Lessons Learned- 2:10

Harita's POV

WARNING: IF ANY OF THE FOLLOWING INFORMATION IS WRONG, JUST BE AWARE THAT I TOOK THIS WHOLE TEXT FROM THE CM SCRIPT. NONE OF THIS INFORMATION HAS BEEN PRODUCED BY ME. WITH THAT BEING SAID, IF ANY OF THIS INFORMATION IS WRONG, LET ME KNOW SO I CAN FIX IT. THANK YOU!

"Everybody, meet Agent Prentiss." Hotch introduced once we all walked into the conference room. I smiled big.

"Derek Morgan." Derek held out his hand.

"Emily Prentiss." Emily replied as she shook his hand.

"Emily!" I exclaimed.

"Harita! Oh, it's so good to see you again." I wrapped my arms around her, giving her a big hug, in which she returned.

"We can make nice later. What do we know?" Hotch asked. I looked at Derek, and I noticed his confused look.

"The DEA raided what they thought was a hardened meth lab right here, in Northern Virginia, but they found this instead." JJ projected a picture of what looked like a few chemical weapons.

"That could be a dispersal device for a chemical weapon." I said.

"Sophisticated." Morgan muttered.

"Homeland security's thinking Al Qaeda." JJ stated.

"They've developed devices that span the spectrum of sophistication, some as simple as soda bottles and paint cans." Reid informed.

"They're called al ikhteraa. Literally 'the invention'." Emily added.

"They are." Reid mumbled.

"Do we know what the biological or chemical agent is yet?" Hotch asked.

"No, not yet. The cell members bailed out through a tunnel. The DEA recovered a nextel 2-way and managed to intercept a message." JJ placed the paper on the table, and Emily took it. "That's not the transcript. It's-"

"No, it's in Arabic. 'Our friends surprised us and eloped. We can no longer wait for the wedding as planned. We can deliver our gift at the next crescent.'" Emily recited. Once she finished, she looked up to see, confused, proud looks shooting towards her. "I lived in several Middle-Eastern countries growing up."

"Next crescent?" Gideon questioned.

"Muslims sometimes use a lunar calendar. I'd have to look it up-"

"Next crescent moon is in two days." Pennelope finished.

"So whatever they're attacking, it's happening in less than 48 hours." Gideon said.

"That sounds like it, sir." Prentiss agreed.

"Payment for the nextel is linked to this man. Jind Allah." JJ stated.

"Literally 'Soldier of God'." Emily informed.

"That's pretty poor operational security for a sophisticated plot." Morgan belittled.

"Two months ago, Jind Allah was captured leaving the US using a forged Pakistani Passport via Richmond International Airport. He's been held as a ghost detainee in Guantanamo Bay ever since." JJ said.

"So then he doesn't exist." I confirmed.

"Soldier of God isn't a name." Gideon stated.

"No, it's most likely a name taken on for Jihad, meaning struggle. Extremists claim it's a holy war." Emily corrected.

"Yet the words 'holy' and 'war' never appear together in the Quran." Reid recalled.

"Do we know his real name?" Gideon asked.

"CIA interrogators have gotten nothing out of the guy." JJ answered.

"So, they need us to break him." JJ nodded to my statement.

"We do know from past intercepts that he's a recruiter. He came into this country to assemble the omega cell, a sleeper cell with an unknown mission."

'We have 48 hours to do what the CIA hasn't been able to manage in two months." Morgan said.

"We could be looking at the first attack on our soil since 9/11." Gideon warned.

…

*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.)

…

"Dale Turner mused: 'Some of the best lessons are learned from past mistakes. The error of the past is the wisdom of the future.'"- SSA Jason Gideon

…

"Hey Saline." I said into the phone. I hung back in the conference room while the other left.

"Hey Harita, you still coming shopping?" Saline asked. I frowned.

"No, unfortunately. Last minute case. Pretty huge one. I'm sorry. You can still go."

"Nooo, I don't want to go without you."

"Go, the two of us can go another time."

"Oh alright. How big is this case?"

"Huge." I chuckled.

"Alright, you better get going. Love you!"

"Love you too." I ended the phone call and sighed.

"Harita, the SUV's are here to take us to the jet." Reid announced.

"Okay, I'm coming.

…

"Excuse me, sir. I just wanted to let you know how much I appreciate-" Emily got cut off by Gideon.

"Do not thank me."

"Sir?"

"It's not a favor."

