Begin mnemonic memory upload...
... Complete.

	"I need you to explain to Officer Careless over there why, when
we clear a room for CSI, we -look in the closet-," Brass growled.  "If I
try to explain it right now, my version might involve his -face- going
through a -door-."

<singsong>Somebody's in troooou-buullll.</singsong> :)

	Grissom looked up at the front of the building.  "The initial
call said the scene was on the fourth floor," he said.

Eh, watch out for that first step, Doc. It's a doozy!

	"I'm calling in -everybody-," Grissom said flatly.

Hoo boy. This is gonna be both interesting -and- a looong night!

	It also, mused Benjamin "Gryphon" Hutchins as he flew his
Valkyrie flat-out cross-country toward that city, had the interesting
distinction of having had nothing to do with him.  He hadn't planned it,
hadn't had a hand in its design or construction, and but rarely visited
it.  As such, he had only a vague idea where anything was in town.

Now that is an interesting distinction. But not something that I wasn't expecting to happen sooner or later. After all, there had to be other cities in the sphere as well, given how much real estate space you got.

	"Ooh," said Gryphon.  "I like it."

That's what everyone says when they see a Bentley. ;)

	"Will you be needing the supplemental insurance?" asked MATT as
he proffered a clipboard and pen.
	"I wish I could say no," Gryphon replied, taking both, "but
experience suggests otherwise."

Heh-heh-heh-heh. I'm willing to bet that, just becuase he took out that insurance, that it will be one of the few rentals in UF that does not get trashed.

	"What are you looking for?"
	"Science porn."
	Sara looked skeptical.  "... 'Science porn'."
	"That's what a friend of mine calls it.  It's... you know, TV
shows about science, but the production values are pretty much like
porn."  As he explained this, he found the Science Channel, which seemed
to be showing some program about the structure of stars, complete with
somewhat cheesy background music and a droning, soporific narrator.
"Aha!  See?  Science porn."

*Snrrrt!*

	"What the hell is -that-?" Greg wondered.
	"Ares Citymaster," Catherine replied.  "Urban riot-control
vehicle.  Very big in the Corporate Sector."
	"Not only that," said Grissom with interest, "that's the model
they make exclusively for the Zardon Justice Department."

Okay... Now why the heck would they need something that heavy-duty?

	"Ah.  Well, if you do, let us know," Greg said.  "'Scuse me, I
gotta go find Grissom.  Gonna be a long night."

Didn't I just say that a few minutes ago? ;)

	Gryphon gave a snort of wry laughter.  "Horatio.  Did I, or did
I not, give you everything you asked for to get you in this job?  I even
approved that... -thing- you brought with you for use as your official
vehicle, despite the fact that it doesn't match any of the others used
by CSI.  I can't tell you what the sight of the divisional parking deck
does to my inner obsessive-compulsive now."

Ah. That explains the monster truck.

	"No problem, though I don't know how you can call that thing a
car."
	"A truck has an open bed.  Can't help it, I'm old-fashioned."

Heh-heh-heh.

	"Do you have any idea," she asked, "why Nick would fail to
indicate a significant medical condition in his IPO employee medical
history?"
	Warrick blinked.  "Pardon?"
	"I'm violating the spirit, if not the letter, of doctor-patient
confidentiality just asking that much," Cameron admitted.  "If you don't
already know what I'm talking about... forget it."
	"... Okay."

Curiouser and curiouser...

	"Why wasn't I considered for Ecklie's job?" Catherine demanded.

And this would be the personnel management oversight the Chief made. I have to admit, though, that this was pretty subtle for me. I had no idea that Catherine had been in there for that long.

	"Well, Mr. Stokes," she said.  "You've had a narrow escape."
	"Yeah," he replied, his voice low and hoarse, throat dried by
the oxygen-rich mix he was breathing through his nasal cannule.  "Lucky
me... "
	"Oh, it was a little more than just luck," Cameron said.  "Look,
it's not my job to ask why there's nothing in your IPO medical history
about your Detianism, that's between you and HR."

WHAAAAAAT?

	Geoff said it first: "Who would know the details of that case
from four years ago?"

Cue the dramatic music!

Natalia sighed.  "Fine.  Have it your way - but if she's really
a graduate of the Red Room, you endanger anyone you have guarding her."
        "I... wouldn't worry too much about that, actually," said
Gryphon.
        (Downstairs in Interrogation A, Jackie Chan yawned, then offered
the sullenly glowering prisoner a cheerful smile, which was not
returned.)

This made me laugh my gleefully demented laugh. Thank you.

	"For a few years now, Skuld's been working on some special
equipment projects.  One of them was originally envisioned as the next
generation of the Lens, but the project's grown in scope a bit since
then."  With a slightly rueful chuckle, he added, "These things often
do."

<snip>

	Catherine looked at the source of the light, trying to make some
sense of what she was seeing, then asked, "... What is it?"
        "It's sort of... "  Gryphon trailed off, then tried again.
"Well, we designed the Space Force's next-generation warships so that
non-traditional personnel could operate them, and this is sort of the
same idea for Special Assignment-level agents.  We wanted something that
could make a normal person the equivalent of an Expert of Justice
without requiring the years of training, invasive augmentive procedures,
or both that are normally required.  It'll still take a very -special-
sort of agent to make it work, and that's by design, but all the
qualifications are mental and ethical, not physical or paranormal.
        "It's taken Skuld fifteen years to develop the basic principles,
though she's only been authorized to work on the actual hardware in
earnest since May."  He gestured into the vault.  "This is the
prototype.  Still incomplete, but you get the basic idea.  It'll be
ready for field testing in another four or five months."

No shit! The Green Lantern Corps? 8-O

	"So... wait.  You're saying this fish guy's accomplice is
someone with access to the evidence lockers?" said Brass.  "That doesn't
make any sense."
        "I think it does, Jim," Grissom replied with a troubled
expression.  "Too -much- sense."  He turned to Sara.  "Do the access
logs show who removed the money from lockup?"
        Sara shook her head.  "Whoever it was wasn't clumsy enough to
check it out by name.  My guess is that they went in with a legitimate,
or at least legitimate-looking, request and grabbed the money on the way
out.  It was in a duffel bag.  Would've been easy, if whoever did it had
the brass.  So to speak."
        Brass snorted.  "Yeah, I never -heard- that one before."
        "It gets even better," Greg chipped in as he emerged from the
layout room.  "There was a lot more than 30 grand in that duffel bag.  I
should know, I logged it myself.  -And-, our fish guy is supposed to
have swiped 150 pounds of this kolto stuff?"  Warrick nodded.  "Well,
there was only a hundred pounds of it in those ammo cans."
        "Which means Kelshar and his theoretical accomplice have enough
left to hire at least one more hitter if they want," said Brass.
        "The game's still on," Sara agreed.

Ho boy. Bad. Big bad. Way very bad things getting ready to happen.

	"... Anybody want to guess what -that- was about?" Greg
wondered.

Your guess is as good as mine, Greg.

                         Pimped Horatio's Ride
                             Janice Barlow

Hey Ard? Why do I get the sneaking suspicion that you would love to be a Five Inch Gun Technician? ;)

Black Aeronaut Technologies Creative aerospace solutions for the discerning spacer "To the commissary we should go," Yoda declared firmly. "News of this kind a danish requires."