#zoe sanchez | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

gryfflepuffinthetardis · 10 days ago

Text

Secrets and Lies

Season One Masterlist

Charm and Harm

Summary: The BAU are called in to investigate the CIA’s counterterrorism unit on a mission to save one of its informants and identify a mole in the unit while Zoe has to call in help from an old friend who the mole may had wronged.

Warnings: Killing, Mentions of terrorists; JD; Mistrust of the CIA; Mention of torture; Mention of sexual assault

"A wise man once said, 'be careful who you let on your ship because some people will sink the whole ship just because they can't be captain'."

Albert Einstein said, "Whoever undertakes to set himself up as judge in the field of truth and knowledge is shipwrecked by the laughter of the Gods."

Spencer, JJ, and Garcia walked out of the elevator

"We have a CIA escort, okay?" Garcia said, "It's weird and a little scary."

"What do you suppose this is all about?" JJ asked.

"Call me cynical, but considering it's 2:00 am, I doubt it's good news." Spencer said.

"You are a genius." JJ said.

They entered the briefing room where Morgan, Elle, Hotch, Gideon, Alexander, and Zoe already were.

"The CIA's counterterrorism unit is engaged in a mission to save one of its informants." Hotch told them, "They suspect one of their agents is a mole, and until the identity of that mole is discovered, they've locked down the unit."

"This gives us the opportunity to profile the UnSub up close. Go ahead."

One of the CIA agents spoke into his watch, "Start the video feed."

A man appeared on the monitor.

"John Summers was the CIA's best field agent in the Middle East. Three nights ago he was found in his home in Washington. He'd been tortured and murdered." Pictures of his body appeared on the screen

"CIA made it look like suicide." Gideon said.

"How'd you like to have that job?" Spencer said, grimly.

"Look at the wound patterns." Zoe said, "They come from two distinct angles. Different heights. One's right-handed and one's left-handed. He was definitely tortured by more than two people."

"Are you sure?"

"I've been tortured and seen torture enough to know." Zoe said.

"Hotch, what was Summers working on?" Elle asked.

"Aaliyah Nadir. Had been beaten and sexually assaulted at the hands of her husband, Hassan Nadir. That's how Summers flipped her and got her to work for the CIA." Hotch said.

"And what's the husband's story?" JJ asked.

"He's a diplomat for the Saudi government, but he's a fundraiser for major terrorist organizations." Zoe said and they looked at her. She just shrugged in that way she did.

"Aaliyah gave Summers intelligence on terrorist organizations the CIA had never been able to penetrate, organizations Hassan, her husband, funneled money to."

"And Hassan realized he had a leak?

"Yes, but he didn't know who." Hotch said, "For Aaliyah's protection, Summers never revealed her identity to the CIA until about eight weeks ago. CIA arranged papers for her and Summers brought her and her children to the US about a month ago."

"Only Summers knew where he hid her." Gideon said.

"What did Hassan think happened to his family?" JJ asked.

"Car accident. Bodies too disfigured to identify." Hotch said. "Only the CIA knew it was staged until Hassan arrived in Washington last week under diplomatic cover."

"Only someone in this unit could have given Hassan the information about his family." Spencer said.

"And now he's here looking for her." Morgan asked, "Why us?

"Over the years, I've conducted psychological evaluations on every field agent in that unit." Gideon said.

"You work for the CIA?" Garcia asked.

"Not officially."

"And I may or may not have been sporadically in contact with this unit before the BAU." Zoe said.

"You were?" Spencer asked.

"I didn't speak to them personally. It was more just sending them what I profiled. And then I was kidnapped by terrorists for six months and they really wanted to know about that but almost everyone in that prison ended up dead."

"The train's running and if we stop this mission, even for a second, Aaliyah and her children are as good as dead." Hotch said.

——————————————————————————————————————————————

They left the elevator in the CIA building

"Don't remove your firearm." Gideon told Spencer who was about to do so

"US soil. Federal building." Hotch said.

"Just your cell phones. Non-negotiable." Gideon said.

"The moment we walk in there, the UnSub's going to know we got him cornered." Morgan said, "We don't hand jack over."

They walked through the scanner, the scanner picked up, Hotch's hip gun and his ankle gun. Spencer's gun. Then Zoe's right hip gun, her left hip gun, her left ankle gun, her right ankle gun, her left thigh gun, her right thigh gun, the gun tucked into her front, the gun tucked into the small of her back, her gun concealed in her bra, the guns inside her jacket, and her micro pocket guns in her leather jacket.

The man behind the scanner gave her a look as she was carrying thirteen guns. She just nodded at him like, what's up?

They stepped through the unit when Bruno Hawkes who had called them on the case came out of his office

"Special Agent Hotchner." Hotch introduced himself with a handshake.

"Oh, I know who you are, and your team, too. Doctor Noble-Valdez. I am very sorry for the ordeal last year." He said.

"By ordeal, you mean me and my ex-boyfriend being tortured for six months by terrorists?" Zoe deadpanned.

"I'm afraid so."

