Jason had a lowered head, but stared at his crumbling Commander across the room from him. He couldn't honestly say that he could blame Mark for his breakdown; Hell, he was pretty close to the same himself; but he was somewhat disappointed that Mark had let it out so publicly.

And of course, women being women, the damn guy had dragged a key investigator into the pit of eternal empathy. That was exactly what they didn't need right now. Last thing that was going to help Princess out of this mess was a wibbling Eagle and a pouting, sympathetic female investigator getting all distracted because of emotion. And, of course, being that every male on the police force/criminalistics payroll was under suspicion, all women needed to be straight, focused and sharp.

He couldn't say what it was that actually made him stand back and allow Mark to get out what he needed to. Some might suggest respect, although he'd vehemently deny it, others might just say the smartest thing to do – from a tactical standpoint – was allow the release to uncloud the mind and regain total focus.

Some might say, even, that he was just scared to tell his Commander to suck it up and be a man – of course, only those who didn't know better would suggest such a heinous thing.

So, being a military kind of person, Jason opted to take the second reasoning. Tactical response.

It worked in his mind.

He finally inhaled deeply and checked the time on his communicator in an obvious display of impatience – in case anyone was actually watching.

"Are you about done, Mark?" he asked in about as a detached voice as was possible.

Mark let the final hiccup of emotional annihilation ripple through his chest and sniffed hard. "Damn."

"Damn about sums it up, Skipper. That was a Hell of a display you just put on."

Mark detected the distinct sound of Jason's trying to make an effort to sound all pissed off, and found himself willing to play along. "Yeah, if I was a woman."

"Damn straight."

Mark slowly pulled himself off the wall, but fell into a continued despondent slouch by pressing his palms into the wall and letting his head hang low in between them. "Sorry, Jason."

Jason grunted and finally felt the need to approach his team leader. He took up position on the wall beside him and pressed his back into the white surface. He folded his arms across his chest and looked down at the floor, crossing his legs at the ankle. "You might want to save your apology for the three criminalists who were in here when you destroyed their equipment."

Mark kept his hands on the wall, but shifted his head and gaze to survey the damage. "It's just a microscope, Jason. I'll make sure it's replaced with the top of the line whatever as soon as is humanly possible."

Jason gave a shrug. "I'm sure they have another one in this place somewhere. Can't see them all lining up to use just one."

Mark huffed what could be described as a poor attempt at a laugh. "Then I'll replace it with a couple of them."

"So," Jason smirked, his head still lowered. "Need a hug and for me to tell you that everything's going to be fine because the Condor's here?"

A brow slowly rose on Mark's head, and he rolled his gaze up to look at Jason's side-profile. "I'd rather have had Sara do it, but if you're offering…"

Jason's face shot up to Mark and he immediately backed away from him, and up, palms out, in a stay away gesture. "Oh Hell no."

That made the Eagle smirk. He flipped his body around to press his back into the wall and adopted pretty much the same standing position as Jason had just broken from. "Then don't offer."

"If you call me a tease, I will so kick your ass …"

Mark shuddered a chaste laugh and rolled his head backward to raise his gaze to the ceiling. "Ahh, Jason. I'm stymied here."

"I can't see how. Princess just gave us one Hell of a piece of information to work on."

"Yes. A piece of information that is so damn sensitive that us leaping all over it could do more harm than good right now."

Jason leaned against the table and pulled a well-chewed feather from his wing. "Howso?"

"Well." He let out a sigh. "These people aren't stupid. Their jobs require them to work out stuff. This guy is already going to be on edge because we're here to begin with …"

"Which is his own stupid fault," Jason interrupted gruffly. "He's the one who decided to play dress-up."

Mark gave a side nod of the head in a quasi-shrug of agreement. "A reminder I didn't need, but yes."

"And these idiots," he thumbed over his shoulder to indicate the lab techs, "thought we played dress up …"

Mark rolled his eyes. "Now, now, Jason. Play nice, please."

