ABLOCATE ▇▇▇▇ VOLUME ONE
━━ ❛ 𝒌𝒊𝒍𝒍 𝒎𝒆 𝒃𝒆𝒕𝒕𝒆𝒓 ❜

chapter no. 026!

❝ JJ'S FOXHOLE. ❞
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     CARA VALENTINE AND SPENCER REID MADE THEIR WAY BACK TO THE BLUE 1965 VOLVO AMAZON IN THE PITCH-BLACK OF THE NIGHT. The Korean film festival had concluded at precisely two in the morning and the crowd had dispersed. The sound of tired voices filled the parking lot as the two continued forward. A peaceful silence had settled over them; Spencer glanced over at the blonde every few seconds, smiling lightly to himself each time.

     During each of the films, he had done a silent whisper-translation for her. Much to his surprise, she caught on to a bit of the language and repeatedly asked him how to pronounce certain words. Between each film, she would ask him a series of questions and they'd go back and forth until the next one played.

     From what he was able to tell, the woman had thoroughly enjoyed herself, and he couldn't help but feel content at that observation.

     It was nice. Really nice.

     Most of the time, the brown-haired doctor often went to foreign film festivals and similar activities alone. No one else on the team ever joined him, aside from Garcia a couple of times. So, to have someone go with him was different but he was glad that Cara had said yes. She was fun to be around, in a way. Fun, more so in the sense that her reactions were unparalleled to anyone he'd ever been friends with, and she encouraged his rambling.

     As the night had progressed and they were three short films into the festival, Spencer had begun to notice that his eyes lingered longer on Cara than they did on the film. His mind was focused on her and everything she said, did, and every expression that graced her face.

     And the moment that he noticed this behavior, he stumbled into a black hole. The same blackhole he was falling through right now as he continuously glanced over Cara in the moonlight.

     Morgan's words from the Christmas party echoed in his head. Did he view her as a surrogate for Maeve? Or did what they have make him feel something new? Was he in denial of his feelings for Cara as Morgan suggested?

     "Spencer? Woo-hoo, resident genius up there?" Cara called, the sound of her voice catching his attention.

     Spencer blinked. "I-I uh, sorry. What'd you say?" he asked; his cheeks flushed pink.

     Chuckling, she shook her head. "I asked if you were going to unlock the car."

     Looking around, he noticed that they'd stopped walking and were now beside the passenger side of the car. Cara was next to the door and he stood in front of her. "Oh, yeah, yes. Sorry, I sort of spaced out," he apologized, quickly unlocking the vehicle.

     She tilted her head. "Everything all right?"

     He nodded. "Yeah, I was just thinking," he replied, taking a step back, prepared to make his way around to the driver's side. However, he was stopped by a soft tug on his left hand. Averting his eyes, he saw that Cara had reached out and grabbed his hand.

     "I uh," she cleared her throat awkwardly, feeling a wave of heat rise to her cheeks. For once, she was grateful it was nighttime. That way, the doctor couldn't see how red her face was becoming. "I wanted to say thank you for inviting me. I had a lot of fun."

     Her soft-spoken tone caught his attention right away and he smiled at her words. "I had a lot of fun too," he nodded, taking a step forward. Their fingers were stretched and loosely wrapped around the other's, and they stood in silence.

     Cara glanced down at their hands and her stomach twisted.

     Following the blonde's line of sight, Spencer looked down to see that she was staring at their hands. Another smile tugged at his lips. He liked it—holding her hand. It was nice. However, before either of them could move or say a word, both of their phones rang.

     "Hotch?"

     "Bubblegum?"

────

     IT WAS FOUR IN THE MORNING BY THE TIME THE TWO REACHED THE BAU. Exiting the elevator shaft, Cara picked up speed as she trailed behind Spencer, who was headed straight to Morgan's office. The forty-six-minute car ride and ordered stop by Constitution road had been filled with an intense stillness after they'd received the call that Jennifer Jareau was missing and they were needed back at the office immediately.

     It was no secret that JJ and Spencer were close, and it was no surprise that the genius was taking this news personally and deeply. Especially after they'd found her phone on the Southside of Constitution near a water fountain with no sign of her.

     "Morgan, what's the update?" Spencer asked, turning around as the dark-skinned man was leaving his office. Cara spun on her heel too.

