Thought Police

Disclaimer: If you recognize it, it's not mine. This story is on an AU track.

Chapter 3: Now That's A Coincidence

"Why is a team from LA coming to New York to work on the case of a missing agent from Austin?" Wylie asked. "You'd think if they wanted more people on it, they'd start with the local office."

"Who knows?" Cho gave a slight shrug. "The call came from Abbott in DC, and he didn't have many details. Something about the lead agent on that team having worked with McNeil a few years ago. Oh, and he says hi."

Jane tilted his head slightly, considering this. "McNeil was a bit of a floater, wasn't he? He worked in multiple offices for years before settling in Austin, and we haven't heard word one from any of them."

"Nor would we expect to," Lisbon added. "Agents move around in the Bureau, it's par for the course. If everyone who's worked with a given agent turned up when something like this happened, we'd be overwhelmed."

"So why does this guy - this entire team - decide to fly all the way across the country to work on this case?"

"Because it's not just one missing agent."

Seven heads turned at once towards the source of this new voice; a short, blonde woman standing a few feet behind the team. Cho eyed the newcomer critically. "And you are?"

"Lieutenant Alex Eames, from the Joint Terrorism Task Force," Zach supplied, a smile splitting his face. "I didn't know you were working this case."

"I wasn't exactly. It goes back to what I just said." She turned to face the entire group. "McNeil isn't the only missing agent. Four days ago, my partner, Agent Carolyn Barek, left work and never made it home."

"What?" Cho's head snapped around to look at her. "Why didn't we hear anything about this?"

"Because the consensus between the local PD and my supervisors is that her disappearance is unlikely to be related to her work," Alex replied bitterly.

"Based on what?" Zach asked.

A frustrated sigh escaped Alex's lips. "Who knows? I would think that when an FBI agent goes missing, the first question most people would ask would be if her work could be connected to her disappearance, but not so with Carolyn. Which brings me to your missing agent."

"McNeil," Lisbon supplied.

"Right. He and Carolyn were on the same special assignment in 2010 - the same special assignment that was led by the lead agent of that LA team, Agent Eppes. We only spoke briefly, but he thinks, and I agree, that this is probably more than a coincidence."

"I'd tend to agree with that assessment," Cho put in. "If we'd known from the start that there was a second agent missing, we would've probably come to the same conclusion." He glanced over to his team and the two NYPD detectives. "Let's hold off on a full briefing until the last team gets here, or we'll just have to do it over anyway. Meanwhile, we'll keep working with what we have, start thinking through preliminary strategy."

xxxxxxxxx

"I'm not interested in having a discussion!" Alex all but shouted into the phone. "The task force is taking over this case, that's just a fact!"

"Lieutenant Eames?" a tentative voice piped up in the momentary quiet.

"I want that file here in two hours, and I don't want to hear any excuses!" Alex slammed her phone down. "Figures. They barely looked at the case when they had full jurisdiction, but now that I'm asking for it, they're getting all territorial."

"I wouldn't worry too much about it," Lisbon said kindly. "I've seen this God only knows how many times before. They'll talk big and get angry, but I've yet to come across an office that actually tried to hold onto the case when push came to shove."

"Lieutenant Eames?" The voice was a bit more insistent now.

"Yes?" She regretted the harsh tone of her voice as soon as the words left her mouth. "Sorry, sorry. It's just been a rough morning. How can I help you?"

"There's an Agent Eppes here to see you."

"Good." At least something is going right today. "Send him over here."

The officer nodded and headed back to the front desk, and Alex turned just in time to see the newcomer walk into the room. Even without the announcement, she thought, she almost certainly would have known who this man was. Though he didn't come across as the type of person who felt the need to broadcast his position of power, there was an air of leadership that seemed to surround him.

He stopped in front of Alex's desk, seeming to observe her just as she had him. "Lieutenant Eames?"

