AN: Sorry about the long notes, but there are a few things you need to know to fully understand this chapter. Dr. Olga Todd was inspired in Dr. John Todd and his wife, Dr. Olga Taussky, both mathematicians. He helped shape the computer science field at Caltech, she aided in the development of matrix theory, which is relevant to probability theory, which is in itself relevant to criminal profiling. The behavioral and social neuroscience program does exist, and sounds like something young!Reid might be interested in.
ECRI stands for Environmental Criminology Research Inc. Based in Canada, it develops and supplies software for advanced crime analysis. It was founded by Dr. Kim Rossmo, pioneer in geographic profiling, whose studies were based in Paul and Patricia Brantingham's work, developers of the field of environmental criminology and its use on crime prevention. Rigel is the first and leading geographic profiling system, developed by ECRI and based in Rossmo's work. It was first released in 1997 and adopted by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) in 2000. The ATF later started offering geographic profiling services in the federal level in 2004.
Penelope St. John is based in Penelope St. John-Orsini, a fictional spy from The Baroness' series. Twice married, twice widowed and a former Elle and Vogue model, she runs a model agency as a cover for her espionage missions. Apparently she has sex many times in each one of her novels, and spends a lot of time naked. Sully Flick is a villain of hers, a smut master.
CIS stands for Counter-Intelligence Staff, part of the CIA's Directorate of Operations (DO). The DO operates until 2005, when it becomes the National Clandestine Service, one of the actual four sections of the CIA. Special Operations is also part of the DO, in charge of covert work. The USSOCOM is the national command in charge of overseeing the Special Operations areas in the Armed Forces. The CNC is the Crimes and Narcotics Center, part of the CIA's Directorate of Intelligence (DI). They are less hands-on than the DO, and operate also in the United States while the DO is mostly overseas. Part of their work nowadays relates to geographic analysis.
Finally, the Palermo Convention is a United Nations-sponsored multilateral treaty against transnational organized crime adopted in 2000. There are three parts of the pact, the one that interests Reid being the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and Children. As a character mentions in Life as a Pretty Boy, undercover!model!Reid's work for the CIA mostly relates to human trafficking.
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Jason Gideon
{1998}
He is not expecting the call but he remembers the name, Dr. Olga Todd from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She's one of the mathematicians the Bureau asked to analyze whether Rigel worked and if it could be trusted to turn geographic profiling into an objective and reliable tool for on-the-road criminal profiling. Unfortunately their conclusions had been that, while a significant advance in the field, the breakthrough they had been looking for was still far away.
"Dr. Todd, how can I help you?"
"Well, Agent Gideon, it seems I'm the one who's going to help you. I've found your answer."
"My answer." To what question, he doesn't ask, sure she will explain.
"Yes, see, I lent the program to one of our PhD candidates, as well as the test cases the FBI put together. He took a look at the CGT, tweaked it and manually ran the algorithm. He then suggested likely locations for each case, which I compared to the output datasheet. He consistently got better results than Rigel, Agent Gideon, with an increase in the success rate between one point two and five point eight percent."
That is a good thing, of course. Still, he doesn't understand how this theoretical issue concerns the Federal government. It is not like they'll change their mind about acquiring a program that's still not trustworthy enough to use in their daily work.
"Are his suggested changes sound? Did you check them?"
Dr. Todd's laugh is an incredulous, merry sound.
"I did something better, I sent them to ECRI and Rossmo himself called back. Some points were already being considered for the next version, but there's at least one fine-tuning nobody had put forth yet. And soon-to-be Dr. Reid's observations have helped convince Dr. Rossmo's team that they need to strengthen the psychological aspects."
That is definitely interesting.
"I thought this Dr. Reid was a mathematician like you."
"Future Doctor, Agent Gideon, he won't defend his thesis until early next year. And yes, his PhD studies are in mathematics. But he also whet his appetite in some basic psychology before attacking the problem, and now he's been eyeing the behavioral and social neuroscience program with far too much interest. The rest of the Department is giving me the evil eye, but well, you can't harness a mind like his. Give him a semester or two and I'm sure he'll be fundamental to the field's progress."
Gideon feels his eyebrows rise. Their efforts had been mostly focused on mathematicians; criminalists too, but mostly pure, applied, specialized math researchers. Could it be that this is why they've been staggering while Canada leads? That all they need is to look at a mix of natural, social and hard sciences?