     "The Director's behind closed doors with the Undersecretary of Arms Control and International Security Affairs. Hotch is on his way to the State Department to get some answers." Morgan replied, briefly meeting their stares.

     As they walked beside him, Cara nearly flinched when she felt someone touch her hand. Glancing down, she watched the brown-haired doctor intertwine their fingers. She knew that he was on edge and nervous, she'd known ever since they got in the car. He needed comfort and reassurance, something to put him at ease and she was that something at that moment.

     Holding her breath, she averted her eyes after two seconds of staring and squeezed his hand. Her stomach twisted and she ignored how he returned the gesture.

     A ding sounded as Rossi and Blake walked out of the elevator, joining the other three. Blake and Cara exchanged nods.

     "We found JJ's cell phone, but there wasn't any sign of her," Spencer told them.

     "Cruz is missing, too. His car is still in his garage, but mail and newspapers suggest that he's been gone at least twenty-four hours." Rossi informed them, and they walked through the glass doors of the BAU and headed for the conference room.

     Walking up the stairs and turning left, the team joined Garcia. As they entered, Spencer and Cara released the other's hand in silent unison.

     "I'm trying. I'm trying—I'm trying to pull data off of JJ's phone, but it's like level-nine security. It would make Snowden weep." Garcia huffed, staring desperately at her computer screen as she continued clicking.

     After everyone had taken their place around the table, she looked up and held her hand out toward Cara, signaling for her to come over. Without a word, the blonde joined her and leaned against the chair she was sitting in, placing a hand on her shoulder comfortingly. If they were under different circumstances, Cara wouldn't have walked over but she knew that physical touch was the woman's comfort and love language.

     "What about cell phone records?" Blake suggested, flittering her eyes to the laptop.

     Garcia sighed. "Encrypted. JJ's and Cruz's."

     "That's not surprising if they work for the state department," Rossi stated, shoving his hands into his pockets.

     "But if that assignment was a backstop, then JJ's transfer as D.O.D. Liaison was her cover." Morgan pointed out, firmly holding onto the cup of coffee in his hands.

     Spencer's eyes widened slightly, "So what was she really doing that year?"

     "That's the first question Hotch is gonna ask. Strauss was pressured by the executive branch to push JJ's transfer through in two-thousand-and-ten, so she would have known the reason why," the dark-skinned man answered.

     "Any assignment Strauss authorized would be achieved in the SCIF." Spencer crossed his arms, sweeping his line of sight to Cara and Garcia.

     Meeting his stare, Garcia sighed again. "That facility is code word classified."

     "Okay, but Anderson can get you in," Morgan mentioned, standing up straighter. "He archives those reports. Blake, Rossi, Valentine, JJ couldn't have used the SCIF without drawing attention. She probably has it fox-holed right here in the BAU. We just need to find it."

     Noticing the way he was slightly leaning away from the group, Cara narrowed her eyes. "What are you not telling us?" she questioned.

     Their eyes met. "Whoever took Cruz and JJ is highly trained and highly organized. Justice, defense, and state—they wouldn't be on edge like this if this was a simple matter of two missing agents." His words caused the team to briefly freeze.

     Rossi frowned, swiveling to face the man on his left. "Is Hotch worried that the recovery won't be made a priority?"

     "It's our job to find the leverage that assures it is. Let's get it done."

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     THE SOUND OF SHOES SLAPPING AGAINST THE TILED FLOOR ECHOED IN THE HALLWAY. An unspoken unity and determination bound the three agents together as they moved in sync. The door to JJ's old office was opened and Rossi and Cara followed in after Blake.

     "This has to be JJ's foxhole," Rossi muttered as the brown-haired woman turned on the lights and shut the window blinds. "It was her office when she was liaison. Hotch handles most of the paperwork now, but before JJ was a profiler, she reviewed cases in here."

     Nodding imperceptibly, Cara walked to the large desk in the back of the small room.

     "Well, she wouldn't hide anything too far out of reach," Blake noted, peering up at the cases at the top of the shelf positioned behind the desk.

     Cara's eyes ran over the surface of the table and trailed down to the bottom. On the right, there was a small open shelf with a black safe inside of it. "Got it." She pulled the safe out and placed it on the desk next to a box of files. Rossi and Blake made their way to her side. "All right, four digits. Any ideas?"

     Only two seconds passed before the Italian man spoke. "Henry's birthday is November twelfth."