She nodded, extending her hand to shake his. "Please, it's Alex. And you must be Agent Eppes."

"Don." He smiled as he shook her hand, before looking around at the people clustered nearby. "Looks like you've got quite a crew assembled here. All these people on our case?"

"These six are." She gestured towards Zach, Serena, and the four from Austin, beckoning them to come over at the same time. "Everyone, this is Agent Eppes, from L.A."

"Don, please." He gave the group a smile. "Never been a big fan of formalities between teams."

Zach's phone chose that moment to ring loudly. He glanced down at the display and grimaced when he saw the number. "Excuse me a second."

Don turned back towards Alex. "Speaking of teams, my own is waiting just downstairs. I just wanted to make sure everything was good to go before I brought them all up here. Mind if I...?"

"Of course not." She gave him a moment to send a quick text before speaking again. "How many of you are there?"

"Five total. Four agents, myself included, and a consultant."

"You know," she said, looking from him to Cho with a small chuckle, "New York does have consultants of our own."

He smiled too. "Not quite like our guy, I bet. You'll see."

A voice floated in from the elevator bay at that moment. "...just saying, it would've fit in the overhead bin. They didn't have to gate-check it."

"It didn't fit in the box," an exasperated female voice replied. "You saw that, you were there."

"Yes," the first voice replied, "I know it didn't fit in the box. But the luggage compartment size of a standard Boeing 757 is such that mathematically..."

"Charlie." That was another male voice, laughing under the words. "One way or the other, it's done. We're off the plane, you got your bag back. Give it a rest."

Four people stepped into the entryway, and Don beckoned them over. "Come on, guys. We're good."

"We've set up the conference room for this case," Serena added to the newcomers. "There should be space in there for everyone."

"Well, almost everyone," one of the women on Don's team commented wryly. "We might need to set up a separate Charlie room." This was directed at another member of her team, a dark-haired man several inches shorter than her.

The man almost looked affronted for a moment, then he shrugged, allowing a smile to cross his face. "Maybe."

Alex smiled too. "Well, let's assemble everyone in there for now to do a quick round of introductions and get everyone up to speed. If we need, um, breakout rooms later, we'll take care of that then."

As the group began moving towards the conference room, Alex heard a rushed set of footfalls behind her and turned to see Zach slipping his phone back into his pocket with a tired and frustrated expression. "Sorry about that," he said in an undertone, clearly speaking mostly to Serena.

"Not your fault," she said back, matching his tone. "We all have those days."

He sighed under his breath. "I'd have a lot less of them if people could actually pay attention to what I say the first time. So," he added at a more normal volume, "what did I miss?"

"Nothing of note. Well, unless you count the fact that Agent Eppes' team walked in having a debate about overhead compartments and carryon luggage sizes."

Zach gave a short laugh. "Really?"

"Oh, yeah," Alex piped up, realizing the heavy part of the conversation was over and it would be okay to interject. "Don was laughing, too. Seemed like he was used to it."

Serena smiled, but Zach was already on to the next thing, something else having caught his attention. "Who's that? The shorter guy with the curly hair?"

"We haven't done introductions yet," Serena replied. "I peg him for the team's consultant, though. He just doesn't read 'FBI Agent' the way the others do. Why?"

He shrugged. "Weird coincidence, I guess. He just reminds me of someone I knew once upon a time."

By this point, they were at the door to the conference room, and Serena gently pushed her partner into a chair. "Come on, Zach. Time to focus on the case now. You can interrogate him on possible connections to people from your past later."

Zach nodded absently, his attention still fixed on the man in question. Damn, he really looks like - no, it can't be, he chided himself silently. What on Earth would he be doing in New York at all, let alone -

But that thought was cut off abruptly when the younger man turned to face him. The consultant did an immediate double take, no doubt running through some of the same thoughts Zach had been just moments earlier, but now the detective was sure. A coincidence all right...but not the one I thought it was.

xxxxxxxxx

"As far as we know," Alex began, "the last person to see or speak to Carolyn - Agent Barek - was me. We left the building together, walked out to the garage. We said a quick goodbye, she got in her car and I got in mine. I saw her car pull out behind me, but we turn different directions out of the garage, so..." she shrugged. "I didn't even realize anything was wrong until Mike, her boyfriend, called me three hours later."

