"They're harrassing Penelope," Luke said to Emily, he had her on the car phone speakers.
"Then this takes a priority. You said they refer to her as 'The Black Queen' there's a specific group of people who recognize Penelope by that name. We should start there. I know we've been down this road before but I don't want to take any chances with the Gold Star program. However, this isn't Gold Star related unless proven otherwise. I've fallen into that trap before. Ok?"
"Got it, see you soon." Luke hung up the line.
Penelope continued to search through the lines of code and files on her laptop from the passenger seat of the SUV Luke drove. The back hack to find the location of the streaming device was proving difficult. The Unsub had to make her jump through hoops and security barriers, but she was Penelope Garcia. If anyone could hack it, it was her.
"Ah! Got you," Penelope exclaimed. "They're streaming from Stafford county, thats south of here. I have the exact coordinates. I'm sending them to Dave and Tara."
"Why do I get the feeling this is a trap?" Luke glanced over to her at the red light before enter the security gate.
"There's two likely innocent people tied to chairs in the middle of no-where-Virigina and somehow it's connected to me." Penelope said gently. "We need to find them. We all know what we're doing, we've been doing this together for years."
"I meant, why do I feel like this is a trap for you?" Luke pulled into his usual parking spot. "You're the smartest person I know. I know you've been under target from unsubs before because you're good at what you do and finding people who don't want to be found. I'm worried that maybe someone's…"
"Come back for me?" Penelope finished. "Has a bone to pick with me? Wants to see my head on a spike?"
"Comes with the line of work, right?" Luke let out an airy laugh. "I'm worried."
"We will do what we do best. Find them. Save people." Penelope grabbed hold of his hand and squeezed with a reassuring smile. "Now come on, I have vanilla cupcake coffee grounds in my desk drawer we can make. I even have a can of whipped cream to go ontop with sprinkles."
-Garvez-
Penelope jumped at the ringing of her phone. Tara was on the other line.
"We're here, but it looks like the unsub has already fled." Penelope could hear the agents yelling 'clear' in the background of the call before Tara continued speaking. "We just found the women, and it's not good."
Penelope's heart sank. This was the absolute worst part of the job. There was a high that came with saving victims and a deep deep low that came with losing them. She felt a tear slide down her cheek but remained her verbal composure.
"Is there anything left behind I can search?" Penelope brought her terminal up and for the ready.
"There's a business card for a nearby hospital. With a primary care provider information for Dr. Leona Jankins." The phone began to crackle. "I think I'm losing service."
"I can search patient lists and see if I can find anyone that might stick out as suspicious. Thanks Tara"
-Garvez-
Call it intuition, but Luke couldn't help the nagging feeling deep in his chest. Something did not feel right about the entire situation and that intuition said it had something to do with the Sicarius network.
Luke can admit it. He had definitely given Voit a reason to hate him. Right from the beginning he didn't trust him and made it very clear. After babysitting him on the jet to make contact with Damien, his biggest worry was the secret message Voit passed on. This 'North Star' he might have said it was nothing but Luke was doubtful. Luke pulled JJ aside to share his thoughts.
"I have a hunch this is related to Voit somehow."
"What makes you think that?" JJ leaned back on the counter in the staff kitchen.
"Well, between the comments he made about Penelope and the secret message he gave Damien. I'm worried his Sicarius network was put to use to find out information about Penelope. Think about it. The Sicarius network is threatened by Penelope in particular. What if he leaked information about her past and someone with a grudge was given the tools to find her?"
"I mean, it's possible, but you don't have any proof." JJ frowned. She was right. Luke didn't have any tangible proof of this theory, but he knows someone who might.
-Garvez-
"I'm an open book, Luke Alvez. Ask me anything," Elias Voit lounged across his prison bed with a pleased smile. "You know, it gets pretty lonely in here."
"What did you do?" Luke's tone was hostile.
"What do you mean?" Voit raised his brows. "I've been under 24/7 supervision. I can't even shower without someone watching."
"The Black Queen. Who did you get in contact with? Or maybe, who did you get Damien in contact with." Luke clenched his fists. He didn't take his eyes off the killer before him. Voit groaned and rose to his feet, approaching Luke at the bars.
"You always assume it's me." Elias mocked concern. "How does that new Taylor Swift song go?"
Voit cleared his voice and proceeded with a slight sing-song tone, "hi, it's me, I'm the problem it's me. I'm a big fan. Daughters, you know?"
Luke rubbed his head in frustration. Voit raised his hands up in an over exaggerated shrug.
"You agreed after seeing your family and signed a paper agreeing to be a criminal informant. This is part of it. Did you have a role in this and who is fucking with Penelope?" Luke grabbed the prison bar, his knuckles blanching at the grip.
"Her role as The Black Queen may have been leaked on the network. I may have seen something here and there. Her name, her address, pictures of Penelope and Tyler. Is that what this is about?" Voit laughed shaking his head before making direct eye contact with Luke. "If you give me some of the details, maybe I can remember who talked about Penelope Garcia."
Luke felt as if he was making a deal with the devil himself, but he would do anything to protect the woman he loved.