Chapter 1
The wind brushes softly over her slightly rosy cheeks, the clouds above her cluster together, grey and ready to rain, the water of the River Themes below her apartment in Docklands flows through its current, a continues journey through London, she looks to the lonely, rusty, industrial cranes that sit along the banks by the abandoned factories from London's industrial movement. The wood under her feet is damp from the spring dew. She turns around as she takes a sip of the coffee she is holding in her right hand, the gentle black liquid rushes through her body warming her. She smiles as she crosses the threshold of the balcony door, into the brightly lit London flat, the soft carpet against her feet a change from the damp wood of the balcony floor, the flat is neatly decorated, pictures and few personal positions are positioned nicely, none of her previous team. There is no ill will between Emily and the other members of the BAU since she left but she misses them dearly, so much so she can't keep reminders of having them around. Even that one mission with Garcia was enough for Emily to become an emotional wreck when she left her at Heathrow Airport's Terminal Three.
She Crouches her knees, going to the level of her cat; Sergio, a black cat she adopted while she was living in DC. She had to wait three months before he could enter the United Kingdom, but it was worth it to have those nights curled up on the sofa with him while watching some drama on TV or binge-watching Netflix on the weekend, a rarity but it is something Emily adores. Emily stands up, she sips her coffee again as she strolls over to her sofa just by the balcony door facing a TV mounted on a wall with a coffee table just in front of her enough, so Emily could rest her feet. Emily rests back, she sighs putting her feet up. Sergio jumps up onto the arm of the black leather sofa. Emily opens one eye and tilts her head slightly to the left. She reaches and scratches under his chin, he purrs as he climbs onto her lap. Emily lets the small black cat become comfortable before she closes her eyes leaning back against the sofa. It has been a trying week for Emily, while she was used to traveling all over Europe assisting whichever agency needs her and her team it took a toll on the Interpol Agent. She has seen things that would give the everyday person nightmares but since her time in Interpol she has experienced child trafficking, drug smuggling, people at their most vulnerable, and somethings that just left her awake at night, looking at the ceiling, her mind swinging from side to side, no peace, only the faces of those she couldn't help or save.
Seemingly alone in the slight unconsciousness of reality, dosing in and out of her dreams she is suddenly awakened by the sound of her phone ringing. Emily slowly sits up as Sergio jumps off of her chest, she reaches for her phone which is by her foot on the coffee table. She groans when she sees the name on the phone. Sliding across the screen she places the phone to her ear.
"Prentiss…I'm on my way." She says before hanging up. She looks at the cat who sits on her lap in front of her she smiles as he head-butts her hand. She leans forward and kisses the top of his head. "I'm sorry, buddy. Mrs. Kaine will check on you." She says as she stands up allowing him to jump off her lap.
The sun shines down on the glass building of the London branch of Interpol. The sounds of London bounce off the tall buildings, people clamber out of the underground station, walking along the pavements of central London. Emily approaches the steps ascending as busy Londoners and other Interpol agents descend. She pushes open the large glass front door stepping forward through the threshold into the clean and prestige, heavily guarded building. One guard stands by the ID barriers, another by the reception desk and the last one by the front door, all holding guns. Emily smiles at the woman behind the desk as she scans her ID card into the barriers. They open with a slight screeching sound that makes Emily wince slightly. She passes through the threshold walking over to the elevator. She reaches forward, presses the silver button pointing up, and waits for the elevator to arrive. Her attention is soon drawn to her left, coming from the parking lot in the lower level. A familiar clicking of high heels, Emily smiles at the woman approaching, Erika Olsen, small, long brown hair, blue eyes, she wore a suit with a skirt, not common for an Interpol agent. She carried a cup of Starbucks coffee, an obsession of hers.
"Good morning, Erika" Emily says turning to face the elevator again.
"And to you." The soft Norwegian accent replied.
"Any idea what this is about?" Emily asks glancing to her friend.
"Being called in on a Sunday. It's something big." She says as the doors open and they both step inside.
