Secrets and Lies- 1:21
Harita's POV
You wanna know why I was pissed. Let me tell you why. At 2am, we got a case. Not only that, I had to be escorted by a CIA agent. But also, he was so persistent and was making me rush everything. Like calm the fuck down dude, I just woke up. Luckily, we were able to stop by Starbucks, and I used his credit card to pay. That's why you don't mess with a bad bitch. Back to present time, we were all sitting around the conference table, with a few other CIA agents, and I was drinking my iced coffee, eating a protein bar.
"The CIA's counterterrorism unit is engaged in a mission to save one of its informants. They suspect one of their agents is a mole. Until the identity of that mole is discovered, they've locked down the unit." Hotch announced.
"This gives us the opportunity to profile the unsub up close. Go ahead. Let's start the video feed." Gideon ordered.
"John Summers was the CIA's best field agent in the Middle East. 3 nights ago, he was found in his home in Washington. He'd been tortured and murdered." Hotch stated.
"The CIA made it look like suicide." Gideon put up the pictures of him on the TV.
"How'd you like to have that job?" Spencer joked.
"Guys, look at the wound patterns." Morgan got up from his seat. "They come from 2 distinct angles. Different heights. One's right-handed and one's left-handed. Looks to me like he was tortured by more than 2 people."
"Hotch, what was Summers working on?" Elle asked.
"Aaliyah Nadir had been beaten and sexually assaulted at the hands of her husband, Hassan Nadir. That's how Summers flipped her and got her to work for the CIA." Hotch answered.
"What's the husband's story?" I asked.
"He's a diplomat for the Saudi Government, but he's a fund-raiser for major terrorist organizations." Hotch replied.
"Aaliyah gave summers intelligence on terrorist organizations the CIA had never been able to penetrate, organizations Hassan, her husband, funneled money to." Gideon explained.
"And Hassan realized he had a leak?" Morgan asked.
"Yes, but he didn't know who" Hotch responded. "For Aaliyah's protection, Summers never revealed her identity to the CIA until about 8 weeks ago. CIA arranged papers for her, and Summers brought her and her children to the US about a month ago. Only Summers knew where he hid her."
"What did Hassan think happened to his family?" JJ asked.
"Car accident. bodies too disfigured to identify. Only the CIA knew it was staged until Hassan arrived in Washington last week under diplomatic cover." Hotch answered.
"Only someone in this unit could have given Hassan information about his family." Spencer added.
"And now he's here looking for her. Why us?" I asked.
"Over the years, I've conducted psychological evaluations on every field agent in that unit." Gideon answered.
"You worked for the CIA?" Garcia asked.
"Not officially." Gideon responded.
"The train's running. and if we stop this mission, even for a second, Aaliyah and her children are as good as dead." Hotch stated.
…
We got to the CIA building finally after a long drive.
"Don't remove your firearm." Gideon said to Spencer, as he noticed him taking out his gun.
"US soil. Federal building." Hotch explained as we got out of the elevator.
"Just your cell phones. Non-negotiable." An officer said. I handed him my phone. Luckily, earlier I texted Saline about the issue, so everything's good.
"The moment we walk in there, the unsub is gonna know we got him cornered. We don't hand jack over." Morgan warned, as we walked through the metal detectors. After we passed that, we walked into the room, where there was a lot of commotion.
"Hey." A guy said, walking towards us.
"Special Agent Hotchner." Hotch introduced.
"Oh, I know who you are and your team, too. I've got the personnel files all set up for you guys. Video, whatnot, it's all there in the conference room. If you have any questions, feel free to talk to my senior officers. This is Gina Sanchez. She's the Associate Director of Field Operations. And that guy up there is Kruger Spence, the Assistant Director of Operations. The lady with him is his Second in Command, Olivia Hopkins. And thank you for coming." The guy finished and walked away.
"You never mentioned Bruno Hawks." Hotch whispered.
"You never asked." Gideon responded.
"So that's his name." I muttered.
"How long have you unofficially been working for the CIA?" Hotch asked.
"Long enough to know who and what we're dealing with." Gideon simply answered. We walked towards the room the CIA has set up for us, and sat in our chairs.
