The team's latest client was a miner named Troy Rollins, who lost 12 of his friends in a mine explosion two years prior. He told the story of what happened that day. Nate, Eliot, and Kaira were at the table talking to him. "Go on, Mr. Rollins." Nate said, wanting to know more.
"I... well, I lost 12 brothers that day." Troy revealed.
Kaira sighed, feeling bad for the guy. "What caused the explosion?" Kaira asked.
"It was a-a buildup of methane gas. See, the mine had substandard ventilation. I mean, we all knew about it, but there ain't nothing we could do." Troy said.
"So I guess getting another line of work wouldn't be an option, huh?" Nate asked Troy.
"Mines are the only way to make a decent living around there." Eliot pointed out.
"I mean, I-I'm not looking for your charity, Mr. Ford. We like the work. We'd just like to be able to do it safely is all." Troy said.
"I understand. So the CEO of the mine, this Dan Blackwell, he received government money after the explosion." Nate said, looking at the papers in front of him.
"Figures - you kill a dozen of your own men, and Uncle Sam writes you a check." Eliot said, not happy.
"Yeah, that money was supposed to go to mine-safety improvements. I don't know where that money went, but I can tell you it didn't make it into the mine. That place is just as bad as it was two years ago. Maybe worse." Troy explained.
"All right. We'll find the money, and we're gonna put it back where it belongs." Kaira said, nodding at Troy.
"Thank you. Thank you." Troy looked at the trio.
Kaira walked him out as Nate got Hardison to do some research on Blackwell and reported in that afternoon. They all gathered at the screen and table for the briefing with Nate, Sophie, and Parker at the table, and Eliot behind Kaira on the other side of Nate.
"Well, it turns out Blackwell did use the money for safety measures - one big safety measure. She's named Debra Pierce." Hardison explained, holding up various images of the middle-aged woman.
"West Virginia Attorney General." Sophie pointed out.
"Her hair's so poofy." Parker said randomly, causing Kaira to chuckle.
"Um, thanks to a recent supreme court decision removing limits on corporate campaign contributions, Blackwell was able to sink all of his safety money into Pierce's political action committee." Hardison explained.
"He paid her off." Kaira realized.
"So instead of making the mines safer, he just hired himself an attorney general." Eliot observed.
Hardison sat on the barstool in front of the clear screen. "Yeah. Well, he's getting his money's worth. Since the explosion two years ago, Blackwell has received nearly 400 citations for unsafe working conditions." Hardison explained, pulling up the many citations on screen.
"Well, even he can't just make 400 citations disappear. Can he?" Sophie pointed out.
"No. But he can bury 'em." Hardison said.
"What he does is he appeals them. And Pierce makes sure that those appeals go on forever. So while the citations are under appeal, he doesn't have to pay a cent." Nate explained.
"We can't go after Blackwell with an A.G in his back pocket." Eliot pointed out.
"No, but we can tale down both of them. What we do is we get Blackwell to give us the money from the PAC, and then once that money is transferred, we flag both of them for misuse of campaign funds." Nate put the plan together.
Sophie looked at Nate as Hardison walked over. "The Skagway Shuffle." Sophie suggested.
"Yeah. That's what I was thinking." Nate said.
Hardison obviously didn't get it. "See, now y'all are just making stuff up." Hardison said, causing smiles.
"It's like the Fiddle Game." Sophie explained.
"Yeah, only underground." Nate said.
"Is Eliot gonna be the fiddle again?" Parker asked.
"No. As much as I liked hearing your singing, babe, I don't want a repeat of the whole people trying to kill you thing." Kaira switched between Eliot and Nate, warning them both.
"No." Sophie and Nate confirmed.
"Can I be the fiddle?" Parker asked.
"No." Sophie and Nate said.
"The mine is the Fiddle. We convince him that he's got something valuable in his mine, then we sell him a process to mine it. And then we take all his money." Sophie explained the con.
"Right. Good. So, how are we gonna do that?" Parker asked.
"We're gonna sell the guy his own mine." Nate said, tapping the table.
The team got packed and headed to West Virginia. Sophie and Hardison were acting as inspectors going to investigate the mine as Eliot went in to the mine under the cover that he was getting a dust reading, Troy telling him to follow Corey to the section he needed to get to. Nate introduced himself as a buyer. Parker and Kaira were working Pierce at the State Capital. Nate came out of the office.
"Okay, Parker, Kaira. Are you in place?" Nate asked.
"Uh, almost. Why can't Kaira do this on her own?" Parker asked, standing outside the office with Kaira.
"Uh, well, we need all hands on deck on this one. Just do what Sophie told you and listen to Kaira." Nate said. Kaira nodded at Parker.
"You got this. I'll back you if you need it." Kaira assured Parker.
Kaira remembered back to the office before they left. Sophie told Parker that grifting was like a romance, helping Parker to compare grifting to robbing a bank, and Kaira handed Parker a notepad to help her take notes. Parker and Kaira tuned back in. Parker was flipping through a notebook.
"Parker, go!" Nate yelled in the comm.
Kaira helped Parker calm down and they walked in. Pierce was practicing a speech.
"Under my continued direction, the people of West Virginia will be known as the people who love freedom, who love justice, and who fight for what they love! And... and fight for what they love. Will you let me continue to fight for you?" Pierce said into her mirror. Parker was all smiles and Kaira was as well.
"Yes, yes, and yes!" Parker exclaimed, putting on a West Virginian accent.
Parker started clapped and chuckling. "Beautiful speech, Ms. Pierce." Parker complimented.
Kaira chuckled as Parkers burst of energy. "You'll have to excuse her, she was way to wound up all day." Kaira brushed it off.
