Ready to find out who the "someone" is? And how is this discovery helping in any way?

"You mean he saw something he recognised."

"No, not something," Gillian whispered, taking a step back for one last look, an absent smile somehow finding its way to her lips. "Someone."

Torres was right: surprise the first time, then recognition. And something else, something only Gillian could understand. While she re-watched those moments, she saw what it was: there was a flash of sweetness in that initial surprise, and a great deal of painful regret and shame attached to that recognition. It only took her one more re-watch to confirm what she had seen, and to understand what it meant.

She was marginally aware of the fact that Reynolds and Torres were waiting for her to elaborate and explain, but first thing first she needed to formulate the thought in her head and come to terms with what it meant if she was right.

"What if he's watching us?" She asked then out loud, looking at Reynolds. "Watching us watching him?"

Reynolds frowned at first, not sure what she meant, but when he looked at Torres he had the impression the young woman had a better understanding of the situation despite having just gotten back into it. And in a way she did, because even though she was missing a lot of recent details she still knew her way around micro-expressions.

"That reaction from Lightman," she explained then. "He looks like he's seen someone he knew he didn't expect to see."

"I'd imagine he wouldn't expect to see anyone at all," the agent sighed.

"Do we know where that woman is, what's her name? Rodriguez?" Torres asked, apologising on Loker's behalf with a quick look at Gillian as to explain how she knew about that. "She got Warton here to-"

"She's in custody," the agent explained as he shook his head. "I spoke with the Pentagon, we showed them the evidence we have and she's under house arrest pending charges."

"It's us." Even with all that had been going on and changing between her and Cal, Gillian couldn't push herself to bring that into the folds as a factor. "He saw us watching."

Reynolds struggled with the idea and was about to object, but the look on Torres face told him he should seriously take that into consideration. That was when a thought came to his mind, pushing him to start making a move to walk out of the room and back to the lab. But before he even left the room he stopped, realising that if he was right he'd better thread carefully, turning around to look at Gillian.

"The video from the attack here the other night, do you still have it?" She nodded. "Can you put it up?"

Gillian did as told, working on the computer to find the recording. While she did that, Reynolds gave Torres a quick look suggesting she might want to sit down for this and she wisely took the hint, then he stared at the wall and watched as the screen split showing the action from a couple of nights before. Compared to the videos of Cal being tortured, that was a piece of cake for them, except for Torres who had only been told Warton had come looking for them. Gillian watched, detached, betraying emotions only at the end when the camera in the lab showed them barricading themselves in the cube and hanging onto each other before the walls went white.

Then Warton's tantrum started, throwing chairs and trashing the place. For some reason, mostly because it was too much to bear with, they hadn't gone much past that on their first and only re-watch. There simply hadn't been much reason for it, it's not like they needed to find out what had happened, but this time they let it go and soon were faced with the reality that they should have paid more attention. That night, after throwing a tantrum and smashing equipment for the fun of it, Warton had gone suddenly quiet and silent. Gillian didn't remember the silence, she could only remember the gunshots and the other noises banging on the walls while Cal held her down, and she knew all that ruckus had still been going on when they had passed out. That was why that sudden change in Warton's mood was noticeable for her, even more so as a psychologist with a personal interest in the matter. In the blink of an eye he had gone from frenzied and violent to absolutely calm, she could swear she even saw a grin on his face at some point. Then he had stared at the room around him, focusing on the main computer which was still untouched, and after a few silent moments he had gone over to it. His body had been blocking the view of the camera so it was hard to tell what he had been doing, but he had taken some time to mess about with something before eventually leaving.

"I'll be damned!" Reynold whined while looking at Foster. "I think you might be right, if he put a camera somewhere- God, what if he's been listening?"

"No, I don't think he can. When I called Cal name there was no reaction, he didn't hear me. Besides…watching us is all he needs." Foster sighed and leaned back on the chair. "You were right too Ben, he is torturing us both. He's forcing Cal to watch us react to what he's doing to him."

The two women looked at each other knowingly as Reynolds flashed disgust and anger, two feelings they shared. He had handled many strange cases in his career, seen and done ugly things, dealt with the worst kind of criminals, but Warton seemed to be on a league of his own.

That said, even though it wasn't easy he decided to try and focus on the positives.

"This could work for us," he said then, and Gillian was reassured he sounded convinced and not simply trying to lift their spirits. "It might explain why we can't track the signal coming in, I don't know. But I know that it will be a lot easier to find one going out."

Even though he tended to agree with Foster on the fact that Warton had eyes only and no ears in the lab, Reynolds still decided to play it carefully. He used his phone to message Loker and Niko and asked them to come to Lightman's office, and once they arrived he and Foster caught them up on the latest discoveries. Loker didn't welcome the news all that well, feeling the invasion of privacy in a place he considered a second home, plus of course the issue with Warton keeping them under some surveillance of sorts. As someone with a background in tech and who had devoted her life to fighting crime with it, Niko respectfully fought to hold back a thrill of the excitement at the prospect of squaring off with someone who could clearly give her a challenge.

