PANOPLY OF FEAR
Chapter 8
Organisation

"All we needed was to be organised. Then we could accomplish anything." Mr Ali Adejua - Headmaster

"The Fair house burnt down to the ground last night." Emily said on their return to the BAU. "But lucky for us, only to the ground. The basement was left intact."

"They might be good at car chases, but not so good at destroying evidence." Morgan said, still smarting from his last chase. "There was a small laboratory down there, water damaged, but fairly intact."

"Good. Get the stuff to our lab..."

"Already done." Emily said. "Did you get anything at the kids club?"

"It was deserted and locked up. It opens at seven for pre-school child care. I thought you would be best at that, Prentiss. According to the notice board outside, the person who runs and subsidises it is a woman, and my experience is that a woman would be better at getting the information we need."

Emily wearily looked at her watch, hoping for an hour asleep before she left. Six forty five. No chance."I'll get onto it."

Emily left the BAU. Dave reached for the phone. He had driven past Tisha's school earlier. And it was in chaos. No one had been sent in to keep order, and the only force visible inside or out were the armed police at the entrances. Dave had gone down to look, and was upset and angry at what he saw. He called the CDC and asked for Jean Page.

"She's asleep in her room. May I take a message?"

Lucky Jean! How the hell could she sleep with this going on?

"I will speak to whoever is running security at the Outbreak school."

"Putting you through sir."

Dave gripped the receiver, fingers turning white.

It was answered on the second ring.

"Who is keeping order inside?" He asked, not quite able to keep the fury out of his tone.

"That's what the teachers are supposed to be doing." The CDC moron replied. Dave wondered if they had a Moron department, and if so, what the entry qualifications were. He had a godson of six who was probably overqualified.

"They are teachers." He shouted. "They teach!"

"No one will volunteer the job, and we won't order anyone in there."

Dave slammed the phone down. Morgan looked over in awe.

"I'm going myself, Derek; this case wasn't so damned urgent. I'm going in to search for the infection site. Did you know they've not even sent anyone in yet?" Dave said, still fuming. "You take over here. We need to follow up on Edward Fair's work schedule, see if he stole the virus, or just the monkey, and how they are doing with the vaccine, or antidote for those for whom the vaccine will be too late." He was thinking of Aaron and Spencer there. There was little doubt in his mind what was happening to them. He tried not to think about it.

"The lab in Fair's home showed no signs of any animals or cages, at least not anything big enough for monkey. He is working somewhere else."

"See if Garcia can come up with any rental laboratory premises, and check with suppliers. He must have bought the equipment from somewhere."

"Unless he stole it. I'll check that too."

"Call me with anything. And I'll call you."

And Rossi was running to the lift.

Rossi would make a good team leader. He was doing the work ordered by the department himself, although he wanted to be looking for his colleagues. And he was 'ordering' the team on the search for Hotch and Reid.

But as good as Dave would be in Aaron's office, no one, least of all Dave, wanted anyone except Aaron in there for a long time yet.

He called the CDC.

-0-0-0-

Dave parked as close to the school as he could get. There were hundreds of crying and hysterical parents at the gates demanding their kids, and the enforcement officers at the gate were in danger of being trampled, guns or not. Dave pushed his way towards the front, waving his ID.

"A Fed!" yelled someone. "Make him tell us!"

Somebody grabbed his arm, and pulled him round. "When can we have our kids back?" the man shouted in his face.

Someone else pulled him another way and tried to ask him something. Then he felt a fist in his eye, and he staggered against the crowd pressing in on him. Another shove, and he stepped back; a fist to the stomach, and he was down.

I can't believe this; I'm going to be trampled to death by these people I'm here to help...

And he likely would have been if one of the enforcement officers hadn't seen what was happening and hadn't fired his gun over their heads. The crowd backed off, and left off hitting Rossi. He slowly climbed to his feet, shaking with shock. He noticed a few embarrassed expressions on the faces around him.

The crowd parted and he limped to the front. Somewhere in the fracas he'd been injured in his groin again – kicked or trodden on, he wasn't sure - but he was sure he was hurting again. Each step was agony.

When he got to the front, he was helped to stand on a box that contained food for the officers, and he faced the crowd.

"We'll pretend that didn't happen, shall we?" A few sheepish nods. "I have come here to try to get some order established in the school, and to find out what's going on. Please wait patiently. I know it is hard, and I will do my best."

He got off the box with the help of one of the officers, and to his amazement, the crowd began to cheer and clap.

-0-0-0-

Aaron hadn't moved for about half an hour. Reid couldn't even hear him breathing. The last gasp for breath he had heard had been ten minutes ago, and Reid had tears running down his face. He thought Hotch might have died while he sat and did nothing. The IV's were empty. Whatever they had contained was now circulating in Aaron's blood stream.

