AN: I don't own any of the CSI:NY Characters or any of the show's storylines that I may refer to from time to time, but the rest of the plot is mine.

9. Cargo Ships and Bus Terminals

Next morning Stella and Danny were in the AV lab with Adam. Now they had found the encryption key Adam had been up all night decoding the data, which they were now reviewing.

"Looks like the op was paying off, big time, Mark had everything ... what's this file?" Stella asked looking at the screen. They took a closer look, Danny commented that it was just a date. "And time, guys this is for tonight." Adam added.

"What could it mean though, what are those numbers?" asked Stella, clearly frustrated again as they hit another block.

Danny thought through the case quickly. "Laura said yesterday that they were working on human trafficking, Asian girls being brought in for prostitution right? ... How are they most likely to bring them in without detection?"

Stella's eyes lit up and she smiled. "Cargo ship! They could be container numbers. Adam can you run those numbers see if they are already here?"

Adam looked at her. "Sure but my guess is they are the ones coming in tonight, why else link them with the date."

Laura entered talking on the phone, sounding like she was making arrangements to meet someone, when she hung up she looked at the trio and told them it was one of their agents working with the gangs. Stella noted she looked a lot better and asked "Flack look after you?"

Laura smiled. "I guess, I slept for 12 hours! What have you got?"

Stella explained their theory and asked if Laura's undercover agent would know anything. Laura said he might, as he'd asked to meet her at Port Authority. Stella advised her to take Don with her as he entered the room.

Laura looked at Stella, knowing what Don's reaction would be "He wants me to go alone." As expected Don wasn't happy "You are not going anywhere alone until this is solved." Laura turned to him "I have to or he wont meet if anyone is with me."

Don conceded that she could be right, he didn't like the idea. "We'll fit you with a wire, we'll keep our distance." She looked at him, he raised his eyes at her. She knew he wouldn't back down and if she didn't agree he wouldn't let her go. She sighed. "OK you'd better make it good, I'm going undercover." He stared back at her. "Right now our priority is keeping you from being their next target."

They stared at each other for a minute their eyes communicating how each of them felt to the other like a secret language, then Laura tore her gaze away from Don and rounded on Adam. "Have you got everything off the memory stick now?"

Adam confirmed that he was almost done, but there was still one folder he hadn't been able to access but he would continue to work on it. Laura looked at him, he felt like her eyes were firing daggers at him as she spoke. "You need those files, you have to crack that code."

Before anyone could question her she walked out. Adam looked at Stella "I'll work on it, let you know what I find."

Just over an hour later Don was in the security control room at Port Authority directing the operation, he was following Laura on camera through the concourse. She was dressed in her undercover clothes from the previous day. Everyone was put on standby as she approached a man at the agreed meeting point. As Laura approached he turned and went through the boarding gate, Laura followed, but there was no camera so after checking with the assembled team if anyone could see them Don left the room and headed for the gate and carefully followed them into the corridor beyond the door, advising his team where he was.

He paused as his earpiece crackled and he heard Laura's voice greet the agent.

"Lose the wire Kat, my boss wants a word, I'm bringing you in." The agent told her. Don's stomach flipped and began tying itself in knots as he continued to listen to the exchange. Laura was calm, "What have you got for me?." Don could hear her take a deep breath as she waited for an answer, he knew she was nervous.

Finally the agent broke the silence. "Not that easy Kat, you saw what happened to Marshall, the man wants to see you, he sees you as the key to the whole op, I'm dead if I go back without you." Don fought to stay calm, he had to trust Laura to know what she was doing "Charlie, we're both dead if you take me"

"Then either way I'm screwed, I'm sorry about this but I have to try and protect my ass" he told her.

"Charlie, don't do this ... I am not going to do this, If Kwan wants a meet so bad he can do it on my terms." Laura tried to reason with him. Don didn't like the sound of what was happening, but he knew they didn't have the information they needed.

"Not an option Kat you know that, now drop your purse in that trashcan and lose the wire or I'll do it for you!"

There were sounds of a scuffle an a muted scream, an officer shouted into the radio "Flack we just lost the wire, her phone GPS too." Don felt his heart pound in his chest he fought the panic rising in him gasped and yelled into the radio "Move in now!" He pushed the door to the gate and entered the bus garage.

Two buses were just leaving, no sign of anyone other than port authority workers in uniform. While he pulled his badge from his belt he held the radio up "Two buses just leaving I want them stopped and get CSI down here now!" Holding up his badge he called to the workers "NYPD, any one just see a man and a woman out here?" They claimed not to have noticed who boarded the bus. Don asked where the bus was going. They told him.

Holding his radio in a shaking hand he tightened his grip as he yelled into it. "This is Flack, I want the schedules for all buses out of the south terminal which have left in the last 15 minutes and stop the one from 212 to Atlantic city before it gets to the tunnel!"

Two uniformed officers appeared and he turned on them. "No-one moves from here until this area has been cleared and CSI have finished. Understood?"

When they agreed Don went back into the corridor and found the trashcan as Danny and Stella arrived. He looked at them hardly able to contain the numerous different emotions racing through him. Stella asked what happened.

"He got the wire and her purse ... He took her Stell, right under our damn noses he took her!" He yelled.