𝐅𝐈𝐑𝐄 𝐀𝐖𝐀𝐘. ( 𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐤 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐠𝐚𝐧 )

chapter seven

TW: murder, mention of terrorism, graphic descriptions of crime scenes, mild gore, mention of suicide, mention of sexual assault, mention of torture, mention and usage of guns, mild language, police presence.

secrets and lies, part one of two.

" a lie cannot live " - martin luther king jr.

-

"Ugh, thank you," Genevieve groaned, gratefully accepting the hot cup of coffee that Derek placed into her hands. It was two in the morning, and Gideon had called the entire team for an emergency meeting. She'd had a CIA Agent escort her to the roundtable room, much to her confusion. As she had walked in, she noticed that Garcia was sitting with the rest of the team.

"The CIA's Counterterrorism Unit is engaged in a mission to save one of its informants. They suspect one of their agents is a mole, and until the identity of that mole is discovered, they've locked down the unit," Hotch said briskly, as straight to the point as ever.

"This gives us the opportunity to profile the Unsub up close," Gideon said, fiddling with the remote to the projector. He looked up at the CIA Agent that had walked Genevieve in, who was standing guard by the door. "Go ahead," And at that, the agent turned on his heel and walked out the door, clicking it shut behind him. "If you'll direct your attention to the screen,"

Two pictures of the same man popped up on the flatscreen. One was an ID headshot, and the other, a photo of him standing in a park.

"John Summers was the CIA's best field agent in the Middle East," Hotch briefed them, gesturing to the pictures. "Three nights ago, he was found in his home in Washington. He'd been tortured and murdered,"

The team stiffened as the images transitioned into three crime scene photos, one, a far shot of Summers' body zip-tied to a chair, and two close-ups of his head, where it seemed he had sustained the most injuries.

"CIA made it look like a suicide,"

"How'd you like to have that job?" Spencer asked dryly.

"Guys," Derek said, getting up to stand by the screen. He used his pen to point at the two close-ups. "Look at the wound patterns. They come from two distinct angles. Two different heights. One's right-handed, one's left-handed. Looks to me like he was tortured by more than two people,"

"Hotch, what was he working on?" Elle asked, biting down lightly on the end of her pen, as she often did when she was in thought.

"Aaliyah Nadir," Hotch said, as Gideon clicked the remote again, and the photos of Summers vanished, and were replaced by two images - one, a photo of a very serious-looking man and woman. They were locked in an embrace, but there was no apparent love between the two. The second was a portrait of the same man. "She had been beaten and sexually assaulted at the hand of her husband, Hassan Nadir. That's how Summers' flipped her and got her to work for the CIA,"

"What's the dirt on Hassan?" Genevieve asked, grimacing as she imagined the pain that the poor woman had been subject to.

"He's a Saudi diplomat, but he's a fundraiser for major terrorist organizations," Hotch said, causing her to shudder slightly. From her days as a Green Beret, she was more than familiar with the happenings of terrorist organizations - and the treatment of the women whose husbands were involved.

"Aaliyah provided intelligence on terrorist organizations the CIA have never been able to penetrate - organizations Hassan, her husband, funnelled money to," Gideon said with a deep sigh.

"And Hassan realised he had a leak?" Derek guessed.

"Yes, but he didn't know who. For Aaliyah's protection, Summers never revealed her identity to the CIA until about eight weeks ago. CIA arranged papers for her, and Summers brought her and her children to the US about a month ago," Hotch said, as a new picture flickered onto the screen. The same woman, Aaliyah, with two young children. Her expression and body language from the first photo, with her husband, and the second, with her kids, was noticeable, and from the looks on the team's faces, they all picked up on it.