They had spent a boring day at the office, dealing with the usual amount of paperwork, that covered their desks. Only Spencer was nearly finished and looked around the office. Emily and Morgan sitting at their desks buried in dozens of papers and Hotch and Rossi working in their office, JJ was at lunch with Garcia. He made himself a cup of coffee and took place at his desk again continuing with his work on this uneventful day.
He could hear laughter and suddenly someone grabbed his shoulders pulling him in a hug.
"There he is, how're you doing wonder boy?" Garcia ruffled his hair with her hand while JJ watched them laughing.
"I guess you had a nice lunch." It wasn't really a question he straightened in his chair, standing up to face JJ and Garcia while he tried to fix his hair.
"We sure had, this day is so boring we needed a break before Garcia could get depressed." JJ watched Reid who still tried to whip his hair out of his face, JJ couldn't stand watching him so she got closer to him stroking his hair upwards. In no time his hair stopped covering his face.
"Thanks JJ." Reid blushed like he always did… anytime.
"Mommy to the rescue ." Morgan and Emily approached them.
"Stop teasing him cupcake, at least he got some hair for me to destroy and it's softer than any woman's hair I know, I wish I knew you secret honey." Garcia looked jealous in Reid's direction before bursting out of laughter.
"I'm hurt" Derek pouted playfully.
Hotch exited his office and smiled at his team, knowing they would be happy to leave the office but only until they knew what their new case was about.
"Guys we have a case." as he expected they walked eagerly in the direction of the conference room, not knowing what would expect them.
"What is it Hotch?" they had taken place in the conference room gathering around the massive table in the middle of the room.
"A letter was sent in, addressed to the team of the BAU."
"It's unusual that we are addressed personally, do you think the unsub is targeting us?"
"I guess we are not the targets but a player in his game, he sees us as his opponents."
Reid grabbed the letter and within seconds he lifted his head.
"Hotch is right, in this letter the unsub announces that he will hid a bomb and he challenges us to find it before it detonates. It says he hid it under an angels' wings where everyone could witness its greatness."
"Under and angels' wings ? A church maybe…"
"It might be a church, but today is tuesday and today is no special holiday in any religion and the unsub wrote that everyone could witness its greatness, so I guess it isn't a church but we can't be sure…" Hotch's voice was confident and steady but he was insecure. If the bomb could be witnessed by everyone there would be many injured people maybe even worse, if they couldn't stop it before it goes off.
"Garcia I want you to check every church that is placed in a location with a high population around. And we will work on the profile and try to find out which other place the unsub could mean with "under an angel's wings"."
They all reacted immediately, Garcia left the conference room while Reid reread the letter and the others worked on the profile.
"We know that the unsub is confident and organized. He thinks he is invincible and that's the reason why he chooses us to be his opponent, it is known that our unit is one of the best units of the whole country. He is sure that we would never be able to catch him."
"This whole thing is just a game for him…"
"But what does he mean with an angel's wings?"
"I don't think this is about a church, the angel is a metaphor, but for what…"Reid was frustrated and exited the conference room to get some coffee when his phone rang suddenly.
"This is Dr. Spencer Reid, who is there?"
"It doesn't matter who I am, my identity is not relevant." A raspy voice brought a chill down his spine.
"What do you want?"
"Oh I want nothing… it is you who wants something from me…"
"What is this about?"
"Oh just about an angel…"
"You are the guy who sent us the riddle?"
"I certainly am. I called to give you a hint, a hunt is no fun without a hunter."
"I'm listening."
"Well, an angel is something innocent and at the place where an angel is able to fly you will find my little present."
"What do you mean? Where is an angel able to fly?"
"That's for you to find out Doctor." Reid had to control himself not to throw his phone against the wall, his friends had watched him with concern in their eyes.
Without a word he entered the conference room telling his team what the unsub had told him.
"He stressed that an angel is a symbol of innocence, what is something innocent for a man like him?" Emily and the others were clueless of what to do.
"I don't think it is about what is innocent for him specifically but for everyone…" – Reid stared at the board in the conference room "of course that's it." Reid started to look at the map, starting to sketch some weird symbols on it until he landed on a green space on the map.
"Reid did you figure something out?" Hotch knew Reid's expression, his eyes were unfocused but still clear, you could watch how his brain connected all the gathered information in his head while his hands were too slow to react to the amount of information, so his movements got hectic and fast.
Finally Reid turned around with a look of enlightenment and pride in it, but there was also a part of him that looked nearly terrified.
"The unsub talked about something innocent… it is common knowledge that nothing is more innocent than a child. A child is the symbol of pure innocence, often a child is called "angel" by his parents – so with angel the unsub meant a child."
"But where is an angel able to fly?"
"Well think about it. A child is obviously not able to fly, but there is a situation in which children are as close to flying as possible for them –they enjoy it because they feel free, it's like flying."
"A swing."
JJ looked at nothing specific, she remembered how Henry once played on a swing and called her to watch him flying, on the way home he had asked her if birds felt the same way he did when he was on the swing, he told her it must be so cool to fly like that all the time.
"Exactly, so we are searching for a place with wings, a public place where the bomb would trigger an enormous panic." He waited for them to connect what he just said before he pointed at the green space on the map.
"This park is in the center of the city, it is always well visited usually by families with their children."
"This is it, we need to act immediately. I call the state police and the bomb SWAT. We will head to the park in five."
Hotch hurried in his office while the officers got ready for the operation, in silence.
Their thoughts were by the families who spent their free time in the park, the children playing and some people sitting on a bench reading the newspaper in their break. If a bomb went off in this park it would be devastating.
a new chapter, I actually wanted to update after a few days maybe a week but your feedback made me so happy that I couldn't wait to show you more of this story, so keep up telling me your opinion and see what happens ;)
I don't own Criminal Minds.