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"Are you absolutely sure Garcia?"
"Yeah… I followed Kevin's program back into his system. He has a bunch of encrypted files that he doesn't know are on his drive."
"How could he not know they're there?"
"Because they're hiding behind legitimate files that he needs to do his job. I can give you a lot of technical jargon and details about how I broke into the files, but I assume you don't need the details."
"Alright, we need to meet somewhere we can talk without prying eyes. Everyone gather up your notes and files. Garcia, is everything backed up on your lap top?"
"Yes sir."
"Go get it now."
---
Rossi opened the door to his house and turned off the alarm. Garcia followed him into the entryway and down the hall to his office. She gawked at the publicity posters for his books that hung on the walls. The floors were hardwood and were polished to a mirror shine.
He opened a door at the end of the hallway and gestured to her. "You can set up in there. You can use my desktop if you need it. I assume you can set up a secure line between Quantico and here?"
"No problem."
"I'm going to let the others in."
She set up her computer and had his desktop connected by the time, Hotch, Emily and Morgan came in. Rossi got chairs from the rest of the house and they began to brainstorm.
"Okay, what do we know about Lynch."
"He's brilliant, a narcissist, and he's a hacker on the level with Garcia."
"There's no one like my baby-girl."
"Thanks Hot Stuff."
"He's arrogant enough to believe that he's hidden all his activities from prying eyes. He thinks that helping Strauss will elevate his status in the FBI."
"No, that's not what this is about."
"What do you mean sweetness?"
"He's doing all of this for me. He talks all the time about leaving the BAU and starting over. He wants to start his own computer game business. He asked me to marry him a couple of weeks ago. I said no, but he keeps pushing the issue. I should have told him to get lost a long time ago."
"This isn't your fault."
"Yes it is Morgan. I swore after Gardner shot Elle, that I'd never let anyone hurt you guys again."
"You can't protect us from everyone."
"We need to stop this." Hotch interrupted. "The only people at fault here are Lynch, Calloway, and Strauss."
"She's after you." Rossi said.
"Yes, I was stupid to think that she'd give up so easily on getting rid of me. She's been planning this for nearly two years."
"What did you do to Calloway?" Emily wondered.
"I head the most successful team in the BAU. He's wanted my head since I hired Reid. He drove Gideon nuts before that. He's egotistical and arrogant. What I can't understand is how he slipped through the cracks."
"What do you mean sir?" Penelope asked as her fingers flew once more over their most familiar territory.
"Every agent of the bureau goes through personality testing. The requirements are the most rigorous for profilers because of the pressures we have to deal with everyday."
"He's much more intelligent than anyone anticipated." Rossi said.
"Who cares how smart he is. We need to pick him up and make him tell us where Reid is." Morgan was pacing impatiently.
"We can't go marching in there and arrest him. If Strauss is behind all of this, she's going to be ready for this eventuality. We need to go after the one person that's expendable for her."
The room went silent except for Garcia typing on her keyboard. After a couple of minutes she stopped and looked around.
"What's going on?" She looked very perplexed.
"Baby-girl… We need you to do something for us."
"What," Her eyes got big at the tone in Morgan's voice."
"It's sort of like undercover work." Emily said, but she wasn't smiling.
"Um… Okay… What do I have to do?"
"We need you to call Lynch. He'll drop everything for you."
"I don't want to see, or talk, to that rat bastard ever again." Tears welled up in her red eyes.
"Garcia," Morgan crouched next to her chair. "I can't begin to imagine how hurt you must be. You know I'd never ask this of you if we didn't need to talk to Lynch. We need to get him off the grounds of Quantico for now."
He took both of her hands into his. She tried to smile for him. Normally it was easy, but at that moment only tears would come. He looked at her with so much faith and something else down deep in his eyes that she'd have been seeing for months if she'd taken the time to notice.
"Alright Derek, I'll do it."
---
Reid stood in the middle of the room, dressed in his favorite pair of dark grey cords, a white dress shirt, and red and black sweater vest and tie. He was pulling on his converse shoes over mismatched socks minutes before Stark opened the door. The large agent came into the room with a confident swagger that reminded Reid of all the bullying football players he'd ever known from school.
"I was expecting Calloway."
"Sorry to disappoint you Dr. Reid. He's already in California with your uncle. I just got a call from him telling me their having a most difficult time getting him to talk. " Stark strolled into the center of the room. His gun was holstered at his side as though he thought he wouldn't need it.
"Oh I'm not disappointed." Reid ignored the information about his uncle even though it tied his stomach into greasy knots. "You're a welcome change from his paranoia and delusions of grandeur."
"You're sounding a lot less stressed this morning. Tell me Dr. Reid, did your beautiful companion help you 'relax'?" The taller man rocked back and forth on his heels with his hands in his pockets.
"It's good when I'm not disappointed by human male behavior. I knew one of you would come down here because of what you saw on your monitor."
"You're right Dr. Reid. I have to say I'm very impressed."
"Why?"
