CSI: Miami

Delko is at the ATM outside his bank and the machine swallows his card. He goes inside to talk to the manager, who informs him that his bank account is overdrawn. Before Delko is able to do anything about his money problems he gets another problem on his hands. A group of masked people storm inside the bank, firing their machine guns. Their masks earn them the nicknames Demon, Scream and Heelys. They shoot the security cameras and wound a security guard before robbing the bank of $18 000 and kidnaping the manager. On their way out Demon notices a woman lying on the floor and calls "bonus round", motioning for Scream to rape the girl. Delko identifies himself as MDPD and draws his gun. Scream fires his machine gun and Delko takes him out, but unfortunately Scream has killed the girl. Demon and Heelys take off with the manager and Delko calls for backup.

A while later the bank has been emptied and Alexx is examening Scream while Horatio looks on. She pulls his mask off and is surprised to find he is just a teenager. He has a numerical clicker on him. Delko comes over and points out that the robbery makes no sense. The vault is untouched and they only robbed one of the tellers. On top of that they attempted a rape in the middle of the robbery.

Wolfe arrives, followed by Erica Sikes. She wants to talk to him but he refuses to give her any info on the case, especially since Delko almost got killed. She says it's important, and it's not about what happened at the bank. He doesn't believe her and goes inside.

Inside the bank Tripp is talking to the robbed teller. She tells him she slipped a dye pack with the money; apparently these people are no seasoned criminals since they didn't notice. Tripp furthers this information to Horatio, who wants to talk to their eye-witness, Delko. He asks him about the security cameras; Delko tells him they were shot as soon as the robbers entered the bank. But there is a camera at the ATM. Delko goes to get it.

A while later he meets up with Wolfe to look at the pictures. Cooper tells them that there are two cameras; one of them taking pictures of the parking lot. Both cameras take a picture every six seconds. He arranges so that they are in synch and they spot the robbers' vehicle. Wolfe notices that they back up a bit before they park. They must have spotted Delko's Hummer. So why did they rob the bank when they knew a cop was there? They can't see the license plate of the car from the pictures, but Wolfe spots something in the windshield. It's a parking sticker from Miami University. They give Miami U a call and tell them three of their students might have robbed a bank, giving them the parking number. They are told that a dye pack exploded on a female student. She is being brought in for questioning.

Calleigh talks to the girl, Kim, who is covered in red paint. She came running out of a laundry room, screaming, and the police found a bag with the money stolen from the bank. Kim says she was doing her laundry and saw the bag, and being a nosy person she looked inside. Calleigh doesn't believe her. The dye pack explodes ten seconds after leaving the bank sensors. She goes to talk to Tripp. He admits Kim's story seems unlikely, but then again the whole case is full of unlikely events. Why rob a bank and toss away the money? Calleigh has called in Special Agent Peter Elliott from the Treasury Department, hoping he can help them out.

Wolfe takes a look at the money bag but the dye pack has made it impossible to get any valuable evidence from inside it. Horatio suggests he looks on the outside then. The bag has a water mark on the bottom; Wolfe is going to find out more about it. However Horatio isn't really there to find out about the bag; he wants to talk about Erika Sikes. Wolfe begins to apologise for her having bothered him, but she wasn't calling about the case at hand. Horatio is reluctant to say anything else at the moment. He leaves Wolfe to work with the water mark, and it turns out that it's ethylene glycol; a coolant mixed with water. It keeps water circulating at temperatures below 0 centigrade. It must come from the ice rink at the university.

Delko and Wolfe head over to the ice rink, and in a storage room they find the bank manager, Welch, tied and gagged. Welch tells them that the robbers kept their masks on and threatened to kill him if he didn't tell them about the money drop the Federal Reserve had scheduled for that day. A helicopter is coming in twenty minutes to make the money drop at the main bank branch.

When the helicopters land Heely is there to get a hold of the money. He holds a gun on the men transporting it and tells them to drop the money and the guns. Horatio suggests he do the same. Heely turns and sees the policemen, but seems amused more than anything else as he drops his gun. Delko removes his mask and Heely tells Horatio to watch his grill; they're still in play. That sounds familiar to Wolfe. Horatio has Heely put in the police car, then asks Wolfe what the kid meant by his comment. Wolfe takes Horatio to the Hummer and pulls out a wireless game controller and a game to go with it. "Urban Hellraisers". As he puts the disc into the controller he says he thought the robbery reminded of an old case, only he couldn't remember which one. Heely's comment made him realise it wasn't an old case, it was a game. Wolfe plays a bit for Horatio. It opens with a stage similar to what happened that morning; a bank robbery where killing a security guard is worth 500 points. It then moves on to a robbery of a money drop helicopter. When Wolfe's character is killed a computerized voice tells him he's "still in play". Apparently the teens are re-creating the game, which explains what they used the clicker for and why they didn't keep the money. It also explains why they killed people without provocation.

