AN: Welcome to the second chapter of Wendigo! Thank you for reading so far, I hope you like the upcoming chapter. Thanks to Nymphadora-CullenBAU for her wonderful review, alert, and favorite! And thanks to Ashika04 for alerting this story as well! :)
Disclaimer: I do not own Criminal Minds or any of its characters they belong to CBS. I do not own Covert Affairs or any of its characters they belong to USA.
Synopsis: An cannibalistic Unsub brings the BAU to Minnesota, but their investigation is hampered by an team from the 'CIA'.
Warnings: Gore, death, slight sexual situations, violence, swearing, slight Reid/OC
Chapter Two: Insatiable
Last Time:
"They were eaten, could it be ritualistic cannibalism? Some sort of fantasy for the Unsub?" Ried asked.
"We'll discuss it more on the plane." Hotch said, while Emily groaned and added, "I was hoping we wouldn't have to deal with a cannibal again."
"Wheels up in half an hour." Their unit chief added, heading out of the room.
Starbucks in the Washington National Airport:
"But you lost that right when David Rossi—" Clink! The cup that Rachel had just about to take a sip out of came down harshly on its saucer. So hard that the coffee within dribbled over the sides and onto her fingers. But, she was beyond caring at this point, all she wanted was the glare she was giving Jai to melt the flesh off his face. "Sorry…"
The apology didn't even appease the CIA agent, and Rachel got up, shouldering her own bag, "I'll see you on the plane…"
Start:
The plane landed at Bemidji Regional Airport, a chilly 31 degrees being the first thing to greet the team as they stepped out of the terminal to the cars that would take them to Cass Lake. "I hate the cold…" JJ muttered, shivering in her coat. And from the airport, 45 minute drive into the small town of Cass Lake. Reid took in the couple of women who were standing at the corner, muttering to themselves and talking to each other in hurried whispers. Tension was thick in the air as the team trooped into the police station. It was a small space, there had only been four police cars parked in front of the station and there were no more than a little over a dozen inside. One of the officers, a stout man with thick red hair and a mustache walked over to them, hand extended, "Welcome to Cass Lake. I'm Sheriff Carl Jordan."
"Unit Chief Arron Hotchner."
The sheriff walked with shoulders back, and had a firm grip, but there was fear in his eyes as he looked at Arron Hotchner. "I didn't know that they were going to be sending so many people."
"I assure you that my team will be able to work best in a group, we will do everything we can to help you solve this case." Hotchner said, "We recognize that our presence is unsettling, but you did ask for our help."
Carl gave a heavy sigh and looked over at the other members of the team, while Hotch introduced them, "This is Special Agents Prentiss, Jerau, Morgan and Rossi. And this is Dr. Spencer Reid."
Jordan nodded, "The rest of your team is in a room in the back." He motioned for the group to follow, but stopped when he realized that no one was coming with him.
"The rest of my team?" Hotchner asked, frowning, "I'm not sure what you mean. Did they send another team from the FBI?"
Emily and Derek exchanged puzzled glances when the sheriff shook his head, "No. These guys say they are from the CIA."
The group followed Carl to the back room, now the over edginess of the situation made sense; there was already a group here. The citizens of Cass Lake were being overwhelmed by the large about of government personnel invading their once quiet lifestyle.
"Why the hell is the CIA here?" Emily muttered to the other agents under her breath.
"Beats me." Rossi breathed back, as they walked into the room, "But it can't be good."
Inside there were only a couple of people: a man and a woman. The man was tall with dark skin and thick black hair. He was standing near a desk, looking at the images of the slaughtered Conrad family on the screen, "Almost makes me want to be a vegetarian myself…" He muttered, then turned at the sound of the BAU entering the room.
The woman had long blonde hair, which was pulled back into a tight pony-tail on the back of her head. She smiled warmly at the group as they came in. Carl looked around the room, "Where did the other one go?"
"She offered to go grab coffee." The man said, striding around the desk to walk towards the profilers, "Welcome agents."
He offered his hand and Hotch was slow to take it, but kept his eyes locked on the other man's. For a moment it seemed like the two men were trying to crush one another's fingers, but then both let go.
"What is the CIA doing here?"
"No introductions? Very well, my name is Jai Wilcox, this is my fellow Agent Annie Walker. We are here because we believe that the murderer is one we have been searching for, for a very long time." Jai said, shifting to cross his arms. Annie waved at them from her place at a large table in the middle of the room; she was setting up some stacks of paper.
