The Children are Missing

Chapter 29

Hotch awoke to the sound of a door closing heavily. He watched the man study him as he approached. "You should be glad that vest is as strong as I thought would be."

"Yeah, why's that?" Hotch asked and the man could hear the pain in Hotch's voice.

"Cause it even stopped two slugs point blank," he told him plainly. Shit! No wonder I hurt so bad! Hotch thought as the man came up to him. He removed the vest and Hotch didn't fight him; he didn't think his chest could handle any more abuse. "This next experiment won't be so physical," the man told him as he reached into the bag again. Hotch saw him remove a little metal box, and he watched him closely. Anything that could fit in the little box probably meant a lot of pain. The man opened it and withdrew something as he smiled again. He showed Hotch the little white bottle. "This is something of my own making," he started to explain. Hotch held his breath, he could think of a lot of liquids that could be made, and none of them were good. "It contains Lysergic acid diethylamide," LSD? What the hell? "Phencyclidine," And PCP? "Amphetamine, and extracts from the psilocybe and amanita muscaria mushrooms," the man explained.

"That's one hell of a hallucinogenic cocktail," Hotch started as he tried to keep the fear out of his voice. "What exactly are you experimenting with it?"

"Well, the formula hasn't been perfected yet. The last three people I've tried it on have died," he explained in a tone that told Hotch that he had no empathy.

A true psychopath! "You don't need to give me that, really, I'm good," Hotch tried to sound brave.

"You've probably never experimented with drugs, huh?"

"No, and I really don't want to start now."

"Your first trip will be a rush," the man told him with a smile. "You won't even know where you are, but God knows what you'll see and hear. It's different for every person." He walked up to Hotch with the bottle.

XXXXX

Kahlan took Rossi's arm as they walked up to the door. To her surprise, a young woman was in charge of the crowd.

"Oh my God! You're that author!" the girl yelled with a big smile. Rossi froze. "My mom read one of your books; I remember your face from the back." Rossi smiled but shot a look to Kahlan. If the woman yelled that he was an FBI agent, their cover was blown. "You write crime stories, right?"

Rossi visibly relaxed. "Guilty as charged," he told the woman with a charming smile.

She ripped off a piece of paper from her clip board. "Would you sign this for me? My mom will flip."

"Of course," Rossi told her as he accepted the clip board and pen. "What's your mother's name?"

The woman told him and Rossi signed it and handed it back with a smile. She never even gave Kahlan a glance as she opened the rope stopping people from going into the club. "Have a great night," she told him and they made their way into the club.

XXXXX

Psycho, as Hotch had started calling the man in his head, took a cap off the bottle and Hotch noticed it was a dropper. "I have found, though, that the fastest way for the drug to take effect is through the eyes."

Fuck! Hotch could even begin to recall all of the things hallucinogens could do to a person. Increased heart rate and blood pressure, lack of motor control, lung failure. . . Fuck!

Psycho yanked hard on Hotch's hair pulling his head back. Hotch squeezed his eyes shut as tight as he could. It didn't stop Psycho, though, as he held Hotch's head back with his hip, forced open one of his eyes with one hand, and dropped several drops of his cocktail in with his other hand. As soon as he let Hotch go, Hotch bent his head down, opened his eyes, and shook his head violently, trying to get some of the burning liquid out. He knew it was too late; he could feel an icy sensation building behind his eye. His breathing quickened, but he wasn't sure if it was the drug or his fear.

Psycho just stood back and watched. Hotch wondered if the people suffered before their deaths or if they just stopped breathing while they were under the effects of the drug. Hotch tried to steady his breathing as he focused on his body. He almost smiled as he relaxed. Ha! I don't feel anything yet! He started giggling, and Psycho gave him a puzzling look. That just made Hotch giggle even harder. What the hell is so funny Hotchner? He asked himself, but burst out laughing. He was nicely surprised to realize his chest didn't hurt anymore, but he felt like he was starting to float and he had to wonder if he was even still sitting down. Psycho smiled again as he looked at his watch and made a notation in a little notebook.

Hotch tried to get a handle on his thoughts, but he felt them swirling around him as he started to shake. Psycho went to Hotch and undid his cuffs and leg shackles. Hotch just stared at him. He was telling himself that he needed to get up. That he needed to fight and escape, but his shaking body just wouldn't respond. Things weren't funny anymore, either. He felt himself paralyzed by fear as he heard Jack crying and screaming out for him. Jack's here? When did he get Jack? Hotch felt tears streaming down his cheeks as he looked around for his son. Jack was being hurt and he couldn't make his body listen to him. The shakes soon became tremors and Hotch fell out of the chair. He curled up on the floor, crying and screaming. Every unsub he had ever had the pleasure of putting away was taunting him, hurting him, and hurting his son. Hotch didn't even notice Psycho setting up a video recorder, and he didn't notice him leaving either. He was lost in his own mind.

XXXXX

After about an hour of being in the club, Rossi received a text from JJ that they had found the hit man, so Rossi and Kahlan were going to head over to help follow. As they finally paid the check and the valet finally brought Rossi's car around, he received another text saying that they had lost him. "Son of a bitch!" Rossi said aloud as he read the text.

Kahlan knew by the look on his face what had happened. "You want to go back in and see if he shows?"

"Do I have to?" Rossi asked with a small smile.

Kahlan had to admit that the music had even given her a headache. "Let's just find someplace to park and see if we see him."

He nodded and got in the car. He pulled down the block, paralleled parked, and shut of the engine. He adjusted the rear view mirror to get a better view of the street. Kahlan also reached out and adjusted the side mirror so she could see, too. She drummed her fingers on her thigh.

