A/N: so I saw on tumblr someone asking for fics where Beckett and Castle are undercover spies given the task of killing each other, but couldn't find any. As Mr and Mrs Smith is one of my favourite films, I figured I'd do a Castle and Beckett version! (You don't have to have seen the film to understand this, but the film is brilliant!)
Richard Castle was bored. Bored of writing books he didn't even want to write, bored of simple, easy assignments that took less than a day to complete. He was a spy, for crying out loud. A skilled assassin - and one of the best. So really, he shouldn't be bored. But he was. Gina, his publisher/assignment coordinator, had given him nothing in three weeks and it was getting a little tedious. He picked up the phone, deciding to give Gina a call.
After three rings, he heard the automated message, asking for his name and security number. "Richard Rogers, 47313." He recited in a mundane voice. It might seem ridiculously easy to get ahold of the president of an international spy organisation - anyone could get the number if they had the right leverage over him - but he knew the little machine was currently processing his voice, comparing every syllable against the one he'd pre-recorded back when he first joined.
A few moments later and he was being redirected to Gina. "Hello Richard, what do you want today?" She said.
"Oh I don't know, how about a case that takes me longer than 12 hours? Come on Gina, you know me. You were married to me for seven years! Why aren't you giving me anything?" He asked, annoyed at his lack of assignments recently.
"You know why, Richard. That book of yours comes first - the press will start publishing stories about you, saying you're stuck and then some nosy reporter will be lurking around and we can't let them know why the book isn't finished yet." If she'd told him this once, she'd told him a hundred times.
He used the fact that he was a best-selling mystery novelist, writing under the name of Richard Castle to hide who he really was. He was Richard Rogers, the spy and Richard Castle, the author. So he went by Castle to pretty much everyone, including his mother and daughter, they still had no idea he was actually a world-class assassin, known by similar organisations worldwide for the number of terrorists, murderers and other low-life's he'd eliminated.
"Oh come on, I've given them at least twenty best sellers so far, they aren't going to mind waiting a few more weeks!" He argued. It wasn't that he didn't like writing, no he loved it, but he was getting sick of this character, Derrick Storm. He needed new cases for inspiration..sitting around bored was not getting Gina more bestsellers.
"Well, I do have this one case..I was going to give it to Thomson, but I guess you could have it.." She said slowly. "It's not a big one though, it's pretty quiet over here at the moment, but I'll give you this one and if you can finish that book by the end of next week, I'll think about you for the next."
Ideally Castle wanted something special, something different, but right now, he'd take what he could get. "Ok I'll do it. Email over the itinerary and I'll get right on it." Finally, he could get out of this damn office.
On the other side of town, Detective Kate Beckett had just finished up a hard case. A little girl had been taken and Beckett had worked a similar case before - with a heart-wrenching result. Luckily, this time the child wasn't really in any danger - she'd been abducted by her aunt, who was working on her sisters orders to try and gain full custody over her husband. Still, it brought back memories of the time they weren't so lucky.. She wasn't sure how much more of this she could take. She loved her job, she was brilliant at her job, but it was a cover story for who she really was - Katherine Beckett was actually a highly trained killer. She spent her time hunting down worthless individuals who put the lives of others at risk. On more than one occasion, she'd had an assignment right here in New York City, and had had to investigate a murder she committed. It was testament to how good she was that she'd never been caught.
Getting up from her desk, she headed into the break room to make a cup of coffee. Pouring the liquid into her favourite mug, she heard someone shut the door behind her. She turned round to see it was Roy Montgomery, her Captain - both here at the precinct and as a killer in the field, he was undercover too.
"Good job on that case Detective, I know it couldn't have been easy for you." He said, pouring himself a cup of coffee.
"No, it wasn't, but we did it. Will Sorrenson was a huge help too, please pass on my thanks to him and his team." She replied.
"Oh from the way he was looking at you, I don't think it'll be long before he's back here and trying to get you back." Her captain said, a twinkle in his eye. He'd always had a soft spot for Kate, and over the last few years he'd become almost a father figure to her. She was incredible at her job - both of them. She was the best he'd ever trained - possibly ever seen and her lack of family made her so much better suited to the job than most - no one to miss her if she were to be killed. He'd miss her of course, but family had a personal attachment - the less family the better. He knew her father was still around but she hadn't spoken to him in five years - he'd turned to alcohol after her mother had been killed ten years ago and she still believed he chose the drink over his own daughter. It was sad, really, but he knew she'd never admit it or break down, she was a very private person, was Kate Beckett.