"Well, that makes it better." Zoe had a bite to her tone and less professionalism in her eyes than usual.

"I've got the personnel files all set up for you guys. Video, whatnot, it's all there in the conference room. Now, if you have any questions, feel free to talk to my senior officers. This is Gina Sanchez. She's the Associate Director of Field Operations. And that guy up there is Kruger Spence, the Assistant Director of Operations. The lady with him is his second-in-command, Olivia Hopkins. And, uh, thank you for coming."

As he walked away, Zoe clearly gave him a sarcastic smile. People were looking at her. She didn't blame them. They knew things about her that were classified to the team. Including that she shouldn't be there. She was technically on a list...

"Neither of you ever mentioned Bruno Hawks." Hotch said

"You never asked." Gideon said.

"Eh." Zoe shrugged.

"How long have you unofficially been working for CIA?" Hotch asked.

"Long enough to know who and what we're dealing with." Gideon said.

They all entered the conference room and Hotch closed the door behind them.

"We're looking for what the CIA classifies a Type A personality. Overachiever. Highly adaptable. Well-educated. Virtually unshakable." Gideon said, " Manipulative enough to persuade a loyal foreign national to betray their country, a wife to betray her husband. Most importantly, this UnSub long ago accepted the reality they will be summarily executed if caught." He had looked out the window and then turned back to the team, "Life means nothing to this UnSub. Not his own life, not his family's, not his colleagues', certainly not ours, and certainly not theirs." He pointed the the missing family on the monitor.

"One of those agents turned against everything they believe in. Why?" Hotch asked.

"Well, they stopped believing. Maybe it was about ideology." Morgan said.

"We need to find the stressor. A major event that caused them to turn. Love. Revenge. Economics. Ideology."

"The intelligence community's mantra says, 'Increase the parameter of your enemies' paranoia.' Right now, we're the enemy. Whatever you see or are told, please trust no one but me."

"Gideon, you're going to want to take a look at this surveillance video." Garcia said, appearing on the monitor with JJ.

"What is it?"

"Uh, it's you. It's your name next to a whole slew of MPEGs. There's one that says 'John Summers.' It's three hours long.

The video showed Gideon in his car, talking to Summers through the window, but it was taken from a little bit away, hidden.

Shoot, go.

"When was this?" Hotch asked.

"Three days before he was killed."

"Who called this meeting?" Summers asked Gideon.

"Does that matter?" Gideon asked him.

"Every detail matters."

"Why?"

"It can only be one of four people." Summers told him.

"Why is that important?" Gideon asked.

"Whoever requested this wanted more than just an eval from you."

"Did you know they were filming you?" Morgan asked.

"I assumed they were." Gideon said.

"Taking in all factors discussed, age, rank and field status, and if you eliminate all non-field agents, we're left with a total of sixteen candidates." Spencer calculated.

"All of whom are in this unit." Elle said.

"We have to assume the mole has an exit strategy." Gideon said.

"Only now we're blocking the exit, and the only way out is through us." Hotch said.

"Zoe, we need all hands on deck," Gideon said.

Zoe raised her eyebrows as she understood his meaning. "I can call J.D., but I can't guarantee he'll cooperate."

"Why wouldn't he?" Morgan asked.

Zoe clenched her jaw.

"He's... different. He's impulsive, he has trust issues, he doesn't cooperate, I mean, he's my ex-boyfriend."

——————————————————————————————————————————————

Hawks presented the BAU to the unit, "Now, we all know why BAU are here. They have their job and we have ours. And we're down to the wire on this. Aaliyah Nadir risked everything, and now she and her children deserve our fullest attention. Let's find her."

It was four at night, so getting a hold of J.D. was difficult. Zoe was still on "hold" essentially, she had connected her phone to an earpiece that was in her ear now.

She stared at a video, "Hey, guys, take a look at something." She said when Gideon and Hotch returned. She pointed at the screen, a nearby car. "Right there. That's a woman sitting in the passenger seat of that car." She took the remote and the screen zoomed in and optimized the picture.

"Looks a lot like Aaliyah." Elle stated.

"Why would he leave them in the car, unless he knew he was being videotaped?" Hotch asked.

Gideon took the remote from her and played the tape, replaying the scene from earlier.

"Who called this meeting?

"Does that matter?"

"Every detail matters."

"Why?"

"It can only be one of four people."

"That's not true." Gideon said, "Anyone in this division could have insisted upon an eval.

"Why narrow it down to four?" Elle asked.

"Well, he rightly suspected Hassan came to the US because he knew his wife was alive." Morgan asked.

"And that someone in this agency was working for Hassan." Spencer said.

"If we don't discover who the mole is before they find her, she and the kids are dead." Morgan said.

"Zoe."

"Still on hold. I'm seriously about to go down to that prison and shove a pitchfork up their..." Zoe said, clearly very annoyed.

"Garcia." Gideon interrupted

Garcia and JJ appeared on the monitor.

"Right here, boss."

"How many agents in this unit were actually in Saudi monitoring US interests?" Gideon asked.

