P911- 2:2
Harita's POV
"40,000 images of child porn are posted every week on the internet, along with the appearance of 20 new children. The appetite for babies as young as 4 months old has soared. Many of these children have been kidnapped and sold into pedophile rings." Reid stated.
"Okay, are you trying to make me choke?" I gagged right after I said that.
"One year ago, the same boy appeared on several websites used by pedophiles. He was a new face then. After a massive hunt led by our crimes against children unit, the boy disappeared." Gideon said, pointing to the auction videotape of this young boy that was being shown on the TV.
"Until tonight when SSA Cole telephoned us." Hotch added.
"Katie Cole? She was in the BAU, right?" Reid asked. He had his hair split down the middle, and glasses on. When I first saw him, I thought he was going for E-boy with a bit of intelligence vibes.
"One of the first profilers, clinical psychologist, brilliant." Gideon praised.
"She runs the Crimes Against Children Unit in Maryland." Hotch added.
"I always wanted to meet her." Reid fantasised.
"Really?" A voice asked. I turned around and saw Katie Cole walking in, sitting down on a chair. "I heard she's a bitch."
"Nobody ever called you that, Katie." Gideon argued.
"Well, not to my face." I was liking this woman more and more. "The first time I ever saw him, he appeared in a series of photos. I named him Peter. Now he's being auctioned off when that clock runs to zero."
"His face isn't pixelated." Gideon pointed out.
"Because the unsub is confident that we're not going to be able to identify him in time." Hotch responded.
"What about the site itself? Can't we just track its origin?" JJ asked.
"It's routed through a proxy server in Belarus. Even if that government was friendly, Peter would be gone before we finished the paperwork." Katie responded.
"We don't need to worry about the paperwork. We have Garcia." JJ proudly said, as she gathered her stuff.
"Better get on that, will you?" Gideon ordered.
"Yes, sir." JJ then left the room.
"So, what happened a year ago, Katie?" Hotch asked.
"We cross-referenced the images of the boy. We talked to known offenders nationwide. We narrowed the location down to the eastern United States. We had some suspects in, but the trail went cold. Until today."
"With all due respect, Ms Cole, how is this time going to be any different?" I asked.
"We have a starting point." Katie said.
"The location where the image was first discovered." Hotch added.
"A chat room. Hosted by an independent web company in Cleveland, Ohio. And this time, I am bringing you all in with me." Katie explained.
…
*CUE INTRO*
(For one of the 'pictures' in the intro, imagine Harita fidgeting with a pen, looking at a map with her left eyebrow raised.)
…
"Theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer said- 'The test of the morality of a society is what it does for its children.'"- SSA Jason Gideon.
...
"The image was uploaded to one of our CAC Undercovers fishing in a chat room. We try to monitor as many of them as we can, pretending to be children, pedophiles, whatever works on that site." Katie explained, who was not sitting in a seat on the jet. Morgan, Hotch, Gideon, and I, went to accompany Katie to go to Cleveland, while Reid and, surprisingly Elle, who was not supposed to be on the field, but is, went to the CAC Division back in Quantico. Earlier, I set an alarm on my watch, indicating when the auction would end.
"Did you run forensic linguistics on the chat log?" Hotch asked. "There might be something to Hugz' speech patterns."
"It doesn't really work that way with internet talk." The jet started to go faster, and Katie grabbed on the seat for her dear life.
"Fear of flying? Lengthy, deep-rooted issues of control?" Gideon profiled.
"I think better on my feet. Most of the talk is abbreviated text. 'Lol', laughing out loud, 'Imho', in my humble opinion, 'Ftf'-"
"Face to face." I answered for her.
"Right." Katie nodded. "Pedophiles can be divided into two categories-" The plane had another burst of energy, and Katie was gasping for her life.
"'Situational' and 'Preferential'." Hotch continued for her. "'Situational Offenders' rarely seek out children, but they'll take advantage of a situation when presented with it, whereas 'Preferential Offenders' actively target children by age group, hair color. They'll seek out jobs which give them as much access to children as possible."
"They often trawl around residential neighborhoods, hijacking home wireless systems and communicating with children often outside the very house the child is in. Or they'll simply use a coffee shop with wireless access to find, locate, and arrange a meeting. And it's growing. It's growing as fast as the internet. They're getting smarter and smarter, and all the security in the world can't stop them from coming through our doors. Hell, the monsters are already in our homes. " Katie pulled out her laptop.
