[Inside the cruiser]
"Larry, Lance, and Linda Mason. Grew up in upstate New York. Diagnosed with shared delusional disorder. They believed they could consume souls through ritual. Their parents were the first victims. They carved symbols into the bodies and claimed it was part of their 'ascension.'" Boyle turned the page, his voice dropping a little. "Released three months ago. Vanished right after. No new jobs. No listed residences. No trail at all."
Jake leaned forward between the seats, his hoodie shadowing his face. "So they just… poofed? Gone? Like evil sibling magicians? Come on, people don't just vanish like that."
"Apparently these three did," Boyle muttered, flipping another page. "The parole officers lost track. No activity on credit cards. No new ID registrations. Nothing. They're off the grid completely. How are we supposed to find them?"
Ray's hands tightened on the wheel. He slowed the car, pulling it toward the curb under a flickering streetlight. Without a word he reached back, tugged the binder from Boyle's grip, and spread it across the steering wheel. His eyes scanned the red circles on the map: Park. Mall. House. He clicked his pen and began to draw.
First a triangle connecting the sites. Then, inside it, a single eye.
Jake's mouth dropped open. He leaned closer, whispering like a kid watching a ghost story. "The Illuminati?! Are we seriously up against the Illuminati? Cool, cool, cool, cool, cool, no need to worry at all. It's not like they are going to vanish us or anything like that..." He looked toward Ray. "Right?"
Ray didn't answer.
Jake repeated with his usual nervous grin, "Right?"
Boyle's eyes went wide, his face pale. "Ray… are you saying these three are part of some ancient secret order that controls world governments and eats children for… longevity?"
Both of them waited for an answer.
"Well, we'll find that out tonight," Ray answered.
Then, he calmly slid his pen back into his pocket, took out his phone, and scrolled through his contact list. When his thumb hovered over one name, his expression softened for a second. He tapped the screen and put the call on speaker.
The line clicked alive and a bubbly, unmistakable voice came through. "Well hello, stranger. I was just thinking the digital universe felt colder without you, and now here you are calling me. My circuits are blushing."
Ray allowed the faintest smile, his voice warm. "Penelope Garcia. Still the brightest light in this dark world. It's been too long."
On the other end she let out a squeal. "Raymond White, you absolute ghost of a man! Do you have any idea how many times I've cyberstalked you just to make sure you weren't actually dead? And now you pop up like some secret agent with a velvet voice. What do you need, darling?"
Jake mouthed the word "darling" at Boyle like he couldn't believe what he was hearing because Ray is in a relationship with Rosa, so... Why the hell is Ray flirting with this new girl, Garcia?
Ray's tone shifted, lower now. "The kidnappings in Brooklyn."
"Wait! You are back in the team?" Garcia asked.
"Nope. Just lending a hand. I need you to dig for me. Pull up the map, pinpoint the kidnapping locations, and draw a triangle. Then look into anything connected to the symbol of an eye. Any group, cult, or name tied to it. Illuminati, derivatives of it, anything that overlaps within the triangle."
The speakerphone crackled as Garcia's fingers clattered over her keyboard, her usual bubbly tone dropping into something clipped and sharp. "Okay, triangle plotted, Brooklyn kidnap points marked… searching… searching… hmm." Her voice changed, all playfulness gone. "The only thing inside that triangle that connects to an eye is an optometry clinic. 'New Dawn Vision.' Opened just under two months ago. Beyond that, I'm not pulling anything tied to cults, no Illuminati chatter, no weird fraternal orders. Just a squeaky clean front on paper."
Jake frowned. "An eye clinic? That's it? Not even a weird Facebook group? Because that's like, Cults 101."
Garcia's keyboard snapped louder as she dug deeper. "I'm telling you... On paper, this place is cleaner than a nun's internet history. Permits filed, equipment purchased, staff listed. Whoever runs this dotted every single I and crossed every single T."
