"6 letters, "between the waves."" Bedelia watches Spencer and Blake do the crossword puzzle in the newspaper.
"Slatch." Blake immediately answers.
"Yes. 10 letters, "wandering alone."" Spencer says.
"Uh... it's Latin in origin, alone is "solus," vagare is "wandering," 10 letters -- S-O-L-I-V-A-G-A-N-T." Blakes says and Spencer stops the timer.
"Congratulations, Blake, you just finished that crossword puzzle in 7 minutes." Spencer says.
"I mean, you could do it, too." Blake says.
"I've done it in 5 1/2, actually." Spencer says. "There's a theory about pattern recognition where you don't even have to look at the clues anymore, but I found that going across instead of down helps because the sequence of saccades and fixations in traditional reading assist with other oculomotor tasks such as solving crossword puzzles."
"I have a migraine now." Bedelia says.
"Happy Wednesday, my nerds." Rossi greets.
"Hey, you're here early." Blake says.
"Well, apparently not early enough. I missed all the excitement." Rossi says. "You do that in pen?" He asks.
"Is there any other way?" Blake asks.
"Where's Hotch?" Rossi asks.
"In there with Garcia." Blake nods to the round table room. "Everything okay?"
"We'll see." Rossi walks off.
"10 letters, starts with "C"." Blake says.
"Cabalistic?" Spencer asks.
"Indeed." Blake nods.
"It's too early for this." Bedelia mumbles.
"Oi!" Penelope calls. "Let's do this."
"Hi. Good morning. No real time to get comfortable." Penelope says as Blake, Bedelia, Rossi, and Spencer walk into the room.
"An hour ago, the man on your tablets was found wandering the streets of Baltimore before he collapsed." Hotch says.
"He is unconscious, he has no ID on him, so we don't know his name. He's got ligature marks on his wrists, and it's impossible to tell how long he's been missing." Penelope says.
"Are those puncture wounds in the corner of his eyes?" Rossi asks.
"Yes, and an MRI confirmed that fibers in his brain had been severed." Hotch says.
"He had a lobotomy?" Rossi asks.
"There was hemorrhaging and foreign object splinters imbedded behind his right eye." Hotch says.
"Most likely from whatever tool the unsub used." Spencer says.
"My guess would be an icepick." Rossi says.
"The guy's still alive. Can we talk to him?" Derek asks.
"You should try." Hotch says.
"Someone with such a specific M.O. has probably done this before." Blake says.
"We just don't know about it yet. It's all being run through ViCAP." Hotch says.
"Yes, it is." Penelope confirms.
"The entry points in his eyes are from an outpatient style traditional lobotomy. Less mess than drilling holes like Dahmer did." JJ says.
"And Dahmer's method killed. This didn't." Derek adds.
"So either the unsub is lucky or he has medical training." Blake says.
"He wanted his victim to survive." Derek says.
"We need to canvass the area where he was found. He wouldn't have walked very far in this condition." Hotch says.
"Well, lobotomies are considered to be the surgery of the soul." Spencer says. "Doctors like Walter Freeman claimed they could cure a number of mental illnesses. He believed the procedure could relieve suffering."
"Excuse me, Agent Hotchner." Anderson steps in. "Agent Cruz is here."
"Oh." Hotch mumbles as Cruz walks in. "Everyone, this is our new section chief. This is Agent Mateo Cruz. These are Agents Blake--"
"Blake, Davis, Dr. Reid, Morgan, Jareau, and Rossi." Cruz lists. "Good to officially meet you. Oh, and Penelope Garcia. Erin Strauss always spoke very highly of you."
"Oh. Thank you." Penelope says.
"I spoke to the Baltimore office. Seems like they're at a loss." Cruz says.
"When the identity of the victim is unknown, it makes everything that much harder." Hotch says.
"I'd like to join you. It's not every day that these cases take you an hour away from home, so..." Cruz says.
"We leave in 20 minutes." Hotch says.
+++
"A lobotomy is supposed to alter a patient's personality. But it's hard to know if that's what he was trying to do since the victim's a John Doe." Blake says.
"When it's used for torture, it's about complete power and control over the victim." Spencer says. "Jeffrey Dahmer fantasized about men and he put battery acid in their brains so they couldn't escape."
"All because he was lonely, right?" Cruz asks.
"Yeah, extremely deranged sexual urges, irrational fantasies, and psychopathic tendencies." Spencer says.
"Looks like the victim is in his mid 20s. But no one matching his description has been reported missing in the tri-state area." Blake says.
"Well, if he's been arrested before, his prints will be in the database." Cruz says.
"The locals are running them now." Hotch says.
"Well, it's no accident the unsub chose a victim who won't be missed." Blake says.
"But if he's so meticulous in his hunting, how did he let his victim escape?" Hotch asks.
+++
"The victim was found just after dawn." Spencer says. "It could mean the unsub has a job that requires him to leave early."
"My guess is his social skills are lacking, and that'll be reflected in his type of work." Blake says.
"S.A.C. is in the field but called to say whatever you need, you got it." Cruz says.
"The recovery site's surrounded by abandoned warehouses." Hotch says.
"He needs the desolation to enforce his power and control." Spencer says.
"There's a team looking through the buildings now." Cruz says.
"This unsub doesn't leave anything to luck." Hotch says. "There was a garbage truck that sticks to a schedule."
"Hey, Hotch." JJ answers her phone.
"Did you talk to the driver?" He asks.
"Yeah, according to him, the victim looked and sounded like a zombie." JJ says.
"There's no way he made it far." Rossi says. "Most of the buildings down here are boarded up. We're starting with the closest one."
