PART 2
With a gasp Hotch hit the pause button.
It wasn't the first time he'd heard that sound come from another human being and it wouldn't be the last but hearing it from someone he knew was different. The victims he'd listened to in the past had been pieces of paper, statistics on a board. While he didn't yet have an emotional attachment to Emily Prentiss, he knew her in a way he didn't know other victims. He knew how she liked her coffee, the subtle scent of her perfume and shampoo, the way her fingers would move restlessly when deep in thought and the unconscious drawing of her bottom lip between teeth when weighing her options. The same way she would know his preferred aftershave and coffee and what the dent between his eyebrows meant. The way only a profiler could get to know someone. Quietly… through observation.
When he closed his eyes her guarded face flashed to the fore.
'She's right, you've never even blinked'
"That's…" Hotch couldn't look at Gideon.
"A lot…" Gideon paused and gathered his thoughts "The good news is he's not trying to kill her…"
Neither of them voiced the question of just how much she could take.
A knock at the door stopped Hotch from responding. When he called them in, it opened to reveal JJ with a heavy built man with dark hair.
"JJ go and help Garcia and Reid track down Louise Jones." The blonde nodded and left the room, closing the door behind her.
"Agent McAlister, I understand you're going to explain what an Irish weapons dealer wants with a profiler who's spent most of the last decade behind a desk in the midwest?" Gideon sat back and allowed Hotch to do the talking so he could watch the Scotsman.
"Agent's Gideon and Hotchner, neither of you are stupid enough to still believe that. The CIA faked her personal file with the Bureau. She wanted out… Clyde and I made sure it said the exact right thing for her to get whatever assignment she wanted."
"We theorised as much. Clyde? As in Clyde Easter?"
"Aye, he's on a flight from London and should be here in a few hours. He was Em's team leader in JTF-12… CIA, SIS, DCRI and BND… best and brightest, profilers chasing terrorists after 9/11. I was trying to get an Arms Dealer, Valhalla… brought them in much like local police do with your BAU. They found him, infiltrated his organisation and got us everything we needed to put him away… Em got out after that. Said it got too grey and dirty, I believe her exact words 'I want to be able to make a case without screwing someone'… three nights ago Doyle escaped custody… still not sure how and no one notified Clyde or me until yesterday."
"You came straight here to warn her?" Hotch was mildly surprised by the genuine fear he was seeing.
"Aye, she spent 8 months undercover as an Arms Dealer. Everything we have on Doyle is because of her… we killed her cover… there are maybe 10 people in the world who know the details and if Doyle has her then it'll be fairly easy to trace who his inside man is." Sean took a deep breath "Are you sure it's him?
Gideon wrote down the time code and restarted the DVD. He doesn't watch the video instead keeps keen eyes on McAlister. He knows the minute Emily's face comes into view as tears spring to the other man's eyes.
"She was out" Sean whispered "She was safe… I redacted everything myself… only our team knew she was here in DC…"
There was nothing Hotch or Gideon could say to that.
Gideon watched as McAlister took a deep breath and centred himself.
"From what we've seen so far Emily knows who has her and what he wants." Hotch fast forwarded the video to the moment where Emily identified her captor "Why would he go to all of this trouble for a housekeeper?"
"He wouldn't" Sean confirmed "unless Louise knows or has something he's desperate to get his hands on."
"Emily knows what it is and where it is and she may have even kept it out of her report. What would make her do that and how long before she breaks?" Hotch's voice hitches at the thought of her breaking.
"Emily's solid. There's very little she'd keep from the official reports. It has to be something… that wouldn't impact the case. Clyde…" Sean swallowed hard "Clyde's known her the longest. They've worked on several different OPS over the years. If anyone knows it'll be him… they used to joke about Emily and Clyde being the old married couple on the team… those old OPS… I don't know what happened during them but those two can almost read each other's minds. It's a sight to see them in the field together."
Hotch let his mind wander back to Emily's interactions with Jane. The Agent had shown a patience and empathy with the damaged woman that surprised them. While passionate and empathetic there was also a calculating coldness to Emily Prentiss that came out when they were discussing take down options.
"Now if you don't mind, I'd like to get back out there and find out who is killing these women… Sir!"
"How deep was she?" Gideon asked.
"Deep enough that Doyle fancied himself in love with her… not deep enough to lose herself." Sean admitted uncomfortably.
"That tracks with the anger we've seen so far" Gideon let his eyes close in realisation "His anger is that of a betrayed lover not business partner or rival…" it wasn't a question, Sean's comment about Emily wanting out had planted the seed.
