❛ 𝑪𝑶𝑳𝑫 𝑨𝑺 𝑰𝑪𝑬 ❜
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•☽.⭒✻❙ 𝐖𝐎𝐍'𝐓 𝐆𝐄𝐓 𝐅𝐎𝐎𝐋𝐄𝐃 𝐀𝐆𝐀𝐈𝐍 ❙✻⭒.☾•
𝒈𝒊𝒅𝒆𝒐𝒏 𝒔𝒖𝒔𝒑𝒆𝒄𝒕𝒔 𝒂 𝒔𝒆𝒓𝒊𝒂𝒍 𝒃𝒐𝒎𝒃𝒆𝒓 𝒊𝒔 𝒂 𝒅𝒊𝒔𝒄𝒊𝒑𝒍𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒏𝒆𝒎𝒆𝒔𝒊𝒔
❝ 𝐲𝐞𝐬, 𝐢 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐟𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐬, 𝐦𝐨𝐦. ❞
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𝑾𝑯𝑨𝑻 𝑨 𝑭𝑬𝑬𝑳𝑰𝑵𝑮
𝒐𝒏𝒆 𝒅𝒊𝒓𝒆𝒄𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏
❛ the sky fell down, but you've got stars in your eyes ❜
𝑉𝐴𝐿𝐸𝑁𝑇𝐼𝑁𝐴 𝐻𝐴𝐷 𝐵𝐸𝐸𝑁 𝑂𝑁 the phone with her mother for about two hours this morning. She wouldn't stop hounding Valentina about her new job and how dangerous it is. Valentina loved her job, she felt rewarded by helping people feel safe and make sure no one else has to suffer, but her mom and the rest of her family were extremely worried about her.
After a certain event that occurred when Valentina was eight, she had been dealing with her trauma by herself, but the Barnes's have been looking over her shoulder ever since. Her parents, Melanie and Marshall, and her three older brothers, Maverick, Maxwell and Marco, have been babying her and hoping that she would pick a job that wouldn't put her in danger, but Valentina likes her job.
Marco, the youngest older brother, is a criminal defense lawyer, so the two run into each other quite a lot. He defends a lot of the people the BAU helps put away, but that's only in Maine. There's definitely an unspoken and tense rivalry between the two since they're defending opposing sides of the justice system, but Marco has still been trying to get Valentina away from a lot of the criminals he knows are bad people.
Maxwell, the middle brother, is a wildlife biologist, so to put it simply, he's an animal person. He never works directly with animals, but at times he gets to. He's always been an incredibly sweet and simple boy who's constantly looked out for his sister, so when she decided to chase after the people who forced her trauma, he did everything in his power to convince Valentina to find another job.
Maverick, the oldest brother, is a surgeon and has always been an overachiever. He's been constantly competing and comparing himself to his brothers and sister, but in a way that made him see better. Maverick is the main reason that Valentina is so competitive. She does have three older brothers, so she's always been fighting for a seat at the table, but Maverick didn't help. He doesn't want Valentina to be in danger either, but it's more so that there's now a genius in the family and he couldn't handle it.
Marshall, their father, is a moral philosophy professor at a university, so when something so completely immoral occurred to his family, scarring his daughter for life, he panicked. He has done everything to get Valentina the best therapists and specialists to talk to, even buying a new house with intense security, which her mother, Melanie, completely agreed with. They became helicopter parents and would do nothing but bring up the accident. It's one of the main reasons Valentina moved so far from Maine.
"Yes, mom...I'm fine, mom...No! No one has tried to kill me and no one on the BAU team has tried to stab me in the back with a knife while I'm filling out paper work!" Valentina was on the phone with her mom still, even while she had walked into the FBI office. She had put her stuff down at her desk, but that ending of her sentence made Spencer look up at her with slight concern. She saw the boy's look and knew she had to clear it up.
"Parents, am I right?" Spencer only nodded his head, still completely confused by what Valentina was saying without context.