"If he's had this kid for a year, it makes him preferential." Hotch concluded, as Katie agreed.
"So, then why is he selling him?" I asked.
"Maybe he's losing interest. Peter's maybe getting too old, too tall. Preferential offenders are very specific about their preferences." Katie answered.
"And if he can't sell him?" I asked.
"He isn't going to just let him go." Gideon answered.
"Hotch?" JJ called out from the video call that was being shown on the laptop.
"Yeah?"
"I was thinking, shouldn't we release Peter's picture to the media?" JJ asked.
"No. No, no. If this unsub thinks that we're on to him, he may make a run for it and dispose of the boy." Katie debunked.
"Shouldn't we assume he does know?" Gideon asked.
"As I said, we intercepted this image as part of an undercover operation. These predators have a fairly closed society. The way they run these sites gives them the expectation of anonymity." Katie explained.
"Right." Gideon mumbled.
"Have Reid and Elle check the live feed. Not just the boy, but everything around him. The room. See if we missed anything." Hotch ordered. JJ nodded and ended the call.
...
"FBI." Morgan announced as we walked into the building where the image of Peter came from. "We have a warrant to search these premises. Stop what you're doing right now. Can somebody tell me who owns this place?"
"That'd be me." A voice said. I turned to my right and saw this scrawny, white, young, dude standing.
"I want access to your chat room databases." Katie ordered. The scrawny dude led us to his computer, and Katie did the hacking.
"This is so typical." The scrawny dude complained. "You feds just can't help yourselves. You gotta pollute the truest form of free expression ever invented."
"Dr. Harita, find a chatroom of your choice. Your name is Suzy. You're 12 years old." I bent down to the computer and did what Katie told.
"What are you doing?" The scrawny dude asked.
"Fishing." Katie simply replied.
"You know, I've got rights, and so do my clients." The scrawny dude argued, which I ignored. Instead, I picked the chat, and typed in the chat box, 'Hi everyone. My name is SUZY. I'm 12yo. Would anyone like to talk with me :););):)', and sent it. Instantly notifications popped up.
"That's the sound of pedophiles looking to hook up with a 12 year old girl named Suzy. You let them run everything through SSL connections from proxy servers in offshore countries." Katie explained.
"So they can't be identified?" I asked. Katie shook her head.
"Not in twelve and a half hours."
"Hey, I'm just a middleman here, ok? What can I do?" The scrawny dude asked.
"There's a little boy for sale on one of your sites. 'What can I do' just isn't good enough." Gideon replied.
…
"FBI!" Hotch yelled as he kicked the door. Earlier, JJ called us saying that Garica found another kid that was being tied up on the server. So, we put our vests on and had our guns ready, heading over to the house. I checked the living room, and everything was clear. I met up with Hotch, who was standing near the stairs to the top floor. Everyone else followed right behind me as we made our way to the top. There was music, the louder it got the closer we got to the door. It was the closest door to us. Hotch kicked it open and there was a kid, 13 maybe 14, tied up. The kid looked confused. Morgan turned down the music.
"Where is he?" Morgan questioned.
"Where is who?" The kid asked, un-tying himself and got up from the chair.
"It's okay. You're safe now." Katie assured.
"Safe?" The kid asked.
"What's your name?" I queeried.
"Kevin. The man who did this to you. Is he still here?" Hotch asked, as Kevin went to put his shirt on.
"It's my house. Graham Rose is the owner of this house. Where is he?" Katie asked. Kevin went to touch his laptop, but Morgan stopped him.
"Don't touch that. Back up." Morgan instructed.
"Where is he?" Katie asked.
"He's gone." Kevin replied.
"What do you mean, gone?" I questioned.
"He's just gone, okay?"
"Graham Rose is your father?" Gideon asked.
"Yeah, sure. You can call him that. I just call him a bastard." Kevin sassed. We made our way downstairs. Hotch got a call from Garcia, which he stepped aside to answer. I went through Kevin's computer to examine it. When I finished, I took off my navy blue FBI vest, which revealed my olive green tank top. I was wearing black leggings, and olive green converses, high tops to be exact.
"The father's been in jail for the last 8 months. In that time, Kevin's been selling the only thing he's got, which is himself." Hotch announced.
"Just like a street hustler." Morgan sighed.
"Only now the street is the internet, and his client base spans the globe." Katie added.
"This kid definitely uploaded Peter's video to the chat room because it's still on his computer, but not the live feed." I stated.
