AN: Thank you for all of the wonderful support with this story. I know it is tons of angst, but I LOVE angst. Everything will always work out in the end but it is sure a fun way to get to the happily ever after. I really appreciate the support. Without you guys I would never write.
Penelope felt like someone had ripped a rug out from underneath her. She felt like a bucket of ice cold water had been thrown on her. She had to blink back tears a few times, just so she could make sure, what she saw on the screen was indeed Morgan. After only a brief moment, she was able to go into action. She grabbed the laptop and sprinted into the main office in search of her team.
"Hotch!" she screamed, as panic flowed through her. Her whole body shook, making her knees weak.
"Garcia?" Hotch asked as he turned around toward her. He could tell instantly something was very off. "What is it?"
Her ability to speak was gone. So instead she turned the laptop to face him. Her hands shook as she tried to keep the computer still.
Rossi took the laptop from her and placed it on the desk.
"Shit!" he said, looking closer at the screen. "We all had a feeling he had taken Morgan, but I was hoping somehow it wasn't true."
Hotch scanned the room briefly. A crowd had formed around the laptop. There were the rest of the BAU and Morgan's agents all staring at the screen, wide-eyed. "Garcia, in the past entries was there ever a video feed like this one?"
"N-no, Sir," she stuttered.
"Is there anyway you can trace where the feed is coming from?" he asked.
Garcia snapped back into working mode, pushing her emotions aside. Hotch was right: why didn't she try to put a trace on the video feed before she even came out here. Seeing Morgan on her screen, really messed with her. She needed to do whatever she could to help save him before it was too late.
"Let me get right on that, Sir." She sat down at the desk and started to type.
"Alright, we need to get the profile together. If this Unsub sticks to his previous murders, Morgan has no more than twenty-four hours. What do we know?" Hotch asked moving to the whiteboard with the pictures of the last victims.
Reid cleared his throat. "We have established that the Unsub is anti-government. As far as we know his victims have only been federal agents."
"Something had to have happened to him to snap and start killing. His last rant before posting the video feed of Morgan was talking about how the Man puts laws in place that have no right being there," Rossi explained.
"What could he mean by that?" Prentiss asked.
"In the earlier posts on the site the main host talks about his brother and their crimes," Rossi explained. "But did you notice about six months ago the verbiage changed to "was" when he talked about his brother? That was also about the time the Unsub started bashing the government, heavily and how everything is a big conspiracy."
"Something must have happened to the brother and that is what his stressor to start killing," Hotch concluded.
"He's intelligent, and can hold a job and conversations. How else would the Unsub be able to subdue the agents? He's smart enough to be able to deceive them. He also has to have some knowledge about the agents. He knew where they lived, what department they worked in," Prentiss added.
"Are we thinking it could be someone from the inside?" Reid asked.
"He knew when the victims personal schedules. Look at the second victim, Terry Cobbs. Cobbs was taken after a sixteen-hour shift. He was one of the top in his specialized task force unit. He was not a man that would have been easily subdued." Hotch pulled off the picture of Agent Cobbs. "So the Unsub had to have knowledge on the fact that Cobbs would have been fatigued. Cobbs was with the Unsub for thirty-six hours. He was tortured, shot between the eyes, and eventually dumped where someone would find him."
"He likes to send a message with the bodies," JJ interjected.
"He has a vendetta against the government, particularly the FBI. There has to be some link." Hotch turned to Garcia. "Look up any of the reports going back six months for, something that has a casualty, maybe a shooting or a suspect that was brought in for questions and something went wrong."
Garcia nodded so he turned back to the group. She did her best to bite back her tears as she started the search. This was not the time to put her feelings first. She was already in emotion overload having to work with Derek, but this put it over the top. But no matter what she was feeling, she had to get him back safe. They might not be friends anymore, but no one deserved to die.
"Even though there was trace evidence of a GHB in their systems the Unsub demonstrated a lot of rage, when torturing the victims, "Rossi said. "I keep going back to something happened with the Unsub's brother. This is his way of getting revenge."
"Oh God!" Garcia cried, getting the attention of everyone in the room.
There on the screen was a man wearing all black and a black mask holding what seemed to be an iron rod that had been heated at the end. It glowed bright orange. The room went quiet as the unsub finally spoke.
"It's nice of you to join us," he said, looking towards the camera. "Agent Morgan has been a pleasure to have."
The agents watched as a gagged, bloody, and broken Morgan tried to struggle against his restraints.
"I need answers and Agent Morgan here has deiced to play dumb. Bad choice on his part." The Unsub walked over to Morgan and placed the tip of the iron rod against his exposed stomach, causing him to groan in pain the best he could against the gag in his mouth.
The man looked back at the camera. "See, I need to know why you all think it's okay to come into someone's house and take what's not yours? Who gives you the right to say you know what's best for anyone?" He picked up a knife that was at his feet after he threw down the rod. "Apparently I'm not going to need Agent Morgan anymore if he ain't gonna give me the answers I'm needin'." He took the knife and plunged it into Morgan's stomach. Then the screen went black.
Everyone in the room stayed quiet for a few seconds trying to digest what they had just witnessed.
"Garcia, were you able to trace anything?" Hotch asked clearing his throat.
As tears sprung from her eyes she started to type. "I can't get the location of the feed. It's being rerouted from twenty different locations."
"Can you get a location?" he asked.
"Y-yes, I think so. It might take me some time, though."
Morgan growled against the gag in his mouth as he felt the knife pierce his skin.
"Now, that was a fun little show we put on, wasn't it?" The bartender asked as he took off his mask.
Morgan tried his best to fight against the restraints again, but it was futile. With his arm broken, his shoulder dislocated, and now with the stab wound in his lower abdomen, he was losing all strength.
"Now you sit here son, while I go to the bar and listen to what any of those agents have to say." The man turned on his heels, leaving Morgan slumped in the chair, barely conscious.
Once the bartender left the room. Morgan raised his head to look at the camera that was pointing right at him. He knew it was turned off, but he still wished there was a way to get a message to his former team- one person in particular. He wasn't dumb; he knew there was no way he was going to make it out alive at this point. His body was bruised and broken, but all he wanted to do was somehow get a message across to Penelope. If this was where he was going to die, he needed to be honest with himself and her.
Garcia frantically searched the programs trying to pinpoint the location of the video feed. Next to her, her programs were going wild searching for the identity of the Unsub. She was able to get a screenshot of the video feed and was able to determine the approximate height and weight of the masked man.
She was currently comparing his build type and the names and pictures – from the DVM website- of the people that had participated on the sight for any slight indication of the Unsub.
"Two more down," she said to herself.
"Two more what?" JJ asked, stepping in behind her.
"Two more locations the Unsub bounced the feed off of are down. I am trying to backtrack it. I want to see if I can get the location this way," Garcia said in a rushed tone. She was in the zone and inching her way through the web of servers the Unsub had used. "He's good, but I'm better."
"We'll find him," JJ assured her.
"I know we are going to find him. The question is: will he be alive?"
AN: if you have a moment, let me know what you think. :)