Lee stepped out of the elevator and extended his hand to Aaron Hotchner. "Welcome to Agency, Aaron. Sorry I didn't get back to you sooner. Things have been a bit wild around here, even for us." Aaron nodded.

"I heard about Lady Farnsworth. I am sorry for your loss. She seemed like a very nice person."

"Thanks, she was." Lee confirmed, considering the younger agent. Other than undercover work, there was not much clandestine about working for the FBI, Lee surmised as he noted the FBI-embroidered polo shirt. It must be nice to be able to proudly announce what you did without worrying that danger would follow you home. Then again, Aaron couldn't be more than twenty-six or twenty-seven. Maybe he didn't need to worry about family yet because he didn't have one. Lee knew that he'd once been much more cavalier about danger. Now he didn't just worry about enemy agents, he worried about the risks of skateboarding and his boys looking both ways before crossing the street.

"Where's Amanda?" Aaron asked, obviously surprised not to see her there.

"She's off sick today and tomorrow but I have her notes so we can still geet on with the work."

"Great." Because the FBI did not routinely deal with secrets, Lee opted to head up to the Q-Bureau rather than his new office underground. duly provided a visitor pass and Lee led the way.

"Where should we start?" Lee asked once they were both supplied with coffee.

"well, I've been thinking about what Amanda was saying on Friday.. It seems to me that the trouble really started after you called Senator Anderson about the girl."

"Maybe a bit before then." Lee countered. "We were in Zakir, investigating the Berber Babies case."

"Why? No offence, but that's hardly your jurisdiction or your area of expertise." Lee chuckled.

"None taken. The only way I can explain it is The Amanda Factor." Aaron smiled in a way that piqued Lee's curiosity. "Don't believe me?"

"I believe you. I watched her talk David Rossi into arranging a temporary reassignment for me. We've got a backlog a mile high and I've worked right through Christmas for the last two years but what Amanda asks for, she gets."

"Yep."

"So what happened in Zakir that makes you think that's when the problems started?"

"Amanda interviewed the mother of one of the girls and somehow, despite a handler right there in the room, she trusted Amanda enough to give her a box of her children's belongings."

"Children?"

"Yeah. Amanda figured out that this woman had at least two daughters involved, even though only one was a Berber Baby. One of her kids was left handed and the other wasn't. They had different wear patterns on their shoes."

"Smart."

"Amanda's like that. Anyway, she interrogated the guard and we figured out he was the uncle of at least one of the Berber Babies. One thing led to another, and we started to see patterns. Senators and others who seemed closely associated with SunChild. It was just dumb luck really, or maybe the West Effect, that Phillip happened to fall for Mabel. I still don't understand though. If the girl was a sex slave, why was she attending school? They could have kept her prisoner and no one would have known anything."

"You're right, but then most cases are not like this one. Predators are usually quite solitary by necessity. They have a need that is extraordinarily difficult to fulfil and exposes them to great risk when they do manage. This is something completely different: a group of very wealthy and powerful people who all have a drive to victimise others and somehow managed to find each other. It's not usual but there are some elements we've seen before. The mutual blackmail to keep everyone in line is not unheard of. The national security angle is new to us."

"That's the part that we know." Lee said. Picking up a marker, he quickly sketched out what they knew about the national security angle. "The thing is, selling classified information isn't something that you just pick up on the fly. It takes contacts, skill, and discretion and the stakes are high."

"Very high." Aaron agreed. "So maybe we're dealing with two different kinds of unsubs."

"Unsubs?"

"Unknown subjects." Aaron clarified absently. "Let's say for the moment that we have two kinds of culprits here. On the one hand, we have people who get off on targeting poor children and are willing to pay for the pleasure. They see it as a service they pay for like they pay for anything else. Then there's another group, and they like the thrill of high stakes transactions. All of them have a need that's being filled in the exchange. But that kind of system isn't self-regulating. There has to be someone who is calling the shots. Someone out there is running this scheme and I don't think it's any one of the people we've identified so far." Aaron shook his head in disgust.

"What happened to that agent you had looking into SunChild? Did she come up with anything?"

"She's disappeared."

"What?"

"Maybe hiding is a better choice. She really hit it off with Mabel and when our… unsubs…" Lee stumbled over the unfamiliar word. "When our unsubs made a play for the girl, Francine grabbed her and went into hiding. They were hiding out in our garage until Emily's murder. Now we have no idea where she's gone. She's made Mabel's safety her only concern for now and as she's our key witness, I'm okay with that."

"I hate to tell you this, but any attorney worth his salt will completely discredit her as a witness. Having her as a named victim is a tricky proposition and one that no prosecutor is going to consider."

"Why not?" Lee was outraged. "She deserves justice!"

"Yes, but from what I understand, she is not the kind of girl who is likely to elicit tremendous sympathy from a jury." Aaron explained. "We'd be better off if we can build a case without her. Also, given the scale of this criminal enterprise, if she does testify she'll need to go into witness protection for the rest of her life. If we can avoid that, it'll be for the best." Lee sighed but supposed he had to agree.

"I hate this." He finally said. "I've been in law enforcement my entire career and never realised until this case came along that I'd lived a pretty sheltered life by not having to deal with any victims."

"Yeah, it can make things really tough, but it can also be very satisfying to look someone in the eye and know that you probably saved their life."

"What's our next step?"

"We push back. I can arrange for a search warrant of the Wells and Harris law firm, based on the child abuse allegations but I think that it would be much better if we include anything we can about the treason and espionage angle."

"I can get a warrant for that." Lee said. "If we present them at the same time, we should get them tense."

"I want to get to the SunChild offices at the same time."

"Okay. There's one lead that I want to check out first. Amanda was handed some information yesterday and I'm getting it checked out. If it's what we think it is, then we may have more than enough for probable cause."

"Sounds good. Just make sure that they don't get wind of what we're up to before we spring the trap."

"Oh, we'll be careful. I'm not giving them a chance to get away with so much as a parking ticket." Lee promised grimly.