They were all called into the conference room as JJ presents a new case. A bomb threat that came through the National News Network. They didn't have a location until it actually happened. A public transit bus in Seattle, the second they got intel, they head straight to Seattle.

Seattle, Washington

Once they land in Seattle, they got straight to the crime scene. 

"So Seattle's, 'where it all began'." Spencer says.

"We just need to figure out what 'it' is and off the top of my head, I can think of is grunge music and overpriced coffee." Derek says.

"That doesn't seem significant enough for terrorism." Spencer says.

"If it's a personal-cause bomber, it only needs to be a significance to him." Gideon says as a man approaches them.

"Agent Nick Casey, Seattle Field Office." Nick says.

"SSA Hotchner. How do you do? This is Dr. Spencer Reid, SSA Morgan, SSA Hart, Agent Jareau, and SSA Gideon. Have you identified the device?" 

"It looks like a small pipe bomb attached to am umbrella." Nick says.

"I'd like to take a look at those bomb fragments as soon as possible. I've got Bomb Squad experience." Derek says.

"As soon as they're cataloged." Nick says.

"How many people were on the bus when the explosion went off?" Spencer asked.

"25 including the driver. The explosion killed two, the driver and a young male, injured seven." Nick says as Maya shakes her head.

"A pipe bomb on a crowded city bus and only two people got killed?" Derek asked.

"It had a relatively small charge. The two dead were found closest to the bomb at the time of detonation. Slyvia Cohen, an elderly passenger, found the umbrella on the floor at her feet. She said the young man volunteered to take it to the driver for her. She's pretty broken up about it." Nick explains.

"Have you vetted and debriefed the rest of the passengers?" Hotch asked.

"I have their info if you want to talk to them." Nick says.

"Did you get their positions?" Hotch asked.

"Sorry?" Nick asked confused.

"Where they were on the bus." Hotch corrects himself.

"No." Nick says shaking his head.

"JJ, maybe you can recontact the passengers, and map their locations." Hotch says as JJ nods her head.

"Yeah, you got it." JJ says.

"Nobody saw anyone leave the umbrella?" Gideon asked.

"No. But the uniforms found what looks like a remote detonator on the corner over there." Nick says.

"A remote?" Maya asked confused.

"A limited frequency remote." Nick says as Maya is confused.

"Like a garage door opener?" Spencer asked.

"Something like that." Nick says.

"That's awfully, risky. Anyone on this bud route could've accidentally detonated the bomb just by pulling out of their garage." Derek says as Gideon steps inside the bus.

"He used a remote from the corner. Did he want to be close enough to see what happened or did he need to be mechanically?" Hotch asked.

"Those remotes are pretty limited. He probably needed to be." Derek says./

"He might have been nervous." Maya says.

"Maybe that made him stand out. I could set up a public service announcement encouraging anyone who was in the area at the time of the bombing to contact us." JJ says.

"Well, we do need a press conference. But it'll be about getting this Unsub to call us." Gideon says.

Derek and Spencer went to the Seattle Field Office to look at the bomb fragments and Maya stayed with Hotch and JJ. They managed to set up a press conference pretty quickly. Maya stayed close to Hotch as JJ went on with the press conference.

"We're still trying to determine what happened. Initial reports called it a bomb, but since no one has claimed responsibility, we can't r ule out some kind of mechanical failure. Supervisory Special Agent Gideon will be handling any further information on this incident. If anyone has any information they feel might be helpful, please contact SSA Gideon at the number appearing on the screen. We will keep you posted with future developments, thank you." 

JJ walks off and catches up to Maya and Hotch.

"Do you think that was enough?" JJ asked.

"It'll definitely stress him that his message isn't getting out." Hotch says.

"What if he doesn't call?" JJ asked.

"Derek and Spencer are going over the device. I'm sure, they'll come up with something." Maya says.

time skip

Penelope sent Maya a video of a guy, who was anti-tech, who used a crowbar to destroy a bunch of computers.

