Chapter Two – Let The Games Begin
"Excuse me?" Emily asked in surprise in response to Olivia's answer.
"It wasn't a dream. What you remember really happened unless you just so happened to have a dream about the exact way you were subdued."
Hotch's frown deepened. This woman seemed to know an awful lot about what had happened to all of them. He couldn't help wondering again if she was in on this somehow. Her behavior wasn't what it should be for a victim, and her knowledge was far more than theirs. He would need to keep an eye on her for the time being until he could make a more informed decision.
"How do you know that?"
"Because when he came down here after he'd taken me I asked. He told me he sent an airborne drug into the room to knock me out before he came in. It explained why I had a headache and why I didn't wake up when he broke in. Trust me; I would have heard him come in."
Her words were firm and confident. She knew she would have woken up to any sounds coming into her apartment. Considering she hadn't, there had to be an explanation greater than simply "I was quiet."
"And so would we," Rossi agreed. "Only we didn't."
"Okay. Only if that's the case and I really was in the bathroom when the drugs were being sent into my room, why would I not have gotten out or opened a window or called one of you? It doesn't make sense," Emily reasoned.
"Unless it was that fast acting or it was coming in awhile before you saw it," Hotch responded as he puzzled over all of the possibilities.
That made enough sense to Emily, and she nodded lightly in acceptance.
"So why us?" JJ asked. "It's not like it's easy to abduct an entire team of FBI agents, especially since we're on a case and not at home."
"And why not Reid?" He's the only one not here," Morgan added.
If someone had gone to all of the trouble to abduct members of the FBI, they would have known that there was one more agent just a door away. Yet he hadn't taken Reid too. That was significant. Rossi was thinking the same thing as Morgan.
"The fact that instead of Reid the unsub took a civilian is important, but why?" Rossi asked.
Olivia was about to let them know she wasn't a civilian when she heard the door to their prison click open. She fell silent right away, eyes locked on the far side of the room after she'd stood up. The others followed suit, watching and waiting. Listening to their unsub and watching his behavior would tell the agents quite a bit about him. In order to know how to react they would need to know about him. It was their best chance if they wanted to get out of this alive.
A thin little man with slicked back brown hair stepped into the room to join them. He was dressed in a white lab coat with jeans and smiled brightly around the room at his guests. When he spoke, his voice was lilting and brimming with excitement.
"Welcome! Welcome! I'm glad that you've all arrived in one piece. It truly is good to see you all~."
JJ blinked at the odd contrast between the man's enthusiasm and where they were. She glanced over at Rossi uneasily. Rossi's entire focus was on their new arrival, and he didn't notice JJ's questioning look. The unsub was acting like this was all some kind of game and they were the long awaited players. Either that or they were the relatives who just came into town for a celebration. It was odd.
"I take it you've been," Rossi paused to mull over the correct wording before he continued, "waiting for us?"
"Oh yes. You should all do wonderfully for my experiments. I'm sure you've seen quite a bit in your line of work."
"Then you know who we are and that people will be looking for us," Hotch added without any hint of concern.
"Yes, yes. I know who you all are. One of the benefits of listening to the news, I suppose. The moment I heard the FBI was here in New York, I knew you'd be just perfect."
He nearly squealed the last two words in his over excitement. Olivia wouldn't have been the least bit surprised if he'd started jumping up and down like a little girl who just got her first bike.
"Perfect for your experiments?" Emily asked, hoping to draw him into a more detailed explanation of what he was planning.
"Oh, yes. Very much so~. With everything that you see I'm sure you have such beautiful dreams!"
He'd said beautiful with a major emphasis on the first two letters so it came out like be-you-tiful. It didn't help that the entire sentence was interspersed with giggles.
The giggling was already getting on Morgan's nerves, and he would have loved to knock the guy out right then and there. Olivia had turned away, having already heard all of this and not wanting to hear it again.
"Dreams?" JJ asked.
"Exactly!" He thrust a finger out at JJ like she'd just said something brilliant. "They can be so awful, can't they? Memorable, terrifying, painful. Of course, it's much better if they are from real experiences. That's why all of you are going to be so much better than my previous subjects."
That didn't sound good to any of them. While they hadn't figured this was their unsub's first kidnapping considering how efficient his methods had been, they didn't particularly like knowing they weren't the first. Whatever this man was going to do, he would have no hesitation.
"Making a dream worse when it's not real to begin with doesn't work so well."
"You're trying to make dreams worse?" Emily questioned, eyebrows lifted in slight surprise.
"Yes, my dear that is exactly what I'm trying to do. I believe I'm getting very close to the right mix and dosage too," he assured as if that was what was worrying Emily.
"So we're your damn lab rats," Morgan growled.
The scientist tsked and shook his head.
"I prefer honored test subjects."
"Honored? We're chained to a wall!" Morgan retorted.
"Oh, but you are honored! All of you were simply perfect minus the fact that you had an uneven number of men and women. That's very important in an experiment you know, keeping the ration even. So I left out one of your men since he probably wouldn't have had much to contribute anyway~. Scrawny little thing. He hardly even looked like an agent."
He chuckled happily, rather amused by his own reasoning. Morgan watched him with disgust, but inwardly he was glad Reid wasn't here. If this man was going to make them relive their worst nightmares, Reid was better off not being here. He didn't need a reminder of what had happened with Tobias Hankel.
"So, since you needed another woman, I brought you a friend!"
The unsub waved at Olivia with a flourish. Olivia watched him without expression, her eyes hard and glinting with steel. Morgan noticed that she was standing slightly closer to the wall than she needed to be. The chain on her ankle was a little loose, but not enough for their captor to notice it.
"Adorable little thing, isn't she? She may not be FBI, but she works for one of the most brutal units in the NYPD. Considering how long she'd been with the Special Victims Unit, I bet she has quite~ a few horrors floating around in her head just waiting to be tapped. I'm sure she'll be a lovely addition to my experiment."
"Or I could try one of my own," Olivia snapped. "See how many kicks it takes to make your balls come out your mouth."
She jerked forward in a flash, snapping the knee of her free leg up toward his groin. He jumped back easily, chuckling gently.
"Whoops! Got a little to close there! I'll have to be careful around you."
He flashed Olivia an easy smile, not bothered at all by her attempt to attack him.
"I was going to have you go first, but I think it would be better to wait until last. That way you'll get to experience the very best."
Olivia was pretty sure she didn't like the sound of that, but she didn't let it show on her face. This creep was going to get no weakness from her. The little scientist clapped his hands once and turned on a heel before heading toward the door. Once he reached it he pirouetted one last time to face his guests.
"Well, I'm going to let all of you get comfortable while I prepare the first dose and decide who shall be first. Don't miss me too much! I promise I won't take long!"
With that he skipped easily away and closed the door behind him.