She put the phone back to her ear and Spencer kept his focus on Valentina. He was quite intrigued by whatever this conversation seemed to be. "Yes, they're all being nice to me, mom. They're all really great...No, they're not bullying me...Can you stop bringing up the one time I was shoved into a locker? And that time doesn't even matter, I broke the kid's nose anyway...He deserved it, he was bullying Marco and I had to beat him up for him 'cause you're son's a wimp...I think I'm doing good...Well, depending on who you ask, they'll say something different...Why don't you just take my word for it?..Fine, the closest person to me is my bestest friend...Yes, I have friends, mom!"
Valentina suddenly tapped the edge of she and Spencer's desk, getting him to look up at her. She held her phone out and asked, "My mother would like to speak with you."
"Um...O-okay?" Spencer was caught very off guard, but he answered anyway. "Hi, Mrs. Barnes...I'm good, how are you?..She's doing a pretty good job. Valentina's a great asset to the team...No, I'm not her boyfriend."
"Oh, god." Valentina muttered with shame as she hid her face in her hands, immediately regretting this decision.
"I don't know, I can ask." Spencer then moved his attention to Valentina. "Valentina, your mother would like to know how your dating life is going."
"Just give me my phone."
"I'm gonna say from context, not well." Spencer spoke to Melanie. Valentina literally reached over the desk and took her phone back, which only made Spencer laugh, something he rarely did. Valentina faked a static sound and then hung up on her mom so it seemed like the connection was lost. She sighed, tired of her mother's usual self.
"She's such a sweet woman." Spencer commented with a smirk on his face, trying to get under her skin. "Shut up, Spence."
"BAU team, JJ needs to meet with us." Hotch announced to the room as he walked by. Everyone quickly collected their things to get a start on the next case. They all went into the conference room, Spencer and Valentina the only two sitting down.
"There's been two bombings so far in residential neighborhoods in Palm Beach." JJ briefly introduced the case, Gideon immediately having a question. "Homeland Security been notified?"
"And ATF. In addition to a profile, they want a threat assessment. Valentina, I'm trusting you with taking the lead on that." Hotch informed.
"Oh...okay." Valentina was taken aback to be trusted with something so important so soon, but she was willing to try her best. Along with her amazing ability to read people, Valentina could read situations as well. She's always said that analyzing someone's living space is the same as analyzing a person. Valentina could use her skills to analyze a threat and it's severity. Hotch had all confidence that she could do this.
"Is the media on it?" Gideon questioned, JJ already prepared. "I'm keeping tabs on that."
"Well, what do we know about the bombs?" Gideon asked, trying to get as much information to start off with as possible. Morgan had the response this time. "I hooked up with ATF. They sent pictures of the bomb and are sending fragments as they find them."
Morgan laid out pictures of the dismantled bombs on the desk in front of everyone. "Pipe bombs. Packed in cardboard boxes. This picture is of the switch that ATF found. Same mechanism for both bombs. Mercury-activated."
"What does that mean?" Elle queried.
"There are contacts to a detonator on either end of a bent tube full of mercury." Spencer explained, not shockingly knowing something about the making of bombs. Valentina too had some knowledge just from her extensive knowledge of...well, everything. "So all you'd have to do is tilt the package to detonate it, meaning they couldn't have been sent through the mail. The bomber delivered them himself."
"Exactly." Morgan confirmed. Hotch was curious about the entire situation. "Strange way to commit an act of terrorism. Why go to all this trouble to kill just a few people?"
"Let's recommend not raising the terror alert level for now. No reason to spread panic." Gideon informed, seeing as there was really no reason for the public to feel completely threatened. However, that was about to change insanely quickly with some information JJ had. "Yeah, about that. We got news."
JJ switched on the TV and a news channel immediately popped up. "This is just a local channel, but the coverage is everywhere now. CNN, Fox, MSNBC, Al Jazeera, you name it."
