Programmed

Chapter 8

Beckett's phone buzzed not long after she and Castle arrived at the 12th. "Castle," she whispered, gazing at the screen, "it's Villante," and activated the speaker.

"Detective Beckett," Villante reported, "I had a discussion about your case with the Attorney General this morning. He informed me that the organization you referred to has been under investigation by the DEA. They have been in contact with their counterparts in the RCMP. The money laundering angle is new to the DEA, but Homeland Security has been aware of it. They'll need any information you have ASAP, but they have been in talks with the office of the Canadian Ministry of Justice. If what you have holds up, the ministry will launch an operation in Toronto."

"Sir, our tech has all the information collated. I can can get her to email you everything," Beckett suggested.

"Detective Beckett, at this point, I don't want to take the chance that the email might be intercepted." Villante cautioned. "Can you fly down to D.C. with your information ASAP? I can get it cleared with your superiors."

"Sir," Beckett proposed. "Castle is more familiar with this organization than I am. I'd like to bring him with me."

"All right, Detective," Villante agreed. "His insight has proved useful in the past. Just get the information down here."

"Wow," Castled commented, "working on a case in D.C. with Villante. I'm getting an uncomfortable sense of dèja vu."

"You'll be all right Castle, just don't get to any cars with deadly toxins in the ventilation system," Beckett joked darkly.

"Roger that," Castle agreed shuddering slightly.

While Beckett had Tory transfer the case information to a drive she could transport to Washington D.C., Castle arranged transportation. Not wanting to risk taking the precious drive past TSA x-rays and scanners, he called a friend with a charter service. As soon as Tory was finished, Beckett and Castle headed for Teeterboro Airport where their pilot and co-pilot were ready and waiting.


Agent Rachel McCord met them at Stafford Regional Airport in Virginia with a ubiquitous black sedan. Unsure of what would be unfolding next, Castle kept the plane and pilot on standby. After exchanging greetings, McCord was almost silent on the drive to the headquarters of the Attorney General's task force. Castle and Beckett were glad to see that Richmond was still at a station in front of the high tech screens, as he had previously contributed so strongly to saving Castle's life. Beckett handed Richmond their drive with bolstered confidence, and he immediately began to work.

Villante shortly emerged from his office to check on Richmond's progress. "Sir, this fits with everything we know," McCord offered as the information appeared on the screen.

Villante nodded. "I'll put things in motion."

"Sir," Beckett told him, "we'd like to be in on the operation when things go down in Canada. This is related to a murder in my jurisdiction, and also to Castle's abduction."

"I'll have the AG take that up with the RCMP," Villante told her. "They take care of cases like this in Canada. You should return to New York and I'll let you know how the operation is going to go down."

Castle called his pilot and McCord returned Beckett and Castle to the airfield where they had arrived. Beckett sat tensely in her seat for their return flight. "Kate what are you thinking?" