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"How is it going, Don?" Megan asked in a kind tone, leaning against the doorway of the conference room where her boss was working on the Wunderkind money laundering case.
"I can't say that it hasn't been better," Don responded, rubbing a hand over his face warily. He hadn't slept much in the past few days. "Money laundering seems so trivial compared to what else is going on."
"It still boggles my mind that someone managed to grab so many prodigies without getting caught." The profiler remarked with a sigh.
"Well, you've seen Charlie…" Don put in.
"True," Charlie was spacy on his best days. "But, they can't all be that bad, surely," Megan continued.
"No, probably not," Don agreed. "Frank isn't like that, but than he works as a private detective so he wouldn't be."
"I guess not," Megan said thoughtfully. "Any progress on your case?"
"Not yet, but there is definitely something hinky going on here."
Their conversation was interrupted by Colby's arrival.
"We've got what looks like a big bank robbery," he announced. "The area director wants you to put the money laundering on the back burner for now and go and talk to the bank manager." He informed Don.
"What do you mean it looks like a big bank robbery?" Don questioned.
"The thing is, a bunch of people with accounts at the Pasadena branch of Citibank found out the hard way today that their accounts are empty when they had their cards declined. According to the bank's records all of their money was transferred, and their accounts are reading zero. The director says it's a public relations disaster, between this and the missing geniuses the FBI is beginning to look like a bunch of dogs chasing our tails. He told me to tell you to head out there ASAP."
"Got it," Don agreed. "I will head over there now." He pushed past his two team members.
"We have got to find Charlie," Colby said quietly to Megan once their boss was out of earshot.
"The problem is we have basically nothing to go on," she pointed out with a sight. "Not that I am giving up of course."
"I was thinking about that last night. We don't know anything about these kidnappers but we do know about their victims. We haven't found any bodies so far which seems to indicate that whatever they want these geniuses for it isn't to kill them. So, if it's not some kind of creep serial killer thing what would be the reason to kidnap a bunch of geniuses?"
"To use them in some fashion, I suppose," Megan said slowly.
"Right," Colby agreed with an emphatic nod. "These people have taken a linguist, a computer expert, an artist, a literature expert, a mathematician, a musician, a chess prodigy, and a strategist."
"They all have different specialties, I can't think how they would all be of use on any one project," Megan pointed out.
"But, what if it's not one project, what if it's a lot of little projects…"
"What are you saying?" The profiler asked.
"You said this guy might be some kind of collector earlier, and I think he probably is, but I also think he wants to get some use out of his captives. Like, we've heard of artists being used to produce counterfeits, and between Charlie and the computer expert they could hack some big targets, right? So, my thinking is this, if we look for recent crimes that require technical expertise in one or more of the fields related to our missing geniuses maybe we'll get lucky and find well, our missing geniuses." Colby explained.
"That's it!" Megan exclaimed.
"Yeah, but first we have to find something…"
"You don't understand," Megan interjected. "I think we already have."
"What?"
"The bank robbery! Empting a bunch of accounts remotely? Bank firewalls are supposed to be pretty damn near impenetrable, getting through those would take some serious skill…"
"Charlie!" Colby exclaimed.
"I'm betting Charlie and that computer expert Emily Vander." Megan responded. "And if it was Charlie, he might have been able to leave some clue as to where they are or how we can find them. We need to get the tech guys in here ASAP, we should also get Larry and Amita down here to assist while we are at it."
"On it!" Colby agreed already heading down the hallway.
"We are going to get those geniuses back!" Megan said more to herself than the already disappearing Colby. Of course locating them was one thing, retrieving them was another, with this many potential hostages any type of rescue would be fraught with risk…
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