Disclaimer: All recognizable subject matter does not belong to me.

Abducted

Chapter 1

"Clear!" Morgan heard Hotch call from the kitchen.

He shoved a door open and checked the room. "Clear!"

He heard a noise behind him, and spun around. The unsub stood behind him, a gun shakily aimed for his head.

"Smith – don't do this." Morgan said, quietly, moving his gun to aim at the unsub.

"Too late – too deep." The man murmured, talking to himself.

"No, it's not too late." Morgan tried to explain. "Listen, man, I can help you. If you give us information about what you've been doing, and who you've been kidnapping the locals for, we can get your sentence reduced."

Smith lowered his gun, pointing it at the floor. "Really?"

"Really." Morgan nodded. "Put down the gun. We'll get you a deal. Just put down the gun."

Smith frowned, considering, then his gun went back up at lightning speed.

Morgan was just about to pull the trigger when the gunshot echoed through the silent house.

Smith choked once, then his knees gave out.

Morgan saw JJ standing a few yards behind him, lowering her gun.

Smith's gun fell from his numbing fingers. Blood poured from the wound in his chest. He collapsed forward.

Morgan holstered his gun and moved to the dying man's side. He rolled the man over, covered the wound and put pressure on it, though he didn't have any hopes of the man surviving, they needed him to stay alive just a little while longer.

JJ kicked the gun away, just in case.

"Where is he?" Morgan asked. "Smith – where's the agent you attacked?"

"I didn't – I -" the man could barely speak.

JJ dropped to her knees. "We know you didn't mean for anyone to get hurt." She tried to calm him. "We can get you off a life sentence - if you tell us where the FBI agent that you attacked is."

"I didn't – Who -"

Hotch's stepped into the hall and saw his two agents unharmed. He immediately understood the situation, and pulled out his phone to call the authorities. He glanced back at the dying unsub. JJ and Morgan were running out of time.

"The FBI agent. You kidnapped him two days ago – out of desperation." JJ tried to remind him. "We know you didn't want to – he was just in the wrong place at-"

"Spencer Reid." Morgan persisted. "Agent Spencer Reid. Where is he?"

"Deal?" the man asked, almost silently.

"We'll get you that deal, man, just tell us where he is!"

The man coughed breathlessly, then took a painful, deep breath. He wanted that deal.

"Sold." he told them, and smiled, his lips unnaturally red from blood pooling in his mouth. His eyes rolled into his head.

JJ sat back onto the ground, leaning against the hall wall.

"To who?" Morgan demanded. "Don't you die on me! To who?"

"Derek!" JJ grabbed his arm. "Smith is dead."

Morgan swore, dropping the body, and striding out of the hall.

JJ double checked, waiting almost a minute for a pulse, then she followed him.

Ten minutes later she watched Hotch talking to the local sheriff, and the body was loaded into the coroner's van.

She glanced across the yard and saw Morgan heading for the SUV. She jogged to catch up with him. "Derek, are you ok?"

"Yeah. We're back to square one." Derek yanked the SUV door open roughly. "But we're going to find him. No matter what."

"No way are we going to give up on Spence." JJ nodded, "But we aren't all the way back to square one."

Morgan turned to face her. "In what way?"

His voice was sharp with worry and anger, but JJ didn't flinch. "He's alive. Smith didn't kill him. Someone paid money for him, and we'll just have to hope that's because he's useful to them. We're going to find him – and he's gonna be alive."

Morgan glanced down, then nodded, and got into the SUV. JJ scanned the yard for Hotch, who was headed her direction. She shot him a grim smile, then went around the car to get into the other side.

Now I've convinced Derek that Spence is still alive. I hope it will be as easy to convince myself.

A telltale tear snaked it's way down her cheek, but she wiped it off and got into the car.

Criminal Minds

Hotch entered the conference room, and glanced at each of them in turn as he spoke. "I know this is hard, but we have to treat this like any other case. JJ, what have we got?"

"So we've got confirmation that Smith is the kidnapper we've been looking for, and that he's the one who abducted Spence." JJ replied. "Garcia's going through his computer to see if she can find anything about the people he kidnapped for."

"Considering where the bodies turned up, he probably worked for several people – or several groups of people." Rossi noted, thoughtfully.

