Chp. 22

The waiting was the hardest part, on both sides. For the Dragon Slayer team, it was a delicate balance. Wait too long and their prisoner would toughen up. Act too quickly and their prisoner would just clam up and stop talking. But these men knew what they were doing and that was good, because this mission had more at stake than a simple target who needed to die. There was that element of the equation, to be sure, but there was also a little boy to consider. A little boy who'd known little of good things like love, compassion and tenderness.

Mark checked his watch. Alvin had been sitting in the cell bleeding for ten minutes. "Ok, Jimmy, do your thing."

"Ok, but for the record…" James started, before being cut off.

"We know! You hate good cop!" Mark and Will both yelled, exasperated.

James raised his hands in surrender. "Well excuse me for trying to lighten the mood." He grabbed a first aid kit and walked to the cell.

"How long you think before he breaks?" Will asked.

Mark shrugged. "No idea, but for Spencer's sake, I hope it's quick."

"You think he knows we're gonna kill him when we're done with him?" Will asked.

"Do they ever?" Mark asked.

It was true. Most of the people they'd taken into that cell had no idea that they would die once they'd outlived their usefulness. Of course, the people who went into that cell were guilty of some crime punishable by death to begin with. They just hadn't been tried and found guilty in a court of law.

000

Alvin was numb to the pain. Numb to feeling in general, actually. He wasn't as naïve as these men thought he was. He could take some of the pain. But he'd seen the anger in eyes of man who stabbed him. Alvin was pretty sure he was the same man who'd taken him down in the Target parking lot. This man was a professional; a killer. Alvin was almost certain that once he gave these men all the information he had on William Reid and his associates, they would put a bullet in his head. Strangely, a peace cam over Alvin at this realization. At one time, he'd been a law student with a bright future. Then things took a turn for the worse, as they often do. He thought about what his nana, who'd been so proud of him, would say if she saw him now. He wondered if he would see her again when he died. As the door opened, his stomach clenched with the horrible feeling that it was all about to start again. He relaxed a little when he saw the man who entered was not his torturer.

"So you the good cop?" Alvin asked before he could stop himself.

James considered this. Their prisoner's usually cowered and begged not to be killed, even from his good cop routine. Perhaps this one deserved an ounce of respect, even though he did work with pedophiles. "Yeah, I'm the good cop. Let's take a look at that wound."

"Why bother? Your friend out there is just going to kill me when he's got the information he's after."

"Because you need to live long enough to give us something useful, that's why bother." James said, crossing the room and beginning to patch Alvin's knife wound.

000

James left the small cell after bandaging Alvin's wounds, wondering how long his friend would let their prisoner live. Given Mark's track record, James knew that once Alvin gave up the information, the man was as good as dead. James was fine with that. He thought about his seven year old son, Ethan and what he would do if Ethan had been hurt the same way Spencer had. But that didn't mean he necessarily wanted to be an accessory to the torture of a fellow human being, among other things.

"So, he say anything?" Mark asked, bringing James back to the present.

"You saw the feed." James said.

"Yeah," Mark turned to Will. "Kill the camera and whatever happens, don't come in. I'll text you intel as I get it. Call Garcia and have her on standby to run down any leads. Alright, gents, let's get it done." Mark said and the other two nodded.

000

Dave, Gideon, Morgan and Hotch were sitting around the bar in Dave and Carolyn's kitchen. Ostensibly, they were on watch. In reality, Dave, Gideon and Hotch were there to keep Morgan from running off cocked and doing something stupid.

"You know you guys don't have to watch me, right? I already promised Prentiss I wouldn't go anywhere until Will and Mark brought back some information." Derek said, and he meant it.

Dave started to respond when his cell phone rang. He pulled it out and checked the number. "Yeah…ok…no, we'll hang here. Good…what are you going to do with…" Rossi pulled the phone away from his ear and scowled at it.

"What is it?" Derek asked.

"Mark said their prisoner gave up intel on the people who have Spencer."

"Assuming he's still with them. Rossi, when this guy doesn't come back there gonna know something went bad and they'll just move Spencer somewhere else."

"He…" Rossi started, but Morgan wasn't having it and angrily headed for the stairs.

The other three agents sat in silence for a minute before Gideon spoke. "What's his plan?"

"Knowing Mark, it's probably something along the lines of 'get Spencer back and kill the enemy with extreme prejudice.' You two ok with that?" Hotch and Gideon silently contemplated what their friend and teammate was asking, then each nodded in turn. Both men knew what they would want if their son's had been abused the way Spencer was being. They would want blood.

000

Alvin jerked as the door to his cell opened loudly and in that instant, he somehow knew that he would die. But part of him wanted to confirm it first. So he looked his captor in the eye and asked. "You going to kill me?"

Mark nodded. "You work with people who use kids for sex. What do you think? The question you be concerning yourself with is, 'how much pain am I gonna be in before it stops?'"

The two men stared at each other in silence for several minutes, each waiting the other out. Eventually, Mark won. "William Reid recruited me. His wife Diana was one of my professor's. She was friends with another professor, Angela Taylor. She runs the organization with her husband Morris."

"I'm going to check this. If you're lying to me…"

"I'm not going to like what happens, I know." Alvin interrupted, wincing as a fist connected with his jaw.

"No one likes a smart ass."

000

Will handed Mark a phone as he came out of the cell. "You get all that Penny?"

"Yeah, I'll call you back once I've worked my magic."

"You got it. Garcia, I'm sorry."

"It's ok. Just get baby boy back to Emily and Derek. Promise me."

"Goes without saying." Mark disconnected the call and handed the phone back to Will.

"Now comes the hard part?" James asked.

"Darn right. I'll take watch. You guys get some sleep."

Will handed the phone back to Mark. "Incase Garcia calls back."

After grabbing a cup of coffee, Mark settled in to wait for Garcia to confirm what Alvin had told him. He hoped the man was telling the truth, only because it would get them to Spencer faster.

000