Supernatural: Fate or Luck Pt. 2
A/N: Greetings, so we're now on the home stretch where the team will figure out why Colby is after Garcia, and figure out if it's possible to stop him before anyone else gets killed.
Disclaimer: I don't own anything from Supernatural or Criminal Minds; I just own the characters that I happen to create.
CHAPTER THREE: THE FINAL ROUND PART ONE
"Now is the end come upon thee, and I will send mine anger upon thee, and will judge thee according to thy ways, and will recompense upon thee all thine abominations."
Ezekiel 7:3
It wasn't long before the street outside was blocked off and there were police officers everywhere, looking for evidence, and taking statements since Mike Flemmings had died in route to the hospital despite the best efforts of the paramedics.
"What's going on?" JJ asked upon entering the room with Reid and Sam, having just heard about the attack made by the unsub.
"I don't know," Morgan answered, having just looked out the window, "this guy's getting seriously bold, and I can guarantee that it isn't over."
"You okay, Liz?" Sam asked his sister, who was now sitting on the coffee table.
"I will be when we catch this jerk," Liz responded sourly. "He killed that cop, Sam. A cop, who most likely has a family and they'll never see him again."
JJ knelt in front of Penelope, concerned. "You ok?"
"I don't know what he wants from me," Penelope responded, upset.
"Could you know something about him?" Reid asked, sitting on a chair.
"Or something that he's connected to?" Sam asked.
Penelope shook her head. "I don't know."
"Maybe you have something he wants?" Reid inquired.
"I don't know who he is," Penelope complained. "I'm so scared."
"I know," JJ agreed, getting up and giving Penelope a hug while Morgan, Liz, Reid, and Sam exchanged a look, wondering what was going to happen next.
Outside, the cops were taking pictures, and 'Colby' was watching it all in the rear view window of his red car, and he saw the arrival of the remaining BAU members and Dean.
Pulling up with the lights flashing, Hotch, Rossi, Emily, and Dean got out of the SUV and Detective Walker approached them with a grim expression. "Just so you know, your office called to tell me we're supposed to run point on this. They don't want you working the case."
"We're just here to comfort a friend," Hotch told him.
"I'm about to tell a good friend's wife her husband got murdered," Detective Walker told him. "I don't care what your office says. Any help you can give is good in my book."
"Thanks," said Hotch gratefully.
Rossi scowled. "I'm sick of being behind this guy. We gotta end this." And he led the way to the courtyard while. Detective Walker went back to work.
"Hey, did you get a look at him?" Emily asked upon entering the room just as JJ sat on the couch.
"Nothing solid," Morgan responded.
"He definitely has a revolver," said Liz grimly.
"Garcia, we need to get you back to the hospital," Hotch said, entering while Emily went to rub Penelope's back.
Penelope shook her head. "No."
"You know what? You should still be there," JJ insisted. "We need to get her someplace safe."
"I feel safe with all of you," Penelope pleaded.
Hotch sighed. "We can take you to the BAU."
Penelope nodded and then stared off into space when JJ stood up, and they all noticed.
"Garcia?"
"You ok?"
After a few seconds, Penelope remembered something. "When we were at dinner…they wanted to seat us by a window, but he insisted on sitting at the worse table in the place. And he sat with his back to the corner."
This was major information, and then Detective Walker walked in with another detective, talking quietly, and they accidentally broke the salt line.
"Detective," Hotch said, turning to him. "Can you clear the room for just a minute?"
"I got a dead cop downstairs," Detective Walker pointed out. "I'm considering this part of the crime scene."
"Just for a minute," Hotch requested.
Detective Walker sighed. "Do what you gotta do."
"Thank you."
They waited until the detectives were out of the room and then returned their attention to Penelope.
"Tells us about the car," Reid requested.
"Why?" Penelope asked.
"Just go with him," Morgan suggested, sitting on a nearby chair.
"You said it was white, 4-door, American. What else?" Reid asked.
