Kate sat at her desk staring, unseeing, through the window into the squad room. She sipped her coffee. It was, she decided, really terrible coffee; she missed Castle's coffee; she missed him sitting next to her desk either in companionable silence or expounding one of his outlandish hypotheses about a case; she missed the way he pushed her buttons, got her riled, and made her laugh all at the same time. Mostly she missed going home with him after the day was over, talking over dinner, sleeping, or more often, not sleeping, together.
She felt herself weakening. Her hand was hovering over the phone, ready to call Gina, ready to agree to Castle's requests, when VIkram walked in.
"I found something." He said.
She pulled her hand away from the phone. "I'm listening." She said.
He had chanced on a call from a burner phone. There was to be a drop made the next day at a warehouse by the docks. Loksat's second was to be there.
Kate pursed her lips. "This seems a little too pat, too easy. But still, we might pick up something. If we go in with the understanding that it might be a trap, we could accomplish something. The problem is that, if it's a trap, and we go in with just the two of us, the probabilities are that we don't make it out."
Vikram nodded. "You're right. Maybe we need to bring some people into this."
"Who did you have in mind?"
"We both still have contacts with the AG. I'm sure that they're just as ready to bring Loksat down as we are, after all, their people were the ones hit. And doesn't your husband know some people in the CIA? And didn't that woman, Hayley, have some sort of MI6 connection? Then, of course, there's the 12th Precinct."
"Do we want to bring that much firepower into something this tenuous? Besides, you know I want to keep Castle and his family out of it." Kate tented her fingers and looked thoughtful. "We don't have enough real information. There's a bit of time yet, see if you can find out anything more."
Vikram left just as Esposito walked in. Esposito gave him a long look, then walked to Kate's desk. "Yeah. Captain, there's something you should see." He let her go in front of him, lingered a bit at the bookcase by the door, and when he was sure she wouldn't notice, pulled something off the case and replaced it with another, similar, something. He slipped the item into his inside jacket pocket and caught up with her.
Tory and Ryan were waiting at Tory's computer station. On the screen there was a picture of a suspect in a recent case, along with her description and a nearly non-existent rap sheet.
Ryan started, "Captain, this is Elaine Stark. She was an employee at PetSource. Around the time of the store manager's murder, she was seen exiting by the service door and hasn't been seen since. Other employees have said that she was not on good terms with the manager and that her job was in jeopardy even though she was a good employee. It's reported that there was an argument and threats were made on both sides."
Esposito continued, "She doesn't really have much of a record, mostly parking violations, and one noisy set-to with a neighbor over the neighbor's supposed abuse of an animal. Charges of disturbing the peace and menacing were dropped."
"This is it? This is what I needed to see?" Kate was mildly annoyed. "You know what to do, go do it."
She walked back to her office. When they were sure she was settled in, they closed the door to Tory's office and Esposito produced what was a small recording device. "Do we listen here, or take it to Castle?"
"Take it to Castle. As long as she's in the office, listening here is too risky. In any case, we have a reason to go. We leave this with Castle, and head on over to the Stark woman's place." Ryan was already out the door. Esposito followed quickly with a hurried, "thanks, Tory" over his shoulder. Tory went back to her computer.
They found Castle, and the others, at the agency office. Castle was apathetically poking keys in a desultory attempt to advance his story. The others were, variously, doing administrative work, checking weapons, being annoying (Slaughter), or being annoyed (Anders).
Anders, in spite of Slaughter's prodding, had made significant progress decrypting the files and was putting together a synopsis of his findings. Slaughter, in spite of his inability to raise Anders's ire, had, with Hayley, assessed and allotted weapons (including the Black Widow, the .380, and the shotgun) based on ability and need. Hayley was cleaning her sniper rifle and preparing it for whatever was needful. Slaughter was doing the same with his only slightly contraband assault weapon (he had liberated it from a S.W.A.T. vehicle when no one was looking, they were still trying to find the "gang member" who had it, while simultaneously keeping the loss from internal affairs – Slaughter figured he'd slip it back into their inventory after the thing with Beckett was over and then sit back and enjoy the kerfluffle).
The recording of the meeting between Beckett and Vikram sent Anders back to his computer, this time to see if he could hack Vikram. Castle abandoned his writing and, with the others, started plotting. A tentative plan was put together, to be implemented if Kate followed up on Vikram's intelligence.
Following Vikram's trail proved to be easier than anticipated. While he was accessing the man's files, Anders found, not only evidence that the information from the burner phone was legitimate, – yes a "drop" was going to happen the next day and, yes, the information had been a plant to lure Beckett into a trap – but something both disturbing and reassuring about Vikram. He incorporated everything into his synopsis of findings and handed it off to Hayley who, in turn, gave it to Castle.
