Lost in a Memory

Chapter Eleven

He leaned against the bus stop, flipping through the pages of his newspaper, looking just as innocent as an obviously guilty man could possibly look.

Sheriff Deputy Franklin had stopped at three bus stops, stood and waited, pretending to read the same newspaper. His eyes watched the passer-bys over the top of the paper only to snap away if any of them dared to glance his way. If someone looked just a little too long, he would snap his paper, fold it up until it resembled some map folding disaster, tuck it under his arm, and wander away while whistling Dixie.

Elle groaned. "You think this idiot has a clue where he's going?" she wondered into the microphone hidden just under her collar.

"He sure as hell better if we're going to find Reid and Hotch in time." Morgan's concern made his voice sound so deep over her ear piece that Elle had to stop herself from turning and checking on her partner.

Licking her lips, Elle allowed herself a moment of confidence. "We'll find them. They'll be alright." she whispered to Morgan. "You know those two. Reid's tougher than he looks. And have you ever seen Hotch with a hair out of place? Nothing's gonna ruffle his feathers!"

There was a moment of silence on the other end of the com-link. Then Morgan's voice came back. "Heads up. He's on the move again."

Elle groaned again. A quick glance told her in which direction Franklin was going and she rose up from the garden bench and followed.

After a block or two, Morgan spoke again, his tone still betraying his concern. "He needs a leader. He can't function without someone telling him what to do. Without Hawkins telling him what to do, he'll go to whoever was giving Hawkins his orders."

"Jackson." Elle breathed. She couldn't help but picture the Sheriff as some sadistic bastard laughing as he gutted her friends for no other reason than to fulfill his sick, saccadic delusions of grandeur.

Don't think about them.

Don't think about him.

Focus on Franklin so they could catch that sadistic bastard before he did too much damage to Reid and Hotch.

That was the plan. Stick with it.

Franklin was standing on a corner, waiting for a break in the traffic. He tapped his foot impatiently, constantly glancing this way and that. In a huff, he hurried across the street, taking a swing at a car that came a little too close when he stepped out in front of it.

Elle quickened her step, wondering "Is he on to us?"

"No…" Morgan answered hesitantly. "He's too busy looking around to see anything."

"So… why's he headed for the hospital?"

"Hospital?" Morgan breathed. After a moment, he said quickly "Damn it! They had him the whole damn time!"

"What are you talking about?"

"I'm picking you up."

"Son of a bitch!" Kruger Spence cursed. "What the hell…?" he demanded of the growing ink splotch around his chest pocket.

JJ winced. "That would be the James Bond pen." she explained as she entered the office a step behind Garcia. "Should have clicked it that one last time."

Kruger shook his head angrily. "Why do you people always screw with my day?"

Garcia smirked. "A gift, really. It can't be learned. We're just born with it, this intense need to screw…" She stopped suddenly, her eyes narrowing. "Pen doesn't go off when you click it. It's set off by high powered magnets. Kinda a warning system…Son of a bitch!" She shoved pass the CIA agent and grabbed the nearest lap top. "You razed them! Razed the hard drives!"

"He did what?" JJ wanted to know.

"He's got a high powered magnet on him." the computer tech accused. "Wiped clean all the surface computers' memories." She snatched up a pen with a fluffy top and threatened him with it. "If you went anywhere near my mainframe…"

Spence waved a hand of dismissal, his attention on picking at the ink as if he could pluck the black from the white cotton.

"Agent Spence, I can arrest you for destroying evidence." JJ warned.

With a bored expression, Spence looked up at her. "What evidence?"

"What evidence?!" Garcia practically screeched. If it wasn't for JJ stepping between them, she just might have attacked the man with her fluffy, pink pen.

"Garcia, check Reid's computer." JJ told her friend.

After a glare at the man, Garcia opened a lap top and booted it up.

JJ crossed her arms and turned her full attention to the intruding agent. "You want to tell me what's going on?"

Spence chuckled. "If I wanted to tell you what's going on, if there's anything really going on, I would have told you by now."

"It's gone. Everything. Even his kitty pics. Razed. Toasted. Fried. Wiped clean." Garcia plopped down in her chair with a growl. Throwing a glare at Spence, she offered "Nice job, jackass."

Spence shrugged. "Don't know what you are talking about." he answered, before giving JJ his very best bull shit smile and ask "Where's Amanda?"

JJ smiled right back. "Amanda? Amanda who?"

The CIA agent put his hands on his hips. "Don't play, Agent. You folks stepped in a big ol' pile of shit. I'm just scraping it off for you."

"Yea?" Garcia huffed. "Who dumped the shit in the first place?"