"Of course. I know that."

"You're coming to do a job." Emily looked at me confused. I just rolled my eyes.

"The team takes time to get used to someone new, especially someone as talented as you." I explained. She just smiled at my compliment. We were on the jet, to go and interrogate Jind Allah, yet it was only the four of us, Gideon, Spencer, Emily and I. Gideon and Spencer were playing chess, I was knitting while munching on some almonds, and Emily was observing us.

"Do you think the interrogation of Jind Allah will work in time?" Reid asked.

"Interrogation is the most dynamic form of profiling." Gideon replied.

"That's not an answer, sir." Emily interrupted. I looked up from my knitting.

"He's been locked away in GTMO. He doesn't know we raided the cell's safe house. That's an advantage for us. The main thing is to get him talking about anything. Then his language and body movements will betray him. It's like this you focus on the way your opponent holds his piece. How quickly and firmly he places it. Then you watch his face and body. It'll telegraph a player's strategy, his training, maybe his motivations." Gideon replied.

"Is that what you need us to do?" Emily questioned.

"No. I need you to listen. You're fluent in Arabic. I won't know the nuances like you. Every word, every phrase. Be on the lookout for subtext, ulterior meanings." Gideon explained.

"What do you want me to do?" Spencer queeried.

"I want you to watch for the tells. Non-verbals, micro-expressions. Watch him when he's comfortable and relaxed, then note the behavioral changes when he's under stress."

"And me?" I asked.

"First, you'll watch him with Prentiss and Reid. Then you're going to come with me and talk to him. He may see me as a friend, but you as an enemy. If we can establish a baseline, we'll be able to read him once I challenge his belief systems. Before I can get him to give up where or how they'll attack, I'll first have to cause him to reveal something of himself."

…

"You must be the BAU boys." The man said once we arrived inside GTMO, not noticing Prentiss and I at first. "And gals. Pardon me."

"I'm Jason Gideon."

"Andy Bingaman, FBI." Bingaman introduced.

"Agent Prentiss, Dr. Reid, Dr. Harita." Gideon pointed to us.

"I'm the intelligence supervisor here at GTMO."

"You guys having a hard time getting Jind Allah to talk?" Gideon asked.

"Not only can't they get him to budge, but 2 weeks ago, word got out that one of the other detainees was spilling secrets. Jind Allah managed to have a 3 minute conversation with him in the shower line. That night, the other detainee committed suicide." Bingaman explained as we walked towards the interrogation room, the room where we would see what he was doing through cameras.

"He's reciting the Quran from memory. He's most likely a Hafez." Emily concluded.

"He must have done it a dozen times since he's come to this facility." Bingaman stated.

"Some Muslim children are able to do it since age 12." Reid added.

"Two months of interrogation, that's all the CIA's been able to get out of him."

"There are cuts and bruises under his right eye socket." I observed, looking closer at the monitor. "What kind of tactics are they using?"

"I control the access to the detainees, but I can assure you, my protest about their methods has been ignored." Bingaman informed.

"Let the interrogation proceed normally. I'm gonna interrupt and demand they stop harassing." Gideon said.

"Maybe I should tell them in advance." Bingaman suggested.

"No, it's better if they don't expect it. The reaction will be more visceral, more believable."

"Go ahead with phase 2 as planned." Bingaman said into the walkie-talkie.

"Copy that."

"You really gonna put a show on for these guys?" Bingaman asked, as the men walked into Jind Allah's cell.

"No, no for them. For Jind Allah. He needs to see me as a complete contrast to what he's come to expect from his captors." Gideon explained.

"It's the best way to jump start him into talking. We have less than 36 hours." Prentiss added.

"Have at it."

"You three ready?" Gideon asked Reid, Emily, and I. We all nodded. Bingaman and Gideon left to go and stop the abuse that was happening to Jind Allah. Through the monitors, I saw Gideon sending the agents off, and he handed Jind Allah some new fresh clothes.

"He stopped his recitation. He's sizing Gideon up." Emily profiled, as Reid wrote it down. Suddenly, my phone rang. I walked away from Reid and Emily, and went to answer my phone. It was Hotch calling.

"Hey, Hotch, what's up.

"We found a list of chemicals, and ran through it by Garcia."

"Alright, what did she say?" I asked.

"Harita, it's a list of additives needed to weaponize anthrax." I sighed.

"Alright, thanks Hotch."

"Wait, Harita."

"Yeah."

