The Intelligence Control and Analysis Program

Chapter 7

"Hey. Hey, don't cry." Whisper. "Ashland is gonna be fine."

"No, he's not. You know he's not." Tears. "He talked. He talked about his special job."

"It was only to a guard, and Ashland has a way of getting out of trouble. It'll be fine."

Whimpering. "They're gonna make him leave, and you know it. It'll be just like Harvey, like Neal, like Caleb and Summer and T—"

"Stop it. Stop it, okay? Things aren't gonna go that way. Not this time." Pause. "I don't know how, but this isn't going to end with people getting put down."

"You can't say that!" Fear. "They leave, they don't get put down."

Irritation. "Fine. No one is leaving, then."

Florescent lights humming. Pipes carrying hot water.

"Even if Ashland stays, it's going to turn out bad." Crying. "People are getting scared, and if ICAP doesn't make them go away, they're going to quit. It'll be Maeve all over again. One will do it, and then another, and then domino effect." Shudder. "Or worse. Remember Spencer? He c—"

"Don't talk about him. He's in the field right now. If he's smart, he'll make a run for it." Mumbling. "We will not disrespect his freedom by bringing the memory of him back to this place."

Soft. "They'll tell us to stop soon. So, no matter what happens... to any of us... you were and always will be my best friend."

Pause. Blinking. Choked. "Uh, yeah—yeah, you too."

Silence.

Silence.

Inhale. "If you ever escape again—"

"That's not gonna happen."

"But if it does... will you find my parents and tell them how sorry I am?"

Sharp. Commanding. Hard. "Hey! That's enough chatter, you two."

Hands moving, signing an unspoken reply, a smile pulling on blackened lips as the message jumped across the hall.

'I will. I promise.'

A small smile, a single tear, little hands using their own gestures to express gratitude.

'Thank you, Penelope.'

***

"I know it's been, like, a week, but I finally got those files from my TAD connection. There's a lot of budget statements, some requisition forms, and employee records, but there's also case summaries for cases geniuses have helped with."

Hotch tapped the end of his pen on the legal pad in front of him. "By and large, FBI divisions don't mind putting their summaries in the open archives. We can definitely use that to our advantage."

JJ nodded from where she sat on arm of the couch. "I already started sorting the cases by date, and I'm going to ask Genius to give me the numbers of his blockmates. I can get details from him, check to see if the details line up, and start making a timeline."

Rossi chimed in from where he leaned against his desk, gesturing with his hand as he spoke. "We can use that to check for delusions, too. If we can prove the people Genius befriended in ICAP actually existed, we can tell Dr. Meadowlark. He might be able to debunk the Schizoaffective diagnosis and get him off those anti-pyschs." He paused then, drumming his fingers on the desk next to him. "How's that working out, by the way?"

Hotch shrugged his shoulders and smiled uncertainly. "It's only been a week, so there isn't a lot of change. Genius is taking Ritalin only as needed, but given how bad the fatigue has been, he's used it almost every day."