Thought Police

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

Chapter 9: One Step Forward, Two Steps Back

"Don! Don, I got something!"

Both Don and Alex turned so quickly from the document they were examining that if it hadn't been for the substantial height difference, they likely would have ended up bumping heads. "What is it, Charlie?" they asked at nearly the same moment.

The mathematician couldn't help but smile at the reactions. "I applied my crowd dynamics program to the subway footage, while at the same time running the sketch you gave me through the facial recognition system I was telling Alex about. Then I used an algorithm to compare the results from each of those searches, looking for people who might be connected to each other in some way, and I got these two." He opened the folder he'd been holding, revealing photographs of two men. "Subject one is an eighty-seven percent match to the witness sketch Alex provided, and subject two is a ninety-three percent match to an individual who was behaving in the subway in such a way that he was probabilistically following Agent McNeil."

"And they're connected to each other?" Don pressed.

"Not directly," Charlie explained, "but my network analysis suggests that they almost certainly have a connection in common, likely someone in the level directly above them."

"That sounds like someone we should be talking to," Alex commented.

But Charlie shook his head. "Unfortunately, I haven't yet been able to identify that individual."

"But you just said -"

"I know what I said. But for the moment, this individual is...is a black hole."

"A what?" Alex asked, perplexed.

Beside her, Don laughed. "Now you know what I deal with," he said in a stage whisper.

"A black hole," Charlie repeated, mock-glowering at his brother. "A phenomenon which cannot in and of itself be observed, but can be inferred from its effects on the objects around it. In the same way, I can infer this individual's existence based on the effect he or she has on other individuals, but that doesn't mean I know, or even could guess, who this person is."

"Um, okay," she replied after a moment as she finally pieced together the mathematician's analogy. "Then let's get an APB out on these two guys for now. Charlie, did Wylie talk to you?"

"Yeah. I'll take a look, see if anything jumps out."

"Please do. And see what more you can do to fill in that network diagram, okay?"

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"Any luck with finding our suspects?"

Colby shook his head. "Sorry, Don. The guy from the train station moved out of the address on file years ago, current whereabouts unknown. Liz and Nikki door-knocked the other guy, but there no sign of him, neighbors say he's cleared out. The ADA told Detective Stevens that we don't have enough for a warrant."

"The ADA's right," Alex admitted reluctantly. "We'd be hard-pressed to get a warrant even for the train station guy, and we have even less on this one. We can't even put him in proximity to Carolyn, only Mike, and that's in a public place. No judge is going to issue us a warrant based on that."

"We're circulating the APB to all NYPD precincts," Colby continued. "Top priority. And we're working on getting a list of known associates. Liz and Nikki are organizing unis to sit on the house in case he comes back for some reason, unlikely though that may be."

"Good work," Alex acknowledged. "Keep at it, I'm going to check on the profile. They've got to have something by now."

She pushed open the door to the media room. Zach was sitting in front of a paused screen, so deeply engrossed in whatever it was he was writing on the notepad in his lap that he didn't even seem to notice the door opening. Typical Zach, just like Bobby. But what took her aback was that the NYPD detective was alone in the room.

"Zach." He didn't react, so she raised her voice slightly. "Zach. Zach."

He looked up finally. "Oh. Hey, Alex. Sorry. How long have you been standing there?"

"Not long," she assured him. "Where's Jane?"

"Uh -" he glanced around the room, eyes landing on the clock. "I'm not sure. When he stepped out, I figured it was just for a minute, to use the bathroom or something. But, um, that was almost an hour ago. I guess I lost track of time."

"An hour?" she repeated. "What the hell has he been doing?" Zach only shrugged. "Never mind. Can you prepare a rundown of what you have so far while I find him?"

"Sure, no problem. Sorry I lost him."

"Not your fault. Jane's an adult, he shouldn't need a babysitter. Excuse me." She turned sharply on her heel, striding back out into the main room. "Has anyone seen Jane?"

Lisbon looked up, her lips twitching slightly as though she was struggling not to laugh. "Uh-oh. That phrase is never a good sign."

Alex raised an eyebrow. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Sorry." The brunette agent still seemed more amused than anything else. "It means he wanders off like this every so often."

"Really. And you just...let him?"

"It's not something we encourage," Cho replied with his usual stoicism. "But it's kind of par for the course working with him. Every supervisor he's had has tried to bring him more into line. It doesn't change anything."

"Have you ever considered, I don't know, not working with him?"

Cho and Lisbon exchanged a look. "Of course that's been a thought," she said after a moment. "But what he brings to the table -"

"I could get a consultant in here before the end of the day with all of the profiling skills and none of the drama." She sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose. "Look, I'm not interested in arguing methodology right now. We haven't got the time. Just - get him back here, would you?"

"Who? Me?"

Alex whirled on the blonde consultant. "Where the hell have you been?"

He shrugged nonchalantly. "Oh, you know...around."

Her glare was ice, but it didn't seem to be affecting him. "Go help Detective Nichols," she snapped. "I want a full report in half an hour." She turned and walked away before he could reply.

"Jeez, Jane," Lisbon groaned out in what her husband still referred to as her 'boss voice', "could you at least try not to antagonize the local officers?"

"Officers? As far as I can see, it's one uptight Lieutenant who has the problem."

"Jane!"

His lips curled in a mock pout. "Okay, fine. I'll behave. But I'm doing it for you, not for her."

She sighed. "I guess that's better than nothing, anyway. Now please go do what Lieutenant Eames asked, before you do end up antagonizing the entire NYPD."

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"I can tell you," Zach began, "that what we're dealing with is a form of radicalization. These people started with a fairly common idea in American culture; Jane said as much in the initial briefing; the base rhetoric is nothing we haven't heard before. What makes this group different is, as the very word 'extremism' suggests, they took that rhetoric to, well, the extreme."

