Sorry for taking so long! My muse skipped fan fictions and I couldn't rodeo it back over here. (If you've read the one that I've been updating you would see that that was the best inside joke!)
Anyway... Back to the creepy stuff...
Chapter 10
The team slowly walked down the concrete hall, never breaking the formation. They systematically checked each door they passed, but they were either locked, empty or were full of boxes – ones that they didn't particularly want to know the contents of.
"Clear." Morgan called as he checked the last door on his right, but the remainder of the team wasn't listening. They were all focused on the room situated to their left. One wall was covered in monitors from top to bottom.
"I bet this covers the whole place." Garcia mused as she stepped forwards to inspect the equipment whilst Rossi turned to Hotch.
"If he didn't want us to see this, why didn't he simply lock this door like all the others?" The seasoned profiler asked – even he was confused.
"He wanted us to see it?" Morgan offered as an explanation.
"Could be." Hotch answered, though not with the conviction he usually held. Although all of them tried to be objective and treat this like a usual case, in all truth it was getting to each and every one of them, some more than others.
"Maybe he didn't think it would be any use to us." Reid began, speaking quickly. "He hasn't called anyone by their name apart from Emily. I don't think he knows that Garcia is our technical analyst. Leaving all of these computers here for us to see is a taunt. He wants us to feel that we can't do anything." The room was silent for a second as each team member took in what was just said.
"Let me have a look. If there's something here – I'll find it." Garcia told them determinedly and began tapping away at the computer keys whilst the other team members waited impatiently.
Prentiss looked up suddenly as a sound from outside the room she was in brought her out of her daze. It had been a couple of hours since her father had left and she had to rely on her restraints to stop her from falling to the ground with fatigue. When the metal door slowly creaked open to reveal him she stood up straighter, determined not to look weak in front of this man.
Mr. Prentiss strolled casually into the square concrete room flanked by two much larger men yielding a handgun each.
"Move and they will shoot you on the spot." He snarled a warning at her, to which she stared defiantly back but made no other movement. The man moved to her side and unclipped on of her restraints, then moved and unclipped the other. Because the only thing that was keeping her standing upright was pulled away from her she fell unceremoniously to the ground with a grunt, and lay sprawled at her father's feet.
"Get up." He commanded sternly so she rose up on shaky elbows only to fall back down again.
"I said get up." He repeated, giving her a firm kick to the ribs. Emily was sure that she not only felt, but also heard a crack as he did so and pain erupted in her chest. Slowly but surely she pushed herself up the wall so she was leaning against it in a standing position, panting heavily – the last time she had eaten or drank anything must have been over twelve hours ago.
"That wasn't so hard, was it?" He chuckled darkly as he saw her try to cover the pain masking her face. After sharply grabbing her shoulders he marched her out of the door from behind, pushing her forwards every couple of strides in order to get her to hurry up.
Come on. Come on, you can do this. Emily tried to steel herself against anything her father put in front of her. She knew that she just needed to hold on until her team arrived – she was trying to kid herself if she thought they would just leave without doing anything.
The agent was quickly brought out of these thoughts when she was pulled to an abrupt stop outside of a similar looking steel door. The stop jarred her already painful ribs and causing her to suck in her breath to which her father chuckled darkly.
Emily was pushed roughly into the low-lit room and into a chair by a couple of computers.
"What's this?" She asked, making sure to keep the tremble from her voice.
"Well it seems that your 'friends' have found my little tech room, so we're going to have a little fun with them." Her father answered all too cheerily as he secured her wrists to the arms of the chair so she would be forced to watch the brightly lit screens.
"What kind of fun?" The brunette spat angrily at him.
"Now, now." Mr. Prentiss answered in a sickly sweet voice. "We're just going to play a game."
"Guys!" Garcia shouted as one of the monitors lit up, displaying a figure sitting in a chair on the screen.
"That's Emily!" JJ shouted, getting closer to the screen to check if her friend was okay.
"Did you turn on that screen, Garcia?" Hotch asked the analyst who shook her head meekly. "I was afraid of that. He knows we're here." The other monitors in the room suddenly turned black, then a line of text was displayed across it.
Good evening agents. You're going to play a game. Succeed and your friend will be unharmed, fail and you will have to watch her suffer t your own hands. Good luck.
The screens one again all lit up like before apart from one, which had, a complex-looking code displayed across it.
"We need to hurry, we don't know how much time we have." Rossi pointed out to the team who were stunned into silence and looking at the single screen that displayed their friend.
"Garcia, can you hack into the databases and find out where Prentiss is without them knowing?" Hotch turned to the blonde.
"Yes sir, as long as someone does something on that computer to put them off of my trail." She points to the code.
"Okay. You do that. Reid, start on the code." Spencer began tapping away at the keys of the computer in front of him, all the while his brain as overturning all of the facts and letters in his mind, trying to de-bunk the code used.
"Sir, this doesn't make any sense!" The genius cried out in frustration at his boss, his face etched with worry that he wouldn't be able to protect his friend and colleague.
"Reid." Morgan stepped forwards, resting his hand on the younger man's shoulders. "Don't panic and think clearly."
"Don't panic?! You can't put someone in this kind of situation without them panicking. That's like shooting someone and telling them not to bleed."
"Reid." Morgan growled and shook the genius's shoulders, who blinked and seemed to collect himself.
"Sorry. It's not your fault, but it just doesn't make sense."
Emily felt a presence lean in behind her.
"It seems that your friends need an incentive." The agent felt her body explode into spasm as electricity shot through her body.
Like it? Yes? No? Review and tell me why and what you would like to see next. They really inspire me to write quicker!
Mae x