Garcia did some typing, "Uh, four."

"Let me guess. Bruno Hawks, Gina Sanchez, Olivia Hopkins and Kruger Spence." Gideon said.

"Four-for-four."

"See what else is on the tape.

"All right."

The two BAU blondes disappeared from the monitor and Gideron gently placed the monitor down. "John Summers would have only trusted seasoned agents, of which, in this unit, there are only four."

"So he guessed that the mole had to have been one of his four bosses." Zoe said.

"Before he put in for Aaliyah's extraction, he wanted to know which one not to ask." Morgan said.

"We need to match up with them, one-on-one." Gideon said.

"But there's six of us." Zoe said.

"You, sweetheart, will be switching between all four. You've seen the most darkness, you can recognize trauma." Alexander said.

"But..."

"Sweetheart, you have the best instincts the BAU has seen ever. You worked with this unit."

"Barely. I insisted on being as far away from the CIA as possible. I don't really trust them. They deal with politics more than the FBI and I think politics make people distrust each other. It breeds bad people like our UnSub."

"Exactly. There's a reason you're on a list and the CIA still had to let you in here because you're that good at profiling." Alexander said.

Zoe huffed, grumbling under her breath. Now she had to interview four CIA agents while she attempted to get her extremely uncooperative ex-boyfriend to cooperate and help the CIA of all people.

"Kruger Spence, assistant director of operations. Recruited at the age of eighteen after graduating from M.I.T." Gideon said.

"It says he had six years of experience as a weapons systems designer and an IQ of one-ninety-seven. He butted up against the system and didn't deal with authority. They moved him into field operations in China for eight years before transferring him here."

"Olivia Hopkins, divorced mother of two. She spent nine years in field operations in Europe. She also visited Riyadh with Krueger." Elle said.

"I got Gina Sanchez. West Point graduate. Black belt in two martial arts. Served in Iraq doing psychological operations with military intelligence. She joined the C.I.A. Speaks three languages, including Arabic." Morgan said.

"Bruno Hawks, deputy direction of operations. Extensive field ops in the Middle East and Europe. Did his military service with Jason Gideon." Hotch said.

"One thing I've learned over the years profiling CIA agents, spies are some of the smartest liars in the world. Be smarter."

Zoe suddenly slammed her hand on the desk. "Finally! I got through to you." She looked at the others. He picked up. J.D. I need your help... of course, you heard." She lifted her hand in incredulity.

"What?" Morgan asked.

"He's speaking in Old French for some reason. J.D. J.D.! Stop speaking like you're a Frenchman from the thirteenth century. You're from New York!" She looked at the others, "It's going take a while to get him to cooperate. Give me ten minutes."

——————————————————————————————————————————————

Zoe finally got him to stop speaking Old French and talk like a normal person.

"Why would I help them? They never helped me. The CIA is one of the reasons I'm stuck in the locked box in the middle of nowhere for the rest of my life." He argued.

"And the fact that we're trying to save a woman and her children's lives doesn't sway you?" She asked.

He didn't reply. She didn't think it would. He wasn't emotionless, he just... felt less for others... except when it came to her.

"Alright, how about this since the only thing outweighing your IQ is your egomania. We worked with this unit two years ago. That means it's very real possibility that it was this mole who informed the terrorists about us and got us kidnapped."

"You really think so?"

"Would I lie to you?" She asked.

"No." He admitted, honestly. "I hope you wouldn't. Will they pay for it? They work with the CIA."

"J.D. If they compromised us, then that means I will blame them for what happened as much as I blame myself." She said, steely cold.

Knock. Knock.

Zoe turned to see a more awkward-looking than usual Spencer. "Zoe, I'm about to talk to Kruger.

"Who's that?" J.D. asked sharply.

"No one." Zoe said. "Just a coworker. You're sure this line won't be compromised?"

"Are you doubting me?" He asked, cockily.

"Don't be cocky."

——————————————————————————————————————————————

"We can't circulate a photo of a woman who's supposed to be dead." Krueger told Zoe and Spencer.

"We realize that, but..." Spencer said.

"Look, I appreciate you have a job to do, but so do I." Krueger said and got to his team of agents

"All right, start looking at where Aaliyah would feel the most comfortable. Arab-populated areas...

"This guy sounds like a real numbskull when it comes to profiling. You sure he has an IQ of one-ninty-seven?" J.D. asked.

Zoe and Spencer exchanged looks at Kreger's strategy plan.

"Actually, you might wanna start by profiling Summers." Spencer said.

"Be my guest. Aaliyah's about to be brutally murdered in front of her children." He said, rather condescending to the two and he looked at Zoe. "Got nothing, sweetheart?" Zoe narrowed her eyes at him in a way that reminded him of so many of her female family members.

"Tell me this guys IP address, I'm gonna ruin his life." J.D. said but Zoe ignored him. "No one talks to you like that!"

Kreger turned back to his team, "Okay. Where were we? Let's put some teams together."