Discreetly, not to give themselves away, they moved the core of the tracking operations and mapping to Cal's office. There was still a big part of the team working in the lab and carrying on business as usual, but the real work went on there from that point forward. According to Niko, Reynolds was right: tracking a signal transmitting from the Group instead of the other way around was going to be a lot easier, but they needed the communication channel to be open in order to do that.

They all knew what that meant, and when about one hour later someone came to let them know they were on again it felt extremely odd and wrong to be somewhat happy about that.

When they entered the lab, Gillian leading the pack, she noticed how most people in the room were staring at her and, in an odd form of courtesy, saved her the front row seat in front of the monitor. Knowing that Warton was watching her might have thrown her off, put pressure on her and made her worry she might give something away with the wrong kind of reaction: but she was ready, she wasn't going to betray herself and, sadly, she would hardly had to fake being horrified by whatever he had in store next. The one positive thought accompanying her to the chair, was that Cal would have been watching too: and if she could find a way to let him know she was there, that they were making progress, that she was going to find him, maybe that would help him. How she could convey that just by looking at him she didn't know, but she was confident deception expert Cal Lightman could find a way to read all of that off of her face.

The set up was different once again, but the room was the same. Cal was lying down on some kind of bed, his arms and legs blocked by the kind of soft restraints hospitals put on difficult patients. There were wires coming out of him, thin cables ending up in a switched off heart monitor attached to him. He was awake and vigil, as much as he could be, looking around in that now familiar way that reminded her of an old German expressionist movie she had seen once. She had a passing moment of hope when she saw that look, recognition, as his eyes landed on what must have been the same spot as before, and she bit at her bottom lip fighting the instinct to look over at Reynolds and say something about it.

Instead, her energy went all into focusing on Cal, on what her face could tell to him. There was no way of knowing if it was working, she doubted in all his books and notes there was an expression such as the one she was trying to convey, but she tried anyway. It was hard to tell if she was having any success because Cal's abilities were obviously fogged by his conditions and fear of what was about to come, and once Warton came into the room whatever attention he might have given her was immediately diverted.

Warton greeted his audience with one of his patented smirk, then went over to Cal and ceremoniously switched on the heart monitor. Cal's heartbeat was all over the place already, clearly pushed by panic and pain, and things got even worse when Warton uncovered a tray by the bed. They couldn't see what he had there because of the angle of the camera, but then he picked up a syringe and his smile widened, and they still had no idea what he was going to do when he injected Cal with whatever was in the syringe. It all happened slowly after that: Cal trying to wiggle out of his restraints with the force of desperation, the liquid going into his veins, his cardiac rhythm slowing down from the erratic pace of panic to a flat line tone that brought silence down on them as of the sky itself had just collapsed. Gillian gasped, perhaps for the first time unable to hold back her emotional reaction as she watched Cal's heart stop with her very own eyes.

Then Warton giggled, the son of a bitch giggled, and broke out the paddles to shock him back into life. It took two attempts, two times seeing Cal's lifeless body jerking under the electric charge, then his heartbeat went back to normal and he slowly opened his eyes. Hazed, confused, still pretty much out of it, Cal found himself taking in short and quick breaths, slowly regaining his strength. And when they thought Warton was going to do it all over again, Cal started laughing.

It was unexpected, unnatural really; a grotesque sound coming from a man who had no business laughing and yet felt that was the best way he had to express himself. The sound made blood run cold in Gillian's veins, wondering if it wasn't a sign of Cal's mental state understandably deteriorating, wondering if he wasn't starting to give up. She looked up at Reynolds, he too disturbed by that development, but he had no explanation for her as to why what was happening.

Then, after an outburst of cough, Cal stopped laughing and tried to talk.

"Is that the best you came up with?" He asked, his voice barely recognisable to Gillian, soaked as it was with the pain of having been on the brink of death. "Your little torture chamber?"

"What the hell is he doing?" Reynolds gasped, shocked by the turn of events.

"He's antagonising him."
"I know he is, but why the hell would he do that?!" The agent shot back at Gillian's explanation.

"Because he's Lightman," Loker whined, like an adult embarassed by his parent's behaviour.

"Exactly," Gillian mumbled, inching closer to the screen. "Because he's Lightman."

"What-"

"Seems to be working fine for me," Warton replied then, starting to push in a second syringe. "Let's continue this in a bit, shall we?"

The sequence unfolded as before; injection, spasms, arrest, shock, revive. Repeat.

Cal came back, once again taking his time to recover and once again finding the inner motivation to chuckle at Warton.

"Working out how? For what?" His voice was raspy, he had no business talking let alone taunting - yes, taunting, the man who was holding his life in his hands and yet he did. "Killing me?"

"Oh you wish, don't you?"

To everybody's shock, Cal shrugged.

"You will eventually. You're just dragging this along because without this there's nothing left for you."

Warton was about to go for round number three but stopped, the syringe in mid air, then leaned down on Cal's face.

"After this, it's going to be the lady's turn."

