Hi everyone...thanks for the reviews. They were great. Tefla thanks again for the whole beta thing. Enjoy!

Grissom tried to remain calm after Nick's brief answer. 'Yes' was all he answered. It was all he could say.

"Nick we are doing everything we can to find you and Erin just hold on. We are getting close."

Nick closed his eyes in relief, Grissom was getting close to finding them. He only hoped that he would find them alive and not dead. He was about to reply when Harris pulled the phone from him.

"Now Mr. Grissom you spoke to Mr. Stokes and now you know he's safe at the moment."

"Thank you."

"For what Mr. Grissom?"

"For allowing me to talk to Nick. You didn't have to do that."

"You're right. I didn't have to, but let's just say that in doing that it brings me closer to getting that disk back."

Grissom looked again at Archie to see if they had anything yet. The young technician shook his head with regret. He closed his eyes. He knew he would not be able to keep this man on the line for much longer.

"Where do you want me to drop off the disk?"

"There's a warehouse on 7th and Las Vegas Blvd. Just inside the warehouse there will be a metal box on a table. Place the disk in that box then leave. If I see any cops around … Mr. Stokes here is a dead man." He hit Nick again in the leg, which caused Nick to scream out. "I trust this is enough incentive for you."

Grissom heard Nick scream out again. He was not a violent man, but he balled he fist up in anger and swore if anything happened to Nick this man would regret it. He bottled up his emotions before speaking again.

"What time?"

"Now is as good as anytime."

"When will Nick and Erin be released?" Grissom already knew the answer to that question. They wouldn't be released. They would be killed. This man planned to execute them after he received the disk.

"They will be released once I verify that the data on the disk is correct."

"Where will they be released?"

Harris smiled at Grissom's persistence. He was having fun leading him on. He knew that once that he had that disk he was going to kill both Stokes and the girl. In fact he really didn't need to keep them alive now, but he still wanted to have a little more fun at their expense.

"We are getting a little ahead of our selves Mr. Grissom. Once I have the disk in hand only then will they be released. I will drop them somewhere."

Grissom tried to push back the images that popped in his head, but he was finding it difficult. He knew this guy was playing him, thanks to Nick. When he said that he was going to drop them off, he meant their bodies. He could feel a nervous chill flow up his spine and he tried to shake it off. Instead of feeling better … he felt worse. He could feel the impending doom that was upon them.

"I expect you to keep your side of the bargain." Grissom said, not believing the words he spoke.

"Of course." Harris said in a mocking voice.

Nick listened again to the one-way conversation. He was glad that Grissom had gotten the hint he left without Harris even knowing about it. Harris thought he was being smart, but he had no idea who he was dealing with. Nick knew with all his heart that his team would find both him and Erin. He had to believe that. If he believed it then it would come true.

He had given up once before and almost ended his life. His friends had found him before he pulled the trigger. Unfortunately this time he wasn't the one making the decisions. He knew he was in serious trouble.

"Once I have confirmed that the disk is genuine my two guests will be released." He smirked at Nick when he said that.

Nick just gave Harris a look of disgust and loathing. Normally he tried to find the good in everyone and took great pride that he was a people person. However, there was nothing good about this man in front of him. Wait … he was wrong he was good at one thing – killing.

He was tempted to just scream out to Grissom. He was frustrated, angry, scared and just wanted to go home. 'His home,' he thought, was trashed and now probably a crime scene. Harris and his men were responsible. 'Damn them!' He decided not to scream out since Grissom already knew how dire his situation was and there was no logical reason to. He knew that if he did he would regret it. He still remembered the words that Harris had spoken to him if he didn't cooperate. He would kill him right there and then.

"Remember Mr. Grissom … no police or I will send Mr. Stokes back to you in pieces. I will give you an hour." Harris hung up the phone with an evil glint in his eye. He looked over to Nick who was now visibly squirming under Harris's glare.

