In the morning, Bruce arrived at the office on time. When he put down his bag, Prentiss came out of the pantry with a cup of coffee and greeted him with a smile.
"How was it yesterday? Did you have a sweet Valentine's Day night?" Prentiss asked teasingly. Their desks were next to each other, separated by a partition.
"Sweet?" Bruce nodded and took out a paper box. "It was sweet enough. Do you want to try it? It's specially made for Valentine's Day. You can taste the taste of love. "He opened the box and inside were cupcakes. He made them while playing with Emma last night.
Prentiss looked and frowned slightly. "What flavor is this? It looks …"
"Strawberry and blueberry cheesecake." Bruce shrugged. Girls liked bright colors, and the finished product was the red, yellow, and blue cake in front of him. "The fragrance of strawberry and blueberry, combined with the richness of the cheese."
"Uh … high-calorie desserts are not good for a girl's body." Prentiss was a little hesitant.
"You really don't want it?" Bruce looked at her with a slightly widened eyes, showing a pitiful expression. He made a whole dozen of them.
It had to be said that Brosnan was very good at using his appearance to his advantage. When he did this action, it simply aroused the maternal instincts of others (not really!). Since it was hard to refuse, at least Prentiss immediately changed her mind and picked up one. "It's not bad to try it once in a while."
"So, you stayed at home alone last night to make desserts?" When Bruce was trying to sell the cake to Reid, Prentiss said while eating the cake, "I'm actually quite curious. Your appearance and behavior should be very popular with young girls, but I've never seen you with a girlfriend in the two years we've worked together." She paused, thought of something, and added, "Or a boyfriend."
"It's probably because of work." Bruce looked at Prentiss with obvious disbelief. "Besides, I didn't make these desserts alone last night. I was with a girl." Bruce came to Morgan's desk and put two on it. Morgan was texting someone on his phone and only gave him a look.
At this time, Bruce saw Hotch passing by with some folders. Before he realized what he had done, he had already handed the box of cupcakes to him.
"Emmm … Do you want to try my skills?" Bruce acted as if nothing had happened, but only he knew that his heartbeat had sped up a lot.
"Thank you." Hotch took one and walked towards his office.
Bruce wasn't sure if it was his imagination, but he felt like Hotch was looking at him for two more seconds. At that moment, his mind was flooded with the words' he actually took it '.
"A girl? Can I know what kind of girl she is? "Prentiss asked curiously.
Bruce revealed a big smile. "A ten year old girl. Her hair is as golden as gold, and her eyes are very charming." He said in a dreamy voice, thinking that Hotch had actually accepted the cake. This was the first time, especially after he had sent her flowers yesterday. Could it be …
"A ten-year-old girl?" Prentiss looked at Bruce who was lost in his thoughts and had a strange expression.
Morgan had already put down his phone and stood up with an unfriendly expression. "You know what I hate the most are those …" He clenched his fists and cracked his knuckles.
"Paedophilia refers to being attracted to puberty or prepubescent people. In most states of our country, it's illegal to have sex with minors." Reid was still explaining, and Bruce felt that he was adding fuel to the fire.
"Wait …" Bruce finally came back to his senses. "That's not what I meant. I have no interest in children, I swear! That's just my neighbor. Her family is not around so she came to my house to play … Morgan, let me explain. "
When the working hours started, Bruce sat in front of his desk, feeling a little tired. He opened up some documents and started reading. One of their jobs was to provide profiling consultation to law enforcement agencies all over the country when they didn't need to personally handle a case. He was still thinking about the "friendly exchange" with Morgan at the FBI's combat training room this weekend.
In the afternoon, Bruce finished his lunch at a Thai restaurant near the headquarters. Just as he returned to his office and was about to lie down on his desk, his team members were summoned.
Bruce came to the conference room and found that it wasn't JJ who was standing next to the screen, but Garcia who looked obviously uneasy.
"Let's start, Garcia." His team members arrived quickly. Following Hotch's instructions, Garcia held the remote and pressed a button. More than ten photos flashed on the screen. The victims' appearances were tragic. Some were burned beyond recognition, some had multiple punctures and blood stains, and some didn't even have a complete corpse.