"Who are you?" Pierce asked.
"I'm your biggest fan... and hopefully we'll be your new campaign consultants." Parker said.
Pierce chuckled lightly.
"I've been following your career since your first term in the state senate." Parker started walking to the desk. "And this is your chamber where you dispense justice and fight for freedom!" Parker exclaimed, causing a smile from Kaira.
Parker and Pierce circled as they chuckled. "Still didn't catch your name, sweeties." Pierce pointed out.
Kaira walked up to Parker. "Oh, Kelly Beth? Kelly Beth Laughlin? Mary Ann Laughlin? But you can call be Kelly Beth and her Mary Ann. Can I call you boss?" Parker said, definitely using the flattery that Sophie suggested.
Kaira chuckled along with Pierce as she went to her desk. "Oh, darlin', as much as I'd love your energy in the homestretch of this campaign, I don't have much of a budget for a campaign consultant." Pierce said.
Parker and Kaira walked up to the desk. "I'm Kelly Beth Laughlin and she's Mary Ann Laughlin..." Parker stuck the mic under her desk as she spoke.
"Of the Maysville Laughlins. We don't need a salary. In fact, we'd pay for the chance to work with you." Kaira continued.
Pierce was surprised. "Well, damn, I'm happy to work with anybody willing to pay for it." Pierce said, chuckling. She extended a hand to the girls. "Welcome aboard Team Pierce." Pierce said, shaking Parker, then Kaira's hand.
Kaira smiled, then turned away like she felt a sneeze coming.
"We're in." Kaira whispered, then apologized to Pierce as they got to work.
Eliot was at the section. "So, what did you do to get stuck with busy work?" Corey asked Eliot, pulling out the reader.
"Me? I'm the new guy. What's your story?" Eliot walked over to Corey.
"I'm the young guy." Corey said.
"Yeah? How old are you?" Eliot questioned Corey, trying to be friendly.
"18." Corey answered.
"18, huh? Why aren't you in school?" Eliot asked.
"School doesn't pay the mortgage." Corey explained.
"You're a little young to have a wife and kid, aren't you?" Eliot pointed out.
"It's my mom and my sister. My dad was in the explosion two years ago." Corey explained, solemn.
"I'm sorry." Eliot said, quietly. Eliot felt bad for the kid as. He walked over to the comm system and turned on the device Hardison gave him earlier. Eliot thought back to the interaction with him, Hardison, and Kaira at the office table.
"Now, there's no cell reception underground. Okay, the miners, they use a leaky feeder signal to communicate in the mine. But that's not compatible with our comms." Hardison said as Eliot sighed.
"I know. Quite the problem. You're wondering if I have an answer?" Hardison put his fist to his mouth and let out a squeek.
"I do. Bam!" Hardison pulled out the small device.
"I created these UHF wireless nodes to couple with the leaky feeder, boost the signal, And then we - Hey! Hey, man, hey!" Hardison said as Eliot grabbed the device and put it roughly in the bag.
"Look man, I know! I put them in the mine!" Eliot exclaimed, sparing himself the geek talk as Kaira chuckled.
"Yeah, but they're very -" Hardison tried to argue.
"What? I got it! They're fragile!" Eliot exclaimed, hitting the bag and then leaving with it, leaving Kaira trying not to laugh at how offended Hardison was.
"I thought we was making progress." Hardison told Kaira.
"I think he needs his coffee." Kaira joked.
Eliot tuned back in and put the device in the comm box and shut it.
"Section C's prepped." Eliot reported.
Kaira was glad to hear his voice again, even though she couldn't show it as she was busy. Hardison, Sophie, and the mine supervisor, Clark, kept walking in the mine.
"And now to section C?" Hardison suggested.
"Right this way." Clark said, leading the way as the dup followed him.
They made to section C, and Hardison started pulling out a scanner, scanning the wall as Sophie stood near him.
"Hey, what is that?" Clark asked.
"Dust reading." Hardison explained, not looking back.
"That doesn't look like no dust-reading kit." Clark pointed out, skeptical.
"Well, you don't look like no certified M.S.C Safety Inspector." Hardison brushed off.
The scanner was beeping. Hardison pointed at it.
"Look." Hardison said, implying something was there.
"You sure?" Sophie asked, still in her American accent.
"Yeah." Sophie said. Back at Pierce's office, Parker was on the laptop at a desk, Kaira behind her, acting like she was giving pointers on something. Just then, Pierce walked in, still on the phone, holding a coffee cup.
"Yes, I understand the D.A would like this taken care of, but you remind him that my time is valuable and he hasn't bought any of it recently. Thank you." Pirece said.
She hung up the phone and looked at Parker and Kaira, sighing gladly.
"Getting comfy?" Pierce asked the women.
"Yes, definitely." Kaira confirmed for herself.
"Yes, Ma'am. I've set up re-election Facebook and Twitter accounts and Mary Ann opened a political action committee called Tomorrow's Women to consolidate the donations." Parker explained, and Kaira smiled to confirm.
"I like it." Pierce said, walking to the other side of the room, looking at her phone.
"Oh, and, uh, so far we raised 436 dollars." Kaira informed Pierce, Parker handing her the report.
"Well, color me pink and put me in a pig pen. You're fast workers." Pierce said, impressed. She put the file in with the piles on other papers on her desk. In reality, Parker and Kaira had put mics everywhere inside the office, specifically by her desk, and plugged in a USB that already had everything needed on it.
"Well, you know what they say about idle hands." Parker said as Pierce handed Parker her mug and went to her desk. Parker mimed that she was gonna strangle Pierce, which caused Kaira to smack Parkers arm and move along as they kept working.