"Let's not spread panic, they said." Valentina commented sarcastically, seeing that now that town of people were going to be freaking out and panicking about this bomber when there was a possibility that they weren't in danger.
They listened to the woman on the news. "According to doctors, he's badly injured, but in stable condition in the ICU. Now, neighbors say that they heard a blast at about ten-thirty this morning and police arrived shortly."
"If DHS doesn't raise the terror alert now, they'll look weak." Morgan commented. With that, Hotch looked over at JJ with an order. "Make sure Homeland Security knows that this is everywhere."
"Now police are investigating-" The woman was suddenly cut off when an explosion suddenly erupted in the street behind her. The camera shook and people started to panic as a sympathetic look reached the faces of all the BAU team members. "Looks like we're going to Palm Beach."
"Let's meet at the airstrip in twenty." Which is exactly what they did. The team had gathered their belongings and all they'd need before heading to the airstrip. This was part of their repetitive cycle they always seemed to be on. It was just go, go, go.
Everyone had gotten out to the plane, except Morgan. Garcia never went with them since she was always working at the FBI building due to her specific set up, but Morgan was staying behind to work with the bomb fragments being sent in, on account of his ATF background.
Meanwhile, Elle, Gideon, JJ, Hotch, Valentina and Spencer were all on the plane and ready for the case to begin. JJ and Valentina were sitting across from each other, Spencer in the seat next to Valentina. The two younger agents had been encouraged to work closer together since they have similar skill sets and, despite their clear rivalry and teasing, Valentina and Spencer work well together.
They all had their own cases with them, except Valentina and Spencer who were sharing, while Hotch gave them a rundown of the case. "Bombings occurred within three miles of each other. First victim was a seventy-four year old widow, Barbara Keller. Two hours after that, Clurman got hit in his driveway and forty-five minutes later, well, we all saw that. Jill Swenson, thirty-four year old housewife who lives across the street from Clurman. Of the three, only Clurman survived."
"Is there any connection between the victims?" Spencer wondered.
"One. Clurman was a partner in a ten-million condo development deal in which Keller was an investor. And a few weeks ago, the whole deal went bust." Hotch explained, causing a question to pick at Elle. "Went bust how?"
"Geologists discovered that the land was on methane, the condos never got build, the land becomes worthless and Clurman lost a lot of people a lot of money." Hotch explained again, which gave Elle more wonder. "So maybe one of them was mad enough to take aim at Clurman."
"It's kind of early to theorize about motive." Valentina commented, seeing that she hadn't even gotten the chance to analyze the crime scene, which was a crucial part of finding the motive. "Then where do we start?"
"From the beginning." Gideon began. "What do we know about the bombers?"
Of course, Spencer had some sort of statistic to help them out. "Mostly male, loners. History of criminal activity. About fifty perfect of all bombings are actually the product of vandalism."
"And quite commonly, bombers accidentally blow themselves up. So the first suspects in a bombing case are always the victims." Valentina added on, Elle having something to say as well. "Clurman was the only male. Losing a large business deal like that, it could be a powerful stressor."
"Well, then there's the crime scene." Hotch introduced the thing that was making Valentina slightly nervous. He was making her the primary on the crime scene part of the case, which meant having her analyze it on her own and providing the information of said analysis on her own. "Clurman was the only victim who didn't get hit at his door."
"Why? What was different about this one?"
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Valentina had been walking around the Clurman crime scene for about ten minutes. The BAU team was letting her take the time she needed to get the most accurate guess she could make. After the fact that she guessed the last unsub's motive in only a few hours, they had full confidence that Valentina could get this.
"Any ideas, Valentina?" Hotch asked, seeing that Valentina had been staring at the burnt car for a bit.
"Before Clurman passed out, he told the cops that he saw the package sitting on the stoop outside his kitchen door." Valentina began, Spencer already questioning her. "Why didn't he take it in? And why didn't it go off until he got to his car? It's like fifty feet away."
