box underground?" Nick questioned, not taking his eyes off of the screen.

"He has 83mins before the vent stops," Warrick said, watching his friend turn shapely in his chair to look at him.

"What!" Nick bellowed, "We have one hour and twenty minutes to find Greg! We aren't even close!" Nick stood, quietly thinking of what to do, designing; he clicked something into his watch, grabbed the lap top and the connection and stormed out the room.

"Nick!" Warrick and Grissom shouted as they watched Nick go into Greg's old lab. They turned to the monitors in front of them, all of them losing their connection when Nick had taken it, to find Greg's face glowing in the green light.

"It still works, he just wants to watch it in private."

Grissom's eyes were glued to the monitor. He saw an ant walk quickly past the lens. "Oh, come on, pal," Grissom murmured encouragingly. Another ant barely walked over the lens, but not enough. "Yeah, that's it," Grissom said, sitting in front of the monitors. "Come on, little more." Sara stepped up behind Grissom and watched what he's doing. "Keep coming. Show me what you're made of. Come on, buddy," Grissom said coaxing. An ant danced across the edge of the lens. Finally, it landed dead center on the lens. Grissom hit the print button. "Gotcha!"

With the photo in his hand, Grissom rushed back to his office. He headed for his library and pulled down the large book. He flipped through the pages ... and found it. He compared the book drawing to the photo. It was a match. "Solenopsis invicta."

Grissom walked to the staff lounge calling the staff to follow him, once inside he sat down and briefed his staff. "They're fire ants, very rare in Nevada. They don't like our soil. The only places you find them around Vegas are in plant and tree nurseries," Grissom said quickly.

"There are eleven nurseries in the greater Las Vegas area," Catherine said, seeing movement in Greg's old lab. "Nick, we're close to finding Greg!" She yelled, looking at the lab. She watched Nick stand up with the lab top under his arm. He sauntered out of the room rubbing his bloodshot eyes, and joined the rest of the group.

The group took their eyes from Nick on to Archie, who had the map of the area spread out in front of him. "Okay, I've got the web cam trace down to here," he said, he drew a large circle in black ink on the map.

"And the data from the black box in Walter Gordon's truck gave us a 23-mile travel radius," Sara said, added another circle, cutting the area down even more.

Warrick walked out with the printout of the nurseries, he quickly scanned the list. "Okay, I've got two nurseries within the overlap area. Here and here." He added two 'X' marks to the map within the overlapping area.

Sara remembered something. "Wait, wait. Wait, wait. Kelly Gordon, the daughter, worked with plants. Hold on. Hold on." She ran out of the lab and down the hallway to Grissom's office. She picked up the file folder from his desk and checked the information, she ran back to the break room. "You guys, Greg is here." She pointed to the 'X' on the left of the map.

A long line of officer cars rushed down the long stretch of highway - lights flashing, sirens blaring. The lead car pulled off the road to the right, this car had Grissom driving and Nick looking at his watch and praying they were going to make it in time. They only had 10 minutes left. The long line of officer cars and other emergency personnel vehicles followed. They reach the nursery where the owner was waiting for them.