Disclaimer: Characters belong to AHM and ABC Studios. Story belongs to everybody else.

Tuesday, December 2nd - evening

Beckett followed the beam of her flashlight through the dank, dark passageway. She had hoped that, by now, she would have recognized something in this subterranean labyrinth under the streets of Manhattan, but none of the grimy walls or side passages had looked familiar. She approached yet another intersection of tunnels up ahead.

Her partner for the evening, following a few steps behind her, continued his whining. "Do you think there are any rats down here?"

"Of course there are rats down here. Where else would they be? What's wrong, Vikram, afraid of a few little rats?"

"A few little rats? No. A whole lot of very large rats? Definitely. How long have we been down here?"

"About five minutes more than the last time you asked." She glanced at her watch, a top of the line sports watch that Castle had given her after she'd run the half marathon. "Twenty-three minutes exactly. Don't you wear a watch?"

"No! Why should I? My phone would tell me the time, if you hadn't made me turn it off and pull the battery. Why can't you just tell me where we're going?"

Beckett illuminated the right hand corridor, then the left. Ah, finally! "No need. We're here." She strode confidently to the left, around a bend in the tunnel, up to a solid looking wall at the end of a cul-de-sac. She reversed the flashlight in her hand and pounded on the dead end three times.

A few seconds later, they heard an answering three knocks. Shortly, an opening in the wall appeared, exposing a warm and comfortable looking room. Richard Castle stood in the doorway, beaming. "Good evening. I was starting to get worried. You're late!"

Beckett stepped forward into the waiting arms of her husband. "Sorry. I needed to make absolutely sure we weren't followed."

From the dark tunnel they heard, "Kate, what the hell is going on here?"

Beckett released Castle, stepping away to allow Vikram to enter. "Oh, come on in, Vikram, and say hello to everybody."

Vikram stepped through the opening nervously. He now thought he knew what was going on, and the idea of sharing their secrets scared the hell out of him. The first thing he noticed was that the door was actually a bookshelf on hinges. He then looked around the room, stunned into silence. Everybody was here. Castle and Beckett were stepping across to a small bar in the corner of the room. Detectives Esposito and Ryan were sharing a large couch with the medical examiner, Doctor Parish. Castle's daughter, Alexis, was sitting at the small bar on a stool next to Castle's sometime assistant, Hayley.

Vikram shook his head, finding his voice at last. "Captain Beckett, I strongly urge you to reconsider this …" he gestured around the room vaguely " … course of action. We will be needlessly endangering your friends here, if we haven't already put a target on their backs."

Beckett grabbed a bottle of water from a small fridge, then turned back towards her associate. "You know, ex-agent Singh, those were exactly my thoughts last week, before I was forcibly reminded of prior cases, and how keeping secrets from family and partners is a really, really, bad idea."

"Yeah, well, the only thing I'm reminded of is how, the last time I shared any of this information, half a dozen people died within a day, including all of your old AG team. And, how you were shot and two crews of psychotic mercenaries tried to kill me. Pardon me for being a little concerned." His expression was a horrible mixture of worry and fright.

Esposito sat forward, pointing the top of his long neck beer towards the young man. "Dude, we've had Beckett's back since before you were chasing cheerleaders in high school. I'll be damned if I get cut out of an investigation that could be so hazardous to our boss."

"That's just it, Esposito! There CAN'T be any investigation. As soon as one word leaks out, we are all dead!"

"Vikram, it's okay." Beckett's voice was softly soothing. "We know the dangers, and we think we can come up with a plan. If, at the end of tonight, you want out, that'll be your choice. Just pull up a chair and hear us out. You want a beer?"

Vikram sighed, realizing the futility of arguing further. He nodded, and resignedly muttered. "Sure."

Castle asked "An IPA okay?" He opened a beer and handed to him. Rick then walked behind his desk and sat in his chair. "In order to reassure you of how seriously we're taking this, Vikram, let me tell you how we all arrived here. Ryan and Esposito called me and suggested drinks here, having just closed a case. They had no idea Beckett and I were looking for an opportunity to meet secretly with all of you. Lanie asked Beckett out for drinks after work, but Kate begged off, and suggested Lanie try to catch up with Ryan and Esposito here. Alexis and Hayley were out shopping, and I casually suggested they stop by here, before draining my credit card dry. You had no idea where you were going tonight. Kate and I have been waiting for an opportunity like this, where we could all meet without raising any suspicions."

