To Solve

Chapter 6: Derailed

On this morning, Parker and Spencer hadn't even reached the pullpen when they were called into the briefing room.

"Okay, this is from one of the security cameras inside the train," JJ began. "Five hostages in a car stopped on the tracks. We have one security guard dead from initial gunfire."

The recordings from the train compartment could be seen on the big screen. A man stood in the aisle with two guns, nervously aiming at the other people in the room.

"Is this going on right now?" Spencer asked.

"Yeah, in West Texas."

"Why they asking for us?" Derek wanted to know.

"Because of a particular psychological aspect of the hostage taker which we're especially equipped to handle," Hotch explained.

Spencer, who was looking at the footage at the time, seemed to have spotted something unusual.

"Can you back the picture up a few frames?"

JJ rewound a few frames to the moment the kidnapper's face appeared on camera.

"What is it, Spence?" Parker asked, standing next to their boyfriend.

"Tardive dyskinesia."

"Once more for those of us without an encyclopedic memory?"

"Severe facial tics. The kind that develop after years of taking antipsychotic medication."

"So this guy's a psychotic?"

"A psychotic with hostages," Hotch added. "And two guns."

"Hostage situation on a train?" Gideon said as he entered the room.

"Yeah, in Texas."

"A train in Texas," Gideon murmured, also looking at the screen. And he noticed something that everyone had overlooked until now.

"My God..."

"What?"

"Elle."

"Elle? What?"

Elle, who was on her way to an interrogation, was among the hostages. On the screen, she was small and slightly pixelated, but still easy to recognise.

And inevitably, Parker wondered in a way no one had noticed before- probably because everyone was focused on the kidnapper.

~~~~

Robert Oxton Bolt wrote,

"A belief is not merely an idea the mind possesses, it is an idea that possesses the mind."

The team immediately made their way to Texas and discussed how to proceed in the car.

But Parker wasn't entirely focused. They were worried about Elle. Of course they knew that being an FBI agent was dangerous, but Elle wasn't on duty.

Spencer, noticing Parker's bouncing leg, placed his hand on theirs and lightly patted the back of Parker's hand four times.

"Local authorities have surrounded the train. Bureau Hostage Rescue Team snipers are in position, but they're hesitant to take action until negotiation is exhausted. The feed from the train's two video cameras are being routed to monitors on a mobile command center that the local Bureau office brought in," JJ summarized the situation.

"We need to know who on that train's going to be a help and who's going to be a problem."

"All right, let me get Garcia to work some magic on those video feeds," Derek said, and called Garcia, or Penny, as Parker called her.