"He might now have been receiving the bomb. Joe Reese, who's one of Clurman's investors, was here before the bomb went off. The cops ruled him out as a suspect, but Reese said he saw Clurman get in the car with the package. But because of where it was set off, he may have been delivering the bomb. If he drops it or tilts it, it could go off by accident." Valentina explained.
"I'd like to talk to Clurman. In the meantime, let's get a warrant to search his house. Good work, Valentina." Gideon complimented, which brought a proud smile to Valentina's face. "Thank you, sir."
It was decently difficult to get a compliment from Gideon since he's always so insanely focused on just getting the work done professionally, but Valentina was beginning to get the recognition she deserved.
It didn't take too long for them to get a warrant to search the Clurman house. They had split up the team so they could cover all grounds. Elle and JJ were at the station, Spencer and Gideon were at the hospital to speak with Clurman while Hotch stayed with Valentina to analyze the crime scene.
The two had just stepped in the house and Valentina immediately began to scan the area around her. "Valentina, first impressions?"
"The decorations are fairly feminine, telling us that Clurman's wife was in charge of decorating. She might be more in charge, emasculating him, but there's no major signs of that. Real first impression is an average family. Nothing suspicious, but they appear that way quite a lot." Valentina took a guess, just spitballing ideas and any generalization she could find off the top of her head.
One of the officers from Palm Beach had suddenly walked in, trying to catch Hotch's attention. "Agent Hotchner?"
Both Valentina and Hotch turned to see who was speaking. He introduced himself, shaking both of their hands. "Detective Morrison, Palm Beach P.D. I'm the lead on the case."
"Nice to meet you. This is Dr. Barnes. Agents Reid and Gideon are at the hospital, and I think you met Agent Jareau and Greenaway at the station house." Hotch introduced both himself and the rest of the BAU team if they hadn't already shared pleasantries.
"Oh, yeah. She's taken over the place." The detective laughed, referring to JJ. Hotch was not surprised. "She does that."
"ATF hasn't found any hard evidence yet, just some kitchen timers, tape recorders and electrical switches." The detective got them all back on track. "It's amazing how many household items count as potential bomb-making materials."
"Hello?" A sudden feminine voice called out. Clurman's wife had arrived back home and stopped through the house, understandably upset and confused as to why the police were lurking inside her house. "Mrs. Clurman."
"What's going on here?" She demanded.
"Mrs. Clurman, my name is Special Agent Aaron Hotchner, this is Special Agent Dr. Valentina Barnes with the FBI." Hotch showed his credentials, Valentina doing the same. "What are you doing in my house?"
"There's a copy of the warrant on the table. I know that this is hard to believe, but we just need to cover all of our bases. We need to make sure that your husband was not involved in any way." Hotch spoke as calmly as possible, but Mrs. Clurman was still incredibly angry. "Involved? My husband's in the hospital with his leg blown off. What are you talking about?"
"Mrs. Clurman." Valentina began in a peaceful voice, knowing from just seeing how Mrs. Clurman reacting to the situation that that was how she would best respond to. "There are some questions that your husband needs to answer. The sooner we talk to him and clear him, the sooner we can find whoever's responsible."
"Agent Hotchner?" One of the beat cops had walked into the room, catching the Agent's attention. "We've got something."
Ms. Clurman followed Hotch and Valentina to the basement where the police officer had lead them. They were met with a duffel bag filled with equipment, equipment that appeared could be used for bomb-making. "We found this buried on the back of that shelf."
Seeing the sudden and confused presence of Mrs. Clurman, Hotch questioned her. "Mrs. Clurman, do you know anything about this?"
Valentina could see the hesitation in her eyes, it was caused by fear. There were at least six people in this small room, she clearly felt uneasy and out of place. Taking initiative and knowing it could actually get information, Valentina stepped up. "Why don't we speak upstairs, Mrs. Clurman?"
She nodded her head, much more comfortable with that suggestion. Valentina looked back at Hotch, her look silently asking if that was alright. He only sent her a small nod, having figured out exactly what she was doing. Valentina knew that this woman would probably respond better to speaking to the only woman in the room, also in an environment not heavily surrounded by men.
