PANOPLY OF FEAR
Chapter 5
Animal Experimentation

Mahatma Gandhi said, ""I abhor vivisection with my whole soul. All the scientific discoveries stained with innocent blood I count as of no consequence."


Garcia and Reid were talking to the Hotel Manager. He had in front of him the security tapes, going back one week. Garcia was itching to have them.

"We only keep the tapes for a week." he said. "This is everything we have."

"Thank you." Reid said, and he took half of the pile, Garcia picked up the rest. He carried them up to Garcia and Emily's room. The hotel had provided a video player for Garcia, but she really wanted her facial recognition software and her computer.

"I'll tell Rossi what you need. He might think it best for you to get back." Reid could see worry in her eyes. He thought it was probably the same in his own.

Reid went down to the lounge and called the EPN group, to see if the chairman was in. It was the same woman who answered the phone.

"I am so sorry, but he has been held up. He might not be back for a day or two. But he's said I can give you any information that you need."

"I would like to come to one of your meetings." Reid said. "I will be able to ask questions there?"

"That is probably the best idea." She said. "We will be meeting in the hall behind St Hilda's Catholic Church tomorrow evening at six."

"I'll be there."Reid said. "And can I bring a friend?"

"Yes, of course. I look forward to seeing you."

Reid put the phone down and turned to Morgan. "We've got a date tomorrow, The EPN group. It would be good if you come because of your ethnicity."

Morgan's phone rang before he could think of an appropriate retort. It was David.

"We're having that meeting now, in my room. We have a case to solve."

The two agents left their room and walked down the corridor towards Dave's.

-0-0-0-

Aaron's muscles were screaming at him. He had been cramped up in the cage for several hours and he desperately needed to stretch, or even move a little. But it was impossible. It was almost as if the cage had been built especially for him.

He tried to think, to come up with some kind of plan, but whatever drug they had given him was preventing him from having coherent thoughts. His head was aching to the point where shapes were dancing before his eyes, and he wanted to wrap his arms around his head, but his hands were pressed against the small of his back. He could feel the blood soaking into his white tee shirt. He pressed his legs against the floor of the tiny cage and pushed his back up; maybe he could break the joints of the sides of the cage. But it was strongly built. But all he managed to do was hurt his fragile back. The blood was flowing now, down the sides of his body and dipping down onto his legs and onto the floor. It was agony where the recently healed wounds in his back opened up and his eyes watered and he screamed out in pain and frustration.

He took a sip of the warm water through the tube. They wanted him to feel like a captive animal in a cage, and it was taking all his effort not to feel like one. The disorientation was completed by the lack of natural light in the room. He had no way to judge the passing hours, or how long it would be until morning. He alternated between total control and blind panic, his limbs twitched and tightened into spasms and cramps, and he shivered with the cold, although he was sweatingwith fright and dread. When bile arose in his throat and he was violently sick, he was left totally crushed and exhausted and he slipped into a coma like faint.

-0-0-0-

Garcia didn't attend the meeting in Rossi's room. She was watching the security tape over and over, trying to get a good look at the abductors. She needed to get back to her bunker and her computers.

The remaining five agents were sharing information. Reid explained about the EPN group that he and Morgan were going to visit the next evening.

"They've had problems with racist groups attacking," Reid said, "but they wouldn't disclose details over the phone. At the meting we should be able to find out some information."

He had made copies of the flyer, and he gave one to each agent.

"This UnSub is unusual, in that he wants an end to poverty, but is blaming the ethnic groups." Morgan said. "Rid America of the poor, and at the same time, rid the country of blacks. Racism seems to be the driving force rather than poverty."

Rossi looked to Emily. "Did you find anything interesting when you interviewed Doctor Page?"

"Not much more than we already know. The virus they were working on kills more slowly, so it will as a consequence travel further before it dies out. If there is an outbreak we will have to be very quick at quarantining the area." She said. "There is no vaccine. Maureen was going to produce the first vaccine after being injected with mouse antibodies. This was hopefully going to stimulate the animals own antibody production, and in turn this could work on people. The mouse antibodies don't work on us, but they do on monkeys."

Rossi had made copies of the witness statements, and he passed them around. Kieran Dovey and his wife Rhona both described a tall stooped man with curly hair in a halo around his head. The other two men were were 'average'. The 'drunken' man was definitely Aaron though. Tall with Black hair, charcoal grey suit, broad shoulders and fair skin.

""Reid, has the Tech Girl ... Penelope... found anything on the tapes?"

"She asked me to ask you if she could go back to Quantico." Reid said. "She needs her software."

"Yes, that is a good idea. She can go back on a scheduled flight in the morning; maybe you could book it for her. Ok, has anyone got anything else to add?"

"I have made a list of likely targets." Jareau said. "There are quite a few, there are a lot of deprived areas. Do you think we should issue a warning?"

