A/n hey all. Thanks so much for your continued support. Here's the next chapter
Disclaimer: see first chapter
"Reid… Is she here?" Emily asked, sitting down across from the young man.
"Yeah… I have some files to finish work on and then we'll go to the safe house."
"Are you sure this is the way to -"
"Hotch thinks this is the best way to end this. I agree with him."
"She lied to you Reid." Emily started to say.
"Yes… and we lied to her, or I did," He shot back at the surprised Emily.
He got up from his chair and started across the room "Where are you going Reid."
"To the guest quarters," he told her. She watched him get on the elevator before going into Hotch's office.
--
Reid got off the elevator and went down the hall to the apartment Amy was staying in. He knocked on the door and waited. There was no response and his heart began to feel like ice water had replaced his blood.
"It's fine… She probably fell asleep again," He said to himself. He knocked again and panic jacked up his heart rate when she didn't answer the second summons.
He used the key Hotch had given him and real panic stole over him when he went inside and found the apartment empty but for the note she had written for him. He picked it up with a shaking hand, read the contents and sat down on the couch in stunned silence.
--
When Reid ran out of the elevator several minutes later, he knocked over three agents that were entering the cars from the bullpen.
"Watch where you're going Reid," One called out to him. The others laughed at the sight of the normally soft spoken agent looking really upset.
Reid ignored them and headed for Hotch's office. Hotch gathered the team together with Garcia in the conference room.
"Ms Ryan seems to be missing," Hotch informed them.
"How the hell did that happen?" Emily asked.
"I don't know… she wasn't in her room when I got there," Reid said sounding very defensive.
"We know it wasn't your fault." Rossi said.
"It looks like she left on her own." Hotch said, "Reid… why don't you read the note."
"Hotch…"
"I'm sorry Reid… The team needs to hear it." Hotch said grimly, but his eyes were kind.
Reid unfolded the paper in his hand and read out loud the letter that Amy had left for him.
Dear Spencer,
By the time you get this I'll be gone. I can't stay with you and put you in more danger. It was wrong of me to come here in the first place. I was recruited by the agency when I was twenty one and still in college. They told me that they were a secret branch of Homeland security, dedicated to keeping the country safe from foreign threats. They didn't feel that answering to the President or Congress was something they needed to do because they thought that going through checks and balances was holding up the progress they could make. I was young and idealistic. I wanted to do something to protect the country. 9-11 scared me to death. I turned a blind eye to all the things they did in the name of protecting our freedoms. Thomas Jefferson once said that "eternal vigilance is the price of liberty," I believe that's true, but not at the price of innocent lives.
I have a disc hidden in the First Bank of the District of Columbia. The key to the safe deposit box is in the apartment here in Quantico. It has a record of everything I have been able to gather on the agency since I first became suspicious of their activities. You see, I had to stay with them until I could prove my charges. I wanted to protect you Spencer. I thought this was the only way to do it. The name on the safety deposit box account is Diana Miller. The number is 0323. Get it, and you'll be able to bring them down. There is a second copy with my lawyers in Los Angeles, but I don't know if the agency has taken them out and have that copy. My instructions to them were to send it to the media if I disappeared or was killed.
Spencer… I love you. I have loved since the first time I saw the file on you. I hope you believe that. If I don't survive this night, don't mourn me. My life doesn't begin to make up for all the things I've done and the people I have hurt, including you.
Be happy, and know that I'll be looking out for you wherever I am.
Love always,
Amy.
--
Hotch contacted a judge to get a warrant for the safety deposit box. He sent Morgan to go get the contents with Rossi and Emily. The bank manager was angry at being made to open the bank at ten pm, but the badge always got things done for them.
They brought the computer disc in to Garcia to analyze and while they waited they tried to decide what to do. Garcia had been through the footage from the security cameras at Quantico and Reid was beside himself to see her taken away by someone none of them recognized. He'd pistol whipped her and loaded her into a van with stolen license plates. Garcia tracked them to a corporation that didn't exist except on-line.
"Reid… Are you sure we can trust Amy?" Morgan demanded.
"Yes… Would you please back off Morgan?"
"How can you be sure," The older agent persisted.
"Because I'm an expert in handwriting analysis… She is telling the truth in this letter. There is no deception in what she says. Whatever Garcia finds on that disc will end this."
Morgan looked skeptical until Garcia called them and told them that everything on the disc was verifiable.
"It verifies everything you had me dig up on them Hotch."
Reid stared up at his boss in surprise. "Garcia is the operative we had on the inside of their organization?"
"Of course… Who else could hack in and not be noticed."
"Right… So our suspicions were correct. Erin Strauss is in to this to her neck." Reid said looking more curious than concerned.
"Yeah… I'm going to have the base police pick her up. She's probably in her office playing it cool."
"Why… What does she have to gain from Reid going to the dark side as it were?" Emily wanted to know.
"She's still trying to get rid of me. If Reid disappears or even went to them of his own free will she would have a reason to send me packing."
