BAU Headquarters –
2pm
Derek
had eleven hours to find his team. Still shaken from the video of a hysterical
bloody Garcia, he knew that he had to focus and call on all of his training and
push aside his personal feelings for her and the others. Cruz had made good on
his promise to begin his own official search and the bullpen was now filled
with FBI agents from various other departments throughout the bureau.
Frustrated,
he was still waiting on a technical analysis and although he was able to do
simple searches his skill set was not adequate for what he needed. Just as he
was about to go down to Technical Support and snatch his own tech he noticed an
older woman enter the office. She reminded him of his grandmother; surely she
was lost, he thought. He continued to watch her as she approached one of the
agents and saw him look up and point in his direction. He watched as she
proceeded slowly up the stairs toward the conference room.
“Can
I help you?”
“Agent
Morgan?”
“Yes.”
“I’m
Mabel Henry from Tech Support.”
Morgan’s
jaw dropped and it was no way he could hide his shock as he looked her up and
down in silence. She was dressed in a bright orange skirt with red and white
giant flowers; her blouse was white with black polka dots and a baby blue
cardigan. Her used-to-be-a-dyed-blonde hair was graying and haphazardly pinned
in a bun on top of her head.
“I
get that a lot.” She chuckled as she returned his unbelieving stare, pushing up
her neon green cat-eyed glasses.
“I-I…um
I’m sorry…”
“No
worries. Where do you want me?”
“Huh?”
Derek shook his head trying to remember why she was there. “Oh…right here.”
Pointing to the office next to the conference room.
Mable
followed him to Garcia’s lair and opened the door.
“This
is our tech’s lair. Please be careful she’s pretty particular about her
things…her babies as she calls them.”
“Aren’t
we all?” She quipped back.
The
woman looked even older up close sitting her bag on the floor she took a seat
in front of the bank of computer screens and made herself comfortable flipping
switches and watching the screens spring to life.
For
a minute it was as if Garcia’s future self had found a way to defy time’s
continuum and stepped backwards into the present time.
“From
what Unit Chief Cruz told me you’re in a bit of a time crunch.”
She
saw the mix of anger, stress and sadness in his eyes even though he thought he
had done a pretty good job of hiding it behind his tough guy exterior.
“My
entire team has been kidnapped and I have less than eleven hours to find them
or they die.”
“Okay.
Let’s get to work. Give me the details.”
“We
all left the office around noon for lunch. They went to Pelley’s about a mile
and a half from here and I decided to work out instead of going with them.”
Mabel
turned and looked him over with a discerning eye. She liked what she saw.
“An
hour later I received a call from the son-of-a-bitch who took them.”
“So
they’ve got to be close.”
“Yeah,
right.” He responded surprised. “He’s close but I’m not sure if I’ll be able to
find them in time.”
“Giving
up already, Handsome?” She said looking over her shoulder at him as her fingers
continued to type.
“No
I’ll never give up.”
“Good
then get out of here and let me get to work.”
“Yes,
ma’am!” He responded in surprise.
He
watched in awe he hadn’t seen anyone handle multiple computers and screens like
that before except…he closed his eyes for a moment to block her out of his
mind. He had to remain focused there was too much at stake.
Unknown Location -
The
door creaked and opened with a rush; the limp body of Penelope Garcia fell with
a thud to the floor. Before any of them could utter a word the door slammed
shut. With their hands and feet still
bound there was nothing they could do for her but watch and wait for some sign
of movement from their friend. Blood smeared her neck and blouse and no one
wanted to even guess what had happened while she was gone.
“Penelope!”
JJ yelled at her friend frantically.
Hotch
and Rossi looked on horrified knowing she was the least prepared for a
situation like this and becoming a victim of such harshness and cruelty would
scare her beyond the physical.
“Garcia!”
Reid called out voice quivering.
She
began to stir and move against the pain but she was alive and for that they all
were grateful. Her hands and feet were not bound so that was also another thing
to be grateful for.
“I’m
okay…I’m okay…” She whispered to them.
Slowly
she pulled herself to an upright position in the middle of the room then
touching lightly the haphazard gauze that had been wrapped around her neck. It
was painful to the touch but she knew it could have been a lot worse. It wasn’t
meant to cause serious or life threatening harm. It was purely for affect, to
get Morgan’s attention which no doubt had achieved its purpose. As much as it
had scared her she got a small sense of satisfaction knowing that Derek would
kill the evil bastard when he got his hands on him.
“Garcia!
Untie us!” Hotch ordered taking charge and seeing an opportunity.
Garcia
as quickly as she could, crawled over to the others and began untying them
starting with Hotch who in turn untied Rossi.
Garcia moved over to JJ while Rossi untied Alex and Hotch finally untied
Reid. Once free they all rubbed their
wrist and began plotting their next move.
“Now
what?” Garcia seemed to speak out loud what the others were thinking.
