Chapter twenty-five
BAU Headquarters
FBI building
Quantico, VA

Spencer

That made everyone pause. "There is a theory that a sudden shock, a natural disaster, a military attack, even a car accident on the personal scale, can cause people to become very receptive for a short time." Spencer said. " It has to do with the cognitive dissonance in the brain, people believe that their world is safe and when it's suddenly shown that it's not some of the higher order thinking the brain will shut down until the dissonance is resolved."

"In other words, until they find answers." Blake nodded. "So they go to church, expecting the usual comforts and answers. Only if they aren't already regular members they don't realize that the church has been steeplejacked and that the pastor is a Goodwin agent."

"But is just being there enough to convert them?" Morgan asked.

"Pastor Goodwin believes so." Susanna replied. "He preaches that the true Word of God is so powerful that as soon as people hear they will be convinced."

"Which is not the case, but I think he knows that." Rossi said. "That explains that game. It wasn't just killing enemies, it was killing where neutrals would see and flock to church. I thought it was people running for safety but some of them were turning into friendlies after they got indoors. It was training the players to pick up on the right combination of enemies in the right location to maximize the conversions."

"Besides, he doesn't need complete conversions." Blake added, "Just enough to keep them coming back to his church so they can start implementing the brainwashing techniques."

"Brainwashing?" Morgan asked.

"A number of lifestyle adaptations that Goodwin insists his followers must adopt to be good Christians and remain in God's favor and thereby protected are actually techniques used to brainwash his followers." Spencer replied. "Saying that all media outside his pre-approved list is evil is a way of controlling the milieu and isolating his followers from society, as is insisting on homeschooling to keep children away from the satanic influences of their peers. Using language in unusual ways in his sermons and books forces others to use the same jargon, reinforcing the us-vs-them mentality. Another technique is mystical manipulation, making it look like he has almost magical powers or is somehow elevated above normal humans."

"Does bragging about how many politicians believe in his ways count?" Susanna asked.

"It can." Spencer replied. "Another aspect is the demand for purity, for becoming increasingly perfect as time goes on, less exposure to outsiders, more separation, continually striving and never being good enough. The cult of confession also comes into play."

"You were supposed to tell your father every sin you ever committed." Susanna revealed. "And then apologize for them to your family. I always felt bad for my brothers whenever they, uh, messed the sheets the night before. They'd have to stand there before breakfast and confess what they had done and what they dreamed about."

Morgan winced. "I have sisters. I cannot imagine that."

"You're not allowed to question the group leaders over anything, ever." Spencer went on. "To do so usually result in punishment of one form or another. They practice doctrine over person, making people fit into molds regardless of personal experience. A classic version of this is telling the wife of an abuser that it's not that bad and she needs to be more submissive or saying that a woman may not get a job even though her family is facing poverty. And finally they have the right to decide who exists, if you don't meet their standards you face expulsion from the group, losing your entire social network, even including your job and family."

"And now they've taken it one step further." Rossi said. "That game singled out victims based on groups."

"What do you mean?" Hotch asked.

"Every character wore a t-shirt and pants. The shirts were either blank for neutrals or labeled with a symbol denoting friendly or hostile. Hostiles included homosexuals, Atheists, scientists, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, Roman Catholics and Episcopalians."

"Scientists?" Morgan asked.

"They deny the Word of God." Susanna told him. "Goodwin believes in strict Creationism, and that the earth is only 6,000 years old. One of his followers built a huge museum in Kentucky about it. My family went, Leah said they had dinosaurs in the lobby with saddles you could ride because man did before the Fall."

"They have a museum?" Morgan sounded shocked, "How big?"

"They said it's the size of the Natural History museum here in DC." Susanna replied. "He's trying to build a theme park to go with it. They already have one down in Florida."

"They also have their own news organizations." Spencer added, "Book publishers, chains of bookstores, radio stations, film studios, and enough cable networks to fill a satellite cable service. His core group may only be 15,000 people but if you look at churches that are sympathetic or loosely affiliated where his message is starting to have influence you're talking hundreds of thousands of people, maybe millions already."

"Wow." Blake said, "But Catholics and Episcopalians?"

"Both of those churches have strict hierarchies he can't influence." Spencer realized. "And in many small towns and rural areas they're the only competition with churches he can influence. What he doesn't have is a lot of influence in urban areas, his brainwashing techniques wouldn't work there, too many outside influences."

"Unless he can get whole neighborhoods to listen," Rossi said. "And nothing drives people into churches like a mass casualty incident, we're back to that. Susanna, when did your brothers go off to camp at his ranch?"

"They both went about, oh, four years ago."

"I thought you said they went at sixteen." Morgan said.

"It wasn't open when Michael turned sixteen. He and Daniel went to the first session. He said he was a little old for it but it was informative."

"I'll bet." Rossi nodded. "Four years ago would be one year after the economy crashed. I bet that's when he put Plan B in motion, when he realized his followers weren't going to be marrying soon enough to give him enough warm bodies."

"But if he went to Plan B, then why the kidnappings?" Blake asked. "Why continue with Plan A?"

"Because asking someone to be a martyr is different from asking them to be a grunt." Rossi said. "Even though I bet they were raised with stories of martyrs and missionaries covered in glory…" Susanna nodded. "…knowing you're going to end up dead or in prison is a very different thing. Most guys couldn't hack it. So he's covering all his bases."

"Four years is about right for building those weapons caches." Morgan pointed out.

"Are you saying we're ahead of this?" Hotch asked.

"Just barely," Rossi replied. "I hate to say it but I think the country as a whole was dammed lucky he grabbed Henry. The problem is that he's set up a near perfect terror network. Those boys are completely off the radar, they have been from birth, yet they know the language and the culture well enough to blend in. They also have a huge, nationwide support network."

"And we can't track them." Morgan said.

"Nope," Garcia spoke up. "I tried a thing with the church computers, there was nothing. All his records have to be hard copy."

"And we don't have enough for a warrant." Hotch informed them. "We can't conclusively tie Goodwin to any of it. And given what Morgan and Reid said about his confidence and Miss Holman said about his friends we need to make this air-tight."

"We're not there yet." Rossi sighed. "All we can do is keep working on Goodwin's profile, see if we can figure out his first target."

"We can at least put them on the watch list, right?" Spencer asked.

"Yes." Hotch replied. "But for now that's all we can do."