"Please tell me you have some good news about Reid and JJ." Garcia said desperately.
The team all stood around a large laptop sitting on a desk in the briefing room. They had established a video chat connection with Garcia back in Quantico, and her face partly filled the screen as she looked out at the rest of her team.
"We received a phone call from the unsub a little while ago," Hotch said into the computer.
"Well that's good!" Garcia exclaimed. "Maybe. I think. I don't know, is that good?"
"The unsub claimed to have Reid and JJ with him." Rossi said. "He said they weren't hurt."
"Oh thank God…" Garcia replied, relieved. "But they're still with him and not with you, so what do we do now to bring them home?"
"That's where we need your help, baby girl." Morgan said. "The unsub's come up with a few things that we have to do for him, and in return he said he'll release JJ and Reid."
"So just do what he says, and he'll let them go?" Garcia asked desperately.
"It's not going to be as simple as that." Hotch replied. "The unsub said he would call us back within the hour with more details about what he wants us to do, so I need you to try and trace the call to see if we can pinpoint a location to find out where the unsub is."
"If we can locate the unsub," Rossi said, "JJ and Reid won't be far away."
"Okay." Garcia said quickly, before glancing down at her other screens in her room back in Quantico as she typed feverishly.
"I can forward any incoming calls to your phone over here to me," Garcia began, "And put them through the mother of all tracing technology to find out where this creep's calling from."
"Thanks Garcia." Hotch replied back.
"Just, please…" Garcia began, looking at everybody in the briefing room through the screen. "Please be careful. This guy has already got JJ and Reid, and I don't want anybody else to get hurt, so just… Be careful…"
"We will, Garcia." Callahan said comfortingly.
"Okay…" Garcia said with a sigh. "Okay." She fanned her eyes and took a deep breath.
"Could you find anything about the two police officers involved in the Infinity Killer murders this week?" Hotch asked Garcia. "Or anything explaining why the unsub suddenly needed an influx of money?"
Garcia sat up in her chair, regaining her composure.
"Affirmative on the latter, actually!" Garcia chirped, as she began hammering on her keyboard yet again. "Okay, so I did what you asked and looked for any recent trouble in the whole shady world of investments."
"Anything obvious come up?" Rossi asked.
"Oh, it was far from obvious," Garcia began, "But it couldn't hide from me. So… Turns out there was this trading company in Mexico that took a turn for the worst recently. They specialized in stocks and bonds, and quite a few people invested a lot of money with them because of their uncanny growth rate, and also the paper trail that conveniently disappeared with these guys. However the CEO, if you can even call this guy that, was recently investigated for some major illegal activity. People got scared and pulled out, stock prices crashed, and several people lost a whole lot of money."
"How much money are we talking about?" Rossi asked.
"I have a list of a few prominent investors," Garcia began. "And some lost millions."
"Who was on that list?" Hotch replied back.
"A few individuals." Garcia responded. "Independent rich folks. A couple small companies, but there was one name that stood out for me. There was some company listed as H. Ocho and Associates. They claimed they were some stock trading company based out of Tokyo, but I looked all over for these guys, and no such thing exists in Tokyo or otherwise."
The team members looked at each other perplexed.
"H. Ocho?" Morgan asked. "Do you think it's an anagram for something?"
"Well whatever it is," Garcia continued, "Is a little fishy. These investors lost everything only about a week before the Infinity Killer returned to Los Angeles. And this mysterious Mr. Ocho lost a very familiar sum of money. Fifteen million."
The team looked at each other incredulously.
"That's got to be the Infinity Killer!" Rossi exclaimed. "I mean, it all adds up. An investment gone bad tanks and leaves the guy with nothing, so he turns around and gets it back another way."
"Can you find out who's responsible for this company?" Hotch called out into the computer.
"I've picked it apart until it was nothing but tiny little pieces," Garcia began, "But I came up with nothing. The only thing I did stumble across was the name 'Ocho'… I should warn you, get prepared to be creeped right out, because I know I sure was… 'Ocho' is Spanish for 'Eight'."
The team glanced at each other.
"And 'H' is the eighth letter of the alphabet…" Rossi slowly said after a brief pause.
"Eight…" Callahan murmured. "A figure eight instead of an infinity symbol."
"H. Ocho isn't a company" Morgan said. "It's the Infinity Killer."
"Exacty." Garcia said quietly from the laptop, everyone feeling as if they were getting incrementally closer, yet still immeasurably far away.