Jason's lip twitched. "Any one of them could be him, you know."

"I'm painfully aware of that, Jason. That's the whole issue here."

A dangerous smile spread across the Condor's face. "Let's interrogate them one, by one. Let's start with the Asian guy from the hallway."

Mark lifted a hand to cup thoughtfully at his jaw and half-closed his eyes in deep thought. "No interrogations for you, Jason. I'd much rather prefer Doctor Grissom and Detective Brass handle anything of that nature."

"Why?" Jason challenged. "Scared I might intimidate with my own brand of questioning?"

"Actually yes. We'll have about fifty people own up to the crime just to get the Hell away from you."

He chuckled to himself proudly in response, but said nothing.

Mark continued however. "What concerns me is that we are obviously short one member, and these guys aren't going to believe that Princess is on assignment for too much longer."

"Especially when you lose your shit every ten seconds." He caught a sudden irritated glare from his Commander and took it with a shrug. "Look, man. You have got to keep a handle on it. If you don't want these people to find out it's Princess who's missing, then you need to find a better way of holding it together."

Mark blinked and cleared his throat. "I know. I know. I just feel as useless as the Phoenix minus a mecha right now."

Jason laughed through pursed lips. "Damn, you let Tiny hear you say that, and you'll be a dead man,"

"Yeah."

Jason thumbed at his nose and looked Mark square in the eye. "Let me make a suggestion."

"I'm all ears."

"How about you forget you're a boyfriend for a minute and focus on the fact you're the Commanding officer of the G-Force team."

Mark's eyes flashed open. "What?"

Jason held back from rolling his eyes. "Get your head in the game, man. I know it's Prin that's missing, and damn, it's hurting us all, but she needs you to do what you do best and approach this like the G-Force Commander."

Mark let out a long breath and nodded. "Yeah, I hear ya."

"You and I need to come up with something that takes the attention off the fact that we're down one man so we have some time to actually let these guys do their thing."

"The longer Princess is AWOL, the more the killer is going to clue in and react."

"Exactly."

Mark pursed his lips, blew out a breath and ticked in an inhale. His eyes focused on a shard of lens glass on the table as he considered what options they had at their disposal. "Okay," he breathed finally. "I think I can solve the problem of speculation about the Swan."

"How?"

Mark gave his second a wink and smirked as he raised his communicator to his lips. "This is G1 Eagle to Centre Neptune, 7-Zark-7."

Zark's response was immediate. "Oh Commander, I've been waiting to hear from you. I'm so worried for Princess."

"Let us do the worrying, Zark. Have you uploaded the override codes to the Phoenix?"

"Yes, Commander. Tiny and Keyop are onboard and are currently working through the scan information we have so far. Residual waves from her communication are giving us a search radius of around 10 miles."

Jason grunted. "Which doesn't exactly help us much."

"It's better than nothing, Jason. We can use that to further refine the search criteria for the staff here."

"Which is helpful only if this guy's got her holed up at his place."

"Good point." He turned his attention back to his communicator. "Zark. I want you to make sure that any information is passed down to Doctor Grissom at the crime lab. This information will be highly confidential, so ensure that only he is the recipient of any information – no leaving messages on cell-phones or with receptionists. Contact him directly."

"Big ten, Commander. Is there anything else?"

"Yes," Mark said with a smile as he kept his gaze on Jason. "Please patch me through to the P.R. department."

~~O-O-O-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-O-O-O~~

Chris leaned in the doorway to Archie's lab and watched through the glass wall of the lab, where the Eagle and Condor seemed deep in discussion flicking in between talking into their bracelets and to each other. His head was angled to one side as if trying to hear what was going on and eyes were steeled and focused.

"Hey, Arch. What do you think they're talking about."

Archie raised his head from the monitor to show his acknowledgement of Chris' question, but didn't take his eyes from the screen. "Who?"

"The Eagle and the Condor."

Archie's brow flicked, but his attention remained on the task at hand. "The cosplayers from the hallway?"

