The Christmas holidays arrived quickly, but due to Emily being targeted, Jack's planned vacation had to be canceled. Fortunately, he wasn't too keen on going to a crowded vacation spot like Hawaii during the holiday season anyway.
The memories of past crowded holidays during the "Labor Day" and "National Day" in his previous life were still fresh in his mind.
This Christmas, Jack decided to continue making dumplings for everyone. After all, as the saying goes, "Christmas dumplings without vinegar, Santa beats up reindeer." Well, that was just a joke from internet users in his previous life, but aside from the traditional roast turkey, dumplings were indeed becoming more common on American Christmas tables.
Jack wasn't sure if people in this world exchanged apples on Christmas Eve, but as long as things weren't taken to the extreme, diversity was indeed a sign of societal progress.
In addition to the traditional roast turkey, Jack also prepared some dishes that were essential for an Italian Christmas, such as stuffed capon, Pandoro bread, and Panettone, which moved a certain Italian elder to tears. He also made French foie gras and steaks, German pork knuckles and sausages, Swiss meatballs, Spanish nougat, and, of course, the American staples of Yule logs and gingerbread men.
Last Christmas had been rather lonely for Jack, and he ended up making dumplings with the old Hunter couple. In contrast, this year's Christmas was almost too lively.
Everyone had decided early on that the Christmas reunion would be at Jack's place. The Wolf brothers arrived early in their matching "Mammoth" vehicles, bringing a Christmas tree, a fake snowman, and various decorations. It took them an entire day to deck out Jack's house in bright lights.
"I think it's time to upgrade to a bigger house," Jack muttered after counting the number of guests and realizing his once-spacious house was now a bit too small.
This year, not only were John, Tim, and their LAPD colleagues attending with their families, but the mostly single BAU team members were also coming. Adding the Wolf brothers and their large family, as well as the Hunter couple and their 80-something-year-old "third wheel," the guest count was pushing 30.
Luckily, there were only three babies who couldn't speak yet—Angela and Wesley's son, Hotchner's son, and Braxton and Aaliyah's daughter.
Jack couldn't imagine what the future would look like once Tim and Lucy got married and had kids, or if John decided to have a "late bloomer" child. The family gatherings would be even more chaotic.
"Our neighbors have a small farm for sale. The asking price is $1.2 million. Maybe you could advance a few years' worth of dividends," Chris remarked, as blunt as always. Jack admitted he was tempted, but reason held him back.
Although Jack and the Wolf brothers were on great terms, you couldn't just ask for favors like that. Running a small farm near Los Angeles was a rich man's hobby, and losing $50,000 to $60,000 a year was considered good management.
Jack's legitimate income was several hundred thousand dollars a year, so he could afford a $1.2 million farm, but he had no time to manage it. The Wolf brothers' farm alone cost nearly $200,000 a year in labor, not to mention other expenses.
Even with the farm's output and the dividends from their trading company, Chris barely managed to break even on paper. There was no way he could support such a large family on that alone.
But the Wolf brothers had ways to launder their gray income. Jack didn't have any gray income and couldn't just hit the road, hoping to run into some horror movie scenario that might make him money. He briefly considered it, but shook off the thought and didn't outright reject Chris's suggestion, saying he'd think about it. After all, you never know when you might strike it rich.
After the particularly lively Christmas, Hotchner had almost fully recovered. Jack brought him some deer antler from Chinatown and taught Hotchner's wife, Haley, how to make ginseng chicken soup for him.
Jack didn't know if it worked for Hotchner, but Haley definitely looked a lot better.
Zoe and Maureen couldn't spend Christmas Eve with Jack, but on Christmas Day, Jack spent time at Zoe's house with two gorgeous women dressed as Santa Claus, enjoying a day of wild fun.
After the new year, something interesting happened. Jack unexpectedly ran into a familiar face from his past life.
Reid's actress girlfriend had a new bodyguard, hired for her daily security. At a party, Jack saw none other than a 50-something-year-old Liam Neeson.
This made Jack quite nervous for a while as he tried to recall all of Neeson's "Taken" movies.
Liam Neeson was one of Jack's favorite action stars from his previous life, second only to "Jason Statham." But as hard as he tried, Jack couldn't remember any movie where Neeson played a bodyguard.
Since Jack had seen most of Neeson's famous action films, and none of them involved a character resembling Reid's girlfriend, Lyla, he eventually stopped worrying about it.
After all, there were plenty of other things worth worrying about. By January, Emily's terrorist ex-lover was still lying low, but under Rossi's orders, the BAU team had heightened their alert.
CIA intelligence indicated that Ian Doyle had resurfaced in Europe at times but was mostly staying in Mexico, cozying up to several major South American drug cartels.
Based on various intelligence reports, Rossi surmised that Doyle had amassed tens of millions of dollars during this period, some of it from working as a mercenary for the cartels, and some from directly selling arms himself.
Jack had once suggested taking the offensive, but Doyle was elusive and unpredictable. If they missed their chance, it would only scare him off. Could Emily hide for the rest of her life?
It had taken a massive amount of resources to flush Doyle out the first time, and Emily had paid a steep price.
The second issue was the CIA. The South American drug cartels were on the verge of another large-scale drug war, and both the CIA and the DEA were closely monitoring them. However, they didn't want to provoke the war prematurely. After all, an orderly drug trade provided the CIA with a steady source of income.
Some things were just universally understood—wherever there was oil, corruption would follow. And in the Americas, wherever there was drug trafficking, the CIA was involved.
Drug trafficking in foreign countries was essentially the CIA's turf. Without their cooperation, the FBI couldn't do much in Mexico.
Time slowly passed in this tense atmosphere. Recently, Los Angeles had been hit with increasingly severe weather, as a historic rain, snow, and wind storm battered the region.
Since the start of January, northern California had been repeatedly hit by winter storms. In some areas, the rainfall in the past three weeks had equaled the amount typically seen in an entire year.
Floods, tornadoes, mudslides, and landslides occurred frequently, overwhelming the region's already fragile infrastructure. Widespread power outages were common.
Ventura County, just north of Los Angeles, had been particularly hard-hit. After surviving a massive wildfire last year, it had now become a disaster zone once again, with some areas completely destroyed by mudslides and landslides.
While the public was still reacting to the president's declaration of a state of emergency for California, a new case landed on the BAU team's desk.
"Last night, two homes in Orange County caught fire, and both families were killed," JJ said, pulling up two sets of photos on the screen.
Time to solve another case.
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