❝ Some things scratch at the surface while others strike at your soul. ❞
𝐂𝐀𝐑𝐎𝐋𝐈𝐍𝐄 𝐋𝐔𝐂𝐀𝐒 𝐇𝐀𝐒 𝐃𝐄𝐃𝐈𝐂𝐀𝐓𝐄𝐃 her whole life to catching the monsters in this world in hopes of fixing something that is broken inside of her.
Tha...
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"There is no hunting like the hunting of man, and those who have hunted armed men long enough, and liked it, never really care for anything else."
— Ernest Hemingway
➴ ➴ ➴ ➴ ➴ ➴
3.3 ; EMOTIONAL RELEASE.
AS CAROLINE STOOD OUTSIDE the storage unit, she couldn't help but get a strange sense of déjà-vu. It hadn't been that long ago since the last time she had been in on a tactical assault with a bomber. And the last time that had happened was in Boston and they lost 6 agents. It didn't give her a hopeful outlook for this assault, paired with the raw feeling settling in her stomach.
Hotch adjusted his clear earpiece, the only thing connecting them to Gideon back at the police station. He surveyed the officers—SWAT had been deployed as well as the bomb squad—standing around, waiting for his command.
It had been her idea to go in the back of the building—to gain an element of surprise on him. She had reasoned that maybe if he felt cornered, he'd give himself up. She didn't know how that would work in theory, but she hoped it did. Nobody wanted another Boston bomber on their hands.
She crossed her arms as her stomach filled with butterflies. No, not butterflies—more like wasps. She couldn't put her finger on it, but she knew something wasn't right.
"This feels wrong to me," Caroline admitted to Hotch, keeping her voice low so no one else could hear her, "Why would Walker let himself be found so easily?"
"Because he wants to be found."
"Why?"
"To negotiate."
She chewed on her lip. "Yeah, but then we lose the element of surprise."
He glanced down at her. "Well, hopefully, we catch him off guard and he gives himself up immediately. If not, we take a hard line and make him feel like he's got no way out."
Hotch paused before turning to the team of officers in front of him.
"Remember," he announced, "we have to take him alive. Walker's the only one who can defuse the necklace bomb. Everybody ready?"
There was a chorus of yes sirs. Hotch nodded before turning back to Caroline.
"I want you to stay in the back of the deployment," he told her, "I'll lead the assault."
She took a step away from him, taken aback. "What? Why?"