Back at headquarters Calleigh is pleased to see Peter Elliott arrive. They are clearly interested in one another, flirting as they talk. Elliott tells her that Kim's story might be true; bank robbers can sometimes bypass the sensors, especially when they have a scared bank employee with them who knows how it works. Elliott will talk to Kim though, just to be sure. Calleigh promises he can have a look at the confiscated money when he's done.

Meanwhile Horatio and Tripp are talking to Heely, or Gabe Hammond as his real name is. He has a clicker on him, but arrogantly says they'll never guess what it's for. When Horatio says they are used to add up points for their game Gabe looks shocked. Tripp suspects they played the game so much that they got brainwashed by it and decided to go out and do it for real. Gabe tries to cover his tracks and claims that they are crazy. Horatio and Tripp inform him that they found skidmarks from his heely's, and in the game you get extra points for robbing a bank with a cop in it. They saw Delko's Hummer and went for it. Gabe admits to that, and with a grin adds that you get 5000 points if you kill the cop. Tripp asks how many points you get if one of your buddies gets killed. Gabe doesn't seem overly concerned with what happened to Scream, after all, everybody dies sometime and it's part of the game. Horatio wants him to tell them who Demon is, but Gabe can't do that. It will cost him 500 points! Horatio replies that not telling them who his friend is will give him 25 to life. That doesn't bother Gabe; he's ahead in points. Besides, he could be out in 10 years with good behavior.

In order to figure out Demon's next move they go to talk to the man who wrote the game. His name is Chris Allen, and he is mighty proud of the game. It's their top seller. They request a break-down of the game but are told no. That information is proprietary, and they should know that any similarities to real events are purely coincidental. Allen needs to protect his stockholders. If they want to know what happens they have to play the game. Horatio calls Wolfe and tells him to do exactly that, and while they wait to find out what happens in the game Allen is going to be arrested for obstruction of justice.

Wolfe plays the game, quite reluctantly. He stopped playing it soon after he bought it, finding it distasteful. Delko comes in and asks if he's seen Elliott. Wolfe tells him he wanted to get into the Documents Lab. Wolfe sent him to the fingerprints lab instead, which Delko finds amusing. They both know Elliott is mainly there to see Calleigh anyway. They turn their attention back to the game, where Wolfe is having trouble. He can't get past the second level. Delko watches him play the level again and finds it uncanny to see the robbery he experienced that morning played out in a video game. He wishes he could have saved the girl. Wolfe tells him that raping her gives you 1000 points, something they both cringe at. Wolfe somehow manages to access "sniper mode" in the helicopter scenario. That means a sniper must have been present that morning.

Delko and Horatio find the building where Demon was hiding. They also find a bullet and Demon's mask. They bring it in to search for DNA. It's a custom fitted mask, molded directly off the owner's face. This means they can find out what Demon looks like. Delko will be spending the next couple of hours checking all male students at Miami U.

Wolfe manages to reach the next level in the game. They have a problem.

Calleigh, however, is having a good time. She meets Elliott in the hallway, who tells her that Kim has been sent home and that he hasn't had the time to look at the money yet because one of Calleigh's "video guys" guided him to the wrong lab. She is a bit embarrassed and apologises on Wolfe's behalf, but Elliott tells her that instead of apologising she could have a drink with him. She tells him that if they catch Demon she will upgrade it to a dinner.

Wolfe finds Horatio and tells him that the next level is a police station. The objective is to steal the evidence against you, and preferrably kill a cop or two while you're at it. In real life they store evidence at CSI. Horatio orders a lockdown. Unfortunately it's too late. Two masked gunmen find Boa Vista in the evidence vault and pull a gun on her. They force her to hand them the evidence and one of them attempts to shoot her. But looking directly into the eyes of the person he is aiming the gun at, standing so close, makes it much harder to view it all as a game. Boa Vista just stares at him in disbelief. Suddenly he falls to the floor, shot by Horatio. The other gunman, nicknamed Glasses since he's wairing sunglasses, turns his gun at the new player on the scene and despite Horatio's warnings begins to fire. Horatio ducks for cover and when Glasses tries to escape he shoots him. When the bullet hits him he clenches his hands, pressing the trigger to his gun. Calleigh and Elliott, who have just entered the sene, end up in the crossfire. Elliott dives and covers Calleigh with his own body and gets wounded for it. Horatio walks up to Glasses, who is hit in the shoulder and very much alive.

A short while later Glasses, or Michael Page as his real name is, is being arrested. Delko joins Horatio and confirms that Michael uses the same type of gun as the other players. Pretty expensive gun for a college budget. Tripp is looking into a load of stolen guns; most likely the students stole a load of firearms. Horatio orders Michael to be taken away and the teen cries out in pain when he gets pulled up by his wounded arm. Horatio points out that real bullets are funny that way. As he is being taken away Horatio notices that Glasses left his glasses behind.