"The victim was in such bad shape, he probably didn't walk the stairs by himself." Hotch says.
"He was either held on the first floor and luckily made it out..." Rossi says.
"Or he didn't escape at all. The unsub let him go." Hotch says.
+++
"The doctor's gonna see if he can remove the camera." Derek says. "He was blinking the whole time. It's how he communicated, but I don't know how I didn't see this sooner."
"The eye is the most confined space in the body, which means the camera's probably 3 to 4 millimeters long and difficult to see without a microscopic lens." Spencer says.
"Is it a prosthetic eye?" Cruz asks.
"No. it's right next to the pupil." Derek says.
"That must be the unidentified splinter the MRI showed." Blake says.
"It's an ocular nano-implant." Cruz says.
"All right, thanks." Hotch hangs his phone up. "Garcia's searching for the transmission but it's bouncing all over the city."
"They're usually controlled by cell phone, which needs to be within a specific distance, so he's close." Cruz says.
"I know they've developed the technology, but it isn't widely known." Blake says.
"Actually it is, if you know who to call. Everything's on the black market. It's expensive but not high tech." Cruz says.
"Should we be looking at micro surgeons?" Blake asks.
"There's no need. The camera itself is smaller than the point of a needle." Cruz says. "That's usually how they inject it."
"That's weird. He fancied an old fashioned technique for the lobotomy, but the camera tells us that he's technically inclined." Spencer says.
"What about this German victim? How does he tie in?" Derek asks.
"The M.E. report says that he survived the lobotomy but was later shot in the head." Hotch says.
"Why?" Cruz asks.
"He was a test run for the current victim." Hotch says. "Once the theory was proved he was no longer needed."
"Did he install a camera in that victim's eye, too?" Cruz asks.
"No." Hotch answers.
"There's something special about this guy." Derek says.
"Where did their paths cross?" Cruz asks.
"Garcia's compiling a list of foreign exchange students." Hotch says.
"That should be a more manageable number." Cruz says.
"You would think so, but D.C. has the highest concentration of exchange students in the nation, which means we're still looking at tens of thousands." Spencer says.
"And we're also running facial recognition on student visas." Blake says.
"That's all good, but now what?" Cruz asks.
"We figure out why he's doing it." Hotch says.
+++
"You said he wanted us to see. So why not go to the media? Why the internet?" Cruz asks.
"The media edits the message. The internet doesn't." Blake says.
"He's calling our bluff." Hotch says. "If we know who he is, we should come and get him."
+++
They're watching the unsub and he's standing in a room, looking like he's debating on what to do.
"There's light coming from above." Hotch points out.
"The ceiling's low. It could be a basement." Spencer says.
"What's he doing?" Cruz asks.
The unsub walks closer to the camera until he's right in front of it.
"Taunting us." Hotch says.
The unsub holds up an ice pick and Bedelia's eyes widen.
"Garcia, we need the location of every cell tower where the signal's bouncing." Hotch says.
"That's a lot, sir, but I'm sending them now." Penelope says.
"What about the name Dani? Does it cross with Sam in any way?" Bedelia asks.
"There's a Dana Harris. It's not Dani, but he's called Dana Harris a dozen times and she is on a student visa at Johns Hopkins. And, oh, my God, she's from Berlin." Penelope says.
"Does she have any connection to Baltimore other than school?" Spencer asks.
"Digging... yes, yes. Her father is a partner at Strauss and Harris Commercial Real Estate. They specialize in converting warehouses in port cities all over the world." Penelope says. "They own one in northern Baltimore. And wouldn't you know it? There's a cell phone tower right by there that that signal is bouncing from."
"What's the address?" Hotch asks.
"Sending it to your phones now." Penelope states.
+++
"There she is. That's definitely Dana." Penelope says as she watches the video. "I've got eyes on her. she's getting into a white van."
"Do we have cross streets?" JJ asks.
"Not yet. But it looks like she's in an alley." Rossi says.
"Why would he want us to see where they're going?" Cruz asks.
"Because he's arrogant." Hotch says. "This is the end of his plan and we're a part of it."
"Garcia, we think the unsub could be related to Sam or Dana." Blake says.
"The Harris family has a son, Anton, 29." She says. "History of violent outbursts had him bouncing between boarding schools all over Europe."
"While Dana stayed close to home." Blake says.
"How'd you know?" Penelope asks.
"He blames Dana for his rejection and abandonment issues." Blake says.
"It's a classic universal wound. Left untreated and combined with the psychopathic urges, that trauma led to extreme aggression." Spencer says.
"And a desperate need for attention." Blake says. "Let me guess, Garcia, one of the parents is a medical doctor."
"Mom was before she died." Penelope says. "It looks like young Anton was studying to be a veterinarian. Little sister trumped him by attending medical school at Hopkins."
"He did all this to get on his parents' radar." Cruz says.
"How long has Anton been in the states?" Hotch asks.
"A month into his 3 month visa." Penelope says.
"He waited until Dana was away from the family before he attacked." Hotch says.
"All right, we got the van. It's parked in the alley behind Greemount at 25th." JJ tells them.
They get to where Rossi and JJ are with Dana and the van. JJ is sitting inside with Dana, hugging the woman.
"This isn't good." Rossi says.
"All right. Let's split up and search the building." Hotch says. "Cruz, come with me."
~ ~ ~
Hotch caught Anton and now the medics are here and wheeling Dana into the back of the ambulance. A cop puts Anton in the back of a police car.
After getting off the phone, Cruz walks over to them.
"He's driving back with us." He informs.