Disclaimer: I obviously do not own CSI: NY. I just own my car, my laptop and my crazy muse who seems to want to write 4 different stories at a time. I also do own any characters that you do not recognize. You can borrow them if you ask permission first!

A/N: Okay. Thanks to everyone that read and reviewed! Here's the next chapter!!! Many thanks to Aphina and Axellia for the beta. I don't own the chapter title either. That belongs to Paramore.

Chapter 21.

Decode

Flack looked at Cory, understanding now why the blood had drained out of her face. "Cory? This mean something to you?"

Cory nodded her head. "Maybe," she bit out as she strode out of the room. She passed Mac and Danny, both of whom stepped back at the expression of rage etched on her face, and walked out the door and up to the super. "Can you describe Mr. Caspian to me?" she asked.

"Well, he's about five-eight, five-nine, black hair, spoke with an accent," the man informed her briefly.

Cory ground her teeth together as she withdrew a picture of Etienne from her breast pocket on her jacket, a picture that she was never without. "This him?"

The man nodded. "That's him."

Cory thanked him quickly and turned on her heel, barely containing her anger. As she walked back into the apartment, she looked at Lydia. "I'm leaving. You coming with me?"

Lydia was taken aback by her almost harsh tone. "Um, sure. You okay?"

Cory shook her head, her eyes glittering. "Nope, I'm about to have a long conversation with Alistair." She turned to Mac. "Can you get that computer to Adam? I want to know everything that is one it. Run it for DNA and fingerprints, too. Although, if it really was Etienne that left me that message, I doubt that he'll have left anything behind to be useful."

"Not a problem. What about the school shootings?"

Cory shrugged. "You can probably close that out on your end. Although I know that someone else was controlling them, I don't have the proof right now and all the evidence that we have right now, ties it back to my open case."

Mac shook his head. "I don't want to close it, yet. Maybe we can find something that'll help you out," he informed her, not wanting to turn yet another case over to the FBI.

Cory smiled. "Do what ya gotta do, but I don't know if you'll find anything."

"My call," Mac stated.

"Understood. You can reach me on my cell if anything comes up," she said as she and Lydia turned to leave. "Danny? I have no idea of what time I'll be home. Stay safe."

"You, too. Try to keep some perspective," Danny said softly as he watched her leave.

After she'd left, Danny turned to Mac. "I think that this is going to be the death of her. I swear if I ever run across this Etienne guy, I may kill him for the shit that he's putting her through."

Mac patted Danny on the shoulder. "She'll be okay. She's a strong and determined woman, so in the end, she's gonna get him. Why don't you bag the computer and I'll start fingerprinting the place."

"You got it, boss," Danny said as he walked back into the bedroom.

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Lydia wisely didn't say anything until they were almost back to the office. "What do you want me to do, Cory?" she finally asked.

Cory sighed, she'd been planning things out in her head. "First, I'll give you a list of all the known aliases of Etienne and I want you to run them. Airports, bus stations, train stations, car rentals. The works. This guy has been in the city, within throwing distance from me for at least six months. I want answers. I want to find him. At least get a record of when he entered the country." She looked at the other woman, grateful for her understanding. "I swear, I'm going to stay on the phone with London until Alistair answers the phone."

Lydia looked at her. "Would it help if I tried to get him on the phone?"

Cory exhaled. "Honestly, I have no idea. He's been avoiding me since I found out that he knew who Etienne was and I don't know why. I just want answers and help. If this guy is as connected as I suspect, then it's going to take both of us to bring him and whatever organization that he works for down."

"You could be right. So my question is, why get the teens to shoot up a school?"

"I have no clue. It doesn't fit in with what I know about him, but I know absolutely nothing of his organization, so maybe it's part of a grander scheme," Cory mused, thinking about her terrible vision of the destruction of New York and the ones that she loved that lived there. God, I hope to hell that that is not connected.

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When Mac and Danny got back to the lab, they immediately handed the computer over to Adam. Mac looked at him seriously. "I want to know everything that was ever viewed or typed on this computer and I need it yesterday," he instructed.

"On it, boss," Adam returned, still full of energy from his two Monster's earlier in the day. He went to work on it, scanning the email and browser history, unsurprised to see emails from all three of the school shooters on there. While he was reading the emails, the earliest dating to three years prior, he wondered over the evolution of the students. The emails started out with them being very cautious, but over the course of the three years, they grew increasingly fanatical. The last entries comprised of a manifesto of what was wrong with America and why it needed to be cleansed.

Shaking his head, he then pulled up the browser history, finding a list of schools for weapons training. Intrigued, he made a note to see if any of the students had attended the training courses, but thought it was unlikely since he knew that they had to be eighteen enroll.

He grew increasingly disturbed when he opened up a Word document that outlined how exactly to bring down America, but using the economy. Shaking his head, most of the financial lingo was over his head, but he understood enough that he knew that someone was planning a massive attack on Wall Street, since the document clearly stated that capitalism needed to be eliminated.

