The Boss' Niece (Spencer Reid)

41. Beating the strain

"General Whitworth is coming here?" Rossi asked.

"He's in charge of site containment and spore analysis. Determining what strain this is will help inform who's responsible." Hotch explained.

"My team is in charge of treating all victims." Dr. Kimura nodded.

"Reid, Cassidy, go with Dr. Kimura to the hospital. Interview the victims. Morgan and Prentiss, there's a hazmat team that will accompany you to the crime scene. There's Cipro. everybody needs to take it before we go." Hotch gave instructions before lifting a tray off the table, passing it around to everyone so they could take a small container that had white pills in them.

"We don't know if it's effective against this strain, but it's something." Dr. Kimura explained.

"This is really happening?" Cassidy exhaled, shocked.

"We knew this could happen. We've done our homework. We've prepared for this. This is it." Hotch shook his head.

"Cent'anni. May you live 100 years." Rossi spoke before everyone consumed the pills with water.

———

After a whole day worth of interviews, looking at crime scenes and just trying to remain calm while lying to the public, Hotch, Rossi, Morgan and Emily gathered in the BAU bullpen, being surrounded by more Alpha males than a stadium full of soccer fans.

"Because the locations hit are not symbolically significant, we believe that these attacks are personal." Hotch started, surprisingly having the attention of the entire bullpen, which held at least 50 men and women.

"Understanding the significance of these locations will be the key to identifying him." Emily spoke.

"This personal element strongly indicates a home-grown terrorist." Rossi explained.

"Like the Amerithrax case, we believe this is someone from the Science or defence community." Morgan nodded.

"That's why you're here." Hotch looked at every single person in the room.

"We think you may know him." Emily spoke up, exhaling.

"He may be one of us." Hotch shook his head.

"These home-grown terrorists are myopic zealots, ideologues that believe that their work is of the greatest importance." Emily clasped her hands together.

"He may have preached about the threat of an attack on America." Rossi explained before looking at Morgan, who exhaled.

"His co-workers would describe him as histrionic, paranoid, secretive." Morgan looked at everyone, earning a few eyerolls and scoffs from a few of the Army officials.

"He may have logged excess hours at work in the past weeks preparing for the attack." Hotch continued to explain, ignoring the few people who looked like they wanted to be anywhere else.

"We believe he's taken the full dosage of anthrax vaccines over the recommended 18-month schedule and had yearly boosters." Emily spoke up again, exhaling.

"This guy has his on work space where he makes his product in privacy. He also has access to large, expensive, industrial-grade equipment at work." Morgan explained.

"He's written about the threat of anthrax attacks, published papers. Yet he feels no one is listening. And that angers him." Rossi crossed his arms.

"Now, he may have recently experienced some sort of professional humiliation, like be demoted or fired. Now, that would have been his trigger, the moment he decided to go rogue. And he may have betrayed his loved ones to his cause." Morgan raised his eyebrows.