Chapter twenty-four
BAU Headquarters
FBI building
Quantico, VA

Morgan

Kevin and Garcia were still in an on-again/off-again relationship. At the moment it was off again, which was probably why Kevin felt safe gawping at Susanna when she came out of the elevator. "Oh man!" He said quietly. "Who is that?" He asked Morgan.

"Susanna Holman. She's the one who contacted us about Henry. Why?"

"Just look at her. Man, she is, like, every nerd's dream. Queen of a thousand hentai, featured on every third manga cover. Wow."

The hardest part was not laughing. "Yeah, well, that also comes with a list of vision problems and the potential for deadly sun exposure. Besides you're a little late for that party." Morgan gestured to where the still-dazzled Reid was making her tea.

Kevin sighed. "Maybe it's the PhD. I should get one. Dr. Lynch. That might work."

A few minutes later Rossi found him in the hallway, still fighting the urge. "If you fight laughter that hard you'll hurt yourself. What did I miss?"

"I'll tell you later. So what did you learn about that game?"

"I learned who Goodwin considers an enemy, for one thing. But it was confusing, I couldn't figure out how I was getting XP points."

"What do you mean? For us laymen."

"Usually you have to reach certain objectives, capture the fort, kill the bad guys, something along those lines, and when you do you gain experience points. Gain so many points and you get access to in-game goodies, better weapons, better armor, more supplies, that kind of thing. In my experience a given type of objective is usually worth so many points, for example in Planetside a sunderer is worth more XP than a light tank, but a light tank is always worth the same. In this game that didn't seem to be the case. It's like it was taking something else into consideration. It wasn't the weapon I was using, I tried that."

"So that's weird?"

"All games are different, but if he's awarding more or less points based on some action then he wants the player to be performing that action. That would be telling."

Huh. "Gonna keep playing?"

"Later. My eyes aren't as young as they used to be and those graphics are lousy. Besides, I'm hoping Susanna can help shed some light on it."

Spencer

They all assembled in the conference room. "What do we know so far?" Hotch asked.

"It appears that Black Knights consist of unmarried males between the ages of sixteen and thirty whose families are members of Goodwin's church." Blake said.

"Any other defining criteria?'

"Well they're all entirely off the grid." Garcia said. "No SSI numbers, fake driver's licenses, not even any birth records; they were all born at home."

"You think that was deliberate?" Rossi asked.

"We have some of Goodwin's writings on every family making a 200 year plan." Blake replied. "If that's his planning timeframe, given that he started his ministry thirty years ago, it's entirely possible. It looks like he's been preaching the idea of giving birth at home with as little assistance as possible from the get-go."

"But why would any Unsub have a two-hundred year event horizon?" Morgan asked. "Where is he getting two hundred anyway?"

"Goodwin started his ministry in the '80's." Blake said. "I know that's a little before your time. Back then everyone was in awe of the 'Japanese miracle', how their economy was taking over the world. One of the things that shocked American business was that companies over there like Toyota and Honda had hundred year business plans, planning for the ongoing success of the company even when the CEO was in his grave. I'm guessing he went with two hundred to try to impress people back then."

"Even though he's not going to be alive to see this thing through?"

"Postmillennial eschatology," Rossi told him.

"Dominion," Susanna supplied.

"Huh?"

Spencer felt the pattern falling into place. "Postmillennial eschatology is an interpretation of chapter 20 of the Book of Revelation which sees Christ's second coming as occurring after the "Millennium", a Golden Age in which Christian ethics prosper. What's Dominion?"

"And God said; Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. Genesis, chapter 1, verse 26." Susanna replied. "It's a related idea that says that Christ will come once Christians take Dominion over the earth, specifically over what Pastor Goodwin calls the Eight Pillars as well as converting every heart to the faith."

"The Eight Pillars?"

"The eight pillars of influence in society; business, government, military, media, arts and entertainment, education, the family, and religion"

"And he wants to take control of all of that?" Morgan asked.

"Not him specifically. He wants the church fathers, or at least to have people who share his faith in leadership roles in each of those categories."

"That's ambitious enough to fill two hundred years." Rossi said. "He doesn't have to get it done by the time he dies; he just has to get it well underway. He's already thirty years in, more or less; I wonder how he's doing."

"Well we didn't find any copies of the church plan on any of the computers we recovered but we did find the family plans, mostly with several revisions over the past few years." Garcia pointed out. "It looks like the plans further out included what you said, becoming bigwigs in different industries."

"What about closer in?" Hotch asked.

"That's what's weird and what all the revisions were about, it's all about the number of children and grandchildren they plan to have and it looks like they've been revising the numbers downward every year."

"That's something you were saying." Morgan said to Susanna. "Not enough marriages."

"So not as many arrows in the quiver as they planned." She agreed.

"Arrows?"

"As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are children of his youth. Happy is the man that has his quiver full of them: they shall not be ashamed, but they shall confront their enemies at the gate. Psalm 127, verses 4 and 5."

"Maybe that's why the kidnappings." Blake said, "More arrows for the quiver."

"The math doesn't work." Susanna replied.

"Oh?"

"Boys are expected to marry at eighteen, girls at sixteen, and start families right off. If everyone had married when they ought my father should have thirteen grandchildren by now, not one."

"How many grandchildren is each child expected to produce?" Hotch asked.

"They say that's up to the Lord, but they expect ten or more." Susanna replied.

They were all quiet a moment as that piece fell into place. Finally Rossi spoke up. "Fine, I'll say it. Breeding stock."

"Thank god JJ's not here." Morgan replied. "But if that's the case why not go younger?"

"I can only assume that by the time a child is that age any genetic problems they would have would show." Susanna gave him a smile that was both rueful and relieved. "Genetic problems take you out of the marriage pool."

"But why do they need this many children?" Blake asked. "I mean, what numbers are we looking at here?"

"Assuming each generation takes thirty years to complete a reproduction cycle?" Spencer did some math in his head. "To get loose numbers if we start with 15,000 families now, each having ten children that's 150,000 in thirty years, 1,500,000 in sixty years and 15 million in ninety years. And that's not counting conversions."

"What do you get with that many numbers though?" Blake asked again.

"An army," Morgan replied.

"Yeah, but few of them would fight." Rossi turned to Susanna. "Did you ever hear him say anything about needing large numbers of people for anything?"

She thought a moment. "The only thing I can recall…every time an election comes around there's a debate about whether or not women should vote."

"Seriously?" Blake asked.

"This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away. For of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with diverse lusts. Second Timothy, chapter 3, verses 1 through 6." Susanna replied. "Personally I always thought that passage referred to Goodwin. The concern was that the Enemy would sway women into voting the wrong way, thereby canceling out their husband's or brother's vote. But Pastor Goodwin always said to let women vote, we needed the numbers."

"Two of those pillars are government and the military." Hotch said.

"But he's not getting his numbers." Rossi pointed out. "His followers aren't breeding enough voters for him to take control. We're not looking at his Plan; we're looking at his Plan B."

"What do you do if you can't breed them?" Hotch asked.

"Convert them." Spencer replied.

"Steeplejacking," Blake said.

"Yeah, but that just gets the church." Rossi countered. "How do you get people into the church and receptive enough to listen?"

"Terror," Hotch replied.