Chapter 2 Chapter 2: The Silent
(based upon the TV Series Criminal Minds)
(I do not own Criminal Minds, all characters are from Criminal Minds or based on character already created on Criminal Minds, I own only my imagination)
Derek exits the SUV and walks around the back while Talbot exits the passenger side with a cringe, she covers up quickly. This flying stuff was getting to be too hard, but it was her job, and she had nothing else so she did it, and to tell the truth she was glad to have this job again. Deep down she missed it. Covering her pain quickly she stands up confident and tall, walks to the back of the SUV to join Derek.
"So…" Derek starts, "You've been rather quiet, something bothering you?"
"No, just interesting."
"What is?"
"Looking over the videos I found most of them all have similar cuts that are shallow, and other injuries that are not cuts. The girls in some say don't bring him back in here. I don't want to see him, but then they are talking about not seeing someone and not hearing voices."
"And, what is bothering you about this?"
"I don't know Morgan, it's like she is talking about two people. It sounds like one has schizophrenia while suffering from delusions. Yet I get a sense of Folie á Deux, and a feeling that the one in the room with our victim is not the one in control."
"So you think we are dealing with multiple UnSubs." Derek says and grabs his phone. "If you think that I better tell Garcia to include that in the profile." He says then calls Penelope.
"Tell her to also look for anything in the video's that is the same, and look for sweat mixed with blood. If there are multiple UnSub, and their location is in Vegas, the heat index is in the hundreds, and that would appear on the video if the place lack air. Judging by the condition of the rooms that I have seen, this place is abandoned thus no air. It may help us locate his current whereabouts. Talbot states as they cross the police line, "Look," she states pointing to the door, "If that wasn't forced I don't know what was."
"So one on the Unsubs obviously wasn't invited in," Derek states as they walk through the house.
"This place doesn't look lived in," Talbot adds opening the refrigerator, "There isn't even milk in the fridge, all that is in here; is a brick of cheese, and two eggs. That is enough to make an omelet, but nothing else."
"No dishes either," Derek adds and starts walking down the hall to the bedrooms,
"She obviously wasn't married, or didn't show it, she seems not to have any belongings in this place," Talbot states, "I don't see a single photo, not even of her parents, or friends. It's like she is… I don't know, hiding."
"Hiding?" Derek asks, "How do you mean?"
"Think about it, this is her home, this place should be where she feels safe and can reflect her inner person. If she feels threatened or in danger, or by chance if that safety is taken away then what is natural to a person to do; hide, take down all the personal items that reflect you and vanish. I f think she knew she was in danger and she started to hid. Do you get the feeling of being safe?"
"Not really. Come on let's check out the bedroom." Derek says and starts to walk down the hall as Talbots phone starts to ring. She pulls it out.
"Agent Parker," she listens to the message, "took you long enough, are you sure, and the mix up?" the person on the phone talks, "good, now are you sure?" a pause, "then you aren't doing your job if you can't give me a straight answer, you fix this or I will. You lost her once, don't lose her again," the other person talks, "no, you stay with her I can't you have to take care of this. I can't babysit you every moment of everyday; you are 32 years old be competent and do your job. Lose her again and I'll find someone else to do the job understands." A pause while the person responded, "good." Talbot states and hangs up the phone. "Sorry, problem back at home base."
"Everything okay?" Derek asks and walked in to the bedroom.
"Yep, just have to get some of my coworkers to start doing their jobs so I don't have to."
"Okay, so this is where it happened." He stated as the phone rang, "Tell me you have good news and we are not alone."
"Always for you sugar, and PG it is, okay I searched the video frame by frame, and I found one frame that gives us a reflection of the UnSub, then I cross checked the women missing with Vegas, and they all visited the same casino a block off the strip, old strip not new one. And bingo, I got names, ten names, actually, but one stands out, Jason Dylan, 43, did some time in prison for theft of medical electronics, and was held as a suspect in a rape, but the case was thrown out due to a technicality."
"What was the technicality?" Talbot asked.
"Miranda rights were not read to him prior to being questioned, and his lawyer got his confession thrown out. The reason he stands out is because he lives only two blocks from where she lives, and works at the same casino that all these women have in common, not to mention he appears in an article having claimed to have been abducted by aliens. I've already informed Reid of the addresses and we are looking into finding where the women stayed when they were in Vegas. Two women don't match up to the case, a Lisa Rippley, and Lillian Ravenwood. I found video's on both of them, and they don't fit, because they were never at the casino, and they wore gags."