Meanwhile, Sophie and Nate met at a restaurant once she was done with the safety inspection. Nate saw Sophie walk in.
"Hey, did they buy the, uh, safety-inspection bit?" Nate asked.
"Absolutely." Sophie spoke in a British accent, different from her own, spying Blackwell in a corner booth. Nate also spotted him.
"Okay. Right on schedule. You're up." Nate whispered to Sophie.
"Great work today! You're a peach!" Nate said, louder as he left.
"I'll talk to you later, Mr. Gibson." Sophie said to Nate.
Blackwell sat next to Sophie. "Oh. Hello, there, again, Mr. Blackwell." Sophie put back on her American accent.
"Just cut the act. Now, who are you, and what are you doing with Mr. Gibson?" Blackwell asked bluntly.
Sophie kept silent. "You know, uh, impersonating a federal safety inspector is a felony in West Virginia." Blackwell pointed out, forcing Sophie's hand.
Sophie pulled out a business card. "My name is Eloise Tinson. I'm a mineral extraction expert. I'm in town to make Mr. Gibson a very wealthy man, take home a little something for myself." Sophie explained in her British accent from earlier.
Blackwell looked at the card. "Well, your expertise is wasted on Mr. Gibson. He doesn't own the mine." Blackwell pointed out.
"On the contrary, Mr. Blackwell, he owns the 400 acres to the North and East of yours. And I hear he made a little offer on yours today." Sophie pointed out.
"Ah. Well, mine's not on the market. And, uh, his land is, uh, mined out years ago." Blackwell said.
"Yes. For coal. We're looking for something a little more... lucrative." Sophie explained, pulling out the mineral report and dropping it in front of Blackwell.
"Coltan?" Blackwell questioned, looking at the report.
"Columbite-Tantalite. It's a mineral found in cellphones, DVD players, computers. It's found in abundance in Central Africa. and frankly, everything's a bloody mess over there. American companies are desperate to get their hands on a domestic source." Sophie explained, setting the bait.
"What is your role in all this?" Blackwell asked.
"My company developed a process for locating and mining coltan. Mr. Gibson is buying that process." Sophie said.
"Well, if there's, uh, coltan in my mine... Mr. Gibson isn't gonna get his hands on it." Blackwell said, chuckling, realizing how valuable the mine is.
"Well, according to the readings that my partner and I took today, yes, there is coltan is your mine. And using our process, Mr. Gibson is gonna be able to mine it right out from under you." Sophie said.
"The hell he will. You're not the only one with a partner." Blackwell said.
He left. Back at the State Capital, Parker and Karia were walking with Pierce. Parker was about to touch Pierce's hair, which caused another slap on the hand from Kaira.
"Parker. Kaira. Blackwell just left Sophie. Did you plant the form?" Hardison came in on comms.
"Yeah. It's on her desk with the other forms you gave me." Parker whispered, turning around.
"Good. Make sure she finds it." Hardison said.
Kaira and Parker got the message. Kaira stayed back, acting like she was looking up something on her phone as Parker walked over to Pierce's desk and started humming and organized the papers, sticking the form out some.
"How do you do it? HOw do you handle all this?" Parker asked, acting amazed.
Pierce started chuckling. "Well, the thing about justice is, it's messy." Pierce explained.
Parker hummed in response.
"It's kind of like a sewer, and I'm the one who controls the pipe." Pierce continued.
Parker hummed again.
"When things are running smoothly, no one pays any attention. But you know what happens when you lose control." Pierce said.
"It stinks!" Parker exclaimed.
"Exactly. And I'm the one who ends up with you know what on her face." Pierce continued again, and Parker pulled a disgusted face.
"So I make it my first priority to make sure all the dung's running in the right direction." Pierce said.
Kaira walked over as the phone rang and acted like she was helping Parker with the papers. Pierce answered the phone. Pierce handed the mug she had to Parker.
"Cream..." Pierce stated when Kaira cut her off.
"Six sugars." Kaira smiled.
"Six sugars, right." Pierce whispered as they left. Kaira heard Sophie answer her phone through the comm.
"Hello?" Sophie answered the phone.
"Ms. Tinson? Listen, I'm afraid I have some bad news for you. Uh, Mr. Gibson is not gonna be buying your process." Blackwell said.
"Oh? And why is that?" Sophie asked.
"Because I'm gonna buy it first. But I'm gonna need a demonstration, if you could, uh... stop by the mine first thing tomorrow?" Blackwell said.
"Until then." Sophie hung up the phone.
"He's hooked." Sophie reported. The team finished up their tasks for the day and went back to the hotel for the night.
The next morning, Sophie and Hardison walked to section c of the mine with Blackwell.
"Our sonar-detecting technology tells us exactly where the coltan is located." Hardison explained.
He put the scanner up to the wall and it was beeping very loudly and quickly.
"Oh. Look at that." Sophie said, impressed as she walked up beside Hardison.
"There's a very strong presence of coltan in here." Sophie said.
"Really? Well, this is quite a fancy machine. I...I hope you don't mind if I double check the old fashioned way?" Blackwell said, pulling out the tester chemicals out of his shirt pocket.
"Uh, coltan's generally found in isolated pockets, so those, uh, surface tests can be very inconclusive." Sophie said. Blackwell started scraping the wall.
"I'm sure." Blackwell said.
"Well, we'll see here." Blackwell said. He put the cap on the bottle of scrapings and shook it and the chemical turned green, indicating coltan was indeed on the mine.
"Oh. Look at that." Blackwell said, impressed.
"Well, that looks conclusive to me." Sophie said.
The day before, Eliot and Corey poured a limestone dust laced with coltan all over the wall they were examining, which Corey pointed out looked different.
