OK, I'm back, at least a little, for now. I've gotten a number of PMs wondering if/when I intended to continue with the storyline that started in the Long Lie & continued through Convergence & Johanna's Story. I have to say that writing Johanna's Story (143 pages on Word) in nine days just kind of killed my muse for a bit. I think that maybe I just worked her so hard she fell into a coma after that one.
The next story in this continuing cycle has now begun. I have eleven pages down & (hopefully) many more on the way. This is 3 times the total amount I've managed to write since the end of Johanna's Story, on all my work combined! The new one is currently under the working title of Merchandise, though I am not very happy with that title, & it will almost certainly change. If anyone has a suggestion, I'd be glad to hear it.
The story is the 4th in a series set in a universe that was at least somewhat AU right from the beginning. It is not necessary that you read the other stories first, but many of the references will make a great deal more sense if you do. If you choose to, they are, in order: The Long Lie (NCIS), Convergence (NCIS Bones & Criminal Minds) & Johanna's Story (Castle & NCIS w/ a dash of Bones & Burn Notice).
The story involves a ring of white slavers who are abducting young folk (mostly young women, but a few men as well) to be sold to private buyers at a gathering in the Far East, mostly specifically selected folk, for private buyers, and the rest in an auction. Amongst those taken are a pair of roommates at a DC college, Michelle Welton (Camille Saroyan's adopted daughter on Bones) & Alexis Castle. Booth & his team, Beckett's team & Castle, & the crew from NCIS (on loan to the FBI by request of FBI Deputy-Director Fornell), will be the central figures on the case. However, expect many different faces to pop up here & there in support, including, though not necessarily limited to a BAU agent or two from Criminal Minds, the crew from NCIS: Los Angeles, the Burn Notice crew, the folks from the new Hawaii Five-0, the team from White Collar, and maybe (maybe not) a few others, not all of them necessarily from crime dramas. I certainly intend to throw in a favorite figure might recognize from films. As in past stories, most of these other folks will be very much supporting characters, usually only appearing in a chapter or three & then gone.
The timeline on this story is that it is set just under 2 years after the end of Johanna's Story. There are a few things, of import, that have happened in the intervening two years which I will note here:
Kate Beckett & Richard Castle are a couple, but have done their best to keep it out of the news
Alexis Castle is almost finished w/ her Freshman year at Waverly (in DC), where she rooms
with Michelle Welton
LeRoy Jethro Gibbs & Caitlyn Todd are engaged
Tony DiNozzo & Ziva David are still seeing one another, but spend roughly the same amount
of time arguing as getting along
Seely Booth turned down a major promotion to remain with his team at the Jeffersonian. He
& Bones are still dancing around one another, neither being ready to step up just yet
Michael Westen has managed to get his name cleared, with some help from Ziva & NCIS, after
their last encounter. However, he has remained in Miami, waiting for "the right
opportunity" to present itself, & taking odd jobs as he has since being Burned
Ziva has become an American citizen & is an NCIS Special Agent, no longer a Mossad Liaison
Officer.
Roy Montgomery is one of a handful of candidates for the position of Chief of Police for
Manhattan
Tobias Fornell is the Supervisory Special Agent (SSA) in charge of the Washington Field
Office for the FBI, & his name is one of half a dozen in the running for the position of
Deputy Director, when the current DD steps down in a few months
I have completed the eleven page Prologue, & Chapters 1 & 2 so far. I am posting the prologue now, as a preview, but I will not begin to post the regular chapters until I am at least halfway finished, if not closer to ¾ done. I hope you all enjoy, G
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MERCHANDISE – Prologue – "Taken"
Alexis Castle glanced at her watch. Twelve-ten. Michelle had promised that they would leave by midnight. They both had classes in the morning, albeit late in the morning. Professor Markham was pretty dry, and Alexis would definitely be able to keep more focused if she had at least eight hours of sleep. She smiled at Ryan and excused herself. He was cute and all, a defensive back on the Waverly football team, but she wasn't sure if she wanted to go out with him yet. Something about him just seemed a little bit off to her.
Alexis was well aware that boys found her attractive, slender and willowy, with long, straight red hair and blue eyes nearly the color of the sky. She could feel his eyes on her as she walked away. The question was where would she find Michelle? The house was two stories, and it was jam packed with young people, from eighteen to twenty-five, most of them Waverly students, but several outsiders as well.
She eventually found Michelle in the backyard, leaning against the side of the house, her eyes heavy-lidded, with a soft smile on her full lips. She was Alexis' age, but the similarities all but ended there. Michelle had skin the color of coffee with a generous bit of cream, dark soulful eyes, and a pretty face. She was a little bit taller than Alexis, with a few more curves. Needless to say, she was quite popular, and a little bit wild.