"You won't find them there either," Talbot states, "Those two will not match, they were found, so those two are not the ones we are looking for, besides they were from an undercover trafficking ring bust."
"Alright, and I am off. Time me my lovelies," Penelope states hanging up the phone.
"How do you know that Lisa and Lillian aren't part of the case?"
"Well Morgan, I said this wasn't my first time in Vegas. Lisa was the reason I came two years ago. Lisa was investigating a traffic ring, and Lillian went in after her. It didn't end well, I lost Lisa, and almost died myself."
"I see, so what did you profile then that can help us find the UnSub this time, what was different."
"Well first off, she didn't do home invasions." Talbot states.
"Did you hear that?" Derek asks, "I think it came from the closet."
"Och," Talbot says moving her hand to her neck.
"Parker," Derek asks, "what happened?"
"I…" she starts then the floor is coming, she tries to struggle past the darkness, but it consumes her.
"Parker…" Derek says but something hits him. He stands up and turns to face the closet just as his phone starts to ring. He reaches for it; hit the answer button, "Garcia-" he manages before the same darkness claims him.
"Derek, Derek!" Penelope hollers over the phone. Then the line goes dead as a man pushes the end button. He takes the credentials and guns from each of the agents, grabs their phones and tosses them on the bed. Grabbing Derek by the arm he drags him out the back door and into a van. Then he grabs Talbot and drags her to the van too. He ties their hands behind their backs before closing the door and driving away.
"Derek, Derek!" Penelope hollers into the phone, "no, no, no!" she hollers and starts to type quicker to trace Derek's phone.
Just then Aaron walks in, "Garcia what's wrong?"
"He's gone, they're gone, I-" panic takes hold "I-the line went dead, nothing, they are gone, not answering."
"Keep trying." Aaron says and leaves the room to find the rest of the team. "Reid, tell me you have something, anything that will help us find the UnSub."
"This area," Reid states, "The only over lap is a small area of about four blocks, and Jason's house is in this area."
"We have to move faster, Rossi, you and JJ go check on Morgan and Parker, they aren't answering their phones, and take a few officers with you. The forensic team released the scene earlier today, but Morgan should have called by now."
"On it." David says then follows Aaron, "So what's wrong, I sense a problem."
"Garcia was calling them back to answer a question and all she heard was Morgan say 'Garcia' and then silence, followed by the line going dead. Be careful something is wrong, and I think Parker and Morgan are in trouble."
"I'll call as soon as I know anything." David says, "Aaron, tell Reid, and Seaver, I'll tell JJ on the way, we can't have them loosing it if this goes wrong."
"Just stay safe, we don't need to lose track of anyone else in this investigation."
David nodes and joins JJ at the elevator.
Derek opens his eyes, head pounding he looks around. The room's dark, a small amount of light comes in from a barred window. Looking around he sees chains and in the corner there is a camera. "Talbot?"
"Derek?" a voice whispers.
"Talbot, are you okay,"
"Derek…where are we?" Talbot asks trying to sit up, but there it was, the pain that she was hiding from, the … she couldn't breathe for a moment.
"I don't know," Derek says moving closer to Talbot, "are you hurt?"
"Morgan, are we being taped?" she asks as Derek moves to her side.
"Derek, and I don't think so." Derek says to help her relax.
"Then you can call me Talli." She says trying to hold back a new wave of pain.
"What is wrong?"
"Don't tell anyone, not even Hotch."
"I won't." Derek says as he looks her over for wounds sustained since they passed out in the house.
"I'm bleeding and they can't make it stop. There isn't enough tissue to fix it, so I am on pain meds until I have healed enough to have surgery again." Talbot states, "Internally," she adds as he looked for an injury he had not previously found. "It is old, and I have been dealing with it for six months, they almost have it stopped, but it still hurts on occasion. He's going to put time clocks on us too isn't he?"
"I think he already has." Derek says. "Don't move."
"You know I have to act tough. I have no other options." Talbot states as her vision blurs, "Derek, is he going to kill us? I'm not thinking straight, I can't seem to think this through. What is he planning? Do we know the outcome of these videos?"
"I don't know what will happen, but I won't let you die, do you hear me, I won't, not on my watch." Derek says as he sits next to Talbot on the floor.
