Chapter 03

Interpol Office
NCA Building
7 Old Queen St.
London UK

June 2012

"Templar treasure?" Morgan asked. He had heard some strange ass stuff in his career, but this was starting to ping his weird-shit-o'meter.

"I know, I know. Tin foil hat, right?" Jim shook his head. "All I know is that it's real. I haven't seen it, but I've seen the vaults where it's kept. They keep it in caches all over the world; I've seen the one in Chicago and DC and the one here in London. The Knights of the Blue protect the caches, the rest of us are supposed to support and protect them as a priority. But usually that's not exactly work so we do charity; try to make the world a better place."

"So how did you get involved in this?"

"Yesterday I get a call from the head of the Chicago office, I go in and the Grand Master herself is there, head of the whole organization. And she wants to talk to you."

"Me?" That surprised him.

"Yeah, you. Specifically. They didn't tell me why but let me tell you, they were all up in knots over something. I called Fran to see if you were in any kind of trouble but all she said was that you were coming out here to help with the Olympics. Next thing I know I'm on a flight here. I land and I get a call to meet the plane from Montreal and intel on who to talk to and what to say." Jim shook his head. "I've never done any of this before. Last thing I did with them was help organize a kid's coat drive. I'm supposed to tell you that the Grand Master himself wants to meet with you and either Easter here or Prentiss soon as possible and I'm supposed to bring you in."

"Why us?" Clyde asked.

"They want to talk to someone from Interpol they could trust. They sent Gaillard in to clear himself; he's supposed to be the missing kid's father. And they have two more coming in, Garcia and Jones, the other fathers."

Morgan pulled out the list of victims. "Do you know any of these people?"

Jim pulled out his glasses and looked the list over. "I've met Taylor before, last trip out here down at the pub. Seemed like a decent sort. He was assigned to guard one of the Knights of the Blue as I recall. Don't know the rest of them."

"Could Colette Duford be the one he was guarding?"

"Could be. I don't know for sure, they keep the actual identity of those Knights a tight secret. Protect access to the treasure. You usually know who the one in your city is, but other than that you don't."

"Right." Morgan had him stay put, then met the other two in the hallway. "Did Gaillard say anything about being a Knight of the Blue?"

"Yeah." Emily replied. "And he said Colette Duford was one as well. But he couldn't identify anyone else. It's a classic cell structure; if one cell is compromised they can't give the others away."

"But someone compromised them." Clyde said. "If we assume Molina and Jarman were tortured to get intel on accessing their treasure caches..."

"...and the people around them were tortured as well." Devlin shook his head. "Someone did that to my child in front of me, I'd give up anything to make it stop."

"Then whoever's doing this has someone on the inside to get that many names." Clyde nodded. "That's why they're coming to us; they don't know who they can trust right now."

"But why did they ask for Morgan specifically?" Emily asked.

Morgan shook his head. "Only one way to find out."


DC Diner
18
th St. NW
Washington DC

"What's weird?"

Spencer looked at the man he only knew, or pretended to only know, as Tom, a detective from DC Metro who had been clean for fifteen years now. "I keep getting these strange calls in the morning exactly at 6 am DC time. No one ever says anything, they just sigh at most and then they hang up." It was a small mystery. "Of course now that I think about it they've been calling for years." He dug into his pancakes.

"Years?"

"Yes. I got the first call eleven weeks after I was given that number. I've received a call at 6am DC time every day since."

"OK, that is creepy."

"Kind of, I guess. But they've never done anything, never said a word, never contacted me in any other way. Maybe they just want to make sure I'm still alive every day."

"Could it be someone you know?"

"I thought it was my Mom at first, and then my Dad, but I've spoken to both of them about it. I don't know who it is."

"Yeah, weird. Just be careful."

"I will be."


Interpol Office
NCA Building
7 Old Queen St.
London UK

They spoke with the other two fathers as they arrived. You didn't have to be BAU to see the pattern. "So all three blokes went to uni with the birds." Devlin said. "All three got their johnnies from the clinic at what they call the priory. All three got transferred away from their bird right after they graduated, and sometime between a month and two, right around when she found out the babe was on the way, she shuts the relationship down. All three did the logical thing, chalk it up to college romance and go on about their lives."

