The Intelligence Control and Analysis Program

Chapter 11

Garcia blinked, caught off guard. "Um... you want me to hack them?"

"No," Hotch interjected. "We want a mysterious, third-party vigilante to hack them and periodically dump their records into public forums." He gave a sideways kind of nod. "So, yes, but only as directed, and only if you can do it without it being traced back to you."

Garcia grinned. "Oh, yeah. It'll take a long time, but I can do it." Her smiled faltered slightly. "I will need some things, though, and we can't have anyone tracking our financial records and finding out we were behind the leak."

Rossi arched a brow. "I have money, but I'm not a bottomless pit."

Garcia shook her head. "That's no good, anyway. You're close to this, and if they suspect you and look at your financial records..." She shook her head. "No way. I'll figure out a way around the problem and get back to you. However, there is one more thing, and I definitely need you guys for that."

Hotch looked at her expectantly. "What is it?"

"I need someone inside ICAP to help me get in. I know exactly who it has to be, where she'll be when, and all you have to do is slip her a chip when no one's looking. She can get it connected to their mainframe on the inside, and that will both help me get in and make it look like the leak is internal instead of a hacker from the outside."

Morgan pursed his lips slightly. "Okay, but..." He shook his head. "How we gonna get in?"

JJ pointed to Hotch with her pen. "Hey, we could potentially use this to force their hand."

Rossi gave her an arched brow, sipping his coffee while Hotch voiced his question.

"What do you mean?"

"ICAP doesn't know Spencer is staying with us permanently." JJ glanced around the room as she spoke, and her gaze lingered on Spencer long enough that Rossi looked, too. "We can set up a time to go in and get Spencer's book—because that is his possession, even according to them—which would get us inside and send a message that Spencer isn't coming back."

Rossi didn't miss the way Spencer tensed at that, some of the red fading from his flushed cheeks. Easy, kid. Easy.

Hotch rubbed his chin and nodded slowly. "If we tell them he isn't coming back, it could make them panic, which could lead to a mistake. However... the last time they panicked, they killed the genius we were looking into. We can't risk that happening again."

Emily held up a finger, countering Hotch's point with one of her own. "But Julia wasn't from Spencer's block, and we don't know who the first victim was. We know ICAP went from killing geniuses a couple times a year to killing three—or at least trying to—in one month. They might keep killing regardless of what we do."

"In which case, we need to nail them as soon as possible," Hotch finished, nodding to himself. He seemed to consider the idea for a moment, but then he shook his head. "We need to find out who the first victim was, and we need to look at the cases Julia and that other genius worked on. Still, even if they were killed for other reasons, we know the last genius we looked into was killed. We need to be sure they won't just kill everyone who has a 4380 serial number once they know Spencer is staying with us."

Rossi swirled the coffee in his cup a few times, pressing his lips together. "Our best bet is to make them afraid of a move that permanent. Trying to take custody and lock people up is one thing—they can always backtrack if it looks bad for them—but death is permanent." He held up a finger to indicate he wasn't done, and then he finished his beverage in a single gulp. "I think we should finalize our custody of Spencer and begin the process for taking custody of Garcia. We'll tell ICAP about how helpful they've been and say we don't want to risk sending them back because... well, things just seem to happen to geniuses, especially ones we're interested in. We would hate to lose these wonderful resources, so we can't leave them in ICAP custody, because ICAP has a history." He rolled his hand to indicate furthered conversation along the same lines. "Basically, we tell them we're on to them. They'll panic, which is what we want, but they'll know we're watching their every move and waiting for an excuse to come down on them."