There's reference to some episodes here - 1.05 Missing for H50, and 2.22 Backscatter for Numb3rs. Both have wonderful scenes that I've incorporated into this chapter.

I hope you enjoy it, and thank you again for such encouraging reviews. Oh, and for all you angst fans out there, stay tuned for chapter four ;o)

Calculated Risk - Chapter Three

Meetings Of Minds

Charlie Eppes stared around him, as if all his lifetime of birthdays had come at once. Don's office was hardly a slouch in the technology department, of course, but this was –

"Wow!"

– a familiar reaction, if the broad grins on four watching faces were anything to go by.

"Yeah, we have some pretty good stuff here," Steve said at last, throwing Danny the irresistible bone. "Although some of us are still in the days of string phones and Pac-Man."

Five seconds later, complete with growl, his faithful little terrier threw that bone right back at him.

"Bite me, Pretzel-Head."

Grinning too, at the bickering that felt strangely familiar, Don glanced towards his two other hosts. "These two like this all the time?"

"Why do you think we have separate offices?" Chin replied through an equally broad smile – deciding this was a good time to get back to business as two pairs of eyes glared in his direction. "Okay, Charlie, we have all the images here. We've tried to get them into some kind of order for you."

"No, no, no… that's, uh, okay," Charlie assured him, already studying his latest challenge – tapping several images into smaller groups before sweeping them onto the main plasma. "What I'd give for one of these," he enthused, turning a pleadingly hopeful look towards his brother.

Immune to its puppy-dog charms, at least he kept telling himself that, Don just shrugged.

"Hey, don't look at me, Chuck. Ask the budget guys when we get back home."

"Yeah, right. They throw a hissy fit if I ask for chalk and a new whiteboard," Charlie muttered, on the verge of a hissy fit himself when he realized what Don had said, and what he'd called him. "And what have I told you about calling me Chuck?"

"Would you prefer nerd instead?" Don grinned, clearly enjoying himself as he winked at Colby – assuming from his speculative glances under the table that his junior agent was about to dive for cover beneath it.

Feeling the strangest sense of déjà vu, Chin nudged his cousin, sharing her mischievous thoughts.

"Remind you of anyone?"

"We'll be sending them to naughty corners next," Kono agreed in a wisely self-preserving whisper – as grateful as her cousin was that Steve and Danny had been enjoying the other bout of brotherly bickering too much to hear them.

It was almost a shame to get back to business, but Steve knew he had to steer them back onto it.

"My sister thought she could see a pattern in that group," he said at last, pointing back at the screen.

"Yes, mathematical analysis generally falls into patterns," Charlie agreed, tapping out another set – warming to the passion of his life now as he swept Hiro Noshimuri's picture onto the plasma. "By using that, I can apply pursuit curve theory to identify your suspect's past actions, and predict his next move."

Between two proudly knowing grins, four other faces stared back at him in polite 'say what?' blankness – Danny the first to break the silence as he noticed that even SuperSEAL was trying to keep up.

"Hey, I'm right with you, Prof, but could you break it down for my friend here?"

Enjoying himself too much to be offended, and clearly used to this reaction, Charlie grinned too – glancing briefly back at the screen while his brain slid down several gears into 'mere mortal' mode. And it was Colby's turn now to offer some dryly mischievous advice as he pulled up a chair and sat down.

"You might want to get comfy, guys. Charlie-class is fun, but they're more comfortable when you're sitting down."

Pointedly ignoring his still grinning friend, Charlie took a deep breath and tried again.

"Okay, imagine Noshimuri as a school of fish, and yourselves as the shark that's hunting for him."

Not the most flattering comparison in the world, but at least he had everyone's attention now – well, aside from a muttered exchange about shark cages that he chose, very wisely, to ignore.

"Each fish is a piece of information about him. Who he knows, the places he goes to, his friends, who he works with, and so on."

Guessing now where this analogy was heading, Steve nodded and rose to his feet.

"And the more we know about him, the better chance we have to avoid any attack," he said at last, his eyes widening slightly, in genuine surprise, for what the young mathematician said next.

"Exactly. And you have a lot of data here already, Steve, but I need more. The more information I have, however trivial or unimportant it might seem, the more accurate my analysis will be."

Already nodding his agreement and understanding, Steve started to stride towards the door – still finding time, though, to smile and proudly squeeze Charlie's shoulder as he moved past him.

"Great job, Charlie. Okay, can you keep working here with Chin and Kono while we… uh… go fishing?" he asked, rolling his eyes as he led Don and Colby out, with his ever helpful partner hot on their heels.

"I hope you packed earplugs. Things tend to go boom when he's in this kind of mood."

Okay, no back-up from his current partner. And from his ex Army counterpart? Damn, no help there either.

"Things tend to go boom with him - period."