Grissom looked over at Archie when he hung up the phone. The hope that there had been a long enough period used to allow the trace to work had bloomed in the entomologist. However, a look of disappointment stared back at him and at that point he knew the trace didn't work.

He silently cursed to himself again. If only he would have kept Harris on line a little longer. But this guy was a professional and most likely knew that they would probably be trying to trace the call. Grissom stood there for moment then a thought came to mind.

"Archie, I know I wasn't on the phone long enough for you to trace the call. But were you able to get anything at all?"

"The closest I can get you is within five miles from the tower." He walked over to a map and pointed at the tower.

Grissom looked at the map silently wishing Nick's location would jump out at him. He walked over to Greg.

"Greg, I want you to pull up everything within a five miles radius of that tower. See if anything stands out."

"What exactly am I looking for?"

"Houses, buildings … anything. Archie were you able to get anything at all on that disk?"

The A/V tech looked over at Grissom and smiled, " I was just about to call you when you walked in."

The little statement had Grissom intrigued and he inched closer to Archie who had now taken a seat in front of a computer.

Archie took Grissom's silence as a queue to continue, "I was finally able to break the encryption and I found a few interesting things. The first, a number of Swiss bank accounts under the name of Robert Harris. Then I found a list of dummy corporations and all illegal activities under those so-called corporations. The illegal activities are anywhere from money laundering to drugs. The last item seemed a bit off though considering the first couple of things"

"What did you find?"

"I found a copy of a new game."

"What kind of game?"

"For the casino. The only thing is it has the Biston International logo on it. If I were a betting man I would say that someone stole this copy from Biston and planned on using it themselves."

Grissom listened intently to what Archie had told him, "Yea I guess we are going to have to figure out who would benefit from this. This explains a lot. Now I know why they are so adamant about getting the disk back. It holds all of their vital information. Archie, have you made a copy of this disk yet?"

Archie smiled and help up another disk, "I already have."

"I need the original."

Archie took the disk out of the drive and handed it to Grissom.

"Good work Archie … really good work."

With that said he left the room. He looked at the disk and placed it in the inside pocket of his coat.

Brass watched as Grissom left the room to answer his phone. What he really wanted to do was go with him instead of staying with Carl, but he knew he had a job to do.

He looked at Carl and gave him a small smile.

"Now where were we?"

Carl just stared at Brass with detestation. How did this man find out about his military background?

Brass's smirk got even larger when he could see that they had one-upped Carl.

"Let's see … oh yes we were talking about your military career. Would you care to tell us a little bit about that?"

"That's classified Captain Brass. You would need security clearance to get that information. I'm sorry." Carl took great pride in that answer. Legally his military career was classified and if he talked about it he could be shot. It wasn't that he was afraid of dying … he had been in harm's way many times.

"I understand … as I have been in the military once myself." Brass responded.

Carl had a retort on the tip of his tongue when there was a knock at the door. Warrick peeked his head in and called Brass out to the hallway.

Brass looked back over to Carl, "I'll be back in a minute. Don't go anywhere."

His comment was met with a glare.

The detective made his way out to the hall were both Warrick and Sara stood waiting for him.

"Did you find anything?"

"Yea. Erin's abduction was all on video. I'm not sure why the guards didn't catch it when it happened, but we placed Carl in the vicinity and he even talked to the men that had grabbed Erin." Sara said with a venomous tone, looking through the window at Carl.

"OK. Good work."

"Where's Grissom?" Warrick asked.

"I'm right here."

The group turned around to see Grissom walking up the hallway. Brass didn't give him a chance before he was hitting him with a question.

"Well did they call?"

This question took both Sara and Warrick by surprise and both looked from Brass to Grissom waiting for an answer. They could tell by Grissom's demeanor that they had called.

"Yea. They called."

"And?" Warrick piped in.

"They want the disk in an hour over on 7th & Las Vegas Boulevard."

"Isn't that the old abandoned warehouse?" Sara asked.

"Yep the one and the same. They want me to put in a box on a table just inside the main door. Then they said that they would release Nick and Erin."