Rossi turned the key to let the radio play. Kahlan gave him a smile, but turned to watch the street. He wondered why Kahlan hated silence so much. "So how many of your aliases are still active?" He noticed she smiled, but she didn't take her eyes off the street.

"Probably all of them. They keep them updated in case they have to be used again."

"So officially, you are still part of every agency?" She shrugged. "I didn't have to come sign you in. You could have walked through the building unhindered."

"I could have, but the DNI would have gotten an alert. He wouldn't have any idea what it was about because he has no idea who I am, but he might have looked into it, and that would have led to a bunch of unneeded questions for us both."

Rossi considered her for a moment. He never liked the people he had met in the CIA. They were the stereotypical sleazy spies that the movies always portrayed so well, but he couldn't picture Kahlan ever being sleazy. She was very likeable, dangerous as hell he knew, but likeable. And that is probably what makes her so good at her job. "Have they ever called you back?"

"Tenet tried once when Wyatt was one," is all she said.

Rossi couldn't leave it at that. "Tried?"

"I reminded him of a couple of files I had in my possession, and he chose someone else."

He chuckled. He could only imagine what she had on the man. Hell, she probably has a bunch of shit on a bunch of people. That was another reason he didn't like spies. They always had shit on each other. He supposed that was a defense mechanism needed for protection. In the world of espionage, there were only a few people you could trust: yourself and your team.

"Keep your hands off of me!" she yelled and got out of the car, slamming the door.

What the hell? Rossi got out of his door, and as soon as he was going to ask her what had happened he noticed who was walking up the street. "Oh honey, don't be like that," Rossi played along as he advanced on her.

She backed up to the wall of the building she was in front of and Rossi went up and put his hands on her arms. "Leave me alone!" she cried as she tried to get away from Rossi and realized she had the hit man's attention.

"Come on, get back in the car and we'll talk about it," Rossi told her trying to force her away from the wall and back towards the car.

She reached up and slapped Rossi across the face. "Go talked to your wife!" she yelled and wrenched herself out of his hands, turned, and ran into the hit man. She gave him a shocked look as if she didn't realize he was there.

"You need some help?" the hit man asked her nicely as he glared at Rossi.

Kahlan gave Rossi a glare, too. "No thank you. He was just leaving."

Rossi looked back and forth between Kahlan and the hit man. "Keep the bitch," he told him and got in his car and drove off.

Kahlan sighed as she watched Rossi drive away and then smiled at the man who had come to her rescue. "Thank you." she said again and went to turn away.

"You're welcome. Anything for a beautiful woman. Let me buy you a drink?" he asked with a smile.

His smile sent a chill down her spine. She instantly disliked the man. "Sure," she said with another smile. She wanted to kill him on the spot, but she knew it would be next to impossible for them to find Aaron without him.

She put her hand in the crock of his elbow and allowed him to walk her into the little club down the block. She mentally sighed once she knew he wasn't going to the Lux; the woman at the door might have recognized her. He led her to a table and a waitress came up for their drink order. Kahlan ordered a cosmo and the man ordered a Jack and coke.

After a little small talk she told him she had to go. He didn't argue and let her leave. She quickly made her way around the block and smiled when she saw Rossi's car.

"Well, that was just fun," she told him sarcastically as she got in and sat down.

Rossi smiled at her. When she had slapped him she had done it where there was a lot of noise, but hardly any pain. "So we wait?"

"Nah, let's go meet up with Morgan and JJ," she said with a smile. She took out her phone and Rossi noticed a blip on a map.

"Nice!" he said with a smile and pulled away.

XXX

Rossi and Kahlan sat across for JJ and Morgan; Kahlan's phone sat on the table in the middle. The blip hadn't moved from the club. "We all need one of those. Then we would have to worry about trying to find one of us," JJ told them.

"That type only has about a week's worth of battery life, so they wouldn't do much good," Kahlan explained.

"And you just happened to have one on you tonight?" Morgan asked with a smile.

"I carry one in my pocket all the time," she joked. Again, Rossi couldn't tell of she was actually joking of not. "I have considered injecting Wyatt with a life time one after he came up missing," she said with a small laugh.

"When you do, get me one for Henry, too," JJ said with a laugh.

Morgan's phone rang. "You're on speaker, Baby Girl."

"I've traced all of the vans. Every one checked out except for the lock smith van. It was reported stolen two days ago."

"Not to worry, Kitten. We think we have the man responsible."

"Ohhhh, you found Mr. Creepy Smile?"

Kahlan laughed as she completely understood the name Garcia had given him. "Yeah, we're watching him now."

"We have our female," Reid's voice came over the phone. Every one of them sat up a little more and stared at the phone. "It seems that Robert Adams had an older sister, and Garcia did some checking. She was in Virginia two weeks ago, but has since gone back to Idaho."

Kahlan looked at the profilers, expecting one of them to explain who Robert Adams was, but she could tell they were trying to remember. She shook her head. "Who was Robert Adams, Reid?"

"He was the unsub in Boise who killed survivors of a school shooting in 2001." She noticed the recollection on all of their faces.

"Hotch had to shoot him to protect himself," Morgan elaborated. "Reid, you and Blake need to call the local PD and have them pick her up. Then I want you two to head out there first thing in the morning to interview her."

"Alright. You guys getting close to finding Hotch?"

"We should have him by the time you all get back," Rossi assured him.

They all heard the collective sigh of relief coming from the three at the BAU.

"Stay in touch," Morgan told them and the call ended.