"MY TEAM, I NEED YOU IN THE CONFERENCE ROOM NOW." Hotch yelled as he walked out of his office. "JJ CALL GARCIA TOO." She nodded and picked up the phone to call her. Emily Prentiss, Derek Morgan, Dr. Spencer Reid and Jennifer Jareau, aka JJ, quickly gathered up their things and headed for the conference room.
It was a couple minutes before Penelope Garcia was able to make it there, but once she was in, Unit Chief Aaron Hotchner, aka Hotch, shut the door and started the meeting.
"We've been asked to help capture Stone McCaid." Hotch stood at the head of the table.
"The gun smuggler?" Rossi asked.
"Yes. Strauss was given orders for us to find a way to catch him. We can get him on smuggling girls, prostitution and drugs but what the Bureau really wants to catch him on is the weapons. It's a matter of National Security." He looked around at all his team members. They were busy taking notes.
"And how are we going to do that?" Prentiss asked.
"That's what we're here to figure out. Any ideas?"
"We could put surveillance on him and his contacts." Reid suggested.
"Too obvious. He'd spot us right away. He's used to people following him." Hotch turned it down.
"Can we pretend like we're selling weapons? Something undercover?" JJ suggested.
"The FBI has already tried that. The two agents were killed once he found out they were undercover."
"You said that he deals in prostitution, on your next case across country, why don't you find a prostitute, one you find somewhat trust worthy, and put her undercover? He probably knows all the prostitutes around the DC area so across country should be fine. He'd expect someone with weapons and drugs, but would he expect a young prostitute?" Garcia suggested.
"We could use a real agent instead of messing with an untrustworthy informant." Rossi suggested turning to Hotch.
"No, Garcia's right, it'd have to be a girl who knows what she's doing. She'd have to convince him that she's only there to be a prostitute. An agent would try too hard to convince him to let her in whereas an informant would concentrate on the job well enough to get him to believe her. Plus, you wouldn't expect an agent to sleep around with a bunch of men would you?" Prentiss asked.
"Okay, so what does everyone think of picking up an informant?" Hotch asked looking around the room.
"I think it'll work. She should be young though; the younger the better. There's a higher probability that she'll listen to us and not turn on us once she's inside." Reid agreed.
"So that's the plan we have. I'm going to go report it to Strauss, JJ see if we have a case somewhere out west." Hotch picked up the files and left the room. His team headed back to their offices and desks.
An hour later JJ came into Hotch's office. "Hey, did Strauss approve the plan?"
"She did on the condition that she meets the girl first."
"Well I found us a case in Arizona." She handed the file to Hotch. He took it and began reviewing it.
"Good work, call the team back into the conference room." He handed the file back to her.
"Yes sir." She nodded and walked back out of the room.
"Alright everyone," Hotch was the last one to enter the room. "We have a small case in Scottsdale, JJ will brief us in a minute, once the case is done we're going to find our prostitute. JJ." Hotch sat down and let JJ take over.
A few days later the team was done with their case in Scottsdale. They were getting ready to go out and find a girl that would help them with McCaid. Hotch split the team up into groups. Hotch, Morgan and JJ went in one direction while Prentiss, Rossi and Reid went in another.
"Man all these girls are too trashy, too drugged up or too old." JJ complained.
"We have to keep looking. This has to get done." Hotch said watching out the window.
"There. What about that girl? She looks clean enough and young enough." Morgan pointed to a girl across the street standing by herself.
"She looks too young. Pull over there." Hotch instructed. Morgan did as he was told and the group climbed out of the truck.
"Excuse me Miss?" Morgan called out to her. She turned around, saw the three of them then began walking across the street.
"Wait." Morgan jogged after her.
"I'm waiting for a ride from a friend." She called over her shoulder.
"I bet you are." JJ whispered to Hotch.
"I just want to ask you a couple questions." Morgan caught up with her on the other side of the street.