Chris took his attention off birds and looked at Archie with a frown. "Dude, they aren't cosplayers. Those two are the real thing."

Archie gagged and shot his gaze first to Chris and then toward the two men in question. "You're shitting me."

"Nope." He pointed with an open hand toward the layout room. "They're here for the serial."

Archie frowned and slowly pulled himself from the computer. With a confused expression he slowly walked toward his coworker and slouched in an almost timid manner. "Why the Hell would they be interested in that case?"

"Hodges told me that the serial just abducted a new victim, and he dressed as the Eagle to do it."

"Oh," Archie muttered just short of laughing. "Interesting. Try and frame the one guy on the planet who … who …" His attention was caught by the sight of something pink and decidedly feminine. "Oh sweet mother of all Holy. All of my fanboy fantasies have just come true."

Chris' face scrunched in confusion at Archie. "What?"

Archie all but panted as he pointed down the corridor. "It's her …"

Chris tilted his head and let his gaze follow Archie's instruction. He actually gasped at the vision only a hundred yards away. "Damn, man. I so volunteer to work with her …"

Archie smirked. "You're not on the serial, Christopher, my man. She's the electronics genius, as am I. I'll be the one working with her."

"Yeah," he breathed in reply. "And if you so much as look at her, you know the Eagle will wipe the floor with you."

"It'll be worth it."

They both held their breaths as the Swan lightly strolled up the corridor toward them. Their eyes scanned the length of white boot, over the short hem of the pink shirt, and then across the flaming Phoenix emblem that was half-obscured by her wings.

Chris actually whimpered when she finally reached them and batted lashes over impossibly green eyes.

"Good evening. Can either of you gentlemen please point me in the direction of my Commander?"

Chris' jaw actually quivered as he nodded and pointed up at the room across the corridor. "Uh, yeah. He's in there with … um …"

She let out a girlish giggle and dipped her head shyly. "Thank you."

Without another word, she turned on her heel, gave a short flick of her wing and stepped into the room with her Commander.

Archie let out a chuckle and slapped Chris on the arm with the back of his hand. "Real good work, there, Chris. You really let the man come out and …"

"Oh shut up," he muttered inside a self-disgusted growl. "It's not like you said anything to her."

Archie simply smirked as he watched her quickly step up to the Eagle, place one hand on his shoulder and cup his cheek with the other. "Damn, how does he concentrate working with her day in day out?"

"What's the opposite of Viagra, Arch?"

Both men erupted into the male equivalent of giggles, which was quickly interrupted by a familiar throat clearing of a man less than impressed.

"We don't have enough work, Gentlemen?"

Like teenagers caught reading pornography magazines in the school bathroom, both Archie and Chris coughed, ran their fingers sheepishly through their hair and stepped back from the doorway. Archie was the one that actually decided to apologise.

"Uh, yeah. Sorry Grissom. We just had a brief distraction."

Catherine, her hair loose and held back by a pair of sunglasses, raised a single brow and pursed her lips in a pouty smile. "Distracted by men in tights? Not that there's anything wrong with that, but … I wouldn't have picked you as…"

"Oh no, no," Archie frantically corrected, raising both hands, palms out in defense. "We weren't checking out the guys."

"Hell no," Chris confirmed as he pointed toward the lab. "We were checking out the Swan."

"The who?" Grissom asked, confused, as he let his attention shift to the lay-out room.

Catherine's brows both shot skyward as her mouth opened in a silent gasp. "But isn't she …?"

Grissom shook his head in complete and utter confusion as he let his arm, which was clutching a clipboard, drop to his side. "Excuse me …"

Catherine watched him stalk toward the closed door and shared a wide-eyed stunned gaze at Archie and Chris as she forced herself to follow.

Both men groaned at being caught, not realizing that Hodges had somehow silently made it into their circle.

"Arch, was it me or did Grissom seem …"

"Yeah," Archie answered. "A fan too, you think?"

Hodges let out a windless cough. "A fan of whom?"

