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INTERPOL Intrigue/Spooks Beguiled – Chapter 2

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Emily and Clyde Easter were in an interviewing room along with Harry Pearce, Lucas North. They had brought their prisoner Ivan Drushkinov into the INTERPOL building, much to the protest of the MI-5 members but Clyde had convinced them that they would get their chance to interview him after their sister agency had its chance with him.

They were watching Drushkinov currently being interrogated by the British Military Intelligence Section 6 or MI-6.

Emily was much more interested in observing Ivan's body language. She was frowning hard at the moment.

"You keep this expression up and it will be permanently etched on you." Clyde whispered in her ears as he pointed at her head.

Emily leaned back and tried to relax until she saw Ivan's hands unclenched his fist and a small grin appeared in the corner of his face.

Lucas North said to Harry Pearce, "Ivan said he kept the files in four disc and they are in the trailer in a safe box."

Pearce nodded, "I'll get Calum to retrieve them at the warehouse." He pulled out his cell phone and was about to press the number to his agency when Emily held her hand out.

"No. Hold on."

Harry snapped his head up at her, "What?"

Clyde arched a brow at her as well, "Really Em, you need to be sending one of yours as well, I should think."

"I think it's a trap." She said as she kept looking at Ivan through the glass panel.

"What are you talking about? He just told MI-6 where it is at, Agent Prentiss." Harry said sternly.

Emily turned her head slowly to look directly at Harry, "Look at his hand, it's clenched the entire time he had been talking to him, right when he divulge the location of the disc, he grinned and then he relaxed his posture and his fists are unclenched."

"I didn't see him grin, did you Lucas?" He looked at his subordinate who shook his head.

Harry turned his head back to her with a sneer, "We will be sending someone to the trailer to retrieve the disc." He made to leave the room but Emily shook her head again as she straightened and faced Pearce.

"Listen, I know you think you know more than anyone here. He is lying. I just know it. I've been working with profilers for over 6 years with the FBI Behavioral Analysis Unit, and this is what we do, we study their body language and behavior. It is not a science, but yet it is. His entire body language is not meeting his eyes, it's different. I'm telling you, Ivan is lying. The disc is not there, it is a trap."

"Well, then where is it then, Agent Prentiss?" Harry said after a pause."

"I don't know but it definitely is not in that trailer."

Lucas shook his head as he glared at her, "Harry, she is stalling us so her team can be there first. Get Calum before INTERPOL intercepts our disc."

Emily turned to him and said in Russian, "You are a damn fool, Brit!"

He turned to her, "Why don't you go home and play with your dolls, little girl," he replied angrily in Russian back to her.

Emily spun her head to Clyde, "Did we search Ivan?"

"I don't know, pet." He turned to Pearce. "Did you?"

"We didn't find anything. He did not have anything in his possession. His pockets were empty for all I know." Harry replied.

Emily looked into to the glass panel again at Ivan and tried to think about her time at Guantanamo Bay with Jason Gideon and Spencer Reid on her very first assignment with the BAU eight years ago. When they interrogating the terrorist Jind Allah, she had watched the CIA agents conduct daily body search including his…damn!

She opened the door and rushed out of the room and entered the interview room and luckily she always carried latex gloves with her, a habit she took with her from her BAU days; you never know what you when you would need it!

And now, thankfully she needed the gloves as she put them on and began to inspect Ivan personally while the MI-6 looked into the double mirror with an exasperated look.

In the other room, Harry stared at Clyde, "What the devil is she doing? She is mauling the prisoner!"

Clyde gave him a nonchalant shrug, "Have no clue but I trust her. Just sit back and wait."

"Sit back and wait? She is wasting our time with her idiotic manners! Where the devil did you find her? This is a mistake, Easter!" Harry continued to rant.

Clyde sighed as he leaned against the wall and observed the window and Emily; he really hoped she knew what she was doing!

Back in the room, Emily finger-combed Ivan's oily hair, looking over his scalp but did not see anything.

Ivan began to smile and Emily saw something inside his inner bottom lip, so she pulled it out and bingo! It was a tattoo set of numbers.

She didn't' have a pen or paper…so she turned to the MI-6 agent and grabbed his pen and note pad and began jotting down the numbers.

And just for good measure, she bent down and looked at his upper inner lip and saw nothing. That was it.

"Thanks Ivan." She said to him in Lithuanian. Ivan frowned as his left leg began to tremble, a sign of nervousness. Emily smiled gotcha!

She left the room and came back to the viewing room and stood in front of Clyde and Harry and said, "This are coordinates to a location; latitude and longitude direction. I'd sent a bomb squad to the trailer, not one of your people. That trailer is rigged, I'm sure of it." Emily insisted as she pulled her cell phone out.

"Fanta, I'm reading you a set of coordinates, tell me where this is at." She then read out the numbers to her computer tech.

She waited a few minutes before she wrote the address, "you sure? Thanks, kid." She ended the call and turned to Clyde and said, "Where is this North London Used Car Sales Lot, …?" she read the address.