"How is Emily doing." I smiled.

"She's doing amazing. She's pretty smart and helpful. Also a good profiler. And I'm saying that as her co-worker, not friend."

"Alright, thanks Harita." I ended the call and walked back to my seat. I pulled out a bag of bagel chips and informed the others of what Hotch told me.

"Could they get enough anthrax?" Emily asked.

"The letter sent to Senator Tom Daschle's office in 2002 only contained two grams of purified spores, enough to kill 25 million people if effectively distributed." Spencer recalled.

"He's from Egypt. Cairo." Emily said after we listened to Jind Allah talk.

"Positive?" I questioned.

"No, he could be Yemeni, but odds are he's Egyptian." Emily pulled out the walkie-talkie that connected to Gideon's earpiece. "Sir, he was born and raised in Egypt. They pronounce 'J' sounds as a 'G'." And she was correct, due to the fact that Jind Allah admitted it. I looked at her and smiled, in which she returned the same gesture.

...

"I'd like you to explain something to me." Gideon asked Jind Allah. "How can you ignore the fact that Muhammad preached passivity while he was in Mecca? 'Do no violence'."

"His later message from medina was perfectly clear. 'When violence comes upon you, you must fight back with violence.'" Jind Allah answered. Spencer picked up the walkie-talkie

"He's quoting from the Hadith, not from the Quran. It's called the verse of the sword. They argue that it cancels out earlier teachings."

"I'm going to get more snacks, anyone need anything?" I asked. Spencer and Emily shook their heads.

…

"You got Gideon, Prentiss, Harita, and me." Reid said, answering the buzzing phone.

"It's Hotch. We're at cell location number two. No cell members, no lab, no dispersal devices. We're still looking for escape tunnels."

"Call us." Gideon answered, hanging up the phone.

"We're running out of time. The attack's supposed to take place in less than 24 hours." Reid reminded.

"So getting Jind Allah to talk is our only chance of finding them." Emily added.

"Time I confronted him with the truth." Gideon stated.

"What are you going to do?" Emily asked.

"Show him my hand." Gideon said as he went back to talk to Jind Allah. "I'm going to give you the respect of telling you what just happened. A team of agents raided an omega cell location. Actually, both of them. Our men are in place in Annandale as we speak. You gain nothing by remaining silent."

"Jihad is forever." Jind Allah responded.

"Something's wrong. Gideon, something's wrong. This guy seemed relieved by what you just told him." Reid said into the walkie-talkie. Gideon left the room to go and make a phone call. Reid, Emily, and I looked at each other, a look of worry spread on our face, thinking the same thing. It was a trap.

…

"They're okay?" Reid asked.

"We were right about the trap. It was rigged to explode. A SWAT Agent was killed." Gideon responded.

"Was anthrax involved?" Emily asked.

"No."

"Then that's not the final target." Spencer responded. Gideon went back to talk to Jind Allah.

"What do you say to his family?" Gideon asked Jind Allah.

"I say: 'Where... were you to mourn... when my son was murdered?" I choked on my coffee.

"His son?" I exclaimed.

"Did you see that? When he told the story about his childhood, the bomb landing in the bazaar, his behavior changed." Reid observed.

"We know he was lying. Garcia couldn't find any record of a bombing during the time Jind Allah was a boy." Emily added.

"Exactly, but this time when he mentioned his son, he looked at his hands, like he had to concentrate to control his anger."

"So, that first story wasn't about him. It was about his son." I speculated.

"Which means it must have been more recent." Reid added, as I pulled out my phone to call Garcia.

"Garcia."

"Hey, I need you to look for a bombing again in Egypt, but this time anything in the last ten years." I ordered.

"On it." Garcia responded.

"We're looking for civilian casualties, an 8-year-old boy."

"Okay. I'm cross referencing bombings and child victims. Seven years ago, in the heart of Cairo, Egyptian Government blamed Hezbollah, but conspiracy theories on the street claimed it was a joint US-Israli strike that went astray. Your ghost detainee's name is Jamal Abaza." Garcia read.

"How about his son's name?"

"Amir Abaza. 8. Killed in the blast."

"All right. Find out everything you can on that. I'll get back to you soon." I said, hanging up the phone as Reid picked up the walkie-talkie to tell Gideon the news. After Gideon finishes talking to Jind Allah, he comes back to meet with us. That's when Garcia calls back again.

