"Good evening, ladies. I’m so sorry to interrupt your vacation." He shifted his gaze to Joe and smirked. "Run into a little trouble?" he observed, taking in Joe’s slightly pained expression, as he lay stretched out on the couch.

"If you call being used as a punching bag running into a little trouble, then yeah, I did," Joe replied dryly, absently rubbing his sore stomach. He grinned to himself, noting the way Vanessa had stiffened at Gray’s callous teasing. ‘Better watch yourself, Gray,’ he thought glancing from Vanessa to their guest. ‘She’s still in protective mode. All fired up with no one to take out her anger on.’ Joe bit back a smile, thinking a tongue lashing from Vanessa would bring Arthur Gray down a notch or two. ‘…or ten.’

"And why do I get the feeling you know exactly why our new friends found it necessary to use Joe for boxing practice," Frank mused, interrupting Joe’s fantasy. Crossing his arms over his chest, Frank leveled a piercing stare at the Gray Man.

"That’s on a need to know basis and you don’t need to know," he replied moving towards the computer.

While Arthur Gray was fast, Frank was a little faster. "Guess again," he snapped, folding down the laptop and standing in front of it, before Gray could touch it. "Those two goons kidnapped my brother, beat him up and left both of us to die in a burning cabin," Frank snarled, his eyes flashing with anger. "If you think you’re going to get anywhere near this computer, then I need to know."

"When did he develop such a temper?" Gray asked looking at Joe.

"I’ve been coaching him," Joe retorted. "And you know what a perfectionist he is when he’s learning a new skill. I wouldn’t challenge him if I were you," Joe couldn’t resist taunting the Network agent.

"Fine," Gray said, looking pointedly at Callie and Vanessa, who glared back at him.

"They stay," Joe shot down his silent request for the girls to leave the room.

Arthur Gray sighed, suddenly reminded why he didn’t always welcome the Hardys’ help on Network cases. "May I?" he asked Frank’s permission, before taking a seat in the desk chair.

Frank nodded once, but remained silent, still blocking Gray’s access to the computer.

"I’m not sure I like this new side of you," Gray muttered, slightly uneasy at Frank’s brooding silence.

"Tough. Start talking," Frank ordered.

"The Department of Defense has recently added a new…tool… to its defense arsenal. It’s still in the experimental stage, and may not be ready to unveil for years. But once all the kinks are worked out, it could make waging war against our armed forces an effort in futility."

"Sounds like something off the SciFi channel," Joe cracked.

"Don’t laugh," Gray cautioned. "We have the best scientific minds in the world; you’d be amazed at the things they’re working on."

"Right now I only care about the thing that almost got us killed," Frank interrupted, determined to find out exactly what was going on.

"It’s a new alloy," Gray answered.

"An alloy?" Frank stared at him in disbelief. "We almost got burned to a crisp over a…a… piece of metal?!"

"It’s a very special piece of metal, Frank. The R&D people at the DoD have been able to create a new alloy that can block anything – bombs, rockets, grenades, surface-to-air missiles…you name it," Gray explained, hiding a smile at the confused looks being exchanged between Callie and Vanessa at the acronyms. "It’s still in the early stages of development but so far it’s been virtually impenetrable."

"Hold on," Joe shook his head, skeptically. "You expect us to believe they’ve created some kind of material that can cover an F-16? Or a stealth bomber?"

"Sort of," Gray replied. "As I said, it’s still in the experimental stage. It will take years of testing to determine if it’s even feasible to use it in that manner. It may turn out to be prohibitively expensive, or too heavy to use on aircraft carriers or fighter jets and the whole project may have to be terminated. However, if the tests have positive results, it’s hoped that this alloy could be used to actually build the F-16’s, the stealth bombers, etcetera."

Frank listened and rubbed his chin thoughtfully. He’d learned long ago to not to question anything the Gray Man said and simply accept it as fact, no matter how far-fetched it seemed. Something Joe still had trouble with on occasion, this apparently being one of them. He noticed Callie and Vanessa both seemed to share Joe’s skepticism.

"Once word got out about it, no one in the world would dare challenge the U.S. Military again. It would be suicide," Frank observed.

"Right," Gray confirmed.

"But apparently word has already gotten out?" Frank guessed. "And possibly the formula along with it?"

"Unfortunately, not everyone is immune to the lure of easy money," he answered somewhat cryptically, "no matter how high their security clearance." He pulled out his wallet and removed a picture, handing it to Frank. "She worked in R&D. Somehow word of the project leaked out and she was approached by foreign interests."

"Look familiar?" Frank asked holding the photo out for Joe to see.

"Man, you can’t trust anybody these days," he snorted, looking at the pretty young woman who’d fallen into him three days earlier at the lodge, starting the whole chain of events. "So where is she now? In custody?"

"No. She hasn’t checked out of the lodge but she hasn’t been seen in three days either. My guess is she’s dead," Gray told them as easily as if he were relating the latest weather report.

Callie looked at Vanessa and shook her head in disbelief at Gray’s obvious indifference to the young woman’s probable demise.

"Apparently, she agreed to sell it to the gentlemen you met today for three million dollars," Gray continued nonchalantly. "Sometime after that, she was approached by another interested party who offered her five million."

"A bidding war," Frank stated, disgustedly.