Valentina and Mrs. Clurman had gone upstairs and were sitting in her living room. Valentina thought it might help if she was in a familiar place as well. "Mrs. Clurman? Do you know something about the materials that were found?"
Mrs. Clurman had to take a breath before speaking, but it was lucky that she seemed to trust Valentina. "Look, I don't know anything about that."
"Is there maybe someone you could think of that your husband might know who would need these tools?" Valentina asked.
"The only new person we've come into contact with for a month is our nephew in Texas. He was staying with us for a month and left last week, but he's only twelve." Mrs. Clurman explained. "Yes, I suppose mercury switches are a little sophisticated for a twelve year old."
Mrs. Clurman laughed, actually trying to find the amusement in the situation. Her happy state died down fairly quickly. "My husband isn't in trouble, is he?"
"We never said he was a suspect, he only needs to answer questions, just like you're doing right now. I mean, do you feel like you're in trouble?" Valentina reasoned. She knew that Mr. Clurman was potentially a suspect, but they haven't officially dubbed him a suspect. It wouldn't help anything if Mrs. Clurman felt like she was going to lose her husband.
"No. I suppose you're right. You're going to help my husband, right?" Mrs. Clurman's voice was breaking as she spoke. Obviously, she was hurt by this event, but who wouldn't be? "Of course. We're going to do everything we can to find the person who set these bombs. I can promise you that."
"Thank you, Dr. Barnes." Mrs. Clurman spoke as tears began well up in her eyes. "Of course, Mrs. Clurman. I'll give you some time to gather your thoughts."
Mrs. Clurman sent Valentina a thankful smile, before the girl in question walked over to Hotch, who had just emerged from the basement, to give him some of the vital information she had just received. "You find out anything?"
"They have a nephew in Texas and according to Mrs. Clurman, he was staying with them for a month and left last week. I'm not saying he's the unsub, but boys his age like to blow stuff up." Valentina explained. It was incredibly unlikely for a child to be the unsub, but there's nothing that's impossible in this job.
"I'll call Morrison. He'll contact local P.D. in Texas. He'll pick up the kid and talk to him." Hotch responded with a reasonable plan. He stepped outside so he could call the lead detective on the case, while Valentina stayed inside. She was planning on possible taking one last look around just to see if there was anything that could give away a motive or help with the profile, but she got a phone call from Morgan before she could. "Hi, Morgan."
"Hey, Tina. I should let you know, I emailed some pictures over to you guys of the bombs. They're fully built now and I also sent over some articles of who the unsub is." Morgan explained. "You know who the unsub is already?"
"Well, maybe not one-hundred percent, but there's a specific motive." Morgan informed. "Thanks, Morgan. We'll get everyone back to the station."
"Oh, before you go, when you see Reid, tell him I said he's a butthead." Morgan spoke with a small laugh. Him and Valentina got way too much pleasure by teasing Spencer. Spencer doesn't actually mind it, he could retaliate very easily, he just chooses not to.
"Will do." Valentina responded, also laughing at the insult. She let the police continue with their jobs as she headed outside where, conveniently, Hotch had just gotten off the phone. "Hotch."
The older man turned to look at Valentina. "Morgan's got a lead on who the unsub could be. We gotta get back to the station."
"Alright, we'll head over now. Call Reid and Gideon, tell them to get back too." As Valentina and Hotch were driving back to the police station, Valentina had gotten a hold of Spencer and told him to get back to the station. Once they had arrived, everyone had met in a conference room, Elle, JJ and Morrison included.
"Morgan emailed these over." Valentina explained, she having the information from Morgan while the four bombs were shown on the television. "The three bombs on the left are the bombs from yesterday, but the one on the right's from the evidence room at Quantico."
"They're all identical. Made with steel reinforcement rods." Spencer pointed out, making the argument that this was the same unsub even stronger.