     Leaning down, the blonde typed the date in. "One one one two." Three small beeps sounded and a yellow light blinked rapidly.

     "That's too easy," Blake murmured.

     "Try two-thousand-and-eight, the year she became a mom." Rossi guessed, watching as the youngest typed it in. Two beeps and a soft click sounded and a green light appeared.

     "Ten points for Rossi," Cara mumbled, opening the safe. Pulling out a singular folder, her brows furrowed. Inside the file, more than half the top page had been redacted and blacked out, and only a few words were visible. "What's 'Integrity'?"

     Blake leaned over her shoulder to get a better look.

     "I don't know, but someone does." Rossi pulled out his phone to text Hotch as the women began looking through the documents.

     A chime went off and Cara could see Blake checking her phone out of the corner of her eye. "Reid and Garcia were able to get into the SCIF. They sent Kevin some photographs, he's already in Garcia's office," she read out loud.

     "Let's go. Valentine, bring that file with you." Rossi instructed, gesturing with his head for the two to follow him.

     Cara kept a tight grip on the file as they made their way across the BAU and toward the technical analyst's headquarters. Her mind was cloudy with concern and emotion, and she couldn't help but note this as they entered Garcia's office. The increasing concern Cara had developed for the team was something she'd noticed recently, but it wasn't plainly obvious to her until her stomach had dropped when she'd heard that JJ was missing.

     The one person aside from Morgan who'd been the most apprehensive about her joining the BAU had become somewhat of a friend to her, and she disappeared. Seemingly, without a trace. A detail that had kept the ex-convict on edge for the past hour. After everything the team had done for her, there was no way she wasn't going to do everything in her power to help find JJ.

     "All right, our fourth person is Michael Hastings, CIA operative, killed in action April twenty-fourth, two-thousand-and-eleven. Operation classified." Kevin announced as the facial recognition software found a match for the fourth person in one of the various photographs sent to him.

     Blinking, Cara brought herself back to reality and leaned over Kevin's shoulder, getting a closer look.

     "This isn't right. The U.S. doesn't commemorate clandestine operations. These are surveillance images. So, who took them?" Rossi said, glancing at Morgan, who'd joined them minutes ago.

     "The same person who killed Hastings," Blake and Cara answered in unison; the two looked at the other with knowing expressions.

     Morgan pulled out his phone. "Let's hope Hotch can find out who that was."

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     WHEN HOTCH RETURNED, IT WASN'T WITH THE NEWS THEY WERE HOPING FOR. The BAU had been ordered to stand down and it was made clear that JJ and Cruz's disappearance was now a state matter. The assistance of the BAU was not needed nor wanted on the case; however, no one was going to listen to that. Instead, Hotch had called in backup and Emily Prentiss, an old team member, was on her way back from London to help with the search. And as of presently, everyone was sitting down in the conference room with files in front of them and was on a video call with Prentiss.

     "According to Interpol's data, Askari is as bad as they get. Highly educated member of the Republican Guard caught torturing POWs off the clock for fun. I'm sending you his profile now." Prentiss said.

     Cara clicked on the profile once it popped up and tilted the tablet so Blake could see it as well. Blake ran her eyes over it, brows slowly raising.

     "So, this is who has JJ?" Penelope asked shakily, casting her gaze on everyone at the table.

     Blake looked up. "His name speaks volumes. Tivon means "student of nature," yet Askari means soldier."

     "Askari's methods appear well documented. He's organized, he's meticulous. He typically spends twenty-four hours with his subjects before they break." Hotch noted.

     "They've had Cruz at least that long," Spencer commented not a second later.

     "It looks like this guy uses most of the standard torture techniques," Morgan observed, sighing heavily.

     Nodding, Cara added, "He even keeps his ritual to an established timeline, a so-called perfect methodology evolved through years of practice."

     "No sexual torture." Blake read from the tablet. "Maybe he has lines he doesn't cross."

     "Typically, professional torturers are driven by a false sense of moral superiority. They don't derive sexual pleasure from the cruelty they inflict." Spencer pointed out, his line of sight pausing on the blonde across the table.

     "But Askari isn't just a torturer. He's a sadistic serial killer." Hotch stated.

     "And they love getting off." Rossi mused humorlessly.