Cal's brain knew better than moving was not an option, but his body wanted to get hold of the man and rip his eyes out. He wiggled in his restraints, causing himself pain as all the previous injuries protested against the effort, eventually calming down and staring at Warton who looked mighty satisfied. Slowly, Cal seemed to regain control and smirked again, almost amused.

"And then? You torture us, you kill us…and after that?"

"What the hell is he trying to do?" Reynolds asked, to nobody in particular really.

"Well, for once he's buying himself some time," Gillian noted. "As long as he keeps Warton talking this thing is on hold."
"He's buying us time too," Niko added, having moved her post out of the sight of the hidden camera and checking on her laptop. "The longer this stays on, the more time we have to track the signal."

"Do you think he's doing it on purpose?" The agent asked, then Foster, Loker and Torres looked at each other.

"I told you," Gillian mumbled then, going back to watching and listening, "He's Cal Lightman."

Reynolds frowned, wondering how she could be happy with the prospect, and then realising that Cal Lightman was indeed the kind of man who could think of something like that. It scared him, as it scared him how the three of them seemed to think that was somewhat normal, perhaps even brilliant. Meanwhile, the surreal conversation had gone on, with Cal teasingly suggesting that Warton's entire existence depended on him and Foster.

"You were nothing until a month ago, a number in the call log of a prison." Cal's voice was getting stronger, fuelled by the rage that was winning over the pain and by the reaction to his words Warton was trying to hide. "Then someone comes find you, gives you a task like giving order to a dog and you feel all strong and powerful."

"I ditched the bitch! I didn't need her."

Warton was getting angry, the kind of anger people who feel exposed can't control.

"He's getting somewhere," Torres muttered, chewing her bottom lip with tension. "I'm not sure where he wants to go but he's getting there."

"Yeah, you did-" Another round of cough hit Cal. "Now you're free to do what you want and you're still doing what you were told. At least your brother was his own man, made his own plans and decisions, bad as they were."

"Why is he bringing up Ward now? They were barely in touch through the years."

"In his youth Warton suffered the comparison with his brother. Ward was successful in the army, had a respectable career in law enforcement while Warton couldn't get anything done." Gillian explained, glad she had spent time going through Warton's file. "His history in the military was the opposite, he wasn't even a good criminal. He was a failure at everything he's ever done."

"I wouldn't call Ward successful…"

"He was. Until the rumours started to come out he had impeccable records and reputation," Foster explained. "Even the unlawful things he was doing, he was really good at covering his tracks and he went undetected for a long time."

"So what, Warton is jealous?"

"Siblings rivalry is not uncommon, and can be amplified for twins." Gillian nearly smiled but managed to stop, remembering they might be watched. "There was a lot of this in Warton's file, in his psych evaluations. Cal read it, he knows how to push."

Just then, something else Cal had said must have indeed touched a sore spot because Warton forgot about the drugs and the defibrillator and all the other things he had on hand to hurt Cal with, and instead just punched him in the face.

"Is it wise, to push?" Loker enquired then, swallowing nervously.

"Probably not," she agreed with a painful sign. "But what other choice does he have?"

Loker wanted to object that one option was not to get a violent psychopath all riled up, but then again whatever Lightman was doing was making some sort of waves. And again, before that Foster's stubborn re-watching of the videos had already brought some significant breakthroughs so, maybe, they really did know better.

On the screen, Cal had gone on a bit of a tangent, encouraged by the fact that Warton seemed to be affected by the comparison with his dead brother and the mockery Cal was making of it.

"He died like a criminal and he still got an honourable send off, that's how good he was." The disgust for both brothers was seeping through Cal's ravenous voice, oozing with hate and a touch of derision he was doing his best to exaggerate. "What will you have left once this is over? A place that smells like shit and dead animals? The satisfaction of avenging a brother you didn't even like?"

"Shut up."

"The gratification of torturing me? How long is that going to last?" Cal snorted what could have sounded like an evil laugh in normal circumstances. "You know people at the Pentagon still talk about your brother, one way or the other?"

"I said shut up."

"But you? You're gonna be swept under the rug and forgotten like the rubbish nobody wants to even bother picking up-"

"Shut up!"

Warton exploded right in his face, letting out all of his anger and frustration with the ferocity of a man who had thought those things all his life and continuously denied them. He punched Cal again, then he grabbed his throat with both hands and started choking him. They watched Cal's eyes grow wide, his face turning red and then an alarming shade of white, but his lips were still curled up in a teasing smile and he never stopped looking straight at Warton, who eventually let go. Then, hastily, while Cal tried to catch his breath, Warton took another syringe out of his pocket and injected him once more.

This time there was no spasm, no heartbeat slowing down and no flatline. This time the rhythm stayed the same, regular and harmless, while Cal's eyes seemed to become too heavy to stay open and his whole body eventually relaxed in a sleep that, however far from natural, was certainly much needed.

And deserved.

Did this work out as you thought? What do you think of Cal's actions, was it wise to get Warton riled up?

Now, special announcement: I am going to post again tomorrow so I suggest you read this one carefully! Don't get too excited, it won't be a regular chance but just this time it makes sense.