"Do you mind giving us a minute alone?" Jai asked Carl, who just looked grateful that he wasn't going to be having to witness the struggle for power between Jai and Hotch. The sheriff left without a word, closing the door behind him.
"The CIA isn't supposed to operate within United States soil." Hotchner countered.
Jai raised an eyebrow, "Did I ever say that we were here just for the CIA?"
"Don't you dare complain, Wilcox. The only thing they had available was straight black." Said a familiar voice as an even more familiar figure came into the room.
"I'm assuming that you know Agent Lindell." Jai said, unaffected by the strange tension that seemed to swarm the room along with Rachel's presence. Emily stared at Reid, he looked… surprised but in more of a hurt way before turning her gaze to Rossi, he just looked disappointed. Both men had known Rachel and while it seemed that they didn't know she was part of… whatever the hell this was they weren't very shocked. The young woman in question didn't so much as blink as she walked past them as set the little tray of coffees on the table the agent called Annie was standing by.
Rachel turned and walked right up to Hotch and held out a hand, "It's good to officially meet you Agent Hotchner."
"Excuse me… but what the hell is going on here?" Derek said, watching Rachel with suspicion, "Who are you guys?"
"That's something I'd like to know as well Miss Lindell." Hotch said, shaking Rachel's hand.
Rachel stepped away from Hotch, "Perhaps now is not the best time. You all will be read in shortly, but for now all you need to know is that we are here to operate as a CIA extraction team if the man you are looking for is the suspect we are seeking to apprehend."
Derek and Hotch looked like they wanted to argue for more information but Rossi held out a hand, "Let's get this out of the way first. Families are in danger right now because there is a cannibalistic killer on the loose."
"Rossi is right… tell us about the man you are looking for." Emily said, as they all settled down at the table. Jai turned to the screen set up behind them and pointed to a shot of a man. The man had thin, short cut pale red hair with drown eyes. In the picture he was healthy looking, wearing an jacket and tie, shaking hands with someone in front of what looked like a school, "This is Peter Roux, a French professor of literature. Five years ago he vanished from the university he had been working at, no warning, just up and left his job after mailing a letter of resignation. He sold his house, divorced his wife, and as far as we were able to learn, bought a house in the mountains. For three years he kept to himself, pissed off a lot of people in the educational community, but pretty much stayed out of everyone's way."
"How is he connected to our killer?" JJ asked, looking at the picture.
"During those three years people went missing in the mountains, but French authorities were never able to find any evidence. When detectives started really looking at him because of his secluded lifestyle he began to spend more time in towns… people who knew him stated that he had changed, become more violent and aggressive even though physically he seemed sickly."
"Authorities discovered many writings when they were able to gather enough evidence to search the house, all these writings concerned thoughts of transforming into a monster, his diaries indicated that he was obsessed with thoughts of consuming human flesh, of constantly being hungry, constantly starving. However, when they finally moved in to arrest him Roux had vanished. However, before he left he became very sloppy, leaving some of his 'food containers' had been left open… a few were identified as the missing tourists and families from the area… We believe that for the past two years he has been in hiding here in the United States."
"He came here?" Emily asked, frowning, "How did he get through the airports?"
"There is a strong suspicion against this man," Jai clicked a button on a little remote and a second picture appeared on the screen, opposite Roux. This man had salt and pepper colored hair that was cut short and slightly curly. His face was also only slightly lined with age and he was well built with pale blue eyes, "Patrick Tsaro had him privately moved. They were old friends, Patrick is well connected in France, is incredibly wealthy, and he's the ambassador to the United States for France. His position would make it easy to fly Roux out here along with him in a private plane and claim. Tsaro would claim that he was coming over here for business and Roux could pull a vanishing act… So, for now, his diplomatic immunity keeps us from touching him. That's why we need to find Roux so badly, to get him to flip on Tsaro… since we also think Roux isn't the only criminal Tsaro has helped flee prosecution. Some former members of the French police force had also been trying to build cases against Tsaro for being involved in drug and prostitution rings before they were removed from their jobs for various reasons and the cases dropped…"
A short silence followed this little speech before Hotch spoke up, "While this information is very helpful and we will look for Roux, we would like to present our own profile and compare it."