The door of the shack opened, as JJ swung the shovel at the person entering. The shovel struck with a sickening crunch, as the blade crashed into the side of the door, the unsub ducking out of the way just in the nick of time.
"JJ!" Reid shouted in a panic as the unsub lunged towards her, just as JJ was raising the shovel yet again. The man made contact and sent JJ crashing to the ground, the shovel falling to the floor as well while the two fell in a heap.
JJ landed on her back, while the man crashed into the wall next to the door. Dazed, he tried reaching for the shovel, but JJ was too quick. She swiftly kicked him in the stomach, causing him to recoil back, gasping in pain as he lost his balance and fell over backwards. JJ grabbed for the shovel, but the man had already grasped the wooden handle, using his other hand to pull out his gun.
"JJ!" Reid cried. "The gun, JJ! Get the gun!"
JJ glanced over as the man pulled out his weapon and thrust her elbow into his arm, causing the gun to fly out of his hands and land across the room. The unsub flailed at JJ as he desperately tried to get up, but he was no match for JJ's fighting skills. She punched the man across the face, before grabbing his head and forcing it into her knee. The man cried out before crashing motionless to the floor.
"JJ!" Reid cried. "Are you okay?"
JJ quickly got up, breathing heavily as the man lay still on the ground.
"I'm fine Spence…" she said, trying to catch her breath. She was bruised, but not seriously injured. JJ rushed over to the gun lying on the floor and picked it up, aiming it at the unsub as she approached closer and reached into his pocket, looking for the man's phone.
"What are you doing?" Reid asked urgently, as JJ rummaged through the man's pockets. She eventually pulled out his smartphone.
"Calling Hotch." JJ replied back, relieved. "The only way we're going to get out of here is if everyone knows where we are. They'll be able to trace the call and find us."
JJ quickly fumbled with the phone. She tapped the 'emergency call' icon on the locked home screen and hurriedly dialed Hotch's cell number as she rushed to look through the cracks of the wood again. Nobody was emerging from either of the two vehicles, so the commotion must have gone un-heard. JJ frantically placed the phone to her ear.
The phone rang once.
Everybody froze in the briefing room as Hotch's phone began to chime. Hotch quickly looked at the time on the phone. An hour wasn't even close to being up. The number was blocked, so if it was the unsub calling, something had to have changed.
"Garcia, are you ready?" Hotch asked, looking at the screen.
"Yes!" Garcia replied. "The trace will begin as soon as you answer."
Hotch reached for the phone and took a breath.
The phone rang twice.
"Hello?"
Hotch's voice came out of the phone, filling the shack with a glimmer of hope as JJ desperately held the cell to her ear.
"Hotch!" JJ cried.
"JJ!" she heard Hotch exclaim from the other end of the line. "What's going on? Are you and Reid okay?"
"We're fine!" JJ replied. "But we don't have much time. We got the unsub's phone, Hotch. You need to trace the call! I have no idea where we are."
"Garcia's on it right now!" Hotch replied from the cell. "If you can stay on the line long enough, we can pinpoint a GPS location. We're on our way."
"Okay." JJ replied. "I think we're somewhere in the middle of the desert. The unsub's unconscious but there are others outside. We can't run or else they'll see us."
"Stay there." Hotch instructed. "How many others are there?"
JJ crept back to the wall and peeked through the crack in the wood at the vehicles.
"Four or five, maybe." JJ said. "But this guy's got more, Hotch. He's got people working for him everywhere. Cops, paramedics. Even somebody in the FBI. You can't trust anybody."
"You're going to be okay." Hotch said through the phone. "Do you have anything to protect yourself with?
JJ glanced down at the unsub, still motionless.
"Yeah." JJ replied. "I've got the unsub's gun."
"Is Reid there?" Hotch asked from the phone.
JJ rushed over to Reid with the phone.
"Hotch!" Reid said desperately into the cell.
"Reid!" Hotch's voice replied. "We're going to get you out of there. Garcia's pinpointing the location right now."
Suddenly, some slight motion caught Reid's eye as he glanced down to the floor. The unsub was reaching for the shovel.
"JJ!" Reid shouted.
JJ wheeled around just as she felt a burning pain radiating from her leg. The unsub had hit her in the back of her calf with the shovel, her leg searing as she came crashing to the ground. Somehow the unsub had recovered and was now standing above her, brandishing the shovel. JJ tried to stand up, but the pain in her leg was too much. She didn't think it was broken, but she could feel blood beginning to soak through her pant leg. The unsub swung the shovel at her again, but she ducked out of the way, avoiding what would have been a fatal blow.