"Where's here?"

Beckett answered, perched on the side of the big desk. "We are in the basement office of Castle's bar, 'The Old Haunt'. Everybody's phone is still upstairs, right?" At everybody's nod, she continued "Vikram is absolutely correct. If you think we're being paranoid, let me assure you: no precautions are too great. As a matter of fact, after reviewing it with Rick, it may be even worse than Vikram and I initially feared."

"I don't see how" Singh muttered morosely.

Castle took over. "Because we think you are up against more than 'LokSat'."

Singh winced at the word, as Lanie asked, "Okay, what's a 'LokSat'?"

"Let's review what we know, or think we know. Most of you know bits and pieces of this already." Beckett scooted back, now sitting completely on Castle's big desk. "Back in September, what was to be my first day as Captain at the 12th, I got a call out of the blue from then Agent Singh. He warned me with the highest alert level possible for Attorney General's agents, signaling imminent danger requiring extreme measures. I met with him, promptly had a shootout with a shadowy group of mercenaries at the abandoned theater, and another one in what should have been a secure location down in the warehouse district. Castle?"

The writer reached on his desk and switched on a smartboard. Singh groaned and covered his eyes with his hands, as Beckett pointed. "This is what started all of the problems. Based on a computer search I requested over two years ago, this memo was discovered, and sent to Vikram's Analyst desk. Since I was back here with the NYPD, he correctly forwarded it to my old partner Rachel McCord. Twenty-four hours later, her entire team had been wiped out."

"Over that? It's all redacted."

"Yes, Ryan, over that. There are two items of note. This word here, LokSat. At first, I thought it was a person's name, but now I'm not so sure. There's also this notation over here. CB6384. It turns out, these are the tail letters of a private twin engine airplane."

"That guy you two shot in the hangar over at Teterboro? I thought that was a little weird, Captain."

"Yea, Espo, it was. Especially since Castle showed up out of the blue." She rolled her eyes. "Here's some other information that none of you know anything about." She took a deep breath. "Bracken had a partner." She had to raise her voice to combat some exclamations of surprise, especially from Lanie. "We think he's a fairly high ranking member of the CIA, and has continued some of Bracken's activities, including the import and distribution of very pure Afghani heroin and wide scale murder using ex-mercenaries. We've also discovered how they're getting the drugs into the country."

"So, this is STILL your Mom's case?"

"Alexis!"

"No, Rick, it's alright." Beckett turned to look at an angry Little Castle, then over at her friend Lanie, who was not-so-quietly fuming on the couch. "It IS my Mom's murder case, but it's also Rachel McCord's murder, along with all my other partners from my DC days. More than that, it's a fight for survival for Vikram and me. As Vikram pointed out so eloquently before, everybody who is known to have seen this memo, or who might possibly be pursuing any investigation along these lines, is immediately and ruthlessly eliminated."

Singh jumped up from his chair. "So, WHY are we HERE?" He started gesturing wildly. "This is insane, Kate! I know! I shared this information with other people. They were good people, and I killed them all."

"Vikram, you can't blame yourself. It wasn't your fault."

"Well, it certainly wasn't their fault!" He pointed to the image of the memo. "That's like an electronic super virus, killing everybody who comes in contact with it." He looked around. "You guys have to shut down that computer RIGHT NOW!" Singh was in a total panic. "Oh, my GOD, we're all dead! If you people know what's good for you, you'll forget you saw that, and run out of here as fast as you can."

"Nobody's running anywhere, Computer Boy." Lanie glared at her long time friend. "So, that's why all the secrecy, and long hours, and your solo act; your separation from Writer Boy. Your Momma's case, again!"

"It's more than that, Lanie. Sure, some of it was my Mom's case, but alot of it was my federal training. The AG office has very strict security protocols, which they drill into you daily. You quickly learn not to share any information with anybody."