Penelope shrugged. "That's it. It was just a car."
"No. Come on, think," Morgan said encouragingly. "Anything. Go back."
Penelope thought about that night, visualizing the car, and remembered something else that she'd saw when 'Colby' got out. "The seatbelt was buckled behind his back."
The BAU and the Winchesters exchanged startled looks since they knew what this meant.
"Why does that matter?" Penelope asked.
"It wasn't a rental," Morgan explained. "It was for surveillance."
"Agents don't wear seatbelts," Emily added. "They need to get out in a hurry."
Rossi didn't like where this was heading. "All right. Let's cut the crap." He walked forward, pulled Liz off the table, and sat down, ignoring Liz's protests. "You need to be straight with us. Right now."
This scared Penelope, and she tried to look away.
"Look at me, not them," Rossi snapped.
"I'm not hiding anything," Penelope said honestly.
Rossi didn't believe that. "You got shot," he pointed out. "Most people get shot for a reason. Eyes here!" he snapped again when Penelope tried to look away again.
"Ease up, Rossi," Morgan protested and Rossi held up a hand when Liz also protested.
"You're scaring her."
"You got a room full of people here, willing to believe that an FBI agent has tried to kill you," Rossi stated. "We need to know everything you do on company time that we don't know about." And he noted the realization in her eyes. "What?"
"Come on man," Morgan protested again.
"It's nothing bad," Penelope began.
"Spit it out!" Rossi ordered.
"Stop it, Rossi!" Liz snapped.
"It's nothing bad," Penelope repeated. "It's just – I counsel victims' families, and they know where I work. So sometimes they ask me to look into cases for them."
"What does that mean?" Rossi asked, not fully understanding.
"It just means that the cases," Penelope explained, "I tag them so whoever's investigating them knows that the FBI considers them a priority."
"You're not authorized to do that," Hotch said curtly, and Rossi stood and walked away, letting Liz sit back down.
"I know," Penelope confessed as her friend rubbed her hand, "I was just trying to help."
Emily sighed. "But whoever's working those cases thinks you're watching them," she explained as the others all sighed.
"I just put the pressure on them so they wouldn't slide," Penelope whimpered.
"How many cases are we talking about?" Hotch asked.
Penelope shrugged. "I don't know…7, 8 maybe. I need to get into my system."
"You can't," Hotch reminded her. "You're suspended."
"Wait a minute," said Morgan, recalling something. "Garcia, on your date, you said this guy was pressing you to find out if you were working murder cases." And Penelope nodded. "Hotch, we gotta look at those files."
Hotch sighed and glanced at Rossi, who was grim-looking.
"I told you, I'm sick of this jagoff being in front of us."
"Dave's right," Hotch agreed. "We'll go back to the BAU. Morgan, Reid, Liz, Prentiss, you stay here and make sure no one forgets to log out of the system. Garcia should not have access."
"Understood."
Hotch, Rossi, JJ, Sam, and Dean left the apartment, crossed the courtyard, and headed for the SUV, unaware that they were being watched.
'Colby' watched as they got into the SUV and drove off; after a few seconds, he drove off in his own car. 'I can't get to Garcia, but maybe I can get to the files.'
At the BAU, Kevin was in Penelope's office and was going through the computer system when it beeped. "What the hell?" and he stared as the cursor began moving on its' own and it started grabbing certain files.
After letting the cops process her apartment and Liz put down new salt lines; Penelope was now sitting on her bed with her laptop, and she was now hacking into her own system.
Kevin chuckled, typed in a password, and began blocking her efforts. "Oh no, you don't."
Penelope scowled when this happened and typed faster, determined to get those files.
"I do not have time for this."
"No chance," Kevin muttered upon seeing what was being done now. "And yet…"
"Huh." Now Penelope was impressed when she was blocked again. "Oh, you want to play?" and she tried a different approach. "Ok…"
Meanwhile, Liz, Reid, Morgan, and Emily were in the other room, waiting and looking through some of her books.
