Rossi and JJ pulled into the driveway of the hotel that the Gates family was staying at.
"So how do you wanna do this, JJ?" Rossi asked.
"I don't know. We've never had to deal with people like this. Let's just play it by ear and see how it goes."
"Good plan. I'll follow your lead."
They exited the car and went to the Gates' room. Mr. Gates opened the door right away and practically pushed the agents inside.
"Thank you so much for coming agents. Do you have anything on my children?"
"Mr. Gates, let's go sit down. Bring your wife into the room. It would be better if we talked to you together." JJ said in her calmest voice possible.
A few seconds later, both Mr. and Mrs. Gates were sitting on the couch while Rossi and JJ were sitting on some chairs facing them.
"We cannot imagine how scared you are right now. We promise we are doing everything we can to find your children. We just need you to answer a few questions for us. Can you do that?" JJ asked.
"Yeah. Yeah we can do that. Anything to bring our babies home." Mrs. Gates stuttered.
"What kind of social life did your children have?" JJ pressed.
"Rory had a circle of friends that he would hang with all the time. All of them were strait A students with big plans for college."
"Can you give us their names?" Rossi questioned.
"There's Thomas Fletcher, Anthony Weston, John Young and Kyle Prescott." Mr. Gates put in.
"What about people who wanted to hang out with Rory and his group but weren't invited to?"
Mr. and Mrs. Gates looked at each other.
"No names come to mind. Rory was nice to everyone, even if they weren't in his circle of friends." Mrs. Gates claimed.
"What can you tell us about Phoebe?" JJ started.
"Everybody loved Phoebe. She's so patient with everyone. She even had an after school seminar to teach some of the… older teachers and professors how to use Microsoft. Made me so proud." Bill said with a small laugh.
"What about her friends?"
"She was the exact opposite of her brother. I don't think she's ever left anyone out of her activities. She's helped fellow students with homework since she was seven."
"OK. Did you notice any strange behavior from your kids or around them the days before their abduction?" Rossi asked.
"We didn't notice anything strange from them. They were acting like their normal selves." Mrs. Gates said instantly.
"They've been acting normal, but Phoebe showed me a few texts she'd been receiving from a blocked number. They were….. Strange. Frightening actually. But I thought it was just a school stalker." Put in Mr. Gates.
"Do you have her phone with you?" Rossi hurriedly said.
"Yeah. It's right here. Go ahead and read her texts."
Rossi went to the inbox and began to read the messages with JJ.
You are so smart. Just like your father.
Your brain is a valuable part of society.
I need you in my life Phoebe
Why aren't you answering my texts, smart sauce?
Come away with me dearie. Let's make something together.
Come out come out where ever you are.
Don't worry dear Phoebe. This will all be over soon. See you and your brother tonight.
"She got these texts and you didn't see it necessary to contact any officials?" Rossi was shocked.
"Like I said, I thought it was just a school prank. I didn't think anything bad would happen. Oh god, what does he plan to make with her?" Mr. Gates cried.
"All right. All right. Let's calm down." JJ shouted.
"Mr. Gates, is there anything else we should know about your children or what was happening around them?"
"Nothing that I can think of. I'm sorry. This is all my fault."
"This is not your fault Mr. Gates. I promise you that we will find your children. We'll let you know if we come up with any more information. I expect you'll do the same?" Rossi said pointedly.
"Of course agent Rossi. Of course. Thank you again." Mr. Gates got up and shook the agents' hands and Rossi and JJ left the hotel.
CMCMCMCMCMCMCMCMCMCMCMCMCMCMCMCMCMCMCMCMCMCMCMCMCMCMCMCMAt the same time that Rossi and JJ were interviewing the Gates', Prentiss and Morgan were interviewing Mrs. Jobs.
"What can you tell us about your children, mam?" Prentiss asked.
"Reed used to be a happy boy. Getting perfect grades, he was every teachers' favorite student."
"Was" Morgan questioned.
"Ever since Steve died, Reed's been a little different. He still gets perfect grades, but doesn't socialize at all. It's like he separated himself from society. I've tried to help him, almost everyone that knows him has. But he just won't let us."
"What about Erin and Eve?"
