Chapter 6

T + 16 hours

Gulfstream 5000

Northeastern US airspace

Emily

"So if you know so much about this Mandarin," Rossi said to Clive as he slid over to join them, "Why haven't you been able to put her away?"

"We've never caught her with the victim." Clive replied. "She never holds on to anyone more than twelve hours, and most of that was transport. An hour at each end on the ground, max." He frowned. "What I don't understand is how Doyle managed to pay for her services. We have all his accounts locked down tight."

"Reid," Rossi told him. He looked over at Emily. "Taking Reid wasn't about hurting you, although that was a side benefit for Doyle. That's not Doyle's style. He likes to play like for like, a son for a son. No, he took Reid to pay for the help he needed to grab both boys at the same time. All right, he turned Reid over to this Mandarin person to pay for services rendered. But why did she work with him, if she wanted Reid why not go for him herself."

"Intel," Emily told him. "When they looked at her she shook her head. "I met with him a few weeks before he started burning down houses." She sagged as the anger came back into Morgan's eyes. "He'd been following everyone for weeks. He even knew that you and Garcia had a movie night when we came home from that case with the autistic kid in Louisiana."

Morgan's face turned from anger to one of shock. "Garcia surprised me with that, in my office. We never left the building." He shook his head. "All right, I can see why Mandarin wanted to work with him."

"Yeah, but you're all missing the point." Rossi pulled the conversation back. "Mandarin has no use for Reid herself. She doesn't keep victims on hand, so she can't be caught with them. And I doubt there's enough of a market for tall, scrawny geniuses to make putting him on the open market worth her investment with Doyle."

"Oh God," just talking about Reid this way was making Emily feel ill.

Rossi continued. "She wouldn't have approached Doyle, or accepted his approach, without having a buyer waiting for him on the other end."

"Well whoever he is, he's probably already taken delivery." Clive pointed out.

They sat there blinking at him as that struck them. "Who would want to buy Reid?" Morgan asked.

"Exactly, why this victim at this time?" Rossi sighed.

"Someone who coveted him," Clive pointed out. "Mandarin doesn't leave Hong Kong anymore for less than ten million."

Morgan's jaw dropped, "For Reid."

Clive nodded, "And that's in profit, more to cover her investment. And I'm sure there would have had to be additional riders for going after an FBI agent within the continental US. In the end it probably cost her client closer to twenty."

"And we covet what we see every day." That was big money, even for the wealthiest member of the team. Rossi looked at them all gravely. "I believe it's time to break the first rule."

"What's that?" Clive asked.

"Never profile each other." Morgan told him. "We need to run victimology on Reid." He pulled out his phone. "Hey, baby girl."

"Anything? Anything at all?" Garcia was not her usual bubbly self. They all knew she wouldn't be until everyone in her family was home and safe.

"Not yet. I know you're not going to like it, but we need to run a victim profile on Reid. We need his phone records, his financials, net access, whatever you can give us."

"Oh God, he's going to hate that." But her fingers were already flying.

Morgan thought a moment. "He takes the bus and Metro a lot; I bet he has a pass. See if you can pull up that data, it might be almost as good as a GPS."

"All right, will do, and it will be ready when you get back." With that she hung up the phone.

"Why Reid?" Rossi asked. It was the question of the night.

Emily just looked away again. They were about to go tunneling through the private life of one of the most private men she'd ever known. There was no way this couldn't feel like a violation, she had a sense of the kind of secrets he kept. I'm sorry Spencer, she thought, so very, very sorry. But there's no other way to save you.

T + 18 hours

BAU headquarters

Quantico, VA

By the time they landed the virtual board in the conference room was already filling up. Clive had moved on to helping sort Doyle, Hotch and JJ had gone home with their children, so that left Morgan, Rossi and Emily to start to answer The Question. They walked in to the conference room and there was Garcia, waiting. She'd already started laying out the case, had put Reid's picture up on the board on the victim side. It was a blow to the heart.

First things first, and not something she was looking forward to, at all. Emily stopped in front of Garcia. "I'm sorry." She said. What else could be said?

"I know. I understand." Garcia said. "I'm just sorry you had to go it alone. We would have helped you, you know."

"I know, I got your message." Emily had to fight back the tears again. "But then Doyle would have come after you."

"He did anyway."

Damn. She was right. "All right, maybe it wasn't the best plan after all."

"Yeah, but you meant it to be." Garcia pulled her into a big hug. "I'm just glad you're really alive so I can forgive you."

After a long moment Rossi cleared his throat and they settled around the table. "Okay, what about his phone records?" Morgan asked

"Nada, his only phone was issued by the Bureau, he calls you guys, me, Will and JJ, Bennington and the various Universities. Based on his phone records he doesn't have a life."