"We're looking for what the CIA classifies as a type-a personality." Gideon closed the door. "Overachiever, highly adaptable, well educated, virtually unshakable. Manipulative enough to persuade a loyal foreign national to betray their country or a wife to betray her husband. Most importantly, this unsub long ago accepted the reality they will be summarily executed if caught. Life means nothing to this unsub. Not his own life. Not his family's. Not his colleagues. Certainly not ours, and certainly not theirs."
"One of those agents turned against everything they believe in. Why?" Hotch asked.
"Well, he stopped believing. Maybe it was about ideology." Morgan suggested.
"We need to find the stressor, a major event that caused him to turn love, revenge, economics, and ideology." Hotch ordered.
"Right now we're the enemy. Whatever you see or are told, please trust no one but me." Gideon added.
"Gideon, you're gonna want to take a look at this surveillance video." Garcia said through the TV.
"What is it?"
"It's you. It's your name next to a whole slew of MPEGs. There's one that says 'John Summers', and it's 3 hours long." Garcia played the video on the screen. Gideon was in the car, and John was talking to him outside.
"When was this?" Hotch asked.
"3 days before he was killed."
"Who called this meeting?" John, the one on the screen, asked.
"Does it matter?" Gideon, the one on the screen, asked.
"Every detail matters."
"Hey, guys, take a look at something. Right there. That's a woman sitting in the passenger seat of that car." Morgan called out.
"looks a lot like Aaliyah." Elle pointed.
"Why would he leave them in the car unless he knew he was being videotaped?" I asked as Morgan replayed the video.
"Who called this meeting?" John asked.
"Does it matter?" Gideon asked.
"Every detail matters." John insisted.
"Why?" Gideon questioned.
"It can only be 1 of 4 people." Summers answered.
"That's not true." Gideon, the one that's standing right infront of me, corrected. "Anyone in this division could have insisted on an eval."
"Why narrow it down to 4?" Elle asked.
"Well, he rightly suspected Hassan came to the US because he knew his wife was alive." Spencer stated.
"And that someone in this agency was working for Hassan." I added.
"If we don't discover who the mole is before they find her, she and the kids are dead." Morgan reminded.
"Garcia." Gideon called out, as the TV changed to a video call with her and JJ showing.
"Right here, boss." Garcia called right back.
"How many agents in this unit were actually in Saudi monitoring US Interests?" Gideon queried.
"4." Garcia responded.
"Let me guess. Bruno Hawks, Gina Sanchez, Olivia Hopkins, and Kruger Spence."
"4 for 4." I muttered to Spencer, who nodded.
"See what else is on the tape." Gideon ordered.
"John Summers would have only trusted seasoned agents, of which in this unit there are only 4." Gideon stated.
"So he guessed that the mole had to have been one of his 4 bosses." Elle added.
"Before he put in for Aaliyah's extraction, he wanted to know which one not to ask." Morgan recalled.
"We need to match up with them, one-on-one. Kruger Spence, assistant director of operations. Recruited at the age of 18 after graduating from MIT." Gideon gave us the files of the agents.
"It says here had 6 years experience as a weapons systems DE and an IQ of 197. He butted up against the system and didn't deal with authority. They moved him into Field Operations in China for 8 years before transferring him here." Reid read.
"Olivia Hopkins, divorced mother of 2. She spent 9 years in Field Operations in Europe. She also visited Riyadh with Kruger." Elle perused.
"I got Gina Sanchez. West Point graduate. Black belt in 2 martial arts. Served in Iraq doing Psychological Operations with Military Intelligence. She joined the CIA 5 years ago. Speaks 3 languages including Arabic." Morgan scrutinized.
"Bruno Hawks, Deputy Director of Operations. Extensive Field Ops in the Middle East and Europe." I devoured.
"Did his military service with Jason Gideon." Hotch added, as I looked up at Gideon.
"One thing I've learned over the years profiling CIA Agents, spies are some of the smartest liars in the world. Be smarter." Gideon ordered.
That's enough. This is in violation of her Civil Rights." Kruger defended, in response to Elle interrogating the heck out of Olivia.
"Until they find the sleeper and we find Aaliyah, all rights are revoked." Bruno roared.
"Where were you on the night that summer was murdered?" Elle asked Olivia.
"I was with her. In her apartment." Kruger answered.
"Well, you're a married man. At some point you must have left to get back to your wife, right?" I asked, getting no response.
"You wake to an empty bed?" Gideon asked Olivia.
"Yes. I did. Are we done here?" Olivia questioned.