"Could you arrange a meeting with this colleague of yours, Dr. Todd? I can be in Cambridge tomorrow morning."
"Of course, I'll see to it, he's going to be delighted. And oh, I didn't tell you? I'm not at the MIT anymore, Agent Gideon. It is Caltech now, which curiously means I'm still a beaver. But I won't distract you any longer. I guess we'll see you in Pasadena tomorrow, right?"
{1998}
"I only need him for his face," she insists. "He just has to be silent, be pretty, and nothing more."
Gideon smiles at her words. Spencer, his face that of a deer caught in the headlights, is blushing a furious red.
"He's only sixteen."
"That didn't stop you from bringing him into the CIA. Come on. I need new 'models' for my agency," she says, drawing air quotes, "and every baby agent in the current litter is either ugly or stupid. Unlike your boy."
Spencer makes a small, strangled noise from his place behind the computer monitor. He's supposed to be working, but given how small his office is, there's no way he could avoid listening to their conversation.
Gideon sighs.
"I seriously doubt anybody good enough to go through the CIA recruiting and training process can be labeled as stupid."
St. John rolls her eyes and throws hers arms in the air.
"Okay, I'll admit it. None is the kind of pretty your boy is. Can I have him now?"
Gideon looks at her, wearing his benevolent uncle face.
"And what kind of pretty is Spencer, exactly?"
Spencer is now directly looking at them, panic clear in his face. Gideon's attention, though, is completely on Penelope St. John. They rarely cross paths, but any time they do she's only regarded him with bored curiosity, and personally he finds her a bit predictable despite her fickle ways. Nonetheless, she's the kind of agent whose area of expertise could be useful to Spencer, and Gideon fully expects to take the chance offered.
She doesn't have to know right away, though.
"The kind of pretty Sully Flick would be interested in." She smiles wickedly, winking at Spencer and making the boy flush even redder. "Don't worry, I'll make sure he understands he may look, but not touch."
Gideon keeps silent as if in consideration. He's already made his decision, but he goes over it again, if only to make St. John twitch. From the beginning, his plan has been to bring Spencer into the BAU. It still is, despite the necessary detour into the CIA. Now that he knew how bright the boy's mind was, he couldn't let it unattended for years just because of his age. And, even if the Agency is as adamant against formally hiring an underage Spencer as the Bureau was, at least they are willing to train him until the day comes.
It happens to be a good thing, because despite being a genius there are many aspects of Spencer's that need to be groomed, and not all of them fall under Gideon's area of expertise. Furthermore, as his own work often keeps him away, he's thankful for the well rounded training the CIA is giving Spencer. But then again, there are things the standard instruction doesn't include, and strong interpersonal skills are something that is expected from the trainees, not something that is taught.
And they just happen to be something Penelope St. John excels at, her talent to read people and make them open up to her a kind of profiling that, were Spencer to learn, would give him new insight and help him become a BAU legend, as he's meant to be.
"I have one condition," he finally says, knowing full well she won't deny him.
{1999}
"I don't think he's prepared for this."
"He's a fast learner."
"It shouldn't matter. It was agreed that we would wait until he was at least eighteen before involving him into anything we wouldn't want any other children involved. Sending him to a mission, this mission specially, is completely against what any morally responsible person should stand for."
Gideon agrees with Penelope St. John: Spencer is a fast learner. He doesn't only memorize texts; he understands them, new concepts clicking in his brain in a way that often leaves his instructors staggering to follow.
However, he also is of a mind with Counsel Elizabeth Parker. St. John's operation, the one where Spencer insinuated himself into without even trying, the one where he was unexpectedly put in a position to gather more information than St. John had managed to in six months, or ever dreamed to collect, is definitely unsavory.
Still …
"What is your opinion on the matter, Dr. Gideon?"
He looks at the Associate Deputy Director, thinking how best to say what he has to.
"We've already discussed the subject many times, sir," he starts, knowing full well that in none of those previous occasions did he give a direct answer to the man. "All I have to add is that, however young of age Spencer Reid is, he hasn't been a child for many years now."
And that, he knows, will seal Spencer's fate. It will later fall on him to pull the boy from the CIA clutches and back in the BAU, where he truthfully belongs. But meanwhile he has to think of Spencer's future career first, and however unforeseen this path, it is the one that has to be followed.