"Good, what else have you got, Garcia?" Gideon asked.

"I also found an article in the St. Denis University college newspaper. Last spring, close to the school, an Internet cafe was attacked. Someone created floppy disk bombs that went off in four of the computers, no one was injured." Penelope says.

"Who uses floppy disks anymore?" Spencer asked.

"Right, Agent Brain. That was the point of the attack, they left a note, 'ultimately, you'll be as absolete as your graveyard technology'." Penelope says as Maya furrowed her eyebrows.
"Was the note signed?" Maya asked.

"FFT Brigade. I'm finding references to a 'Freedom From Technology Brigade. A fringe group that's showing up lately." Penelope says.

"Anything else on the note?" Hotch asked.

"Yeah, there's a not very artistic drawing of what kind of looks like a robot with an arrow through it. I'm uploading it to you know." Penelope says as she sends the photo and Gideon pulls out a picture with an identical drawing.

"You know, Seattle's the birthplace of some of the most cutting-edge technology in the world." Spencer says as Maya gave him a playful look.

"Dude, stop yapping, sheesh." Maya says as Spencer poked her which made their hands start hitting each other like siblings.

"Where 'it' began. I think we're ready to give the profile." Gideon says as they gather the field office together, then they start the briefing.

"We believe the Unsub resides in Seattle. All of the attacks, most of which have Judy involved property damage, have taken place here and the timing and location indicate knowledge of the area. Even though he escalated to a lethal bombing today, we don't believe that was necessarily his intention." Hotch explains.

"In fact, anyone not directly next to the device received minor injuries, so we think fear may have been the larger motive." Derek says.

"So he's a terrorist then?" Nick asked.

"Yeah, he is, but that's too vague of description for our purposes. Douglas and Olshaker categorize bombers as criminal, group-cause, psychologically-disorganized and personal-cause bombers and we believe this guy to be a personal-cause bomber." Spencer explains.

"And personal-cause bombers are motivated by an underlying emotional conflict." Maya says.

"In an interview with the Unabomber, Ted Kaczynski, admitted that while he was a graduate student at the University of Michigan, he started having fantasies of becoming a woman. He even got a list to get a sex-change operation, but during the mandatory psychological exam prior to the procedure, he changed his mind. He told the psychologist that he'd made a mistake."

"And from that moment, through the next three decades of his life. Ted Kaczynski carried out a campaign of isolation and murder." Gideon says.

"This Unsub is male. He lives alone. He's possibly self-employed. He's highly organized. He's meticulous and he's very smart." Derek says.

"And he seems odd to those who know him. Angry. Distant. Prone to sudden violent rage. This is not the kind of guy whose neighbors will be surprised to find out what he's arrested for. This guy's neighbors will have no trouble believing it." Hotch says.

"Targets appear to be technology, but not the high-tech variety. The kind of technology we're surrounded by." Gideon says.

"In a city the size of Seattle, we're talking 10,000 possible targets." Hotch says as just then Maya hears a phone as Agent Casey answers it.

"Agent Gideon! You've got a call on the tip line." Nick says as Gideon, Hotch and Casey walk into the other room to answer the call. 

The second they got back, they got a call about another bombing, but this time it was at a gas station.

"Can you smell that? Same explosive, just more of it." Derek says.

"Yeah, and the same detonation device too." Atkins says.

"The gas station closed 15 minutes prior to the explosion, but fortunately the worker had already gone home." Spencer says.

"No casualties. An escalation in the size of the explosion and a decrease in the number of victims. We need to do a grid search as soon as possible." Hotch says.

"What do I tell them we're looking for?" Nick asked.

"He said his 'message' would be here when we arrived."

They all walk over to the building across the street. They stand outside and wait for Atkins to clear the building. "Clear!" Atkins shouts, they walk into the building. "It's a book." He says as Maya kneels down and picks up the book.

"It's his manifesto." Maya says.

