"Joe, what are you doing here?" asked Jay. She sounded worried and defensive, like a deer cornered in a room full of lions. Joe saw the worry etched on her face, years of worry, too much for someone her age. He wondered what on earth could have put it there. However for now, that had to keep her steady.

"Just looking for you," said Joe.

Both turned as Frank limped into the office behind them

"Why?" asked Jay. She didn't know what to make of these two brothers, were they trying to help, or merely intruding on her life?

"I thought I could help," Joe's face was kind, and full of compassion but Jay couldn't see it.

"I don' t need anyone's help," said Jay getting a little angry.

"Joe, I going back to the office to help Dad," Frank gave his brother a look, implying that he would leave them alone, that perhaps Jay would respond better to just one of them." Call me about 5 p.m." he continued as he left the room

"Joe nodded at his brother in understanding. " Fine, talk to you later."

After Frank left, Jay didn't know what to say. She kept staring at Joe, trying to understand what was going on. Joe was about to say something, when Professor Tollington entered the room.

"Oh, good," said the professor. "Jay, I am so glad you are here. Those boys have been looking for you all week.@

Jay ignored Joe and turned to face the professor. "I came to borrow your truck. I need to go back down and get my equipment and check the cave-in," she said, unsmiling.

"I can help you," said Joe. He was smiling at Jay. But Jay felt her hairs standing. Something was definitely going on here. But what?

"Whatever. Let' s go." And with that she marched out the door and down the corridor. Joe merely shrugged his shoulders at the professor and followed her.

The pair made their way to the cave in the professor' s truck. Joe was determined to get Jay to talk to him. There was no way she was going to get away this time.

Meanwhile Frank went back to the office to help his Dad whom he found in the conference room surrounded by a pile of papers. He looked up as Frank entered, and the expression on his face told Frank that he his search wasn't going that well.

"I was going to ask how it is going, but I think I can guess," said Frank.

"I' m frustrated," said Fenton. "Sam and I have both been at the docks all morning, but no one would give us any information.@

"On what?@

"On how the merchandise is getting out of the country. We thought if we could find how it's getting out, we could backtrack and find out how it' s being stolen and then catch the criminals.@

"How about your informants?"

"No luck. Either they are too scared or they don' t know anything. I hope your brother is having better luck.@

However Joe was having less luck than his father. He and Jay were already in the cave room where Frank, Callie and Vanessa had ended up in, and Jay was still not talking to him.

Joe had climbed through the cave opening to help Jay get her gear. They were going around the room picking up the different pieces, when Jay finally had enough of Joe' s questions.

"Look, would you just quit asking me questions. I am not going to give you the answers you want. There are no nice clean answers. So let' s just gather the equipment and get out of her. Then we go our separate ways," said Jay in a very loud and determined voice.

Joe raised his eyebrows at the angry girl standing in front of him, hands on hips, eyes full of fire. "Well, that was pretty clear. "But you know what? I am not giving up that easy," said Joe. "So how about I just ask you questions about the caves?"

"Alright," said Jay thinking she might have met her match in terms of who is the most stubborn. "What would you like to know?"

"How do you know so much about this cave?@

"It was one of the first I explored. So it was the first that I did a detailed map of.@

"Ok then, when did you first explore it?" Joe probed further.

"I was about six or seven."

Joe sighed inwardly thinking that this was a little like getting blood from a stone. Still he persisted. "Six or seven? What did your parents say about you hanging out in caves?@

"No personal questions."

"Sorry. I was just surprised at the age. Back to the cave. How big is it?@

"It changes a lot because of cave-ins. This cave in particular suffers because of the heavy equipment vehicles in the next valley. There are so many tunnels and they spread in all directions.@

"Are there any other ways inside the cave?" Joe looked around him as he spoke.

"Yes, there are three of them," said Jay. "But they are not very easy passages. I have tried all of them.@

Joe turned his head and noticed Jay was walking in the direction of the cave-in. He looked at her inquisitively.

"I want to check the rocks around the cave-in" , she explained. "I need to get some samples in order to find out what caused the accident.@

As Jay walked around the rocks picking up different ones and putting them into her bag, Joe asked more questions about the cave. He was happy he was getting her to talk about something, even if it wasn't exactly what he wanted to know.

As they made their way around the cave in he couldn't help but think back to the events of a few days previously and to how close he came to losing his family. It made a chill run down his spine. Looking at these rocks again the memories started to flood back, but even more than that, he felt like something was wrong, like they shouldn't be there.

Evidently Jay felt it too, because she suddenly said to Joe, " I have enough samples now, I think we should go"

They headed back into the cave room, which had been a refuge for Frank, Callie, and Vanessa, and had gathered their gear and were about to go through the tunnel when they heard a sound from down the corridor, a very definite click.

Joe felt his heart sink at the sound. He knew only two well what it was, the sound of a gun barrel. And it was coming from right beside them!