"Jamal Abaza has been in the US for a while. He volunteered as the prison imam at the Dearfield Correctional Center three years ago." Garcia informed.

"How could the CIA not know that?" Reid asked.

"They're focused overseas. We're domestic." Emily answered.

"Yeah. They probably sent a request for a domestic information search, and it's somewhere making its way through channels." Garcia added.

"If he was a prison imam, he must have recruited Militant Islamic Society members. MIS is an atypical prison organization. They pick up an amalgam of ethnicities. Those that slip through the cracks are the ones that traditional groups won't accept. It's made up largely of American Citizens. American Citizens with a reason for hating the government." Reid stated.

"So, we're looking at homegrown terrorists." I concluded.

…

"What the hell do you want?" One of the CIA Agents asked as we approached them. Rude, I say.

"The name Jamal Abaza. Does it mean anything to you?" Gideon asked.

"Abaza was an Imam in Cairo. He preached Jihad to his followers, but he fell off the grid seven years ago. " The other CIA Agent replied.

"That's because when his son died, he took the Jihad name: Jind Allah. He came to America to recruit sleeper cells."

"You're telling us that that detainee in there is Jamal Abaza?" The rude CIA Agent asked.

"No, we're telling you that he is just an innocent man that you guys beat senselessly out of." I scoffed. "Yes that is exactly what we are telling you."

"Amazing what you learn when you talk to people." Gideon added.

"He was also a Prison Imam in Virginia three years ago. Are you familiar with the Militant Islamic Society?" Spencer questioned.

"They're home grown?" The CIA Agent queeried.

"We know the cell that Abaza put together has access to anthrax, but we can't find any reports of any going missing in the States." Emily explained.

"We have protocols that we have to follow." The other CIA agent defended.

"You really going to allow a terrorist attack on US soil because of protocols?" I argued.

"I told you what I learned in there because you and I, FBI CIA, right now we have the ability to break through all the protocol and share information." Gideon added.

"Let me see what we have."

"Coordinate with Agent Jareau and Penelope Garcia at Quantico. Please." Gideon ordered.

"Think it'll work?" Reid asked once we got far away from the two agents.

"I don't know. CIA's tough. They play it pretty close to the vest." Emily responded.

"And stupid." I added.

"Well, if we don't all work together, more people are gonna die. A lot more." Gideon muttered.

…

"He seems much calmer than he was yesterday. May make any reading of his body language less accurate." I profiled, as Jind Allah, or Jamal Abaza, started praying.

"I know." Gideon replied.

"Is that what we want?" Emily asked.

"I hope so." Gideon responded.

"Well, isn't that the exact opposite of-" Emily suddenly stopped speaking, and I turned around to see Gideon gone. "He hopes so? We have less than ten hours before the new crescent moon rises."

"Nine hours, 36 minutes, and 54 seconds counting." I corrected.

"Aren't you guys worried?" Emily asked.

"I've been with him long enough to trust him." Spencer replied.

"Yeah, and this is Gideon we are talking about." I added.

…

"Have you finished?" Gideon asked Jind Allah, or Jamal Abaza, as the two of us entered the room. I saw Jind Allah for the first time, and if we weren't in this condition, I would have felt bad for him, maybe even helped him out.

"As you said, the sun is set." Jind Allah replied. Gideon nodded.

"I'd like you to meet a colleague of mine. Dr. Harita. May we speak?" Gideon asked.

"Of course. I have a little time." Jind responded. I raised my left eyebrow and looked at him weird. "That was a joke. I have all the time. Please."

"A joke. Well, we're making progress." Gideon muttered as I nodded.

"Yes, progress. That is true." Jind agreed.

"Is there no way for this thing to end? This Jihad?" Gideon questioned.

"Jihad will end when Allah wills its end." Jind answered.

"Then how will you know that it is Allah's will?"

"When the Jihad ends."

"I have been lying to you." Gideon confessed.

"Of course you have."

"My colleague has been outside watching us as we talked on monitors. Watching your body language, trying to figure you out." I gave a small, sideways smile.

"Were you successful?"

"Eh, sort of." I responded. "Your name is Jamal Abaza. Your son Amir was killed in 2003 in the bombing at the Mahfouz Bazaar in Cairo. Since then, you've been recruiting MIS members in prison by convincing them that US Economic Policies are exploiting third world nations and turning them into extreme fundamentalists by promising a better existence with Allah."

"I would say that you were more than sort of successful."

