Lisbon returned in under an hour, which could mean that the meeting had either gone very well or very badly.

Jane, who had been watching for her out the window, met her by the elevator. "How'd your meeting with Bertram go?" he asked.

"It went well," she said, sounding extremely self-satisfied. He'd almost say she seemed smug, but Lisbon didn't really do smug. That was more his territory. "I got what I wanted."

"What was that?" he asked, falling into step beside her.

"I got Bertram to agree that the SCU will focus on the Red John case exclusively from here on out."

Jane stopped dead, honestly shocked. "What about new cases that come in?"

She paused in her march towards the bullpen and turned to face him. "We're going to farm them out among the other teams. I'll review them as they come in and will make recommendations as to the best way to reassign them."

Jane took a moment to process this. This was good news, for him. It was exactly what he would have wanted, had the choice been presented to him. For some reason, though, the idea of Lisbon arguing in favor of it was somewhat discomfiting. "I'm surprised you were able to convince him to do that."

"He wasn't happy about it," Lisbon conceded.

"How did you persuade him?"

"I pointed out to him that this is the highest profile case the CBI has ever had. The fact that we haven't been able to catch California's most notorious serial killer is an embarrassment to the bureau. Red John is a sophisticated killer with lots of powerful connections and seemingly unlimited resources, so going after him with anything less than the full weight of the bureau isn't going to get the job done. Catching him is going to require complex strategic thinking and the full attention of the entire team. We've been splitting our focus too long, and that's a big part of why we haven't made the progress we'd like on the case."

"And he bought that?"

"He did when I framed it by saying that we're not just trying to catch Red John, which would be a huge win for the CBI in and of itself, we're trying to bring down his entire network. I told him to do that, we need dedicated resources for the task. I convinced Bertram that if the FBI had this case, they'd have a team of ten people on it full time. He wasn't crazy about the comparison, but he said he'd consider hiring extra staff to support the other teams to pick up the slack on the new cases that we normally would have handled."

"Nicely done, Lisbon," Jane said approvingly.

"There's more," Lisbon informed him.

He raised an eyebrow. "Oh?"

"I told Bertram neither I nor any member of my team would be providing him with status updates on the case until the case is closed."

He stared at her. "How did you manage that?"

She shrugged. "I told him I didn't trust him. I told him no one outside my team was above suspicion, including him."

Interesting. He'd never had much use for Bertram, himself, and he had had his suspicions from time to time about whether he might have been a mole for Red John, but then, he was suspicious of everyone. For the most part, however, he had always assumed the man was a harmless narcissist. The fact that Lisbon had independently formed her own suspicions about Bertram cast the situation in a different light. "What else did you say to him?"

"I told him until I can be one hundred percent certain he will never leak information to Red John, it isn't safe to share updates on our progress even within the bureau. I said if he isn't working for Red John, I'm sure he can appreciate the need to take every precaution against moles within the bureau, given what happened with Bosco and O'Laughlin. And if he is working for Red John, I'm going to make it as hard as possible for him to get anything useful to report back to his boss."

"You painted him into a corner," Jane realized, impressed. "If he didn't agree to go along with your plan, he was as good as admitting he was in league with Red John."

Lisbon nodded. "Exactly."

Jane couldn't help it. He started to laugh. "Only you could manipulate someone by attacking them straight on with nothing but brutal honesty."

"I'm not sure I would put it exactly like that," she demurred.

"It's true. That would never have worked if Bertram didn't secretly believe that you're a better person than he is. If anybody else had tried that, he would have spouted off some nonsense about accountability and transparency and that would be that, but he knows he could never call your integrity into question."

Predictably, Lisbon brushed off the compliment. "I don't care why he agreed to it, I'm just glad I was able to convince him to limit our new cases so we can focus on the Red John case. Now, come on, stop distracting me, I promised the team I would give them their assignments once I got back."

He followed her into the bullpen.

Cho and Van Pelt looked up when she came in, but Rigsby was on the phone.

"Who's he talking to?" Lisbon asked impatiently, jerking her head in Rigsby's direction.

"His nanny," Cho responded.

"He always calls her about this time to check in on Ben," Van Pelt explained.

Lisbon nodded, her face softening.

Rigsby hung up the phone. "Sorry, boss," he said sheepishly. "Just needed to check in with Consuela."