"Adrian Bale." Gideon suddenly spoke. "Who?"
"He held our agents in a standoff in Boston last year. He took out six agents and a hostage with one of his bombs." Hotch explained, having been there with Gideon himself.
"So you're thinking he's behind this?" Elle questioned, hoping that this was an easy solve, but Hotch knew there were some complications with that theory. "Possibly. But he's in prison."
"Doesn't he have a kind cult following? Like Charles Manson?" Valentina asked, slightly familiar with the case just from reading up on older ones to strengthen her analysis skills. Spencer added onto her point. "It could just be a copycat."
"There's one way to find out. Let's put the screws to this guy." Morrison suggested. It was never shocking that the people who call the BAU in are hellbent on putting away the first reasonable suspect they hear of, but this strand of the FBI has been trained to know that you need to have all the facts, not just a hunch.
"No, no, no. Bale's too smart." Gideon argued. "If we want information from him, we have to handle him carefully, and even then you have to assume that road will lead nowhere."
"You're saying the connection to Bale doesn't help us at all?" Morrison questioned, upset that their obvious suspect trail lead to nothing. "No. I'm just saying let us handle Bale."
"Look, we just heard from local Texas P.D. You were right about Clurman's nephew. He admitted the bomb stuff was his, which is great for the Clurmans, but it leaves us with zero suspects. So what do you suggest my men do now?" Morrison questioned, slightly annoyed.
"Proceed from the profile." Gideon ordered. "I didn't know we had a profile."
The BAU didn't even have to communicate to all know that they had a profile. Every single person on that team had the exact same idea of what was happening and knew they were all on the same page.
They had gathered the police officers and Morrison in the bullpen of the police station as Gideon started to list off the profile. "When we're dealing with a bomber, we're talking about someone who's non-confrontational. If you bumped into him in a café, he'd apologize. Even if it wasn't his fault."
"We would classify this bomber as highly organized based on the meticulous design of his bombs. That means he's of above-average intelligence. He probably has a skilled job. A trade that most likely allows him to work alone. That's how he made a sophisticated device without raising suspicion." Valentina added on, she being the one to explain the type of person considering her specialty. Everyone else in the BAU was more on the type of unsub and different kinds of crimes, but Valentina was specifically on how they act and what kind of person they are rather than criminal.
"Background in explosives?" An officer asked, Hotch answering. "No, not necessarily. You're thinking about a type who likes to blow things up. Gives them an emotional or sexual release. Death, secondary."
"Then what's this guy doing?" Another officer questioned, Gideon being the one to answer. "Murdering. Bombs? Just weapons. And these attacks are not random."
"Well, how do you know that?" Yet another officer queried, but he seemed much more skeptical. Hotch cleared the air. "By process of elimination. We know bombers fall into a discrete number of categories according to motive. There's the terrorist, whose aim is to spread fear. We'd expect him to strike in a populous area, like a subway. There's the politically motivated bomber. He makes a statement by choosing a symbolic target, like an abortion clinic. Then there's our unsub. He made bombs designed to kill, and he chose his victims specifically by placing the bombs at their stoops. That tells us he has a direct motive. Statistically, he bombs for profit or to conceal a crime. And it tells us how we're going to find him. Through the people he killed. Somewhere among the three victims, there is a direct motive."
"Keep digging." Gideon encouraged. "If you have any questions, we'll be around."
"You'll be around." Gideon corrected. "Somebody's got to talk to Bale."
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Spencer and Valentina had gone with Gideon to see Bale. They weren't going to talk to Bale, but the team always worked in groups, so Spencer and Valentina were waiting in the hall outside where the cells were kept. They sat in silence for a little while, patiently awaiting Gideon until Valentina broke the silence. "By the way, Morgan told me to tell you that you're a butthead."
"That's very mature of him." Spencer spoke with sarcasm he didn't even realize was such. A smile made it's way to Valentina's lips, realizing that he just did something incredibly out of character. "Did you just use sarcasm?"