"No not at this stage." Rossi said. "What could we say? There is nothing for them to avoid. And Jennifer, I want you to fly back tomorrow with Penelope. You are too vulnerable in your condition."

Jareau began to protest, but Dave was insistent. "Penelope will be thankful for the help and the company I believe."

He wouldn't accept an argument. As they left, Reid touched Emily on the arm.

"Would you care to join me in the bar for a quick drink?"

Emily nodded. She guessed he wanted to ask her why she was looking for Hotch earlier. She sat down in a darkened booth, and Reid went and bought them each a drink. Sweet white wine for him, Dry red for her.

They sat facing one another for a good few minutes without saying anything. She warmed the wine with her hands around the bowl of the glass, and allowed the evaporating alcohol to travel into her sinuses.

Then Reid asked her exactly the question she had anticipated.

"I was going to tell him about how I feel." She said. "But what has that to do with you?" She knew she should be annoyed. This was definitely no one else's business, but she couldn't be annoyed with Reid. He had a sweet innocence that meant you couldn't be angry with him. He was never ever malicious, just a little tactless in his dealings with people. She smiled at him, taking away any feelings of irritation that might have come across in her words.

"I thought so." He said. "I think it will be you he chooses, anyway. He prefers women, although he has ...erm ...He prefers women anyway."

She reached across the table and covered his hand with hers. "If either one of us is lucky enough to win his heart, the other one of us shouldn't feel betrayed." She said. "It will be hard, but I think it's important for us both to remember that we aren't in competition."

Reid smiled at her in agreement. "We just need to find him." He said. "We don't have many leads."

"We'll find him, Spencer." She said. "We have to."

-0-0-0-

It was a long cold anxiety filled night for Aaron. He was very cold in the morning when the kidnappers came back, and he was moaning and crying like a trapped animal. But his mental condition was not relevant to the work they were doing. It was a shock though that Hotchner seemed to be broken so quickly. The cage door was opened, and the man in the cage groaned and reached out to crawl out of the cage. That wasn't why it was opened though. They pushed him back, holding the gun between his eyes on the bridge of his nose.

His head was tilted to the side, and he looked at Edward with wide dark eyes.

"Please, let me out?" he begged. His eyes were huge, unblinking."Please, help me..."

"You have a job to do." Edward said. He reached in the cage and cut the ties that held his wrists together. Aaron attempted to move his arms but so long in the same position made the movement agonising. Edward stretched Aaron's arms out behind him and fastened them to the top of the cage, his pale inner arms against the expanded metal. The ties were on his wrists, either side of his elbows, and around his biceps. He was now immobilised completely. His head hung forward, he was still kneeling in the tiny cramped cage, the soft flesh of his inner arms exposed and vulnerable.

The cage was closed and locked. He screamed, "No!" but he was ignored. It was like a horror movie. He felt something sharp on the inside of his elbows. And he realised with a dreadful fear that an IV was being attached to each of his arms.

"What are you doing?" he cried out through the pain in his cheek, and the screaming muscles of his tortured body. "Please, tell me! What are you doing to me?"A cold liquid was entering his veins. He pulled against the restraints, to no avail. There was no chance of escape.

"Please tell me!" he said softly. "What are you doing?"

Edward knelt down next to the cage. Aaron turned his head to look at him, despite the hurt it caused, and the throbbing headache.

"That, my friend, is the Ebola antibody we have extracted from Maureen. We will give you a few hours to absorb it, then we will test its efficacy." Edward smiled at the distressed man he held captive. "You could be the saviour of thousands. Or alternatively, you will die a horrible death from Ebola. Either way, you will have made a major contribution to science."

"Please don't do this." Aaron whispered. Then the effort of holding his head to the side became too much and he looked down at his knees again. Edward filled up the water bottle attached to the cage, and they left him alone again, and went out of the clinic to their car. As they locked the door, they heard a horrific scream as the antibodies worked in Aaron's body, and the convulsions that they had seen in their animal experiments gripped him and tore him apart.

Edward for a brief moment felt empathy for him, knowing that the suffering would carry on for several hours before Hotchner would pass out in agony. But the empathy didn't last long. Hotchner was going to help clean up his beautiful country. He should be proud.

He heard the screams even with the engine running, and it un-nerved him.

"Get us out of here." He said to Neil. "I don't want to listen to that."

-0-0-0-

Reid went with Emily back to her room where Garcia was still working on the tapes.

"Dave said you should get back to Quantico tomorrow. You are booked onto the ten thirty six flight." Reid said. "And JJ is going back with you."

"Good. I know I can get a lot out of these images. But I can't get anything without my computers."

Spencer bid them good night, and went back to his room he was sharing with Morgan. It was late and he needed some sleep before a busy day tomorrow.

He just hoped that Aaron was safe. Even if he chose Emily over him, he would not stop loving him.

He couldn't help it.