"I know where it is at, it's about twenty kilometers from here," Lucas said.

Emily nodded, "Well…okaaayy…"She was at a lost when Lucas straightened and stepped away from his stance and said, "Come on, I'll take you to this place." He sighed.

Emily looked at Clyde and grinned, "We'll be back, hold the fort."

Clyde shook his head as he pulled out his cell phone, "I'll call the bomb squad."

"Keep me inform, will you?"

He nodded as he waved her away.

….

Lucas and Emily stepped out of the INTERPOL building and he pointed to a medium sized black car and they walked towards it. Emily tried to open the right side of the door when Lucas said, "Are you intending to drive?"

Emily shook her head, "Hmm? No, not at all, this is your car and I am still not used to driving on the left side and all."

He nodded, "Do you mind then?" he pointed inside where the steering wheel was on the right side of his car.

Emily looked at where he pointed and grinned, "Oh! Right! I thought this is the passenger…yeah…still thinking American…getting adjusted. On the other side…" She pointed and walked quickly over, her face reddened with embarrassment.

They were quiet when he pulled out of the side walk.

She was on her cell phone where Fanta had installed her coordinates so that she could keep track on it.

"So…" Lucas began.

Emily looked over to him as he drove. "So?"

"You have limitations after all." He said.

"What? I don't understand."

"I thought you knew everything but you can't drive around here, so you have limitations."

Enlightenment dawn on her, "It's a small limitation and I'll get around to it when I have time. Right now there is so much going on…"

"Like kicking the shit out of me?" he watched her for a moment before turning his attention to the road.

She laughed, "Was I that obvious?"

He shrugged, "Just a little."

They were quiet as he drove.

"Your Russian is fluent but you're not Russian, there is still a little British accent in your speech in it, did you spend some time in Russia?" She asked him.

Lucas kept his gaze forward as flashes of his tortures in his cell came into his mind…

"You could say that, I did spend eight years there. You can pick the inflection?" He glanced at her.

She didn't see his tormented look as she replied, "Not much just knowing where to pick up. I too spend some time there when I was younger, when my mother was posted in St Petersburg."

He nodded, "Your mother?"

"She is an ambassador, currently in Albania."

He glanced at her again and back to his driving. Both deep in their own thoughts.

"How did you know he was not telling the truth?" He asked her.

Emily turned to look at him and began to explain to him about body language and eye movement, "He grinned when he told him about the disc location. It didn't reach his eyes."

"Just like that?"

She nodded.

"I hope you're right and this is not some wild goose chase." He shook his head.

"This disc, what is it so important?" She asked.

Lucas shrugged, "I'm not sure, Harry insisted it is, and we are to retrieve it, so we retrieve it."

Fifteen minutes later, they arrived at their destination.

The sales lot attendant was reluctant to let them in by themselves at first but after they showed him their credentials, he backed away and left them be.

Lucas stared at Emily, "Now what? Which car?" He was starring at over 100 use cars in the lot, they were all parked quite closed to each other, like sardines packed in a can.

Emily held her cell phone out as she looked at the coordinates and followed the beep which was beeping slowly.

"Point and see…" she moved to her left, the beep was non reactive, she move to her right, it was similar.

"This is going to take us all day." He said impatiently.

She turned to him and was about to say something snarky when the beep made a little faster beeping tone, she grinned again, "Bingo! See? Helps to be patient and all." She moved towards the beep as it began to increase until it beeped continuously.

"You just got lucky." He muttered as he followed her.

Finally, they were standing in front of a late model European built classic car.

"Looks like a 1987 Peugeot, four door…don't see these beauties anymore on the road." Lucas was marveling at the very dusty red car in front of them as he ran his hand on the surface.

"Have no idea what you're talking about, how about opening the door?"

He shook his head at her non appreciation for classic vehicle and did as she requested but it was locked. They tried all four doors, they were all locked.

"Maybe we should ask that chap if he'd spare the keys."She nodded to the man who was watching them curiously.

Lucas shook his head as he produce a thin file from his pocket and began to pick at the lock and within seconds, he had it unlocked and grinned at Emily, "It would take too long for him to obtain the key, this is faster."

She returned his grin, "Looks like you have some use after all, Lucky Charms."

He looked at her curiously, "Lucky Charms? What is that?"

She looked at him, "It's a name of a sugary American cold cereal. It's…never mind, it'll take too long to explain." She bent down and scooted into the passenger seat and opened the glove compartment box and looked amongst the papers but there was no disc. She began to look around her.

Popping the trunk, Lucas did the same as he searched inside but there was no disc.

They glanced at each other and shook their heads disappointedly.

He looked at her, "As I suspected, a wild goose chase."

She glared at him, "I'm not giving up, North." She looked at the door of the driver's side and went over and stared closely at the inner panel again. "Do you have a pocket knife or something?" She asked him.

