"Do you remember Gray’s number, by any chance?" he asked Vanessa who was seated next to him.

"Don’t have to," she answered mysteriously.

Standing, Vanessa walked to the counter and opened her purse. She rummaged around in it for a moment, pulled something out and returned to Joe’s side. Smiling, she pressed a button and held up her cell phone. The display showed the last number dialed – Arthur Gray’s cell phone.

Joe grinned and gave her a quick peck on the cheek. "Okay we need to come up with a way to get him back here."

"Just tell him the truth," Vanessa said, slightly confused. "I mean Frank got the file back for him and Callie is his wife. She’s just an innocent victim. He owes Frank – and you! How can he not help?"

"Because he’s the Gray Man. He’s got no heart and no conscience. He’d never feel obligated to us for anything," Joe wrinkled his nose in disgust. "He’d say he was sorry about Callie but she’s a necessary casualty. Sometimes you must sacrifice one to save many," Joe repeated the words Gray lived by – words Joe would never understand or agree with.

Vanessa stared at him in disbelief.

"He’d sacrifice his own mother for the cause," Joe muttered with disdain.

Vanessa’s disbelief quickly turned to anger. "Well if he thinks he’s going to sacrifice Callie, he’s in for a rude awakening!" She leaned forward, the anger fueling her determination. "So we need to come up with a way to get him here…and we need to figure out what we can give these guys in exchange for Callie."

Joe rested his chin in his hand, smiling as he watched and listened to Vanessa. The intensity – and excitement – in her voice reminded him of himself.

Now standing, Vanessa paced the small area in front of the table, waving her hands animatedly as she spoke. "Whatever we come up with has to be good – really good. Frank already fooled them once. Whatever we give them this time will be gone over with a fine-toothed comb."

‘We,’ Joe thought, smiling as he continued watching her frenzied pacing. ‘She keeps saying we…I like that.’

"I’ve got it!" Vanessa suddenly cried out. She pulled up a chair close to Joe and sat down facing him, her eyes gleaming. "We’ll assume these guys know the file is supposed to have some kind of formula and maybe some plans or schematics. Otherwise how would they know what Frank gave them was wrong?"

"Mm-hmm," Joe nodded. Vanessa seemed to be on a roll and he didn’t want to disrupt her train of thought.

"But they don’t know exactly what the formula is, what the plans should look like – the specifics. If they knew that, they wouldn’t need the file, right?" She looked at Joe expectantly but didn’t wait for an answer, plunging ahead full steam. "If we can get Gray to bring the disc back, I can look at it and create a new file that looks exactly the same – but I’ll insert random numbers, change letters, transpose digits…they’ll never know it’s a fake until they get back to wherever they came from and start working on it!"

As Joe listened, he felt the butterflies in his stomach start to flutter. He sat up a little straighter and his heart started to beat a little faster as the adrenaline rush began. ‘I think she’s onto something!’

"Gray said this whole thing is still in the experimental stages, so they wouldn’t be too surprised if it didn’t work – at least initially. It could take weeks, months – even longer – before they figured out all they’ve got is a bunch of useless formulas!" Vanessa finally stopped, breathless and excited, waiting for Joe’s response.

Joe looked at her for a moment. Suddenly he jumped up and scooped Vanessa up in his arms, kissing her enthusiastically. "You’re not only beautiful, you’re brilliant, too!" Joe exclaimed proudly, still holding her tightly.

Vanessa practically glowed, thrilled by Joe’s praise and returned the kiss. Reluctantly, she pulled back and looked in his eyes. "We still need to figure out how to get Gray here – and have him bring the disc."

Joe nodded in agreement. "I think it’s time we got Frank involved. Be right back." He stole one more kiss and then headed for the stairs.

*****

Frank stared at the slowly dying flames in the fireplace, trying to keep his hopes from dying too. He wanted to ask Joe for help; he had even gotten as far as opening the door – once – but the words always stopped him…

Frank kept telling himself, over and over, he could do this alone. Maybe if he repeated it enough times, he’d actually start to believe it. But with no disc and a couple of wild ideas that couldn’t even qualify as a ‘plan’, the little voice in his head told Frank that if he insisted on proceeding alone, both he and Callie would probably be dead by the end of the day.

A persistent knock on the door ended that morbid thought. Knowing it was Joe and that he’d simply let himself in if Frank didn’t respond, Frank rose and walked across the room. Pulling the door open, he saw Joe staring back at him with a mixture of concern and…excitement? Not having the inclination or the energy to try to guess what his brother was thinking, Frank simply stepped aside, silently inviting Joe to enter.

"Listen, Frank, I know…" Joe began.

"No," Frank said, his voice quiet but firm.

"You don’t even know what I was going to say!" Joe protested.

"You were going to say I can’t do this alone and I have to let you help me," Frank responded tiredly, sinking onto the couch. "And the answer is still no."

Joe watched as Frank closed his eyes and leaned his head back, running a hand through his dark hair. Joe thought for a moment, trying to come up with a convincing argument, drawing a complete blank.

‘Ah, hell, I’ll just wing it,’ Joe decided. ‘That’s always worked before…most of the time anyway…’

Joe flopped into a chair next to the couch. He leaned forward and stared at Frank intently. "Okay. Fine. You go alone," Joe agreed. "Now tell me about your plan. At least I can help with that."

