The Agent in the Blind Spot ~ Chapter Four

[natesmama1128]

A/N: Okay, this is the last full chapter. Hopefully this makes sense, in the end. Epilogue to follow.

"You played us and an innocent man is in prison now."

Pelant grinned. "Well, he was. Didn't you hear? Kevin Franzen was killed in prison six months into his sentence."

"You're a monster."

Chapter Four

Pelant leaned back in his chair, not the least bit offended by Booth's characterization. "Monsters are, by definition, imaginary, Agent Booth. And I am most definitely real."

Booth couldn't disagree, Pelant was most definitely real. But the self-described hacktivist was wrong about one thing. He was a monster… a real life, honest-to-God monster. That's the part that disturbed Booth the most, even with all the tools and expertise he had at his disposal. Despite all the training in how to handle dangerous situations and come out on top, this time it was different. Maybe it was because Pelant had made it personal. Maybe it was because he didn't follow any predictable profile. Whatever the reason, Booth realized that even though he had walked into this warehouse fully in control, he was wholly unprepared for how this conversation was going. And that realization chilled his blood but steeled his resolve.

Determined to end this once and for all no matter the cost to himself, Booth shook his head. "Fine. You're real. Is that all then? An obsession with Brennan? Because that's a pretty simple scenario for someone like you."

"Well…" Pelant drew the word out like a petulant child. "Okay, you got me, Agent Booth. I admit that, at first, Doctor Brennan as a scientist was my sole focus. But once I'd observed your interactions, as partners, I couldn't resist looking deeper."

"Deeper?"

"You didn't sleep together that first meeting…but you both wanted to. Can I ask why you didn't?"

Booth wanted to twist his neck for the audacity, but in light of his own reasons for sitting in this abandoned warehouse, he decided to let it go. "You can ask."

"Ah. So even you don't know. I wondered about that, Doctor Sweets' notes were quite vague. You never asked Brennan why she turned you down."

"Sweetie…" Angela whispered roughly. "You never told me…"

"No, Angela. I didn't."

"I get it; you were interested in our partnership. What else?" Booth was tired of Pelant's games and just wanted some answers, once and for all, and his irritation was showing.

Pelant shrugged. "Alright, your relationship with Brennan is off limits, I get it. Fine." He adjusted his position on the hard-backed chair and continued, a glint in his eye and a frown on his face. "In the end it comes down to the fact that I just wanted a worthy adversary for my game."

"A game. You've killed numerous innocent people, stole billions from Hodgins, sent Brennan on the run and forced me to take back our engagement by threatening to kill innocents…for what? Fun?"

Angela gasped at Booth's admission and looked quickly to Brennan. The other woman held no expression on her face, no outward signs of the emotion she had to be feeling, save for one. A lone tear that tracked its way down her pale cheek.

"Oh, Booth." Brennan sighed.

"Well, except for this little reminder you inflicted on me," He waved a hand across his right cheek as he spoke. "This has been fun. I know you don't understand, but maybe when we're done here, you will."

"So get on with it, then. I have places to be."

"Alright. So where were we? Oh yes, Dave Hardy's murder. Anyway, that went off without a hitch, but it was hard to watch from so far away so I started learning more and more about surveillance, electronics…whatever I needed to pick up to continue my little experiment. Along the way, I also discovered some pretty despicable dealings within our own government, specifically the military and the FBI and CIA, so for awhile that became my focus and I let things between you and Doctor Brennan fall away to the side."

"And that's when you started hacking into government websites."

"Yes." Pelant looked immeasurably pleased with himself at that. "But I was so good, I wasn't even close to getting caught, and things were happening that didn't require my constant attention, so I returned to my first hobby, your partnership. Of course by then things had really changed for you. Max Keenan was back, Doctor Saroyan had joined your little group and had apparently enjoyed a pretty salacious relationship with you, and Doctor Addy had fallen in with a serial killer. Pretty exciting stuff, actually."

"Yeah, thrilling." Booth fought rolling his eyes.

