ABLOCATE ▇▇▇▇ VOLUME ONE
━━ ❛ 𝒍𝒊𝒆𝒔 𝒊𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒅𝒂𝒓𝒌 ❜

chapter no. 002!

❝ A LITTLE FAR FROM HOME. ❞
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     A SOFT YET SHARP BEEP ECHOED FROM INSIDE THE JEAN POCKET OF THE AGENT ACROSS FROM ME, AND I WATCHED AS HE PULLED OUT A SMALL, BLACK PHONE. His eyes swiftly scanned the screen and he quickly typed out a reply, locking the phone and putting it away. Nearly fifteen seconds later, there was almost an inaudible beep that could be heard from behind me.

     "We're being watched right now, aren't we?"

     These agents need to learn when to give up.

     "Cara, you can stop with the silent treatment. The cameras are off now." A sensation of mild anxiety, that I didn't realize was present, dissipated. Everything was still going according to plan. "I'm SSA Derek Morgan and this is SSA David Rossi. We're from the Behavioral Analysis Unit of the FBI." Agent Morgan clarified, finally introducing himself and his colleague.

     "I was under the impression the BAU was located in Quantico, Virginia, and dealt with cases in the United States. You're a little far from home, are you not?" The words slipped off my tongue with grace and I held back a conniving smirk.

     "Taunt them... Mock them... Distract them..." were the last whispered words I heard from Jarrod Bacon over the phone last night before being taken into custody this morning. If the cameras were turned off during the interrogation, that was what I was supposed to do.

     Agent Rossi's eyebrows raised exceptionally high at the sudden sound of my voice; he appeared taken aback by my words. "We are, but we were invited over country borders to assist in the Red Scorpions case," he responded, sitting down on the edge of the steel table and staring me down.

     "Lucky you." The two men glanced at one another in slight perplexion. "You were expecting for me to be emotional and easy to persuade, am I correct in assuming that?" I questioned; my eyes never once leaving Morgan's. His brows drew in and I kept my facial expression blank as I was answered with silence. "The FBI and Vancouver PD weren't counting on me not wanting to cooperate, clearly. This leads me to also assume that the profile you created for me is wrong."

     The room was growing silent and I held myself back from snorting as Agent Morgan's mouth opened to respond, but he appeared to be conflicted with what he wanted to say. His eyebrows furrowed together in a jagged line and he pressed his lips together firmly.

     "Just because you caught his daughter doesn't mean you will catch the truth." I taunted lightly, licking my lips. The two men's eyes widened a fraction and they both leaned in closer.

     "Whose daughter?" Rossi asked, and it was then that it dawned on me that they didn't know who my father was. "Whose daughter?"

     "And here I thought you guys were working on the Red Scorpions case," I chuckled before leaning back in the metal chair, hoping that no one had noticed the slip I'd just made.

     The older agent narrowed his eyes as the dark-skinned man across from me drew in a shaky breath. I was slowly pushing them to the edge. "Cara, as long as you are in our custody, no harm will come to you. If you trust us and tell us what we need to know, we will keep you safe. You have my word." Morgan stressed.

     I clicked my tongue, "If I were you, I'd be careful with making vows to those whom you don't know."

     "I don't have to know you in order to promise that you will be safe under our custody." He immediately fired back. From where I sat, I could see the growing doubt and panic wrestling in his eyes. Neither of them was getting anywhere with me and the longer they stayed remained in here, the closer the gang got to pulling off the plan.

     I could see it in their eyes that these agents meant well. They genuinely wanted to help me. And a small, minuscule part of me wanted to help them out, but a larger part of me knew the consequences of what would happen if I opened my mouth any more than I already had. I had to stick to the plan. Stick to the training.

     "Taunt them... Mock them... Distract them..."

     There was a tense and eerie silence in the room and I glanced away from Morgan for the first time, looking at the white-plated clock hanging above his head. I watched patiently as the smaller red hand landed on two and the longer hand landed on twelve. "So spake the' Apostate Angel, though in pain," I recited and lowered my gaze, a small smirk replacing the once straight line on my face.

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𝗧𝗛𝗜𝗥𝗗 𝗣𝗘𝗥𝗦𝗢𝗡 𝗣𝗢𝗩　 　 　

     FOR SOMEONE WHO KNEW EVERYTHING THERE WAS TO KNOW ABOUT ANYTHING, SPENCER REID WASN'T KEEN ON LIVING IN THE UNKNOWN. It nibbled at the corners of his mind and pushed him to an edge that he rarely ever got close to being near, but right now, he was most certainly approaching that tipping point.