Spencer can only be made stronger by the experience.
{2000}
"I have decided to continue."
"You don't have to, Spencer. The FBI-"
"Won't even look at me until I'm twenty-one, or older. The CIA has already offered me a place as a CIS in the Directorate of Operations as soon as I turn eighteen."
And that is exactly what Gideon fears, knowing as he does that Counterintelligence has by now agreed to share him with Special Operations and the USSOCOM. Thankfully he still has a card up his sleeve. He just has to play it wisely.
"The ATF is in talks with ECRI. They are finally bringing Rigel into the federal system." Spencer's eyes go round, just as he'd expected. He's been in contact not only with Kim Rossmo but also with Paul and Patricia Brantingham, and is forever interested in the slow but sure embracing of geographic profiling by law enforcement.
"It is still going to take a while until it is fully adopted," Spencer says, and although Gideon can see the spark of interest that lights his eyes, there are also doubts. "Have you heard about the Palermo Protocols?"
And yes, Gideon has, and he also knows that, after his brush with human trafficking, Spencer is now deeply interested in working against it.
"I'm not telling you to abandon what you've been doing this last year," he says. "I'm just suggesting that you should call Dr. Rossmo, tell him you're interested in working with the ATF on a part-time basis, I'm sure both the ATF and the CIA will agree readily. Ask the CIA to rank you as a Specialized Skills Officer instead of an Operations Officer, ask to be assigned to the CNC. And whatever you do, don't let them send you overseas unless it is temporally. Someone like you is difficult to forget, and if you disappear now, if you follow this path, you'll have to say forever goodbye to your former life."
He can see that Spencer has already thought of it, or part of it, but still it is obvious that his words shock him. Even if unmentioned, he can feel Diana Reid's presence among them, and Spencer's immense guilt about her worsened condition. And moreover, Gideon knows about William Reid and how Spencer feels about the man. There is no way he is going to abandon his mother, Gideon now knows, even if until a moment ago he wasn't sure.
"I was thinking about starting that second PhD in Chemistry," Spencer finally says, his voice small but resolute. "I'd have to be assigned to California, work something with Caltech about covering most of the credits long distance, try to recover as many contacts of St. John's as possible … but I think it can work."
"And the ATF?"
There is something in Spencer's eyes when he looks up at him, something way too old for a seventeen year old, even an emancipated genius that has been looking after himself and his sick mother for years.
"I'll call Dr. Rossmo in the morning."
And Gideon nods, because there's nothing more he can say.
{2007}
Gideon can't tear his eyes from the screen where Spencer is convulsing. He's done this, he's the only one at fault. Not only did he knowingly put a child, however bright, in this cursed path, he also paid no attention when Spencer came to him with misgivings about Charles Hankel. He had dismissed Spencer's warnings, truly believing there was nothing he could have seen in the man that Gideon didn't.
And now the former agent is holding Spencer hostage along with his own son, and Spencer …
is convulsing convulsing convulsing and somebody says he's going to choke in his vomit and Gideon knows it is true why does nobody help him and he can see it happen he can't breathe he
And Spencer is dead.
He can't do this, not after Sara, not after Jane, not after Flagstaff.
"Dr. Gideon?" an agent asks when he leaves the room, but doesn't follow. Not that he would be able to change his mind.
He already knew he wasn't going to return to the BAU when he didn't answer JJ's text about a case in Milwaukee. The team is down three members, Hotch suspended because of Gideon's mistake, Prentiss having handed her resignation according to Garcia's voice message. He had left because there he was more a liability than an asset, and because Spencer needed him more.
It had been so clear in his mind. He was going to save Spencer, get him back in good health, order him to quit the CIA. The BAU was going to need a new profiler and Spencer was the only one good enough to take his place. Better than him, infinitely better, even when he wasn't broken.
But now Spencer is dead.
He can't do this.
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AN2: Well, this was the story's last chapter. I feel like I've been forever researching for this part, as I didn't want to write something obviously wrong. Also, because I'm working in a possible Big Bang in this Universe, and I had to do a timeline and make sure where it fell with Criminal Minds canon and Real Life events. And because Gideon plays an important part in bringing Reid into Law Enforcement, both in canon and in my AU. And because I wanted to mention a few events in undercover!model!Spencer's life that have been living in my mind and that I expect you'll find interesting ;). Thanks for reading!