"Don't apologize," Lisbon told him. "Your kid comes first. Always. You know I understand that." She smiled at him, that special soft smile she seemed to reserve for children. "How's Ben?"

"He's good. Getting bigger every day. At least, it seems that way as the person who has to keep buying him new clothes," Rigsby said ruefully.

"Give him a kiss for me when you go home," Lisbon instructed him.

Rigsby grinned. "That an order?"

"Damn straight," Lisbon agreed.

Cho cleared his throat. "What about orders for the rest of us? You said you would give us our assignments when you got back."

Lisbon snapped to attention, shifting seamlessly from doting godmother to Special Agent in Charge in a matter of seconds. "Right. We already discussed our basic approach. We're going to go after Red John's allies and dig up everything we can on every one of them. We're going to interview everyone they've ever known or even been remotely associated with."

She went over to the murder board and gestured to the map, indicating each of the points represented by the pins in turn. "Here are the key players: Orville Tanner, Red John's accomplice in his first known killing, and his son, Dumar, who helped Red John kill Emma Plaskett in exchange for the opportunity to hold her sister, Maya, hostage because he thought he was in love with her. Rebecca Anderson- infiltrated the CBI by posing as a receptionist and killed Sam Bosco and his team. Todd Johnson, cop killer who was burned alive in the CBI headquarters. Craig O'Laughlin, FBI agent who killed Johnson and tried to kill Hightower. Anthony Gupta, gas station manager who killed Hightower's cousin, Max James, and Cash in Motion employee Alan Dinkler. Then there's Timothy Carter, who kidnapped a young girl and pretended to be Red John, apparently on his orders. His wife, Sally Carter, was his accomplice in the kidnapping, but we aren't sure of the extent of her connection to Red John. We've also got Ron Deutsch, the security guard who stole the gun Timothy Carter was carrying when Jane shot him to make it look like Jane had gone off the deep end and killed an innocent man."

She turned back to face the rest of the team. "This is a big list, and if we're going to have any hope of getting through it before the end of this decade, we're going to have to divide and conquer. We'll each take a couple of Red John's accomplices and run down everything we can on those individuals. Everybody with me so far?"

The team nodded their assent, and Lisbon continued. "Okay, here are your assignments: Rigsby, you'll take Rebecca Anderson and Todd Johnson. Start by compiling histories of each of them and getting together a list of known associates."

Rigsby nodded. "Yes, ma'am."

She turned to her second in command. "Cho, you're going to take Anthony Gupta and Ron Deutsch. Same deal, try to find out as much as you can about anyone who worked with them or might have known them socially."

"Will do," Cho said, in his usual expressionless manner.

She looked at Van Pelt. "Grace, you've got O'Laughlin."

Jane was a little surprised by this, thinking Lisbon might have assigned the FBI agent to someone else on the team due to Grace's personal history with the man, but when he looked at Van Pelt to gauge her reaction, her expression was hard and her jaw was set in grim determination. "You got it, boss."

"I know it's a long shot since we never knew anything about her but her first name, but see if you can come up with anything on that woman he hired to kill Hightower in that hotel room," Lisbon told her.

"Isla, right?" Van Pelt. "Sure, I'll see what I can find out."

"Jane, you'll take Dumar Tanner, aka Ted Hardy, as well as Timothy and Sally Carter." She released a breath. "I'll be following up on Orville Tanner and Rosalind Harker."

"Ah, the silver pin," Jane said. "Yes, I see why you kept her separated from the rest of the pack. She doesn't seem to believe the man she knows as Roy Tagliaferro is Red John, so she hasn't helped him kill anyone, and yet, she's still alive. Everyone else who has crossed paths with Red John who wasn't also a murderer has ended up dead eventually. She seems to be the exception."

Lisbon nodded. "Right. Like you, she doesn't fit the pattern, but in a different way."

"Should we go ahead and get started, boss?" Cho asked.

"Not just yet," she told him. "I have a few more things I want to go over."

"What things are those?" Jane asked curiously. Lisbon was just chock full of surprises today.

"Security measures," she informed him before turning once more to address the team. "Red John has powerful allies, and has proven that he is not only able to infiltrate the CBI headquarters physically, but that he can also breach a secure firewall to hack into CBI mainframes. We also know that he has familiarity with surveillance techniques. So we are all going to follow a few basic rules to do everything we can to prevent him from finding out what we have on him." She cast a meaningful look at Jane. "Compliance with these rules is not optional. If anyone feels the rules are unimportant, or that he is somehow above the rules, then that person will no longer be welcome to participate in this operation. Is that clear?"