Sean nodded and took a deep breath "Right… what do you need me to do?"
The three men looked up at the knock on the door, with Sean's help they'd managed to identify four of the men in the video.
"Come in" Hotch called as he made sure the screen wasn't viewable from the door.
"Sir" Garcia entered the office "We think Louise Jones is here in the states. She and Declan flew into Boston Logan 8 weeks after Doyles arrest, they've since dropped off the grid..." her gaze flickered to Sean unsure if she should say the next part in front of him.
"Also Sir's Reid noticed something..." she placed the most recent photo of Declan on the desk "he asked me to age Declan's photo and I didn't really understand why at first but then when I did it... well I'll let you see for yourself."
She placed the print out of Declan aged 35 and then one of Doyle the same age.
"We're pretty sure Declan is Doyle's son"
"Holy shit..." Sean murmured taking in the side by side and connecting the dates "Em mentioned meeting the housekeepers boy… said she enjoyed playing with him and she came back to the states two days before them. Clyde once said Emily would do anything to protect a child… this she would lie about."
"It make people distrustful and damages people" Hotch murmured "Protecting a child from the fall out."
"If this is correct then the boy is what Doyle is really after. Emily knows Declan's true identity as well as his location…" Gideon stared off into the distance "We find the housekeeper and the boy, we find Emily."
Garcia nodded and turned on her heel and started to leave the office
"Garcia..." Hotch called causing the blonde to stop and look over her shoulder "Start in Reston and its surrounds, look at school enrollments for Kindergarten, don't worry about hair colour, blue eyed boys, first name Declan."
"She'd want to be close enough to keep an eye on them but far enough away to ensure they don't cross paths accidentally." Gideon confirmed, his brain had been going over every interaction with Emily over the last two months, trying to work out what was the truth and what was a lie. He'd come to the conclusion that her smiles were real as was her laughter and the friendship she'd offered and accepted. Other than that she hadn't revealed enough of herself to be telling lies beyond the backstop she'd been given. He suspected even if it had been years the same would be true. If what he'd seen so far was true she would simply avoid subjects where she would be required to lie.
The tech analyst left the room and the three men turned back to the screen and pressed play again.
They'd made it through everything Hotch and Gideon had already seen and they'd all noted that time was skipping through. There were frequent jumps and changes in perspective making it nearly impossible to work out how much time had passed for Emily.
"I told you I'd make sure he was safe…" she was nearly sobbing as Ian held tightly to her left middle finger running the tip of a needle along the ridge of her bitten down finger nail. "And he is… he's safe from everyone, including you"
Emily had to have known what's Ian's response to her declaration was as while she groaned in pain there was no surprise on her face when he shoved the needle into the soft skin underneath what was left of her blunt nail.
Her breaths came hard and fast as Ian picked up the scalpel again.
"We don't negotiate with terrorists…" Emily gasped "and if you think there's anyone in this world who gives a flying fuck about what happens to me…"
Ian pushed the blade into the skin of her left ring knuckle and pulled it towards him slicing her finger open to the nail.
"You're wrong" Emily continued, her breaths coming faster as she attempted to push through the pain "Even if they could find him they wouldn't trade him for me…"
Sean leaned around Gideon and hit pause.
"I have a theory?" he paused for a moment to make sure his thoughts were in order "Doyle has to know she won't give Declan up. He knows that neither the US Government nor Interpol will negotiate with him so what's the point of this video?" both Gideon and Hotch caught his train of thought "It's to get us looking for Declan and Louise. Emily hid them away and won't tell him where they are so he grabs her, gives us enough information to start looking, I'm betting there are tails waiting to follow us to wherever we track them down to. He then grabs them in transit and disappears with the boy after dumping Emily and Louise's bodies for us to find."
"He wants to use our SOP against us." Gideon agrees. "Our teams will be watched so we can't use them, we'll need another way to get them to safety once we locate them."
"Here's another question…" Hotch spoke up after a moment of silence "Would Emily leave them unprotected? We know she wouldn't risk them by being too close but there will be someone who is watching them on her behalf." he reached out and picked up the phone to dial Garcia.
"Garcia… we need to to get into Prentiss' private phone and email. She'll be communicating with someone sporadically, getting updates on Declan and Louise…" he paused at the look Gideon was giving him.
"You probably won't find anything there" Gideon sighed "Prentiss won't have left an obvious trail between them but Morgan might find something in her condo that will help."
The phone was hung up and they turned back to the video.