"Bag it." Gideon says.

time skip
next morning

It's the next morning and they're talking to the field office.

"His manifesto's main demand is completely unrealistic. Stop all automated machinery that's replaced American workers within a week." Hotch says.

"And if his demands aren't met,  he says he'll detonate even larger bombs." JJ says as Maya shakes her head.

"So we have an anti-technology bomber who so far has attacked computers, an automated cashier, an automated gas station and a Smart Bus." Hotch says.

"Who calls himself Allegro." Gideon says as something clicks in both Maya and Spencer's face.

"Wait...wait, what was that?" Spencer asked, putting the pieces together.

"He told me to call him Allegro." Gideon says as Maya and Spencer shared the same look.

"It's a book." The two said in unison.

"Yeah, it ought to be." Derek says.

"No, it's an actual book." Maya says.

"Yeah, a novel, I read it as a kid." Spencer says as Maya nods her head.

"I used to read it religiously, it's called Empty Planet." Maya says.

"It was written by one-hit-wonder author, David Hansberry. It's got it all." Spencer says.

"Technoids, minutians. All that stuff is in there. It's robots that took over the world once they figure out how to reproduce with humans. Essentially, humanity's lost to technology, and the hero of a book is a 12 year old boy named Allegro, who builds an army and fights for the humans." Maya explains.

"Morgan, have Garcia get as much information as possible on the author of Empty Planet. David Hansberry?" Gideon says as Derek nods his head.

"Hansberry, yeah." Spencer says.

"I'm on it." Derek says as he leaves to call Garcia.

"There was a passenger on the bus yesterday. A Dr. Emory Cooke, he's supposed to be some computer genius. A pioneer in artificial life." JJ says.

"Yeah, Cooke. He developed software that mirrors the human reproductive system. Computers that can replicate themselves." Spencer says.

"So, maybe Cooke was the target and not the Smart Bus?" Maya questions.

"If so, that would definitely be imitating events from the book. Allegro and his army not only destroy robots, but they assassinate the scientists that are responsible for creating them." Spencer explains.

"Dr. Cooke was sitting in front of Sylvia Cohen." JJ says.

"And the umbrella was initially found underneath Dr. Cooke's seat." Gideon says.

"Yeah." Maya says.

the next day

Gideon and Spencer brought Dr. Cooke in while Derek talked to Garcia about Hansberry. Before they could get back to Cooke, they got another call about another bomb. This time, it was in Dr. Cooke's car. Sadly, he was still in the car, Gideon and Spencer went to the university to talk to Ursula Kent, aka Hansberry, while the rest of the team went to the crime scene.

"He used a compression detonator. Looks like it was under the seat. Once we sat down, it arms. Detonated when he released the pressure by getting up." Derek says.

"He wanted to make sure nothing went wrong this time. Nobody moved the umbrella." Hotch says.

"Hotch, Gideon, just talked to this guy, He offered him protection, but he refused. We were going to set it up anyways." Maya says.

"I doubt it would have helped." Hotch say.

"What do you mean?" Nick asked.

"A compression detonator. It had to have been set when he was with us, or it would have detonated when he arrived at the field office." Hotch says.

"I'll get security to start running tapes of the lot for the last two hours." Nick says.

"Good." Hotch says.

Casey called security to get the tapes. Later on, they get a package that looked like a pipe bomb at the waterworks. Turns out, it was just a small bomb. One by one, they were getting more calls about more small bombs at different locations. Later on, Gideon gives them information about a potential target, Dr. Brazier, they run as fast as they could to the parking lot where her office was and they see her about to drive off.

"Stop the car!" Maya yells as Dr. Brazier immediately stops the car. "Listen to me, don't turn off the ignition. Put the car in park." Maya says as she does what Maya said to do.

"Don't panic, we're the FBI." Derek says.

"FBI?"

"Dr. Brazier?" Maya asked.

"Yes, I'm Dr. Brazier." She replies back.

"Its her." Maya says as she slowly opens the door.