"Okay, let's think about this, where are we?"
"Don't know, but we have to figure that out" Derek says as the door swings open and a man enters. Derek tries to stand, only to feel the world spin. "Don't even try." The man says as he takes a crowbar and hits Derek with it. "It is not worth it, I'm working on her first." He says and drags Talbot from the room. "They want you more than him."
Derek tries to stand again, this time he gains his feet; he can feel his bruised rib where the crow bar connected. This is not right, he says to himself. Just then he hears the silence, a silence more deafening than anything he has ever heard before. He sinks to the floor and sits there waiting and trying to find a way to get out. He has to get to Talbot, and Maria. He looks around the room, he could see the sunlight, and it was streaming in, that told him the building window faces the west, for it was only 3:00 pm. Unless he had been out longer than he had thought. He couldn't think strait, whatever the UnSub gave him it was affecting his mind. Just then there was a scream that instinctively he thought belonged to Talbot. He pounds his fist against the floor. He can't lose another team member, he lost Emily, a good and close friend, and he wasn't willing to lose Talbot, a woman he was just getting to know. Moments later the man enters again, Derek is ready this time, he jumps to his feet and stands ready to attack.
"You don't want to be doing that." The UnSub says holding out a gun and pointing it directly at Derek's chest. "You are next Agent Morgan. We will see if you last longer that the last did."
"You're really going to do this?"
"You were getting too close. You were going to find the truth. I couldn't let you get the truth, you must be with them, I must find out the truth. I haven't tried it on a man yet, we will see how you do when you are at deaths door step."
"Where is Agent Parker?" Derek asks as the UnSub tosses him a set of hand cuffs.
"Put these on and I will show you where she is. There is so much to learn about the human body, and so much to understand. I can't possibly learn it all from one subject. It is a good thing that so many hospitals need supplies it gives me a way to dispose of the bodies, and we all know that they should be used for research rather than just to rot in the ground. Now walk! They tell me how to do it all, and they will take me when they are ready, but they won't take anyone before they take me. I won't let them." he says and leads Derek down a hall to a room with three chairs in it. One held Maria, and one held Talbot, the other is to hold him.
"Now sit in the chair." The UnSub says and hits Derek over the head with the gun, "and don't try anything or the other agent dies." He says and Derek looks up at Talbot to see pure determination in her eyes and blood soaking her hair. "Oh, Agent Morgan I haven't started the experiments on Agent Parker here, I just finished the ones on Agent Jensen. Now we just have to see if she makes her dead line, she only has a few hours." The UnSub straps Derek to the chair his head still pounding, his movements slow and his can't think straight.
"What do you get out of this? What point can this serve?" Derek asks.
"I must complete my experiments, only then will the world know that I could stop them. They have to know, they have to. I must stop them before they get here and have nothing to take. They took me, and I must not let them take any others. I must know what they know, and my experiments are going to tell me that, but first I must remove your chip, the way I did the other Agents."
"Who?" Talbot asks, "Who took you?"
Suddenly he points to the ceiling and cries "them, can't you hear them, they know and I have to know what they know. I can't stop until I know. They tell me what to do, and how the experiments work, I just do them. I must do them. That is how I will know… I must know…I must know…" he babbles on.
"What must you know?" Talbot asks.
"How to wound and not kill!" he hollers. "Silence! Listen to them telling me what to do, they know, they always know, I will do as they say, I shall return." He adds then vanishes down the hall.
"Derek, she won't make it unless the team finds us soon."
"Has she said anything?" he asks.
"No, he gave her a drug to silence her. She lost consciousness about five minutes ago. Derek, we can survive this, we just have to be strong and pay attention. If they put us on camera, we could get word to them that this man is most likely a schizophrenic and is having paranoid deletions."
"He fits the profile. Did Garcia say what casino it was that he worked at?"
"No." anger in his voice.
"Listen here Derek; don't get angry with me because we are in this situation. We need to put our head together and find a way out. I'm about to black out, but I'm trying to stay conscious. My head is killing me, everything hurts, I'm bleeding, and I won't have you angry with me. We need to get out of here, because if we don't get out now, we won't make it out alive."
"Garcia had a name. She must have told the others." Derek states, "I have an idea."
"Really," Talbot says listening intently to get any and all ideas from him. She has to pay attention, even though every nerve in her body hurt and was crying with pain.