"What is she doing in there?" Morgan wondered, listening to the typing of keys.
"Do you really want to know?" Emily countered, flipping through a graphic novel, while Liz chuckled, and Reid raised his eyebrows.
Kevin chuckled when he saw what she was trying to do now. "Oh no. You are not seriously trying to back-hack me?"
'I'm so lovin' this,' he thought, typing away.
"Oh, nicely played," Penelope muttered, amazed by the counter-strike. "Ok! New plan."
Kevin stared at the screen and at the sudden change of attack.
"Well, now, this is just way too easy," he said, mildly disappointed as he gave chase.
"That's right," Penelope laughed, "chase me." And she continued typing as she kept putting her new plan into effect.
"I thought you had skills," Kevin tsked, obviously thinking that he was going to catch her, when-
The screen went black with a constant beeping sound, and the words, `"System Failure 0707/76"` appeared.
"Oh boy," Kevin gulped as the other screens powered down around him. He'd been tricked!
"Have fun getting out of the wormhole," Penelope cackled, and she processed to retrieve the files she'd tagged. 'Boy, now that was fun.'
'Man she got me without tipping me off,' Kevin thought, reaching into his pocket as the computer continued beeping. 'I think that I'm falling in love with this girl.'
Penelope came out of her bedroom just as several copies of the case files came out of her fax machine, and Morgan collected them. "Those are all the cases I flagged."
"Ok, everyone take a copy," Morgan instructed, passing the papers to Penelope, Liz, Emily, and Reid. "We need to see if any of the agents overlap in any of the cases."
Exchanging nods, they all took the files and began looking through them to find a connection.
Back at the office, Kevin pulled out a USB drive, clicked it open, and inserted it into the side of the screen; seconds later, the beeping stopped, and the screens came back to life.
"Now…what were you looking for?" he wondered, typing away and he brought up the files.
They had been looking at the case files for only a few minutes when Emily found something that connected them.
"There aren't any agents working on these cases," she reported. "But the same deputy was a first responder in three."
"What's the name?" Morgan asked.
"Jason Clarke Battle," Liz read aloud. "J.C.B."
"What are the cases?" Reid asked.
"Uh, all three were drive-bys," Emily read, "at close range, shot with a revolver."
Penelope set up a portable keyboard that was wirelessly connected to the flat-screen TV, and used Morgan's login to search for the name, Jason Clark Battle, in the police database.
Seconds later, a picture of Jason appeared on the screen, and Penelope froze for she recognized that face instantly.
"Is that him?" Emily asked.
Penelope nodded. "Yeah."
"That's definitely the guy we chased earlier," Liz confirmed, recalling the brief glimpse that she got of the killer earlier.
Kevin was looking at the same case files, the same crime scene photos, and he raised his eyebrows when the computer beeped, and the same photo of Jason appeared.
'Whoa,' he realized. 'He looks like the sketch that Fuchs took off that board earlier.'
"He's been honored twice as a hero," Liz remarked, reading the profile connected to the photo.
"So why is he stuck at deputy?" Penelope asked, now sitting on the couch with the keyboard on top of a pillow she had on her lap.
"Because even to his superiors," Morgan explained, "something was off about him."
"Makes sense," Reid commented. "The showy clothes, the subtle bragging. He presents himself as a prominent attorney when he's actually just a deputy sheriff."
"Underappreciated in the world," Morgan agreed, "and over appreciated in his own mind."
Penelope was confused. "I don't understand."
Morgan sighed. "I think you may have stumbled upon an angel of death."
Liz gaped. "You're jokin'."
"I thought those were nurses who put people out of their misery," said Penelope.
"Yeah that's one model," Reid confirmed. "The other is someone who put people at risk in order to save them."
"So he shot them so that he could save them?" Penelope asked, exchanging a look with Liz.
"Yeah, and when he couldn't, he made it look like a random murder," Emily explained. "It's how he was able to be a first responder."
