Alfie knocked herself out laying on the concrete. But her deserved beauty sleep, despite still being bound, is disturbed when Matt is dropped to the ground and is disconnected from the chains. JJ protests in whatever they had planned but to be honest Alfie didn't even have the strength to lift her head. As Matt was pulled away to a side door and Askari started counting down for her to obey JJ kept pleading for him to stop. Tears stream down her eyes until he hits one and a loud bang erupts through the room.
Alfie holds in her tears. Matt Cruz was a pain in the ass and sucked at flirting with her, but she knows he didn't deserve death. She flinched slightly at the gun shot rattling the chains.
"Let her down."
Alfie knows Askari is going to use the death of Cruz to get her to submit to him. JJ drops to the floor gasping loudly.
"Not her, please," Alfie sits up with glazed eyes. Askari looks at her cracking a sick and twisted smiling before walking out the door.
———
———
"When the war broke out it looks like Askari's talent were recruited by the regime to break potential informants as well as capture U.S. troops."
Everyone in the room looks up to Emily as she speaks. Sonny furrows his brows scratching the corner of his lip. "So Askari works for the highest bitter. That's reassuring."
"How does a guy who tortured U.S. soldiers get drafted to our side?" Asks Derek.
With a couple of clicks of the computer Sonny's attention is drawn to Garcia. "Wait, I might know that. I uploaded that ghost file to my private cloud server... the order was given by Chief Cruz."
Sonny and the others clench their jaws at the news of Cruz's betrayal.
"Why would Cruz enlist a man like Askari?"
"He needed a high ranking partner to put him in position," Reid answers Blake.
"So what are we saying? Cruz and Askari were working together?"
"Then the girls are in more danger than we thought."
———
———
Alfie manages to pull herself just a little bit closer to JJ but not enough to touch her. She hears her low whimpers and her quietly talking to herself. Well, so someone not there. She whispers Emily's name under her breath making her frown.
She watches her friend talk to the imaginary friends before her. Assuming the images have changed, she now talks about Matt. She's hallucinating and that's not good.
She feels for her friend worried for her healthy. Alfie took most of the beatings as she had the mental strength from the Army. Askari knew that when she was asked to help on the mission. He knew he could do anything to her but it would be a long while before she broke.
She shakes her head falling back on the concrete floor staring at the ceiling. She's slowly running out of hope.
"Save us," she whispers.
———
———
Proving a theory Reid runs back to the circle table. "Cruz never officially put his name in for Section Chief."
"We'll somebody did."
By now the rest of the BAU are standing around the table with Sonny pacing back and forth thinking about everything they've learned so far.
"Or he pulled strings, called in favors to get close to JJ and Alfie."
"Emily, you saw them both during this time. Did they ever mention Cruz or details of the investigation?"
Sonny notices her freeze for a minute and look back at the back of the jet as if recalling a old memory. Sonny isn't a profiler but even he caught onto her hesitation.
"Alfie suspected a double agent, as did JJ. They could have been talking about Cruz."
A question pops into Sonny's head. "If Cruz is working with Askari why take JJ? Why take Aphrodite? Alfie was hardly involved with the interrogations in Afghanistan. She spent more of her time in the field shooting the enemy. Wouldn't Cruz's clearance be higher than either of them?"
"At Interpol, our most sensitive information requires two ranking agents to gain access."
"Maybe the INTEGRITY systems require the same."
Blake intervenes on Reid's theory saying, "but when agents are compromised their security privileges are revoked. JJ's or Alfie's codes shouldn't work."
Straightening herself in her seat, Garcia prompts up, "if he knew what he was doing he could reroute the system updates that would render their security codes useless."
"Where would you have to go to do that?" Sonny asks.
"I-uh straight to the source," she stutters, "he'd have to hard-line into the servers, but they're scattered all over the country."
"It would be difficult to transport Alfie and JJ and keep Askari's timeline. He must have taken them someplace local."
Hotch nods his head slightly in agreement. "We need to figure out which server they've hacked."
In his mind Sonny is begging God to lead them the right way. He's silently praying for the girls and even Cruz despite his betrayal. He holds onto the anger and guilt riddling his body thinking of the past. He has unfinished business with Aphrodite.
———
———
Hunched over on the floor in her metal cuffs Askari places the computer in front of her. She glared at the man just wanting to sucker punch him in the nose.
She directs her gaze to the computer contemplating her decisions. She sniffs a little as she stares at the computer. She makes a mental thought on how to make contact with the team.
To her disbelief Matt wasn't in fact dead. He was back to being strung up by the chains and looks like he got more of a beaten.
Alfie's lip quivers as she stares up at him. He reassures her everything is okay over and over. She shifts her line of sight to JJ her tired herself out and passed out on the floor. Thankfully she is still breathing as her chest rises and falls evenly.
She gives one for glance before typing in the password. One of Askari's minions takes back the computer to her dismay.
"Codes confirmed. Now we just need the second user."
"I guess we don't need you anymore." She can hear the cock of the gun. She squeezes her eyes shut waiting for the trigger to be pulled.
"You hurt her, you'll never get my codes. Ever," he musters out.
Tivon Askari hesitates still holding the gun to her head. Though his dark eyes are trained on Matt.
Please get it over with.
———
———
"What do you got, Garcia?" Hotch asks as he and Sonny walk in behind her.
"I found the relevant servers."
"How many were there?"
"In the D.C area, six."
Sonny bobs his head understandingly. "We need to narrow it down," he says impatiently.
She shakes her head moving her fastest. "Uh we can ping the servers to see who's hard-lined in, but the second we start knocking the FBI data security is gonna know. It's not gonna be a big leap to figure out why we're doing this."
Their eyes stay locked on the poor woman doing her best but unfortunately their running out of time. "We won't be here when they do."
"Okay, I'm going in. It's not working. None of the servers are showing any activity hard-lines."
"Then we're back to square one," observes Rossi.
"No, no, we don't have time for that. It's already been twenty four hours."
Hotch leans on the table looking directly at Garcia. "The girls are being held out of one of the sites. We'll work our way down the list."
Stressed by the situation the only response Garcia can give is sending the coordinates. That includes to Sonny.
———
———
JJ sits up coming out of unconsciousness. "Your code now or this time she loses more than her baby. Or this one will join her abusive father."
"Go to hell!"
"Your code!" Askari exclaims.
Alfie's head perks up at the sound of that. How did he know about that? Nobody else knew about that besides JJ, her and Matt.
"JJ..." he trails off.
JJ looks to Alfie with confused eyes but quickly shakes the accusation from her mind. Instead she looks to the most likely person in the room for answers. "Did you tell him I was pregnant?"
Matt looks to her almost offended by her words. "Of course not. I never told anyone."
It's like a bulb switched on in both of their minds. They glance to each other before letting out short strangled laughs.
That wasn't a good idea. Askari hung her up again earning a low, angry growl as she swayed in all directions.
"Okay."
"It's enough," Alfie says, her brunette wet hair sticking to the side of her face. "Come out!"
"Who are you talking to?"
JJ shakes her head, "not to you, to your boss. Come out and face us!"
"Come out you coward!" Alfie shouts after her.
To their disbelief, back from the dead is none other than Michael Hastings.