"No, it was simply an opposing observation of what I really meant." Spencer explained, Valentina responding with a laugh. "That's the definition of sarcasm, Spence."
"Oh." Spencer realized the irony, causing a small smile to form and his eyes to look down at his hands. Teasingly, Valentina pinched Spencer's cheek, which only made his smile grow more. "God, your smile is perfect."
"Do you speak like this to everyone?" Spencer had noticed that Valentina was always fairly positive towards him, as in complimenting how he looks. She always acted as if he was the most beautiful person to walk this earth, but quite honestly, Valentina spoke like that to a lot of people. "Absolutely. Have you seen the people we work with? I mean, Garcia is by far the most beautiful woman I've ever seen in my entire life."
"You should tell her that, you'll probably become her new favourite person." Spencer pointed out, which was honestly true.
Suddenly, Gideon had walked through the doors and never stopped. Valentina and Spencer quickly followed after him as he wasted no time in getting started on his additional information to the profile. "Bale may be part of this, but he's not in control of it. If he were, he would have taunted me with specifics."
"So what's our next move?" Valentina questioned. "I'll let Bale know the unsub's using his designs."
"Bait." Spencer commented, both him and Valentina catching on. "Yeah, exactly. If Bale wasn't part of it before, he'll sure want to be part of it now."
"I'm going to stay behind and monitor his mail, calls, visitors, any contact that he has with the outside world." Spencer informed, Gideon wanting Valentina to join in. "Good, Valentina, you stay with him. Even if he doesn't know the unsub, he may want to try to contact him."
Gideon, Valentina and Spencer had all gone their separate ways. Valentina and Spencer stayed in the hall since they had to call Garcia to get access to what Bale was looking at online while Gideon had left the building completely.
Spencer and Valentina were lucky there was no one else in the hall, so they had Garcia on speaker so they could both hear her. "Office of Supreme Genius Puzzle Solver. Do you have a riddle for me?"
"Hi, Garcia. How's the most beautiful person to exist doing?" Valentina asked, seeing if Spencer's theory was actually going to work. "Oh, I'm wonderful. Thank you for asking, Valentina, my favourite."
Valentina wore a knowing smirk and looked up at Spencer, already quite proud of herself that she had seemed to have dethroned Morgan. Spencer only let out a small laugh at her pride before getting down to what they really needed to know. "We found out Bale's been accessing the internet by getting around a firewall that's set up on a prison library computer. The guy even has an email address."
"Sneaky bastard." Garcia muttered, the sound of her keyboard clacking could be heard in the background.
"He's headed to the library right now. He might be contacting the unsub." Valentina pointed out, hoping that that's what was happening. Spencer had a question regarding that. "Now, is there a way to possibly monitor his keystrokes while he's online?"
"I can send him a virus, but he'll have to open the email for it to work." Garcia explained, seeing that this was slightly more complicated. They were both alright with that. "Let's do it."
"What do you want in the subject line?" Garcia asked. Spencer was the one to wonder about it, making it vocal while Valentina just tried to figure out what specifically to say. "Let's think. Something that'll make him open it."
"Yeah..." Garcia trailed off, trying to think of something, but luckily for them, Valentina had it. "Garcia, he's impotent, so we need to write something that'll make him feel in control. Something that'll involve someone younger just based on the fact that he's middle-aged."
"I got something." They heard Garcia's keyboard tapping again. They waited patiently for any sort of reaction from Bale. During their wait, Valentina had spoken up about something that had been bugging her the past few days. "When we get back on the plane, I'm gonna show you how to beat Gideon in chess."
"You mean that?" Spencer seemed incredibly happy with that offer. He had been trying to beat Gideon at chess ever since he got back and it really got under his skin that someone who doesn't even know how to play could beat him. "Yes, it pains me to watch you lose over and over again."
"Guys, we got this guy's number." Garcia caught their attention. "He's visited six porn sites in the past half hour."
