Chapter 26

October 2003

"Is this actually working?" Lucero asked. "How is this working? What am I eating?"

"It seems to be." Morgan said. They were in Garcia's lair watching the feed going through the cameras Salazar had planted in the Reid's apartment. Two other agents who looked close enough were there for the week-end, pretending to be the now-hidden couple. "He's watching them at least."

"The videos are being sent to an aggregator." Garcia said. "He'll watch for what the Unsub wants to see and then send just those portions on to him When he does we'll get his current location and his data stream, then we can track him better than he tracks you."

"Hopefully he'll tag onto the agents there thinking they're you two." Morgan said. "Maybe if he sees you two in one place he'll try for it and slip up. All we need him to do is make one mistake."

" Oh, and you're eating Mallowmars." Garcia added.

"How have I never found these before?"

Morgan chuckled. "You know, you can't do this on junk food and get healthy."

Lucero shrugged. "I just want to get in the habit of eating again first."

"Okay. I can see it for the week-end, but at some point you two should be setting goals or something."

Spencer looked like he was considering this. "Let's get the profile and a plan for catching Uncle Ed down first, then work on that."

"Fair enough." Just then they heard a phone ringing in the other room. Morgan moved to the other room where they had Reid and Lucero's phones tapped for listening. "Don't recognize the number." Garcia had routed any number that had come in with harassment straight to recording. Now Morgan put on headphones and answered. "Hello."

"Um yeah. I might have the wrong number," said a male with a thick European accent that was almost familiar. "I'm looking for Lucero Reid."

Morgan knew this voice. "May I ask who's calling?"

"Yeah, Tim. Do I have the right number?"

All of a sudden he got it. "Yeah, hang on." He pulled off the headphones, motioned to Furnelli to stop recording. "Someone she works with." He handed the phone to Lucero. "Tim. Sounds like the DJ from the club."

"Oh!" She swallowed and answered. "Thanks. Yeah, Tim, hi." She took the phone and wandered off to find some privacy.

"How was the show?" Spencer asked.

"Amazing. She is something on stage." Morgan chuckled. "You've seen her up there."

"Um, no, actually."

Huh? "You've never seen her on stage?"

"We don't spend time in public together, remember?"

"Awww man, we have got to fix that." That was not right.

They dove back into the profile. It wasn't too long before Lucero came back out, this time without cookies. She looked almost scared. "What's wrong?" Spencer asked.

It took her a minute to actually manage to talk. "Remember how I told you we were invited to perform at the Firefly Festival?"

Spencer nodded and looked over at Morgan. "It's this huge music festival in Delaware."

"They have a number of stages there. We're supposed to perform on one of the smaller ones. Tim's one of the headliners, main stage, evening." She swallowed twice. "He wants me to perform with him. Three songs at least."

Spencer broke into a grin. "That's great!"

"Hell yeah," Morgan said.

But her eyes were just getting bigger. "That's thirty thousand people! I have never...I have enough trouble making it through a set at the Tavern. I don't know if I can..."

"When is this thing?" Morgan asked.

"End of July."

It was the middle of October. "That's ten months. There's your goal, we can get you strong enough by then."

"Really?"

"Yeah," Morgan was glad to see Spencer nodding along with him. "So what are you going to do by then?" He asked.

Spencer didn't have to think long. "What's a good test for an agent?"

"The Yellow Brick Road." The big confidence/obstacle course. "You could make that if you wanted to, it would clear nearly all the waivers off your file."

"All right then."

Awesome. Morgan was pleased, he was going to help his friends out of this jam and back on the road to healthy, strong and successful. Just the way it should be.

"You should have goals past that though." Garcia said. "Everyone does, right? Like, I don't know, buy a house, start a family..." All of a sudden Spencer started getting that eye twitch like his brain kicked in the afterburners. "Uh oh."

"What?" Morgan asked.

"I know how to make him make a mistake." Spencer looked over at Lucero. "What if I got you pregnant?"

"Just for that you sleep on the couch." She replied.

That snapped him out of it a little. "No, I don't mean really pregnant. What if we made Uncle Ed think you were pregnant? A...a risky pregnancy because of your weight?"

"Are you kidding? Like this?" She gestured to her body. "He'd come after me even harder. He'd do anything to get me somewhere and force me to eat to protect his brother's grandchild. He'd lose his mind."

"And a lost mind makes mistakes." Morgan nodded. "This is not a bad idea."

"This is crazy!"

"Yes but it would work." Spencer turned back toward the lair. "Garcia..."

Just then an explosion filled the room.