Liz groaned. "Dean's right…demons I can get, but humans? I'm gettin' a headache."
"Its called hero homicide complex," Reid explained. "It's most commonly found in firemen, who set fires in order to save the day."
"Garcia, you flagged these cases," Morgan added, "he thought you were on to him."
Penelope shook her head. "I wasn't."
"But you're the only person in the world who was going to make the connection," Emily explained. "In his mind, he had to eliminate you."
Penelope grimaced at the thought and Liz agreed with her.
"This guy has some serious issues."
Kevin was actually making the same connections as he read the case files and Jason's profile. 'Man, this is one sick guy.' And then his watch beeped.
He glanced at it and jumped out of the chair when he saw just how late it really was.
"Deputy Battle, please," Morgan requested over his cell-phone. "Ok, what time is his shift over? No, no message. Thank you." And he clicked his phone shut. "Ok, he didn't sign out to a location. His shift is over at midnight. Until then, I don't want this guy knowing that we're on to him."
"Why? What does the profile say?" Penelope asked.
"He'll keep getting bolder, trying to cover his tracks," Reid answered. "And if that doesn't work, he'll die shooting."
Liz gulped. "I better give both Dean and Sam a head's up then." And pulled out her phone to make the call. "Dean, I've got info on the unsub and Sam needs to hear this, too…"
Meanwhile, JJ was outside the bullpen and thanked an agent that handed her a folder; as she headed for her office, looking through the file, the elevator opened and out stepped both Fuchs and Jason Battle, now wearing his uniform.
"Thanks for meeting with me so late," Jason told Fuchs while noting the direction JJ was going.
"No problem," said Fuchs pleasantly. "We take Bureau interference in local law enforcement very seriously."
Jason nodded and looked around. "I just don't know why one of your analysts would have my files."
"Well, we're currently investigating that," Fuchs sand, and gestured to Kevin, who was leading toward them with his bag on his shoulder. "Mr. Lynch, could you please assist us?"
Kevin began to answer when Jason glanced at him, and he froze for a moment, recognizing the deputy. 'Oh God!' "Yeah, um, I need to get going."
"It'll only take a minute," Fuchs said, nodding toward the bullpen.
Having no choice, Kevin went with them into the bullpen, where he removed his bag and sat down at the nearest computer.
"Wouldn't it be easier if I could just talk to her?" Jason requested.
Fuchs shook his head as he sat on the desk and looked through a file. "Unfortunately, she's in the hospital."
'Fool he doesn't know anything.' "Is this the same woman who got shot?" Jason asked, and got a confirming nod. "Every cop in the city is working overtime to find the shooter. You don't think she could be involved somehow?"
"We don't know anything for sure yet," Fuchs answered, completely unaware of the danger he was currently in.
'I'm getting nowhere with this jerk,' Jason thought and tried something else. "Well, could you remove my files from your system?"
"Sure, we can do that," Fuchs agreed and nodded to Kevin. "Mr. Lynch?"
"Sure," said Kevin, weakly smiling, and he logged into Penelope's system, transmitting a coded message to her.
Penelope raised her eyebrows when the message appeared with a link. "Now that's strange."
"What is it?" Morgan asked, standing behind the couch.
"That tech guy, he just logged onto my system," Penelope answered, "and he sent me a message with a link."
"Maybe it's a mistake," Emily suggested.
Penelope shook her head. "No. He's good. He's not careless." And she began typing.
"Could he be trying to show you something?" Reid asked.
Penelope wasn't sure. "He could be baiting me."
"What do you mean?" Liz asked.
"If he's with internal affairs and I follow his lead," Penelope explained, "then whose ever login I used could loose their job." And she glanced pointedly at Morgan.
"What's your gut say?" Morgan asked.
Penelope looked back at the flat-screen. "He's a hacker. We have a code."
"You trust it?" Morgan inquired.
"I have to," Penelope admitted.