"Hotch…" Morgan bit his lip as practiced eyes took in the living area "I'm telling you there is nothing personal about this condo. The furniture and appliances are brand new, there are no books or DVD's, the television isn't even plugged in. There's a single suitcase full of clothes and no personal photos, there's a couple of prints on the walls but it's all cheap generic stuff you get when you want nice artwork but can't afford nice artwork..."
"In other words it's a carefully constructed facade, chances are she has another place under a pseudonym and uses that condo as a pit stop in between." Gideon sighed heavily. "I think we need to test Sean's theory. Morgan come back to Quantico."
6 hours since he'd slipped the DVD into his computer.
They'd watched it through twice and had finally given in and sent it down to Garcia for her technical analysis, with a list of things they wanted enhanced.
The blonde had locked JJ and Reid out of her office while she did this.
With Sean's help they were profiling Doyle, Emily and the rest of JTF-12.
Unknown to him Gideon and Hotch were also profiling the Scotsman. If he was the mole that helped Doyle escape and gave away Emily's location what better way to cover his tracks than to be the first on her doorstep to warn her.
A phone beeped in someone's pocket stopping the discussion of the true relationship between Emily and Clyde. It took Sean a few seconds to check the message that had come through.
"Clyde's landing in 30 minutes" he informed the other four "Jeremy was fished out of the Rhone 10 kilometers south of Lyon last night. He'd been in there at least 48 hours and was killed by a bullet in the back of the head." on his tiredest day Gideon didn't believe he'd ever felt as bad as Sean looked right at this moment. "Tsia's in the air and will be here by midnight. The recordings of Doyle's interrogations should be in your inboxes any minute."
"Reid!" Hotch got the young Doctor's attention "You and Morgan go through the tapes he should be back any minute. JJ keep looking for that connection, someone in Emily's past she knows well enough to trust with Declan and Louise but removed enough to not be a consideration."
"Actually…" JJ highlighted a name "Tom Kohler was at Gar-Field High with Emily, they get together for dinner every New Years Day and have only missed a handful since graduating, including this one just gone. He works for the State Department and not 12 months ago bought a really nice 4 bedroom house out in Reston. For a single man with no children who travels a lot…"
"It's a blip." Hotch agreed "Get me his contact details."
When the number dropped through to his phone he went back up to his office to make the call in private and scowled when it went straight through to voicemail. While the message was playing he tried to come up with a good reason for calling.
"This is SSA Aaron Hotchner of the FBI. I need to speak with Tom Kohler, I believe he may have information regarding a cold case of ours. Please call me on 555 201 0273 as soon as possible."
Clyde Easter, Gideon decided was an arsehole. Admitedly he was an arsehole who cared a great deal about Emily Prentiss but still.
He had left Hotch and Sean to fill Clyde in on the contents of the video, instead sitting back to study the Brit.
"She can take it." Clyde glared at everyone in the room "Do not make the mistake of treating her like a china doll that needs to be coddled. She will kick you in the balls..." Clyde's hand came up to rub the bridge of his nose "and then break your nose"
"I'm guessing you know this from personal experience?" Gideon finally spoke, staring up at the Brit placidly.
"The first time I met Emily Prentiss was in 1996 during her first major undercover op. A human trafficking ring was taking western girls into Iran for sale throughout the middle east, girls in their late teens and early 20's grabbed from nightclubs throughout Europe. Emily got herself grabbed at a rave in Odesa and I was working the other end, had managed to get myself the job of teaching the girls basic Arabic, neither of our agencies had bothered to confirm if anyone else was running an op. The things she had to do to survive... she didn't once break cover... when Interpol broke up the ring she and I 'escaped' and joined up with Mujrim Almawt (The bringer of death) who we used to get a foothold into the arms market. The CIA and the SIS agreed to the joint operation." he sucked in his breath through his nose "if you think Ian Doyle has a hope in hell of breaking her then you're a fool."
"He's cut off two of her senses" Gideon's voice was low and emotionless "she's tied up, he's gouged a four leaf clover into her back and salted the wound, he's flayed the skin off her left ring finger and shoved needles under the nails of two others and when the video ended he was yelling for a car battery and you're telling me she can take it. You're telling me she'll come through this with a semblance of self intact, able to be in the dark, able to cope with silence?"
"Yes" Clyde refused to accept anything less "You think this is the first time she's been captured and tortured? Do you think this is the first time a man has used pain to try and break her, it's not. They haven't even started on sexual torture yet… she won't break… she'll die first."