"Talli open your eyes!" Derek shouts, Talbot does so, "you have to argue with him, feed his delusion, I think that will work,
"He claimed he didn't find the chip, I have an idea, how long till they find us do you think?" Talbot asks.
"I don't know. How long were we out?"
"If she has two hours left, and we were at her house by 4:, we talked to Garcia at 11, and she has two hours left, that means we were out for around forty hours." Talbot says doing the math in her head.
"Just do what you can to make him think you hear those voices, and maybe the idea will work."
"I'll see if I can, Derek, do me a favor."
"Anything," Derek says.
"Tell Hotch not to trust Straus, I get a bad feeling about her," Talbot says as a new wave of pain robs her of breath, "I don't know if I will make it out still conscious, and he need to know that, tell him to look in my file, he will see what I suspect."
"He's coming back Talli, you just do the best you can, and we will get out of this." Derek says as the door opens and the Unsub enters.
"We will find that chip agent, we must, we can't let them eaves drop on me." The Unsub says.
"Are you Jason Dylan?" Talbot asks, hoping that Garcia was right. He pauses which tells Talbot that Garcia was right. "Jason, you don't need to look for chips in us, we don't have any."
"Yes you do, all humans do. I have one, and I can't find it. That's why they talk to me, but I'm going to get rid of yours, you will be free of them, and then I can find mine."
"No Jason, I don't have one, they have looked. I have looked, there isn't one." Talbot says.
"They don't know where to find them." They can't find them, no one can, just me."
"No Jason," Talbot says as Jason moves to stand before her, he reaches out with his hands and tears her shirt open, he jumps back in pure shock, giving Derek a view of Talbot's exposed skin covered with scars, all healed white lines. "Jason, they have looked and I don't have one, there is no chip, none. They don't put chips in humans, they don't ."
"I can still look in your head." He says and moves to get a small scalpel, "I will find it in your head."
"Jason, look at me, Jason. Are they talking to you?" Talbot asks, "Jason listen to me, are they talking to you, can you hear them?"
"Yes, and they say you lie."
"Why would I lie, what can I gain from having a chip in me? I'm not lying, I know Jason, I know what it's like to feel like they will never stop. I know how it feels to want the voices to go away. But trying to take something from me won't get them to stop. They won't quit telling you things."
"They want you, they can't have you." Jason said, "I won't let them have you. They can't, they have to take me. I want to go, you don't, you found your chip, I didn't."
"No Jason, you don't have a chip, you don't have one. They are whispering to you through the walls, it's not in your head. I hear them too." Talbot lies gracefully, her head pounding, blood in her eyes. "Jason, let me find your chip for you, if you have one I can help you. I know where to look."
Jason stops what he is doing to her arm, the scalpel just breaking the skin on her left arm. "You would do that?" He asks.
"Of course I would, I would do anything for one who hears them." Talbot says, "But you have to trust me, there are a few places that they hid the chip, I may not find it the first time."
"Tell me where it is." He says putting his slimy mouth only inches from her face.
"Some are put gently under the skin of the left elbow."
"Why would they put it there?" Jason asks completely believing what Talbot is saying. "Will they be silent?"
"I don't know, I'm just telling you where they can be found."
"You stay I go find out." He says and leaves the room.
"What happened?"
"I was stabbed," Talbot says, "a lot."
"How did you survive?"
"It wasn't all at the same time." Talbot says, "Derek, I don't know how much longer he will believe what I am saying. He will come back in here, and when he decides I'm lying, he will…"
"We won't let that happen." Derek says. "Talli, are you still with me."
"As best I can be. How did you learn to read lips?"
"What?"
"How did you learn?" Derek asks as he works at freeing his right hand from the straps, the very same thing he was doing while Talbot was distracting Jason.
"My father was mute, so I had to learn how to read lips, because he had never been taught sign language." The over head light blinks off suddenly submerging the room in to complete darkness.
"What happened to your dad?" Derek asks still working on his arm.
"He was killed by a serial killer." Talbot says as the pounding in her head pulls her closer to unconsciousness. "Derek, how are you doing over there?"
"Just stay with me, don't let go, come on Talli! Talk to me; let me know you are still there. I want to hear your voice." Derek says, "Profile for me, give me a profile, any profile, just keep talking. Just don't be silent."