"But I did not learn where your MIS cell was going to make an anthrax attack in the US at the new crescent tonight." Gideon admitted.

"I have no knowledge of such a thing." Jind innocently said.

"Yes, you do, Mr. Abaza. And there is still time." Gideon put his hand to his earpiece "What? Are you sure?" Gideon looked shocked. I was concerned. Gideon walked outside, and I followed. He turned on the TV to a random news channel. They were covering a story of a terrorist attack, our terrorist attack.

"Something has happened?" Jind Allah asked.

"How could you? You choose to contort Islam into an excuse for a life of violence. You have perverted your faith to justify murder." Gideon accused.

"Now we are finally chatting, Gideon." Jind Allah pointed.

"You accuse Americans of being puppeteers of the third world, yet you used your own people's faith tonight to make them dance for you. Why? Why is it always those who profess to be the most fervent believers in this war? They always manipulate other people to die for them."

"Does your president go into battle? Or does he send your children?" Jind Allah asked.

"Tonight all those innocent people-"

"There is no such thing, Gideon. They were infidels. And they were engaged in activities that spread american policies over the entire world. Your incessant need to own things, material things. Your capitalism rests on the back of third world countries. No one's hands are clean. No one is innocent."

"Those people tonight, they were innocent. They never hurt you."

"They hurt me by existing! Yes, the infidels shall fall at the hands of the righteous. And that is when the Jihad will end."

"So you are ready to murder 4 billion people."

"America has learned nothing from the past. You harden targets like your power plants, but you leave the soft root for our taking. What has happened tonight will affect your economy for years, the way September 11th affected air travel. And maybe the next time a giant shopping center opens, people will think twice before going. And maybe next it will be a school. Hey!" Jind Allah yelled after Gideon, as he ran out to call Hotch about the location that JInd Allah leaked.

"You can shut the video feed down now, Garcia, thanks." I said into my phone once I called her. Luckily, this was all in the script, and it wasn't real. I turned on the light, but I was about to leave when Jind Allah stopped me.

"Has the sun not set yet?" JInd asked.

"No." I admitted, and left to go to the others.

"They are planning the attack at the grand opening of the USA mall today. It's the third largest in the country, and it's right smack in the middle of McLean, Virginia. Gideon already told Hotch." Emily told me. That's when it hit me.

"Shit." I mumbled. Everyone looked at me concerned.

"What is it?" Reid asked. I pulled out my phone to make a call.

"Saline, she said she was going shopping at the mall." I tried calling her, but it wasn't going through. "I can't reach her." I sat down and started to rub my face, my anxiety was broiling.

"Who's Saline." Emily asked, though it sounded like she was a million miles away.

"Her girlfriend." Reid answered as he crouched down in front of me. "Hey, Harita, she is going to be alright, okay. They'll get there fast enough." I nodded along with Reid.

…

Ralph Waldo Emerson once said 'In order to learn the most important lessons of life, one must each day surmount a fear.'"- SSA Jason Gideon

…

"Hey, did you hear that there was an attempted robbery at the mall. Thank god I didn't go." Saline said through the phone once I called. That's what we told the media after all the FBI commotion was going on.

"You didn't go?" I asked.

"Yeah, I wanted to go with you." I laughed.

"Okay, how about we go tomorrow, huh?"

"That sounds good. Case finished."

"Yeah, I'll be home in around 5 hours."

"Alright, see you soon."

"See ya." I ended the call and boarded the jet.

"When did you know you were gonna have to trick him?" Emily asked Gideon once I sat down on the sofa. I pulled out my book and continued reading it. Gideon and Reid were finishing their game of chess.

"The first time I talked to him." Gideon answered.

"You realized you couldn't break him?"

"Well, I realized he was too smart to have had that nextel phone registered to him accidentally. He drew us there. He wanted our presence at GTMO to confirm that he was successful."

"And that's when you started moving up the time of his prayers." I said.

"If I'd used an actual clock, he might have caught on."

"So it was all a chess game." Reid replied.

"We won this round... but you heard him. Jihad never ends." Spencer moved one of his pieces, in which Gideon moved his own. "Mate."

"I quit. Yield. Surrender. Capitulate. I'm gonna take a nap." Reid admitted, pulling out his blanket. I lifted my book and he laid his head on my lap.

"Prentiss." Gideon asked.

"Sir?"

"You play?" Emily nodded and took the seat the Reid originally sat in. They started a new game and I smiled at the new bonding.

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