Grissom Montag leaned back in his chair, almost leering at the surveillance tapes from First Bank of Melbourne. It was a skill that the thief had become quite good at since he took to the right side of the law as the CEO of Sandcrawler Security. And, of course, knowing how to get through the circles, getting ahold of the security tapes was not a problem either.
"What do we know?" Phil said, closing the door behind him.
"Well, it's obviously not our RoboSquirrel..." Grissom said, "but that's pretty obvious."
"How so?" the Unidentified Man said, pulling up a chair behind the Sandcrawler.
"Well, there are definitely some subtle differences here," Grissom said, 'porting the remote into his hand and pausing the tape. "Look at the nose," Griss said, pointing at the display screen.
Phil smirked a bit. "Heh. It's a bit longer..."
"Sure is," Grissom nodded. "Legs are a bit off too."
"So... what now?" Phil asked. "What are our options?"
"We're looking at two possibilities. One..." Grissom pointed at Phil expectantly.
"RoboSquirrel's creator really designed him for some criminal purpose."
"Or...?" Grissom said, holding up one finger.
"Or someone's stolen the blueprints and started making their own robotic rodent robbers," Phil said, leaning back in his chair and resting the back of his head on his hands.
"Well done, Mr. Smith," Grissom said, holding up a second finger. "Nice alliteration too, by the way."
"Thanks, Griss..." Phil said, smiling, "but it's not that hard to guess your hypotheses when you're screaming them inside your head at the top of your lungs."
Grissom's smile faded into a mischievous smirk as he glared at Smith. "Guess I'll have to work on my subtly, then, eh?"
"Guess so," Phil chuckled. "Where do you propose we go from here?"
"Well, until we know which of our hypotheses is the right one, we have no way of knowing which avenue to pursue," Grissom answered, running his hand over his head. "Personally, I'd recommend looking into the guy who invented RoboSquirrel. What was his name again?"
"Uh... Sharpe," Phil said, snapping his fingers. "Galileo Sharpe."
"Right," Grissom said, pointing to Phil. "Leslie still around?"
"Somewhere..." Phil answered.
"Get her out to Melbourne to survey the crime scene," Grissom said. "I want a professional opinion from someone we can trust before we go about getting involved."
"Good idea," Phil said. "And the rest of us?"
"That's the kicker," Grissom said. "Personally, I'd like to find out more about Dr. Sharpe. I'll hit the underground networks, see what I can find out, based on RoboSquirrel's description."
"And... the rest of us?" Phil said, holding out his hands, waiting for something for to do.
"Keep monitoring the news networks," Grissom said. "All of 'em. CNN, ABC, NBC, Yahoo... if they have a news outlet, make use of it. Do web searches for anything you can find on a robotic squirrel. If you have to put in a call to Xyber..."
"Xyber?" Phil asked, cocking his head to the side. "Wasn't she with Project Omicron?"
"Was being the operative word, Philsy," Griss said, scribbling an e-mail address on a piece of scrap paper and handing it to Phil. "She does freelance work now... nothing a rich guy like you wouldn't be able to afford."
"Fair enough," Phil said, nodding.
"Get Bri to help you," he said. "You may have to teach her to point-and-click, but otherwise, she'll be fine."
"Oh, is that all," Phil said, rolling his eyes. "What about Ben and the newbies?"
Griss shook his head. "I'm not sure," he confessed. "All I know is, I want someone to keep an eye on RoboSquirrel. I don't want him too heavily involved in this until we get a feel for what's happening for sure."
"So, have Brute Force and Tiberius keep RoboSquirrel occupied," Phil shrugged.
"More or less," Grissom said. "Though putting them all together like that really seems like the blind leading the blind... but what other choice do we have?"
"Yeah... I guess so."
"Granted, I'm not too fond of that mechanical misfit, but I honestly wouldn't think him a thief..."
"Who's the master of alliteration now?" Phil said, pointing slyly at Griss.
"Shut up, Phil," Grissom said, shaking his head as he rewound the tape and began watching it again...