"Seems a little strange that he'd call you that quickly," Jane commented. "Guy dates a cop and gets worried when she's late coming home? Seems to me that's part of the package."

"That was my first thought too," Alex admitted, "especially because Mike is retired NYPD himself, he'd know if anyone would about the unpredictability of things. But what was worrying him was that they had plans and she hadn't gotten in touch to tell him things had changed. According to him, having to reschedule is par for the course, but her just not showing up without so much as a text isn't. And he'd already tried to call her, with no luck. I think by the time he called me, he was just trying to convince himself that she was working late, her text hadn't been delivered, and her phone had died." She shrugged. "It's like I said. He was a cop, a detective, and he hasn't lost that instinct; he probably never will. He knew enough about the situation to recognize that something was off, and he acted on that instinct." She paused for a moment to gather her thoughts before returning to the narrative. "We took it to Missing Persons that night, but they blew us off. No matter how many times I pointed out that she was an FBI agent and therefore it was a lot more likely that something bad happened to her than it would be with a member of the general public, they insisted that, and I quote, 'a woman who goes off the radar for a few hours isn't anything to get upset about'. I would've pushed it further but I could tell it wouldn't do any good."

"And the FBI?" Don asked from where he sat on the edge of a desk. "You said they hadn't been very helpful either."

"Similar issue," Alex said grimly. "Carolyn had, um, a bit of a rough start when she started working for the Feds ten years ago - she was a transfer from NYPD. She never jeopardized a case, she's much too professional for that, but she didn't try to hide how unhappy she was with the change of agency that was basically forced on her either. She got past that more than a few years ago, but some superiors have long memories. One all but said outright that she's probably the FBI equivalent of AWOL."

Don shook his head, frowning. "That's not the Carolyn Barek I know. Being vocal about a transfer she didn't appreciate - that I have no trouble believing. But upset or no, she's incredibly dependable. Even the FBI knows that, or they would never have assigned her to a case on the level of the one we worked."

"Well, they weren't exactly hearing arguments. That's why I called you."

"And I made a few calls," he said, picking up the story. "Then I get in the next morning and hear that McNeil is also missing."

"McNeil was vacationing here in New York." Cho picked up the narrative, taking Alex's place at the front of the room as she sat back down. "Visiting his sister and her family. He was supposed to spend a day doing the tourist thing and then go out to dinner with her and her kids. She started to worry when he didn't show for dinner and, like with Barek, she couldn't get in contact with him."

"I guess it is theoretically possible for it to be a coincidence," Don added, "but it's not very likely, right, buddy?" That last was directed to Charlie.

"Coincidences do happen," the younger man replied. "But the probability is...very low, especially given the established characteristics of the parties involved. Once we rule out the possibility that one or both of them disappeared of their own volition...it's much more likely that the two cases are connected that that this is a coincidence."

"So the connection between the two is this assignment," Lisbon said. "At least, that's what we're thinking?"

"It's the only connection I could find," Don confirmed. "I was pretty sure I remembered that they had never met each other before they were assigned to me, but I went back and cross-checked their histories to confirm. Those six months were the only time their paths ever crossed."

"Which brings us to..." Alex prompted.

Don looked around the assembled crowd. "I had to pull strings just to get clearance to tell you all the details. What I'm about to tell you stays in this room, understand?" The question was met by a series of nods. "Okay. The case involved what we classified as a domestic terrorist organization. Specifically, the group was anti-government, and even more anti-government spending. I won't disgust you with the details of what they went around spewing, but suffice to say, the gist of it was that the government was leeching off of hardworking Americans to prop up the weak and lazy."