"He say how he got hold of the video?" Gideon asked.
"He said it came from one of his clients. It was a shared file. They'd gone around these chat groups." Morgan replied.
"It's possible. Buyers and sellers routine. They trade files because the act in itself is an illegal act, which proves they're not the police." Katie explained.
"Let's go see what else we can find out." Hotch ordered, as we followed him back into Kevin's room.
"Dude, the boy whose video you've been sending around to all the chat rooms, he's gonna be sold from one pedophile to another." I told Kevin, who showed no sympathy.
"Boo-hoo."
"These are dummy logs. What's the password to get me into the real transcripts of your sessions?" Katie asked, trying to get in using Kevin's laptop.
"You're the FBI. You figure it out." Kevin argued.
"I know you don't think so, Kevin, but we are trying to help you here." Hotch sympathized.
"Help me? What I do is consensual. No one's getting hurt." Kevin defended.
"Come on, Kevin, what's the password? Your birthday? Your favorite band?" Katie asked, trying to get an answer.
"Kevin, this is prostitution." I warned.
"But I'm a minor. I don't even really know what I'm doing. Plus I never leave this room, so no one, no one ever touches me." Kevin defended.
"Anymore." Gideon pointed out. "Your father's been beating you since you can remember. First it was when he was drunk on the weekend, then he was always drunk. You never knew why he was hurting you, why he was so angry. At night you'd cry yourself to sleep, hoping someone would come and save you. No one ever came." I flinched at that, knowing what it felt like.
"You have the chance to be the one who saves someone, Kevin." Hotch empathized. "You can be the one who answers him, the one who stops his pain. You can't get to your father, but you can get to the guy who's hurting this boy."
"Move." Kevin ordered, as Katie got out of her seat. He sat in the seat and started typing the password. "This backs up all my transcripts. The screen name for the guy who sent me the file is Mehtevas."
"How long has Mehtevas been a client of yours?" Katie asked, taking back her seat.
"Like, 6 months."
"Where is he located?" Katie questioned.
"He's a local. He's always asking to meet with me, but I don't do that."
"Does he know where you are?" Hotch queeried.
"Just the city."
"How do you contact him?" I asked.
"He contacts me." Kevin simply replied.
"Come on, Kevin. You don't just sit around here waiting for these guys to look you up. That's no way to run a business." Morgan stated.
"Right now you're the only person who can help us find Peter." Katie added.
"What do you want me to do?" Kevin questioned.
"Ask him for a face to face." Katie answered.
"No. No way. I don't do that. I've never been out of this room." Kevin panicked.
"It'll be fine. He won't lay a finger on you." Katie calmly said.
"We'll be right there, Kevin, the whole time. I promise you." Hotch reassured.
"Won't he be suspicious if I suddenly want to meet with him?" Kevin queeried.
"He's a need driven offender, Kevin." I answered.
"What does that mean?"
"If you offer to meet with him, he won't be able to resist. He can't help himself." Gideon replied.
...
I was in a car with Morgan, watching Kevin. No one came near him for 5 minutes straight. Until someone did. He was older, white hair, glasses, wearing a blue suit, which I assumed was Mehtevas. We were watching the conversation between the two of them. Kevin was nervous. Eventually, Kevin ran off, which was our cue to come in. Morgan and I jumped out of the car. Morgan got to Mehtevas first, cuffing him. As usual, Mehtevas tried to defend himself, saying he did nothing.
"Agent Morgan, take it easy. Take it easy. We need his cooperation. We just want to ask him a few questions." Katie calmly said, as I grabbed his ID.
"Here's a question. What's the principal of a school doing hooking up with a 14 year old boy?" I asked. I gave the wallet to Hotch, who threw it to Gideon.
"Let's go. Put him in here." Gideon pointed.
…
"I wish you would inform me what exactly I'm being charged with." Mr. Rawlings, aka Mehtavas mumbled.
"Anything I can possibly stick to you." Morgan growled.
"I haven't done anything." Mr. Rawlings defended.
"You're an educated man, Mr. Rawlings. You know you're in trouble here." Katie replied.
"I believe I just walked outside my school. Is that a crime now?" Mr. Rawlings asked.
"You know where he is?" Katie asked, showing him a picture of Peter.
"How could anyone hurt something so…"
"Pure?" Gideon finished for him.
"You sent this image to Kevin." I replied.
"Well, that was wrong of me, I know, but I was so shocked. I wanted to try to save this poor boy. I thought Hugz, Kevin, might know him. That's why I sent him the link to the website, see if he knew." Mr. Rawlings defended.