Jai looked like he was about to protest but Annie spoke up, "That will work… we don't even have absolute proof that the guy killing people here is Roux."
"Let's get started shall we?" Rossi said, getting up from the table, the two groups filed out of the room. Reid stuck to the back since he noticed Rachel lingering. Glancing back as the others left them behind he asked, "Is this why you didn't want to tell me anything? You're a CIA agent?"
Rachel didn't look him in the eye, and her fingers tightened around the files she was holding, "It's more complicated than that… I'm sorry Spencer." She pushed past him and walked out to the main room where a group of officers were waiting for a profile to be released.
Quantico, Virginia:
Garcia typed away on her keyboard when her phone began to ring. Smiling she hit the answer button and said cheerfully, "Speak and be heard mortal."
"Well that's a unique greeting."
Penelope frowned at the unfamiliar voice, "Who is this?"
"Ah, my name is Auggie. I'm told that you are the BAU's talented technical analyst, Penelope Garcia."
"Aww…" Garcia said, "You sound sweet, but how did you get this number Auggie?"
"I guess you could say that I'm the you for the CIA… looks like our two teams are going to be working together. And I must say, I'm rather jealous that they get to work with someone as beautiful as you."
"And how do you know what I look like?"
"I don't… quite literally. I'm blind."
"Oh!" Garcia gasped, "I am so sorry… can I ask how it happened?"
"A story for another time, right now my people wants me to dig up everything I can about a guy named Patrick Tsaro. I'm going to try to get everything I can via international intel, think you can handle the domestic?"
"I am light years ahead of you Auggie."
The two computer geeks began typing away furiously at their keyboards.
Cass Lake Police Station:
"We believe the Unsub we are looking for is a white male in his mid to late thirties. He is of high intelligence, capable of looking the part of a lost traveler, but is able to survive in harsh conditions." Hotch said, looking at the officers.
"This man also has a fixation on eating human flesh, he believes that this is the only thing that can satisfy him, under such a delusion he will not stop looking for what he considers food… that is until we catch him." Reid added, "This consumption might be an outlet for his inability to deal with an event in his past such as abuse. Albert Fish consumed the flesh of his victims among many other things and it was discovered that he had been abused as a child. So, look for people who have histories of self-abuse and abuse in their childhood."
"We believe that this man is Peter Roux, a French professor who was consumed by the idea of eating human flesh, he vanished when French authorities attempted to pursue him and we believe that he headed to the United States to escape prosecution." Jai stepped in.
"However, this does not mean that Roux is our man, and keep your eyes open for anything else that might lead us to the Unsub." Hotch countered. Those few statements had the men glaring at each other, clearly wishing the other nothing but ill.
Annie leaned over to Derek and Emily, "Ten bucks Jai pulls some sort of CIA royalty stunt to get over your boss?"
Derek smirked and took Annie's hand, "Deal. He hasn't seen Hotch in action yet."
The outbreak of snickers and the uncomfortable shifting of policemen seemed to pull the two alphas out of their glaring contest. All of this went completely unnoticed by Reid, who was watching a couple of police officers at the back. They were of Native American decent, one old the other young. The elder kept trying to move forward and the younger held him back. Spencer walked over to the two of them as JJ ended the meeting by promising to release more information as soon as possible, "Is everything all right?"
"Y-yes." The younger officer said, "My grandfather here is just being superstitious. Gets his head wrapped up in the clouds, he thinks the killer is some sort of monster… come on." As the grandfather was led away he heard him mutter a single word, "Wendigo."
Where had he heard that before…?
"Reid."
The sound of his name made the young doctor turn, "Hmm?" Hotch beckoned him to enter the back room with the rest of the group again.
Jai, Annie and Rachel were standing at one side of the table, the BAU on the other. "Before we start looking for the Unsub, it would be best if we fully read in your team." Rachel said, her demeanor somewhat more confident than it had been previously. She was in her element, Reid realized, she'd done this many times before.
"How many of you have heard the term Blackrock before?"
AN: WHOOOO! Another chapter done... at 130 AM... T.T I feel like writing these late at night are a blessing and a curse, I write and write... but I feel like a ramble... ANYWAY, please review, favorite or alert. It makes us authors feel special. :) Next chapter: (11/28) Feasting, Wendigo attacks another family and the team finally learns about Blackrock. How will everyone deal with this new information?