"John Summers was obsessed with his own security." Zoe said.

"Aren't we all?" Kruger groaned out, exasperatedly.

"Can you shut up for five seconds and listen to the actual profilers?" Zoe snapped.

J.D. clapped over the line.

"He didn't care about money, or possessions, or family. All he cared about was his job. He was a classic control freak, a meticulous paranoid." Zoe explained in a mocking somewhat condescending tone.

"A loner who chose to live outside the community," Kreuger realized.

"In an environment that he could control." Zoe said.

"All right. So he would have placed Aaliyah outside the community in an environment only he could control or have access to."

"May-maybe." Spencer stammered, "on the other hand, he might..."

Krueger held up his finger to silence Spencer, "Alright. New deal. I want you to search the areas surrounding Summer's apartment..."

"So, we're looking for industrial sights, uh, storage spaces, warehouses." Zoe cut in. "Basically anywhere that can hide a grown woman and her two children but still have the ability to keep them from suffocating."

The team moved out as if Krueger had given the order and he looked at the two young agents, impressed. "That's good. Thanks."

"Oh, and sweetheart? Don't ‘sweetheart’ or condescend me again. We may be young but we are geniuses, we're as successful as we are for a reason." Zoe growled.

"That was mucho sexy, Zoe."

"No, no, no, no. Don't do that." Zoe said and she turned to Spencer, "I'm going to Morgan and Gina."

She arrived to them and said, "Well, Kreger's a jackass. I set him straight.

"I commend you." Gina said, slightly deadpan, and said, "I don't think I could have a job where I had to sit and talk to people all day."

"Okay, wait a minute, it's not all psychobabble. Trust me." Morgan said.

"We get our fair share of action." Zoe said.

"I'm sure you do. Here's something you might find interesting." Gina said and spoke to her coworker, "Joystick, come around thirty degrees, fifteen by thirteen north. Zoom in two miles." The computer she was on zoomed in on the Earth and into Virginia, to a neighborhood.

Morgan frowned and leaned forwards, "Wait a minute. That looks like my neighborhood. That is my neighborhood. That-that's my house and that's my bike."

"What kind of bike does this guy have?"

"Something inferior to my bike." Zoe told him and Morgan gave her a look.

Gina zoomed in on Morgan's house and a white spot moved around the green-outlined furniture.

"You have a dog."

"Yeah, yeah, I got a dog. That's Clooney." Morgan chuckled.

"Well, it looks like Clooney's on the couch." Gina said.

"Okay, so you know where I live. I like that." Morgan said.

"Tell me does this guy ever flirt with you?"

"He knows how many guns I carry." Zoe told him and she looked at Gina, "- You also knew where Summers lived."

"That's my job." Gina said.

"Your job to make it look like suicide?" Morgan asked, "You stood over the dead body of a friend and a colleague, you stuck a shotgun in his mouth, and you pulled the trigger?"

"Yep." Gina said, but there was clearly not happy with it.

"Must take a psychological toll, no?" Morgan asked.

Gina turned to Morgan and Zoe. "Let's get one thing clear. We all write a letter just like the one Summers wrote."

"Yeah, I know. When the CIA joined my cousin's anti-terrorism task force, they tried to get me to do the same. I wasn't putting up with that shit." Zoe said. "Writing a suicide note is one thing. Shooting the brains out of your friend's corpse's head is another."

"That doesn't mess with your mind just a little bit?" Morgan asked.

"I'm neither disillusioned or confused about what I am, what I do or what I have done."

"Somebody here is. Why else would they rat out their own people?" Zoe asked.

"You'll have to ask them."

"Did it bother you what you had to do to Summers' body?"

Gina turned to her and countered, "Did it bother you when you had to do your job and arrest your boyfriend?"

J.D. grew quiet.

"Yes. But I didn't do it because it was my job, I did it because it was the right thing to do. I could've easily let him go but I didn't. I thought about it but I didn't. It only bothered me because I pushed him into doing it. It's my fault and if the mole here is the same, it's just as their fault. And they should remember what Maze was capable of before fucking with me." Zoe said with a cold danger in her voice and then she walked off.

——————————————————————————————————————————————

She joined Elle with Olivia who looked like she was being bothered by a child peppering her with questions when she was trying to work.

"CIA looks a lot like the FBI." Elle said, "This is a real boys' club. Must be tough being a woman here."

"Get to the point, Agent."

"Well, she's a real ray of sunshine, isn't she?"

"Divorced, lost custody of your kids." Elle said, "That didn't help your career, huh?"

Hopkins slammed the file she was working on shut and started to storm off, demanding Are you interrogating me?

"Just questions." Elle said.

"You're doing your job. We're doing our job." Zoe said.

"You want answers, look in my file."

"That's not how profiling works, agent." Zoe said.

"I did. During an operation in Europe you were taken hostage." Elle said.

"For which I received counselling."

"But it didn't help. Your marriage fell apart soon after." Zoe said.

"How does this help you?" Hopkins asked them, crossing her arms.