A feeling of trepidation rose in his stomach, as he clicked the link in the file. A spreadsheet opened up, but was password protected. He quickly ran a program to try to break the code, but realized that it could take a couple of hours, depending on the level of encryption. Needless to say, he was very surprised when within a few moments, he had cracked the code. That was too easy, he thought to himself, but opened the document. Within moments of seeing the document, he realized that it was out of his league, and decided to email it to Cory. Knowing that with her background in forensic accounting, she could probably decipher it.

He was attaching the document in an email when Mac walked in. "Find anything?" he asked.

Adam nodded his head. "Yeah, I did. It looks like all of the emails between the three students went through this one point. I can't tell by the emails, but I don't think that the three of them ever met in person. The emails start off innocently, but by the end of them, they keep repeating that America needs to be cleansed of the anarchy of capitalism. There are a couple of financial document that I can't make heads or tails of, so I'm sending those to Cory to see if she can work it out."

"Is there anything specifically tying these shooters to Etienne?" Mac queried.

"A couple of the later emails thank him for bringing the problems to light and for keeping them from being corrupted by the system, but that's all. One thing though. This was the easiest encryption that I've ever broken. Seriously, Mac, a five year old could do a better encryption."

Mac pondered that for a moment. "So, what do you think?"

"I think we were meant to see this. From what I've gleamed from you, Danny and Cory on this guy, he's way to smart to leave information about this on his hard drive, knowing that it was going straight into the hands of the FBI."

"I agree. Send that over to Cory and put your surmise in there, too. She'll appreciate your thoughts."

"Will do. I'll keep investigating this and see if I can find any files that he was truly trying to hide," Adam remarked as he quickly typing in his email to Cory and hit the send button. Settling back in his chair, he knew that he was in for a long night.

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By the time that Cory had been on hold for Alistair for close to an hour, Lydia was done with her research into Etienne's aliases. She grabbed her notepad and walked into Cory's office. "Hey, I found something, but I don't know if it's going to help at all."

Cory motioned for her to come in and close the door. Pushing the speaker on her phone, she laid down the handset and nodded. "What'd you find?"

"Three plane tickets in his aliases. One to Vancouver, one to Paris and one to China. All three of them were scheduled to leave earlier today. So, I called the airlines and all three of them were no shows."

Cory sighed. "So, he's still in New York?"

Lydia shook her head. "I don't think so. There were also a couple of train tickets, but there is no way to track those. He could have given them to anyone to use. A lot less security there."

"Options?" Cory asked her, wanting to see exactly what Lydia had up her sleeve.

Lydia smiled. "I already sent people to the station to see if they can ID who picked up the tickets, but I don't expect anything back yet. Anything with Alistair?"

Cory shook her head. "I'm on eternal hold. I've even tried calling his boss, to no avail. I'm at the end of my rope with him. I'm just, done." She was about to say more when a British voice picked up the phone. Cory mouthed thank god before speaking, "Yes, I need to speak to Alistair Murphy, please. This is a matter of extreme importance."

"May I ask who is calling?" the woman responded.

Cory glanced at Lydia before smiling. "Special Agent Lydia Sanchez with the FBI," she lied smoothly.

"Thank you. I'm connecting you now," the woman said.

The phone rang a few times before it was picked up. "Agent Sanchez, to what do I owe this pleasure?" Alistair answered.

"Try Agent Reid, Alistair. You've been avoiding me and I want answers," Cory said calmly. There was no response. "Alistair? Please, I need your help. Etienne is planning something and has somehow managed to brainwash three really good kids into committing murder and somehow, I think you might know something that will help. Please, just talk to me," she begged.

The only response she got was a dial tone.

"That's it," she ground out between gritted teeth. "This has gone on way too long. I don't give a rat's ass what his reasoning is, but I've tried being nice. I've tried waiting, this ends now." Cory picked up the phone again and quickly scheduled a flight to London. "I leave in four hours. That gives me enough time to go home and pack. Can you handle things here for me?" she asked Lydia as she started gathering up her things.

"Of course. Do what you have to do, Cory. I'll handle things here until you get back," Lydia assured her.

Cory smiled gratefully. "Thanks. I'll owe you one." With that Cory left her office, the only thing on her mind was how to get the answers she so desperately needed.

AN: Okay. So I totally wanted to update this on Friday, but my internet at home is on the fritz! Just an FYI....Lindsay gives birth in chapter 23, so if you haven't voted on the sex of the baby, you have a couple of more chapters to vote!

BEG - I'm glad the little guy's health is improving. :p I'm glad you are following things! Hopefully, I'll be back online as soon as I get my internet fixed!

Soccer - Sorry it wasn't sooner! But here you go!

Maddy - I love seeing Adam ganked out on an Energy Drink. He's always hyper anyway and this will just make him worse! I loved the end of the chapter, too. It makes so much sense when you read the beginning of this one! :p