"Which is another reason we shouldn't be here." Singh looked around, and snarled "Oh, by the way, you're all under arrest for being in violation of Section 793 of the Espionage Act. I'm outa here!"

"VIKRAM!" Castle's bellow finally stopped Singh's rant. "Chill, dude. No one's arresting anybody. You're right, though. If anybody else wants to leave, now's the time." As Vikram took a step, Castle warned "Not you, Vikram. Sit down and listen, man, because we need you to answer some questions." Castle hit a key, changing the smartboard. A new image, looking like one of Beckett's murder boards, appeared; a detailed timeline prominent. "If you all look at the timeline, you'll notice some inexplicable things. For instance, how did whoever's orchestrating these events know Agent Singh sent the memo to Agent McCord? Answer: They must have hacked a secure email. So, how did they know all the people on McCord's team? That's not public knowledge, and very narrowly disseminated even within the Department of the Attorney General. That type of personnel data requires a seriously high security clearance. How did they know one of McCord's agent's was on vacation, and what club he'd be frequenting here in New York? How did they find Beckett and Singh so quickly at the theater? And, the piece de la resistance, how did they find them at their hideout in the apartment over the warehouse later that night? Beckett just randomly remembered it, and had no direct association with the arrest that made the place available. She didn't even know they were going there, until the last second."

Hayley spoke for the first time in a long time, sounding a little freaked out. "The buggerers must have tracked their cell phones."

Beckett shook her head at the pretty Brit. "We both had scrambled phones at the theater, and had dumped those phones before going to the druggies' apartment. It wasn't the phones."

"You must have been followed."

"No way, Esposito." Beckett was adamant. "There was no way in hell anyone could have followed our trail."

Alexis guessed "Traffic cams?"

Beckett nodded. "Must have been."

Ryan shook his head. "How soon were they there after you arrived, boss? Ten minutes? Twelve, tops? Nobody can track someone on cams, and get a hit team in place that quickly. It isn't possible."

Castle nodded. "You're absolutely correct, Kevin. NoBODY could have responded that quickly."

They all sat quietly, thinking, before Hayley groaned. "Are you saying that there's some bloody all-seeing, all-knowing computer system, with access to NYPD and federal records, cell phone carriers, secure and encrypted internal email systems, and street camera's, that you've all managed to piss off? And, you couldn't be bothered to tell us this before you invited us into this little cabal?"

Esposito snorted in disbelief. "Really, Castle. You're blaming all this crap on 'Big Brother'? Come on, man!"

"Yeah, Javi. That's exactly what we think."

Ryan shook his head. "But that's not possible, is it? First of all, CIA isn't supposed to work domestically, so they shouldn't even have access to a program like that, if one existed. That would be NSA or Homeland. Secondly, there's a ton of oversight and internal security on all the fed's systems. We've had to jump through those hoops before. I can't imagine anyone having unfettered access to a system like that without, sooner or later, getting caught."

Castle stood up and moved around the desk, taking a seat right next to Beckett. They were both staring intently at Singh, as Castle explained "Here's our theory. There IS a computer system somewhere within the federal government capable of monitoring everything, and some mystery man has co-opted it for personal gain. Someone high up in the AG's office suspected something, and reached out to another agency. NSA? FBI? DoD? Who knows? Whoever it was, they sent over their best and brightest computer guy to discover who was using what. For some reason, these decision makers thought the AG's office would be the best vantage point to find and trap this mystery man. So, the AG's office pretended to hire him as an analyst, and did a half-assed job of setting up his background. But, you see, guys, we don't think the guy running the program is LokSat, we think the computer program's name is LokSat."

In her best interrogation voice, Beckett asked "How we doing so far, Vikram? You know, you were intent to keep everybody else off this case, and I didn't question it because, at the time, that was my goal too. I should have been more skeptical of your reasons. You didn't want Castle or my team to look too closely at you, or what you were doing."

"How do we know that he's on the side of the angels?" At his glare, Hayley threw up her palms and explained "No offense. Rather safe than sorry, and all that."

Castle answered "We thought about that, but we think he's a good guy. Vikram Singh did graduate from MIT with highest honors 5 years ago. He was recruited into government service immediately. The rest of his resume is crap, until popping up at the AG office 6 months ago. "

"And so?"