"JJ!" Hotch's voice called out from the phone, now lying on the floor. "What's going on?"
JJ shifted her weight up on her good leg and tried to tackle the unsub, but the man grabbed her by the neck, driving her body into the wooden boards before throwing her to the floor.
"JJ, can you hear me?" Hotch's voice yelled from the phone.
JJ tried getting up, but the unsub kicked her across the face and she fell back down to the floor, blood pouring from her lip.
"Big mistake, agents." the man said slowly, trying to catch his breath as he rubbed his bruises from the fight. The man slowly approached JJ who was lying groaning on the ground and kicked her in the stomach, winding her. JJ coughed and gasped for breath as the man kicked her yet again, this time even harder. JJ rolled into a ball, clutching her stomach as the unsub laughed.
The man reached over, grabbing her by the shoulders and flung her towards the chairs where she landed in a heap. He rushed over to grab his gun from the ground and picked up the cell phone, Hotch's frantic voice still shouting from the other end. Without ending the call, he set the phone down on the ground.
"Get up!" the man growled, as he grabbed JJ's hair, pulling her up as she cried out in pain. The man pushed JJ into the back of the chair, grabbing her arms and securing the handcuffs as tight as they could close around her wrists. He reached under his sport coat, producing the electric baton with one hand as he quickly extended it before jamming it into JJ's stomach. The electricity surged through her body as she cried out, the voltage sending her muscles into uncontrollable spasms.
"Stop!" Reid pleaded. "Leave her alone!"
The man glared at Reid before punching him square across the jaw, stunning him with the blow.
"You want to call your team?" the man roared, as he picked up the phone on the ground and held it towards JJ, shocking her again with the prod. JJ writhed in the chair, as the man laughed, the sound of the prod's electric crackle filling the room.
"Go ahead!" the man taunted. "Let's let agent Hotchner hear the entire show!"
The man held the phone closer as he plunged the prod into JJ's stomach yet again. She screamed as the current shot through her body, the pain feeling like needles stabbing her every muscle. Hotch's voice could be heard desperately shouting from the other end, as the entire team was forced to hear what the man was putting her through.
The unsub finally pulled the prod away as JJ gasped for breath, slumping over in the chair. The man calmly set the phone down on the ground before reaching for the shovel and smashing the blade into the phone, the screen turning black as Hotch's voice suddenly stopped.
The line went dead as the team crowded around Hotch's phone in the briefing room. Garcia was nearly hysterical, as the rest of the team sat horrified, listening to the scenario unfolding on the other end. Hotch tapped the screen, desperate to hear something coming through, but there was nothing. He sat the phone down and looked at the others.
"We need to get there, now." Rossi demanded, turning towards Garcia.
"Garcia, tell me you could trace the call!" he barked as Garcia fought back tears.
"Yes." Garcia sobbed, typing quickly. "I was able to pinpoint a GPS location on the phone. I've sent it to each of your devices."
Chief Hunt suddenly came rushing into the room after all the commotion.
"Is everything all right in here?" he said, looking at everybody.
"Two of our agents have been kidnapped." Hotch replied. "And their lives are in immediate danger." The chief looked at him, surprised.
"Give me a location." The chief replied back. "I'll have SWAT deployed right now."
Morgan frantically looked on his phone, the location of the cell displaying itself on a map Garcia had sent.
"Where the hell is this?" Morgan demanded, as he stood up, showing the phone to Chief Hunt. The chief looked at the phone, trying to make out the location.
"That's in the middle of the desert." The chief replied. "Just northwest of Barstow, out by Edwards Air Force Base."
"How long does it take to get there?" Rossi frantically asked. The chief looked at the team, a panicked look in his eyes.
"Two and a half hours, at least." The chief stammered, realizing the scope of the situation. "Maybe less if we boot it."
"We don't have that kind of time." Hotch replied. "I have two of my agents being held there by whoever is responsible for the Infinity Killer homicides, and the situation is devolving quickly."
"If we don't get there soon, they're both going to be dead!" Morgan shouted.
The police chief turned away from the team, desperately trying to think of a solution. He suddenly looked back up, an idea in his mind.
"Follow me." The chief demanded, as the team began putting on their Kevlar vests and strapping their guns in their holsters.
"I think there might be something we can do."
Thank you all for reading! Stay tuned for the next chapter...