Chapter 5

"Mr. Doyle, the fight is Saturday night, is it not?" Gideon, posing as Saul, asked Ian.

"Yes, would you like some tickets?" Ian asked.

"No, boxing doesn't interest me much. I have a package arriving here that evening. A black briefcase, standard size…the contents of which are very valuable to me."

Ian nodded. "I'll put it in the house safe for you." Saul shook his head with a smile.

"The house safe is for Brandy and grandmother's pearls. I need something more secure."

"Mr. Kowalski, I can assure you that our house is very…"

"And I can assure you, Mr. Doyle, that your generosity in this matter will not go overlooked. Now, what can you offer me besides the safe?"

R11*R11*R11*R11*R11*R11

"See, the people that you steal from have insurance," Emily told Spencer. "They get made whole again. I had to leave Quantico to get away from all that. How am I going to get all that time back?"

"You can't, but what you can do is not throw away anymore…"

"You don't know anything!" she cut him off.

"Emily, alright!" Spencer was getting fed up now. "You don't love me, you wanna make a life with someone else, fine. I'm gonna have to live with that, but not with him."

Emily rolled her eyes and scoffed. "Spoken like a true ex-husband."

"I'm not joking, Emily."

"I'm not laughing, Spencer. You have to admit that there's a conflict of interest when you give me advice about my love life."

"Yes," Spencer conceded, "but that doesn't mean that I'm wrong." Emily stared at him.

"Do you remember what I told you when we first met?"

"Of course, I have an eidetic memory. You said that I'd better know what I'm doing."

"Do you, now?" Because truly, you should walk away if you don't." She was concerned for him, he knew it. Maybe she still felt the same way he did.

"I know what I'm doing," he said confidently to ease her pain.

"What are you doing?" asked a new voice. They looked up to see Ian Doyle standing behind them.

"Just catching up is all," Spencer said as he stood up.

"Ian, meet my ex-husband."

"Dr. Spencer Reid." He held out his hand.

"Dr. Reid," Ian said but didn't shake Spencer's hand.

"I'm in your seat." He gestured toward his vacant seat, which Ian took.

"Forgive me for being late," Ian said to Emily as he ignored Spencer. "A guest required my attention."

"That's fine. Spencer was just walking through the restaurant and spotted me."

"Yeah, imagine the odds," Spencer said while playing with his wedding band.

"Of all the gin joints in all the world. You were recently released from prison, is that right, mate?" Emily noticed that Spencer was still playing with his ring. He only did that when he was deep in thought and that was something he never really had to do a lot of.

"That's right," Spencer said.

"How's Adam doing?" Ian smirked.

"I wouldn't know, I heard that he was seeing some Hollywood actress." He knew what Ian was trying to do but he never really associated with Adam Jackson.

"Spencer was about to…" Emily started.

"I just stopped by to say hi to Emily for old time's sake."

"Stay and have a drink, mate," Ian said.

"I can't."

"He can't."

Spencer and Emily shared mutual laughs, surprised that they were still on the same wavelength, but Ian was not happy.

"Well then," Ian said, interrupting their gazing. "I don't imagine that we'll be seeing Dr. Reid anytime soon." He grabbed Emily's hand, which made her smile slightly.

"You never know," Spencer retorted, rolling his eyes.

"Ah, but I know everything that goes on in my hotels."

"So I should put those towels back?" Spencer asked sarcastically.

"No, the towels you can keep." Ian kissed Emily's hand.

"Good to see you, Emily," Spencer said as he sighed.

"Take care, Spencer," she said softly.

"Ian," Spencer ground out.

"Spencer," Ian said coolly.

R11*R11*R11*R11*R11*R11

Spencer went up the escalator, halfway ticked off; but what he didn't see was the blond-haired Ashley Seaver following him.

R11*R11*R11*R11*R11*R11

Hotch and Ziva were in their hotel room making Gideon's "gems" while looking at the television so that they could see Rossi.