Castle looked puzzled, then grinned "Hayley, I believe the American idiom is 'So what?'"

"I could have a bloody DPhil from Oxford and might still be Jack the Ripper."

"Guys, I think we can trust him, because we have to trust him." Beckett grimaced. "Usually I leave the circular arguments to Castle, but here I don't think we have much choice. Plus, those two teams of assassins were after him, and the enemy of my enemy is usually my friend." She turned back to the young man in the chair. "Who do you work for, Vikram?"

"Kate, even if everything you said was true, you know I could never tell you that."

"Okay, then tell us this: What does LokSat stand for."

A huge sigh of resignation. "LOve Knowing Shit All the Time".

Esposito barked a laugh. "Really?"

Castle asked "Where'd it come from?"

"It was a joint effort by a team from Cal Tech and a group from MIT." He looked around, and continued in a soft voice. "I guess it doesn't matter now, 'cause we're all dead anyway. A group from Cal invented a new machine code, containing over thirty-two thousand different characters, instead of the six dozen one finds on a standard computer keyboard. It's original purpose was to improve translations between Mandarin, Cantonese, Japanese, and other pictogram languages. However, when applied to a search engine, the speeds of the searches increased exponentially. Facial recognition software, searching audio and video files … everything became unbelievably fast and accurate. The only problem with it was that it was ridiculously expensive to implement."

Vikram's expression reflected his reluctance to share his information. "At the same time, I was on an MIT team that reinvented the search engine. We were trying to create a more robust search capacity that would be smart enough to look for synonyms and similar information not listed in the search. Instead of relying on key words, the engine would search ancillary documents and data bases, and kick off secondary searches based on the information found, that would run concurrently with the main search. It was the first engine with the capability to search multiple mediums in a single pass.

Our search engine had a real time capacity, and a radically new search methodology that accessed everything faster and more efficiently. Data bases, web sites, video files, audio files, images – it didn't matter. For instance, if I typed in a name, I'd get back all web articles, personal history, TV and radio mentions, recent telephone conversations, the person's latest street cam images, everything! However, it was still way too slow for commercial applications."

Alexis, who'd been following this explanation as closely as anybody, prodded the computer wizard. "Who decided to combine the two systems?"

"One of the senior engineers on our team was from Cal Tech, knew of the other study. We took our beta search engine out there, and spent a month converting it to their language. The results were … incredible."

"When did the government get involved?"

"They were there from the start. The NSA practically has a satellite office in the computer labs at both schools. Once our results were tested and verified, they swept in and put a security blanket over the whole thing." He chuckled, but with no humor in it. "The project leaders were thrilled, thinking they had hit the mother lode, that the US government was going to make them all rich. The government agents set us all up in Rockville, Maryland to perfect the system. When married with a super-computer, its potential was … terrifying."

"So, why didn't all the project leaders get rich?"

"Because they're all dead." He glanced around at the shocked expressions on everybody's faces. "Every one of the people that worked on that project, in Pasadena or in Rockville, was killed over two years ago. All within a week, along with every NSA agent we'd been working with."

Castle stared at him. "And yet, here you are."

"Vikram Singh wasn't the name I was born with, Mister Castle. The real Vikram Singh was killed by mistake, instead of me."

"Touche". Castle thought about it for a few seconds. "So, LokSat thinks you're dead. Okay, how do we beat it?"

"We don't. We need to find the person or persons directing it, and stop them."

Hayley shook her head. "No system is invulnerable. There has to be a way to take it down."

"Can't you use whatever it was that turned my top of the line office computer system into ugly statuary?"

Vikram's grin was swift in passing. "Sorry about that. And, the answer's 'No'. If we had a crystal ball and knew what LokSat was currently searching for at any given time, and we were set up at a site it was about to access and intercept the search program, we could nuke the system by following the connection's path back to its origin. The engine's bandwidth is unimaginably wide. However, there's no way to know what search they're conducting." He sighed. "It doesn't matter. We'll have the bad guys storming in here in the next five minutes to kill us all."