Chris actually jumped. "What the … oh Hell, Hodges. Wear a bell or something, man."

"And miss the chance to overhear something interesting? Why would I want to do that?" He let his gaze swing between Archie and Chris. "So what is the latest? Why do you two look so … caught?"

Chris made a sound that, if he was a woman, could be described as a swoon. "The Swan finally made her appearance."

Hodges raised a brow, and his head to the room in front of them. He ticked his head to one side and let out a breath. "They really should give her a longer skirt."

~~O-O-O-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-O-O-O~~

Grissom was obviously flustered as he burst into the room, clipboard flailing to one side. His confusion was such that he didn't even realize that he almost closed the door in Catherine's face. Rather than reveal his state by asking the boys a stupid question, he simply approached the Swan and looked closely at her face.

She drew back in shock at being so openly examined, and blinked hard a couple of times then stepped back into Mark's chest. "Uh, hi?"

Grissom's eyes narrowed just a pinch in closer examination, then opened and slid to Mark. "Who is this?"

The Swan frowned and set her hands on her hips. Her tongue flicked out to wet her top lip and she made a point of scanning her eyes suspiciously up and down him. Finally she looked back up into his face and extended her hand to him. "Hi. I'm Princess, the Swan. Sorry I'm late."

Grissom's head excessively tilted to one side to look beyond her to Mark. "Press double?"

Her lips pursed and she guiltily looked over her shoulder at Mark in apology. He gave her a nod and put his hand on her shoulder. "I thought it would be best if the Swan made a brief appearance." He tilted his face to look appreciatively at Princess double. "This is Lola. She's been working as my Swan's press double for about four years, now."

Grissom pursed his lips into an almost-kiss and nodded. "Thank you, Commander." He set his clipboard on the table and brushed glass off a stool before taking a seat. "That will solve one of the problems I have."

Mark removed his hand from Lola's shoulder and folded his arms across his chest. "There are more?"

"You mean aside from a serial killer that is law enforcement and a missing G-Force member?"

"I never imagined you to be the facetious type, Dr. Grissom."

Catherine smiled and took up position beside Grissom. "He does have flashes of humanity every so often."

Mark smiled. "The polar opposite of our robot at the Research Facility. Occasionally he does have his moments as a robot."

Lola ran her hands down her version of Princess' uniform and let her eyes fall on the front page on Grissom's clipboard. "Is that a list of potential suspects, Mr. Grissom?"

"Doctor," Mark corrected gently.

She seemed genuinely embarrassed at her slip. "Oh, sorry."

Grissom politely shook off the slip and pulled the clipboard toward him. "Commander, we've narrowed down the possibles to about fifty employees."

"Fifty?"

He nodded and let out a long sigh. "We narrowed it down as far as possible using the past cases to help refine the timelines. Whoever it is, is on permanent shift and is doing this on his time off."

"That's if this guy gave Princess the right information," Jason offered around the point of his feather. "He could have just been blowing smoke up her ass in case she did escape."

Lola nodded and rubbed at a contact-irritated eye. "What about the DNA results? The Chief told me that one of your investigators had found some skin or something on Princess' shirt."

Catherine watched her continue to rub her eye and lifted her head to look almost sideways at her. "I can get you some drops for those lenses if you like, Swan."

She shook her head, but continued to rub. "No. That's fine. Thank you."

Catherine shrugged. "DNA usually takes a little while to process. Unlike the shows on TV, we can't just stand next to the machine and it'll suddenly spit out the results."

"Oh, okay."

"Also," Grissom added slowly. "You have to consider that the skin cells might actually be from Princess herself."

"Which means this lead could end up … a dead end," Jason sighed.

"Not necessarily," Grissom replied. "We have a list narrowed down to fifty. Once we get hold of her computer, we can have Archie narrow it further."

"Fifty is still a lot, Grissom." Jason sighed.

"Better than three-quarters of a million, Condor."