Delko takes the glasses to look more closely at them. Boa Vista comes in while he's working, shaken by what happened. She feels bad that she left the evidence vault open. Delko tells her not to worry about it. Nothing got stolen, and more importantly, she is okay. He shows her what he's found on the glasses. They are optic embedded with circuitry, and a camera which projects a 3D architectural rendering of the CSI lab. But how did they get a hold of the blueprints for CSI? Boa Vista tells Delko that K.N.B. Design did the blueprints. He gives them a call.

Horatio questions a pained Michael, who happens to have done an internship at K.N.B. Design. Horatio wants to know who Demon is, and he's not letting Michael go to the hospital until he tells Horatio what he wants to know. Michael says he only knows him by his screen name; they all met online. The only place they met in person prior to this day is the basement of the research library at the university. The gamemaster, someone called Wizard, is there and he keeps track of everyone's points. His real name is Evan Walsh.

Horatio and Delko head over to talk to Wizard but find him dead in his chair. Wizard has a score board which keeps track of every player, every crime and every point. Alexx joins them, shaken by having had to examine three people under 21 in a single day. It appears as if Wizard's kidneys gave up and caused his death. The game log shows he's been playing for 70 straight hours, and the scene around him confirms it. He didn't eat, didn't sleep, just played the game and drank energy drinks. Horatio concludes that he played himself to death. Delko is looking at the score board and sees that Demon has over 20 000 points. Life and death reduced to points. The score board says "all returns to 1312 Surf Street".

1312 Surf Street turns out to be a photographic studio run by Carl Hiatt. The rest of the stolen guns are found. Carl says he doesn't know anything about any stolen shipment of guns; he was contacted by a guy who gave him the guns, some money and instructions to hand them over to the college students. Carl hasn't met the guy who delivered the guns; it was all handled online. Horatio checks his computer and finds mentionings of Trance International. That sounds familiar.

Meanwhile Calleigh is with Elliott at the ER. Calleigh is worried about him but he assures her that he's fine and wants to be released. Calleigh spots Tripp and goes over to talk to him. He's there to drop off Michael. They exchange some small talk and Tripp leaves. He passes Monica West, the District Attorney, on his way out. She is looking for Elliott. Calleigh hasn't met her before and thinks she's from the Treasury Department. She is shocked to find out she is his fiancée. She is very thankful to Calleigh for having brought her fiancé in. Calleigh is stumped. She watches Monica embrace her fiancé and walks out the door.

Back at headquarters Horatio is questioning Chris Allen. Trans International is his holding company. They happen to own the building on 1312 Surf Street. Allen claims he has no idea what Horatio is getting at, but that doesn't help him much since Carl has sung like a canary. Trans International used the college students to sell the video game. Allen is in for some long jail time.

Valera comes to get the swabs from the mask worn by Demon. Delko is still trying to find a match for the mask in Miami U's yearbook. Suddenly he finds a match. John Berg. Valera will run the DNA for confirmation, but complains that it feels anticlimatic. Delko brings John in, but he claims it's not his mask. He had one, but it was clear, not painted like a demon. John used to play baseball but had to quit when he hurt his knee. He threw away the mask and claims he is innocent. Delko gets a call from Valera who tells him that whoever wore the mask was female. John is off the hook.

Elliott is signing out from CSI and runs into Calleigh. She's glad that he's on his feet. Elliott tries to smoothe things over; he says he wanted to take her out for drinks to tell her about his engagement. He was really interested in Calleigh before, but John Hagen told him that he didn't stand a chance since John and Calleigh were getting back together. So Elliott moved on and fell in love with Monica. Calleigh informs him that John was wrong, and Elliott apologises for not having asked her about it. She tells him she's not mad, then realises that she is. If he can't even get his facts right when it's about his personal life then how can they trust him to do a good job in his investigations? He's clearly not as thurough as Calleigh would like. Maybe Kim should not have been released from custody?

Calleigh questions Kim again, this time under the assumption that she is Demon. She wants to test Kim's DNA against the sample they found on the mask. Kim doesn't want them to do that. Calleigh tells her it doesn't matter, they will have to test it for the trial. Kim breaks. She says the guys play all around the clock; the only way for them to notice you is to play as well. And she was better than all of them. Calleigh lets her know that it might just earn her more jail time than anyone else in the game.

Wolfe gets a text message from Erika Sikes, telling him to meet her at the beach. She wants to talk to him, strictly off the record. It's important, important enough to possibly ruin her carreer. She is going to give away her source to him, and the source is critical of the CSI. Wolfe doesn't think much of it; it doesn't matter what an outside source thinks of them. Erika says he doesn't understand. It's not an outsider; it's an insider. Wolfe is shocked. They have a mole. Someone they all know and trust. That's what she was trying to warn him about at the bank. She has talked to Horatio about it but she thinks he already knew. That's why he wanted to talk to Wolfe about her. Wolfe is unsure what to do now, but Sikes is confident he can think of something. She leaves him standing on the beach, bewildered.