Close Encounters 30
Beckett had initially protested to this part of the plan, but she saw the wisdom of her being in the room - psychologically speaking. But she hadn't really wanted to watch as her husband played his old role with the woman.
She had once brought up the idea, long ago, back when she thought this was the kind of thing a spy did regularly, threesomes, and he had been both offended and intensely furious at the idea of sharing her.
And now she was pushed right to the edge of that same brittle fury at the idea of sharing him. Even with a woman who had no claim and no chance for it. Salome had that catlike closed-mouthed serenity that always got to Kate, but all Kate could do was perch delicately on the edge of the dresser and wait for Castle to get the show on the road.
Castle went with English, standing over Salome who was still crouched at the foot of the bed. The looming was hot, Beckett had to admit it, but Salome ignored him.
Castle said nothing.
They were in a power struggle, silent and unspeaking, and Castle had warned her it would go down like this. She knew what he had to do.
So she crossed her arms over her chest, kept the wince off her face as the bruise on her sternum stung. "I have no dog in this fight, so I'll start. Lo?" Salome gave her a barely civil look. Beckett pretended that got to her - and maybe it did. "Kind of a stupid code name to give yourself. It sounds like nothing more than a nickname. I bet half the men you sleep with like to call you Lo."
Salome's eyes slanted towards her. "And more than half of the women." Beckett didn't respond, and Salome tossed a glare Castle's way, her demeanor changing like quicksilver. "Tell that to the stud. He's the one who gave me the name. After we slept together. So."
"There was no sleeping," Castle put in mildly. Only Kate heard the tic in his voice. The burr of his irritation. "I'd never in a million years close my eyes on you."
"Probably a good idea," Salome smirked. They smirked together.
"Either way," Kate interrupted. "Lo. You're in a tight spot. You've got a couple different groups after you."
"I had noticed," Salome said archly. "Not sure what you want me to do about it. Kind of - what do you say? - tied up here."
"For your own protection," Castle inserted. Smirking again. There was something entirely dead in his eyes that made the hair stand up on Kate's arms.
Salome just snarled at him. "My protection."
Kate rolled her eyes - fuck, that really hurt. Mental note: keep the sarcasm to a minimum. "Just as he won't close his eyes on you, I won't leave you free to roam the safe house."
"Is this an agency safe house?" Salome hissed, shifting upright. "No. No, I cannot stay here. We can't. They will be on us in moments."
"It's not a CIA safe house," Beckett said. "We know better than that." They hadn't, but they had to play to their damn strengths here, and lying was always a part of it.
Salome slumped back with real relief, a flick of her eyes to Castle. "She is your mouthpiece this time, yes? She has you by the balls." Her gaze slid to Kate. "You play nicely with them, you hear?"
"I'm not interested in nice," Beckett said. "And neither is he. What am I interested in is us getting out of here in one piece."
Salome slid a glance Castle's direction, but he was nodding at Beckett, crossing his arms over his chest, all part of their careful play. "Personally," he said, "I don't care how many pieces she's in. So long as she doesn't go spilling our secrets."
"Well, fuck you too," Salome growled. She shot Beckett a wild look. "You think this too, yes? Pieces spread around the country-"
"I don't particularly care." Beckett shook her head. "I'm here to do my job. Exfiltration. But whatever scheme you have going on - there isn't any room for it. It's done, it's over. We're only talking right now because we have to get out of here without alerting the whole damn region. So how far does this go, Salome? How much did you steal and which group is after you?"
The woman shut her mouth and turned her head, clear indications she wasn't talking.
Castle glanced to Kate. She nodded.
Beckett sat up straight, pushing off the dresser. "Alright. Fine. Pieces it is. Come on, Castle." She headed for the door and Castle came with her, and they had taken only two steps out into the hallway when Salome snarled.
"Which group?" the woman called after them. "All of them. And it's not just FARC and the cartel. It's your own fucking CIA. You're part of this and you just don't know it."
Castle saw the change in her, saw it immediately.
He didn't know what the change was, only that it had happened. He knew the why - he and Beckett had threatened to leave her on her own, to choose the expedient route and kill Salome rather than deal with the obstacles. Which Salome believed him capable of.
That was the why. But the what.
What game was Salome playing now, what was she trying to pull over them?
Salome had oriented to Kate when they'd come back into the room, her whole body softening, her face liquid with - something. Castle wasn't happy with how difficult he was finding this, reading the woman. He used to be dead on.
Now feelings crowded into the scene.
"Lo," Kate started. She had changed too, softened imperceptibly to match Salome's demeanor. He'd seen her do it with a hundred suspects while working with the NYPD, and he'd seen her do it with their assets or contacts in the field. It was part of her skill set, the interrogation, but he didn't think mirroring was the best approach with Lo.
Not when Lo was certainly faking it. Adopting a position of humility to gain sympathy. To work an angle.
"Castle."
He glanced at his wife and she lifted an eyebrow.
Right. His turn. "Salome, you ready to talk to us or are you blowing smoke?"
"I'm talking. I talk. Didn't you hear me?"
"I heard a bunch of shit about how you have to get back to your hidey hole. You have to stay here. There are things left to do. Guess what? Ain't happening."
Salome turned a desperate look back to Beckett. "You understand. You see, don't you? You can see what - I'm trying to do. What I have to do for-" Salome stopped herself, glanced away.
Kate's face changed, and Castle remembered what she'd said to him about a girl. A little girl. Ilda.
No.
He knew with every fiber in his being that Ilda wasn't real, that Salome was playing her game.
