"You're so cynical! Can't it be true love?" Lucy seemed to have gotten lost in some kind of fantasy. "Like a beautiful spy falling in love with a handsome Air Force lieutenant colonel."
"Uh-huh!" Tim cleared his throat, reminding the love-struck Lucy to tone it down at a time like this.
"Alright, you're right. If she is a spy, there's no way she'd just happen to fall in love with an Air Force lieutenant colonel," Lucy sighed.
Tim picked up the conversation, "Lyle Marks works at the Drone Command. I pulled some strings and found out he didn't show up for work today."
After exchanging information, John looked at Jack. "Should we inform Hannah about this?"
Jack rubbed his temples, feeling a headache coming on. "If you want to maintain the upper hand, you need to dig deeper, make them come to you. Damn it, I really shouldn't be helping you guys; I'll have to find a way to smooth things over with Hannah later."
John, touched, patted Jack on the shoulder. "Thanks, buddy. I owe you a big one for this."
Jack rolled his eyes. This guy owed him his life twice already—what use was one more favor?
"Let's go pay a visit to the lieutenant colonel."
As usual, they split into two cars and drove to Lyle Marks' residence based on the address they had found. However, things didn't look good—the front door was ajar, and loud music was blaring from inside.
Following standard procedure, the three LAPD officers turned on their body cameras, issued a warning, and then entered the house with their guns drawn, while Jack waited obediently at the door.
"Clear!" John's voice called out from inside as the music was turned off.
"We've got a body."
Jack entered the living room to find the corpse of a middle-aged man tied to a wooden chair. The body had blisters all over the chest, and each of the ten fingernails had a toothpick jammed under it.
He quickly assessed the scene. "Rigor mortis has fully set in, and the body is at peak stiffness. Time of death is roughly 12 hours ago."
The group exchanged uneasy glances, all realizing how complicated this was becoming.
"So, now we have a Russian female spy who was captured and tortured by her own people, and before that, her boyfriend was brutally murdered. What do you think of that?" Tim said, then noticed Lucy's slow smile and groaned. "Please don't tell me you're still sticking to that beautiful spy falling in love with a handsome Air Force colonel theory."
"Maybe they tortured her boyfriend to find out where she was, then captured her." Lucy shrugged.
"At least you were wrong about the handsome part." John stared at the severely balding corpse, struggling to find more flaws in Lucy's theory.
"Oh, and what about the USB drive? Maybe they were after whatever was on it. Jack, has your contact unlocked the files yet?"
"I'll give them a call."
Jack was just about to pull out his phone to call Garcia when he noticed something unusual. His hand instinctively shifted from his pocket to his waist, drawing his gun. The others noticed and immediately aimed their guns at the door.
"It's me." A tall figure appeared at the doorway, followed by Reese's voice.
Reese walked into the room, signaling everyone to stay calm, but as soon as he saw the body, Jack noticed a slight twitch in his expression.
It seemed Reese hadn't expected to find a corpse here.
Jack glanced behind him but didn't see the "sweet girl." "You're alone? Where's Hannah?"
Reese's icy gaze swept over everyone before settling on Jack. "The FBI is tracking down those two shooters. Aren't you FBI too? You should know better than I do about their progress."
"Uh..." Jack was caught off guard, unsure how to explain. "I'm kind of on their side right now. BAU hasn't gotten involved in this case yet."
"Since you're here, come with me. This man's death involves the military, and I don't have much time to waste. If this isn't resolved quickly, OSI (Air Force Office of Special Investigations) might get involved too."
Reese then turned on his heel and walked out without another word, leaving the others to exchange glances before hurrying after him.
Behind the two LAPD patrol cars, a black van had parked. Reese opened the van's rear door, motioning for them to get inside.
"It's a giant Faraday cage." John tapped the inside of the van, finding that it was completely metal-lined.
"Yes, to block electronic signals," Reese said as everyone climbed in, and he shut the door.
Inside the cramped van, there were two rows of narrow seats. Once everyone was seated, they all stared at each other, unsure of what to say.
"Alright, I'll start." Reese, realizing his glare wasn't intimidating enough to silence so many eyes, decided to speak first.
"Katerina Andronova is an FSB agent responsible for turning intelligence operatives within Russia. We believe she went rogue and entered this country on her own."
"Is that why her own people captured her and took her to that spy house?" John asked, understanding now.
"Yes. The two men who attacked you were Oriel Stanislav and Frandik Zevin, FSB special ops agents. They entered the country a week ago using false identities."
"Did they attack Katerina and John to silence them?" Lucy asked.
"Of course," Reese replied frankly. "To prevent her from falling into the hands of the CIA or FBI. It's obvious that, as a turncoat, she had access to the identities of double agents."
"So, you didn't know about her relationship with the lieutenant colonel?" Jack seemed to have caught onto something.
"No, otherwise, I wouldn't have arrived after you." Reese admitted openly. "The FBI and CIA aren't as all-knowing as you might think. Jack should know that better than anyone."
Jack quickly waved his hands. "The BAU doesn't deal with espionage cases. I'm not familiar with this stuff."
Tim, the former Marine, seemed to have some insight. "That's because the lieutenant colonel isn't that 'important,' right?"
The two men, who had similar temperaments, stared at each other for a moment before Reese decided to drop the subject.
"Lyle Marks, the Air Force lieutenant colonel, was only in charge of a small drone unit. I can't think of a reason why Katerina would target him."
"Maybe we're all being too cynical. Maybe she really did fall in love with Marks, and the FSB, suspecting she planned to defect, decided to silence her. Marks ended up dead, but Katerina managed to escape."
Lucy was still clinging to her spy romance novel theory.
When she finished, the others all had the same expression as a subway commuter reading something bizarre on their phone.
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