Hardison was still scanning an area of the wall, and the scanner was going crazy.
"Oh, oh. Well, this - this area right here is lighting up like a Christmas tree. You'll be able to get a good six months out of that vein. And..." Hardison moved the scanner to the left, and the beeping went down. "This area not so much. But this right down here - now this... you'll be able to put that new addition on your house...and that fishing boat you've been wanting." Hardison explained, causing Blackwell to get excited.
"That's the beauty of the process - no more digging blind." Sophie said.
"Oh. Well, it sounds good... to me." Blackwell said, shaking the chemical surface test again.
"You know, maybe I'll be able to lay off some of these hillbillies I pay to dig in the dirt all day long here. Mining used to be worthwhile, you know. But, uh, now with the unions and the workers whining all the time about not getting paid enough and they're never safe enough and all - I mean, it's hard to - to keep a business and make a buck." Blackwell said.
Sophie and Hardison tried to keep a straight face.
"I'm pretty confident, using this process, you'll be able to make quite a few bucks." Sophie pointed out.
"Well, I'm convinced." Blackwell said, agreeing to the idea.
"Excellent. Let's talk numbers." Sophie said. Back at the restaurant, Nate was on the laptop, getting info for Sophie.
"All right. Well, he's got 125,000 liquid... and 500,000 in the PAC." Nate informed Sophie.
"600,000. We're gonna need it in one payment. We found that installments can get a little bit messy." Sophie said.
"Of course." Blackwell agreed.
"By tomorrow. Mr. Gibson was gonna write us a check in the morning. Now, if that's gonna be a problem for you..." Hardison added.
It was obvious Blackwell didn't like the timetable.
"No. That's... no problem. I'm having a fundraiser for the Attorney General at the Morgan Club tomorrow. You stop by there, I'll cut you a check." Blackwell agreed to the terms.
"Perfect." Sophie said.
"Okay, Eliot. Sophie's done with Blackwell. He's hooked. You can surface." Nate ordered Eliot, who was drinking some water in a break area.
"Ahh. I don't want to leave these guys one man down." Eliot said. Kaira smiled at herself. Only her Cowboy.
"Okay. Fine. You can finish the day. But tomorrow, we're gone." Nate told Eliot. He walked over to Corey, who was eating.
"Paul Revere make that lunchbox?" Eliot joked with Corey.
"Nope. This was made in 1958. Paul Revere died in the early 1800s." Corey said, obviously missing the joke. Eliot was amused slightly.
"What? You don't think I know who Paul Revere is?" Corey questioned, getting the joke.
"All right, smartass." Eliot chuckled back.
"This was my dad's. Grandpa's before that." Corey revealed. Eliot was kinda taken back with the whole family heirloom story of the lunchbox. Eliot heard a conversation about the scoop and had an idea.
"You know, you want to be the man of the house... that's the way right there. Future's in the machines. It's faster, it's safer. You want to provide for your family, learn how to use the scoop. I'm just saying. You got a good head for it... Paul Revere." Eliot told Corey, walking away to continue his shift.
Meanwhile, Parker and Kaira got a faked poll numbers report to show to Pierce to give her confidence. They walked up to her in the hallway, handing her the folder as Pierce handed Parker her mug.
"You're latest numbers are up." Kaira said, perky.
"Ooh. Significantly up." Pierce paused.
"I don't think I ever seen it jump this high." Pierce said, buying it but kinda not.
"Really?" Parker asked, guiding the question to Hardison.
"Hey. Nate said to make them higher. How am I supposed to know what's significantly higher and what's insignificantly higher?" Hardison said from the van defending himself.
Back at the restaurant, Sophie joined Nate at the booth.
"No, that's fine. W-We just need to her to feel she has a comfortable lead so she'll be fine with Blackwell using the PAC funds." Nate said. parker handed the mug back to Pierce as she kept walking.
"Well, we must be doing something right." Pierce said.
"Yeah, must be your latest commercial... or your hair - people love your hair." Parker said, causing a slight chuckle from Kaira.
"Really?" Pierce questioned Parker. Parker nodded her head yes as they made their way to the office, where Blackwell was standing at the campaign posters.
"Hello, Dan." Pierce said, and immediately Kaira sensed this wasn't just a business partner relationship. Blackwell just looked at Pierce. Pierce handed Parker the mug, not looking at her.
"Refil?" Kaira asked. Pierce pointed out the door, answering the question and Kaira and Parker left. Parker exhaled as they left the office.
"Blackwell's here, guys. It's happening." Kaira reported.
Parker and Kaira went to a separate area of the building to listen to the conversation. Blackwell asked if Pierce would give him the funds.
"No! No way! I have an election coming up. The coltan mine's not gonna do you any good without me in office keeping it from getting shut down!" Pierce argued.
"If I don't have that money my tomorrow, they're gonna sell this process to Gibson." Blackwell said. "So? Use the mine's money." Pierce argued.
"The mine doesn't have that sort of liquidity." Blackwell said.
"You're paying your workers with something, aren't you?" Pierce asked.
"Yeah. I-I suppose I could take the... money out the payroll. But that would bankrupt the mine." Blackwell said.
"You say that like it's a bad thing." Pierce pointed out. The team perked up.
"All right. Here we go." Blackwell said. He dialed a phone. "Clark? Tell the men to not come to work tomorrow. All of 'em. And make sure there's nobody in that mine. And call me back. I got a job of work for you to do." Blackwell said.
"Well, that's a great day's work. Ugh. Blackwell's shutting down the mine and using the payroll money to pay us." Sophie said.
Parker and Kaira were in the elevator during the conversation.
"So we've just bankrupted an entire town." Parke said.
"Worse. He's not shutting down the mine." Nate said.