"It would take a major event for someone to turn against their country, don't you think?" Elle asked.

"A major event like what?"

"Like one that's not in any file." Zoe said. "I've was taken hostage too... multiple times and I know what does and doesn't go in files when it comes to that."

"What happened to you over there?" Elle asked but Hopkins didn't reply.

"I know what people like that do." Zoe said, "Did they attack you? Did they torture you? Did they rape you?" Zoe's tone didn't have the hostility that Elle's did. It was blunt yet... understanding of that the situation.

Hopkins didn't reply.

"Olivia!"

"That's enough." Kreger said, "This is in violation of her civil rights."

Hmm. That's interesting. Mister Condesending's ego isn't big enough to defend Hopkins.

"Until they find the sleeper and we find Aaliyah, all rights are revoked." Hawks said.

"And they wonder why we refused to work with the CIA." J.D. said.

"Where were you on the night that Summers was murdered?" Elle asked. The rest of the team and the CIA agents they were following had gathered around.

"I was with her in her apartment." Kreger confessed.

"Well, you're a married man. At some point you must have left to get back to your wife, right?" Gideon said. Kreger just looked at Hawks. "You wake to an empty bed?"

"Yes, I did." Hopkins said and looked back at Elle, "Are we done here?"

"My wife will testify that I arrived home at 1:30 am." Kreger said.

"We all know none of this'll ever reach a court." Hawks said.

"Look, if you want to arrest us for having an affair, be my guest." Kreger said.

"I'll deal with you two later." Hawks said and Olivia walked off.

——————————————————————————————————————————————

A few minutes later, Zoe noticed that the CCTV monitors were down and having a bad feeling, she went after where Olivia went to find Olivia's body. She was in front of a computer slumped over it. The bones in her neck were pushing against her skin in an unnatural angle. Her neck was broken... just like Summers'. She felt for a pulse but there wasn't one.

She fetched Gideon and brought him to the room.

"When I saw the CCTV monitors were down and Olivia hadn't returned, I thought I'd better come looking for her. Her neck was broken. She must've been killed just after we all saw her." Zoe told him.

"Have any agents seen the body?" He asked.

"No."

"Good. We can use this to our advantage. Get the others."

——————————————————————————————————————————————

They gathered the rest of the team, informing them of what happened and brought in the remaining possible moles: Hawks, Kreger, and Gina into the room the team had set up in.

"What? What's going on?" Hawks asked.

"What are we doing here?" Kreger asked. "You're pulling us away from our assignments? There's a woman out there whose life depends on us."

Gina looked around and asked, "Where's Olivia?" Kreger also looked around until Zoe spoke.

"I'm sorry but Olivia Hopkins was murdered ten minutes ago. Her neck was snapped. Just like John Summers."

Kreger scoffed, "What are you talking about?" Gina looked at Hawks. "You're lying. Where is she?" He looked around at them as Gina looked at him, "Look, people don't just get murdered inside the CIA." He turned to Gina to see her, looking at him, "What are you looking at?"

"I realize the enormity of this, but Hassan Nadir is still out there looking to kill his wife, and I need every agent on this." Hawks said.

——————————————————————————————————————————————

Zoe entered Hawks' office with Gideon as Gideon stared at Gina at her chair.

"What do you think it would take for somebody to betray their country?" Gideon asked.

"If I knew that, you wouldn't be here. Or is this the part where you two profile me?" Hawks asked.

"I've done that for over twenty years and for free.

"What'd you come up with?" Hawks asked.

"Well, you don't smile as much as you used to, but the Rogaine's working." Gideon said.

"You need to quit your day job."

"You've strived your entire life just to seek the approval of your father. Obsessively tried not to make the same mistakes he made. The emotional cost wipes the smile off your face." Gideon said.

"You know, my kids, they don't even know who or what their father really is." Hawks said.

"But they know there's absolutely nothing you wouldn't do for them." Gideon said.

J.D. scoffed, bitterly, "Wonder what that's like."

"Who says, you know, our kids need to know everything about us?"

"Or that our parents need to know everything about their kids." J.D. said but Zoe didn't quite know what he meant by that.

"Trust me, we're not that interesting." Gideon said.

"I beg to differ." Zoe said. Twenty years in and her parents and father figures in Rossi and Gideon were still her heroes.

"Who do you think it is?" Gideon said.

"I'm so close to it, Jason, I honestly can't tell." Hawks siad, "But I will say this, I'm glad you're here."

"You feeling okay?" Gideon asked and Hawks tilted his head, "I mean, you lost two of your people. Two colleagues. Two friends."

"I've lost plenty of those along the way." Hawks said, "I just feel pissed off." Zoe furrowed her brow, something didn't sit right with her. Even for a CIA agent, Hawks' emotions didn't quite fit his words. She had seen agents after they lost friends. She had seen anger... after a while, the anger's not as impulsive. It would've fit more to be tired with his reaction. Tired of it all. Tired of the guilt. But that's not what he said. The human response would be to feel guilty. "Someone is going to pay dearly for what they've done."