Alexis, with a little effort, shooed off the three young men, friends of Ryan and also on the team. "Meesh," she said, "it's after midnight. We need to go."
Her roommate nodded, and took a wobbly step. Alexis stepped up and wrapped an arm around her. "How much did you have to drink?"
"A few," Michelle responded, but by the obvious thickness of her tongue, and the continued wobble to her walk, Alexis was fairly certain that she'd had more than "a few".
Rather than fight their way back through the mob inside the house, Alexis led them to the side of the house and out the gate. Just before they reached the gate, Michelle tilted back her head and called out to the young men they'd left behind, "Call me." She almost dragged them both to the ground, but Alexis managed to prop her back up. She took a quick glance back herself. The three jocks were arguing, each of them assuming that Michelle's comment was meant for him. It was almost enough to make her laugh.
It was early November, but the air in DC was still warm, almost balmy, which was a little strange, but Alexis didn't mind. She briefly considered calling a cab for them, but the dorm was less than ten minutes walk, and she figured the fresh air, and a walk, would do Michelle some good. It wasn't the first time she'd half-carried her roommate home after a party. Not to say it was a regular occurrence. For the most part, Michelle was smart, funny, and a good student, but every once in a while, she just needed to let it all go. This night was apparently one of those nights.
Busy as she was caring for Michelle, Alexis never noticed the dark panel van that was idling just up the dark street. Two large men sat in the front, with another pair huddling in the back. They each wore a ski mask, pushed up on top of their heads, leaving their faces visible, for the moment, ready to be pulled down at any time.
"Is that the one?" the heavily-muscled driver asked, his Russian accent thick.
"Da," the passenger said, holding up a picture of Alexis smiling almost straight into the camera, obviously taken somewhere on campus, judging by the collegiate-looking buildings in the background and all the young people walking with books and backpacks. He double-checked as Alexis and Michelle walked under one the few street lights and then nodded the confirmation again.
The driver slipped the van into gear and slowly pulled out behind the girls, who were maybe fifty yards ahead. "What about the other one?" the driver asked.
"We take her too," from the passenger. She won't sell for as much, without a specific buyer, but I'm sure we can find someone to take her, or maybe I'll just give her to all of you as a sort of bonus." His accent was every bit as thick as the other's. He pulled down his mask, prompting the others to do so as well.
The van pulled up alongside the girls and the three men jumped out, the driver remaining inside. In a matter of seconds, the passenger had a hand over Alexis mouth and her arms pinned to her sides as he dragged her into the back of the van, despite her feverish resistance. The other two grabbed Michelle by the arms and legs and desposited her inside as well, crawling in behind her and pulling the door closed as the driver pulled away, quickly, but so fast as to draw attention.
Igor Michelek had to struggle to get the redhead pinned to the floor, but once he'd managed it, he and Ivan took only a few moments to have her trussed up, wrists bound behind her, ankles tied, a rag shoved into her mouth, with tape wrapped around her head holding the rag in place. Another strip of tape went over her eyes.
Vladimir had much less trouble with the black girl, drunk as she was. Igor worried about gagging her, afraid she might vomit and drown herself, but in the end, what did it matter. He had the girl he'd been paid to get. The pretty little African girl was a bonus. Not bad to have, but not really necessary.
He congratulated his crew on such a smooth snatch, and they headed for the safehouse.
In the back of the van, one thought ran through Alexis' fear-filled mind, on a near continuous loop, Dad and Kate will find us.
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They drove for what seemed like endless hours to Alexis, but was really more like two hours. She could feel Michelle curled up against her back, could hear her whimper with fear with each bump they passed over, much like she knew the other girl could hear her own cries.
She couldn't make out anything. The tape they'd put over her eyes kept her completely in the dark. She strained to listen, hoping that she might hear something, anything that might tell her who these men were, where they were taking her, and why. The problem was, they weren't talking much. They'd said a bit when the abduction first took place, but she'd been too scared to take notice really, all the little snippets she'd heard since were in some foreign language. Maybe Russian, she thought. She'd heard Kate speak a few sentences, and the girl who'd been her biology partner her senior year in high school, Svetlana, had emigrated from Vladivostok.
At least the men hadn't tried to assault them, and she prayed that they wouldn't in the hours to come either. Please, God, she thought, please let this be about money, not sex.
