two sketchy boys
Plaster and dust float in the air. There’s yelling coming from outside the interrogation room. Reid lays on the ground, hands to his head. Someone calls his name. The young deputy’s blood paints the door and his body blocks it. It wobbles as someone kicks at it from the outside. The deputy’s body grossly falls to the side as Hotch bursts into the room.
“Are you hurt?” he asks.
Reid shakes his head, “He shot through the wall.”
Hotch unholsters his gun and approaches the spot where the bullet entered. It’s fairly large, most likely from a sniper rifle. There are no windows in the room. How did he know where to fire?
“Underneath the table, there’s a wire. My best guess is he estimated from the volume of sounds he heard to reconstruct the room in his mind.”
He walks over to the table and untapes the wire from it. It's a standard police issued mic. He looks up at Reid who gestures silently to the dead deputy. Three officers stand by the door. Hotch nods before sliding the mic back under the table.
One of the officers speaks, “How’s your agent doing?”
“He’s in surgery. Doctor Reid and I are about to head there now.”
Reid looks up, “We are?”
Hotch gestures for him to follow. As they are exiting the station, an unfamiliar voice calls to them. They stop in their tracks. The voice is a fit man wearing a dark suit. He tugs at the collar of the button down; he’s not used to wearing formal attire. There’s at least two guns on him. He flashes them the sleaziest fake smile Hotch has ever seen. The man standing next to him doesn’t quite have the bravado of the first man; he’s shorter, glasses, but just as off putting.
“Evening, gentlemen. I’m - we’re here to relieve you of this case,” the first man says.
Hotch narrows his eyes at the man, “On whose order?”
“Ours,” the second man pulls a badge out of his pocket. “We’re with the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement, and Logistics Division. I believe I spoke to your analyst on the phone. I’m Agent Sitwell, this lovely fellow is Agent Rumlow.”
S.H.I.E.L.D. is known to Hotch, mostly through other agents complaining about them stepping in and taking their case. Hotch isn’t necessarily sure he’s upset by them taking this case off their plate. It’s almost taken two agents. These guys — mostly Agent Rumlow — look prepared to handle the Winter Soldier. Although, he can’t ignore the nagging feeling at the back of his brain.
“You’re not used to this type of field work, Agent,” Hotch comments.
Rumlow chuckles slightly, “Living up to your name, BAU.”
“It’s been a pleasure talking with you, but S.H.I.E.L.D. is very busy. If you could just hand over your case notes; you can be on your merry way,” Sitwell cuts in.
“We’ll need those to fill out our reports.”
“That’ll be unnecessary for this case.”
“Unnecessary for the case?” Hotch questions. “An agent was shot in the field; there’s paperwork for that. I don’t know how these things usually go for you, Agent Sitwell, but this isn’t how things are run.”
“Things work differently with S.H.I.E.L.D.” Rumlow states, growing weary of the debate. “Your jurisdiction ran out the second Shostakov entered the ring.”
“Shostakov?” Reid asks.
Rumlow laughs, “Maybe I gave the BAU too much credit. Your assassin, your unsub, whatever you want to call him is Alexei Shostakov, former Soviet assassin turned mercenary after ‘91. Who did you think it was?”
“The Winter Soldier,” Reid mumbles.
Rumlow laughs harder, but it’s different, a bit more forced. He slaps Reid on the back. Sitwell is nowhere near as amused by their theory. He clears his throat.
“I believe you have an agent in the hospital that you should be getting to.”
Hotch and Reid leave, feeling a bit humiliated. They drive in contemplative silence. Nowhere has the name Alexei Shostakov ever come up. How did they miss him? Unless they didn’t miss him, and it’s a cover up. Hotch pulls into the hospital. JJ and Rossi sit in the waiting room. JJ smiles at something Rossi says.
“How is he?” Hotch asks, his tone soft.
“Still in surgery,” Rossi replies. “He's tough; he’ll pull through. How were things at the station? Where’s Emily?”
“She’ll be here soon. We’re being taken off the case; she’s helping get the new agents up to speed.”
“Taken off the case?”
“Our jurisdiction ran out; a couple of S.H.I.E.L.D. agents have taken over."
"Jason and I ran into a couple of S.H.I.E.L.D. agents back in the day. They live in a very different world from our own."
"I don’t like it, Dave. There’s something off about this whole case.”
A doctor approaches the two men, “Agent Morgan is out of surgery. You can see him now.”
Rossi gives Hotch a look, “Maybe Morgan can provide some new insight.”