A/N: Hey *tentative wave* Thank you for sticking with me, I know I don't update as frequently as I should, but I'm trying to change that! I've been crazy busy the last few weeks so I haven't had much time to write anything. However, this week is March break so I have the whole week off! When I haven't been babysitting or doing other stuff I've been writing (so basically when I should have been sleeping I've been writing). I got a nasty headache the morning after writing this chapter, so I hope it was worth it and you enjoy it. :)
"How did it go?" Artie asked as Myka entered the warehouse and slammed the door behind her.
How did it go? Myka wondered. She grimaced and sat down in a chair.
"That bad huh?" Artie said with a sad smile and turned to Pete. "What did you do?"
"Why do you assume that it had something to do with me?" Pete responded and sat down across the table from Myka. She glared at him.
"Well she's only like this when you do something," Artie said and pointed at Pete. "So what happened?"
Pete cleared his throat and glanced at Claudia, who pulled up a chair and sat by the computer next to Artie.
"Well... Claudia and I may have had a... small spat," Pete confessed.
"Small?" Myka exclaimed in disbelief. "Pete, I could hear you in the next room."
"Okay so maybe it wasn't small but-" Pete was cut off by Myka.
"But nothing. You shouldn't have let your emotions get in the way Pete. If they weren't suspicious of our involvement before, they certainly will be now."
"What did you two argue about?" asked Artie.
"H.G." Pete replied and looked down guiltily at his hands.
"Well as long as you didn't argue in front of the FBI agents..."
Myka saw Artie's face fall as he looked around the room. She knew he was mad and they were in for another lecture. She decided to wait to mention the conversation she'd had with Rossi after they left the interrogation room.
"Wait. Wait. Please tell me you didn't." He got silence as a response. "I specifically told you to not, to not talk about anything warehouse related in front of them! Do you know what you two could have done? What did you say? Exactly?"
"Well it started out about whether or not we thought H.G. was capable of being the killer," Pete said hesitantly and glanced at Claudia.
Myka turned around and followed Pete's gaze; Claudia was typing away on her laptop. What is she looking for? Myka wondered.
"Alright then what?" Artie said impatiently.
"Uh..." Myka could tell Pete didn't want to answer the question. "We... Uh..."
"Pete, spit it out!" Myka snapped.
"I might have said something about her being bronzed for one hundred and ten years okay?" he admitted.
"What?" Artie looked like he wanted to kill Pete.
"It was an accident!" Pete said defensively. "And Claudia wasn't helping matters either, she was yelling stuff too."
"Yes, but I didn't say anything that would jeopardize the warehouse or this case, Dummy."
Myka looked at Claudia who had remained silent up until then. Claudia was still tapping away intently on her computer.
"Pete, are you a complete moron or something?" Artie yelled. "They'll certainly look into what you said because it made no sense to them and that's what they do. They'll start digging around your file, well, probably all our files, and come sniffing around."
"Look will you all relax?" Pete pleaded. "Even if they did catch anything we said, it's not like they're going to know what it means or be able to find out."
"Yeah, well you try explaining that logic to Mrs. Fredrick."
Pete fearing that she was behind him turned around in his chair.
"She's not here Pete," Myka commented.
"Ah-ha!" Claudia burst out triumphantly which caused Myka, Pete and Artie to turn in her direction.
"What are you doing Claud?" Myka said as she got up and walked over to stand on Claudia's left side.
"Well when Agent Morgan asked what I did for a job, I said I was a glorified nerd. He then used the term 'Technical Analyst' and it made me wonder how he knew about that type of job. So I did some digging on their team and found that they have a technical analyst who works for them named Penelope Garcia."
"What does that have to do with anything?" Artie asked, clearly the point was completely lost on him.
"She's saying that she could try to hack into their database to see what kind of information they have," Myka supplied. "Right?"
"Sort of." Claudia replied. "They most likely don't keep much information regarding open cases on their computers but I could see what this Garcia chick has searched recently. It might give us an idea on who they're suspecting and what they think the murder weapon might be. I could also check for the Coroner's reports."
"That's a great idea!" Myka smiled brightly at Claudia then turned to Pete. "Don't you think so Pete?"
"...I guess so..." Pete replied bitterly.
"Did you guys actually accomplish anything that could help us find the artifact?" Artie questioned, changing the topic.
"All I got from Helena was that she smelled fudge before she came across the bodies. That's why she was there when the police arrived," Myka said with a shrug. She still didn't think it was the best time to tell them that Rossi no longer trusted them because of the whole fudge thing.
"I saw a picture of some kind of fancy knife on their board," Claudia replied sounding hopeful while tapping away on her computer.
"A knife," Artie mumbled. "Of course! Why didn't I think of that sooner?"
"You think that could be our artifact?" Pete asked sceptically.
"It might be..." Artie replied as he turned back to the warehouse computer and started a search.
"Wait, so you're saying that there's a knife out there that kills people, and you haven't snagged it yet?" Pete said in disbelief.
"Yes more than one actually," Artie replied.
Myka's jaw dropped; she couldn't believe that either."Artie, isn't that a little dangerous?"
"They haven't been a problem yet so... Not really." Artie replied with a shrug.
Myka sighed and shook her head. Sometimes Artie's logic just never made sense to her.
"Alright, so does that mean it's one person who's doing all the killings with the help of an artifact, or is it the artifact controlling a person... Somehow..." Myka pondered. The timeline of the murders were all too close for it to be the same person, but she couldn't figure out how the artifact could kill people by itself.
"As soon as I can identify it then I will let you know," Artie said.
"Okay then," Myka said, drawing out the first word.
"Now Claudia," Artie addressed the girl with her face glued to the screen in front of her. "You said you saw a picture of a knife?"
"Yepperonie Gramps," Claudia replied without taking her eyes off her laptop.
"Wha-" Artie stammered. "Ju- uh, don't call me that. What kind of image was it?"
"What do you mean?" Claudia asked, obviously confused as to what he wanted to know.
Myka was confused as well.
"Was it hand drawn?" Artie barked. "An actual picture taken by a camera? Just an outline done on a computer?"
"I think it was just an outline done on the computer."
"You think or you know?"
"Okay, Dude, settle down," Claudia said, finally looking over at Artie. "I know. We know they don't have the murder weapon, but I thought it was odd that they couldn't identify it."
"So what does that mean?" Pete asked.
"The knife must be specially made," Myka mused. "It's not some generic knife in one of their systems. It must be old then too."
"Yes, very good," Artie responded.
Myka smiled with the relief of finally having a lead. Things were looking up for them, or so it seemed.
"Hey Claudia, what are you doing?" Pete asked and glanced at her screen. Myka followed his gaze and saw the computer screen was taken up by some kind of code.
"I found the BAU's technical analyst's computer, so now I'm trying to hack her system."
"Ah, I see," replied Pete. The computer then started making odd beeping noises, causing Claudia to turn back to it.
"Oh man," Claudia mumbled.
"What is it?" Myka asked concern evident in her voice.
"This is no ordinary FBI computer. The security on this system is amazing."
"Can you still get into it?" Myka asked sceptically.
"Duh, I got in here didn't I?"
A/N: I hope to start updating this story once a week (key word there is hope). I've already started on the next chapter and I need your opinions on this: Who do you think is a better hacker, Claudia or Garcia?
Thanks :)