From Russia With Not So Much Love

by Hadrianna

"I s-suggest…", Ryan managed to bring forth with a glance at Javi's unconscious frame, "…that you don't make your case any worse by actually killing a cop." He could see how the lips of his adversary curled into a smile, and he couldn't help but gulp. Seeing the villains smile was never a good thing, not in the movies and especially not in real life. Set after 3.12. M for torture.

1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I don't own Castle or any of its fantastic characters. That always seems to be the problem, doesn't it?

From Russia with not-so-much love

"Well, that's just odd…", Tomaz remarked as he looked at the large garden behind the house. "Are you sure that…", he began with a side glance at Samuel, but his partner cut him off with an annoyed gesture and held the cell phone up. Sure enough, the red dot was pointing to this exact spot. Only this exact spot consisted of a terrace with a small table, two chairs, a rather ugly water pitcher, and a large outdoor composting bin hidden behind an ocean of flowers. But no sign of Ms. Carrera who was the reason for their early morning trip to the Upper East Side. Weird.

"You think that thing is broken?", Sam asked after having taken the view in for a minute or two. The garden was beautiful with its symphony of red, violet and pink flowers, a secluded oasis shielded from the backyards of the other houses by thick, tall bushes, and sure wasn't something they saw too often in the middle of Manhattan. But they hadn't been called to this address to admire some petunias.

"Well…", Tomaz began and took the phone from his partner's hand, pointing it right in front of him. The technology used was still quite new and probably had its flaws, so he couldn't be too sure, but the distress signal had been real and it had come from Ms. Carrera's row house, so there was no reason to doubt the GPS' tracking abilities that had led them to the house and then to the adjacent garden. But from the terrace they could see the whole area and there sure as hell wasn't a person in sight. Unless… It did point two meters to the right, but there was nothing there except the outdoor bin and that would have been… Ah, to hell with it, Tomaz thought and handed the device back to Samuel, before walking towards the composter with decisive strides. Maybe it was a joke, maybe the thing was actually malfunctioning, but he had a job to do and intended to fulfill it conscientiously, even if that meant looking at a bin with garden waste.

"What on earth are you doing, dude?", Sam called out to him as Tomaz made his way through the grass. He stopped in front of the composter, looking back at his colleague while lifting the lid slowly. "Just making sure we looked everyw-" The last word got stuck in his throat and turned into a shocked gasp as his eyes fell on the lifeless body at the bottom of the bin.