"As far as we can tell," Jane added, "these people, or their predecessors, have been around for quite awhile. Thing is, they're scattered all over the place, one or two in a given community. Until recently, they had very few ways to connect with each other."

"Enter the internet." The NYPD detective picked the narrative back up. "Connecting people with similar ideals all over the globe. Unfortunately, that includes radicals. These people found each other and created their own little echo chamber. Every time a politician or news source said something that reinforced their view, they went into a frenzy over it."

"Let me guess," Don said wryly, "anything that didn't fit was disregarded?"

"Or ridiculed," Zach confirmed. "These people are true believers. On the arrest interview tapes, a few of them actually tried to debate their case with the agents."

"True believers," Alex repeated. "They can be the most dangerous of all."

He nodded. "Exactly. They don't know when to stop, and in some cases they've even lost their sense of self-preservation. Which means two things for us. One, we can't expect them to behave rationally, at least in the way that we would define it."

"That makes sense with what Colby and I got from the guy we interviewed," Serena put in. "Someone suggested a plan that most rational people would think is insane, and the majority of the group immediately jumped on board."

"What's the second piece?" Cho asked.

"The second piece is, we need to be extra-careful. As I said, for many of these people, self-preservation isn't a consideration. We already know they're willing to kill indiscriminately to make a point; we have to expect dirty tricks."

"Copy that," Don said grimly. "I'll make sure everyone knows to watch their own backs, and each others'."

"What does your profile tell us about finding these people?" Alex pressed.

"Nothing I can clearly parse out yet," Zach admitted, "but I'd like to work with Charlie on that, if that would be all right. I think that if we can combine his network analysis with Jane's and my profile of known group members, we may be able to pinpoint the most likely suspects. Once we're able to narrow our focus, it should make it easier to find the answers to your questions."

"Do it," Alex said immediately. "Let me know as soon as you have something."

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"Please, baby. I know we can work this out. Just call me. Please." Don sat in silence for a long moment, as though instead of the silence of the voicemail box, he might somehow hear his wife's voice. "I love you, Robin."

He set the phone down, rubbing roughly at his eyes. He knew that he should be expecting this by now, but it didn't make it any easier every time his calls went to voicemail. Forcing a mask of composure he didn't feel, he stepped back out into the squad room where Nikki was waiting expectantly.

"Thought you were gonna be in there all day," she teased. When he didn't rise to the bait, she quickly became serious. "You okay?"

"Yeah," he lied unconvincingly. "Just tired."

It was clear to the junior detective that there was more going on than that, but she chose to let it drop. "In that case, I'm driving."

"Is that so?" he asked more lightly. "In case you've forgotten, I'm the boss."

"In case you've missed it," she shot back, "I've got the keys." She held the ring up triumphantly. "Come on. This sighting isn't going to investigate itself."

"Remind me why I'm taking you with me again?" he said as they stepped into an elevator.

"Because Lieutenant Eames said so. And I seem to recall a certain FBI agent agreeing that 'no one leaves the building alone' was probably a smart precaution."

"I know that. I'm just trying to figure out how I got stuck with you."

She shoved his shoulder gently. "Hey, you're the one who asked to go on this run. Liz and I were ready to take it."

"I know." He sighed. "But I'm the one who was responsible for these people's safety. I'm about to lose my mind just sitting in that office."

She smirked. "Too late for that."

He mock-glared at her as the elevator door opened. "Are you sure I can't take Liz and leave you instead?"

She only rolled her eyes as she strode to the SUV and climbed into the driver's seat. "Don - get in the damn car."

He chuckled now, despite all that was weighing on his mind, as Nikki pulled the vehicle out onto the street. "No wonder you're still a junior agent."

"Now that's hitting below the belt."

"Lesson of the day, Nikki. Don't start what you can't finish."

She glanced over at him. "Be careful, Don. I might take that as a challenge."

"Oh? Bring it on, Bentencourt. I don't think -"

But their banter was cut off abruptly as a crash sounded and the SUV rocked slightly from the force of an impact. Nikki gripped the wheel hard to keep from losing control. Don sighed. "As if I needed more problems."

But the junior agent was on high alert. "Don," she said tersely, "I don't think that was an accident."

Even as she said the words, the same pieces were coming together in his mind. He remembered clearly now what they'd been told about Carolyn's car. "Turn around," he told her sharply. "Let's get back to the station, now."

She twisted the wheel hard, turning the car into a sharp u-turn. But as she did, Don caught a glimpse through her window of a white box truck headed straight for them. "Nikki, look out!"

He felt the moment of impact more than he saw it, thrown forwards and sideways by the force of the collision. At the same moment, his entire field of vision was encapsulated by the rapidly expanding airbags. The screeching of tires and the crash of breaking glass filled his ears as the car slid sideways and finally shuddered to a stop.

As the airbag began to deflate, Don impatiently shoved the fabric aside. "Nikki!" he called out, only becoming more concerned when he got no reply. "Nikki?"

As he turned towards the driver's seat to look for her, it became clear that her side of the car had taken most of the damage. In the middle of the distorted metal and broken glass, he saw the junior agent, still belted into her seat, her head hanging limply forward. "Nikki!" He scrambled to undo his seatbelt, and was gratified when the clip released easily. He reached for her hand, feeling her wrist for a pulse.

To his incredible relief, he found one. But he had had only a moment to process this when he heard breaking glass behind him. Before he could react, a hand grabbed his shirt collar and pulled him backwards. He felt something sharp pierce the skin on his neck, and then everything went black.

And now Don's in trouble too. Which I'm sure is nothing that at least half my readers didn't expect.

I had to have Jane misbehave just a little bit, it was completely unrealistic that he would behave himself the whole time!

Please review!