Spence snapped his fingers at the women. "Amanda! Now!"

"Want us to sit up pretty while we're at it?"

"Garcia." JJ warned.

The computer tech looked up at her as if asking what she had done.

JJ shook her head. "Agent Spence, you walk in her, destroy evidence, then make demands? The only thing you're getting from us is a jail cell. You're under arrest."

Kruger Spence actually laughed. But, when neither women's expressions changed, he began to believe that the FBI agent might actually be serious. "You do not want lock horns with me, missy." he warned.

"Missy?" JJ repeated, her head tilting to one side.

Garcia giggled. "Oh, buddy, she's already kicked the ass of one CIA reject today."

"So!" Spence jabbed a finger at her over JJ's shoulder. "Amanda! Where is she?"

"So!" JJ snapped right back. "She is one of yours!?"

Spence's attention jerked back to the agent. He glared at her for a moment, calculating just who was winning here and who was losing. Coming to a conclusion, he shook a finger at JJ. "Anyone ever told you that you are very attractive?"

JJ's eyebrows raised. "Excuse me?"

Like a fight bell, the phone rang, sending the agents to their separate corners for the moment.

Garcia looked up at JJ. "Promise me: comes to a beat down, I wanna be there!"

"Answer the phone." JJ answered with a huff.

Grinning from ear to ear, Garcia hit the speaker button "Blond, mean, and Queen of the scene, what can I do for you?"

"Hey, pretty lady."

Garcia smiled. "Ah, my chocolate lover. Tell me something sweet." she purred.

"Garcia, Dr. Wesslim is about to get a call from the hospital. I need to know where she is."

"On it."

JJ leaned over her to speak into the phone. "Morgan, you have a lead?"

"Franklin went to the same hospital Reid was treated at. That doc, she knew that top secret drug. Why'd she know it? And why the only doctor who knew it happened to be working the odd hours at that particular hospital…"

"Wesslim?" Spence came out of his corner. "Troy Wesslim?"

JJ looked at him. "She's one of Dommas'?"

Spence shook his head. "She's a doc for hire. Type of girl that makes ice look like a hot rock. Bigger the dollar, bigger the torture. How the hell did she get involved? Though it makes sense. Hawkins would need someone from the outside to throw Dommas. Not even his own guys would go for that, the Senator being the big cheese and all."

"Sarah Dommas, the way she was killed…" JJ had a thought.

Spence nodded. "Sounds like Troy's work."

"And now she has Reid and Hotch." She closed her eyes, offering a silent prayer.

"Down in the peanut gallery." Garcia growled. "Magic being done here." Her fingers flew over her key board, bringing her main computer to life. Lists of numbers, maps, satellite coverage all came up on the varies screens around the room. After a few minutes, she smiled. "And…. Lady of Wonder, Lady of Might, this little lady has that bitch in sight."

Morgan's voice spoke again "Give me the address, girl. And have the troops meet us there, all lights and sirens."

"Agent Morgan, stay where you are. The CIA will take it from here." Spence ordered. Not waiting for the protest, he spun about and headed out the door, pulling his cell phone out as he went.

"Like hell!" Morgan snapped. "Who the hell is that, anyway? Garcia? JJ?"

"Hey!" JJ yelled, spinning about and chasing the CIA man out the door. "You have any idea of what under arrest means?"

"Hey!" Garcia called after. "I said I wanted to watch!"

"Garcia!" Morgan cried. "What is going on there?"

Stopping herself, the tech turned back to the phone. "Sorry, sweety. Texing you the address now. I'll get Gideon to meet you. Be careful."

"Always…"

"Hey, Garcia!" came Elle's voice from the phone. "If that's JJ going postal again, I want pictures!"

Garcia grinned. "Oh, sweety, I'm selling the rights to Vegas Fight Nights!"

Abby scratched the kitten behind the ears, earning herself a loud purr. Sighing her extreme boredom, she glanced to where Gideon sat at his desk, working on his computer. "This is a complete waste of time." she told him again. "If you want your man back, then you should put me back in the field. I am your best bet."

Gideon didn't bother to look up from his work as he answered "Isn't that a little like asking the fox to rescue the hen?"

The woman smiled and batted her eyes at him. "Now… are you calling me a fox? Or Hotchner a chicken?"

Sighing, Gideon finally turned to look at her. "How did you get Reid away from Jackson?"

Abby shrugged. "I didn't."

The agent waited for her to elaborate, but, when she didn't, he asked the next question. "When did you drug him, then?"

"When I picked him up." she answered.