Frank looked up at him nervously. "My…plan?"

"Yeah. Your plan," Joe pressed. "You know – details. What are you going to use to exchange for Callie? How are you going to get her – and yourself - out of there in one piece? What are you going to do if they’ve brought in reinforcements? What if they don’t bring Callie to the exchange? How will you find out where she is and what will you do then?" Joe rattled off question after question.

"Uh…well…I…I don’t exactly have all the details worked out yet," Frank stammered, avoiding Joe’s gaze.

"Okay, what do you have worked out?"

Joe was met with silence. "Frank…you do have a plan…don’t you?" When the silence continued, Joe eyed his brother warily.

"Oh, don’t tell me you were planning on showing up empty handed, hoping to be struck with inspiration!" Joe declared.

Frank looked at Joe sheepishly and bowed his head.

Joe’s eyes widened in surprise when he realized that was indeed what Frank had in mind. "Oh, jeez, now you’re starting to think like me!" Joe lamented. "And let me tell you that is very scary!"

Joe sighed and softened his tone at the despair on his brother’s face. "Come on, Frank, think about it. They’ll probably have reinforcements by now. You’ll never be able to get her out of there by yourself. If you try it, you’ll both end up dead…and then who would bail me out next time I got in over my head?" Joe tried a little levity. Leaning forward, he put a hand on Frank’s shoulder. "Listen, leave the ridiculously impossible, spur-of-the-moment, risk taking stuff to me, huh? It’s my specialty." Joe smiled when Frank grunted in agreement.

"You know when Van was missing, I gladly accepted help from you and Dad, even though I was told to go alone," Joe reminded him. "And you didn’t let me down. I won’t let you down either. Please…let me help," he finished quietly.

‘Joe didn’t think twice about letting Dad and I help,’ Frank thought, staring into the fire. ‘He never doubted us for a second. He knew we’d never do anything to jeopardize Vanessa.’ Frank finally looked up and saw hope – and an offer of help – in his brother’s blue eyes.

"How did you do it, Joe?" Frank asked softly. "When Vanessa was hurt…or missing…how did you keep it together?"

Joe stared at Frank intently as he answered. "I leaned on my brother…and he didn’t let me down."

Frank felt a chill as Joe’s words registered with him. It never once occurred to Joe that Frank wouldn’t come through for him, no matter what the situation. Frank took a deep breath and uttered the words Joe thought he’d never hear.

"I need help."

"This must be your lucky day," Joe replied with a straight face. "Because I need to help." He smiled as Frank shook his head and chuckled. "Listen, Van and I have already been brainstorming. She came up with a great idea on what you can use to exchange for Callie – and it’ll hold up under the closest scrutiny," Joe said confidently.

"Oh?" Frank sat up a little straighter, intrigued.

Joe excitedly explained Vanessa’s plan to create a disc they could exchange for Callie. "But she needs to get a look at the original and we haven’t quite figured out how to convince Gray to come back – and bring the disc with him. Soooooo….we were hoping you’d join us. We figured between the three of us we can come up with something," Joe suggested hopefully.

Frank sat up a little straighter. The caller had specifically instructed him to call Gray and tell him to bring the disc back. He assumed the cabin was under surveillance, which meant Joe and Vanessa’s plan would work to his advantage! For the first time all morning, Frank allowed himself a smile. ‘This might work out after all…’

Following Joe down the stairs, Frank took a seat at the table as Vanessa placed a cup of coffee in front of him. Politely declining her offer to make him some breakfast, he got right down to work, bouncing ideas off Joe. However, after thirty minutes Frank was starting to feel desperate again. Nothing they had come up with would be enough to compel Arthur Gray to return and bring the disc with him.

Hearing a ‘thump’, from outside, Frank got up and retrieved the paper that was delivered every morning, courtesy of the resort. Returning to the kitchen, he tossed it on the table and refilled his coffee. Leaning against the counter, he watched as Vanessa’s eyes suddenly lit up.

"Publicity!" she exclaimed.

Frank took a sip of his coffee, looking at Joe, puzzled. Joe shrugged his shoulders and looked at Vanessa expectantly.

"How would Gray feel about publicity – negative publicity in particular?" she smiled devilishly. "We call him and tell him what’s happened. Tell him about our plan to create a fake disc to exchange for Callie."

"He’ll say no," Frank reminded her.

"Exactly. Then we tell him if he doesn’t agree, we’ll call the New York Times, the Washington Post, CNN…we’ll threaten to tell them the whole story – how the DoD had an employee steal the plans for the biggest military breakthrough in history right out from under their noses; how you two got involved and eventually got the plans back almost getting killed in the process. How now an innocent woman – the wife of one of the men who got the plans back – is being held hostage and the government refuses to get involved, calling her a ‘necessary casualty’," Vanessa finished, looking from Joe to Frank, waiting for a response.

"YES!!" Joe yelled. He grabbed Vanessa and laid a kiss on her that made Frank turn several shades of red. Frank finally grabbed Joe’s shirt and pulled him off Vanessa.

"Jeez, let her up for air, wouldja?!" Frank scolded him, turning to a breathless Vanessa. "Van, that is brilliant – deviously brilliant!"