A shrill beeping noise broke the silence after Strauss's comment. Garcia jumped up as well as the rest of the team as she raced to her 'lair' from where the beeping was originating. The whole team and Strauss raced to Garcia's office where eight of her many computer screens had gone fuzzy like an untuned TV.
Suddenly they all came to life, each showing a small cell like room, each where a person was strapped to a chair. The eighth screen showed a shadowed figure who began to speak.
"So" it started in a computer-altered speech "I assume you have received my little letters for you and no doubtably with the help of the brilliant Ms. Garcia have figured out my little plot. Since I can't catch the brilliant BAU team, I had to make my own."
"Garcia trace the video signal!" Hotch told her.
She began to frantically work on one of her unaffected computers. "I'm trying! Their hard drives are completely hijacked!" Garcia was frantically typing on all her other computers, trying to find a source on the feed, when the figure spoke again.
"Of course, these kids aren't exactly like you. They haven't experienced all the pains you have gone through. I'll fix that though." Then that screen went black. Garcia raced over to it, trying to revive the dead screen.
"It's totally dead. The main power supply was cut from inside the system, which he controls!" she practically screamed in frustration and anxiety.
"These are the kids?" asked JJ, pointing to the screens. Each screen had the angle of being placed on a similar level to the kids, not looking straight on, but a bit on the side, showing their left forearm carved with 'zugzwang' in small letters. The cells had one light each, shining on the teen as if they were being interrogated, and of course the teens themselves, tied to the chairs. The teens were all unconscious, and except for their arms, looked relatively unharmed.
"Yes" replied Garcia. "That's Marcus, Grant, Melissa, Ellen, Larson, Kayla and", she choked a bit, "Carter" pointing to each on the screen.
"What does he mean they'll experience stuff we have?" asked Blake.
"I think he means stuff we've experienced that is specific to us and our jobs" replied Rossi.
Reid quickly looked to Kayla's screen with a horrified look in his eyes "No" he choked out.
Morgan looked to Hotch, Garcia, and JJ. They knew what Reid meant. Now they too were thinking of the horrors they had gone through that this unsub could possibly inflict on these kids.
"We have to find them. Fast." Morgan said.
"Agreed." replied Hotch. "I don't think these kids have long before the unsub does something to them. We need to work fast, I know we just got back from a case, but this is one that poses an immediate threat to not only these kids, but us. This was an attack on the BAU team, and we have to end this before it gets any farther. I therefore believe we should get to work right away, but we have not only the safety of these kids, but of ourselves to look after as well. I say we go home, get sleep, food, and cleaned and come as early as possible tomorrow.
I'm going to lay out the workload now so you can get working if you wish to come in before me tomorrow. Garcia, work on your computers, figure out how he got into our system and keeping an eye on the kids" they all glanced at the monitors. "Reid, look at the locations of where the victims were taken and get a geographic profile going, wherever he is holding these kids, it can't be too far from where he took them all. JJ, organize a plan to meet with the families for clues on how the unsub found them or took them. Work with Reid and Garcia on the map for this. Blake and Morgan, go over The Replicator's previous files and see if there are any clues as to why he switched tactics. Rossi and I will look through old kidnapping cases to see if anything like this has been done before- specifically targeting the bureau. But before any of this, we need to go back to the kids' files and note what the unsub could do to these kids to make them quote 'like us'."
The team went back to the conference room to gather their files and pack up. Garcia taking a laptop that she was able to stream the feeds of the cells onto so she could monitor the victims. Strauss pulled Hotch aside and turned to him, "This is unlike anything the bureau has seen before. You know that, Hotch. You'll be wasting time searching through old files to find a case in semblance to this."
"I know finding anything is a long shot, but our past experience shows this unsub rarely does his own work, perhaps he expanding off some other kidnapping targeted against the bureau. We have to try to find something." Hotch replied. He continued in a lower voice, "It's all we can do right now."
Strauss nodded grimly, "Get rest. I'll send orders for your area to be opened at 5. I hope your agents can sleep that long under this threat."
"I can only hope for that. " replied Hotch.
The agents arrived back at their respective homes. They all reviewed the files of the victim paired to them. They all imagined what the unsub could do to the victims. They all tried to fall asleep that night.
Review, Favorite, Follow! Next chapter in a week or so!
Disclaimer: Haven't put one of these up yet so: I don't own Criminal Minds. There, I said it. Now I'm off to imagine life if I did...
Also a note on the computer stuff- I have no idea if the complete overrides could actually happen, but they do in my story. Deal with it.
Hugs and Fishes!