Grissom shook his head and sighed. He'd just heard the whole sad story as told by Kit Piper of the gambling debts he'd incurred with a Mafioso named Gambini, and of the ensuing kidnapping of his two young daughters and his ex-wife, as well as Kit's embezzlement of both MBL Consulting's and the Hero Revolution Fund's money. So much for all the grand plans the team had -- from what Kit told him, the team was broke. And not only that, it was in debt for a quarter of a million dollars with all the bills they'd racked up since the hurricane and the ambitious rebuilding projects. What were they going to do now?

"H-help me, Griss!" Kit Piper shouted at the Englishman, pulling at his shirt in desperation. "You gotta help me get my daughters back somehow!" He broke away, unable to speak any longer. Grissom looked away, unable to see a grown man cry like this.

"Look, mate, you don't need me t' tell you that you're in a heap of trouble -- I'm sure you're well aware o' that fact -- but from what you've told me, it may be difficult to track down your daughters and save both of them. As you were told, if one is saved and the other isn't saved at the same time, the one still in captivity will be killed. To start with, we don't even know where they are."

"There's gotta be a way," Kit said. "There's gotta be a way..." He closed his eyes as he started to bawl again, but then he suddenly stopped. "Hey, waitasec," he said, opening his eyes again, and looking around quickly as if in thought. "Yeah... yeah... I think I know a way..."

"What is it, old man?"

"Lemme find those papers," Kit said, frantically searching around his cluttered desk. "Dammit, where are they?"

"Tell me, Kit! What are you thinking?"

"Remember the meeting this morning? When I told the team about the control of BountyLand Foods reverting to its previous ownership?"

"Well... yeah -- sort of."

"That Mr. Vandemar guy said something about our team being under surveillance for a few months."

"Oh?" Grissom said, an eyebrow raising in sudden interest.

"Yeah, it was before you started setting up those nifty new security measures."

"Right, right," Grissom replied, grinning. "So did he give any names?"

"Gah! Can't remember. Something that started with 'G' -- sort of like your name, but different."

Grissom was quiet for a moment as his mind turned over. He looked at Kit and said seriously, "It wasn't 'Griffin', was it?"

"Yeah! That's right! How'd you guess?"

Grissom sighed deeply. "If there's anyone qualified for this kind of work without getting noticed, it's Griffin."

"You know him?"

"Sort of. We had an... incident... a while back. Bastard left me in quite a predicament a few years ago. But yeah, I see where you're going with this, Kit. He's a professional. Well qualified for this kind of job. But he's expensive. Very, very expensive."

"Dammit."

"Well... I guess I could lend you the capital..."

"Really?" Kit said, his eyes lighting up.

"...after all, these are your daughters we're talking about. And I have been looking forward to seeing Griffin again..." He smiled a wicked smile as his knuckles went white.

"If I can get ahold of this Vandemar guy, I might be able to get in contact with him or something. Maybe we could hire him to find out where my daughters are being kept so we can get them out at the same time."

"Maybe... maybe. But I wouldn't trust him to do the actual rescue. Trust me, mate -- he's not really anyone you'd want around children..."