"My wife will testify that I arrived home at 1:30 am." Kruger added.
"We all know none of this will ever reach a court." Bruno rejected.
"If you wanna arrest us for having an affair, be my guest." Kruger stated.
"I'll deal with you two later." Bruno dismissed them off.
...
"What? What's going on?" Burno asked as he walked into the room we set up. We called in all of the agents to deliver the news. Oliva Hopkins was dead.
"What are we doing here?" Kruger asked. "You're pulling us away from our assignments? There's a woman out there whose life depends on us."
"Where's Olivia?" Gina asked. O
"livia Hopkins was murdered 10 minutes ago. " Hotch delivered. "Her neck was snapped."
"Just like John Summers. " Gideon asked.
"What are you talking about?" Kruger asked. "You're lying. Where is she? Look, people don't just get murdered inside the CIA. What are you looking at? Kruger asked Bruno.
"I realize the enormity of this, but Hassan Nadir is still out there looking to kill his wife, and I need every agent on this." Bruno demanded, as they all left one by one.
...
"Just because I lied about Olivia doesn't make me the mole." Kruger exclaimed. Elle, Spencer, and I were interrogating Kruger.
"No, but the virus that took out the CCTV monitors does." Morgan interfered as he came over. It originated from your computer."
"Then whoever put it in my computer is trying to frame me. " Kruger defended.
"Olivia was looking for something. She didn't find a thing. You know why? Because all of your files had been erased."
"Do you really think if I was the mole, I would keep files that would incriminate me? Those files were erased to make me look guilty." Kruger yelled.
"Looks like it's working." I pointed out.
"Morgan, your girlfriend's back!" Gina shouted, as we went to her desk.
"Garcia, it's Morgan go." Morgan ordered.
"Hey, listen. That virus left a backdoor into the CIA's Mainframe."
"Yeah, so?"
"I sort of went ahead and used it to find out who ordered John Summers' Psych eval with Gideon."
"Who was it?" Morgan questioned.
"Well, that's what's so weird."
"Who, Garcia? Who?" Elle insisted.
"John Summers." JJ answered.
"Summers? Why would he order his own evaluation?" I asked.
"So we'd ask that question ourselves. We missed something on that tape." Spencer pointed out.
"We better figure out what it was before Hassan's friend in here beats us to it." Morgan ordered as we headed to the room.
...
"Presidents come, presidents go. One thing always remains; the people that run those presidents." Summers said, in the tape.
"People like you?" Gideon asked.
"Me? No. No. No. I'm an expendable pawn. But I got wise to their game."
"Game? What game?"
"Battleship. I'm the ship at sea. They try to sink me."
"How do you cope?"
"Compartmentalization. Separate a seal in every aspect of my life."
"How does that work?"
"If one part of theull is compromised, the rest of the hull remains intact. I stay afloat."
"And what about a direct hit?"
"Then I have a box that I put the really important things in, a sort of insurance policy."
"Against what?"
"Sudden death. Keep it safe from the who pear to be friends." Morgan stopped the video.
"He was trying to tell you about the mole." Hotch told Gideon.
"If they were following Summers, how come they don't know where Summers put Aaliyah?" I asked.
"You couldn't follow Summers through a desert. He was that good." Gideon complimented.
'Somebody followed you." Hotch concluded.
"Then Summers must have known they'd be filming him." Morgan added.
"They always are. So smile."
"Garcia, let's view the tape again." Hotch ordered.
"He sure likes boats." Garcia started.
"He refers to compartmentalizing his life like the hull of a ship." JJ said.
"Yeah. And then he talks about a box."
"And putting something inside the box as an insurance policy."
"He was telling Gideon how to find Aaliyah." Garcia gasped.
"Summers' cover in Saudi was for a shipping company." JJ recalled.
"Ok. What about a shipping container? That's a box. That's a big box." Garcia suggested.
"The only shipping port near summers' apartment in Baltimore, it's North up the l-95 from langley."
"Garcia, I love you." Hotch stated, but Garcia's face went blank.
"Garcia?" I asked.
"Someone just tapped into this feed." Garcia stated.
"We just found out where Aaliyah is. And so did someone else." Hotch stated, as he looked around to see if anyone looked suspicious.
...
"I can have the chopper on the roof fueled and ready in 2 minutes." Gina stated.
