Please see disclaimers in CH 1.

Breakfast was a subdued affair. Though everything that had been sent was exquisite—hot coffee, the pitcher of water, orange juice, Belgian waffles, a bowl of fresh raspberries and crisp bacon—Garcia felt she couldn't stomach more than a glass of water. There was just something off about the whole thing…

If these people are keeping us against our will, why are they treating us so well? she wondered.

Looking over at her companion, she saw that the thought had crossed his mind too. He was half-heartedly picking apart a piece of waffle, looking as though it were made of sand and silt rather than flour and butter.

Then there was the room itself. Everything in it was white—blinding white. The only shades of color other than in the food were in Kyle's badly faded jeans and her own hot-pink pajamas. There were no windows, no signs of a door (though obviously one was certainly around somewhere) and no sounds of life other than the ones they made themselves.

Involuntarily, Garcia stifled a yawn. Despite the wonder and fear that coursed through her, she was incredibly tired. She noticed that Kyle's eyes were beginning to droop and she'd had to move quickly to keep his head from falling flat into his plate. A garble of sounds escaped his lips, sounds that proved he was in fact awake but not entirely.

"Not tampered with, ha!" Garcia muttered bitterly. She pushed the glass of water aside, afraid to take another sip.

--"Something wrong?"—Kyle asked, his hands saying more than his voice.

Garcia ran through the short lexicon of signs she knew. She settled for pointing at the food and making a very pointed face. The look she got from the young man told her he understood.

--"I know,"— he said, pointing at himself and then tapping his forehead.

Mindful of Kyle's earlier worry about surveillance, Garcia simply mouthed her next question silently. "Why are we here?"

Kyle shrugged. –"If they're going to lock me up, I kind of wish they'd have left a deck of cards,"— he said, a half-serious, half-bemused expression crossing his face. He then tapped two "E" shaped hands together, and Garcia knew instantly what he wanted the cards for.

"Only two people?" she asked. "It's a four person game…"

--"Better than sitting idle and worrying,"— Kyle replied. He then signed something slowly, making sure she caught each sign. –We've searched the room, and there's no way out I can see. We'll have to wait for an opportunity to arise.—

A frown crossed the plump woman's face. –What about cameras?—she asked, using the sign for "picture" instead of "camera."

"Not much we can do," Kyle said.

Suddenly Kyle's face fell blank. "What?" Garcia asked.

Kyle tipped his head a fraction of an inch. Garcia spun in the chair to see the man who'd brought the tray in, accompanied by another holding a pistol.

"I must ask that you remain where you are," the companion said sharply, enunciating himself as much as possible.

Neither Garcia nor Kyle dared do more than breathe. The table was quickly cleared, and the remains of breakfast made their way out of the room.

"My employer would like to know if you require a bath," the companion said as soon as the room had been vacated.

Kyle looked on in confusion. The sentence had been slurred together somewhat, and the heavy desire to fall asleep didn't help matters any.

"Yes, please—for both of us," Garcia said quickly. Though she felt like some sort of traitor as she said it, she knew the water would help wake both of them out of this persistent sleep state.

The man then tossed something small at Kyle, who barely caught it before it fell off the table. "Very well." Backing slowly, he kept the pistol trained at both figures seated at the table until he fell back into the blinding light and was whooshed out.

"The door's operated on a seal of some kind—there's this sound, like wind blowing, every time it opens," Garcia said, pleased she'd been able to figure out that much thus far.

—"What did he ask you?"—

Garcia mimed scrubbing her arms with a washcloth.

--"Oh. Good idea."-- Kyle paused, then continued in sign. –Maybe we'll get to see something outside of this room…I mean, there's no bathtub or shower in here that I can see…--

Garcia let out a puff of exasperated air. She was clearly at odds with herself—she felt like she was being treated like a princess, but knew it was at a terrible (and possibly more horrific) cost, not to mention…

"Why did they say they knew our friends?" Garcia asked. The thought had been stinging like a pesky insect for some while now.

Kyle shrugged. –I guess it's a form of leverage against us, possibly, or maybe they want them to do something for them as well.—

Garcia didn't know enough sign yet to make out the particulars of Kyle's response, but she got enough of it to get the point. What could they possibly want the team to do for them? she asked herself. Chase is kind of easy—there's so much she's capable of learning or finding out…but what would these people need a bunch of profilers for?

Garcia settled back in her chair as Kyle began shuffling a deck of cards—the small object that had been tossed at him earlier. All this wonder and conjecture was giving her a headache, and there was no way to find anything out…at least, none Garcia could see at present.

In a dark room, large plasma screens glowed brightly as images flickered on each one. Each showed people going about their morning—eating breakfast, reading, possibly still sleeping, or carrying on a conversation. One screen showed two people even playing a hand of cards.

A man stood in front of these image screens, carefully studying each subject in them. He smiled as he thought of the roles each of the people in the screens had to play in order for the current undertaking to be a success.

Another man joined him, staring at the last screen. "Those two new people are going to be a challenge, sir," he said. "Especially the young man…I think they both are going to be more trouble than we thought."

"Perhaps," the first man replied, a contented expression on his face. "But it must be this way. We need their skills to put the whole thing in motion."

"And the other part?"

"Let's say that will be taken care of shortly." With that, the first man reached into his pocket and pulled out a cell phone.