“Good
question, Garcia. We’ve got to figure a way out of here.” Hotch answered.
“What
can you tell us? What happened?” Ross asked.
“He
forced me to make a video for Derek. He wanted me to tell him that he was going
to kill us if he didn’t find us in time. Then he cut my neck to show Derek he
was serious.”
“Pen,
are you okay?” JJ asked.
“It
hurts like hell but I’ll be fine.”
“Derek’s
gonna kill that son-of-a-bitch!” Reid mumbled.
Just
then the door opened again and Kirkwood and his two armed goons stepped
confidently through the door. He examined the group and smirked so sure he was
going to get away with his plan. The two men behind him had a similar smirk of
overconfidence.
“So
I see you’ve all made yourselves comfortable.
Well, it’s time for us to have some more fun!”
He
motioned to the man on the left behind him and he obediently moved toward Reid
and yanked him to his feet.
“Let’s
go!”
BAU –
With
the help of Mabel Derek had narrowed his search area to a five-mile radius. He
and Cruz stood in front of a large map looking at all of the possible locations
that would give Kirkwood the ability to hide six people without drawing
attention. Even in the relatively small area there were too many places and too
little time to check them all.
“I
can start sending teams out to these locations…”
“No!
If they stumble on the right location, you can guarantee he will be watching.
If he sees anybody but me, he’s going to start killing them and I can’t risk
that.”
“Come
on, Morgan you can’t check all these by yourself!”
“Yeah,
I know… we’ve got to narrow the list and we can’t afford to be wrong.”
Cruz
ran his hand over his head and began pacing. Taking over Strauss’ old job didn’t
look so attractive to him now. The BAU was indeed a rare special unit with
nerves of steel and watching Morgan work to find his team he knew he was not
capable of doing what they did.
“So
what are you going to do?” Cruz asked in frustration.
Derek’s
phone rang just before he could answer Cruz’s question. Another video had been
sent to him by Kirkwood. He braced himself for the sight of another one of his
team abused and bloody flaunted in his face by a man he wanted desperately to
kill.
Reid,
like Garcia had been forced to make a recording and to read a prepared script
to further taunt Morgan. Unlike Garcia however, Reid paid close attention to
everything around him as he was led to the room set up like a miniature studio
equipped with expensive equipment that the average Joe would not have a clue
even existed. He had to get a message of his own to Morgan and he hoped that
his friend would understand and it would help him find them before it was too
late.
Morgan
sat on the edge of the conference table and pushed play. He watched as Reid was
pushed down into a chair and handed a piece of lined notepaper. He squinted against the bright lights and
began reading silently at first.
“Read,
Genius!” barked Kirkwood’s voice out of view.
Reid
turned to his left as if he were looking at someone and then turned back toward
the camera.
“Okay!
I don’t understand what shooting an expensive movie is going to accomplish;
this isn’t Hollywood!”
Kirkwood’s
fist suddenly appeared in view landing hard against the side of Reid’s head.
Reid tried but couldn’t hold in the cry of pain.
“Read
the damn script!”
“Okay,
okay!”
Reid
glanced up at the lights before taking a deep breath and beginning.
“Time is running out… eight and a half hours
from now and we will be dead if you don’t find us. No police, no FBI…come
alone… your life for ours…”
Kirkwood
stepped into view placing a gun to Reid’s head. Reid flinched then stiffened as
the barrel pressed roughly against his temple. He closed his eyes praying that
he’d gotten his message across and that they would be found soon.
“Eight
and half hours, agent! If you don’t make it in time just know that I’m going to
have so much fun with your friends making them suffer! They’ll all be screaming
and calling your name wondering where you are and asking why you didn’t save
them!”
The
screen went black as the video came to an end. Cruz watched the torment and
pain cross Morgan’s face.
“What
are you going to do?” He asked again.
Morgan
slowly looked up at the Section Chief and in a steady confident voice he
answered him.
“I’m
going to call for back up.”
He
was more confused than ever. Cruz had given up on understanding anything and
so, he stood watching the wheels turning in the agent’s head and after several
seconds he left the room.
Morgan
got up and moved to close the door. He couldn’t risk being overheard. He dialed
a number that he hadn’t dialed in quite a while; he only hoped he’d get a warm
reception without a lecture of how terrible he was at keeping in contact with
friends.
The
phone was answered on the third ring and he sighed at hearing her voice on the
other end. No one, not even Garcia had known that he had kept in contact and
knew where she was. After her sudden
departure her name was very rarely if ever brought up as if she had never been
a part of the team. The two of them had become close and Morgan wasn’t one to
forget about the few people whom he had let in. So, from time to time he would
call to check on her and she him. It was their secret and he kept his word to
keep her whereabouts to himself.
“It’s
been a while, stranger.” She said cheerfully.
“Elle,
I need you…”