The doors open on the brightly lit Interpol office, the room is similar to the BAU, surrounded by desks, an upper platform where the office of the unit chief, Toby Rush, sits. Off to the right another door leading to a briefing room, various boards surround the room, some blank, others containing cases. Emily and Erika walk out of the elevator into the main office of MIS, the Major Incident Squad. Emily frowns as Toby emerges from his office wearing his signature blue suit, his face is stern, his brow furrowed, and his walk charged. Emily watches as he walks into the office just next to his. Her attention is drawn over her shoulder as Lily Cambell, a petite woman with long blond hair tied back in a ponytail wearing a pants suit, Dr. Arnie Long, a French behavioural psychologist, a small chubby man, who always wore a sweater, same design, different colour, today he's wearing purple, with brown pants, and Charlie Murphy, a broad Scotsman, stunningly handsome and strong, he preferred wearing tight t-shirts and jeans, thinking of himself as somewhat of a ladies man.
"What's this about?" Lily asks walking into the office and stopping at her desk.
"I have no idea, Harley sounded slightly frantic on the phone." Erika replies sitting down at her desk opposite Arnie's.
Harley Dowe, the team's coordinator, tried his best not to contact them on Sundays unless it something serious. Since they would always be in the middle of something terrifying during the week, Harley was always sure to give them the one day they get off some peace and somewhat of a normal life.
"Was you having a good Sunday?" Charlie asks walking over to the coffee table over on the right side of the room.
Erika shrugs. "I was on a date."
Emily smirks. "Date?" She raises an eyebrow.
"Yeah, it was nothing. Just lunch" She says waving her hand dismissively.
Toby emerges from Harley's office carrying a pile of files under his chin. His brow still furrowed, sweat beads appearing on his upper lip. He walks down the steps towards the desks placing them on the first one available, he stands up fully panting slightly.
"Okay everyone, take a file. This is a big one! Harley said he'll be here in a couple of hours, he's driving from Manchester." He says walking over to the large computer screen turning it on.
A file appears on the screen of the Bank of England, the Bank of Scotland, Banque de France, Banco de Espana, and Banca d'Italia. Toby stands in front of them, he turns, flustered. He takes a deep breath as Charlie approaches him handing him a cup of coffee. Using the remote in his right hand he points it at the TV as the file appears in front of them.
"Alright, these are all important national banks, Bank of England, Bank of Scotland, Bank of Italy, France, and Spain. In the last 24 hours, all of these banks have been electronically hacked and their funds drained." Toby explains.
Emily frowns. "But, the amount of money-"
"Would be in the billions" Erika finishes.
"The hacking has since taken a darker turn." Toby explains as he points the remote at the TV. "As of six – am this morning, Scotland Yard and Interpol's files were hacked as well as MI5 and the CIA, the list of these names have been targeted, Harold Colins – born in Newcastle, wanted for child exploitation, Teevan Doyle, born in Dublin, arrested in Croatia for three accounts of rape, two accounts of first degree murder, he alluded authorities by escaping the country on foot, Interpol have been after him for eight months and Vlad Petrov – A Russian extremist whom has one more than one occasion attempted a terrorist attack in the USA, since his last attempt seven months ago he was put on the CIA watch list but has since vanished." He takes a breath "No – one knows what all these things have in common only that it all happened within 24 hours, the subject left no trace of himself online or anywhere, he's possibly working for others and there could be more than one."
"So what's the plan?" Charlie asks.
"the plan is, my friend, Erika and Emily are heading to Italy and then to Russia – there's been a link in the codes between those two local police in St Petersburg are attempting to narrow in on Petrov, who has been sighted in the city within the last two days, once you're finished in Italy you'll head to Russia to question him." He looks at Charlie and Lily "You two will goto Spain and speak with local authority and check he files on Harold Collins." He turns his attention to Arnie "When Harley arrives you two are heading to France, same thing, make a connection, look into the code and local authority while you're there you'll be looking at Doyle."
Arnie nods in agreement.
"Fantastic. Let's get going then, I will be here doing all the digital work so if you need something searched it's me you call this time. Emily's friend has been sent back to the USA."
They all start to stand up. "You know we should just hire for that position." Emily smirks.
"Yeah, but it's a job we can all do…well except you, if you had been MI5, Norwegian National Guard, or French Intelligence trained you would be a code breaker too…" He grins.