"Nothing we haven't heard before," Jane muttered.

"Not quite," Don replied, "though I'm sure some of the mainstream media talking points fueled that fire. But this was like that times five, with a heavy dose of eugenics thrown in - as in, people who couldn't survive without some form of assistance shouldn't have the right to survive at all. It was like nothing I'd ever seen before. They'd been at it for years, but as long as it was only talk, there was very little that any government agency could do. Of course, that all changed when intelligence dug up information indicating that the group was working on a plan for simultaneous attacks at multiple locations across the country."

"And that's where the FBI comes in," Lisbon surmised.

Don nodded. "Because of the severity of the threat, a special team was assembled - essentially handpicked by the FBI top dogs. Four of us in total, though we had access to pretty much any resource we needed to complete the assignment. Barek was the team's profiler, McNeil was our tech expert. Both of them ended up being vital to the operation."

"Seeing as I never heard word one about anything like this on the news," Jane interjected, "I assume you were successful in preventing this planned attack?"

Another nod. "It took months, like I said, but we were eventually able to crack the organization structure and subsequently collapse it."

"By collapse," Lisbon asked, "you mean..."

"Make a lot of arrests," Don confirmed. "Coordinated with local offices all over the country to take down as many people as we could at once, before they could warn each other, while we went after the leaders."

"But there's a problem," Charlie, who had been silently taking in the briefing up to that point, piped up. "Distributed autonomous network."

"Say what?" Alex replied.

"Distributed autonomous network." Charlie stood, making his way to the front of the room. "Independent parts working collectively, but without lateral communication. It's, um, it's like a tree."

"A tree," Jane repeated skeptically.

"Yeah." Charlie appeared undaunted by the other consultant's skepticism. "Every tree begins from a single source - the trunk. Now, as the tree grows, branches begin to form. These branches then exhibit the same behavior, splitting off into more branches, which split off again and so on. So, if you were to start from a given leaf and work backwards, you would encounter a number of splits between that leaf and the trunk. The same holds true for any other leaf, except that the path you trace back from that specific leaf is likely to be different than it would be for a leaf a few feet higher up, or on the other side of the tree. Now, many large human groups operate in the same way - foundations, political organizations, clubs, even the FBI. An individual unit, like a team, is technically connected to the people who run the entire system, but the connection is...filtered, if you will, through a series of individuals. This allows for more effective and efficient distribution of work than if the people on top had to supervise each person individually."

"This normal for you?" Alex asked Don in an undertone.

He grinned in response. "Oh, yeah. Don't worry, it'll all make perfect sense in a minute."

"The difference," Charlie was saying, "between a normal group structure and a terror cell is the restriction of information. In this kind of organization, people only know who they're getting information from and who they're supposed to pass it to. So a person at the lowest level - a leaf, if you will - doesn't know who the person on top is or possibly even what the full mission is; they only know what their role is and who their contact is. Likewise, the leader of the organization only knows who his or her next-in-command people are, and similar information limits hold true for the people in the middle. Therefore, it would be almost impossible for anyone to identify every single individual in this group, because no one person knows all or even most of the pieces."

"I'll be damned," Alex whispered to Don. "You're right. It does make sense."

"So," Zach said after a moment, "you think a branch might have fallen off this tree, so to speak?"

A grin split Charlie's face. "Not bad. And the short answer to your question is, yes, I think that's probable. I'd need a lot more data to even attempt to quantify the who and what of the situation, but assuming the recent kidnappings are related to the case Don and the team solved, it does seem likely that the perpetrators would be a small sub-group that was missed in the initial series of arrests."

"Wait a second," Alex broke in. "I think we're missing something. More specifically someone. Don, you said there were four people on your team. So far, I've only heard references to three - you, Barek, and McNeil. Where does the fourth agent fit in?"