——————————————————————————————————————————————

Zoe had excused herself and joined Morgan and Hotch in following Gina, "You lined us all up to see how we'd react to Olivia's death." She said, "What did you see?"

"You stared straight at Kruger like you were trying to deflect blame onto someone else." Hotch said as Gina sat back down at her desk.

"You are wasting precious time. Time she doesn't have." Gina told them as she, "Now, unless you having something useful to ask, we're trying to save lives.

"So are we." Zoe said, "This is how we do it." J.D. said something and she said, "You're getting a call."

Gina furrowed her brows but then her phone rang. "It's our tech analysist."

Gina picked it up to see that she was right, "Patch her through. It's for you." Then she walked off and Garcia and JJ showed up on Gina's monitor.

"Garcia? talk to me."

"That virus that knocked out the CCTV."

"Yeah, what about it?"

"It was downloaded into the system three weeks ago."

By who?

"Kreger."

Well, that was easy. Almost too easy.

Morgan and Zoe went across the room to where Elle and Spencer were questioning Kreger. "Just because I lied about Olivia doesn't make me the mole."

"No, but the virus that took out the CCTV monitors does." Morgan said.

"It originated from your computer." Zoe explained.

"Then whoever put it in my computer is trying to frame me." Kreger exclaimed.

"Olivia was looking for something. She didn't find a thing. You know why?" Morgan asked, "Because all of your files have been erased."

"Do you really think if I was the mole, I would keep files that would incriminate me?" Kreger demanded, "Those files were erased to make me look guilty."

"It's what I would do." J.D. said.

"Looks like it's working." Elle said.

"Garcia's calling." Zoe said.

"Morgan, your girlfriend's back." Gina shouted.

They went back to Gina's computer. "Garcia, it's Morgan. Go."

"Can she not see that?" J.D. asked.

"Hey, listen, that virus left a back door into the CIA mainframe."

"Yeah, so?"

"So I sort of went ahead and used it to find out who ordered John Summers' psych eval with Gideon." Garcia said.

"Who was it?"

"Well, that's what's so weird." Garcia said.

"Who, Garcia, who?"

"John Summers." JJ said.

"Summers? Why would he order his own evaluation?" Morgan asked.

"So we'd ask that question ourselves." Spencer said, "Guys, we missed something on that tape."

"We better figure out what it was before Hassan's friend in here beats us to it." Morgan said.

——————————————————————————————————————————————

They watched another part of the footage, Summers was now in Gideon's car with him, "Presidents come, presidents go. One thing always remains: the people that run those presidents."

"People like you?" Gidoen asked.

"Me?" Summers laughed, ironically, "No. No, no, I'm an expendable pawn, but I got wise to their game."

"Game? What game?"

"Battleship. I'm the ship at sea. They try to sink me." Summers said.

"What the hell is this guy talking about?" J.D. asked in Zoe's ear and she shushed him.

"How do you cope?" Gideon asked in the video.

"Compartmentalization. Separate and seal every aspect of my life."

"How does that work?"

"One part of the hull is compromised, the rest of the hull remains intact." Summers said, "I stay afloat."

"Wow, he's really sticking to this ship metaphor, isn't he?" J.D. said and Zoe shushed him again.

"And what about a direct hit?"

"Then I have a box that I put the really important things in, a sort of insurance policy."

"Against what?"

"Sudden death. Keep it safe from those who appear to be friends."

"That's the only thing he's said that's made sense."

"I forgot how much you talked. Shush!" Zoe shushed him as Morgan paused the video.

"What?"

"J.D.'s yapping." Zoe said and then nodded to the video, "Summers was trying to tell you about the mole."

"If they were following Summers, how come they don't know where Summers put Aaliyah?" Morgan asked.

"You couldn't follow Summers through a desert. He was that good." Gideon said

"So they followed you." Hotch said.

"So Summers must have known they'd be filming him." Morgan said.

"They always are. Smile." Zoe said.

Garcia and JJ appeared back on the monitor.

"Garcia, let's review the tape again." Hotch said.

Garcia and JJ conversed amongst themselves.

"He sure likes boats." Garcia noted.

"He refers to compartmentalizing his life like the hull of a ship. Yeah, and then he talks about a box."

"And putting something inside the box as an insurance policy."

"He was telling Gideon how to find Aaliyah." Garcia said.

"Summers' cover in Saudi was for a shipping company." JJ recalled.

"Okay, um, what about a shipping container?" Garcia asked, "That's a box. That's a big box."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah." JJ agreed as Garcia typed, "The only shipping port near Summers' apartment in Baltimore, it's north up the I-95 from Langley."

"Garcia, I love you." Hotch said.

Zoe heard J.D gasp.

"J.D.?" She asked. "Guys, something's wrong?"

"Garcia?" Hotch asked.

"Someone just hacked into this feed." Garcia said.

"We just found out where Aaliyah is. But so did someone else." Hotch said.

——————————————————————————————————————————————

The office was as frantic as the CIA seemed to allow themselves to now that they knew where Aaliyah was

"I can have a chopper on the roof fueled and ready in two minutes." Gina said.