Castle skimmed the papers and immediately called everyone to the conference room.
"Vikram Singh is a plant, but not from Loksat." He started the meeting. "He's NSA and he's been monitoring the AG's office and now Kate. That means he's not necessarily for us, but he's not for Loksat either." He looked, one at a time at the people facing him. "Anders says it was too easy to hack his computer, so I can only assume that he wanted us, or someone, to get the information. That being said, I think Kate is going to be at this drop tomorrow. I want to be there. Except for Alexis and my mother, I would like all of us to be there. According to Anders' interpretation of the information, the drop is a trap, aimed at Kate and Vikram. Knowing my wife, she and Vikram are going to go in without backup. I'm going to call Ryan and ask him to get updated information, if possible, and to corner Vikram about getting his AG and NSA contacts involved. Hayley, Anders, can you get any help from MI6?" He fished the phone he'd been carrying like a talisman, out of his pocket, "I'm calling Hunter Jackson." Alexis looked at him questioningly. "Yes, Alexis, I'm calling your grandfather, he may not be able to be here, but he might know people who can. Slaughter, if you have any connections, legal or not, call them in. Things may not go bad, but I'm going to make sure Kate has backup if they do. Alexis, Mom, just because you're going to be here, in the panic room, doesn't mean you're out of action. We're going to hack into whatever surveillance is in the area and you're going to monitor from the computers. You'll be in contact with us, hopefully, at all times."
Anders smiled slightly, "you know that this may be just what Singh intended when he made it so easy to access his computer."
"That's what I was thinking."
Kate looked up from her desk as Ryan and Esposito entered with Elaine Stark. Ryan was just finishing a phone call. She looked back at some papers on her desk.
After settling Stark in an interrogation room, both men left her there, locking her in. "Espo, I just talked to Castle. He wants, as much as possible, updated information. I'm going to corner Vikram and see what I can get from him. As soon as you can, could you get the recorder from Beckett's office and get it to Tory? We may have to risk listening to it here. Oh, and we've been invited to 'dinner' at his place tonight. Including Lanie, Jenny, and the kids."
Esposito look slightly affronted at not being first contact, but let it slide (he'd revisit it later). "I'll tell Lanie." He looked in the general direction of Beckett's office, "She's still there. I'm going to 'interrogate' Stark. I'll let you know when she leaves so you can get away from Singh."
"Will do." Ryan headed for Vikram's computer room.
Vikram was surprisingly cooperative. He wasn't sure about the NSA, they didn't, he explained, like to get involved in overt actions unless it was unavoidable, preferring to let other agencies take the credit … and the risks. He thought, though, that he could get some cooperation from the AG's office. They were, after all, still continuing their investigation, just less aggressively. They did want to catch the people who'd killed their agents, just as every other police agency in the world would.
His phone rang. A fraction of a second later, Ryan's phone also rang.
"Vikram, I have to go. We need to know more, can you meet us after work tonight?"
"Of course, for a few minutes. Where?"
"Castle's loft. 6:00 pm."
"I'll be there. I won't be able to stay long, I expect Captain Beckett will need me to help set up plans."
Ryan nodded and slipped out the room and darted across the hall to the men's room.
He was just exiting the rest room, pretending to adjust his his belt, when Beckett came around the corner and, with a perfunctory nod, entered Vikram's workplace.
Ryan hurried back to the interrogation room and got there just in time to meet Esposito as he was coming back from Beckett's office.
"Got the recorder?"
Esposito nodded. "And I placed a new one, just in case."
"Ok. Aaaah, we should really finish interrogating Stark. Sooo, maybe we should get to it. You wanna do it, or should I?"
"I did a quick Q & A with her. She has an alibi; she was opening for her new job at Pets 'R' Us. I just finished checking and it was good. So, we're going to apologize for her trouble and cut her loose."
Vikram was waiting for them on the street in front of Castle's building. "Beckett wants to meet me back at the precinct at 7:00, so we don't have long." He followed them into the elevator.
Ryan half-turned to look at him, "Castle's expecting you, so you don't need to worry about any surprises."
"Ok. What is he going to want from me?"
"As much information as you can give him about tomorrow. Oh, and he knows you"re NSA, so don't try to pretend otherwise." Ryan smirked.
"He knows I'm NSA? How did he find out. My cover was supposed to be impenetrable."
Esposito outright laughed, "Our boy has his ways."