"Please. You were trying to save him?" Morgan asked.
"Help search his office." Gideon told Morgana and I. "I got this." The two of us went into his office, greeting Elle and Spencer.
"Tell me we got something we can nail this son of a bitch on." Morgan asked, furiated.
"Not unless we can break the password on this guy's computer." Spencer replied.
"Call Garcia." I suggested.
"Take too long." Elle replied.
"Come on, genius. Do something genius-like." Morgan pleaded.
"If this guy does have child pornography on his computer and we type in the wrong password, it could trigger a virus that wipes the entire hard drive." Spencer replied.
"What's he saying out there?" Elle asked.
"He's a preferential pedophile who claims he's trying to save them." I answered.
"Save them!" Reid yelled. He grabbed a piece of paper, and wrote 'Save them' on it. He then flipped it to show the word, 'Mehtevas'.
Katie came into the room with Gideon and Mr. Rawlings.
"Mr. Rawlings, have a seat." Morgan pulled up a chari for him near his laptop.
"Your laptop." Elle pointed. Morgan's phone rang, which he stepped outside to take.
"This is umm... research. I'm writing a book." Mr. Rawlings responded with a lousy excuse.
"Sit down." Elle ordered.
"I swear to you this is all just research." Mr. Rawlings defended.
"No, It's not research. It's a 100 years in a federal penitentiary." I argued.
"I'd like to make a deal." Mr. Rawlings said.
"No deals. All you have is a very, very small amount of goodwill." Gideon replied.
"Tell me about Peter." Katie ordered.
"I was contacted by the man who's holding him. I didn't search out this boy. I didn't go looking for this." Mr. Rawlings rambled.
"Give me a name." Katie sternly said.
"Well, I only know the screen name. It's 'Manchild'."
"Did you bid on Peter?" I asked. He didn't respond
"How much?" Katie asked.
"8,000 dollars. But it was only in order to save him." Mr. Rawlings argued.
"You the high bidder?" Gideon asked.
"I... I think so, yes. I was, anyway. I'm supposed to go back online and contact him on his web site and... get the address." Mr. Rawlings hesitated.
"So you can inspect the merchandise?" Elle sassed.
"Look, this child is being auctioned off, and I am trying to save him." Mr. Rawlings defended.
"Trying to save him!" Katie scoffed. "He'd have given you a code. What is it?"
"Come on. I have a family. I have children of my own. I love children. I would never harm them." Mr. Rawlings stated.
"In your pursuit to save them, you think you could have avoided having sex with them?" I asked.
"Mr. Rawlings. The code?" Gideon mumbled.
"Butterfly." Mr. Rawlings responded. Katie grabbed the computer and typed it in.
...
"What happened?" Gideon asked, pointing to the 'Error' words shown up on the screen. After we arrested Mr. Rawlings, we were trying to talk to the unsub who has Peter.
"I don't know. He broke off contact." Katie replied.
"We got reporters outside of the school. This thing is all over the news." Morgan announced as he walked back into the room.
"My god, that's why the site went down. He knows." Katie sighed.
...
"She's sure about this, right?" Elle asked. We were driving to Mount Pleasant, since Peter was wearing a 'Tadpole' shirt, kind of like Boy Scouts, which had a number indicating he was in there.
"If Garcia says that tadpole shirt came from a unit in Mount Pleasant, then I gotta believe her." Morgan said.
"She better be." Spencer replied.
"Mount Pleasant is 60 miles away, which is going to take at least an hour and 10 minutes, and there's only two hours left on the auction clock." I added.
"Maybe." Elle queeried. "If the unsub knows we're on to him, he may move that clock up."
...
"Do you recognize him?" Morgan asked the priest, the person who runs the Tadpoles.
"I can't say that I do."
"But you're certain that the shirt came from this unit of the Tadpoles, right?" Elle asked.
"It disbanded 6 months ago, before I took over the congregation."
"Why?" I asked.
"I was told there wasn't enough interest. Only a few boys participated."
"Do you have the records of those who did participate?" Spencer asked.
"How could anyone do this to a child?" The priest solemnly muttered.
"We need to find this boy. The records?" Elle asked.
"I'm sorry. I don't think so. Wait. There may be a photo of the Tadpoles." The priest left to go and get the picture." This may be what you're looking for." He showed us a picture of three boys in Tadpole uniforms.