"There are thousands of containers at that port. What makes you so sure Aaliyah's in one of those containers?" Bruno asked.
"Why don't we send in a SWAT team, split them up, have them search in grids." Elle suggested.
"Why? Because Hassan has diplomatic immunity, this mission can't exist." Hotch answered.
"It's not Gina." Gideon muttered. "Morgan, Harita, take Gina with you."
"Wait. This is my command. These are my people." Bruno stated.
"We have jurisdiction here, and there's nothing you can do to stop us." Hotch argued.
"This is my career on the line here." Bruno defended.
"You always trusted me, right? Trust me now." Gidoen stated.
"Come with us." Hotch said to Kruger.
"This is crazy. Bruno." Kruger pleaded, but finally gave in, handing Hotch his gun and followed him and Elle.
"Use thermal imaging. Search every contain for body heat. You can walk us in and direct us when we get there. Green, Adams, Duncan, come with me." Gina ordered, as Morgan and I followed her.
...
We got to the port and started searching.
"They're somewhere on the east side of this port." Gina yelled. "You guys, take that area over there. Morgan, Harita, let's go." We ran off to the left. We kept on running around shipping containers, left and right, getting nowhere.
"This is crazy. We're just running in circles." Morgan complained.
"Reid, come on. Help us out.." I pleaded through my mic.
"A hundred meters north of your current location." Reid answered.
"Let's go." I signaled towards Gina and Morgan to follow me. We passed a few boxes.
"Harita." Reid called out.
"Yeah. What's up?" I asked.
"They're right in front of you." Spencer stated.
"Make the arrest, Harita. It's FBI jurisdiction. You're in charge." Gideon commanded. I looked at the box right in front of me and found the door slightly ajar. Gina opened the door and the three of us pointed our flashlights at Hassan holding Aaliyah by the neck, a gun pointing at her.
"FBI!" Morgan yelled. "Let the lady go and put the gun down. I said put the gun down." Hassan finally put the gun down.
"Diplomatic immunity, my friend." Hassan stated as I chuckled.
"Nope. You got it wrong. This container hasn't passed through customs. Officially, we're not on US soil. Summers was a smart man." I stated.
"That he was." Gina agreed, as I heard a gun cock behind my head. To my guess, and Morgan's face of shock, Gina was holding a gun behind my head. "Drop the gun. Both of you, or I will blow her brains out." I dropped my gun, as well as Morgan. Gina took and led Hassan and his family outside. Gina then pointed her gun at Hassan, ready to shoot him.
"Harita? Harita, what's going on? Harita, what's going on?" Gideon repeated.
"Gideon, we got a situation here." I stated.
"Gina, don't do this. Gina, don't do this." Gideon pleaded.
"I don't take orders from you. Bruno, what do you want me to do?" Gina asked.
"Cover their eyes. Cover their eyes." Morgan told Aaliyah.
"Please. Please stop this." Aaliyah pleaded.
"Bruno?" Gina asked.
"You know what to do." Bruno stated.
"Say it."
"It's not your call." Gideon corrected.
"I told you from the start this was strictly in-house." Bruno argued.
"This is not your call." Gideon repeated.
"Gina, what are you waiting for?" Bruno asked.
"An order." Gina answered.
"Finish him. Finish him." Bruno ordered.
"Gina, don't do this." Gideon stated.
"You're going to cut the visual feed. Right, Bruno?" Gina asked.
"Of course. Cut it now." Bruno said. Gunshots were heard.
...
"Sorry about that. I had to find out if I was right." Gina said, as the CIA Agents took Hassan away. To be clear, Gina didn't shoot Hassan, she shot the other shipping containers to make it seem like she shot Hassan. The mole was Bruno, not Kruger or Gina.
"How did you know it was Bruno?" Morgan asked.
"Because Agent Gideon believed in me. And there isn't a reason in the world to kill a man who knows as much as Hassan does." Gina handed me back my gun, in which I kept it back in it's holster.
"Except one." I stated.
"The same one that made Bruno and Hassan kill Summers. Self-preservation." Gina added.
"Looks like Gideon was right."
"Yes, it does."
I'm getting giddy. The next one is the Fisher King. I'm screaming. Also, to my math, which I'm bad at, the past Thursday was Harita's 41 birthday, so that's fun.
Happy Holidays!
HernameisBurrito