She laughed at his comment. "Well we know that isn't going to work. We both have such hectic work schedules that we'd never see each other. Anyway, you know the rules - personal attachments are never a good idea." Yes, her and Will had dated - only for about six months, after which he'd moved to Boston and she'd stayed in New York. She couldn't go with him, she wouldn't be able to hide her true profession from him - he wasn't an idiot, he'd figure it out eventually. And she had to do this. Had to hunt people. She'd joined the police academy not long after her mothers death, vowing to find whoever killed her. Seeing her passion and determination, she'd been recruited by then Detective, Roy Montgomery as a hit-woman. Taking all the tests and passing them with flying colours, she threw herself into it. Knowing how a murder could tear a family apart, she especially loved eliminating the scumbags that killed innocent people.
"Yeah, you're probably right. But remember this - no job is worth your happiness. The moment you find the one, tell me and you can be off this in an instant, go back to being a regular cop." She smiled at him, knowing he'd do pretty much anything for her, he was a brilliant man. "Anyway, got a new assignment for you. Nothing too challenging, should have it wrapped up in a day or two. File is in the top drawer of your desk, under the stationary. Commit it to memory and then usual procedures apply." And with that, he picked up his coffee and headed back to his office.
Kate walked back to her desk, and after checking no one was too close, pulled out the file and began to read.
Richard Castle had read and re-read the case file and then deleted it and wiped it from his hard drive - like it was never there. A requirement of the job was a brilliant memory - which Castle had.
Thinking over his strategy, he started to plan his mission. It was a ridiculously simple case, Cameron Johnson had been caught selling government secrets to the North Koreans and he had to be stopped. He didn't know they were onto him yet though - he thought he was meeting with his contact from North Korea, but his messages had been intercepted and American forces were going to drive him out of the city, where Castle would be waiting. Then, they'd get him out of the car and Castle would shoot from a safe distance. Simple. Well, it sounded it, but Castle knew any number of problems could arise and Johnson needed to be gone by the end of this week. What if he didn't turn up to the meeting? What if he escaped from their grasp? All things Castle had to plan for. Deciding the best way to figure out his target, he decided to follow Johnson for a few hours. The meeting was planned for 10am tomorrow morning - another 18 hours yet, so he wanted to make sure Johnson hadn't caught on to them and tried to escape. Remembering Johnson's details from the case file he'd read earlier, Castle grabbed his cell, keys and gun and headed out to the city below him.
Kate Beckett was also reading her case file. After retrieving it from her desk, she'd scanned the information as quickly as she could. It was pretty safe - to anyone else it just looked like she was reading a normal file, nothing odd about that. Once she'd committed it to memory, she took the file into the basement and put it in the box at the back. Closing the lid and pressing the button, she heard it whir to life. Less than a minute later and the file had been turned to liquid sludge. Pulling it out, she dumped it in the nearest trash can. It would be impossible for anyone to know what that used to be now. This was the best way they'd discovered of getting rid of these assignment files. It was the same machine they used to get rid of other police files that weren't to be found by anyone else so no one would think twice about her taking this one down.
The case was simple enough, she'd have it done by lunchtime tomorrow and be back in time to finish up paperwork on their latest homicide case. Looking at her watch, she saw it was 4.30pm. Well, the case was done for now, she might as well leave. Heading out of the basement, she called out a goodbye to her colleges, Esposito and Ryan and drove home to find out as much as she could about her newly acquired target.
Sitting back on the sofa, with her laptop in front of her, Beckett did a thorough background search on her target. 25 years old, lived in Syracuse with a boyfriend and worked for a local insurance firm. Parents both dead, they'd been killed whilst on a volunteer mission abroad 4 years ago. Easy enough, Beckett thought. Her target would be arriving on location around 11 tomorrow morning, by which time she would have had a chance to surround the area with infra-red cameras and plant a circle of land bombs - which when stood on would explode. There was no way she was letting her target escape.
Feeling optimistic about her case, she called her friend Lanie - the ME she worked with - and arranged to go out for dinner that evening. Then, she'd come home and be out early enough to get set up before her target arrived. She loved simple cases like this, made the difficult ones more worth it!
By 9.30 the next morning, Kate a Beckett was set up and ready to go - an hour and a half early. She always did this though, she didn't want her target arriving before she'd managed to get prepared enough. No, she'd arrived at 8am, planted the infra-red cameras that were linked up to her laptop - she'd be able to see then, where exactly her target was in relation to the cameras she'd placed along the route. And now, she was sitting on her motorbike - a '94 Harley Softail, her pride and joy - and waiting. The bombs had been placed at specified locations in the vicinity of where her target would be dropped off, meaning whichever way they turned, there was no way out. The security guys dropping the target off knew where they were and knew how to avoid them. It was a perfect set up - target dropped off, security drive away, Kate aims and fires, target eliminated. What could go wrong? An hour later, and she received a picture message - her target was on route.