Gideon frowned. "Picked him up?" He suddenly stiffened. "You're the one that kidnapped him in the first place. You dragged him into this!"

Abby feign a wince. "Did I forget to mention that?"

Gideon couldn't remember ever wanting, really wanting, to shoot someone before. "Who's side are you on?!" he demanded.

In a blink, the woman's humor vanished. "I'm on the American side." she explained in an icy calm tone. Setting Reid's cat on the couch, she began to roam the office. "You walk around your ivory tower with a loaded weapon trailing behind. And you didn't think someone would snatch him up? Didn't he ever tell you the statistics on folks who are killed by their own gun?"

"Reid is not a weapon!" Gideon snapped.

"Yes, he is!" Abby snapped right back. "He is a code breaker! Bred, born, and raised. Hell and pity on him, his children have a good chance of being code breakers too. It's genetics, Gideon. With enough time, there is no secret he can't decode." She dropped her eyes, letting her anger go. In softer tones, she told him "You take a gun off the street and you destroy it."

"Reid! Is! Not! A! Weapon!" He rose to his feet and leaned across his desk. "He's a human being. He has a mother and father. Friends."

"Even a cat." She waved a hand at the couch where Galen was sharpening his claws on the arm. "If it was any different, if he was different, he wouldn't be alive right now. I tried to make it so he would be left alone. If his file had been complete, if I had known about the autism, he wouldn't be in any danger now."

Gideon wanted to yell at her, choke her, do something to make her understand. Do something to end this crappy day. But he stopped himself. Taking a deep breath, he forced his desperation aside. Only cool, controlled heads were going to get his people out of this.

Abby ran her fingers through her hair. "The Senator knew that, if I got Reid, then we would have some control over what would happen to him. I would be close enough to influence what happened. That, once Jackson had a code breaker, he would lead us to the buyers." She shook her head. "We didn't know he went outside the unit."

Allowing the change of focus, Gideon asked "Why did he go outside the unit? Did he suspect you and Dommas?"

The woman shrugged. "More likely, he didn't trust anyone in the unit to do what he wanted done."

"That was?"

"Turning on the Senator." Abby shook her head. "We were all hand picked by the Senator. We were his people. People that would do what was necessary to protect our country." She paused, her eyes narrowing. "People you thought were to… aggressive?"

Gideon had profiled many CIA agents in his time, and, yes, several had been dismissed, retired, based on his conclusions. Conclusions that had put him at odds with Dommas. "If you fight a war by any means possible, you often lose what you were fight for." he said softly.

"Life? Liberty? Pursuit of happiness?" Abby smiled slightly. "Ever thought that the every day, free American have these, because people like us were willing to give ours up?"

"Huh." Gideon tilted his head in thought.

"What? Never thought of that?"

"No. I was just reminded of those videos made by suicide bombers. My beloved family, I blow myself up with the hope that I take out hundreds of our enemies so that my sons will only have to strap on smaller bombs."

Again Abby smiled. "Ironic, isn't it? But, is it unexpected? You fight fire with fire. Why not a terrorist with a terrorist?" She quickly held up a hand. "That's what Jackson told the troops. We needed money to continue the fight. And to get that money, we were going to have to break some rules."

Gideon frowned. "Dommas would not have gone for that."

"Thus the betrayal part of the story." She shook her head. "My orders were to go along, find out who was with us and who was with Jackson. And then the Senator and his wife disappeared. An hour later, the order went out to bring in Dr. Reid. I drugged him, making him useless. I thought Jackson would abandon him then. But he knew someone he could take the boy to."

"Apparently that would be Dr. Wesslim." JJ announced as she hurried to cut off Agent Spence. "Gideon, Morgan's found her."

Spence pushed past. "We are handling it!" he growled to the FBI agents, before turning to face Abby. "Hello, Amanda."

Abby smiled. "Spence, hey, how's it going? Still doing the comb over, I see."

Gideon was already on his feet and grabbing his gun from his desk drawer. "Let's move." he told his agent as he headed for the door.

Spence stared at him. "Do any of you listen? You are off the case. We are on. Go sit down, have a cup of Joe… pet a cat… explain to me why there's a cat here…"

Gideon barely glanced at him as he walked pass. "Kitchen down the hall on the left. You're welcome to some joe and some time with the cat. But we're going and we're finishing this."

"Agent Gideon, this is a CIA matter!" Spence yelled after him, but was distracted by Abby following the FBI agents. "Hey! You! You come back here!"

To his surprise, Abby spun about. But she paused only long enough to scoop up Reid's cat. "You're mean. You can't play with Galen." she told him, then hurried after Gideon.