R11*R11*R11*R11*R11*R11

Outside, there was a crowd of people waiting outside for Grassland's demise. On top of the dais was Rossi, Ian, Emily and two dudes that were to detonate it. Standing in the crowd was Spencer who was being watched, without knowing, by Ashley. The men prepared to push the lever and everyone, except Ashley and Spencer, turned to see. You never take your eyes off your target.

R11*R11*R11*R11*R11*R11

Hotch and Ziva were watching it on television (with Ziva massaging Hotch's back), oblivious to what was happening right outside their window. Suddenly, their lights flickered and went off.

Ziva stopped massaging. "Aaron, what just happened?"

Hotch sighed and grabbed his coat. "Our worst nightmare."

They went out of the room; Hotch spilling curses out of his mouth as Ziva put a "Do Not Disturb" sign on the door."

R11*R11*R11*R11*R11*R11

"Tomorrow, the day is yours. Do with it what you like," Spencer said. "Call is at 5:30, makeup and costume. Gideon's package arrives at 7:05. Ashley grabs our codes. All goes well, we're a go. At 7:30, Parker gets locked in and we're committed. From this point on, we have thirty minutes to blow the power or she suffocates."

Shawn was pushing a cash cart into the mockup vault in a security outfit. Parker started to climb out of the cash cart after Shawn left and got into position.

"Okay," said Gatsby as she walked across the floor. "You're in the middle of the room, 10 feet from everything. You have to get from there to the door without touching the floor. What do you do?"

"Ten says she shorts it," Eliot said.

"Twenty," everyone else said.

Parker was not fazed by the betting going on and made a perfect backflip on the shelf behind her. Everyone clapped, awed.

"Window or aisle, guys," said Ziva who just came in with a dirty-looking Hotch.

"Yeah, we're in deep shit!" Hotch added. (Not a very good pun with what he was looking like) "That retarded demo crew didn't back the main line! They only jacked up the mainframe, jacked it right up!"

Hotch took off his filthy shirt, making Gatsby, Parker and Derek turn their noses.

"Is anyone understanding him?" Rossi asked. She just couldn't understand what Hotch was talking about when he was angry.

"I'll explain later," Garcia said.

"Listen, they're so freaking retarded that they blew up the backup grids one by one. Stupid sons of…"

"Okay, Hotch!" Spencer cut him off. "We get it, you're upset." To Ziva, he asked: "Z, what happened?"

"They did the same thing we would've done, only by accident," Ziva explained. "The problem is that now they know their weakness and they're fixing it."

"So?"

"So unless we intend to do this job in Reno, we're in Barney." Hotch finished. Everyone was totally confused.

"Barney Rubble. Trouble!" Ziva translated. "Don't you guys know British slang?"

"Well," Spencer whispered to Gatsby, "we could always…"

"By tomorrow?" Gatsby shook her head.

"Hang on a minute, hang on. We could use a pinch!" Ziva suggested.

Hotch's sober expression suddenly turned gleeful.

"That's an awesome idea. Baby, I love the way you think!"

"I know," Ziva smiled.

They leaned forward to kiss only to be interrupted by Gatsby's throat clearing.

"Excuse me, love birds," she said. "We're still clueless."

"Yeah, what is a pinch?" Spencer added.

"A pinch is a device that creates a cardiac arrest for broadband circuitry," Hotch explained. "Better yet, a pinch is a bomb but without the bomb."

"You see, when a nuclear weapon detonates, it releases an electromagnetic pulse which shuts down any power source within its blast radius," Ziva added. "It doesn't usually matter because a nuclear weapon destroys anything you may need power for anyway."

"But a Pinch creates a similar pulse but without mass destruction or death." Hotch concluded. "So instead of Hiroshima, you'd be getting 17th century.

"How long?" asked Gatsby.

"About 30 seconds."

"Could a pinch knockout the power of an entire city? Like for instance…"

"Las Vegas?" Ziva said as she traded lopsided smiles with Hotch. "Yeah, we think it might. But there's only one pinch big enough in the world to manage it."

"Where?" Spencer asked.

"Well…" Hotch and Ziva trailed off.