"Oh, but it was. I mean, I knew Doctor Addy was conspiring with the Gormogon killer months before you two ever did. And up until you pretended to get yourself killed to save the woman you loved, it was unbelievably fun to watch you all fumble around trying to find the apprentice when he was right under your nose the entire time." Pelant sighed happily. "It almost made me wonder if Brennan was smart enough to even bother to continue, but I ultimately concluded that your influence had made her emotionally vulnerable, which clouded her judgment. And once Addy was gone, she was back to her old self." He stopped to take a sip of water from the bottle on the floor next to him. "But long before all of that, I did set another crime scene up for you both. Unfortunately, before you could even investigate the case you were separated for Max Keenan's trial, so…"

"The skeleton in a circle? That was you, too?" Booth gasped, shock crossing his visage before he thought better of it and schooled his features again. "Who was it? Someone you knew?"

"That doesn't even matter anymore, the point is you and Brennan never got your hands on it, so I don't even care. No one solved it, from what I recall. Eh, it doesn't matter, what matters is that after the Addy debacle, I decided to ramp things up a bit. But it had to be epic. And I knew I needed more information about you and Doctor Brennan than I had access to at the time, but luckily for me, the FBI made the serendipitous decision that you both be assigned to couples counseling."

"Poor Sweets." Brennan murmured.

Angela nodded sadly. "Yeah."

"So you've been reading Sweets' notes from the very beginning."

"Oh yes. And it's been a glorious revelation! I mean, how many criminal masterminds have complete access to the psyches of the people they're targeting? I was able to use your counseling sessions, along with Doctor Sweets' observations and my personal surveillance to craft an almost perfect scenario, designed to not only force you both into my game, but also to satisfy my need for justice in regards to the criminal acts of both the FBI and the Pentagon."

"We're talking a four year gap here, Christopher. It took you that long to come up with a plan?" Booth leaned back in his chair again as Pelant leaned forward, not wanting to get too close to his prey too soon.

Pelant chuckled. "If you'll remember, Agent Booth, I got into a little bit of trouble around that fourth year of your partnership. Getting caught hacking into the Senate and Pentagon websites slowed me down a bit, and because of my house arrest limited my access to, well, almost everything. And the things I missed during that time!" He shook his head sadly. "I was sorry to hear about your brain tumor."

"Yeah, I can feel your sympathy." Booth snarked.

"Oh, I really was sorry. I mean, if you had died my plan would have been obliterated. Doctor Brennan is no fun to play with without her fierce protector. Had you not been there…well, let's just say it would not have ended well for Ms. Montenegro."

"Angela?" Booth looked spooked. "What were you planning to do to Angela?"

"Kill her, of course."

"Remind me to send Doctor Jursik a thank-you note for saving Booth's life, sweetie."

"You can enclose yours with mine."

"What purpose would killing Angela serve?" Booth ignored the drop of sweat he could feel sliding down his spine as he stared Pelant in the eye.

Pelant looked surprised. "Why else? Because if you were dead, she would be Doctor Brennan's closest relationship. You see, I couldn't have her all to myself unless I first made her dependant emotionally."

"All to yourself? I thought she was just a plaything to you."

Pelant nodded. "Oh, she was. But in the course of my…surveillance, let's call it; I realized that Temperance is really a singular woman. Unlike any other woman I'd ever known. And so rational! I've never seen a woman more immersed in the rules of science and reason." The psychopath sighed happily. "She really is fascinating."

"What about Max Keenan?" Booth asked, fighting nausea at what could only be called the dreamy look on Pelant's face.

"Oh, I considered it. He is her father, after all. And he did abandon her as a child so his leaving her again might have been devastating. But, if we're being quite honest here…." He looked around conspiratorially. "Max Keenan scares me a little bit."

It took every ounce of control Booth possessed not to smile at the admission.

"In any case, you didn't die. You were very confused though, and Doctor Sweets managed to convince you that you weren't in love with Doctor Brennan, despite what you thought after your little coma dream. That surprised me, actually. I thought you had been in love with her for at least a year before your surgery, but…"

"No." Booth shook his head, his expression softening for the first time since this whole thing began. "I've been falling in love with Temperance Brennan since forever."