Castle picked up the small laptop, and reassured him. "Vikram, this computer isn't hooked up to the internet now. LokSat can't find us."

"OK, congratulations, you've delayed the inevitable. The next time you're near a Wi-Fi with that laptop, and LokSat is passing by, you're dead. It'll see your information on the memo, then run parameter searches, and find out where you've been and who you've been with, and so on and so on."

Beckett glared at him. "Vikram, stop thinking defensively! If we're going to survive this, we'll need to take the fight to them. Can you shut down this LokSat system or not?"

"Yeah, if I knew ahead of time which system, among the millions of systems out there, LokSat was going to access on any given day. It would have to be a very large system, that would take the Search engine at least a few seconds to scan. I'd have to convert the search and destroy missile program to the new machine language, which would take me a month, and it would only be temporary fix regardless. They could probably restore LokSat from back-ups and having it operational within a week." He shrugged his shoulders. "What would be the point?"

Beckett jumped up and started pacing. "Yeah, but whoever this CIA mystery man is, he'd be blind for a week."

"Beckett, what are you thinking?"

"What if we could take his eyes and ears away for a week, then hit him with a lot of problems he needed to deal with immediately? He'd have to come out from whatever rock he's hiding under, to deal with the problems."

Esposito nodded "And we'd be waiting."

His partner added "And ready."

Lanie asked 'What problems?"

"They are sneaking pure heroin into the country, a ton at a time, by using the trash containers of cruise liners. They pay off garbage truck drivers to detour to secure locations and unload the drugs, before they continue on to their landfill. If we can disrupt several shipments within his blind week, roll up the smuggling and the distribution network, he'd have to address the problems personally."

Castle looked puzzled. "Several shipments?"

Singh nodded. "Yeah, Ka-, er, Captain Beckett asked me to see if there were any more timing discrepancies with the different cruise lines' garbage trucks. I found tardy garbage trucks in Miami, LA, Houston, and Cape Canaveral, all servicing the same cruise line."

Castle thought about the timing. "Most cruise liners make their home port Christmas week, many after longer than normal voyages. That's when you want to hit them. That'll be the most likely time to catch the smugglers in the act." He started pacing, thinking aloud. "Vikram, what if I could give you the name and physical location of a website, one with millions of files on hundreds of servers, which we can guarantee LokSat will look at daily, maybe hourly? Could you set up your program to nuke it?"

"Yeah. I'd need to physically locate my laptop on a 'cutout' of the access line, whether it's a T-1 or something faster. That way, I wouldn't have to mess with whatever security the servers have, and LokSat should ignore me as it 'goes by' on the access line. Where is this huge server farm?"

"Pasadena, California." Castle continued his pacing. "It's owned by an acquaintance of mine, who owes me several favors."

"Okay, Castle, but how do we get the LokSat program to search this website?" Beckett shook her head. "I certainly don't want to be responsible for a bunch of homicidal mercs showing up on your friend's doorstep for a midnight interrogation, which seems to be their MO."

"My dear detective, have a little faith! What if I could guarantee that this super search program would access my friends' system, doing a broad sweep of the entire server farm, on a daily basis. That it would have to search hundreds of new files daily, in several different languages, in multiple locations and several different media types, and that no specific person or group could be identified to be targeted. Instead, thousands of individuals, with no connections to us or the AG or the CIA, would unwittingly volunteer to help us out. Actually, if we did this right, maybe we could give the damn thing a nervous breakdown." Castle smiled back at his nodding and grinning daughter. "Alexis?"

"Dad, are you talking about fanfiction?"

Castle beamed proudly to his assembled friends and colleagues. "I'm talking about fanfiction!"

"What the hell is fanfiction?"

Ryan turned to his partner and explained "It's a website where fans of a book or movie write their own stories about their favorite characters." His brow crinkled in puzzlement. "So, why would the LokSat program be interested in searching through these stories, Castle?"

The author reached across his desk and changed the displayed screen from the timeline back to the redacted memo. "It's obvious that there are certain keywords that the program is always looking for. It's own name, 'LokSat', is one, the tail number of the plane is another, and the name 'Bracken' is probably a third. If we can get a lot of people to write stories with these key words included, LokSat will have to check them all out."