Suddenly the van began to slow a bit and exited off the interstate, though of course she had no idea where. The icy ball that had been in the pit of her stomach since the moment she'd been snatched off the street began to grow.
There was much less traffic noise, almost none, and none of the feel of a city. She didn't know how she knew, but she knew. A slight whiff of fertilizer a few minutes further on told her she was right. Before long, the van turned off the paved road, and onto a bumpy dirt road. In another minute, they stopped altogether.
Alexis' heart was hammering away in her chest, and judging by the way that Michelle was squirming behind her, it was clear that she was just as terrified. She heard the side panel door of the van open, and felt the cool night breeze. Rough hands grabbed her legs and dragged her across the floor of the van to the door, and she was promptly lifted up onto one of the men's shoulder, like a sack of potatoes. She offered little resistance, seeing no profit in it. If anything, she might anger him and be punished with violence.
She could hear the sounds of Michelle struggling. There was a crack as one of the men clearly hit her. She whimpered and the struggling stopped. The man carrying Alexis spoke sharply to one of the others, maybe the one who had hit Michelle, but again she couldn't understand him. She was nearly certain now, however, that they were speaking Russian.
The man carried her through the building, a farmhouse perhaps, she thought, and deposited her onto what felt like a hardwood floor, and promptly left her where she was. Michelle was unceremoniously dumped next to her a moment later. Alexis breathed a big sigh of relief when the second man also left the room, leaving the two girls alone. She'd greatly feared that they would be sexually assaulted the moment they reached a stopping point. It could still happen, she knew, but for now she'd settle for the small victory at hand. Now, if they could only find some way to free themselves.
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Camille Saroyan sat in a booth at Sartini's, the same one that she and Michelle always tried to get when they met for lunch. It was next to the window, so they could look out at everyone passing by on the street. They always enjoyed people watching.
The man at the next table glanced over his paper at Camille, for the third time in the last sixty seconds. He was probably in his early forties, and handsome. Normally, she'd have smiled back, maybe even spoken a few words, or given him her number. Today, she barely even noticed his interest.
Camille checked her watch, again. Michelle was now twenty-two minutes late, and Cam was officially worried. Her adopted daughter had an English Lit class that ended at 12:30 on Fridays. Her last class of the week would be Creative Writing at 4:00. In between, she and Cam would meet for lunch at 1:00. She'd never been more than 5 minutes late without a call before, and today she was bringing her roommate, Alexis. From what Cam had heard about Alexis Castle, that girl would have made sure they were on time, or else she would have made Michelle call right at one.
She picked up her cell and dialed Michelle's number again. She was sent straight to voice mail, for the second time in twenty minutes, and the fourth time since last night. She left another message, "Michelle, honey, I know you probably think I'm crazy for calling again, but I'm worried. Please call me back so we can have a good laugh about how overprotective I am." She paused, and then added, "I love you." Her fingers itched to hit speed-dial four and get Booth on the line. She decided to give Michelle and Alexis another few minutes first.
The handsome man from the next table stood and folded his paper, turning away, after giving her one last glance, and walking out the door. Camille still didn't notice. She had eyes only for her watch, her phone and the door.
At 1:31, she couldn't wait anymore. She got up from the booth, leaving her untouched coffee on the table, left a ten dollar bill, and made a beeline for the door. Waverly was only five minutes away. She'd just pop into the girls' dorm room. Maybe they'd forgotten. She prayed that that was it. Or else, she'd pass them on the street as they were walking to the restaurant.
Ten minutes later, Cam was standing in front of the door to their room, number 318 in West Waverly Hall. The door was locked, and there was no answer. Her stomach felt like it was filled with a ball of ice cold lead. Like many college kids, the girls had a little dry-erase board mounted on the outside of their door for messages. Theirs was filled with questions about where they'd been the last two days, and why they'd missed classes. Cam knew the moment she read the first message, her instincts had been right. Something was terribly wrong.
She moved slowly, deliberately, doing everything in her power to remain calm, and in control. She took her phone from her purse and called Booth.
"Seely Booth," his voice on the other end of the line was both reassuring to her, but also terrifying. She was terrified that she'd been forced to call him for this, and what that might mean.
"Booth," she said, her voice wavering, nowhere near as strong as she'd hoped it would be.
"Cam?" he questioned, and though she couldn't see it, he checked the caller ID. "You sound terrible, are you alright?"
"I need you…," she hesitated, stifling the sob that wanted to break free from her throat, then went on, "…I need you to come to Waverly College, West Waverly Hall, room three one eight."
"Cam," he asked, "what's going on? Are you okay? Wait a minute, Waverly…is Michelle okay?"