"But she has a family. She has to know she would go to prison for this." Reid said.
"Come on my man… You have to know that she doesn't care." Morgan said.
"Anyway… she might -" Hotch was interrupted by Garcia who was gesturing wildly from her seat at the other end of the room.
"I found more info. I finished the search on Amy… You'll never guess who the Director is…" She said excitedly.
"Baby girl… we aren't in the mood to guess here." Morgan said, but he smiled and Reid rolled his eyes.
"His name is Anthony Miller." She said with a flourish and the others stared at her.
Reid went pale or paler if that were possible. "Her father…" He squeaked. "She thinks he's dead, she told me so."
An agent poked his head into the room. "We have AD Strauss in custody… do you want to talk to her." He directed to Hotch.
"Yes… I do…"
"Hey boss man… I found one property here in DC. It's a private home in Arlington." Garcia said.
"Okay… Reid you are with me. Morgan and Rossi take Emily and some back up. Let's check it out."
"Hotch I want to -"
Hotch interrupted the young man, "No… I want you to talk to Erin Strauss!"
--
Reid entered the interrogation room with Hotch. Erin Strauss sat ramrod straight in her chair and glared up at Hotch.
"What do you mean arresting me? I want my advocate and I want to talk to the Director."
"Which one Strauss, Anthony Miller or the Director of the FBI, Charles North," Hotch asked.
Erin ignored him and looked at Reid instead. The young man offended her with his untidy appearance. His hair was too long and curly. With that hair, he looked very skinny and androgynous. The clothes he wore were ridiculous, he looked like he belonged teaching in a college somewhere. He looked very nervous and jumpy. Any minute now he would start spouting some odd fact and her headache would jack up another notch.
"I don't know any Anthony Miller." She said confidently, pulling her pink suit jacket down and adjusting it over her skirt of matching color. Her hair and make up were perfect and her shirt was crisp, white and un-wrinkled despite the lateness of the hour.
"We have evidence that you are involved in a conspiracy to subvert the Constitution of the United States. You have been plotting with Anthony Miller to coerce me into joining his organization. You still want to get rid of Aaron Hotchner." Reid said.
She narrowed her eyes at the young man. What had that little bitch told him? Had she betrayed the organization?
"I believe I directed my question to Agent Hotchner."
"Dr. Reid was the target of your plan. I think he can handle this interrogation." Hotch replied before getting up to leave the room.
"AD Strauss…. We have financial records that show regular deposits to an account in your name at National Bank in Richmond. You've been receiving checks in the amount of twenty thousand dollars a month for two years now." He pushed the file toward her, and then he actually smiled and winked at her. "Come on Erin… We both know that working for the government in these jobs doesn't net us that kind of money. You made more in three months than I make in a year."
"I don't find this at all amusing, Agent Reid." She spit out at him. A drop of sweat ran down her face. How had this young pup gotten a hold of her records?
"I think it's enough for an IAB investigation. Do you want to tell us where Amy Miller is, or do I call in IAB."
"This doesn't prove anything."
"Oh… I think it does. You tell us where Agent Miller is and I might be able to convince Garcia to make the records we have, disappear" Reid snapped his fingers.
"Don't play me Agent Reid… I've been in this game longer than you've been alive."
"I'm not playing with you. The van used to take Amy out of here was registered to a corporation that exists only on paper." Reid had been pacing, but now he sat down across the table from her. "That corporation is the same one you used to set up an account in the Cayman Islands. You've been slowly shifting your assets to an account there for the last six months. Are you getting ready to run Erin? What about your family and your husband?
Strauss's shoulders slumped. "I was doing my duty to my country. Aaron Hotchner is a disgrace to this Bureau. He's a loose cannon that needs to be -"
Reid slapped both hands on the table and pushed his face into her personal space. "Tell me where Amy was taken!"
"What's wrong Agent Reid…? Did she make you think she loves you…?" Strauss began to laugh. "She's a traitorous little bitch that was stupid enough not to realize her own father was at the head of the organization. She owes her very existence to him. She would have been dead long ago if he hadn't sent Agent Crawford to recruit her."
"Where is she," He asked again, tapping the file folder in front of her.
Strauss gave him the same address Garcia had found for them. "You're too late though…" She said, and Reid was stunned when she began to laugh. "Boom…" She said.
--
Rossi, Morgan and Emily pulled up to the white painted wooden house at the end of Fairstone Street. It was dark and the homes around it were dark as well. The van from the surveillance footage was parked to one side of the home.
"It's a brand new subdivision." Garcia was saying to Morgan as they got out of the SUV. Their back up was arriving with sirens silenced. "The homes around the property are empty."
"Good… less chance of innocents getting hurt." Morgan closed his phone.
"That explains the lack of landscaping or -"
An enormous explosion rocked the night. The house blew apart in a huge fireball. Debris rained over the agents who'd thrown themselves to the ground. The SUV they came in began to bleat as the car alarm sounded. There was nothing left!