"Yeah, that's him right there." Morgan pointed.
"Is there a name, address, anything?" I asked.
"As I said, there are no records left. The church was run pretty sloppily until I took over."
"Let me see that." Elle grabbed the picture, and took it out of its frame. She flipped it, and on the back were a bunch of names. "His name's Charlie."
…
We drove back and met up with Gideon, Hotch, and Katie, to tell them what we got.
"The name the school has is Charlie Sparks. No Sparks in any of the phone directories." Gideon announced.
"Garcia can't even find a Sparks within 100 miles for the last 10 years." Morgan replied.
"Probably not his real name anyway." I muttered.
"The school said he may have moved away." Hotch stated.
"Then we start over again. We don't have a lot of time left." Elle saighed.
"Guys, maybe we're looking at this the wrong way." Spencer suggested.
"What do you mean?" Elle asked.
"The behavior, it's odd, right? The unsub apparently listed this kid in school and the Tadpoles until about a year ago. At that point he had pictures of him online in a regular looking room. But now he's in a prison-like room with no windows, no doors, completely hidden."
"Preferential pedophiles don't change overnight." Katie said.
"So, what happened a year ago to make him change his behavior so much?" Hotch asked.
"Fear." Gideon concluded. "Katie almost caught him. You probably talked to him. The unsub is in your records." My watch started buzzing.
"Guys, we just ran out of time." I delivered.
…
"I only did some general interviews with child offenders on the East Coast." Katie panicked, as she pulled out her phone to call someone.
"One of them was the right guy." Hotch stated.
"Amanda, hey." Katie said into her phone. "I need you to pull all of the original files on Peter's case. Somewhere in my office. Try my desk. I need the names of everyone I interviewed."
"Have her call Penelope Garcia at the BAU, She'll be able to tell us if we can cross any off." Morgan suggested, as Katie did what was told.
"You got it? Thanks." Katie ended the call.
…
"All right, guys. Listen up." Morgan called out, ending his phone call with Peneople. "We might have something. 12 men were interviewed. 8 are back in prison, one is dead. One lives in California, and two have last known addresses within 10 minutes of us. Patrick Forest and Michael Earlson."
"Patrick Forest isn't smart enough to put this all together." Katie debunked.
"What about Michael Earlson?" I asked.
"Definitely." Katie replied.
…
3rd POV
…
They all drove to his address, and saw a car about to leave the area. They stopped him, using the SUVs, and blocked his path. Michael tried to escape, by running, but the BAU team cornered him. Morgan grabbed Michael, slammed him to the front of the car, and arrested him.
"Where are you going? Don't move!" Morgan yelled. Katie went to Michael's car, and luckily found Peter, or Charlie.
…
Harita's POV
…
We brought Michael back to the Bureau for interrogation.
"Peter's real name is Dustin Powers. He abducted him in Newark, New Jersey when he was one." Katie deducted.
"Sometimes it seems there's no punishment enough." Gideon added.
"JJ traced his mother. She's on her way." Morgan said. The two of us left the room. We got back to our desks to do the awful, dreadful paperwork. A few hours later, I was almost halfway through, but I got bored. I then got an idea.
"Hey Morgan, remember a while back, when you bet me, saying that I can't screw Gideon's mind up."
"Yeah…" Morgan replied.
"I'm going to do it now." I gracefully got up from my desk, and headed towards Gideon's office. Morgan, Spencer, and Elle were behind me, curious to see what I was going to do. I knocked on the door, and waited for a response.
"Come in!" Gideon yelled. I opened the door and went in.
"I'd like to buy an owl." I said. Gideon was confused.
"I don't sell owls."
"Someone told me you did." I responded.
"Did Derek tell you?" Gideon asked. I nodded. "Why?"
"Well, you're interested in birds, meaning you own a few and might sell them, meaning you also have owls because owls can fly, like birds." I rambled.
"What goes on in your head?" Gideon questioned.
"I just heard one." I pretended.
"Leave. I'm going to talk to Morgan soon." Gideon said. I scurried my way out the room before I could get in trouble. I saw Morgan's face, and it was pissed. Meanwhile, Elle and Reid were trying not to laugh.
"What the fuck was that?" Morgan exclaimed.
"Karma." I simply replied, heading back to my desk.
So I just pulled 5 all-nighters, only because I was scrolling through TikTok. Yeah… OH! Also, I'm now scared of my Spanish teacher. That's new.
Toodles,
HernameisBurrito