Kaira caught on to what he was saying.
"He's gonna blow up the damn mine." Kaira realized.
"That does sound worse." Parker said.
"You know, working in insurance, I've seen this play a thousand times. And now that we've convinced him he has coltan, his mine is worth more dead than alive." Nate said.
"Yeah, but he's not gonna have time to get a bomb and plant it in the mine by tomorrow." Parker pointed out.
"Well, his mine is practically a bomb already. I mean, you could throw a lit cigarette there, and that thing would blow. Won't take much." Nate explained. No one was liking this.
"What are we gonna do, Nate?" Sophie asked.
"We're gonna convince him that you're a lying, greedy bitch." Nate told Sophie.
The team met back at the hotel for the night. Eliot was out of his mining outfit, but his face was a tad dirty when Kaira saw him walk into the hotel room. Eliot went to hug her, but Kaira chuckled as she backed off.
"Sorry, Cowboy. Get in the shower, then come to bed." Kaira told Eliot.
Eliot then tackled Kaira, causing them both to laugh as Kaira realized she had coal dust on her comfy clothes. Eliot let once Kaira told him to stop.
"You did that on purpose to get me in the shower with you." Kaira realized. Eliot raised his eyebrows and smiled.
"You asshole." Kaira jokingly hit him in the shoulder.
"Well?" Eliot asked.
"Hell yeah. Get in." Kaira all but ordered as the couple stripped to go in the shower, which led to, of course, making out.
The next morning, the team set the plan in motion. Kaira, Parker, and Sophie were at the fundraiser and Eliot, Hardison, and Nate were at the mine. The plan was that Nate was gonna draw Blackwell to the mine as Eliot went inside the mine to find the bomb while Hardison was guiding him. Parker, Kaira's, and Sophie's job was to make sure Pierce was distracted. The boys were ready outside the van. Nate had a coffee cup in his hand. Eliot had a case in his hand.
"Okay, I'm gonna call Blackwell and draw him here." Nate said, getting out his phone.
Eliot shut the case and handed it to Hardison.
"I mean, he's not gonna blow up the mine while he's in it, is he?" Nate said, dialing the phone.
"That will give us enough time to find the bomb." Eliot said.
"Oh, yeah. Plenty of time. Meanwhile, I'll be here, in the van, as far away from the mine as possible. My dude. Go with God." Hardison said, extending his hand to give a bro handshake. Eliot went to grab Hardison's hand, but Hardison pulled Eliot into a man hug.
"What are you doing, man?" Eliot growled, pushing away.
"For morale, man!" Hardison said. He went back to the van and Eliot started towards the mine.
"All right, all right. Let's get this show on the road." Nate ordered. "Mr. Blackwell. Uh, yeah, it's, uh, Bob Gibson here." Nate said. Kaira saw Blackwell at a table getting champagne.
"Mr. Gibson. You calling to concede?" Blackwell asked.
"No, I'm calling to tell you that we've both been had. Yeah, there's no coltan in your mine or anywhere near it." Nate informed Blackwell.
"Ah, I should have pegged you for a sore loser." Blackwell said, starting to walk amongst the crowd as Kaira stayed near.
"Well, listen, I can prove it to you. Just meet at the mine in 15 minutes." Nate said.
"N- the mine's not a good idea. Now maybe we can meet somewhere el-" Nate hung up the phone, and started walking to the mine.
Kaira caught Blackwell leaving, talking to Clark about the device. Kaira also saw Sophie and Parker walking down the steps.
"He's on his way to you now." Sophie reported.
"All right. While they deal with Blackwell, we've got to spook Pierce." Sophie said.
"On it. So we need ghosts." Parker said, missing the point, walking towards where Kaira was.
"No. We need secrets. We've got to get her to move the money out of the PAC. " Sophie said. she grabbed a champagne glass and walked over to Kaira.
"Right." Kaira said, starting to join them.
"Tell me everything you know about her." Sophie said. Parker got out her notebook.
"Okay. I've got some really good stuff in here. Okay, she likes sugar in her coffee - lots of sugar. And she hides tasty treats in her desk. She's got a sweet tooth - maybe we could use that." Parker said.
"Probably not. What else?" Sophie said. Kaira thought a minute.
"Wait, didn't Pierce have a meeting with Blackwell on Thursday?" Kaira asked.
Parker flipped to the page in her notebook.
"Yeah. She had a closed-door meeting with Blackwell, but... it sounded like they were working out." Parker said, about causing Kaira to choke on her champagne.
"Working out?" Sophie questioned, getting the same idea Kaira had.
"Mm-hmm." Parker confirmed.
"Hardison, do you still have the audio file saved?" Sophie asked Hardison in her comm.
"Yeah. But there's like 100 hours of it. I-I haven't listened to it all yet." Hardison said.
"No. Just pull up the files from Thursday afternoon." Sophie said.
"Between 3:26 and 4:15." Parker narrowed it down.
"Okay. One second." Hardison said.
The audio the played was definitely not of them working out, and Kaira nearly choked again on her champagne as Hardison quickly shut off the audio.
"Parker, they're not working out. They're... you know." Sophie pointed out.
Parker didn't get the memo.
"Sex, Parker! They're knocking boots." Hardison had to explain.
"Oh. Yeah. Can you use that?" Parker asked Sophie. Kaira smirked a tad.
"Oh, I think Sophie could get quite creative with that." Kaira looked at Sophie.
Sophie confirmed Kaira's words and took a sip of champagne.
"Hey, look, y'all, this has been really cool, but I have to get back to, you know, helping Eliot find the bomb." Hardison said, going back to looking at the graphs in front of him.
Eliot was in the mine, pulling out the oxygen meter.