"Right. She arranged to meet the highest bidders here but the people who originally contacted her got wind of it," he continued the story. "She recognized them in the lobby the same day you were checking in. As usual, you two just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time," Gray said acerbically.

"Yeah, we have a knack for that," Joe agreed a little too cheerfully for Frank’s liking.

"She saw your case looked exactly like hers," Gray nodded at the black case lying on the floor next to the desk. "She purposely bumped into you," he glanced at Joe, "and switched the cases. That night she transferred the plans from her computer to yours and returned it to you the next day. She intended to turn her computer over to the first bidders, banking on the fact that they’d take it and leave. Since they were just couriers, she knew they wouldn’t really be able to tell if the program was on there or not.

"Then she was planned to seduce you and convince you to bring her back here for a tryst," Gray focused on Joe again, interrupted by Vanessa’s snort of "Over my dead body."

"After your little rendezvous, she planned to take the computer on her way out. If that failed," he said diplomatically, hiding a smile at Vanessa’s reaction, "she planned to break in here and simply steal the computer, then turn it over to the higher bidders. Unfortunately, when her original buyers saw her switch the computers the day you checked in, they assumed you were her contact," he nodded at Joe.

"That’s why they grabbed me and the computer," he surmised. "They figured I could find the file and give it to them. Once they knew they had the real thing, they could kill me and take it back to their superiors – and save three million dollars in the process."

"You don’t have to sound so blasé about it," Vanessa frowned at him, still rather miffed that this woman thought she could lure Joe away from her so easily.

"All in a day’s work, Babe," Joe winked.

"You’re supposed to be on vacation," Vanessa reminded him tersely.

"Wait a minute, how do you know she didn’t copy this program and hide it somewhere, just in case? As insurance," Callie finally spoke up, having digested all the information. "Or to sell it to someone else later on."

"She couldn’t," Gray said simply. "Safety feature. The file can be transferred from one computer to another or onto a disc, but it can’t be copied."

"So the one on my computer is the only one in existence?" Frank asked, dumbfounded.

"Well…yes," Gray answered, embarrassed. Turning to face the elder Hardy, he pulled a disc out of his pocket. "So now you know why it’s imperative I get it back…now."

Frank stepped out of the way, finally allowing the Gray Man access to the laptop. "I have one little question," Frank stated, as he watched Gray search for the file in question. "Once the bad guys realize I gave them nothing but my expense reports for all of last year and that Joe and I are still alive, what’s to stop them from coming back here to get what they want?"

Watching over the older man’s shoulder, Frank saw why he couldn’t find the file. When it had been transferred to his computer, the file extension had been ‘hidden’, making it impossible for him to find it no matter how hard he searched.

"We’ll leak it out through our informants that the program has been successfully recovered by the DoD. Since they know there is only one copy and it’s now back in government hands, they’ll realize there’s nothing you can do for them." With a grunt of satisfaction, he closed the file and pressed a button to pop the disc out of the computer. As he reached for it, Frank’s hand flashed out, snatching the disc from his grasp.

"What do you think you’re doing?" Gray demanded, angrily.

"Bargaining," Frank replied, firmly. "How can we get in touch with you…just in case."

"There won’t be any ‘just in case’," Gray insisted, holding out his hand for the disc. "So you won’t need to get in touch with me. I just told you I’d let it leak out that we recovered the disc…tonight. Don’t you trust me?"

Joe rolled his eyes and snorted in reply. Frank glanced from his brother to the Gray Man. "Does that answer your question?" he smiled icily. "Now what’s your cell phone number… and I do mean yours, not your secretary’s."

"I think I liked you both a whole lot better when you were still in awe of me and never questioned my orders," Gray sighed.

"Just for the record, we were never in awe of you," Joe informed him, ignoring the dirty look Gray threw his way. "And we never questioned your orders because we were too busy ignoring them."

"He’s really starting to work my nerves," Vanessa muttered under her breath.

"You wanna go a couple rounds with him?" Joe teased.

"Can I?" Vanessa grinned.

"Van, is your cell phone handy?" Frank asked, interrupting their teasing.

"Right here," Vanessa pulled it out of her purse.

"Dial this number…202-555-8618," Frank requested, repeating the number the Gray Man had given him.

"This is unbelievable," Gray muttered, pulling out his cell phone in anticipation of the call; several seconds later the phone chirped. "Hello?" he answered, smirking at Frank.

"Hi, I’d like to order a pizza," Vanessa deadpanned. "And I’d like it delivered."

Snapping the phone shut and shoving it in his pocket, Gray turned and glared at Joe. "She’s perfect for you."

"I know," Joe grinned, high-fiving Vanessa.

"Are you satisfied?" Gray asked, returning his attention to Frank.

"I suppose," Frank said warily, finally turning over the disc.

Pocketing the top-secret information, the Gray Man looked from Frank to Joe. "As always, it’s been a pleasure," he remarked dryly.

"Easy for you to say," Joe winced, pushing himself to a sitting position.

"Just make sure that information gets leaked tonight," Frank demanded as he accompanied the Gray Man to the door. "I don’t want a repeat performance of what happened today. I mean we are here on vacation."

"It’ll be out in the pipeline before midnight," Gray assured him and then turned to Vanessa and Callie. "Ladies, enjoy the rest of your vacation. Goodnight."