Pelant resisted the urge to comment, accepting the admission for what it was, an honest if not manipulative way to win some trust. "Fine. Sweets didn't convince you, but he did spook you into doubting yourself. And it did the damage either way, which only worked in my favor."

"How's that?"

"Well, according to Doctor Sweets' notes, he challenged you to 'break the stalemate', tell Doctor Brennan how you feel about her. Which, admittedly, confused me at first considering the fact that a few months before that he told you that your love for Brennan was a mirage, but…"

"Sweets had his reasons."

Pelant smiled crookedly. "Oh yes, I know. To protect Doctor Brennan's fragile heart."

Angela's breathing hitched, just loud enough for Brennan to hear her.

"What is it, Ang?"

Her dark eyes clouded with tears. "Nothing, Bren. It's…just, let's listen."

Brennan looked dubious. "Okay. If you say so."

"You don't know anything about Bones' heart." Booth tried to affect a casual air but failed miserably.

"And I don't really care what you think, Agent Booth. Temperance is not just another piece of the puzzle to me." He smiled nastily. "It's her heart that holds your team together. All of you, you're like satellites caught in her orbit, helpless against her gravitational pull."

A small smiled graced Booth's lips. "She's the linchpin." He whispered without thinking.

Pelant nodded. "An apt description. Yes, Doctor Brennan is the linchpin. All of you, you do everything you can to protect her, to keep your world spinning on its axis. You've made her dependant on all of you to exist, in an oddly symbiotic way."

Booth fought another ghost of a smile at another distant memory and forced himself to listen closely to the dangerous man in front of him as he described what he believed about his partner.

"And now, well...being a mother to your little girl has made her even more dependent on all of you, especially you."

"Leave Christine out of this." Booth growled.

"Calm down, Agent Booth. I have no immediate plans against your child specifically."

"And why should I believe you?"

"You shouldn't." Pelant replied simply. "But you sort of have to right now, don't you?"

Booth swallowed the bile that rose at the implication and nodded slightly.

"Shall we continue?"

The agent waved his hand in reply and sat back; waiting for the denouement he was sure was coming soon.

"Alright then. In any case, I think we can gloss over the year and a half or so that passed while I plotted my final scenario. Neither you nor Brennan was even in the country for most of that time, I was more than able to choose the exact methods I would use to finally draw her out."

"Why did it take so long?"

"Well, as you know, I had to learn how to get around my computer restrictions…easier than I anticipated, believe it or not. Then, of course, I had to learn how to embed code into human bone, among other things…and finally, I had to wait until that ridiculous mid-life crisis you brought home from Afghanistan left for good."

Booth sat up and poked a finger at his opponent angrily. "Leave Hannah out of this."

"Ms. Burley? Oh come on, Agent Booth…we both know she was nothing but a band-aid for your pitiful ache for Temperance. Frankly, it only reinforced my belief that you don't deserve her but whatever. The reporter was beautiful. Smart. Self-reliant. You definitely have a type, Agent Booth."

"Get to the point."

Pelant inhaled deeply and stood, reaching into the pocket of his worn sweatshirt to reveal a handheld device that looked to Booth like an old garage door opener. Pelant waved it back and forth for a moment as Booth tensed, hand held over his weapon, at the ready. Pelant considered the tightly-coiled stance of his opponent and relaxed his hand, letting the device bounce against his thigh casually.

"This is a simple remote control. See the long button here?" He pointed to the rectangular button in the middle of the device. "This one activates…everything."

Booth swallowed thickly. "Everything?"

"I've tried. I've done everything in my power to separate her from you people." Pelant continued, walking back and forth in front of the still-seated Booth as if the other man had never spoken. "I even endured that interminable nine months I was forced to wait while she carried your child. I still can't believe-" He closed his eyes, a muscle twitching in his injured cheek as he breathed deeply, clearly trying to maintain some semblance of control. After a moment, his eyes opened and fixed once again on his adversary. "In any case, I have been patient. I studied forensic anthropology, human physiology, psychology, entomology, botany…you name it, and I made it my business to know it all better than anyone. I knew it was the only way to beat your team. As a team. You were absolutely beatable. No group is impenetrable."