"Aaron, if you can hear me, please move, or something, just to let me know you are alive!" He pulled against the plastic bonds again. They had restrained his wrists with the backs of his hands together, palms out, so that the cuffs were digging into the soft skin of his inner wrists. He realised that he could cut his artery on the knife like edges of the ties, and bleed to death. He tried to turn his hands around, but the cuffs just dug deeper. He rubbed them up and down the pillar he was tied to. If he could just weaken them a bit, maybe...

He heard a groan from Hotch.

"I'm still here, Aaron. You aren't alone."

Aaron turned his head towards Spencer.

His nose was streaming, and saliva was running from the corner of his mouth. The lips that Reid had so long wanted to kiss were dry and cracked. Drops of blood had dried on them. His eyes streamed tears across his nose and onto his lips. Reid noticed there were tear drops on his closed lashes and on his chin. His face glistened with fevered sweat, and his jaw shook as he shivered.

It had started.

"Vaccine ...didn't work..." he said, so softly, Reid only just caught it. "Don't c-come ...near me..."

"Aaron, I can't get to you! I am so sorry, I can't help you. Please, keep breathing, keep talking to me." Reid felt desperate. He just wanted to free him now, and hold him as he died. The thought that he could die cramped and tortured hurt him more than any wound. This cut to his heart would be open and bleeding forever.

"Please, Aaron, please don't die! I love you, and Emily loves you." Spencer was crying now, unable to stop it. "Aaron, you are loved too much to die!"

The only response was Aaron sneezing and coughing, and a soft sigh. He was dying, and Spencer could do nothing to help him.

-0-0-0-

As Dave limped through the school, he just saw people crying and children fighting and running and generally doing what three hundred underprivileged kids do unsupervised. He was surprised that things weren't a lot worse. But it had to be organised.

He went to the head teacher's office.

'Mr A Adejua Headmaster' was written on a plaque on the door. Mr Adejua wasn't there.

He found the public address system.

First he rang the school bell to get their attention, then he spoke.

"My name is Special Agent David Rossi with the FBI, and I am here to help you. I ask please that everyone in the building, teachers, students, parents, and anyone else, to meet in the school hall in fifteen minutes. I will see you then and answer any questions. Thank you."

He closed the contact, and rested his head on the desk. There was a growing patch of blood on the front of his trousers, and he was feeling very sick. He needed the men's room, and an overall. He didn't want to appear injured in front of them.

He took the first aid box off the wall, and found the men's room just opposite the head teacher's office. There was a white lab coat hanging on the back of the door. He took it down and was pleased that it buttoned up to the bottom. He locked himself in a stall and checked himself out. There was some damage but nothing like last time. He longed to have a salt bath; he knew that would relieve the pain, but he had work to do first. He patched himself up wincing in pain; he made his lip bleed biting down to stop himself from crying out.

He buttoned up the lab coat, and went to the hall that he had passed on the way to the office. He was pleased to see that there were a lot of people already there. He went onto the platform, and the teachers and kids quietened down. When the fifteen had passed, he began.

"Thank you for coming. I am Agent Rossi. First I would like all the teachers who have a class to stand around the edge of the hall."

Obediently, eight of the adults separated themselves and went to the edge.

"Next, I would like the children in those classes to join their teachers."

He watched in delighted amazement as they did as he said. He thought it could be his FBI credentials, but whatever the reason, it was working! He took a chair from the back of the platform and sat down.

"Ok!" he said when movement appeared to stop. All the kids were now in eight tight groups.

"Right, I assume you all know why you are here...(nods and murmurs of assent)...All the remaining adults, except the head teacher if he's free, to go to the gymnasium and set up a medical centre there. Are there any medics here?...(five hands went up)...ok, the highest qualified of the five of you to take charge. Is the head of PE here?...(one hand) ... good, I put you in charge of collecting whatever the medics need."

He looked around the room. Everyone seemed happy with their 'orders'. No one had questioned his authority. They were simply glad someone was taking charge.

"Any questions?"

Several hands went up. He picked one.

"How long do we have to stay here?"

"I can't tell you that. We have to find out what the incubation period is for this particular virus. The CDC is working on this now (I hope!) Any more questions?"

Two hands. Dave picked one. "What are the symptoms, and what do we do if we get sick?"

"It's like the 'flu. If anyone get's sick, go to the gym and they will help you there. Anyone else? No? Ok, teachers take your classes as usual. I'll be back here at four to organise the night. Thank you."

He walked slowly off the platform through the side door. He managed to get out of the view of the staff and pupils before the pain got too much and he fainted at the top of the steps leading down to the corridor.