"Doctor, do not move." Maya says.

"Excuse me?" She asked.

"I need you to sit as still as you can, please. Please." Maya says as she looks under the seat as she lets out a sigh. "Damn it."

Maya looks up at Derek and Hotch and nods her head before turning back to Dr. Brazier. "Doctor, listen carefully. You need to sit as still as you possibly can. You understand?" Maya says.

"Why?" She asked.

"There is a bomb under your seat, ma'am." Derek says as him and Maya switches positions. Dr. Brazier's face immediately falls into fear, as they wait for the bomb squad to show up.

"Wait on the Lord. Be of good courage and he will strengthen thine heart." She recites as Derek grabs her hand to calm her down.

"Doctor, you're going to be just fine." Maya says from beside Derek.

"He will strengthen thine heart." She recites again as Derek gave her hand a squeeze.

"Atkins, do what you need to do, let's do this." Derek says.

"Step back, Morgan." Atkins says as she slips her helmet and gets started.

"Thank you." Brazier says as Maya watches as tears roll down Brazier's face, as Maya had to force herself to look away.

"You're going to be just fine." Maya says as she looks directly in her eyes as they continue to wait on Atkins. Slowly but surely, she got the bomb out from the car as Maya look a sigh of relief. "It's over now." Maya says to Brazier as Derek slowly pulls her out of the car as she kept a tight trip on him.

Once they got Brazier to safety, they all go back to the field office with the new information that they have. "Let see. It begins with the father's suicide." Spencer says.

"Okay, we've got five crime scenes worth of new information to go through. And the targets that the Unsub chose for the decoy bombs, do they force a change in the profile?" Hotch says as Derek stood next to Maya as they interlocked their hands together.

"Reid, what's that?" Hotch asked, Spencer.

"It's the subplot of the Empty Planet book." Spencer says.

"Allegro kills his mother."  Gideon says.

"Yeah." Both Maya and Spencer say in unison.

"In the end, he discovers that he's adopted and he's reunited with his birth mother. He thanks her for having the strength to give him a better life." Spencer says as Maya nods her head.

"But ironically, he realizes that she herself has become a robot. So he kills her. He sacrificed the one person in the world he has a biological connection with for the greater good." Maya says.

"Wow, I thought we were talking about some geeky sci-fi book here." JJ says.

"It sounds like Greek tragedy." Hotch says.

"It's not played as tragedy at all though. In fact, his mother's incredibly proud of this final act. Like it's the ultimate fulfillment of his destiny. Proof that...proof that she was right to have given him up in the first place." Spencer explains.

"Wait a minute, if he kills her, how do you know she was proud?" Derek asked.

"It's told from her point of view, the whole book is." Maya says.

"It's kind of like she's talking to the reader from heaven." Spencer says.

"The mother's the narrator?" Gideon asked.

"Yeah...it it's really her story." Spencer says.

"The only story she needs to tell." Gideon says.

"And in order to fulfill the story, he's got to kill his mother." Hotch says, as they found that Ursula Kent was the mother of their Unsub's story, and that she was the last target.

They rushed over to the university and they find her in the lecture hall holding her hostage. They try their best to talk him down and in the end, one of their snipers tried to shoot him but Ursula pushed him out of the way and ended up getting shot in the shoulder. But in the end, they caught their guy.

BAU Jet

Everyone relaxed after the past couple nights of the case, as Hotch was talking to Haley about Jack; his son. JJ was reading a magazine she brought, as it's about some boy band that she likes. Maya was reading a book that Spencer had gotten her a while ago, as it's a Harry Potter book.

When they got to Headquarters, they all packed their stuff and went in their own separate directions.

It wasn't that dark, so Derek and Maya took Clooney on a walk, as he's trained not to always be on a leash. But he has a leash if need be. Then they went to a dog-friendly restaurant for dinner, which was nice to relax.

───※ ·❆· ※───

hannah speaks!

see you all in the next chapter!
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