The only way I know you're reading is if you review, so when you take the time to say a few words I really do appreciate it. Now on to chapter 6…

Esposito came off the elevator with a bounce in his step. He'd spent the morning in court and his testimony had gone well, really well. The dirtbag who murdered a waitress over a lousy bar tab was going away for a long time. Endings like that made this job worthwhile. He was feeling the high of one in the win column when he entered the bullpen. Beckett and Ryan weren't at their desks and his shoulders slumped. Had they caught a body without him? Then his glance drifted to the Captain's office and he stopped walking.

Ryan looked angry. Castle looked downright pale and he couldn't even describe the look on Montgomery's face. Something was very, very wrong.

Stepping into the office and closing the door he heard Ryan's outrage. "How the hell could she be missing? They lost an undercover detective in less than two days?"

"What the hell is he talking about? Beckett?" Esposito stared questioningly at Montgomery, feeling his own anger begin to boil.

"I just came from task force headquarters." Montgomery started. "Something went wrong."

"Well there's an understatement." It was the first words he'd heard Castle speak since he walked in. They were said quietly but with an intensity he wouldn't have thought possible before this moment.

The Captain looked Castle directly in the eye. "Yes. It is. I need you all to sit down and listen. I'll tell you everything we know but this needs to stay quiet. If the media got wind of this it could put Beckett in a worse spot than she's already in."

….

….

Viktor smirked as he watched Katya struggling to stay upright, leaning against the van. Her eyes darting up and down the alley. This was going to be all too easy.

"No Nickie here to rescue you this time." He took two long strides forward reaching for her. Her leg came up towards his groin as the palm of her hand reached his nose. He caught her leg easily sending her off balance and she staggered. The hand made contact though. There wasn't enough power in the thrust to really hurt him, just enough to piss him off.

He sneered down at her, slamming the back of his hand into her cheek sending her careening to the ground. With one hand he opened the side door to the van. With the other he reached down grabbing her by the front of her shirt and hauled her inside like a ragdoll. Climbing in, he shut the door.

Again she flailed at him trying to strike a blow. This time he chuckled. "Katya sweetheart. Don't you know I like 'em feisty?" He easily grabbed her, shoving her down her head hitting the metal floor with a thud. With one big hand he grabbed her wrists and held them over her head as he dug his knees into her thighs, his full weight pinning her down. His free hand grabbed her throat and squeezed as she tried to yell out.

"You think you're better than the others? You think only Nickie can have you? You'll learn different." He breathed in her face looking into her drugged stare as she struggled for breath. Suddenly the front door of the van burst open and Andrei Zukov stepped inside.

Viktor looked up, shocked but not moving off of Katya. "Boss. What's going on?"

Zukov just shook his head as he took in the scene. "My PD informant just called. Cops are on the way."

"Tvoyu matʹ!" He rolled off of Katya and reached for the van door, ready to throw her to the ground.

Zukov stopped him. "Keep her. Informant says we got a traitor. Maybe more than one and it sounds like one of them could be a woman."

"You think its her?" Viktor gaped down at a now unconscious Katya lying under him.

"We'll find out. She's coming with us."

….

….

"What are we going to do?" Viktor asked. Anxiety clearly heard in his voice as he looked from his boss in the driver's seat to the unconscious woman sprawled out in the back of the van.

Zukov sighed as he steadily drove the van through the city streets. He looked sideways at Viktor. Everyone in his organization was now under suspicion but he'd known Vik since the old country. He'd eat his gun if Viktor had betrayed him. Of course he'd feed it to Vik first. "Go back there and see if she's got a cell phone."

Vik found it in Katya's back pocket and handed it to Zukov who took out his own phone. "Take yours out too. Pull the batteries and crush all three of them. If the cops know our phones they can trace us." With the phones in pieces they threw them in a public trashcan.

"We need to make sure we don't have a tail. Then we'll head somewhere I can work out our next move." The van pulled over. Up the block was a small electronics store that was still open. Andrei handed Vik a hundred dollar bill. "Go in and buy two prepaid phones." He'd need a safe way to make contact soon.

Later that night he finally pulled the van around the back of an older, white sided, nondescript house in Queens. The houses on either side in foreclosure kept things quiet and prying eyes to a minimum. It was just one of many places he kept off the books for times like these. His mind had been going through every member of his crew trying to narrow down the possible suspects. One was possibly a woman? Well that narrowed things down. There were no women in his inner circle but there were certainly women who were close enough to do some damage. The woman lying on the van floor had only been around a couple of days. It was unlikely but still possible. He wasn't about to let her go. Still, there were a couple of other possibilities and he'd check them out before the night was over.

….

….

Montgomery had the rapt attention of the three men in his office. "Detective Drychek called in last night giving the go ahead for the take down. Said the shipment would be coming to the club around 10pm. The task force guys saw a black Escalade pull into the alley next to the club. Within a few minutes it pulled out again. It was too fast. There hadn't been enough time for them to make the swap so they pulled over the Escalade and busted them on the street. Largest meth bust Brooklyn's made in years."

"What happened to Beckett?" Ryan interrupted unable to hold back the question.

Montgomery continued. "Once they secured the Escalade they took down the club but it was fairly empty. Zukov wasn't inside. Neither was Beckett. They found Drychek passed out on the men's room floor barely breathing. Looks like a possible drug overdose. He's on a ventilator at Coney Island Hospital."

"Drug overdose? They drugged him?" Esposito was back on his feet now, pacing.

The Captain took a deep breath before looking at him. "We're not sure. He's still unconscious so he can't be questioned. They're running more tests but the amounts they've found in his system suggest long term use. Oxycodone."

Javier was yelling now. "So they sent Beckett in at the last minute to clean up their frigin' mess and her only backup was an undercover addict?" He half spun on his heel, hands clenched in fists, turning away. If the walls weren't all made of glass he would have punched one of them.

Montgomery understood their fury but he needed to keep his team on point. "Who knew what and when is a discussion for another time Detective. The task force is interrogating everyone they picked up in the raids. The last time anyone saw Beckett was behind the bar about 9:30pm last night. Our only objective now is to find her."

Castle hadn't moved in his seat the entire conversation. His breathing was shallow and his mouth felt like sandpaper. He never took his eyes off the Captain. "How do we get her back?"

*I don't feel like this is one of the stronger chapters but it conveys a lot of information about what is happening to all of our characters. I tried to make it as exciting as I could.

Let me know what you think. Thanks.