Everyone looked at him like he'd lost his mind, with the exception of his daughter. Lanie finally spoke up. "So, Writer Boy, how do we get all these people to write these stories for us?"

"That's the easiest thing of all! Everybody here writes a story with those words, and then announce that they're entered into a contest for best story using those keywords. If we make the top prize five or ten thousand dollars, the word will spread like wildfire, and every wannabe novelist and screen writer will be submitting stories. I'll clear it with the founder and owner, Xing Li, through some writer support organization we'll create."

Beckett snorted. "Castle, there's no need to offer that much money. Trust me, fanfic authors would go on crazy writing sprees for a small percentage of that prize money ..." Now everybody was looking at her as if she were crazy, so she blushed while finishing softly " … or so I imagine."

Ryan sat up. "So, we all write Nikki Heat stories, somehow use these words in there, announce this big contest, and hope enough people enter the contest to keep the interest of LokSat?"

Alexis spoke up. "Kevin, as much as my Dad will deny it, Nikki Heat and Derrick Storm combined wouldn't even crack the top twenty in fanfic categories. We'd need to write in several different, and more popular, topics." She ignored her dad's noises of dismay and denial. "Harry Potter, Twilight, Lord of the Rings, Percy Jackson, and Hunger Games are all big. TV shows like Glee, Doctor Who, X Games, and Buffy are also huge. Plus, there's a weird subculture involving animated series and games, like Pokemon, Naruto, and Yu-Gi-Oh!"

Castle added "We'd also need to expand into other languages. Kate could do one in Russian, Alexis in French, and Javi in Spanish." He ignored Esposito's glare and continued. "Each one of our stories would have an invitation to enter a contest, based on originality and quality, that uses our key words. Every entry would be required to be submitted by whatever date we set to take LokSat down."

Alexis continued "I know this sounds weird guys, but trust me, this WILL work. Dad and I have been dealing with fanfic crazies since I was in kindergarten. Once word of these contests get out, they'll be all over emails, tumbler, instagram, snapchat, you name it, not to mention the other websites besides fanfiction."

"Okay, Castle, if you're sure all these other people will dump hundreds …"

"Not hundreds, Agent Singh, but thousands. Maybe tens of thousands."

Vikram shrugged at the correction., "Okay, thousands of mentions of our keywords, I still see three major areas of vulnerability. Mortal vulnerabilities. The first one is how would we tap into the server farm access without anyone being aware of it?"

Hayley spoke up. "How hard could it be? If it's that big, they're bound to have dedicated fiber optics entering the facility. There's all sorts of equipment we can get to piggyback on their lines that would be totally invisible. Rick, can you get me the plans of the facility?"

"Probably."

"Okay. Point two. How do you communicate with this Li guy, and run a contest through his website without it being tracked back to us?"

Castle thought for a second. "I have a charitable trust I own but have never used, registered in the Cayman Islands, that was set up by an attorney friend who has long since retired and moved away. Actually, he died a couple of years ago. Anyway, it was an exercise I did for an early Storm book. If I can have all the prize money set up through there, using an LA Attorney I'll never meet or speak to, we should be totally safe."

"Okay. Last problem. How do you guys write and upload stories with these keywords without it being tracked back to you?"

Alexis replied "I think I have a way. Vikram, if we use satellite PC's, with no Wi-Fi or internet connections, and no personal data on them, would this 'Big Brother' program be able to find us?" At Vikram's negative shake of his head, she continued. "We could write the stories using synonyms for the keywords, like 'ABC' for LokSat and 'XYZ' for Bracken, and upload our stories to new g-mail accounts we'll set up. Then, using phony logon's, we would copy and paste our stories on to the website, replace the synonyms with the real names, post the new story from an internet café or public library, then log off immediately. I can set up the g-mail and fanfiction accounts from the campus library. It shouldn't be any problem, right?"

Vikram thought about it. "Guys, you wouldn't believe how powerful this system is. To be totally safe, you'd have to delete all traces of the story from your PC, so that any later comparison would come up empty. Also, LokSat can determine your GPS coordinates if it catches you in time, so you'd better be disguised or somewhere there aren't any traffic cams."