"Anything else?" Spencer questioned.
"Hold on. He's posting to a message board. Looks like some sort of site for bomb enthusiasts. 'To all my friends out there, beware. They are onto you.'" Garcia quoted directly from Bale's computer.
"We need the names of everyone who's been on that message board in the past month." Spencer informed, Garcia immediately starting on that. "I'll send it over to you guys as soon as I get them."
"Thanks, Garcia." Valentina bid farewell before Garcia hung up the phone. Both Spencer and Valentina had gone to the warden's office since he was letting them work in there. They had used the fax machine so that they could get information from Garcia. It was crucial to Gideon specifically, so Valentina and Spencer had called him. "Gideon, we got some names."
"Give 'em to me." Gideon spoke through the phone, They could hear water running, which was a little odd, but they went on, Spencer beginning. "One-hundred and eighty-six emails. Through the ISP, we were able to track down the names and some of the addresses, but none of them are in Palm Beach."
"How about occupations?" Gideon asked, Valentina looking through the pages with that information. "It's not a required field, so only about a third of them are actually filled in."
"The unsub takes pride in his work. He would fill it in." Gideon pointed out, narrowing it down to certain people listed. "You're right, sorry. There's a trucker, physician, antiquities dealer, store owner, orderly-"
"Wait. Antiquities dealer?" Gideon cut off Valentina very suddenly. "Yeah, why?"
Gideon went silent, almost like he was contemplating something. This silence only created more curiosity between the two young doctors that Spencer voiced. "What is it?"
"David Walker. That's the guy."
•☽.⭒✻════◅∘≼↜.◦◦.↝≽∘▻════✻⭒.☾•
Spencer and Valentina had just gotten in the car to head back to the police station. They had all the information they needed from the prison, so all that was left was to rendezvous back at the station.
Valentina's phone suddenly began to ring, so she picked it up immediately. "Hey, Elle."
"Whatever you and Reid do, do not come back to the station. I repeat, do not come back to the station." Elle hurriedly warned. "Wait, why?"
"Walker attached a bomb to a civilian and he's in the station. We don't need anyone else in danger. You and Reid need to stay out of there." Elle stressed.
"Yeah, alright. We'll keep away. Is there anything else we can help with?" Just as Valentina had asked, Spencer went to start the car, but she put her hand on his to get him to stop. Spencer only looked over at her with confusion. "Talk to the warden and see if we can get Bale down to the station."
"Will do." Valentina hung up and finally saw the questioning look on Spencer's face. "What is it?"
"There's a bomb at the station, we've been told not to go back." Valentina informed as she got out of the car, Spencer following. "Is everyone okay?"
"They're fine right now, but we need to get Bale down there. And Elle told us not to go down there personally." Spencer nodded, showing he understood.
The two younger agents had gone in the jail to talk to the warden in releasing Bale to get him down to the station. There wasn't much either Spencer or Valentina could do in this case. They were told to stay away from the police station so that they wouldn't be impacted by the bomb if it happened to go off and really all they could do was inform.
Spencer and Valentina just had to wait to find out whether everyone they worked with was about to die or if everything was going to be alright. Thankfully, Gideon had the sense and experience to tell whether or not Bale was lying. He stopped the bomb and they saved dozens of people, but on the two doctor's side of it, the waiting and not knowing was almost worse than being directly in the line of fire.
❝ 𝐚𝐥𝐦𝐨𝐬𝐭 𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐚𝐛𝐬𝐮𝐫𝐝𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐨𝐟 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐭 𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐞𝐬 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐢𝐦𝐢𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐬𝐞 𝐰𝐡𝐨𝐦 𝐰𝐞 𝐜𝐚𝐧𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐞𝐦𝐛𝐥𝐞. ❞
- 𝒔𝒂𝒎𝒖𝒆𝒍 𝒋𝒐𝒉𝒏𝒔𝒐𝒏
❘ ❙ ❚ ❚ ❙ ❘