Mark extended his hand to wordlessly ask to look at the clipboard. "Centre Neptune has managed to narrow the search area down to a ten-mile radius from this location. The Owl and Swallow are in the process of trying to get us a tighter range."

"It would help if she could contact us again."

Mark nodded. "We'd have her located within thirty seconds." He looked down at the clipboard and ran his fingertip down the page. "No criminal history?"

Catherine smiled at the question. "This is law enforcement, Mark. We can't even come under suspicion of a crime let alone commit one."

Mark smiled painfully. "Oh you can commit, just can't get caught."

"I still can't believe it's one of us."

"We all have traitors in our lives at one point or another, Catherine. Don't think we're blaming any of you for this – because we aren't."

She rolled her eyes. "But we're investigators, we should be able to see these things."

"And when you tell that to a mother who's son is a killer – don't think she doesn't say the same about herself."

Catherine smiled with squinted eyes at the comment. "Oh, Gil. I like him."

Grissom shook his head and simply sighed at the comment. Jason, however, gave a short laugh. "Yeah, wait till you have to work with him…"

A flash of brunette dashed past the door, paused, the turned to slide into the room. "Grissom I've got …." Sara stopped and stood bolt upright at the sight of the Swan in front of her. "Oh my … You got away?!"

Grissom raised his hand in silence and tilted his head at her – he knew excitement when he saw it. She had something, and she had something good. "Sara, this is Lola; the Swan's press double. The Eagle had her come in to take the focus off the Swan's absence in this investigation."

Sara offered a 100 megawatt smile and gave her a friendly once-over. "Oh you'll channel the focus alright."

Catherine chuckled behind her hand. Mark raised his brow. Grissom groaned and Jason gave a laugh.

"Nice, Sara."

"Hey, if I was a guy …"

Grissom extended his hand to her to ask for the paper. "Don't you dare say it, Catherine," he warned as he watched her lips purse in preparation to extend upon Sara's comment. "What did you find, Sara?"

Her eyes widened and her cheeks pinked as she practically danced in excitement. "The DNA is not a match to Princess. It's definitely our perp."

Grissom's eyes widened like a young boy's excited over a new comic book. "Really? Any matches in the Compliance database?"

Her shoulders actually fell in disappointment. "No. The systems are down at the moment, but Wendy has it in the system to check the minute it's back up and running."

Mark frowned. "The network is down?"

She nodded. "There was a screw-up with the new server upgrade. I.T. are working to have it back online as soon as possible."

"I'll have Zark link into it if you like, perhaps he can remotely search or help solve the problem."

Grissom angled his head to one side. "Let's look into the legality of that, first, Commander. I don't want this guy to get off on a technicality because we broke some grey area law."

Mark's eyes narrowed to almost slits. "Trust me Doctor Grissom. This individual won't be getting off anything. Legal loophole or not, if we get him first …."

"No." Grissom interrupted in a tone more angry than he actually was. "Don't make threats like that, Commander. If we have to testify …"

"Then ignore me," Mark said with a level of darkness that warned nothing was going to sway him from his final plan. "Because I'll do what I need to."

"Uh, we will," Jason affirmed. "Trust me, we will."

Sara actually shuddered, "Uh, okay. To save me putting my fingers in my ears and singing la la la, I'll tell you what else I found."

All eyes shifted to her.

Her eyes slid to Grissom as if asking his permission to speak, then shot to Mark. "The epithelials I found on the fabric were actually quite large, and dry."

Mark voiced what Jason was thinking. "Huh?"

Grissom looked up at her with a tilted head. "So our perp has a skin condition?"

"Or is peeling from sunburn," Catherine offered softly. "Have we had any guys come back from vacation lately?"

"We live in Vegas," Grissom growled. "Sunburn isn't exactly a rarity here."

"No," Sara said with a smile, "but Clobetasol Propion is."

Jason watched both Catherine and Grissom's eyes widen in excitement at the comment. He shrugged, looked at Mark and Lola, and then back at Sara. "That means absolutely nothing to me."

"No," Grissom said proudly as he shared a smile of admiration with Sara. "But it means something to us."