"What you have to do," Kate said quietly. Question in her voice that almost wasn't a question.
Salome leaned in, hands pressed between her thighs, her eyes intent on Kate. It made Castle almost breathless, the feeling of hypnotic power in the room. Salome curled her fingers at the top of the bandage above her knee, dug in so that her face crumpled with pain. "I have to - get back to her. She needs me."
"No," Castle said, straightening up. Horror trickled like ice water in his guts, witnessing her play his wife. "No. Who told you?"
Kate turned back to him, startled, her eyes wild with shut up, no, I got this.
"Who told you about us?" Castle growled, leaning forward and taking Salome by the upper arm, gripping her hard. "You tell me the truth."
Salome's face closed down.
"You don't have a fucking daughter," Castle said. Kept his voice steady, cold. He felt anything other than steady; someone in the CIA had told Salome that the best way to get to them was through their son. Invent a shared history, that was in the fucking handbook.
"Castle," Kate hissed.
"There is no girl. You're running a con, Lo, and you should know me better than that. I don't play your games, bitch."
Salome bared her teeth at him and tried to jerk out of his grip. Kate was at his side then, a touch to the back of his arm to settle him, but she hadn't seen it; she didn't know.
Castle turned a bleak look to his wife, nodded to Salome. "She knows. Us. Someone told her."
Kate flinched.
"Perhaps I am just a good guesser," Salome said slyly. A look between them. "And the girl is-"
"Don't even," Castle replied nastily. "Next you're going to say she's mine. And you want only to set her free. The cartel is holding her to make you do this. You must have come up with that story on the fly, because your execution was flawed."
Suddenly Kate's fingers gripped his elbow as she figured it out. "Wait. She knows about us," she hissed. "H-him."
James. "Yes," he cut out. "Inventing a child. Because someone fucking told her how to play us."
Salome's eyes slid away, came back with a flick of speculation, the fire of a new plan. "You want to get home to your beautiful boy. I understand that, that is all I am trying to say. All I am trying to do-"
"Who the fuck told you?" Castle snapped.
Salome's lips pressed into a pleased smile and it made Castle even more furious - how she'd gotten to him despite everything, made him reveal his true nature, all because she'd pressed the button of his family.
Beckett tugged on his elbow, pulled him away from Salome. She herded him towards the door and they stood half in and half out, her hand only on his elbow, but her eyes troubled.
"I think I - might have an idea."
"Of - who?" He glanced to the bed where the woman was straining to overhear them.
"Ravi," Kate breathed.
Salome went very very still.
"No," Castle gaped, turned a bewildered look to Kate. Ravi. Standing in the lobby with them, talking about their son, cooing over him. "No. How-"
"Echo acted - weird about him. He's never done that with anyone-"
"Kate," he said, exasperated. Horrified.
She shook her head. "We don't talk about it, Castle, and I get it. We don't talk about it. What he can... but I won't dismiss it."
"I'm not saying - look, that's another conversation entirely. Put that aside for now. Echo has no place here."
"That is not acceptable, Castle." She pinched the back of his elbow. "Ravi-"
"Shelve Ravi."
"But he-"
"Not in front of her," Castle warned his wife. "She knows, yes, and someone told her. Someone will fucking pay for that. But right now, Kate, we cannot be speculating in front of a woman who has no moral scruples. She will twist every damn word around, and then she will take that information and sell it to the highest bidder."
Kate stiffened. Her eyes detached from his and slid to Salome. "Sell it to the highest bidder?"
He saw the reaction it got, saw Salome's lips press every so slightly together. Must be the wound in her knee, making her tells so obvious.
"Salome. What did you steal?" he said.
He moved to confront her, but his wife whipped around him, stood in front of Salome and leaned in, pressed her thumb into the bandage above Lo's knee. Salome screamed, jerking back, but the handcuffs kept her there.
Before Castle could stop her, Kate had pushed her thumb into the hole he had just sutured back together, her face hard as ice. "Who told you about my son?"
"A man in DC," Salome gasped. "Man, man in DC. Oh, God. Please. There was no name. Only code. That's all. He was - information only."
"What is it then?" Kate growled.
Castle reached out - finally shaking himself free of his shock - and caught the back of Kate's jeans. But he didn't stop her.
Kate pressed on. "What could you possibly have stolen that has a man in DC selling out to you? That has the CIA, FARC, and the cartel all after you?"
Finally, Castle tugged. Kate ignored him, her thumb blanched white at the knuckle where she was digging into Salome's wound.
Lo squirmed hard, sweat breaking out on her forehead, but she gave it up with a whine of pain. "It's - military tech. Fuck. I stole a damn pixel."
Castle froze. He knew that word. He knew-
"Pixel?" Kate said, confusion lacing her voice.
"Where the fuck did you get a pixel?" Castle hissed.
Lo's eyes darted to his, her face bleached of color, pain buffeting her eyes. "FARC. Knew of a man wanting to sell and I - intercepted him. I stole the pixel."
"What the hell is a pixel?" Kate said, rounding now on him.
Salome, now released, slumped back to the mattress, panting hard, fighting to stay conscious.
Castle winced. "ADAPTIV technology. It's a cloaking device. One pixel is just one cell of the whole. Together..."
"A cloaking device?" Kate glanced back to Salome as if in confirmation, but Castle saw Lo's lips thin.
He sighed and rubbed a hand down his face. "The US is the only country in the world with this technology, and I can guarantee you that the CIA will kill to keep it that way."
"So now we're running from the CIA as well."
His jaw worked. "Looks like it."