"She's been tortured before…" Hotch's voice is toneless as his eyes flicker briefly to Gideon's.
"Yes." Clyde turned to stare out the window, unable to face these men who couldn't possibly understand the absolute faith he had in Emily Prentiss surviving anything and everything the world threw at her.
"You were there…" Hotch continued finally getting why Clyde was so sure "After Almawt you two struck out on your own and encroached on someone's territory… I'm guessing the two of you were grabbed and they tortured her to get you to cooperate."
"Yes…" Clyde paused and shivered as the memories washed over him "They had us for 20 days… they started with the psychological, sleep deprivation, and the cold… kept the temperature low enough to be uncomfortable without causing hypothermia and then once she started hallucinating from lack of food and sleep they started on the physical torture… they started small… ripped every single nail out of her hands and feet, used a mini ball peen hammer to fracture but not outright break the bones in her left ankle. She has nerve damage in her feet, she never told me what from. Then when none of that worked they took turns raping her… she didn't break…" Clyde's nostrils flared as her screams filled his head. "I know she didn't break because I was there… locked in in the cell beside her and I heard every single moment of it... every single scream." he blinked a few times and then turned back to face the room.
"When we missed our second check in they came looking for us. We were eventually rescued… so when I tell you she can take whatever that monster throws at her..."
"She can take it" Hotch repeated.
The room dropped into an oppressive silence as Sean, Hotch and Gideon added that to their mental profile of the woman they were looking for.
"So what are you doing to rescue her?" Clyde finally spoke again.
"Sitting half a mile down the road are two cars containing men we've identified on the tape. If we're right they're waiting for us to go out and get Declan and Louise. We believe their orders are to follow and intercept once we have them after that they'll be taken to Doyle. We're currently getting two safe houses set up with decoy's so we can arrest them when they try for the snatch. We're going to parade whoever we arrest past the ones remaining. One of two things will happen after that. They'll hightail it back to where ever Doyle and Prentiss are… with us following or they'll call Doyle not knowing we've already got a trap and trace on their phones and will be able to use them to find Doyle anyway."
"That sounds exactly like the kind of plan Doyle would put together." Clyde nodded as he ran scenarios through his head. "Can I suggest you send me with the team to the safe houses. They may be watching for me, Tsia or Sean and will therefore be more likely to follow the vehicle if one of us are in it."
Gideon and Hotch locked gazes for a minute.
"Agreed" Gideon nodded just as Hotch's phone rang in his pocket.
"Excuse me…" he stepped out of the room and answered as he strode towards his office.
"Hotchner…"
"Agent Hotchner, this is Tom Kohler returning your call." A masculine voice rumbled over the other end.
"Mr Kohler, thank you for calling me back." Hotch took a deep breath "When was the last time you spoke with Emily Prentiss?"
There was a telling pause on the other end. "It's been over a year" the other man admitted.
"Please just answer yes or no to this next question" Hotch and Gideon had debated on how to handle this part "The last time you saw her did she ask you to look after anything for her?"
Tom's breath hitched giving Hotch all the confirmation he needed "I'm guessing she also filled you in on why they needed hiding?"
"Yeah…" Tom's voice was weak.
"Emily has been compromised. Can all of you get to the Baltimore Field Office?"
"Yes."
"Go there and ask for SSA Josh Cramer. He'll make sure you're protected and won't tell anyone, even me where you are."
Then they waited, Clyde watched the video and the other three watched Clyde.
It was close to three hours later that Hotch received two calls within minutes of each other.
The first from Agent Cramer confirming Tom, Louise and Declan were with him at the field office.
The second confirming the safe houses and undercover agents were set up and ready to go. Hotch sent Morgan and JJ with Clyde and as they watched the elevator doors close on the 3 he turned to Gideon and murmured.
"Easter is hiding something."
"But McAlister isn't"
Time seemed to slow after that… they were in constant contact with the others but it didn't make the waiting any easier.
Finally word came back that their plan worked like a charm. One car had stayed and the other had followed, attempted an ambush and been arrested.
Not 30 seconds after they were paraded past the second car Garcia's excited voice echoed over the team. A call was being made, it was picked up and they all held their breath as the trace started to work and close in on their location.
5 seconds… 10… 20…. 25... 30 seconds and the marker settled on a section of Accokeek Creek 20 minutes south of Quantico.
The address had a big farmhouse abandoned and old.
And hopefully inside it was their team mate.