"Just tell me it isn't a creepy lubricant and I'll join you in that little group of smiles," he muttered crudely in response.

"Clobetasol," Sara advised. "Is an extremely powerful dermotological topical ointment used to treat skin conditions like Eczema and Psoriasis. Dermatologists are fairly hesitant to use it because it's pretty much as strong as you can get. It's pretty much the rolls Royce of ointments, really."

"And expensive," Catherine nodded. "A small tube of that will easily set you back almost $100."

Mark, who had been fairly silent for the exchange, suddenly cleared his throat to enter the conversation. "I really don't mean to rain on your parade, Sara. But who did you have run this particular test?"

She let out a breath and lowered her head. She tilted it on an angle so as not to be looking through brows disrespectfully at him when she answered. "You mean, did I hand the sample across to a potential suspect?"

He nodded.

"No Mark. While Hodges is my usual trace analyst, and he is probably the most unlikely to be an axe-wielding homicidal maniac, I had the girl from swing run it." She handed the report to Grissom, who immediately began to read every single line from the three-page document. "I don't know for how much longer we can continue to only hand off evidence from the case to the female staff without the boys finally getting fed up and suspicious."

"I agree," Catherine said with a nod. "Our best analysts are the guys. If we want to get the fastest and must trustworthy results, we need to involve them."

Mark licked parched lips and tapped his fingers on the table beside him. "Then we make sure that someone who has definitely been cleared is working right alongside them. Either one of my team, or one of yours."

"They don't exactly like to be shadowed, Commander," Grissom purred, still more interested in what he was reading.

"Tell them it's a CYA measure. Two sets of eyes, less chance of a screw-up."

"That'll work well enough," Catherine agreed. "This is a high-profile case after all."

Grissom nodded. He was still focusing on the papers in his hand. "Then, Sara. Please take either Mark or Jason with you to the Computer lab and do a Staff search on our drug plan. This product isn't something that anyone would willingly pay full price for. Anyone who has a claim for anything with this drug in it needs to be flagged as a potential."

"On it, Griss." She looked at the three birds. "Who wants to come with?"

Lola looked up at Mark with wide expectant eyes – she wanted in on this. "Commander?"

He shook his head. "Lola, I need you to stay with one of us at all times. You're as close as someone could get to Prin, but you don't have her knowledge. If someone expects you to know more than you do …"

She nodded. "I understand."

Jason rose from his stool and stretched. "I'll come with you, Sara. If I hang around angst boy here any more I fear I'll either kill him or myself to put me out of my misery."

She shrugged and smirked over her shoulder. "And you think I'll be any more pleasant?"

"Better on the eyes, anyway." He exaggerated a predatory growl as he followed, and then chuckled and slapped Grissom on the shoulder as he passed. "You know what I mean, eh?"

Grissom's eyes actually flared and his attention was completely removed from the paper. He looked at Jason and then back at Mark. "Commander?"

Mark shook his head. "Ignore him, he's just … acting to protect his reputation."

"Uh-huh."

Mark slouched and pulled his wings over his chest. "In the meantime, what do we do?"

Grissom pointed at a box that had been brought in to the room earlier. "Photographs of all scenes, Commander. You, your Faux-Swan, Catherine and I will analyse each one and see if we can find a commonality that may help us locate her."

Mark nodded and opened his wings, running his hands up his arms as if pulling up sleeves. "Well, let's get to it, then."

~~O-O-O-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-O-O-O~~

Jason kept his gaze firmly attached to Sara's rear as she led him toward yet another lab in the labyrinth that was the Las Vegas Police Department building. She was a fascinating woman to him; very unlike the normal groups of girls that clamoured around him at race-tracks and the such. There was no sign of silicone enhancement to this woman, nor were there skin-tight, nipple bearing, shirts or pants that could give him a hint as to her choice of underwear. She wore little or no makeup, and her hair wasn't styled and glistening with the haircare product of the month, yet she had to be the most stunning creature he'd laid eyes on for a long time.