Booth shook his head at the small stab of sympathy he felt for the man in front of him. "You don't know anything about being part of a team, Pelant. At least, not the parts you can't learn from a book."

"Everything can be learned from study and research! Everything!" A small amount of spittle flew from Pelant's lips as a smirk crossed Booth's. "You people are not that special!"

Shaking his head, Booth snorted. "Then why bother engaging us? You don't have any idea how special those people are, Christopher." He stood slowly, mindful of the still-mysterious device in Pelant's white-knuckled grip. "Cam is…Camille Saroyan is not only a coroner but an ex-cop. She's an amazing leader. She's fiercely independent and absolutely dedicated to her job, but beyond all that, her capacity for caring for those she loves is boundless."

He stepped to his right, slowly beginning to circle the younger man as he continued to speak in a soft, soothing tone. "And Jack Hodgins? Christopher, I know you think you found his limit by goading him into choking you, but you don't have any idea of the passion for truth and justice he has. He is one of the best people I've ever known, and you crossed a line when you threatened the two most important people in his life. His son and his wife. You're lucky he didn't kill you in that cemetery…because I would have helped him cover it up."

Booth's circular movement was done in tandem to the rhythm of his slow vocal cadence, lulling Pelant into turning with him, the hub to his perpetual motion. "And let's not forget Angela."

"Oh, she hates you right now, Agent Booth." That brought the first real smile from Pelant since he'd begun explaining his plan.

"Not really." Booth disagreed quietly. "Angela knows, deep down, that I love Bones. But that's her nature. She's as fiercely protective as her husband, and infinitely more dangerous. That's one of the things I love most about her. She's loyal. I would have been disappointed in her if she hadn't been treating me like a leper, trust me. Plus, she's smarter than you are, so there is that."

Pelant looked affronted. "You're wrong, Agent Booth. Ms. Montenegro is not smarter than I am."

"Oh, yes she is. She combines a genius-level understanding of computers with a human element you will never, ever possess. You can't understand it because you're incapable. Once, a long time ago, another low-life serial killer like you tried to break us and taint the idea that Angela is the heart of our team…but I'm reclaiming that for her. For us. Angela is our heart and you can't crush it, no matter how hard you try."

Speechless, Angela turned to Brennan. "Bren, I…Booth is just so…"

"You knew this about him, Angela. We all did. We just forgot for awhile."

"And he thinks you're the lynchpin…"

"You tried to break Sweets, too." Booth shook his head, almost sadly, as he moved around his prey. "And you almost succeeded. You separated him from the pack, at least physically, thinking we would just simply…let him drift away. That miscalculation is the one I will never understand."

"Actually, I wanted him dead, remember?" Pelant sneered.

"Oh yeah. You lost that one too, didn't you?" Booth taunted.

The younger man sighed. "This is why I shouldn't contract out."

"In any case, Sweets might be the only one of us you do understand, to a degree. He was alone in the world, too. Genius, adrift…but we brought him into our fold…" At that, Booth paused, a thoughtful look on his face. "But now that I think about it, that might have infuriated you more than almost anything we did."

"You…you don't know what you're talking about." He stuttered, tensing as Booth continued to circle him.

"Oh, I think it did." Booth whispered. "You wanted to take his place."

At that, Pelant's mouth curled up slightly. "Not his place, no."

Booth tensed; making Pelant believe he was imparting new information. "Mine, then?"

"You are incredibly slow on the uptake, Booth."

"Not as much as you might think."

There was a beep, a crackle and what sounded like bacon sizzling as the device Pelant held suddenly began to smoke. He dropped it immediately, shaking his hand in fury. "What did you do?!" He screamed.

Smiling, Booth drew his weapon. "Do you really think I'm stupid enough to come in here without backup, Christopher?" He shook his head as FBI agents swarmed the room, all holding their own weapons on the killer in front of them.