"Ian?" the agent replied. "He's a tracker - a damn good one. The only member of the team I knew before the assignment started. Bureau brought him in for his experience in finding people who don't want to be found. It's kind of amazing, actually, how much the skills used to follow somebody over wild terrain can be translated to the less literal kind of hunting we were doing. I have to give my bosses credit, much as I hate to credit the pencil pushers with anything. They really did put together a top team. What," he added after a moment, seeming to pick up on Alex's train of thought, "you think whoever did this might come after him next?"

"It makes sense," Jane put in from his corner. "Why target only half the team? Unless there was some extra connection between Barek and McNeil - some part of the project just the two of them worked on -"

"There wasn't. Not that I can think of."

"Then they're probably targeting the whole team. Those were just the people they could get to the easiest."

"Which means," Alex picked back up, "that both of the remaining team members are potential targets. Where is this Ian now?"

"I don't know. I doubt many people do, really. Like I said, Ian's primary work is tracking fugitives. He could pretty much be anywhere."

The junior agent on Don's team let out a soft laugh. "I think Ian can take care of himself."

"Nikki's got a point," Don admitted, "but I'm not sure how much that'll matter. From what I remember, Barek's tough as nails too."

"She is," Alex confirmed.

"Now, Ian may be harder to find," he added, "but we have to assume they'd have a way of taking him down if they did. I'll call Quantico, get them to find someone to give Ian a heads-up next time he checks in."

"While you're at it," Charlie added, "see how much information you can get on where he is and where he may have been in the past month or so."

Alex frowned a bit. "No offense, but how does knowing where he's been help us?"

"None taken," he assured her. "And to answer your question, it's not about where he actually is. The real question is, where will these people be looking for him? It's more data on possible locations, and more data is always better. In the meantime, I can start analyzing the information already available. I have the case file; what would help would be information on Barek and McNeil's movements, both on the day they disappeared and the days leading up to it."

"I think we have that for McNeil," Cho said, "starting with when he landed in New York three days before the kidnapping."

"Yeah, that's good," Charlie replied.

"I can pull it together for Barek," Alex added. "I was more focused on her cases than her physical movements, but it shouldn't be hard to get the information, now that I know I'm looking for it."

Another nod. "I'll start with McNeil, then. As soon as I have the other information, I'll expand the parameters." He cast a glance around the crowded conference room. "Uh, is there somewhere I can spread out a bit?"

Nikki chuckled lightly. "What did I tell you?"

"There's a smaller room we don't use much," Zach offered. "It's not a lot of space but it should give you what you need."

The two FBI team leaders, meanwhile, had been having a quick, whispered conference in one corner, and now Don turned back to the group. "We know that this is going to be a little bit of a challenge, since this group is made up of several teams that usually work as independent units, but we need to be working fully together on this, and Cho and I agree that the best way to do that is to have one person leading this combined team." He turned to Alex. "We're on your turf, Lieutenant, and we recognize that. What do you say?"

It took her a moment to process the unexpected request, but then she smiled. "Okay. Let's get to it. But," she added to Don and Cho, "I'd like to meet with the two of you."

Yes, I had Charlie give a mini-lecture. Those who know Numb3rs had to be half-expecting it.

Distributed autonomous network is a theory that Charlie brings up in the Numb3rs episode Under Pressure; I put together the tree metaphor because I thought it worked better to explain the situation in this story than the one used in the episode (in which the network was much more limited).

I did also completely invent the concept of the organization that Don and the team were chasing. I wanted something completely out of left field (to avoid even hinting at any actual group) and that was what I came up with.

For those who watch Numb3rs, the past assignment is supposed to be the "Special Agent in Charge gig" that Don mentions in the series finale. I already had an outline for this story in the works when I saw the finale, and I wanted him to be able to stick with the team, but that line gave me a perfect setup for a reason that Don, Barek, and an Austin agent would all be involved in a single case.

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