Part 1 – History

Few will have the greatness to bend history itself; but each of us can work to change a small portion of events, and in the total; of all those acts will be written the history of this generation.
- Robert Kennedy

Chapter 01

Capital Plaza Apartments
Apt #23
Washington DC

July 2012

Every morning, for as long as he could remember, Spencer Reid was woken by a phone call. Every morning at 6 am DC time. He answered on the third ring. "Good morning." He said. "I'm awake."

As happened every morning there was silence on the line, then a faint sigh, and then the line clicked closed.

I should really have Garcia look into that one of these days, he thought. Then he set his phone aside and rose to start his day.

Interpol Office
NCA Building
7 Old Queen St.
London UK

"Clyde," Emily Prentiss said as she walked into the office. "This better be good."

"What?" Clyde Easter didn't even look up at her entrance.

"This! Whatever you sent me I don't know how many texts and voicemails about! I have been in London for thirty-five minutes, all of them spent in traffic! I haven't found my hotel, I haven't found my office, I haven't even found the loo. Now unless there is a missing child involved..."

"There is." He replied.

Okay that got everyone's attention. "What happened?" A male voice asked.

Clyde looked up at last. "Derek Morgan, right? And the lovely Lady Garcia. Welcome to London."

"Missing child, Clyde," Emily said.

"Right," he tapped a few keys on the computer in front of him and the wall lit up with pictures and files. Turned out to be a smart wall, he went and started manipulating pictures. "Eight bodies found all over Europe over the past year. All of them gone missing in groups of four within the same 24 hours. All of them found anywhere from a month to three months after they were reported missing. All of them tortured for a very long time before they died."

Morgan frowned as he looked at the board. All colors, all ages, both sexes. "I'm not seeing a pattern. Any victimology?"

"Some. It started with Alain Laurent. He was the head of security at the University of Lorraine in Metz, France. Between eight and twelve hours later Dr. Beatriz Molina, her eight year old son Javier and her maid Agathe Girad also went missing from Metz. Girad was found a month later, Laurent three weeks after that and four weeks later mother and child were found together. The boy had not been spared."

"What did Beatriz Molina do for a living?" Emily asked.

"From what we can tell nothing. We're still trying to untangle her financials. And here's another interesting bit, there was no father listed on the paperwork." Clyde turned to the board and switched files. "Next case, Fr. Manuel Serrano, formerly an officer in the Spanish civil guard counter-terrorism unit, went missing from Segovia, Spain where he served at the cathedral. Within the day it was Dr. Carys Jarman her son Rhys and her maid Isabel Ramos. "

"And let me guess." Morgan said. "No known father."

"Right in one. The boy was also eight; the mother also had no source for her income. Yesterday morning DI William Taylor went missing, no one can find him. And neighbors called in a kidnapping, Dr. Colette Duford and her daughter Geneviève. Her nanny, Amelia Cox, is also missing."

"And the girl is eight and the mother doesn't work." Emily nodded. "Any lead on the father?"

"Not one."

"That's all you've got?

"That and these," Clyde opened another set of pictures. Tattoos, all of them featuring the same even armed cross worked into the design. "Not on the children, of course, but all of the adults had one."

"No." Emily said. "No way."

"Yep."

"What is it?" Garcia asked.

"It's a Templar cross." Emily replied, "Supposedly the mark of the Templar Knights."

"You mean like the Holy Grail, ancient treasure Templar Knights?"

"According to myth," Clyde said. "The Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon commonly known as the Knights Templar, the Order of the Temple or simply as Templars, were among the most wealthy and powerful of the Western Christian military orders and were among the most prominent actors of the Christian finance. The organization existed for nearly two centuries during the middle Ages. Officially endorsed by the Roman Catholic Church around 1129, the Order became a favored charity throughout Christendom and grew rapidly in membership and power. Non-combatant members of the Order managed a large economic infrastructure throughout Christendom, innovating financial techniques that were an early form of banking and building major projects across Europe and the Middle East.

When the Holy Land was lost, support for the Order faded. Rumors about the Templars' secret ceremonies created mistrust and King Philip IV of France, deeply in debt to the Order, took advantage of the situation. In 1307, many of the Order's members in France were arrested, tortured into giving false confessions, and then burned at the stake. Under pressure from King Philip, Pope Clement V disbanded the Order in 1312, and they all just disappeared. Poof," Clyde smiled. "Or so says Wikipedia."

"How much money and power are we talking about?" Morgan asked.

"They fielded an army of roughly a thousand well-trained shock troops and the infrastructure to support them, so likely between seven to ten thousand people. They were also the first multinational corporation, they owned their own fleet of over a hundred ships, their own manufacturing centers, ran practically the entire banking system between London, Paris, Rome and Jerusalem, owned thousands of acres of farmland across Europe, built fortifications, churches, temples, and castles. At one point they even owned the entire island of Cyprus. Hell, they owned a good part of London, hence the Temple Bar area, Temple Mills, that sort of thing. According to legend they even sailed as far west as the Americas, claimed a chunk of the States a hundred years before Columbus thought the idea through."

"And that all just disappeared."

Clyde chuckled, "Exactly. There have been many legends, but the easiest to believe is that they all went underground. Took off their uniforms and blended in with society. And since they couldn't recruit they started to reproduce to maintain their numbers."

"And you think these people are Templars?"

"They seem to. I know that cross has become a part of popular culture but these aren't popular culture people. And they all went missing from historically Templar lands."

"So how do we get a hold of these Templars?"

"Your guess is as good as mine."

"Great." Emily sighed, "Nothing like hitting the ground running."

"It'll give you a chance to see your people in action." Clyde replied with a smile.

"You know we're going to help." Morgan said to her.

"You two are here for Olympic security though." Emily shook her head. "I'll take what I can get but you can't make this your priority."

"There's a kid missing, screw the Olympics."

Emily smiled. "I knew you would say that."

Morgan grinned. "We know each other too well, partner."

.

Note: This story is set between Seasons 7 and 8. Cannon through Season 7.

Still working on The First Run, I swear. But those woods are lovely, dark and deep, as Robert Frost says, and I'm having a bit of trouble getting our adventurers through them. In the meantime this ought to give you all something to read.