"You weren't wearing a wire!" Pelant yelled as he was unceremoniously thrown to the floor and handcuffed by a less-than-gentle SWAT member. "My system checked you for bugs when you came in! Nothing we said here was recorded! I'll be free in hours, Agent Booth! Hours!"

"You would think so, wouldn't you? I told you she was smarter than you. You should have believed me." Booth grinned humorlessly. "We got you, you son of a bitch."

"You have nothing!"

"Believe what you want, Christopher. In any case, you will be held in solitary. At the county jail. You will be guarded twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, by two FBI agents who volunteered for the job." Booth shook his head. "You killed two of our own, Pelant. You'd be amazed how many volunteers we had. And every single one of them knows that unless Doctor Brennan, Doctor Saroyan, myself and Max Keenan are standing in front of them in person authorizing it, you are not to be moved, transferred or even allowed so much as a phone call. Nothing. "

Two agents dragged Pelant to his feet, still squirming. "You can't do this! I have rights!"

"You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say or do may be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to consult an attorney before speaking to the police and to have an attorney present during questioning now or in the future. If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be appointed for you before any questioning, if you wish. If you decide to answer any questions now, without an attorney present, you will still have the right to stop answering at any time until you talk to an attorney." Booth paused. "You mean those rights?"

"You don't deserve her!" His legs kicked without purchase as he pulled at his restraints. "She's better, smarter, more than you will ever be! Ever!"

Booth stood back as they dragged the incensed Pelant across the room, away from him. Shoving his hands into his pockets, he sighed. "Preaching to the choir, kid. Preaching to the choir."

Special Agent Hayes Flynn stepped up next to Booth, unconsciously mimicking his stance. "You think we got everything we need? That was a hell of a chance you took, Booth."

"I know. But yeah, I think we got everything. We knew he had some kind of remote device when we found the incendiary device in my alarm clock last year. We knew he had other monitoring bugs all over our house, but as long as they weren't in our bedroom or Christine's, it was just a matter of finding the signal, which our guys did."

"He admitted to everything, yeah?"

"Enough to put him away until his date with a needle, yeah."

Flynn shook his head. "You don't think we're trying him here?"

"Nope. Not if I know Caroline, and I think that I do." Booth smiled. "David Hardy. He admitted to killing him a long time ago, and I remember him. He was killed in Virginia and that beautiful commonwealth still has the death penalty."

"Excellent." Flynn clapped Booth on the shoulder and looked around at the techs collecting evidence. "I'll stick around and supervise this mess. You should get to your team and give them the good news."

Giving his friend a knowing smirk, Booth headed across the room to retrieve his jacket. "Don't worry, Flynn. I think this kind of good news spreads pretty quickly."

With that, Booth crouched down in front of the chair that held his coat.

"What is he doing?" Angela asked as Booth's face filled their screen.

Brennan, tears in her eyes, nodded to the visage of her partner. "He knew. Right from the beginning."

"Hey Bones? It's over." Booth whispered to the pin in his lapel.

Even though she knew he could neither hear nor see her, Brennan nodded. "I know, Booth."

He pulled a small bag out of his pocket, and gripped it tight for a moment before opening it and removing a slim, jeweled bracelet. Between two fingers, he held the piece in front of his face and smiled. "Marry me, Bones?"

"Yes. Of course, yes." Brennan echoed.

Nodding happily, Booth stood and picked up his jacket. "I'm on my way to you, Bones." He turned and waved at Flynn before heading for the stairs.

"And Angela, make several copies of that conversation. Caroline is going to want it yesterday."

"Consider it done, Booth." Angela grinned, at the now-disembodied voice. Turning to a now dry-eyed Brennan, she shook her head. "He found a way to get him and never had to fire a shot. No matter how long we've known him, no matter what he does during a case, Booth never fails to surprise me."

Brennan nodded, crossing her arms around herself. "I find that to be very true of Booth almost daily." She released a long-held breath and relaxed completely for the first time in almost two years. "He is very, very surprising."