She was confident in her own way. Her hair was a natural shade of chocolate brown that had it's own life and energy, giving a feathered end look that was as unintentionally stylish as it was scruffy. Her walk was almost slouched as she strode through the hallways with her eyes downcast on her clipboard. It could almost be described as masculine, had it not had that key feminine quality of smoothness inside the casual stride.

She wasn't seeking validation, acceptance or compliments. She didn't command it, or even try to coax it out of anyone – but she got them. More than once on their short trip to the end of the corridor, around the corner, then along another , he heard the appreciative tones inside the hellos of men she breezed past.

He wondered if she even understood or knew how attractive she really was.

His eyes were forced to rise above the belt when she turned with a smile to open a heavy door by use of her rump. She held her clipboard against her chest and all but winked at him as she tilted her head to tell him to follow.

"So do you to request the search, or shall I?"

His brow flicked as he walked by her into the room. "Shouldn't I be holding the door for you?"

She half-rolled her eyes and stepped inside the room behind him. "Let's not have that discussion right now."

His lips stretched into a smirk and he waggled a single brow. "Then how about we discuss it over drinks when this is all over?"

"I'm not even remotely tempted, Jason, but thank you for the offer."

He pursed his lips, noting her smile when she rejected his offer. "Not even a little?"

She let her eyes watch him coyly through her brows as she passed him to approach a desk, where a heavy-set middle-aged woman was seated. "Do you try this with every woman you meet?"

He shrugged in a nonchalant manner in response and then leaned his forearms on the table beside her. "Only the good looking ones."

Sara coughed as she caught the suspicious gaze of the Department Human Resources Manager. "Hi Susan," she said cheerfully, as if trying to convince an otherwise grumpy looking individual into cheering up.

Susan cleared her throat, looked over her glasses at Jason, then slid her eyes back to Sara. She seemed as unimpressed and annoyed as her outward demeanour showed. "Yes, Ms. Sidle?"

Sara set a piece of paper on top of the desk and shared a quick glance with Jason before settling her attention on Susan. "Grissom needs you to provide me with information on any staff member who has claimed this product on their insurance."

Susan blinked slow and let out a long breath. "That information is confidential, Ms. Sidle."

"I'm aware of that. However, this information is essential to our investigation so I …."

Susan interrupted her with a dismissive wave of her hand. "Unless Dr. Grissom or Mr. Ecklie come to me requesting this information, I won't provide it. I don't need to remind you how sensitive and private this information is and how I can't simply hand it off to any investigator who wants to snoop."

"Please, Susan. This information is critical if we are going to find this girl alive."

She repeated herself. "Unless Dr. Grissom or Mr. Ecklie come to me requesting this information…"

"How about if I asked?" Jason tried with as intimidating a voice as possible.

She slowly raised her eyes to the Condor. "Not even if your Eagle or the President of the Federation asked me, Condor."

He grunted in response. "Hey. We can have you charged with something, right. Hampering an investigation, or what …"

Sara halted him with a gruff grunt of displeasure. "Oh forget it, Jason." She snatched the paper from the top of the desk and almost tore it as she clipped it back onto the clipboard. Her eyes darkly met with those of the woman behind the desk. "Thank you anyway, Susan," she began with all the facetiousness possible. "I thank you so much for your assistance in an ongoing serial case and will be sure to ensure that the department heads know that you availed yourself completely to …"

"Give it a rest," Susan hissed back in response. "Protocol and law, remember? I am not legally allowed to provide just anyone with that information."

Sara curled a lip and spun on her heel to put her back to the woman and to lean on the desk as she texted the problem through to Grissom's phone. "There has to be an exception clause somewhere," she muttered mainly to herself.

Jason still had his gaze on Susan and drummed his fingers on the desk. He spoke low to Sara without actually looking at her. "You know. I could hold her down while you looked for the information …"

Sara didn't see Susan's irritated glare rise over the desk, but she certainly felt it. She snorted and shook her head at the comment. "I'm almost tempted to go with you on that. This is just wasting time we don't have."

