US Airdate : 1 December 2001
UK Airdate : 12 December 2001

Corbin Valentine (Rod Wilson), an astronaut famous for saving his crew when their shuttle crashed, and his wife Lisa (Deborah O'Dell) are suddenly awakened from a peaceful night's sleep, only to find that their son, Josh (Marc Donato), has been kidnapped. Knowing that Lisa and Josh are both new mutants, Adam (John Shea) decides that Mutant X needs to do a little investigating.

Adam and Emma (Lauren Lee Smith) disguise themselves as insurance investigators and go to the Valentine residence where they meet Special Agent in Charge Wendy Stone (Jennifer Dale), who informs them that the perpetrator was a professional. At the same time, Shalimar (Victoria Pratt) sneaks around the grounds of the Valentine's mansion looking for clues, and spots a rope dangling from Josh's bedroom window.

Meanwhile, Josh's kidnapper, Burke (Paulino Nunes), holds Josh hostage on an abandoned tugboat and tends to the burn on his own hand which he got from Josh's under-developed thermal transfer powers during the kidnapping. Back at the Valentine home, Emma discovers that Lisa is also a telempath when she intercepts the psychic link between Lisa and Josh after showing Lisa a picture of her missing son.

At Genomex, Wendy, who is actually in cahoots with the GSA, is scolded by Eckhart (Tom McCamus) for failing to bring him the boy. An annoyed Eckhart warns Wendy that Josh is a priceless commodity, and she better deliver him soon.

Back at the Valentine mansion, Shalimar finds a tree that smells like sulfur. Just as she cuts off a piece of bark to bring back to the lab for analysis, Wendy appears, takes her sample and tells Shalimar to leave. Inside the mansion, Emma uses her telempathic abilities to pinpoint the exact location of Josh and his kidnapper. Brennan (Victor Webster) and Jesse (Forbes March) immediately set out for the tugboat and take Burke completely by surprise. He tries to fight Jesse and Victor, but realizing he's no match for their powers, jumps overboard. Jesse and Victor rescue the terrified Josh, just as Wendy and a bunch of fake FBI agents pull up, grab Burke and force him into their car. After reuniting Josh with Lisa, Jesse gives Adam a large sum of money and a disk he took from the tugboat. Back at Sanctuary, Adam becomes suspicious when he hears a news report that Wendy declined to speak to the press, and has Jesse hack into the FBI database where he finds no record of her. Adam quickly searches Mutant X's files and finds that she has been working undercover for Eckhart. Suddenly, Emma has a telempathic vision of Corbin carrying Josh out of their home past an unconscious Lisa, and realizes that Lisa must have had Josh kidnapped to protect him from his father.

Back at Genomex, Wendy and Eckhart interrogate Burke, who confesses that he was hired by Lisa to kidnap Josh. Eckhart, confused about why Lisa wanted to have her own son kidnapped, orders Wendy to kill Burke on the spot.

Meanwhile, Adam and Emma rush to the Valentine home to question Lisa, but when they arrive, they find that Corbin gave Lisa sleeping pills and took Josh without her knowing. When Lisa awakens, she admits that Corbin was only trying to protect Josh by taking him to a secret genetic bioengineering facility that could make him normal. Adam and Emma are convinced that the two must be at Genomex.

Meanwhile, Corbin and Josh enter Genomex and are confronted by Wendy, who injects Josh with a subdermal governor. As Wendy takes them to a clinic to be held, Corbin realizes that Wendy and Eckhart are not looking to help him, and he has made a drastic mistake. At the same time, Adam takes off in the VTOL aircraft to track down Wendy, Corbin and Josh, and alerts Brennan and Jesse of their location. Brennan uses his powers to release Josh from the holding room, while Jesse fights off an oncoming agent. After deactivating Josh's subdermal governor, Brennan and Jesse rescue Corbin from Wendy's clutches and the four take off for Sanctuary where the Valentine family is happily reunited.