"I'm switching out the oxygen meter." Eliot reported, and did.
"All right, man. Look, I've hacked into their monitoring system to detect peaks in any heat or methane levels to show us where Clark planted the bomb." Hardison said.
"Where's it at?" Eliot asked.
"No idea. This thing runs like an Atari. It's great if you want to play "Frogger", but to find a bomb?" Hardison explained.
"While your playing video games, I'm gonna still be looking for the bomb. If you decide to be helpful, let me know." Eliot said, continuing the search.
Meanwhile, at the fundraiser, Sophie walked up to Pierce.
"Oh, Ms. Pierce, I was hoping to steal a minute of your time. I've heard so much about you." Sophie said.
"Of course, Ms..." Pierce said to Sophie.
"Oh, Tinson. Eloise Tinson." Sophie introduced herself.
"Oh, right. The coltan woman. Huh?" Pierce realized.
"In the flesh. I have to say, it's been such a delight working with Danny." Sophie said, setting the bait for her story.
Pierce looked at Sophie and chuckled. "You mean Mr. Blackwell." Pierce corrected.
"Of course. You know, the addition of this coltan mine is gonna do wonders for the state, and I wanted to thank you personally for your contribution." Sophie said, walking with Pierce. Pierce chuckled again.
"I'm sorry? My contribution?" Pierce questioned.
"Well, there's no need to be modest. It's your money. Or is it the PAC money? I never quite got that straight." Sophie said, egging Pierce along.
"Well, that's odd, because yesterday he told me he was using the mine funds for the purchase." Pierce pointed out.
"Oh, no. That's not what he said last night. Or was it this morning?" Sophie smiled a bit, acting embarrassed a bit.
As she started chuckling. "Time got a bit blurred. Regardless, I'm pretty confident he said he was using the PAC money and that he was gonna make the transfer today. So.. thank you. Thank you so much." Sophie said, leaving.
Parker and Kaira walked up to Pierce. "Great turnout." Parker complimented Pierce as she got out her cell phone.
"Can I get you anything?" Parker asked, perky.
Pierce sighed as she saw the money transfer was pending.
"What's wrong?" Kaira asked, playing innocent.
"That thieving, cheating bastard!" Pierce said, not happy.
Back at the mine, Blackwell and Nate walked to the wall that had been coated. "You know, being down here isn't such a good idea." Blackwell argued.
"Well, I had the coltan reports looked at off-site, and I got to tell you the results were confusing." Nate explained.
"Well, uh, maybe we could talk about this above ground." Blackwell said.
"Section C is clear." Eliot reported, still making his rounds. Nate took a scrapping from the wall.
"Now if you take a little bit off the surface here, right? It indicated the presence... of coltan. Right?" Nate showed the green liquid to Blackwell.
"Yeah." Blackwell said. Nate scrapped the same spot.
"All right. Now I'm just gonna go a little deeper here." Nate chuckled as he showed the clear vial to Blackwell. "Nothing." Nate said.
"Those bastards salted my mine." Blackwell realized.
"Yeah, they almost took your money, too." Nate said.
"Wait, wait, wait, wait. I-I think I got something, man." Hardison told Eliot.
"There are anomalies in the levels in the northeast quadrant." Hardison reported as Eliot rounded the corner of the mine shaft.
"Speak English!" Eliot growled.
"Turn right. Find bomb." Hardison said simply.
Eliot saw Corey's lunchbox hanging from the rope.
"He's here." Eliot said.
"Who?" Hardison asked.
"Corey." Eliot said, getting worried.
"Cor- Look, man. Unless that's a cute little name you got for the bomb, I'm compelled to remind you of your mission. Find the bomb. Dismantle. Save lives." Hardison told Eliot.
"Yeah. I'm on it. All right? Just stop talking!" Eliot growled as he went down the mine.
"Eliot?" Hardison called.
In another part of the mine. Blackwell took another sample just to be sure, and it wasn't coltan.
"I don't believe they tried to pull one over on me." Blackwell said as Nate paced.
"Actually, I do believe they did pull one over on you. That was me who figured out what's was they were up to." Nate said.
"I don't have time to discuss this. We got to get the hell out of here." Blackwell said.
Then the lightbulbs started crackling and then part of the wall exploded, sending debris to Nate and Blackwell, and the whole mine shook. Nate put his head up and looked around once things settled.
"Eliot. Hardison. Kiddo." Nate called quietly.
"You there? Hello?" Nate called out again, realizing the comms were down.
"Nate. Nate, are you there?" Hardison called out, knowing Nate's comm went offline.
"Eliot?" Hardison got the hitter's attention.
"I'm here." Eliot stopped.
"I-I've lost Nate." Hardison reported.
Kaira acted like she had to get a call and went to the side.
"What you do mean you've lost Nate?" Sophie questioned.
"I don't know. His comm is down. You need to get down here." Hardison said.
Kaira tried not to panic. "Parker, Kaira, meet me at the car now." Sophie ordered.
"One second." Parker said, over by Pierce. Kaira saw Pierce on the phone.
"That takes care of that. I need you to get new keys made for my office and call security." Pierce ordered. Parker acted like she was writing it down.
"I don't want Dan Blackwell stepping foot in that building." Pierce said, obviously not happy with the fact Blackwell "cheated" on her.
"Yes, ma'am." Parker said. Eliot found Corey.
"What the hell was that? Sounded like something collapsed." Corey asked Eliot.
"What are you doing down here?" Eliot asked Corey, almost scolding him.
"Doing what you told me to do. Figured now was a good time to work on the machinery, since no one's here." Corey said.
"That's using your head. Sorta. You shouldn't be down here doing this alone. Come one. We got to go. Go!" Eliot lead Corey down the shaft.
