the great war, spencer reid [ 2 ]

061. 300

JJ, Bedelia, and Matt are in the parking garage. Bedelia looks in Penelope's car, Spencer's bag and Penelope's purse and all of their phones in the backseat.

"Is that Garcia's car?" Matt asks, walking over.

"Yeah." JJ nods. "Spence and Penelope's phones were left inside with their bags. If they were helping with the evacuation, they wouldn't leave those behind."

"No." Matt agrees.

"Oh, and that. See that?" JJ points to some blood on one of the pillars. "That's Quinn's blood. But over here, I mean, whose blood is this?" They stand around drops of blood on the floor.

"What if whoever took Merva hurt Spence or Penelope?" Bedelia worries.

"We'll find them." Matt assures.

"Doesn't make sense." JJ says. "There's no fire, no sprinklers. It's clearly a false alarm. So why all the chaos?"

"Hundreds of people were evacuated, some panicked, fell down the stairs." Matt says.

"Wait, hundreds evacuated?" JJ asks. "Really, this late?"

"It's campus wide, all the buildings were emptied." Matt says. "New protocol, apparently."

"Okay, well, whoever pulled the alarm knew that it would cause chaos." Bedelia says.

~ ~ ~

"Whoever pulled the alarm knew the director's protocol and used it as a distraction to escape with Merva." Bedelia tells Emily and Tara as the three walk into the bullpen.

"If they took an emergency vehicle, they can get through any roadblocks." Matt says.

"We need to widen the search." Emily says. "Track down every ambulance that responded. He's in one of them. Call the coordinator. I'll see why we're not back online yet."

+++

Matt, Luke, and Bedelia are in Penelope's office and going through the security footage.

"So how long was Meadows with Benjamin Merva?" Matt asks.

"I don't know. But if she's in a cult, we won't find a paper trail." Luke says. "She's been in ViCAP for years. Must have been one hell of an interview for her to trick the bureau."

"She certainly has the skills and connections to pull it off." Matt says as they watch the footage of Meadows and Quinn getting into the elevator. "Okay, here we go." He stops fast forwarding when Penelope comes into frame, rushing towards the elevator, getting in with the other two.

"She's running to the elevator." Luke notes.

"Garcia wasn't part of the plan." Matt says.

"No, but she is now." Luke says. "Got any cameras on the elevators or in the garage?"

"Uh, they were disabled." Matt says. He fast forwards more, stopping when they see Spencer running down the hall and down the stairs.

"Okay, there's Reid." Luke says. "Why is he racing downstairs?"

Matt fast forwards until Meadows and Spencer walk out of the elevator.

"See, what happened in the garage?" Matt asks. "They came up, Garcia's still down there."

Matt gets another camera angle and they watch the two go into a room and then walk out with Theo.

"And there's Theo." Luke says. "Reid said that the believers think that Theo is their next Messiah."

"Yeah, but Theo wanted no part of this." Matt says. "He killed his parents. He told us about the cult." They watch Spencer pull the fire alarm.

"Nah." Luke says.