"Internet?" Emily asked.

"Nothing, he doesn't even have an account anywhere but through the Bureau. I didn't even find a computer at his address he doesn't have an online life either."

"Financial records."

"Okay, here's where it get interesting. First thing I've noticed is that that boy needs a raise." Garcia started calling up the documents. "Bennington is hella expensive. That place sucks down a third of his salary a month, easy."

"Is the Bureau his only source of income?" Morgan asked.

"Not quite. He's also drawing a part-time instructor's salary from George Washington University and sometimes gets paid for lectures from other Universities in the area, all of which goes in through direct deposit. He hasn't deposited any other checks since he came to DC."

"Okay, what about the outgo?"

"Most of it is also electronic so he doesn't have to think about it, just like the rest of you. Utilities, credit card, on which he does not run a balance, insurance, of which he has extra and pays through the nose for it, all that sort of thing. He regularly writes exactly three checks, one to Hector and Claudia Morales for $900 around the first every month."

"That's his rent, they own his building." Morgan said.

"I thought so. The second is to a Salon Marel, also around the first of the month, for eighty dollars."

"He gets an eighty dollar haircut every month?" Rossi asked.

"I don't know. I looked for hair place with that name, no joy. The third is made out to numbered account every three months for three hundred dollars. That account traces to a Swiss bank."

Now that shocked them. "I beg your pardon?" Emily asked. She knew a number of people who made out checks like that, none of them for good reason.

Garcia nodded. "That's what I said. I don't have a clue."

"Okay, what about his Metro pass? Did that pan out to anything?"

"Yes, it did." She called up a map of the DC area with highlighted points. "These are all the places he hits regularly. Now I think we can assume this route." She highlighted one, "Which takes him from Mt. Pleasant St and 17th to the red line at Van Ness to Union station where he catches the train out to Quantico is how he gets to work. Now on the way back at various times he'll transfer out to the different university stops, George Washington more than any of them." She showed another map. "Each visit is followed by a deposit from that university by the end of that month."

"Lectures, maybe classes," Emily guessed. That was an easy one, which fit the Reid they knew.

"More than likely," Garcia agreed. "Now, here's where it gets interesting." She pulled up another map, this one took him down to Union Station, but then it kept going east. "Instead of getting right on the train for here he gets started about an hour and a half early, gets to Union Station and then takes a bus out to the stadium. About an hour later he turns around, comes back to the Station and heads out here. But he only does that on Wednesday mornings."

"What's out there?" Morgan asked.

"I don't know. Then there's this route." Another one that went past Union, only this one went out to a real skeezy neighborhood. "But that's only on some nights after you guys get back from a case. There's this one," Which went from Mt. Pleasant out to a light industrial area. "Which he does two and a half hours early, and then he goes home before heading to work, but only on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. And lastly there's this one." A bus line took him to the heart of Georgetown, one of the most expensive areas in DC, "Where he goes at least three nights a week including every single Saturday for the past year."

"Reid, what the hell are you doing?" Emily wondered out loud.

Just then Garcia' phone rang. "FBI Behavioral Analysis, Penelope Garcia speaking….what…wait…you're sure? Hold on." She put them on hold and looked up at the room. "They found Reid's bag and ID."

That got everyone's attention. "Where?" Morgan asked.

"In a dumpster at SeaTac airport in Seattle."

"Seattle?"

Rossi turned to Morgan. "A lot of wealthy people out there; that must be where Mandarin's client took delivery." He shook his head. "Our pilots are on a mandatory rest period. I'll tell the local office to secure the crime scene and start forensics, Hotch and I will head out there in the morning. Garcia I want that bag on the next flight back here, and I don't want anyone else in it. For all we know Reid sent a message that only we would understand." He turned back to Morgan and Emily. "You two get some rest. Don't argue." He said as they both opened their mouths to protest. "We don't need you missing something because you're tired. In the morning come in here and check out that bag first, see if he left a message. After that start running Reid like a victim, starting with that Wednesday morning location, we got lucky there. After that check his apartment, just like we would anyone else, I don't want us to miss anything by making assumptions."

They both nodded. Once Rossi had moved on Morgan turned to Emily. "I don't know about you, but I want to get an early start in the morning."

"Are you thinking of crashing here?'

"Yeah, you?"

"Yeah, but I don't know that I'm allowed, I'm not on the payroll anymore." That would be something to sort later, Emily thought. Once we get Reid home.

"Don't worry about it, I'll cover you." Yes, the healing process was escalating. "I've heard Rossi has a very comfortable couch."

Emily smiled at him. "No better time to find out."