He pulled out a small folded knife and handed it to her and she began cutting the cloth panel that was attached to the metal and began to pull it out. Lucas bent and squatted close beside her and began helping her pull the cloth material out. Soon a big portion came out and they saw a brown envelope taped against the metal side of the door.

Emily smiled as Lucas pulled it out of the side and opened it. Inside, were the four discs.

He pulled them out and fanned them for her and grinned. "Good work, Prentiss."

Emily started; for a moment she thought she could hear Hotch saying that to her and grinned. But unlike Hotch, Lucas did not have any dimples. And his eyes were blue, not brown.

"Agent Prentiss?" Lucas called her.

She shook her head, "Yeah, I'm fine. Just had a 'whoa' moment."

"A 'whoa' moment?" He asked her.

She grinned as they stood up and closed the door and walked out of the lot, "You know, one of those feeling when someone said something and your mind went Whoa! Someone else had said the same thing to you before."

Lucas looked at her and shook his head, his mind once again reminded him of his time in Russia and his prison stint. "No, not at all." He continued to walk on.

Emily watched the back of him, "Well, I did." Then she followed after him to his car.

When they got in, they called into their respective supervisors.

Harry and Clyde were thrilled to hear about the recovery of the disc, Clyde added, "Glad I listened to your instinct, darling."

Emily giggled, Lucas glanced at her, finding it unusual and unique of her but he didn't say anything as he listened to Harry on the other line.

"By the way, you are right again, bomb squad found the trailer rigged with enough C-4s to blow the entire warehouse. It was place under a set of false disc where if you picked it up, kaboom." He said calmly.

She looked over to where Lucas was driving and thought about the man Harry Pearce had intended to send over to retrieve those discs and gave a shiver.

"Well, at least no one was hurt. So all is safe and sound. I'll see you back at INTERPOL, Clyde."

"Right you are, darling. Good job there. MI-5 owes you much. Harry…? He says thanks…he's a little shy now. I'll see you later. Bye love." He ended the call.

Emily ended her call and saw that she had a missed call; she had left her cell phone in the car earlier; It was from Hotch.

What now? She grinned.

She recalled their phone call from the night before; he had a really bad day before, a really bad case…this Replicator, whoever he was, was giving the team a real runaround. She really emphasized with Hotch; being a team leader made her appreciate what he was going through at the moment. Although their mission statement was completely different but the principal remained the same. She, like he, had a team to run. She, like he, had to play politics to her boss while at the same time keep her team happy and away from said boss and performed the best they could at the same time.

When Hotch first told her about the Replicator, her first instinct had wonder if he would he come for her then they began to discuss more about it and decided that she was far and safe. She was not part of the team anymore, she no longer matter. She was out of the loop.

Hotch had assured her that she was safe.

She had liked his soft gentle voice when he said it, "You are in a safe place over there, Emily. He will not come and hurt you."

Emily smiled as she remembered how her heart had fluttered hearing his voice.

Then he finally confessed to her that he had missed her.

He missed her! Now why couldn't he say that before?

She wanted to ask, what about her? Beth?

But she didn't want to break that magical spell between Hotch and her.

"Er, we're here, are you asleep?" Lucas had leaned over to her side and looked at her.

She turned to him and shook her head, she was still wearing a soft smile on her face.

Lucas started; he thought she was quite attractive. Admittedly, when he first met her, he didn't pay much attention to her as they were fighting and he was quite mad at her as he thought she had a high-handed attitude and being an American made it worse and intolerable.

But he had spent the better part of the morning with her and so far his view of her had changed and he had been able to look at her closely and he found she was really attractive, more than pretty. And she was smart, strong, quick-thinking and oh heck…beautiful…like Maya…

He frowned, not like Maya but she had her own attractive qualities he had not yet discovered. And he found he wanted to get to know her more.

"North?" She looked at him quizzingly, "You okay?"

He nodded as he got out of the car.

They walked inside the INTERPOL building together and met Harry and Clyde, Lucas turned in the envelope to his superior who in turn gave Clyde his.

"That left the other two," Harry said. "Who gets it?"

"We'll look at it together." Emily said. "Or we ask Ivan. Personally I've had enough of him and his lying ways."

Lucas nodded, "I agree with Agent Prentiss," Harry arched his brow at his agent. "I don't trust him at all either." He glanced at Emily and gave her a small grin.

Emily returned his grin with one and Clyde caught them and shook his head.

"Fine, let's watch it together. I feel like a bunch of kindergarten kids at playroom. Let's share the bloody bucket of Lego blocks!" He huffed out of the room.

"So where are we off to?" Harry asked.

"If you gentlemen will follow me, we have a secure video room, I guess Clyde is waiting for you as we speak." Emily held her hand out as she waited for them to file out of the room.

Ivan Drushkinov had just been taken away by the British guards where he would stand trial for conspiracy to treason to the British Crown; his sentence would be a very long time.

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End of Chapter 2