"Yeah, but there are thousands of containers at that port." Hawks said. "What makes you so sure Aaliyah's in one of those containers?"

"Why don't we send in a SWAT team? Split them up." Elle suggested, "Have them search in grids."

"Why? Because Hassan has diplomatic immunity, this mission can't exist." Hotch said.

"It's not Gina." Gideon said and Gina looked up at him, shocked.

"Yeah, obviously." Zoe said.

"Morgan, Zoe, take Gina with you." Gideon ordered.

"Wait, this is my command. These are my people." Hawks protested.

"We have jurisdiction here, and there's nothing you can do to stop us." Hotch said.

"This is my career on the line here." Hawks said.

"No, this is Aalyiah and her two children's lives on the line here." Zoe said, bluntly.

"You always trusted me, right?" Gideon asked and Hawks asked, "Trust me now."

Hotch and Elle approached Kreger, "Come with us."

"This is crazy. Bruno." Kreger protested yet he gave up his firearm anyways in resignation.

"Come on, let's get moving!" Zoe urged.

"Use the thermal imaging. Search every container for body heat." Gina said, "You can walk us in and direct us when we get there.

"J.D.'s doing that too." Zoe siad.

"What, how?"

"It doesn't matter! Hurry up!" Zoe shouted.

"Green, Adams, Duncan, come with me." Gina instructed.

——————————————————————————————————————————————

"How'd you know I wasn't the mole?" Gina asked Zoe as they got on the chopper.

"Your profile. Highly intelligent, strong-willed. That's because of your dedication to what the CIA protects. You're a good person, you may do morally dubious things but so have I. When it comes down to it, you do the right thing even if it comes to disobeying orders, unfortunately that's not what the CIA likes to hear."

They arrived soon and ran through the port of shipping containers that kind of smelled like fish.

They're somewhere on the east side of this port." Gina said, "You guys, take that area over there. Morgan, Zoe, let's go."

They kept on running as they were informed Hassan had found them and was in the container.

"This is crazy, Gina. We're just running in circles."

"J.D., your directions are not helping at all, now stop screaming in my ear!" Zoe shouted and she touched her other comm, "Reid, come on, help us out here. Give me something."

"A hundred meters southwest of your current location." Spencer said.

Zoe took off running, "Come on!"

She came upon a particular container that caused both Spencer and J.D. to speak, saying different things in the other ear.

"Okay, you're both talking but I get the gist." She said.

"Make the arrest. It's FBI jurisdiction. You're in charge." Gideon said.

When they reached the container, Morgan, Gina, and Zoe pulled the doors open

"FBI!" Morgan shouted

"Let her go and put the gun down." Zoe shouted and he narrowed her eyes at him. He didn't obey, "I said, put down the gun or I will shoot you. I can still arrest you if I cripple you with a bullet!"

He let Aaliyah go and put the gun on the floor, holding his hands up.

"Diplomatic immunity, my friend." He said, smirking at her, she knew he recognized her, maybe not personally but from photos perhaps.

Zoe grinned at his underestimating her intelligence, "Uh-uh. You got it wrong, my friend. You see this container hasn't passed through customs." Hassan's smirk fell. "Officially, we're not on US soil. Summers was a smart man."

Suddenly Gina pressed the barrell of her gun into the back of Zoe's head.

"That he was. Drop the gun."

"Lower the gun, Gina!" Morgan shouted, now pointing his gun at her.

"No, keep your gun on Hassan! Do not give him the chance to hurt Aaliyah and the kids." Zoe shouted.

"Morgan, what's going on?" Gideon asked, the screen kept flickering to static.

"You still certain that Gina isn't the mole?" Hawks asked.

Crystal.

"Angel?" Alexander asked, pleadingly.

"Morgan? Zoe? What's going on?"

"Gina's holding a gun to Zoe's head." Morgan said.

"Well, get it away from her!" Alexander cried.

"When she drops her gun!" Gina shouted but Zoe didn't move.

"Zoe, just drop the gun!" Morgan shouted and J.D. joined in, she relented and handed Gina her gun.

"Gideon, we got a situation here." Morgan said as he and Zoe shielded Aaliyah and the kids and Gina held a gun at Hassan.

"Gina, don't do this. Gina, don't do this." Gideon said.

"I don't take orders from you. Bruno, what do you want me to do?" Gina asked.

"Cover their eyes. Cover their eyes." Zoe said, "he's a monster but they shouldn't witness this."

Aaliyah covered her children's eyes as she pleaded, "Please, please stop this."

"Bruno?" Gina asked.

"You know what to do."

"Say it." Gina requested.

"It's not your call."

"I told you from the start, this was strictly in-house." Hawks said to Gideon.

"This is not your call." Gideon gritted to Hawks.

"Gina, what are you waiting for?"

"An order." Gina said.

"Finish him." Hawks said and then he repeated it, "Finish him."

"Gina, don't do this." Gideon pleaded.