"Smith's been paid to kidnap people for almost ten years – so when he thought Reid was onto him, he just went ahead and snatched him, then called up some contacts and found a buyer – a way to dispose of him." Morgan suggested.

"On the other hand, what if one of his buyers saw Reid and then hired Smith to kidnap him?" Prentiss spoke up. "If a criminal saw how smart Reid is, they might want to force him to help them."

"Either way, they've been in contact, on the computer, phone, or in person." Hotch realized. "We need to find out exactly what Smith has been doing since we came into town. We need every email, every phone number, every gas station or cafe. Get to work."

Criminal Minds

"Hotch, I've got something."

Hotch looked up from his desk and stood. "What is it?"

Morgan stood in the doorway, holding his phone. "A neighborhood kid says he's seen Smith hanging around a Russian guy called Rotislav. Garcia's looking him up now."

Suddenly Garcia spoke through the phone. "There are 18 Rotislavs in the city, but only 1 near where Smith met him. D. Rotislav has no records, not even a drivers license or first name, but I've got a location.

Hotch stood. "Let's go."

"Sending you the address." Garcia's voice was steady and calm for the first time since Reid's abduction.

Criminal Minds

"FBI!" Morgan kicked the door savagely, and it flew open as part of the woodwork splintered.

"FBI!" Rossi echoed, coming in the apartment behind him.

They moved through the house, their footsteps seeming loud in the silence.

"Clear!" Morgan shouted.

In another room, JJ lowered her gun. "Clear!"

"Clear!" Hotch called.

"Clear!" Prentiss sounded frustrated.

Rossi lowered his weapon, then noticed something low, on the other side of the bed. "Damn!" he swore. "Call an ambulance!" He holstered his gun and ran to the man – Rotislav – who lay seizing on the carpet.

Morgan ran to them. "What's wrong with him?"

Behind him, JJ pulled out her phone and dialed for help.

Prentiss pulled on a plastic glove and picked two halves of a capsule up off the floor. She held them up.

"Poison." Hotch said, grimly. "He's poisoned himself."

Rotislav stopped seizing, and gradually went limp.

Rossi leaned back, sadly. "Cancel the ambulance, JJ. Now we need a coroner."

"He was our only lead." Morgan stood and strode from the room.

"We might learn something, though, from his apartment or computer." Prentiss pointed out.

"He hired someone to do his kidnapping for him." Rossi pointed out. "He was eager to keep his hands clean. His life will be completely legal."

"Garcia will find another couple of buyers." JJ stated. "Rotislav probably wasn't even the one that has Reid. You'll see."

Criminal Minds

Taryn knocked on the wooden door, then pushed it open. "Averin, I've finished the mission. I can give you the report whenever."

Averin glanced up. "Taryn. Come in." His russian accent was very faint.

Taryn blinked. This wasn't usual. He cautiously stepped into the office and shut the door.

"Taryn, since you joined us two years ago, you've made astounding progress every day." Averin switched off his computer and phone. "Do you have any electronics on you?"

"No."

"Good. I can't risk having anyone hear what I want to say." Averin stood and came around the front of his desk. "You enjoy your job, don't you?"

"Yes, I do. I like working for the CIA. It's exciting."

"You love it for the excitement?" Averin smiled.

"Partly."

"I have a position open for you. In a new special ops branch of the CIA."

Taryn paused. "What sort of position?"

"Similar to now – you'll be sent on missions to catch criminals and take down dangerous people. But in this section everything is top secret, and tough. If you choose to take the job, you'll have to take special training. Each mission is intense, and we can't have any failures in this black ops branch." Averin explained.

"I'll need more information to make a decision." Taryn replied. "But it sounds interesting."

"Come with me." Averin opened the door.

"Where?" Taryn didn't move to follow.

"The black ops headquarters."

Taryn glanced around. The ceiling was low, and he saw no windows, so he guessed it was some sort of basement or underground facility. About twenty people were working busily at computers.

"If you choose to accept the job, this is where you'll work. Through that doorway is a training facility where you'll be taught the specialized techniques for the job." Averin gestured.

"Mr Averin!" A woman hurried up. "The new prisoner needs to be interrogated."

"Oh, yes." Averin turned to Taryn. "Why don't you come with, Taryn?"

"To do what?"

Averin smiled. "To interrogate Spencer Reid."