"If Princess was here, she'd hack in to the police computers from the Phoenix …"

Sara shook her head and peeled herself off the desk as she waited for her phone to vibrate with word from her supervisor. The glimmer of a hot-pink laptop under the arm of a stalking Swallow, who looked impossibly lost, caught her attention. She elbowed into Jason's side to get his attention. "Is that her computer?"

Jason almost stumbled as he twisted his head to look out of the door. He caught sight of Keyop and frowned. "Hey, Kid," he called gruffly, immediately catching the attention of the youngster. "What the hell are you doing here, you're supposed to be on the Phoenix."

Keyop dramatically rolled his eyes and walked toward Jason and Sara as they walked toward him to meet at the door. As usual for the young Swallow, his response was preceded by indecipherable brips and bloops. "Tiny's with the Phoenix … Mark needed computer … Was told to bring it."

Sara's brow flicked at the robotic delivery of the boy's response. She slid her eyes to Jason, who had his hand out to the boy in a request for the computer. She didn't ask the question on her mind, but Jason answered it.

"Speech impediment," he grunted as Keyop pulled the computer closer to him and frowned much like a toddler declaring the toy in his hand was "mine". "He's had it all his life."

She pursed her lips as if to soundlessly say "oh", and looked back over her shoulder as Susan's phone rang. "Keep your fingers crossed that's Grissom telling her to ante up with the information."

The trio watched in silence as they listened to Susan converse with Grissom on the phone. Her reaction was obviously irritation as she let her gaze rest heavily on the female in the group.

"Yes, Dr. Grissom. I understand. I'll retrieve that information as soon as possible." She paused and kept her glare on Sara. "At least an hour." Another pause and she grunted her reply to what must have been a frustrated Gil Grissom. "Because that's how long it will take for the benefits administrator to return from lunch and retrieve the data you need."

Jason watched and curled a lip at the exchange. "Okay, so now she has the word and she's still going to drag her feet on it?"

Sara nodded and let out a long breath. "The myth that all Human Resource Managers are fluffy bubbles of cotton candy is absolutely false."

Jason purred a chuckle. "Especially when you try to date their daughter."

Sara coughed a laugh and shook her head as she contemplated what they could do for the hour. "You're really all that your reputation suggests aren't you?"

He smirked, but Keyop answered. "Always … Gets knocked back."

Jason's look darkened at the boy, but he said nothing in his own defence. Instead, he folded his arms across his chest and raised his head to look down his nose at the youngster. "So where are you taking the computer, anyway, kid?"

Keyop shrugged. "Mark said … Archie."

Jason looked toward Sara. "Archie's a guy?"

Sara nodded and let her tongue wet her top lip. "Yeah, the best damn computer and audio/visual genius on the planet."

"No," Keyop argued softly after a series of brips and broops. "Princess is."

Sara touched the young Swallow's shoulder. "Okay," she agreed, "he's second best."

Jason was still dark. "But Archie is a guy," he repeated. "I don't trust him, or anyone, to snoop through her hard drive."

Keyop tilted his head. "But I will be there, Jason."

He shook his head. "Yeah, and her identity will be out there in the open for him once he gets into that machine."

"But Mark said …"

"I don't care. I'm not risking him being …"

"Jason," Sara interrupted. "He's not a suspect."

"If he has a set hanging between his legs he is."

Sara rolled her eyes upward and stepped out of the doorway. She flicked her hand to ask them to follow. "Princess said the killer is white. Archie's Asian." She paused and offered the two of them a hard stare. "And he's someone I trust. If you want the best, then you're going to have to trust him, and me, with this."

Jason's brow arched in time with the devious curl of his mouth. "The Asian guy?" He gave a low chuckle. "Yeah. There are a few things I'd like to talk to him about."

Sara caught the glint of mischief in his tone and let her eyes fall to Keyop. "Is there something I need to know before I introduce these two?