Meanwhile, Nate and Blackwell got up and Nate started coughing.
"What the hell happened?" Nate asked.
"I don't know. Explosion of some kind." Blackwell said, leaning against the beam.
"Well, you got yourself a nice little deathtrap here. Don't you?" Nate said, losening his tie.
"Well, we wouldn't be in this situation if you hadn't insisted on dragging us down here for some science experiment." Blackwell tried to blame Nate.
"You want to point fingers or do you want to - you want to get us out of here, huh?" Nate argued. "There's no way out! Somebody's gonna have to find us!" Blackwell exclaimed, obviously not happy.
Back at the fundraiser, Kaira stayed to the side, blending in as Pierce approached Sophie. "I don't like anybody leaving my parties in such a hurry." Pierce said, threateningly.
"There's been an accident at the mine. Dan's trapped. We have to get over there." Sophie argued.
"So let the cheating bastard suffocate. I'm not letting either of you steal my money." Pierce said, canceling the transaction.
"Nobody's trying to steal your money." Sophie tried to get out of this.
"I know when I'm being played. I'm just gonna put this money where no one can get to it." Pierce said, transferring the money back into the account.
"Fine. It's just money. We need to get over there." Sophie argued.
Sophie tried to leave, but Pierce stopped her. Kaira started walking towards them.
"If I were you, I'd worry about yourself. Someone as pretty as you is not gonna do well in one of our prisons. Our women - they don't take kindly to outsiders." Pierce threatened Sophie.
"Yeah? What do you mean by that?" Sophie said, not backing down.
"Oh, I called the cops. They should be here any minute to arrest you on fraud, racketeering, and impersonating a federal officer." Pierce continued.
"You can't get me arrested." Sophie argued.
Pierce laughed.
"Sure, I can. It's one of the perks of being an attorney general. I own the law." Pierce threatened Sophie.
"Debra, we're on the same side here. Dan deceived us both." Sophie argued, staying calm.
"No. You both deceived me. Now, I am done being lied to." Pierce got in Sophie's face.
Parker got Pierce's attention, making her turn, allowing for Kaira to get Sophie out of the building.
"Oh. I have a phone call for you." Parker said.
"Not now. Not now!" Pierce brushed her off.
"Oh." Parker saw that Sophie was gone and gasped.
"Damn it. Now look what you did!" Pierce yelled at Parker as she anserwed her phone. Pierce told the Sargent to meet her at the mine.
Just as Eliot and Corey made it the open part of the mine, Clark found them.
"Hey! What are you doing in here?" Clark asked. He walked over to the wall and grabbed a pickaxe.
"We, uh... we left a couple of things and..." Eliot tried to brush off as Clark inched towards them.
"Yeah? Well, the mine's closed." Clark said.
"Right." Eliot took off his helmet and belt and grabbed a pickaxe.
"Go." Eliot whispered to Corey.
"But..." Corey tried to argue.
"Go!" Eliot shoved Corey and he left, sizing up Clark.
In the closed in part of the mine, Blackwell was looking at the oxygen meter.
"How much oxygen we got?" Nate asked.
"19%" Blackwell said.
"19? Well, it drops below 15, we're goners! Both of us in the room, we only got about two hours." Nate said, walking to the comm system.
"You're right. We only have two hours." Blackwell said, getting quiet.
Clark swung the pickaxe, and Eliot used the handle to black the handle and got the pickaxe away from him. Eliot dodged a swing and got rid of his pickaxe and grabbed Clarks before he could swing again, sending it to the ground. Eliot then elbowed Clark, sending him back. Eliot once again dodged a swing, and Clark dodged Eliot's, causing the pick to get stuck. Eliot fought off Clark and sent him back again. He used his elbow to break the ax part off the pickaxe, holding just the handle. Nate messed with the comm box.
"Say, uh, what about, uh, this intercom? I mean, can't we, uh..." Nate started hitting the button.
"You know, call for help for something?" Nate questioned.
Blackwell sighed as he sat down in front of a support beam.
"No, you can't radio out. It don't work." Blackwell said.
"What do you mean?" Nate asked. Blackwell chuckled.
"You got all that money. I mean, you got new intercoms. You got new, uh, ceiling supports. You got new retrofit ventilation. I mean, I saw the paperwork." Nate said, walking towards Blackwell.
"It's all fake." Blackwell revealed.
"Oh, h-hold on there. What do you mean, it's all fake?" Nate questioned.
"Well, the ceiling support and the ventilation and the intercom - that's all fake. The only safety measures that that money bought went to the Attorney General. All the government money went to her." Blackwell started chuckling, realizing he was caught.
"Is that right?" Nate asked.
"Great investment." Nate said.
"Yeah." Blackwell said. Nate turned around.
"Well, there's got to be a way out of here, right?" Nate asked.
Just then, Blackwell knocked Nate out. Eliot was still fighting Clark, breaking the handle across his neck. Just then, Eliot went up to the blockage. Eliot started clearing it as Blackwell called for Clark.
"Mr. Blackwell! It's Eric! Eric Randall! I'm almost through! can you squeeze?" Eliot said, clearing out a way for Blackwell to get out.
Blackwell came through. Kaira watched from the back of the van as Blackwell was arrested and the bomb was pulled out of his pocket. Kaira thought back to earlier. Eliot was still looking for the mine and Kaira was off to the side at the party.
"All right, Eliot. I think I got a lock on the bomb." Hardison said. Eliot had pulled the bomb out and looked at it as Kaira held her breath.
"I got it." Eliot said. He looked at it. "What's it look like, man? Red wires, blue wires? What" Hardison asked. Apparently, the bomb was simple, and Eliot just simply turned it off.