Gideon was the fourth person through the door of the storm cellar to see Emily Prentiss still shackled to the table, face locked in a grimace and head cocked towards them.
He would find out later she'd felt the vibrations of their boots on the floor and the change in the air when the door opened.
He holstered his gun as the SWAT team cleared the room and rushed up to her.
Knowing the only two senses she could rely on were scent and touch he leaned up close enough for her to hopefully realise by his smell he wasn't one of her captors and lifted a hand to trace out a letter on her cheek.
"G" her voice was barely audible as she sounded out every letter.
"i"
"d"
"e"
"o"
"n"
"Gideon?"
He gently traced a 'Y' on her cheek. Her head dropped and all of the residual fight left her body as another pained sob echoed through the room.
She flinched when one of the SWAT officers undid her legs, he stepped close enough to wrap his arms around her as they worked on her hands. Once they were no longer in place they slid the chair away from the table and her entire body weight slumped down onto him, he let them slide gently to the floor, she clenched her jaw against the agony the change in position caused. JJ knelt down next to them with a blanket which she draped over Emily's front.
The brunette flinched again at the second pair of hands, copying Gideon the media liaison traced out two J's.
"JJ"
Tucking her filthy hair behind her ear Gideon checked the ear canal to see if there was a quick way to remove whatever was obstructing it to allow her to at least hear what was going on. He could see what looked like a set of noise reduction plugs sealed over with a clear adhesive stopping him from removing them.
Placing a finger on her chin he turned her face toward him to check her eyes, the were red and irritated but he couldn't see anything to wrong enough to stop her from being able to see.
"Contacts" she rasped finally understanding what he was doing "I can feel them in there." Now that he was close enough he could see instead of their natural dark brown her eyes were solid black.
At the door two paramedic's were let through with a stretcher. One knelt next to JJ and reached out to Emily only to be stopped by Gideon before he could make contact.
"Wait..." he instructed, patiently spelling out 'medic' for Emily letting her know what was happening.
"You'll stay with me?" she asked in a trembling voice he never thought to hear come from Emily Prentiss. Holding her bloody hand up to his own face Gideon nodded, JJ again copied his action.
"I didn't break" she promised "I didn't… but I might need a couple a days off… I'm kinda tired" she didn't fight the paramedic as he slid an oxygen mask over her face and while the other searched for a usable vein.
"Good luck… I'm pretty dehydrated… haven't even peed in a while…" she could tell what the fingers were probing for on the back of her hand.
"Hey Gideon… I'm gonna have a nap now…?" she didn't even wait for a response before passing out.
She missed the paramedic finally finding a vein, Hotch, Morgan and Reid making their way into the room with Clyde and Sean and taking in where her blood had pooled and congealed for several days. The worried glances and utterances of her dangerously high body temperature in the cold basement room.
There were too many injuries to tell where the infection was.
It didn't take them long to get Emily strapped to the gurney.
"Ride with her…" Gideon instructed JJ "She does not leave your sight. If she goes to X-Ray you go to X-Ray, if she goes to surgery you scrub in. As of this moment she is in protective custody and must be in sight of an FBI Agent until I say otherwise."
With over half his men dead and what they hoped was the rest in custody along with Doyle the danger to Emily was minimal but Gideon and Hotch didn't want to take any chances.
In the background Hotch was on the phone to Bethesda warning them an agent was being brought in and her protective detail was to be in the same room as her at all times.
Following the gurney with an unconscious Emily, JJ climbed into the ambulance absently noting Clyde stopping one of the paramedics and whispering something in her ear, the blonde tried to make herself as small as possible in the corner as the paramedic worked.
She listened as they rattled Emily's stats over the radio to the waiting ER doctors, pulse was thready and erratic along with a dangerously low BP and incredibly high body temperature.
Despite several hospitals being closer none could match the security that Bethesda offered. When they finally pulled in nearly an hour later JJ trailed behind the gurney as they rushed Emily to one of the treatment rooms and tucked herself into a corner.
JJ watched as they cleansed the already healing but infected wound in Emily's back and fought back the tears when the pattern became clear.
From what she caught of the chatter from the Doctors and Nurses, by themselves, none of Emily's injuries were life threatening. When they confirmed she had quickly stablised once they started re-hydrating her the specialists started to trail in… an opthamologist to remove the contacts, an ENT specialist to remove the earbuds and on it went. Through the whole thing Emily remained blissfully unconscious, JJ caught on they weren't too worried about it at this point. Between the exhaustion, dehydration, injuries and painkillers it was better for her to not be awake.
END PART 2