"You're going to cut the visual feed, right, Bruno?" Gina asked.

"Of course. Cut it, now. Cut it!" The visual feed was cut off, followed by four gunshots.

——————————————————————————————————————————————

"I want to thank you, Jason, for your help." Hawks said when he turned back to Gideon.

"Why?" Gideon asked, "Why'd you turn against everything you believe in?"

"What are you talking about?" Hawks asked.

"When someone asks you how you feel about losing one of your colleagues, the only human answer is, 'I feel guilty,' isn't it?"

"But as you so brilliantly deduced, Kruger Spence is the guilty one." Hawks said.

Elle handed Hawks a note they had handed Kruger earlier. It read: We know it's not you. Bruno is the mole.

He just chuckled, "Ridiculous." He scoffed, "Absurd."

"The only thing that's absurd is your arrogance." Gideon said, "to believe you could get away with this."

"Unfortunately, with Hassan now dead, you have no proof." Hawks said.

——————————————————————————————————————————————

They had turned off their microphones and arrested Hassan.

Zoe checked on Aaliyah and the kids.

"You're going to be all right." She reassured them. "They're a little dehydrated and malnourished but nothing a little hospital food can't fix. You should get checked out just in case. I don't see any signs but better safe than sorry."

"Sorry about that. I had to find out if I was right." Gina said when Zoe walked away from the kids.

"No problem, believe it or not, you're far from the first person to hold a gun to my head." Zoe told her.

"How'd you know it was Bruno?" Morgan asked.

"Because Agent Gideon believed in me, and there isn't a reason in the world to kill a man who knows as much as Hassan does." Gina said.

"Except one." Morgan said.

"The same one that made Bruno and Hassan kill Summers. Self-preservation." Gina said.

"Looks like Gideon was right." Morgan said.

"Yes, it does."

"He usually is." Zoe said. "Same as that eval. You disobeyed a direct order."

——————————————————————————————————————————————

Spencer put down the phone and said, "Actually, Hassan is alive and well." The smugness on Hawks' face falls. "He's en route. That's all the proof we'll need."

Hawks looked at Gideon and stepped closer to him, "You are a fool if you think they're going to put me in prison with all that I know."

"Why'd you have to kill Olivia?" Elle asked.

"Economics." Gideon said, "Olivia was looking into your financial records when you snapped her neck."

"So she knew your dirty little secret." Elle said.

"Which one? I have so many."

"You were looking to cash out using Hassan." Elle said.

"Mmm-hmm. Twenty million from Hassan will go a very long way to helping occupy my mind on a beach somewhere." Hawks said.

"The only beach you'll see is on a postcard I send you from my vacation." Gideon said.

"Did you tell them about my daughter?" Alexander asked.

"It was so I could prove myself to Hassan, so he could trust me." Was all he said.

Alexander balled his fists and was clearly itching to empty his gun into Hawks so Hotch stepped in front of him.

"Let me have your gun." Gideon said.

"You know, I think the consequences of what you're doing to me, my friend, are going to be a lot harder to live with than you think."

"No, I think that's what happened when you gave my daughter over to those terrorists." Alexander spat.

——————————————————————————————————————————————

Zoe, Morgan, and Gina returned on the chopper. She was quiet as she gathered her things. An act of closure upon her while J.D. ranted in her ear.

"Thank you, J.D. For everything." She said.

"It's been a while."

"Yeah, it has. But we can't do this again. And you know why."

"Yeah, I do. Bye, my rebel love." He said and he hung up.

Zoe took the ear piece out of her ear and looked down at it. She sighed heavily and pocketed it.

"What I don't understand is why he invited us here." Spencer said as they exited the conference room.

"He didn't. Summers did by asking for the eval." Hotch said.

"When I put the call in, Bruno had no choice." Gideon said, "He had to find outwhat I knew and keep me close."

"Bad choice."

"You said you'd send a postcard of a beach. You lie." Alexander said.

Yeah, you hate the beach." Spencer said.

"Beaches are for storming." Gina shrugged.

"Only if ordered to." Gideon said.

"Thank you." Gina said and shook Gideon's hand and the team went to leave while Morgan flirted some more with Gina.

"So how are you and J.D.?" Elle asked.

"Uh... I think I might visist him during our two weeks coming up."

Spencer frowned.

George Orwell said, "In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act."

*I actually quite like Kreger, not necessarily his character but the foil he is to Spencer. They're both stated to have exceptionally high IQs, they were both recruited to agencies at young ages from good colleges after skipping grades, and if you've watched half way through season twelve there's another thing they have in common. But Kreger is arrogant and condescending and rude to those who he thinks are beneath him, like he was to Spencer before Spencer proved to be just as smart as him. Spencer is kind to everyone, he values everyone's contribution, despite his intelligence he doesn't think his intellect is better than others, he knows he's a genius on paper but doesn't think that it can truly measured.*

*Gina originally knew Zelena but I feel like I already have too many cases that will connect to Zoe*

——————————————————————————————————————————————

2 notes · View notes