     Most Unsubs or accomplices were complex individuals, but that didn't always mean they were difficult to figure out or read. That fact that they were so complex sometimes made the pieces of a case come together sooner, but not this time, however. The BAU had never encountered an individual more complex and disorienting than Cara Valentine.

     It had taken a lot of digging, researching, and questioning on the BAU's part to finally learn what her name was. Once they'd gotten hold of her name, they were able to get closer to tracking down her and the Red Scorpions. And when they'd finally narrowed down, found her location, and arrested her, they thought the rest of the case would start to build upon itself. The team had created a profile for who they assumed she'd be or behave like. However, ever since she'd been placed in interrogation room number twelve, she'd done nothing but prove every theory and detail of their profile wrong.

     Cara Valentine wasn't who they thought she was.

     Cara Valentine wasn't who Spencer Reid thought she was. Instead, she was the complete opposite of everything he assumed.

     It wasn't often that the man was wrong about something or someone. In fact, it was quite rare, in all honesty. Throughout the interrogation process thus far, he'd been racking his brain, anxiously trying to figure out how he had been so wrong about her. What was it that he missed? Did he not go over the case files enough? Had he had misread something? No matter how many times he questioned himself, and went over every detail in his mind, he still came up empty-handed. All he knew for sure was that they now had nothing but a blonde woman sitting in handcuffs who held all the answers and didn't appear to be cracking anytime soon.

     Narrowing his eyes, Spencer sighed and slid his hands into his pants; his eyes glued to Cara Valentine's stoic frame.

     Earlier on in the interrogation, he'd got the feeling that the reason as to why Cara wasn't talking was because they were being watched. At the time, and currently, still, he didn't know why he got that feeling. However, he trusted his gut and notified Garcia, the BAU's technical analyst, telling her to shut down all of the security cameras, and to make sure that they hadn't been hacked.

     By shutting down the cameras, Spencer had hoped that would give her some sense of security and safety, but he had been wrong about that too. Sure, turning off the cameras got her to talk to them, but it brought them back to where they were before. They still had nothing.

     "Just because you caught his daughter doesn't mean you will catch the truth." The sound of her voice pulled Spencer out of the depths of his mind and his eyes widened, as did everyone else's.

     "Who is she talking about?" Alex Blake asked, looking over at Aaron Hotchner, Jennifer Jareau, and Spencer in confusion.

     JJ frowned. "I think she's talking about herself..." she said slowly, her tone of voice holding just as much confusion and a stray piece of blonde hair fell into her face.

     "Whose daughter?" Rossi questioned, and Spencer watched closely as Cara, for the world's quickest second, appeared anxious. She wasn't supposed to say that. "Whose daughter?" Rossi repeated, and the blonde was back to her emotionless and stoic state as she chuckled.

     Hotch frowned and crossed his arms, letting out a silent sigh of frustration.

     "And here I thought you guys were working on the Red Scorpions case," Cara mused and leaned back in her chair. The team could hear Morgan draw in a shaky breath of air in response; he was growing impatient.

     "Cara, as long as you are in our custody, no harm will come to you. If you trust us and tell us what we need to know, we will keep you safe. You have my word." Morgan stressed.

     She clicked her tongue in a mocking manner. "If I were you, I'd be careful with making vows to those whom you don't know." The four agents looked at one another, the same question all entering their minds: Was that a threat or a warning?

     "I don't have to know you in order to promise you that you will be safe under our custody." Morgan immediately countered back, and Spencer watched as Cara's eyes moved for the first time. During the entire time that she'd been locked in that room, her eyes had never once moved. Until now.

     Spencer's eyes followed hers and noticed that she was looking at the clock that was nailed to the wall behind Morgan, right above the two-way mirror. Looking down at his watch, he quickly checked the time to see that it was two o'clock.

     What was so special about two o'clock that caused her to move her eyes?

     "So spake the' Apostate Angel, though in pain," Cara recited elegantly, and Spencer's eyes widened as they snapped back to her.

     "What does that mean?" Hotch asked, looking over at the brown-haired man. "Reid?"

     "They need to get out of that room. I know what's going on." All of the pieces finally clicked in his mind, and he looked at everyone with a gleam of brilliance in his eyes.