The Flight

Time to Panic

"What do you mean they didn't find them?" Garcia snaps as she breaks down from the words Cruz had just spoken.

Cruz, preparing himself for anger and emotions from the technical analyst, stands near the door, giving Garcia her space, takes a deep breath.

"The search teams were out there for hours looking for them. They found nothing so they were told to come back in," Cruz states.

Garcia shakes her head in disbelief and anger, "why would you call them in? They need to stay out and find them!"

"Garcia," Cruz says as he steps closer, "I did not call them in. I was the one telling them to search longer. The search needed to come back and rest and refuel. I will do anything, anything to get them back out as soon as possible."

Garcia spins in her office and into her seat and begins typing with frustration, ignoring the section chief.

"What are you working on?" he asks, leaning in to look at the screen.

She continues to type and stare at the screen, "I'm looking over the satellite images one more time to see if we missed anything."

"I bet you didn't miss anything, you and Mr. Lynch are the best at your jobs so don't take this all on yourself."

Garcia shows a half smile but quickly gets back to business, "any other day I'd love that complement but not today. Not today when my lack of attention to detail could have just killed my friends. I can't live with that guilt."

"You have done nothing wrong; you have been the one not taking a break to find them, you have given everything to help. You are saving the team."

Garcia just shakes her head and there is silence in the room for a moment.

Cruz takes a seat, not wanting to leave the unstable friend, nor miss anything she may find.

"Come look at this," Garcia says to Cruz.

He makes his way over to where she sits and his eyes are directed to where her mouse is on the screen.

"What am I looking at?" he asks.

"These are the satellite images I could get ahold of. They go up until the 3:23 pm when we lose sight of the jet."

Cruz studies the still pictures one by one and nods his head, "and when did you get the message from Hotch?"

She clicks around on another computer and pops up the video, "time stamp says 3:21 pm."

"Okay, okay," Cruz says as he thinks, "well if they were in the air for roughly 4 plus hours-"

"Around 4 hours and 32 minutes. That's how long they are up until we lost signal," Garcia interrupts.

Cruz paces back and forth, thinking, "and Kevin believes they are in the Mt. Elbert area. Can you pull up a map of that region?"

In a few clicks, a map pops up on the screen and they both study it.

"Can you pull satellite images up from just a few hours ago?" he asks.

"I've been trying but I can get into them, hacking nor asking works anymore," she replies.

"Get them on the phone for me," Cruz orders, determined to get the images.

He puts the phone to his ear and waits for the operator to answer.

"Hello this is Section Chief Matt Cruz with the FBI and I have been informed that my technical analysts has been declined access to satellite images of Mt Elbert, Colorado-"

"Excuse me, I wasn't finished," Cruz barks into the phone, "now a team of agents were involved in a plane crash in that area and we need those images."

Cruz stands, nodding his head, "no. We need them now. Lives of the FBI's finest are at risk at this moment and I do not have time for a warrant, but believe me, if I order one, you will be losing your job."

He rolls his eyes and sighs, "I understand, but do you really want to be in the middle if an FBI investigation? No? I didn't think so. So if you wouldn't mind and send them to my technical analyst."

"That's all I was asking. Okay. Thank you," Cruz hangs up the phone and sighs deeply.

"Some people," he says as he shakes his head, "but anyways, you should be receiving them now."

"Thank you," Garcia says as satellite pictures appear on the screens.

"Oh my God," Garcia gasps as she scrolls and finds a picture of a wreckage of a plane.

Cruz pulls out his cell, "Garcia, coordinates now."

"This is Cruz," he says into the phone as Garcia hands him a paper with coordinates, "are your teams ready? We have a location."

He hangs up and heads towards the door but turns to Garcia, " you coming?"

Garcia sits in confusion, "me?"

"Yes. Do you want to come along and find the team."

Garcia gets up and follows the section chief from her office and they end up at the landing pad where three helicopters are waiting.

They load the helicopters and shoot off into the sky.

After four hours pass, and they fly over Colorado, Garcia and Cruz looking out the windows onto the mountainous region.

Time passes and the teams have no luck. Two of the teams are tempted to turn back, but Cruz demands they search one more time, knowing his team was out there somewhere.

"Come on guys, I know you're out here," Garcia whispers to herself.

They reach the part of the mountains where the coordinates match and they both strain their eyes, looking.

Silence is in the air as they look, but soon Garcia breaks it with a screech, "over there!!!! There it is! Oh my God."

All three helicopters circle the area and find suitable area to land.

Cruz helps Garcia, who wasn't dressed like for being in the mountains, out of the helicopter and onto the ground.

They walk the mile or so in the direction of the crash, nerves getting worse the closer they get.

Once they reach a higher spot, they are all able to see the wreckage.

"Oh my-" Garcia makes out as she nearly faints.

Cruz reaches out to steady her, "we have to make it to the wreckage. Can you make it or do you need to go back?"

"I'm going with you; I have to find them," she says as she walks towards the terrifying crash sight with the others trailing behind.