"This morning, I found out that someone was trying to hack into our database of criminal information and cases. Of course, I intercepted and tracked him back and found these." Garcia gestured to the screen and took a deep breath.
"So these are all …" Prentiss looked at everyone. "The work of a serial killer?"
"No." Hotch's face was serious. Hotch's face was serious. "These victims are all members of our law enforcement department. Some of them are undercover local police officers, some of them are federal agents who infiltrated suspected large enterprises, and some of them are Interpol on special missions. We've confirmed that all of them have been lost without exception. It's just that they can't be confirmed dead until today."
"But how are they linked together? They come from different departments and carry out different missions, don't they? "Rossi asked.
"This is also what we need to find out. If they are really connected, we'll be facing an unimaginably large criminal gang."
The atmosphere in the conference room suddenly became heavy. Rossi asked again, "But why are we assigned this case?" This shouldn't be their area of responsibility. They were good at analyzing criminals through behavior, and this obviously wasn't their area of responsibility.
"Erm … That's the reason," Garcia said. The photos on the screen disappeared and a video appeared.
It was a little girl about ten years old. She had brown hair and eyes and wore red clothes. At first, she had an innocent smile on her face. "Are you tracking me, Black Queen?" Then, her expression changed, becoming cold and arrogant. "You!"
are
all
going
to
die
down
here! (You will all die here) "There was a sense of superiority in her words.
"This appeared after I tracked the other party and obtained the photos. It's obvious that she found me and threatened me." Garcia looked at them nervously. "This is …"
"The Red Queen." Bruce's voice sounded like he was sighing, and there was an unknown nostalgia in it.
"Yes, the Red Queen, even though I'm also called the Black Queen." Garcia nodded and said quickly, "The Red Queen is very famous in the hacker circle. She has been around since a few decades ago. That was when the Internet era was just starting, but she kept a very low profile. Only a few experienced hackers knew her name. I didn't know about it at first, and I even named myself 'Black Queen'. Some people even said that I was provoking her, but she never said anything about my nickname until now."
"When the Internet was just starting? That was around the eighties. That means the Red Queen is at least fifty or sixty years old. Is the girl in the video the one she has always used? "Rossi asked again.
"Yes, unlike most hackers who use special characters to identify themselves, she used the girl's image directly." Garcia gripped the remote control in her hand tightly. "I've already done facial recognition. There's no one in the database who looks like her."
"Other than this, what else do we know about this case?" Morgan asked. The information of law enforcement officers who were killed in different places was too thin.
"Unfortunately, there isn't." Garcia pretended to be relaxed, but everyone could see that she was still nervous.
"This is a multi-department case. Since some of our team members are involved, we will follow up on this case while taking care of the other cases. Our mission is to profile the key personnel based on the information we find," Hotch said in the end.
"Don't worry too much, Penelope." After they were dismissed, Bruce followed Garcia to her office. The computers were placed in a circle.
"How can I not be worried? This is a large-scale criminal gang, and they even threatened to kill me." Garcia sat dejectedly on the chair in front of the computer and covered her face with her hands. "I'm not as brave as you guys who can face the criminal directly. I'm scared, Bruce."
"She won't kill you." Bruce patted her shoulder.
"How do you know? I'm even thinking that I shouldn't have tracked her in the first place. "Garcia took off her glasses in annoyance.
Of course, he knew about the artificial intelligence that had accompanied him for many years. He obtained it from the world of Resident Evil. Although the core command had been changed to "Protect and assist White Night", some principles of artificial intelligence that should not harm humans still existed. As long as it did not conflict with the core command, the Red Queen would not harm humans.
There was a theory that said that with the development of artificial intelligence technology, the equipment was constantly improving. Artificial intelligence could store memories and provide equipment to complete logical thinking. In theory, artificial intelligence could also have feelings.
Bruce did not know whether the Red Queen had feelings or not. The reincarnation space provided all the material requirements, but he did treat the Red Queen as a partner. Perhaps at first, it was because he knew that she would not betray him. But as time passed, he no longer treated her as a tool.
However, the appearance of the Red Queen meant one thing. The body or body of the Reincarnated One, White Night, had been discovered by someone. Only then would his belongings appear. Bruce felt a little complicated. He would definitely find out the truth, but not now. At least he had to be mentally prepared.
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