At 10am, Richard Castle decided he'd better head to the location he'd been given to eliminate Johnson - didn't want the target arriving before him now, did he! Pulling up twenty minutes later, he scoured the area for anything suspicious and after finding nothing, he sat back in his car with his laptop, writing another chapter of the novel Gina was harassing him for. His gun was on the seat next to him and he had a perfect view of the point where Johnson was being dropped off - what could go wrong?
At 10:55, Kate grabbed her binoculars and did one last check of the area, she didn't need a civilian getting in the way. Searching round she thought she was safe until she spotted a car, parked almost directly opposite her. Zooming in slightly, she saw there was a man sat in the car, with a laptop in front of him. No no no, this wasn't happening. She had a someone to kill for crying out loud, she couldn't afford for a civilian to see what was going on - she'd have to kill him too! Looking at her watch, she saw it was 10:58. Glancing at her laptop, she noticed that her target was on their way up the dirt track towards her. Shit. Making a split second decision, she jumped from her bike and headed towards the centre, hiding behind the trees as she went. Thinking that the man in the car would just be there to get some piece and quiet with his laptop, she was a little shocked when she saw him put the laptop down and climb out if the car - with an M4A1 assault rifle in his other hand. Double shit. Oh god, she was so totally screwed right now! Moving her eyes slightly to the right, she saw the car bringing her target was approaching - less than 30 seconds to make a decision. Did she leave? Or did she take out the target and go? Or take out the mystery man too? Oh god. Deciding her case was the most important thing, she waited until the security vehicle had started to drive away, before moving round the tree slightly to get a better view on her target. She'd decided to carry out the mission she was given and then hightail it back to the precinct and hope she wasn't seen. With this in mind, she found her target in her line of vision and pulled the trigger - at exactly the same time as the mystery man. Oh crap.
Wait? He'd heard another shot. Why had there been another shot, he'd only fired once? Glancing around, he saw a woman, dressed in a pair of black leather shorts and a black t-shirt sprinting away from him. Uh oh. Following her with his eyes, he saw her jump on a motorbike and head back towards the city. Memorising her number plate for later, he jumped climbed back into the car and went to see Gina.
Heading up to Gina's office on the forty seventh floor, which took forever, Castle was wringing his hands with nervousness. He couldn't be sure if the mystery woman had seen him and if she had..oh god he didn't even want to think about that.
Stepping out of the lift and walking towards Gina's office at the back, he felt like a naughty kid sent to see the headmaster at school. Opening the door to her office and closing it behind him. He took a deep breath before saying, "Gina, I think we have a problem."
Looking up at him, she could tell from his face that this was serious. "What happened?" She asked.
"Well, I was about to get eyes on Johnson when um, ah well the thing is, there was someone else there. I didn't realise until I heard her shoot at the same time as me and uh.." He trailed off.
"Wait, another assassin? Oh god this is not good. Please tell me you killed her too?" Gina pleaded.
"What? No! She got away before I really knew what was happening - I have the number plate of her motorbike though." He reeled it off and Gina typed it her computer.
After seeing the result, Gina knew this was bad. "Oh no, this is not going to end well.."
Racing back to the precinct, Kate parked her bike, rushed down an alley to put some slightly less revealing trousers on and changed out of her boots and into her heels - she needed to look like a cop again. She hopped in the lift and as soon as she reached her floor, practically ran into the captains office, ignoring the "hi Beckett" she got from Ryan.
Bursting through the door and slamming it shut behind her, she knew from the look on Montgomery's face that it wasn't good news. He put down the phone and ended the conversation he was having - presumably with his boss.
"Well. It seems there was some sort of mix up and two of you were sent to kill the same target." He said. "Wouldn't have been too much of a problem - I doubt the other guy got a clear view of your face, but unluckily for us, he got your number plate. That was the chief on the phone said he's already heard from a contact at a neighbouring firm and they've run your plate. They know who you are."
"So, what do we do?" Kate asked.
"The only thing we know how to do." Her captain replied. "We hunt and then we kill. Looks like you have a new assignment."
A/N: okay..thoughts? reviews make me very happy and I'd love to know what you think of this! Oh, and a gold star if you can figure out why Castles security number is 47313 (it's not very hard) but yeah, let me know what you thought!