"Because you're a socially awkward genius, that looks like a strong wind would knock you over."
"Not every woman likes men that are pumped up sides of beef!"
"True, only the smart ones do."
Reid began to chuckle. Stark laughed with him as though they were best friends sharing the funniest joke in the world.
"So how did you do it?"
"How did I do what?"
"How did you get a beautiful woman to spend an hour with you in that bathroom? I'm fairly sure you two weren't mopping the floors."
"Why don't you ask her? She's right behind you."
Stark grinned at him like a he was humoring a very small child. "I'm not stupid. I turn my back and you attack. We all learned something from you little escape at-"
Stark staggered forward when Austin slammed the laptop Calloway had set up for Reid to watch her, across the back of his neck. The momentum pushed him forward to Reid, who pivoted to one side and pushed the large man into the heavy glass coffee table. The density of the glass was strong enough not to break, but it did crack under the big man's weight. The crack of Stark's skull against the table was as loud as a small caliber gunshot. He rolled off the table to the floor. Reid automatically stepped forward to take stock of his injuries. He could see that the big man bled heavily onto the dark blue carpet from the cut on his head.
Austin darted forward and kicked him twice in the ribs before Reid could pull her back. He pushed her away and fell to his knees next to the unconscious man. He quickly removed Stark gun and handed it to Austin who held it like she was familiar with guns. Reid took the man's keys and his cell phone.
"Hurry, we need to get out of here before someone sees what we're doing."
She picked up his messenger bag and ran out the door. He followed her, locking Stark into his prison.
"Which way do we go?"
"Follow me!"
He took the gun from her and tucked it into his jeans. She grabbed his hand and they ran down the hallway. The overwhelming sense of déjà vu almost made him stop in his tracks. If they went that way again and Calloway was prepared…
He stopped and Austin hissed at him. "Come on…"
"I'm not sure we should go this way."
"You said you almost escaped. You know how to get out of here. Please Spencer… I need to get out of this place." She begged him desperately.
If you go that way there could be guards this time.
His head whipped from side to side as though he were sitting in a particularly fast paced tennis match. Austin was tugging on his hand, but his head kept telling him to go the other way.
You're panicking!
"Spencer!"
"Okay, let's go the same way."
They ran down hallways, as Reid followed the map in his head to the elevators. They came to one intersection and Reid said. "It's just around this corner and another left."
They rounded the next corner and Reid skidded to a halt. Austin gave out a little scream and tried to tug out of Reid's hand to run back the way they came.
"Hello Dr Reid." Ramirez said.
Reid reached for the gun at his side, but the other agent was quicker. "I wouldn't do that if I were you."
I knew we shouldn't have come this way.
"Spencer…" Austin has pressed up against him. She was trembling like a birch tree in the wind.
"Ramirez, Let us go and I'll put in a good word for you with Internal Affairs."
Ramirez's face was as blank as Hotch's could get when dealing with a difficult situation. He wore an eye patch over one eye, but otherwise he looked healthy enough to deal with the two of them.
Reid's jaw dropped when Ramirez suddenly lowered his gun and then holstered it. "I don't want to hurt either of you."
Reid took out his gun and trained it on the other agent. "What kind of game are you playing?"
"I don't have time to explain… Please follow me and I'll get you out of here."
"I'm not following you anywhere." He hugged Austin tightly to his side. "Stand aside and let us pass."
"If you go that way, the guards outside the door will bring you back."
"I don't believe you."
What if he's telling the truth?
"Calloway will kill you both if you stay. Stark will kill you now if he's down here and we run into him."
"He's locked in the room you kept me in. He's knocked out on the floor. "
"We still need to get out of here. If he wakes up, he'll kick the door down. I can explain everything if you'll follow me to another exit."
Reid looked down at Austin and she nodded. They had to trust him. There was no choice. I don't want to have to kill him!
They followed Ramirez through the maze of hallways, left, right, right, left right, left then a very long straight stretch that seemed to go on forever. It was enough to make anyone disoriented. Anyone but Reid, that is, he remembered them all in case they had to run. Soon they came to another elevator.
Ramirez pressed the call button. "Why are you helping us?"
"I'll explain when we get to where we're going."
The elevator car doors opened. Ramirez went first and Reid followed with the gun trained on the other agent. "Press the fifteenth floor."
Reid pressed the button and the elevator began to rise. He waited for the other man to speak but he was silent on the trip.
The doors opened onto a silent hallway. The insignia on the doors to the right and left made him hurry out of the elevator. "Slow down." Ramirez hissed. "There's more to this than you think."
Reid stopped and let Austin and Ramirez catch up with him. "Where are we?" She inquired of Reid.
"This is Quantico! We're on the floor they used to use to house people transitioning to the Witness Protection Program.
"Very good Dr. Reid. It's been closed for renovation into class rooms. There are several rooms that are still apartments. We need to get inside one now."
He led them straight down the hallway and into the last door on the right. He locked it behind them. "Now let's talk Dr. Reid."