Ray leaned back slightly, thinking out loud. "Three months ago the Mason siblings vanished. One month later, a new clinic pops up right in the middle of the abduction triangle. Convenient timing. Too convenient. Minor plastic surgery takes two weeks tops to recover from. A month gives enough time for procedures, healing, and setting up a front. Add a little bribery to smooth paperwork and you've got yourself a perfect cover. Meaning the Masons may not even look like themselves anymore."
Boyle's voice trembled. "So you're saying they… changed their faces? Like Mission Impossible masks, but permanent?"
Ray nodded once. "Probably, given the situation. Which means if we're looking for them, we won't find them in mugshots. But it also means they didn't do this alone. You don't set up a functioning clinic without medical help. There's a fourth, maybe even a fifth unsub. Someone with credentials, someone who can pass inspection, someone who makes the cover story airtight while they run their rituals behind the walls."
The car went silent, the weight of his words filling the space.
Garcia's voice cut in again, tight and urgent. "Ray, listen. If you're right, that makes this worse. Those kids could be in that clinic right now, being prepped for whatever these monsters think they're doing. Time is not on our side. But without proper evidence..."
Ray spoke before she could finish. "Run the kids. Cross-check the missing children against patient logs. Look for anyone who had appointments at New Dawn Vision in the last two months. Even appointments, check-ins, reschedules, anything."
Garcia was already on it. The clacking of her keys came fast and furious. "Pulling logs now. Firewalls are thick, but they're not thicker than me. Gimme sixty seconds."
Jake swallowed hard, eyes darting between Ray and Boyle. "So if the kids went there, we know where to go. But if they didn't…"
No one spoke.
The air in the cruiser felt heavy, like the silence was pressing down on them. Garcia's typing slowed until it stopped. Her voice came back, stripped of its usual color.
"Ray… every single one of those kids had appointments at New Dawn Vision. All of them. Booked for yesterday afternoon."
Jake's hoodie slipped off his head as he sat up straight, eyes wide. "Wait, all six kids? You're telling me these psychos scheduled optometrist appointments before kidnapping them? That's… that's next-level nightmare fuel."
Boyle hugged the binder tighter to his chest, his hands shaking. "Ray… if they had appointments, that means the clinic had all their info. Addresses, phone numbers, parents' names. They didn't just take random kids. They hunted them first."
Ray's jaw tightened. His hands flexed once against the steering wheel, then he spoke into the speaker, steady but low. "Garcia. Inform Hotch. Get him everything. The address, the logs, the timeline. They need to move now."
There was a pause, a faint sniffle on her end before she answered. "Copy that, darling. Sending the files to the BAU as we speak."
"Good." Ray's thumb hovered over the screen for a second, then he tapped it, cutting the call.
The car dropped into silence again. Jake and Boyle both looked at him, waiting.
Ray slid the binder shut, dropped it on Boyle's lap, and shifted the gearstick. His voice was calm, almost too calm. "Seatbelts."
The engine growled. Tires squealed against wet pavement as Ray slammed the gas, the cruiser shooting forward into the night.
Jake braced himself against the dashboard, shouting over the roar of the engine. "We're really doing this, aren't we? We're about to crash an eye clinic full of cult lunatics before the FBI even shows up!"
Ray's eyes never left the road. "We don't wait. Not while those kids are still breathing."
Boyle whispered, pale as paper, "Operation Soul Snatcher just got real."
Jake whispered back, "Shut it, Charles. Read the line here. Our mission just got an upgrade. I am calling it... Mission Illuminati."
"Ohh, so cool, Jake. So cool," Boyle, as usual, praised Jake.
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[Quick info dump, the reason behind Ray's deduction: The Modern Illuminati are sometimes linked with Satanism or occult practices, a connection that deviates from the historical record. This association may stem from the group's reputation for secrecy and their focus on challenging established religious and political structures, which some conspiracy theories interpret as an alliance with "dark forces".]
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[POWERSTONES AND REVIEWS PLS]
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[25 advance chs] [No double billing.]
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