"More than that," Emily said. "From what Garcia's been able to trace all three women dropped off radar for months, only to reemerge in their target countries with a newborn in tow. They don't know the language, have no families to contact, and have been warned off from their babies' fathers. They would have to rely on whomever the Unsub sent for help, thereby keeping them under his control"

"Damnit!" Jim said. "They should have stayed with the fathers. We support families, we don't break them up."

"Someone has been planning this for a while." Emily said with a sigh.


Chamber of the Attorney General for England and Wales
Crown Office Row
Inner Temple
London UK

If Morgan had had any idea he would have begged a jacket from someone. Maybe even a shirt and tie. This area was all office buildings, all as old if not older than the US, and from what Devlin and Clyde told him, all of them were occupied by lawyers. All of them. "What's that building?" He asked.

"The original Templar church," Jim told him as they walked by. "There's a museum under it. It was actually carved out as part of the local priory, although you wouldn't know it. The cache is kept under it, two stories down."

"How long has this place been a lawyer haven?"

"1388 I believe. Everyone thought the Templars lost control of the land when they were disbanded in 1312, but they actually invented the concept of the shell corporation." He chuckled. "I don't want to know how much they're making off the leases."

"And no one knows about it?"

"This area is what they call a 'liberty'." Emily said. Since she was taking over the office she had come along instead of Clyde. "It's outside the jurisdiction of both the city and the church. That's why they don't have CCTV access here."

"So it's outside jurisdiction and covered in lawyers." Morgan chuckled. "Good way to keep nosy cops out."

Jim laughed with him as Emily smiled. "No kidding. You couldn't pay me to serve a warrant in here."

The office was about what you would expect, pale, feminine, luxurious, but all business. Introductions were made all around, tea was inquired into and politely refused, and then they got down to it. "We need your help." The AG said. "We have a problem."

"You have a mole." Emily replied. "Someone in your organization is leaking information about certain members and they're dying because of it."

"Not just the organization, the office of the Master of the Knights of the Blue, Younger. That is perhaps the most guarded section of a very guarded organization. Bernard Maupin has run that department as his own personal fiefdom for the past thirty years. I have not received satisfactory answers from him or anyone in his office."

"You know that puts him at the head of the line for our suspect." Morgan said.

"If it's him I want his head on a tray. We have not seen a betrayal like this in seven hundred years." Yep, the AG was pissed.

"So why do you need my help?" Morgan asked.

"It has come to my attention that there is a chance of placing someone in that office undercover. Due to the circumstances you are our first choice for the work."

"Why me?"

"Every Knight of the Blue is assigned at least one Knight of the White as a...Nouoroa. The best translation would be 'minder'."

"A babysitter?" Morgan asked.

"We prefer bodyguard, but if you will. Those Knights of the White assigned as such are transferred in to the target office." She took a deep breath. "It has come to my attention that there is a Knight of the Blue assigned to the DC priory who has managed to run off all Knights assigned to him. If your chain of command agrees to let you help I intend to railroad you in as his new minder. Hopefully with the two of you inside and Agent Prentiss' people on the outside you can figure out who is doing this and save our people." The AG's eyes glinted. "And let me be quite clear. I don't give a damn about the treasure. Our people are our greatest treasure. I want them back."

"Understood." It was exactly what Morgan had hoped to hear. "Why does this guy keep running people off though?"

"All I know is that he works in law enforcement and that his reputation is utterly unimpeachable." She sighed. "I will give your team full access Agent Prentiss, to our network, our files, all of it. If it's mine to grant you can have it, just get my people back." She smiled slowly. "You will have my unending gratitude if you do."

That was a promise of future favors and access that the newly minted head of Interpol London would be foolish to turn down. "My department is on the case, regardless." Emily said. "We'll have to clear it with Agent Morgan's chain of command..."

"Of course." She turned back to Morgan. "We'll make it up to you and your technical analyst for missing the Games."

This was already the most fascinating case Morgan had seen in a long time. "Oh I think it's worth the miss."