"Crystal," Jane said, disgruntled.

"Do you agree to abide by the rules I set?" Lisbon asked him, abandoning any pretense that her warning was aimed at anyone on the team besides him.

"Well, I can hardly agree to follow a set of rules before I know what they are," Jane said reasonably. "Let's hear them."

"Fine," Lisbon said, looking annoyed that he hadn't agreed straight away. Really, didn't she know him at all? Honestly, if he hadn't been difficult about her precious rules, it probably would have made her even more suspicious. "Rule number one: No one breathes a word about this investigation to anyone outside this team."

Off the team's affronted looks, she held up a placating hand. "I know you think it goes without saying. I'm not saying I don't trust you all to be discreet—just the opposite, in fact. I'm saying nothing goes outside the team for any reason, no matter how harmless it may seem. Not to friends, not to family members, not to other agents. I already told Bertram we would not be keeping him in the loop on this, so if the boss's boss shows up and tries to bully you into giving him a status update on the case, I want you to let me know right away."

"You got Bertram to agree to stay off our backs on this?" Cho asked.

"Yes. He agreed that safeguarding the integrity of the investigation against moles is of the utmost importance, given the history of the case," Lisbon said smoothly. Jane noticed she left the details of her manipulation of Bertram out of this explanation.

"Nice," Rigsby said approvingly.

"I'm serious, guys," Lisbon said. "If the governor himself shows up in the bullpen asking for information about the case, you don't say a word. You just direct him to me and I'll handle it."

"What's the next rule?" Grace wanted to know.

"Rule number two is that you sweep for bugs everywhere you go. I know it's a pain," she acknowledged, catching Rigsby in an unconscious grimace, "but I think it's a necessary precaution. CBI security has been breached before and it seems unlikely that word of what we're doing won't get back to Red John eventually once we really get going on the interviews. I don't want to give him any kind of advantage over us if we can possibly help it. If he finds out what we're doing, so be it, but I intend to make him work for it. So just like I made you guys do this morning, we do a full sweep of the office every day. If we're all out of the office at the same time, first person back does a second check."

Jane raised his eyebrows. Apparently the team hadn't been idle while he'd been brooding in the attic that morning, if Lisbon had already had time to drill them in sweeping for bugs. It was about this time that he realized that what Lisbon had been doing all weekend wasn't remotely comparable to an arts and crafts project. She hadn't been simply brainstorming during her retreat in the mountains. She'd been bunkering down like a general preparing her battle strategy, drawing battle plans for a war she intended to wage on multiple fronts.

Lisbon went on. "This doesn't hold true just for the office—I want you checking your homes and cars, too. I have RF detectors for all of you, and I expect you to use them." Jane wasn't entirely certain what an RF detector was, but he deduced that it was some kind of electronic device cops used to help them locate unauthorized surveillance equipment. Lisbon fixed each team member with a look. "I will personally be calling each of you to nag you about this until we're all in the habit of checking automatically. On a related note, I have burner phones for all of you as well, and I want you to use them for anything related to the case. You can still use your normal cell phones for personal use, but if you are going somewhere for an interview you have to leave your regular cell at the office or disable the GPS and turn it off before you take it with you. I want you to disable the GPS units in your cars, too."

Jeez. And people called Jane paranoid. She was right, though. By this point, their paranoia had been well justified. Taking these precautions might not stop Red John from learning what they were doing, but it would make it a damn sight harder for him.

"Also, I don't want you using credit cards for fuel and meals when you're in the field. I don't want our movements to be easily traceable. Jane's in charge of petty cash," she said, handing him a hundred dollar bill as she made this announcement. "If you need cash, go to him and he'll give you what you need."

Jane was a bit taken aback to have been summarily elected class treasurer in this way, but he was not displeased. He inspected the hundred dollar bill with a glint in his eye. "You should have taken me to Tahoe with you," he admonished Lisbon. "I could have already established the petty cash fund with one night across the border in Reno."

She rolled her eyes. "Somehow I doubt you'll find it difficult to make up for lost time."

"Next rule," Lisbon continued. "I want all of you to check in with at least one member of the team every few hours. Not by email or text, either. You have to check in either in person or by phone."

"Will there be code words?" Jane inquired. "Please tell me there will be code words."