"I'm with the FBI," He started when she stopped.
"I have to go." She started walking away again.
"If you don't come back and answer our questions, you'll be arrested for prostitution." Hotch hollered after her as she was more than twenty feet away.
She stopped. "What kind of questions?"
"I'm not yelling so you can come back here." Hotch pointed next to him.
She looked at all three of them warily before she walked back.
"How old are you?" Hotch asked.
"Old enough." She said avoiding answering the question.
"That's not what I asked." He was getting annoyed.
"Does this have anything to do with the questions you wanna ask me or do you just wanna know for yourself?"
"Either you tell me your age, or you'll be arrested." He threatened again.
"All you have to do is cooperate and you'll walk away from here." JJ advised her.
"Seventeen." She mumbled.
"And why are you out here doing this when you should be at home studying?" Morgan asked.
"That's personal and I'd really like to not answer that one if I don't have to."
"You don't. Like I was saying before, we're with the FBI and we're looking for someone to help us as an informant back in DC. An informant is someone-" Morgan said.
"I know what an informant is." She cut him off rudely. "What kinda information are you looking for? From who?"
"We suspect someone of smuggling some things and we need you to confirm it and to get proof."
"That sounds easy enough."
"So you'll do it?" JJ asked.
"I'd like to, except I don't think I'll be able to. I work for Liam Connolly. I doubt he'd let me leave, especially with a bunch of cops."
"We can convince him. We'll buy you out if we have to." Hotch said seriously.
"What's your name?" JJ asked.
"I go by, Rose."
"No what's your real name?" Hotch asked impatiently.
"Lily." Hotch quirked his eyebrow waiting for her last name. "Byrnes."
"JJ, call Garcia and see if she has any priors, Morgan call the others and tell them we found a prostitute. We'll meet them at the park." Hotch glared at Lily.
"I've never been arrested nor had a ticket before." Lily told Hotch.
"I don't trust people like you, so you're getting checked out before we agree to use you."
"Okay." She shrugged.
"She's clean." JJ said hanging up with Garcia.
"They're on their way." Morgan ended his call.
"Good, let's go." He signaled for everyone to follow him back to the truck. Lily hesitated and looked around to see if anyone she knew was watching.
"Let's go!" Hotch yelled at her.
"No need to be an asshole." She said to herself. Hotch heard her and stopped walking. Morgan and JJ continued past him to the truck.
"What did you say?" He challenged her once she caught up with him.
"Nothing." She kept her head down.
"Next time you have something to say, say it to me, don't mumble it behind my back, got it?"
"Yes." He took off walking again.
Twenty minutes later the team met up in the park.
"This is Lily Byrnes. She's seventeen and has agreed to work with us if we can get her out of her contract with a man named Liam Connolly." JJ told the others once they arrived. They greeted her.
"So we're good? We're going to buy her out?" Prentiss asked.
"How much does Connolly normally charge to buy one of his girls?" Rossi asked.
"I don't know. I know people have made offers but they never go through."
"Because of the price?" Reid asked.
"Probably." She shrugged. "Sorry guys, I've learned not to ask questions so I don't."
"That's okay, we'll let him name his price and work with that. Where can we meet him?" Morgan asked.
"1545 Landon Lane."
"Are you sure this is what you want to do? There's no telling how long you'll be undercover, you can't have contact with anyone, and you'll still be a prostitute." JJ wanted to clarify.
"At least I'll be helping someone." Lily shrugged.
"Alright, we'll give you some money for your time and we'll see you tomorrow night. One of us will be undercover trying to buy you so don't acknowledge us; act surprised. How late will you be out here tonight?" Rossi asked.
"Until three."
He then pulled some cash from his pocket, "Here's a few hundred bucks. One of us will bring you some paperwork for you to sign before then. Hang around the park area and we'll find you."
"What kinda paperwork?"
"Confidentiality paperwork." Hotch said. Lily only nodded and with that the team left her there.