     The feeling of eyes watching her returned and Cara looked up from the profile to see Spencer staring at her. Holding eye contact, she gave him a small smile in an attempt to comfort him. She knew that he was still anxious, it was written all over his face, and from where they sat, he couldn't hold her hand as he had earlier.

     "Guys, I may have two more victims we can attribute to Askari. Savin Mubari and his wife Nadia. He was a known confidant to Bin Laden. Both were at the camp where JJ worked." Prentiss announced; a new file was in her hands.

     "Then JJ would have been assigned to interrogate Nadia. Do we know what happened to her?" Hotch questioned.

     Prentiss nodded. "M.O. matches all of Askari's victims except for one thing. She was raped."

     Cara glanced away from Spencer and to the video call. "What was different about her?" she asked.

     "Maybe she lasted the longest. If his ritual dictates a specific timeline, any new aspect would fall later in his routine." Spencer responded, returning the small smile when they locked eyes again.

     "So the longer JJ holds out, the greater the likelihood that'll happen to her," Morgan mentioned.

     "So how much time does JJ have?" Penelope squeaked, unsure if she wanted to know the answer.

     Hotch pressed his lips together. "A few hours."

     A daunting stillness overtook the team and everyone was instilled with a sense of panic. No one spoke until Prentiss broke the silence.

     "When the war broke out, it looks like Askari's talents were recruited by the Regime to break potential informants as well as captured U.S. troops."

     "So Askari works for the highest bidder," Hotch concluded.

     Shaking his head, Morgan sat up. "How does a guy who tortured U.S. soldiers get drafted to our side?"

     "Wait, I-I might know that. I uploaded that ghost file to my private cloud server." Penelope muttered, typing rapidly before coming to a sudden stop. "The order was given by Chief Cruz."

     "Why would Cruz enlist a man like Askari?" Blake asked slowly, leaning forward.

     "He needed a high-ranking partner to put him in position," Spencer stated firmly.

     Rossi furrowed his brows. "So what are we saying, Cruz and Askari were working together?"

     "Then JJ's in more danger than we thought," the doctor said.

     Hotch directed his attention to Spencer. "Reid, ask Anderson if he can locate documentation of Cruz's enlistment as Section Chief." Immediately, the brown-haired man nodded and left the room.

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     BY THE TIME SPENCER HAD RETURNED, IT WAS NIGHTFALL AND THE TEAM HAD JUST RECONNECTED THE VIDEO CALL WITH EMILY PRENTISS. "Cruz never officially put his name in for Section Chief," Spencer announced breathlessly once he'd entered the room.

     "Well, somebody did," Hotch replied.

     "Or he pulled strings, called in favors to get closer to JJ," Rossi proposed, sliding his hands into his back pockets.

     Hotch furrowed his brows. "Emily, you saw JJ during this time. Did she ever mention Cruz or details of the investigation?" he asked, turning to face the screen.

     "JJ suspected a double agent. She could have been talking about Cruz." Prentiss admitted, nodding slightly.

     "If Cruz is working with Askari, then why take JJ? His clearance level is higher than hers." Cara pointed out from beside Penelope. The two blondes were the only ones still sitting together at the table, everyone else was standing.

     "At Interpol, our most sensitive information requires two ranking agents to gain access," Prentiss mentioned.

     Spencer's eyes widened. "Maybe the Integrity systems require the same."

     "But when agents are compromised, their security privileges are revoked. JJ's codes shouldn't work." Blake interjected, glancing at Penelope.

     "If he knew what he was doing, he could reroute the system updates—" The analyst began, but Cara finished the sentence as her mind had also wandered to how one could get around the security code privileges.

     "—That would render their security codes useless."

     Penelope nodded, lips tugging upward. "Exactly."

     "Where would he have to go to do that?" Morgan asked, darting his eyes between the two.

     Cara ran a hand through her hair. "Straight to the source. He'd have to hard-line into the servers—"

     "—But they're scattered all over the country." Penelope finished; the two women shared knowing expressions.

     "It would be difficult to transport JJ and keep to Askari's timeline. He must have taken her someplace local." Rossi insisted, crossing his arms.

     Hotch inhaled deeply. "We need to figure out which server they've hacked."

     "Cara and I are on it." Penelope declared.

     "We are?" Cara questioned, meeting the analyst's gaze again.

     "Yes ma'am. It's time to put your computer skills to work, dollface."