"Yes," she replied without batting an eye. "Yours will be 'pain in the ass.'"

"Excellent. And I'll call you 'mein fuhrer.' It can double as code word and pet name."

She ignored him. "Once Red John figures out what we're doing, he's not going to be happy about it. We're going to have to split up a fair amount of the time to do the work, and we're more vulnerable when we're not together. I don't want to give him any opportunities to cherry-pick one of you out of revenge when you're away from the rest of the team."

"I'm really quite pleased about this plan, Lisbon," Jane informed her. "I have a question, though. Is the check in strictly a professional thing, or will you be open to philosophical discussions when we call you at three in the morning to assure you that we haven't been kidnapped by Red John?"

She rolled her eyes. "You may have ten hours to yourself every night without checking in. That's it."

That was almost too bad. Checking in during the day would be tedious, but he found he'd been quite looking forward to waking Lisbon up in the middle of the night and hearing her grumble at him sleepily while he tried to engage her in meaningful conversation. "Very well. Well, now that we have our marching orders, Captain, shall we get started?"

"I'm not finished," Lisbon informed him.

"There are more rules?" Jane said, aghast. How many more rules could she have come up with in one weekend?

Knowing Lisbon, it was probably a lot. He wasn't sure how many rules he could commit to following, even if it was to catch Red John. The few she'd mentioned already would be stretching him to the limit as it was.

"This is the last one," she assured him.

He sighed. "Let's have it, then."

"We know Red John or one of his helpers has hacked into the CBI mainframe at least once, so we need to be extremely careful about any activity we conduct on our computers."

She turned to Grace. "Van Pelt, I know you think I don't let you go out in the field enough—"

Van Pelt turned red. "I don't—" she started, but Lisbon cut her off.

"Don't bother denying it, I know you feel that way, and I understand. But the truth is, your skills are too valuable to waste you on running down perps. More often than not it's the evidence you find in people's financials or whatever in one of your computer searches that ends up giving the DA's office what they need to put the person in jail. We're all going to be relying on those skills more than ever on this case. Everyone else is going to be spending most of their time on interviews, but you're going to be bearing a heavier load than anyone else. You have your assignment to look into O'Laughlin, but I'm also going to need you to be the point person for looking into financials and property records for everyone we're investigating. You can delegate some of it to the rest of us as you see fit, but I'm officially making you head of cyber security for the unit. Everyone, including me, clears all computer activity through you." She looked at the rest of the team. "No one is to do so much as Google something unless Van Pelt okays it, understood?"

Jane relaxed. That last rule didn't really apply to him anyway. It was all about computers, and he never touched the infernal machines if he could help it. The rule about keeping things inside the team wasn't an issue—he didn't trust anyone outside the team and it wasn't like he had the busiest social calendar anyway, so that wasn't a problem. Ditto the use of the burner phone. Sweeping for bugs would be a bore, but he had a sinking feeling that Lisbon was right about it being a necessary precaution. He knew Lisbon was most worried about getting him to check in regularly, but he thought he could have fun with that one. His brain had already started calculating how many different ways he could annoy her during these check ins. He rather liked the idea of having a built in excuse to call and pester her even more frequently than he already did. Really, she would probably end up finding her own rule more burdensome than he did.

"One more thing," Lisbon said after she'd secured promises from everyone not to touch their computers without Grace's say so. She cleared her throat. "Listen, it's almost certain that this case is going to get a lot more dangerous before it's over. I want you to know that participation in this investigation is strictly voluntary. If anyone feels like it's getting too risky, or even if you just get sick of all the cloak and dagger stuff, I won't hold it against you. I'll make sure that you're taken care of, that you get a good position on another team."

Cho, Rigsby, and Van Pelt looked at her as though she'd suggested they dive headfirst into an empty swimming pool. "Of course we're staying," Van Pelt said indignantly.

Rigsby nodded his agreement. "We won't let you down, boss."

Lisbon looked to Cho. "Cho?"

"I'm in," Cho said. "Let's end this thing."

"Jane?"

What did she think, that after a decade of chasing the man, he was going to say no to a plan that had the potential to get them closer to him than they'd ever been before? Even if it hadn't been his idea. "Obviously, I'm staying."

She shook her head. "I meant, do you agree to the rules?"

Oh. Right. "I suppose I can abide by your little rules for the time being," he said, affecting a put upon sigh.

"All right then," she said. "Let's get to work."