"I don't know Seely," she said, the sob finally breaking through. "I can't find her."
"Don't move," he said. "I'll be there in ten minutes."
The line was already dead by the time she nodded and said, "Okay." She turned her back to the wall and slid down, doing everything she could to hold back the tears glistening in her eyes, but slowly her lower lip began to tremble and the tears began to fall.
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She'd regained a small amount of composure by the time Booth arrived, with Dr. Brennan in tow. She must have been with him when I called, Cam thought. She used the wall as a support to get her feet under her without wobbling as they literally ran up the hall from the staircase to her.
Booth wrapped her in a giant hug, her own arms holding him just as fiercely. "She's gone," she cried into his shoulder. A few of the students in the dorm had gathered around to see just what was going on with the three strangers.
Brennan tried shooing them away. "You should all be in your classes. You wouldn't want to stunt your academic and intellectual growth," she said. Mostly she got a number of blank stares in return.
"Okay," Booth said, finally letting Cam go, "let's not get too excited until we know what we're dealing with, here. Tell me what happened."
She did, starting with the bad feeling she'd gotten the day before, the unanswered calls, and the girls' failure to meet her for lunch. "When I got here, I saw the board," she finished, pointing to the dry erase board.
"Michelle and her roommate are young," Bones said, obviously making an effort to comfort Cam. "Perhaps they just forgot. Maybe they went to a movie or something."
"I don't think so, Bones," Seely said. He was on his phone. "Caroline," he said. "I need a search warrant for a dorm room at Waverly, West Waverly Hall, room three one eight." He paused, and then said, "I don't know yet. There are two missing girls. Okay thanks." Turning back to Cam, he said, "We'll find her."
Bones began to reach for her own phone even before he told her. "Bones, get the squints down here, please."
"I'm already calling," she said.
Booth turned to the gathered students, waving them over closer. He flashed his badge and said "I'm Special Agent Seely Booth of the FBI. This is my partner, Dr. Temperance Brennan," he motioned to Brennan. "We'd like to ask you a few questions."
"Are we in any trouble?" one of the guys asked. His hair was greasy and looked like it hadn't been combed in days, and he wore a pair of baggy shorts that barely stayed above his hips. The grey checkered boxers underneath looked like they could use a good wash.
"No," Booth said. "You're not in any trouble, but what can you tell me about the two girls who live here?" he knocked on Michelle and Alexis' door behind him.
"Not much, bro," the kid said. Booth caught a faint whiff of old marijuana from the kid.
"What about the rest of you?" Brennan asked. She'd put away her phone. Hodgins was gathering the others and they were on the way.
An Asian girl stepped forward, slim and petite, with round glasses in black wire frames. She was pretty, in an understated way. "I take English Lit with Alexis and Michelle," she said. "They've both missed class the last two days." Cam grabbed his shoulder, squeezing hard.
"Have either of them missed class before?" Booth asked.
The girl shook her head and replied, "Michelle missed a day when she had the flu, but Alexis never misses any classes. She's very serious about her studies."
"Have any of you seen Michelle or Alexis in the last two days?" Booth asked, his eyes scanning the crowd. No one spoke up. "When was the last time any of you saw either one of the girls?"
"I saw them both on Wednesday, in English Lit, and then again in the cafeteria at lunchtime," the petite girl offered again.
"I saw them both at a party, off-campus on Wednesday night," another girl said. She was slender and fairly tall, with dark hair and slightly uneven dark eyes. She'd still have been pretty, if not for an unfortunately large and slightly off-centered nose.
"Where was this party?" Booth asked. "Do you have an address?"
"No," the girl shook her head. "I don't remember, but it was on Davis Lane, a few blocks over. The house was white, with dark blue shutters."
"I've got one of the party flyers in my room, still," another young man said. He was big, broad-shouldered, probably a football player. His hair was cut short and he had classic features. Good bone structure, Brennan thought. "I'll get it," the boy said, turning and trotting down the hall. He returned with the flyer a few moments later.
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Booth questioned the kids, asking about the girls and their habits, the party on Davis Lane, and anything else he could think of. Brennan moved over next to Dr. Saroyan. She knew she had no gift for comforting others, but she thought she should try. Cam seemed satisfied, for the moment, merely to hold her hand, though Brennan wished that she'd not hold it quite so tight.
Before long, they'd gathered a number of other folks around them. There was a Campus Security Officer named Rayford, and the Assistant Dean of Academics, Marian Waterling, two DC Metro guys, Detectives Cheney and Monteleone, and of course the Squint Squad, Hodgins, Zack and Angela, though it was clear from the moment of their arrival, Angela was there for no other reason than to comfort Cam.