"Do it," Morgan ordered. "Make contact."
And Penelope began tying, doing it mostly one-handed to support her side, and sent a message back.
Kevin received the message, made sure that both Jason and Fuchs weren't looking, and began typing a series of commands to send back.
Penelope received the commands, acted on them, and soon a set of security windows appeared, showing the inside of the bullpen.
"It's the BAU," Emily remarked as she and Morgan leaned closer to the screen.
"God, that's him," Penelope gasped, spotting Jason, who was pacing and rubbing his hands together.
Morgan pulled out his phone and speed-dialed a number. "Hotch, it's Morgan. He's in the BAU. Deputy sheriff, mid-bullpen. Just past my desk. Got him?"
In his office, Hotch stood with his phone to his ear and he peered through the blinds of his office window, spotting the unsub. "I got him."
`"Don't let him know we're onto him,"` Morgan warned him. `"He's a classic narcissist with a hero complex, and he's spiraling. If you let him know we're onto him, he'll start shooting."`
"I understand," Hotch said calmly and clicked his phone shut; with that same calmness, he left his office, walked to the door of Rossi' office and knocked.
Rossi came out with Dean and Sam, having just got a similar call from Liz, and they spoke quietly while keeping tabs on the unsub, who was still pacing.
Back in her apartment, Penelope, Morgan, Liz, Emily, and Reid watched the screen tensely, waiting to see what would happen next, and if the unsub would catch on.
"He's trying to prove to himself that he's smarter than all of us," Rossi said quietly as he shut his door, and they walked toward the stairs, doing their best to not draw attention to themselves.
"It's too crowded in here," Hotch said quietly. "We can't get an angle on him without putting people in jeopardy."
"How's his emotional state, Sammy?" Dean asked quietly as they descended the stairs.
"Nervous, tense," Sam responded quietly. "And I don't dare try nudging his mind with so many people around."
"I was afraid you'd say that."
Morgan realized that their friends wouldn't be able to get behind the guy and that Sam couldn't risk using any of his abilities either. "We gotta slip someone behind him."
"Can you get us the cameras outside the bullpen?" Reid asked, and Penelope immediately started typing.
Seconds later, she had access to the cameras, and she searched them.
Kevin had to keep himself from wincing when Jason leaned over.
"Is there a problem?"
"No. I'm sorry," Kevin apologized, clearing his throat. "It's – it's not my system. It's taking me longer."
Jason seemed to accept that while keeping an eye on Hotch, Rossi, Dean, and Sam.
Penelope was still going through the camera views and gasped when she stopped on JJ, who was working in her office. "Oh, my girl."
"JJ," Liz whispered, and Reid's jaw dropped.
Morgan immediately speed-dialed her number. "Come on, JJ, pick up the phone, pick it up." And sure enough, JJ answered her phone. "JJ, it's Morgan. Listen to me. Listen to me very carefully."
And JJ did listen, pausing in her work, and looked directly at the bullpen.
Meanwhile, Kevin worked on removing the files while Hotch, Rossi, Sam, and Dean pretended to look at some files.
Kevin tapped a few keys, the computer beeped, and he smiled at Jason. "Okey-dokey."
"You're sure that my files are wiped off the system?" Jason asked, watching as the quartet began moving toward him. 'Fools.'
"Yes, sir," Kevin answered.
"All right, I'll keep you updated on our investigation," Fuchs said, standing up and was completely oblivious to what was going on.
Emily noticed how the deputy was acting, and it wasn't good. "He knows they know."
"There's no way that Dean or Sam can get a drop on him," Liz agreed.
"This is crazy," Morgan said. "We gotta get over there."
"I'm coming with you," said Penelope, putting down the keyboard as Reid, Emily, Liz, and Morgan headed for the door.
"No you're not," Morgan protested.
"You do not have time to argue," Penelope grunted as she got up.
A/N: Will the team stop Jason, or will he kill more people? You'll just have to wait until next week to find out. R&R everyone!