"Oh my God, the damn thing tracks GPS? Can it track my watch?" Beckett stared at the new sports watch on her wrist, appalled.

"If it wanted to find you and knew you had that specific watch, absolutely." As Beckett removed the offending object, Vikram continued, "Now you guys know what I've been so afraid of, what we're up against. The software can easily follow any one of us through our cell phones, watches, cars, or just trace us from one traffic cam to the next. One slip up by anybody, and we are all history."

Lanie asked, "What kind of disguises works against traffic cams?"

"Low hats that hide the forehead, collars or scarves that cover the neck or lower chin, and big, dark sunglasses." Hayley looked at the ME, briefly showing her a huge grin. "Also, a huge smile buggers the facial recognition programs. That's why they never want you to smile for passport photos. Whatever you do, don't look up, and don't do anything that can be traced, like hail a numbered taxi or use a credit card."

Lanie nodded, looking resolute. "Okay. So, are we doing this, or what?"

"It all depends on whether or not Hayley can set up a trap in front of the fanfiction site, and Vikram can alter his stupid software program in time." Castle was still mad about his office computing system. "Vikram, if I get you some help, do you think you could have your program ready to shoot down LokSat in three weeks?"

"What kind of help?"

"I met a kid recently, IQ off the charts, great at IT, needs a job, and can keep his mouth shut. If it's okay with Slaughter, I think you'd find him to be a huge help. He's great at thinking out of the box."

"That kid, um, Louis?" Ryan nodded his approval. "Good choice, Castle!"

Castle turned to his wife. "So, Kate, it's your case. Do we have the green light?"

"It's not my case, Castle, it's our case. Yeah, unless someone has any more objections, I think this is our best shot."

"Great! I don't think we can afford to all meet together again. It's too dangerous. If you have any questions, now's the time." He looked around at his co-conspirators. "Alexis and I will get everybody a satellite laptop. We'll set them up so there's no internet capability except through email. We'll set up some dummy accounts on fanfiction and untraceable g-mail accounts for everybody, and imbed them on your computers. Once the prize money is set up, you can all start posting your stories." He looked at his assistant still sitting on a barstool. "I'll set Hayley up with the server farm plans and fly her out there so she can set the trap, and get Louis together with Vikram so they can set up the shooting software."

His wife spoke up. "I'll identify local DEA or Narcotics cops we can use in the port cities we think they'll use. I don't want to reach out to them before we take down LokSat, but we'll need to be ready to go at a moment's notice. How long do you think we'll have, Vikram?"

"A minimum of three days for them to restore the operating system and load the backup program files. It's an unbelievably complex job. Including testing, it'll be four or five days at the outside. Probably longer over the holidays."

"When do you think these ships will dock, Castle?"

"I'll double check, but normal cruise liners will make their home ports on the 23rd or 24th of December."

"Okay, so let's aim on shooting Vikram's nuke program late on the 21st or 22nd. That way, our mystery man will be blind through Christmas. Ryan, Esposito, and I will use our CI driver, Sam Mackey, to roll up the local network." She looked intently at everybody. "Listen guys, I can't tell you how much I … " she glanced at her husband and corrected " … we appreciate your help. Especially after the way I screwed up again. I need to stress everyone's extreme caution. Even if you're just uploading a story, be extra careful. No mention of our keywords, no unnecessary risks!"

Alexis snorted her dismay at Kate's last comment, then blushed scarlet. "Oh, I'm sorry, Kate."

"No, that's okay, Alexis. You're right. I'm the person in this room most guilty of taking bad risks."

Castle turned off the computer, and stepped over to his wife. "But never again, right?" He swept her into a massive hug as she muttered an agreement and another apology. He broke the hug and said sadly "You and Vikram need to go." He looked around, and grinned at his family and friends as he opened up the hidden door. "Everyone else, drinks are on me upstairs."

After one last hug from a misty-eyed Kate, he forced a laugh. "Hey, here's something I thought I'd never say. We are going to save the world through fanfiction!"

A/N – As the intrepid author inches on to the winter ice, he's straining to hear the dreaded sound. Crack!