Of course, they gathered a whole bunch more students, until Booth was forced to have Campus Security move them all back. Eventually, a Deputy Prosecutor from Caroline Julian's office showed up with the warrant. Rayford waited for a nod from Waterling, who gave the warrant a quick once over, before using a master key to open the door.
"Everybody stay back please," Booth said. He and Detective Cheney moved in to take a look. It was a typical college dorm, a bunk bed, with a desk built in at the foot of the lower bed, another desk on the opposite wall, with a shelf above for a TV. Booth hadn't seen too many rooms like this with 38 inch plasma screens mounted on the wall. The girls had been using the actual TV shelf for books. The plasma screamed Castle.
Each desk had a laptop computer, one open, one closed. The closed laptop sat on Michelle's desk, evident from the picture of Michelle with Cam standing behind her, arms wrapped around her, in a small wooden frame. Booth had taken that picture during a Saturday afternoon picnic the year before. He turned to the other desk and something caught his eye. There was a small, pink post-it note sticking to the border around the screen of Alexis' laptop, with a bit of writing in what certainly appeared to be a feminine hand. It read:
Alexis,
don't forget to take your soda
out of the freezer when you get
home from the party so it doesn't
freeze,
Alexis
Booth moved to the small fridge/freezer tucked under Alexis' desk. He opened it and found just what he feared, two cans of soda, both frozen solid, the cans ruptured. The girls had never made it home from the party on Wednesday. His gut clenched. He looked up, meeting Cam's eyes, and she clearly read it in his face. She fell to her knees, tears flooding from her eyes, the dam she'd been holding against her despair breaking wide open. Bones and Angela knelt on either side of her, Angela offering her encouragement while Bones merely patted her back, her eyes locked with his own.
"See if you can find anything useful," he said, when Hodgins & Zack entered the room. He turned to the AUSA who'd brought the warrant. "I need more warrants, one for the cell phone of Alexis Castle, and one for Michelle Welton's phone. As soon as you get them, call Agent Perotta at FBI. Have her start tracking the GPS chips in the phones." He didn't wait for a response, going straight to Cam. He knelt in front of her, taking her hands in his own. She looked up at him, and it nearly broke his heart, seeing the strong woman he knew almost completely shattered. "I'll find her," he said, nothing more. Her only response was a single nod. He rose, and turned to Detective Cheney. "I want this one. No jurisdictional nonsense on this, okay?"
Cheney simply nodded. "It's yours," he said. The surprise on his underling, Monteleone's face was clear. Booth had expected more of a fight. Cheney didn't seem the kind to give up a case so easily. Obviosuly, he read the surprise on Booth's face just as easily as Booth had read Monteleone. He said, "I know a guy at NCIS. Gibbs. He speaks very highly of you Special Agent Booth."
"Thanks," Booth said. He'd never really been sure whether Gibbs liked him or not.
Monteleone pulled a sterling silver card case from the inside pocket of his suit coat, removed a card and handed it to Booth. "You need anything on this one, all you have to do is call. My team will provide any support you need."
Something about the man spoke of competence & leadership. "Can you have your people ask around campus, find out who was at this party on Davis Street Wednesday night?"
"Then interview anyone we can identify, see if any of them saw anything, maybe get a better grasp on the timeline," Cheney said. "We'll get on it. Monteleone, get Rapp & Miller down here now."
"On it, Boss," the younger man said, flipping open his phone and stepping away.
"Thanks, Detective," Booth said, before turning back to Bones as Cheney nodded and moved away. "I have to make a another call," he told his partner.
"To Richard Castle," she said.
"Yeah." He'd grown to like Castle, after the case in New York eighteen months before, and he'd been to the man's apartment in New York twice, to play poker with the folks from the 12th Precinct. He searched the Contacts List on his phone until he found the number he was looking for. "Beckett," he said, "it's Seely Booth…"
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NOTES: Rabid NCIS fans, like me, will most likely recognize Cheney & Monteleone as two of the DC Detectives from the S2 episode, Doppleganger, who so closely mirrored Gibbs & DiNozzo. The other two, whom Cheney instructs Monteleone to call, Miller & Rapp, were near clones of Caitlyn Todd & Tim McGee.
As always, I will try to stay as true to the characters as I can. Of course, there may be some discrepancies, & even more so since this is the 4th story in a universe that has been at least somewhat AU from the very first story. I always appreciate feedback, both the good & the bad. How else will I identify what I did right & what I did wrong?