𝐁𝐀𝐃 𝐑𝐄𝐏𝐔𝐓𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍, aaron hotchner

VII.

"WE'VE SPOTTED LORENZO." Reid says during the fourth hour of surveillance. Hotch and Violet perk up at the news, making him turn to her.

"Lorenzo was the tech guy right?" Hotch asks, checking with her.

"Yeah," She nods, eyebrows furrowed deep in thought. "but he's the last one I'd expect to be in business with the Kingpin."

Hotch nods in agreement, finding the entire thing odd. "Explosives were his endgame."

When the BAU was targeted by the Kingpin, he had sent discreet explosives to each of their home addresses. Luckily, the threat was neutralized before disaster struck, but that didn't help ease Hotch's worry.

"Something's off." She shakes her head, trying to figure out what they were missing.

"For the first time, I think I agree with you," Hotch says, trying to come up with a list of explanations.

"What the hell is he planning?" Violet mutters under her breath. Due to her imprisonment, she never knew about the Kingpin's threats to the BAU with the use of explosives. As far as she knew, the Kingpin only used Lorenzo for cybersecurity.

"I'll have Penelope access the cameras. We might be missing something." Hotch says, pulling up his phone to dial her. He relays the information to Penelope, who gets straight to work.

Violet runs the situation over and over, looking for faults in their course of action when she realizes. "Tell Garcia to stop."

"What?" Hotch asks, lowering the phone.

"It's a trap, Hotch. If Garcia's hacking into his servers, he'll know the FBI is after them." Violet says worriedly. He tells Garcia to stop, but it's too late—she was already being traced.

"Don't panic—Penelope Garcia has more than a few tricks up her sleeve. I can handle a measly counterstrike." She reassures them over the phone. Despite not being able to see her, Violet could tell by the tone in her voice that she felt immense pressure to retaliate against Lorenzo's cyberattacks.

Minutes later, Penelope utters the words neither Hotch nor Violet wanted to hear.

"No no no." She groans, her fingers hitting the keys in frustration. "Hotch, whoever this guy is—he's good. He's pinging my location as we speak, but I might be able to slow him down to buy us enough time to back up and wipe my servers clean."

"Do whatever you need to do to stop him from locating you." He gives her the green light.

"Roger that, Bossman."

The minutes spent waiting for Penelope's news felt like years. Hotch and Violet had no idea whether Lorenzo was onto them, and the fate of their only viable lead to the Kingpin was up in the air. It was up to Penelope whether they'd lose or gain an advantage over the Kingpin.

"Oh, you're a sneaky little slippery snake." Penelope curses him. The intensity of her typing increased fervently, showing a growing frustration with Lorenzo as they faced off.

"Hotch, I had to wipe the servers clean. His servers were good—the best I've ever seen actually." She sighs sadly.

"Does he have your location?" Hotch asks.

"No—well, I don't know. It was too close of a call. He might have gotten the city, but definitely not headquarters."

They exchange glum goodbyes, leaving Violet and Hotch to deal with the aftermath of Lorenzo's schemes and Penelope to rebuild her servers. Both Violet and Hotch sit in silence, unsure of what to say when Violet speaks up.