"It took Erin a few weeks to recover but she's doing fine now. She's even taught herself how to duplicate cell phone numbers, making it hard to track her because the number will be active in up to five places at once, not just bouncing off sattle lights or signal towers. She's the most like her father. Eve is more of the problem solver, mediator if you will. She's always been great at debate and any kind of story problem. Eve, well she's always loved social and cultural studies. She knows exactly how the economy works today and taught herself to speak Italian, Korean, Swahili and Latin. She was even working on creating a secret language for her and Erin."
"In the past week, did you notice any strange behavior from those around your children? Any new faces that were there too often for comfort?" Morgan pressed
"At school, there was this one guy that my kids said always stopped them before and after school hours to ask them some questions. They thought he was just a news reporter so never thought much of it."
"What kind of questions was he asking?" Prentiss asked.
"What their favorite subjects were, grades they were getting, projects they might be working on, inventions they wanted to create. They were fine with all of those. It wasn't until he started asking about their daily and weekly schedule, favorite hang outs and personal info like that, that they came to me. I was worried so I had one of Steve's old friends walk them into their classes and home every day. It stopped after that."
"Did they ever tell you what he looked like, Mrs. Jobs?"
"No. But Peter, Steve's friend saw him?"
"Is Peter here now?"
"Yes. He came with me so I wouldn't be alone. Peter! The FBI wants to talk to you!"
A tall man, with a bald head and deep blue eyes walked in.
"How can I help you agents…?"
"Prentiss and Morgan" Morgan said.
Pulling out a picture of Skull, he asked
"Is this the man you saw questioning Erin and Eve."
Staring hard and long at the picture, Peter shook his head.
"He looked a bit like that. But that's not him. If I had to guess, I would say they were cousins, if not brothers. He has the same nose and skin tone, but the man I saw had darker hair and a rounder head. He wore glasses too. Couldn't tell if they were real or not, but he wore them."
"Thank you Peter. Mrs. Jobs. We'll keep you updated call us if they make any contact with you." Prentiss said handing them her card.
CMCMCMCMCMCMCMCMCMCMCMCMCMCMCMCMCMCMCMCMCMCMCMCMCMCMCMCMCMCMCBack at headquarters the team gathered around the bulletin to share what they had learned.
"Rory has a circle of friends that are all doing really well in hard core classes. He doesn't hang out with many others besides those few. Phoebe is more outgoing. She's teaching some of the older teachers how to use the computer programs her father created. There didn't seem to be anyone watching until she started getting creepy messages from a restricted number. Mr. Gates just thought it was a school prank, though." Rossi summarized.
"Reed has pretty much isolated himself since his father died. Erin and Eve recovered after a few weeks. Erin even made an untraceable cell phone number. Eve can speak four languages other than English. Before they were taken, a man was asking them weird questions before and after school every day. Their mom finally sent one of her husband's old friends to take them. He said that the man looks a lot like Skull, enough to be a brother or cousin." Morgan said.
Garcia came running in.
"I just hit the jackpot of all jackpots on the Einstein hostages. Turns out, Bernard and Klaus were like their grandfather's favorite grandchildren by a long shot. He spent more time with the two of them than he did with all the rest put together. He taught them how to build things from scrap metal, wood. Everything. He also loved teaching them mathematics and physics. They had loads of fun building toy rockets, race cars, and a whole bunch of other stuff."
"So the unsub didn't just take these people because of their names. It sounds like they can do anything that their fathers, or in Bernard and Klaus' case, grandfather could do. He's defiantly having them build something." Hotch said.
"But how is it getting funded? He needs money to buy the stuff to make it, and after that he'll still need some company to be part of, unless he plans on running solo." Morgan pointed out.
"That could be the other reason for the hostages. Jobs and Gates are both big name company owners. And then if he needs advice ownership and profit divisions, he has a lawyer, Reid's dad, right there. A lawyer he won't have to pay because allowing him and his son will be reward enough." Prentiss guessed.
"So we're looking for someone who may have been bullied a lot in grade school for being a genius, was a social outcast and want revenge on whomever did that to him. He's creating some project that will get the job done, but he wants it funded by a big name company? Where do Skull and his look alike come in?" Rossi summarized.
"That's something we need to figure out. But right now, we're ready for our profile. We should send it to as many places as possible since we don't know where they could be. After that, we'll wait for a tip. Let's go." Hotch said as he walked out the door.
_Like I said before, from this point on, everything I say about the Jobs, Gates and Einstein families is purely from my imagination. Thank you for reading. Reviews would be greatly appreciated.