Chapter 26: New beginnings

Hotch entered the hospital room, noticing Reid asleep. His head rested on Moni's bed, exhausted, one of his hands holding her good hand.

He then looked to the other bed and noticed his profiler in pain, before resting again at the heartbreaking picture of the couple.

Hotch silently walked to Morgan's side, immediately pressing the button to release more morphine into his system. After a few seconds, he noticed the lines of pain in Morgan's face dim.

"How long have you been awake?"

"Long enough. How long have I been out?"

"Long enough," Hotch muttered.

"What happened?" Morgan asked as he worried over what could cause Hotch to look so aggrieved.

"The pendrive that started all this...it was full of pictures of an orgy- illegal drugs, underaged prostitutes, and swing couples."

"Damn" Morgan grumbled.

"That's not all."

"Can it get worse than that?"

"Ah, it does. The female and male flesh used in the orgy were mostly that of unwilling participants. Mostly street kids or orphans bought specially for that party. The money was exchanged before each act."

"It was all carefully documented by the reporter who was the first victim of our unsub. He went undercover as a waiter and identified every single person in the party- every vile act committed by those in there- but before he could hand over his material to his editor, he was killed."

"Where does Moni come into the picture?"

Hotch sat on the edge of the bed and glanced at the unconscious woman. The nurses had taken the blood bag away, just the saline IV was running now.

"When Dresdner was ordered to retrieve the pictures and kill the journalist he didn't know that the reporter's pendrive had already been stolen, by none other than Moni. She had only glimpsed at the pictures briefly, saw that it was a beautiful house with beautiful people, and took it for herself. She had no clue of the bomb she had stolen."

"Why is she in the hospital with me now?"

"She insisted on making an exchange: the pendrive for Reid. We went to make the exchange, but we were betrayed. Besides Dresdner, there were two other corrupt cops lying in wait. She offered to take Dresdner to where she had hidden the pendrive, as long as he let us go free."

Hotch looked down at Reid, who sighed in his sleep.

"She went with him, and I could literally see Reid's heart breaking into pieces as the car drove away with her at the wheel."

"Hotch..." Morgan tried to think of something to say to ease the guilt that Hotch was so obviously feeling, but soon Hotch was speaking again.

"She crashed the car on purpose, killing Dresdner and almost succeeding in killing herself too. When we reached the scene I thought she was dead. There was so much blood everywhere."

"What about Dresdner? Was he our killer?"

"Yes, but he was just the tip of the iceberg. But when we found out, the damage was already done and the aftershocks were too widespread. Unbeknownst to us, Moni had prepared a virus to be sent at an specific hour to the FBI email accounts."

"Really? I had no idea she could program."

"Apparently, Declercq wasn't the only one trying to pass on his legacy to Moni. Garcia said that the virus had all the characteristics of something that might have been programmed by Peter Drake.

"It crashed the servers of the FBI, sending a viral message to all computers, both in Quantico and the Hoover, with a link to an external file. Until warning that the server had been infected by a virus was released, some people were actually clicking on the link. They were transferred to a very detailed account of the orgy. Moni had described and named each and every person in the pictures. All thanks to the research done by that reporter. He called them on their crimes and exposed all the underground connections belonging to several important people in New York, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Massachusetts and Delaware. This went deep, Morgan, and it has left deep gashes in the confidence and trust of the people in these states."

"Wow."

"Mayors, commissioners, D.A.'s, politicians, bankers, businessmen. Those who were in those pictures were identified and their crimes were broadcast for all those with eyes to see. Before they were able to stop the virus in the FBI network, we were informed that the same virus had been sent to the CNN. The media delighted in butchering everyone they could get their hands on."

"It was a massacre."

"So far, seventy eight people have been arrested, and the numbers are rising by the minute. We've also been able to coordinate with FBI offices located in other states. So far they have found sixteen prostitution camps run by the organization. More than sixty children and underage teens have been freed from those subhuman conditions. We're still investigating as there might be more."

Hotch sighed, rubbing his hand tiredly over his face, "There might be many more."

"Hotch, if that's all true, she will need to be put into witness protection. There's no way they will let her get away after exposing them like that."

"That's probably why she tried to kill herself. She knew exactly what she was doing when she got into that car. She had no intention of getting out alive. That's also why she insisted to be in on the exchange and free Reid. She knew we would need him once it all came out."

"What's going to happen now?"

"I honestly don't know, but I'm certain of one thing. Monica Law must disappear."