Emily rolls her eyes. "Nerds." She says as she starts to walk off.
"We're nerds? I've seen your Netflix list, Emily!" Charlie shouts after herself and Erika.
The hustle of London's Heathrow Airport, the loud holiday makers in patterned flip-flops, loud jewellery, screaming and shouting attempting to control their overly hyperactive off-spring, in a spring April. Women wearing bikini tops, tank tops, crop tops, and tube tops, men wearing, short shorts, and socks with sandals. Duty Free packed with assorted perfumes and chocolates, overly enthusiastic staff ready to serve at a moment's notice. Overpriced Apple products that always made Emily scoff whenever she saw this. She always asks herself; Why would someone all of a sudden need an iPod at the airport? Emily hates the airport, it isn't like the DC national airport, small, compact, easy to locate anything you needed. It was rare the BAU went through the terminal but when they did Emily found it easy to say the least. However, Heathrow's winding hallways, many stores, people, staff and signs is almost daunting to the Interpol agent. Emily always felt on edge at Heathrow, it isn't the safest place in the world. It is too open. She often finds herself scanning the crowd for a potential terrorist until she would feel the soothing hand of her friend, Erika on her forearm. Emily turns and smiles, suddenly, she feels grounded again.
"You okay?" Erika asks not knowing the favour she is doing for her friend.
"Yeah. Fine." Emily smiles in reply as they walk over to a vacant waiting area. "Hey, I have a question for you." Emily says as she sits down. "How did you learn to code?" she asks resting her elbow on the back of the chair and turning to face the small Norwegian woman with beautiful green eyes and a delicate smile.
"Well…" She began as she frowns slightly. "It started when I as in the NNG Academy, one of the classes we have to take is coding and hacking since we deal with a lot of cybercrimes now." Erika explains.
"See when I joined the FBI I didn't need to do that, we had Garcia for that." Emily chuckles.
"Well, not every agency has a Garcia." Erika smirks resting her head on Emily's shoulder and closing her eyes.
Emily turns her head to face Erika. "And not every agency has an Erika." She says softly with a smile.
"Ah, so that's why you're-" Erika is cut off by the sound of shouting coming from the terminal.
Emily looks up as Erika lifts her head off of Emily's shoulder. "What's going on?" Emily asks looking into the terminal as people start to scream and shots open on the airport.
"Oh my god it's a shooting!" Erika says standing up. "Our guns are checked!" She groans.
"Come on! We have to find something."
Erika and Emily quickly stand, they lower themselves close to the floor as they slowly crouch towards one of the many clothes shops. The terminal was so large, it was easy to get lost. Their objective was to get to the guard station, there they would have something they could use to defend themselves against whoever was shooting the terminal. Emily and Erika move through the clothes shop, pushing aside various hanging t-shirts and shorts, they take cover at the back of the store behind the counter, when they look up their eyes fall on a terrified sixteen-year-old girl, holding her head, sobbing as she's crouched down. Emily takes out her cell phone, and places it to her ear.
"Rush – We're at Heathrow Airport, a shooting has just started."
"A shooting?" Rush replies on the phone. "Okay, let me get eyes on you. Which terminal?"
"Terminal two." Emily replies.
"Okay, I got the terminal, where are you, exactly?"
"We're in…" Emily peeks over the counter to the shop name. "Top Shop at Heathrow." She says ducking back behind the counter.
"Okay got you! I've got response teams on the way, the others went to Gatwick and Luton, I'm calling them back to London office now! Stay put."
"We can't stay put! There are people dying! We have to get to a guard station!"
He sighs on the other end of the phone. "Alright. Give me a second…" A moment feels like an eternity. Emily's heart is pounding in her chest. "Okay, there seems to be a backway out of the store, head out and then north for about half a kilometre and then there's a security door, when you get there I'll bypass it." He explains.
"Got it!" Emily says hanging up the phone and turning to Erika. "Lets go!" She says as she moves carefully to the back door.
Erika turns to the young girl. "Stay put, stay quiet." She flashes her Interpol badge. "You'll be okay." She smiles softly.