"Boom!" Eliot yelled, causing Kaira to jump. Hardison laughed, then dropped it.
"You're not funny." Hardison said.
Eliot started laughing.
"You mother f- you're an asshole, Eliot." Kaira scolded Eliot as she calmed down.
When Eliot was getting Blackwell out of the cave-in, he planted the bomb on him.
When Blackwell was about to go in the car, Kaira flashed back to Hardison having micro detonators, surround sound, dust spray, modified oxygen meters, which was gonna be used to fake a cave-in.
Also, just before the explosion happened, Hardison warned Nate that he had to stay to the right of the X, and he was fine. Hardison was also the one controlling the oxygen meters. What Blackwell also didn't know was that before his confession, Nate got the comm back up. It played over the intercom system.
The cop car pulled away as Nate and Eliot joined the rest of the team. Kaira waved as Pierce saw them, realizing who she was.
"Nailed it." Parker said.
Kaira remembered getting Pierce to transfer the money into the "Tomorrow's Women" account. Kaira was glad to see Nate and Eliot.
"Pierce transferred all the PAC funds into Parker's account." Sophie explained.
"Nicely done." Hardison complimented.
"Well, I had a little help from Sophie and Kaira. But yeah. I'm a grifter. I grift." Parker complimented herself.
"You did amazing, Parker." Kaira complimented Parker.
"Yeah. You do know you don't get to keep the money, right?" Nate questioned Parker.
Parker looked at her phone, then to Nate.
"Don't ruin it." Parker said.
Parker and Hardison walked to the van as Kaira hugged Eliot, causing Eliot to chuckle.
Kaira let go. Eliot brushed his fingers against her face, getting dust on her face.
"You got a little-" Eliot said, trying to brush off the dirt, but only smearing it.
"Asshole." Kaira smiled at Eliot and kissed him. Eliot then left as Kaira hugged Nate, glad he ended up okay. Kaira then walked over to where Eliot went and saw him walking to Corey. Kaira joined with Eliot and put her arm around him as Corey walked up to him.
"Who are you? Really." Corey asked.
"We're friends of Troy." Eliot said.
"We came to make the mine safer." Kaira added.
"So you're leaving?" Corey questioned.
"Yeah, I'm leaving." Eliot revealed.
Corey was sad.
"But you got a bunch of good ol' boys here to watch your back for you. You remember what I told you." Eliot said. Eliot tapped Corey's helmet.
"Use that head. Keep you safe." Eliot told Corey.
"I will." Corey agreed.
"Good. That way, I don't have to come back here and whup your ass." Eliot warned, causing Kaira to chuckle. Eliot extended his hand for a handshake, and Corey grabbed his hand, and pushed into Eliot. Except for this time, Eliot just let it happen, putting his arm on Corey's back and patting it a couple of times.
"All right." Eliot whispered, letting go. Corey looked emotional as he walked away. Kaira grabbed Eliot's hand and walked with him back to the van.
The team left and went to bed for the night.
The next day, Nate, Kaira, and Eliot told Troy to meet him at the office. Plans were out on the table as Troy walked in.
"Welcome to your new office." Nate said.
Troy started chuckling. "Excuse me?" Troy chuckled, not believing it.
"After Blackwell was arrested, the board removed him as CEO and made you mine supervisor." Nate said.
"Now everybody's safety is in your hands." Eliot said. Troy exhaled, ready to accept the responsibility.
"Well, I-I'll do my best." Troy said.
Kaira grabbed a check that was on the desk and handed it to Troy.
"This should help." Kaira said. Troy grabbed the check and looked at it, then to Kaira.
"Where'd this come from?" Troy asked.
"It's the Federal safety money that Blackwell was supposed to use to fix the mine. Blackwell gave it to Pierce, and she more or less gave it to us, and now it's yours." Kaira explained.
"Now you can buy safety equipment that actually works." Eliot said.
"Hey. Thank you so much." Troy said. Kaira brushed it off.
"All right. Well, we'll let you get to it." Nate said, going to leave.
They shook hands. Nate stopped at the door and looked at Eliot, who shook hands with Troy.
"Listen, do me a favor. Watch out for Corey for me." Eliot said.
"Will do." Troy agreed.
"All right." Eliot went to join Kaira at the door and turned back. "You should put him on the scoop. He's got a knack for it." Eliot said.
Troy nodded his head in agreement as they left.
The team cleaned up their trail and went back to home base. Kaira and Eliot were laying in bed, her head on his shoulder. Kaira could tell Eliot was thinking about something. Kaira put her hand on his cheek and looked at him.
"Baby, what are you thinking about?" Kaira asked. Eliot looked at Kaira.
"Corey. Just talking with him, he reminded me of a lot of you." Eliot smiled at Kaira.
"Really?" Kaira questioned. Eliot smiled.
"Yeah." Eliot said quietly. He put his hand around her waist.
"Could you imagine having a kid?" Kaira asked.
Eliot smiled and looked at Kaira.
"Kids?" Eliot questioned.
"Yeah." Kaira said.
"I can imagine it, yeah." Eliot smiled.
"Me too. Could you imagine having mini me's runnin' around?" Kaira chuckled.
"God, we really need more of me around?" Eliot chuckled.
"That wouldn't be so bad." Kaira smiled.
"Someday." Eliot said.
"Someday." Kaira whispered.
"Deal?" Eliot asked, smiling at Kaira.
"Deal." Kaira said, smiling and chuckling as she kissed Eliot. They let go and looked at each other.
"You're still an asshole." Kaira muttered. Eliot chuckled.
"Hell yeah." Eliot muttered.
Kaira chuckled.