"Well that's good." Sara said.

"No. It's not."

"It's not…why?"

"They are going to kill them anyway."

"What are you serious?" Warrick asked with concern. "How do you know?"

Grissom looked at his watch to see what time it was. He knew his CSIs needed an explanation of what was going on he just needed to make sure he had enough time to get over to the warehouse.

"It was something that Nick said."

"You talked to Nick? How is he? Is he OK?" Sara asked suddenly.

"Yes I spoke with Nick, he's not doing to good. They shot him in the leg, but Erin was able to patch him up."

"Those bastards!" Warrick screamed gaining the attention of the personnel in the hallway.

"Easy Warrick … we have to keep our heads." Brass said. "Now Gil what did Nicky say to get you to believe that they are going to kill him?"

Grissom looked down to the floor, up to this point he never thought it was necessary to discuss Nick's recording while he was buried alive. He had spoken to Nick about it at great lengths. So the two men had a clear understanding. Grissom made sure that Nick knew he wasn't disappointed in him.

"He said I'm sorry if I ever disappointed you."

The three people standing in front of Grissom had confused looks.

"And you got that Nick was going to be killed from him saying that?" Brass inquired.

"That's not all. Look back when Nick was buried alive. He left a recording … remember?"

The three of them nodded and he continued.

"Well what you don't know is that during that recording he had said to me that he was sorry if he ever disappointed me. He recorded that message because he thought he was going to die. After he was rescued and came back to work I talked to him at great lengths about that recording and what he had said. He knows that I have never been disappointed in him. So when he said that I was surprised, but then it came to me and I asked him if they were going to kill him when they got the disk and he said one word – yes."

Warrick, Sara and Brass just stood there … shell-shocked. They always knew there was the possibility Nick would be killed, but they tried to push that to the back of their minds. Now that Grissom had laid it out for them it made it all the more real. Grissom would be leaving shortly to deliver that disk and shortly after that Nick would be dead.

"There's got to be something we can do?" Sara said.

"Carl knows where Nick is."

"But will he talk." Warrick asked.

"I'm thinking no. He's ex-military and he's trained in this sort of thing."

"So where does that leave us?" Sara asked.

"With a whole lot of nothing." Warrick added.

"I disagree." A voice said behind the group.

Sara, Grissom and Brass turned to face the voice while Warrick just looked over Brass. Greg stood there with a smile plastered on his face.

"Care to share."

"It would be my pleasure. You know how you asked me to look within the five mile radius of that cell tower?" Grissom nodded. "Well I pulled up a number of businesses and the one that stood out to me was Capral Enterprises."

"Capral Enterprises? Wasn't that where Dustin Schultz worked?" Warrick asked.

"Yep … now we, meaning Archie and me, went a step further. After the encryption was broken on the disk we found that there was a diagram of a prototype for a new game. Well that prototype belongs to Biston International."

"Yes I already know that Greg."

"Well did you know that Capral Enterprises is Biston Internationals main competitor?"

Grissom stared silently at Greg's smiling face, "No I didn't know that."

"And a more interesting tidbit of information Capral Enterprises isn't doing to well. Their stocks have plummeted."

"Good work Greg."

"I'm not finished."

"By all means please continue." Grissom remarked.

"Thanks. I will. Now since we have Capral Enterprises coming up twice here. I pulled up the employee listing and guess who works at Capral Enterprises?"

"Robert Harris." Grissom replied.

"Bingo."

Sara and Warrick looked at Grissom, "Whose Robert Harris?" they both asked simultaneously.

Grissom smiled for the first time that night. He had a feeling he knew where Nick was.

"Robert Harris's name popped up on that disk. He's the owner of some rather large Swiss bank accounts … good job Greg."

Greg was beaming, "My pleasure."

Grissom looked over to Brass. "I think I know where Nick is – Capral Enterprises."

There you have it Chapter 24. Please review and let me know your thoughts. Thanks!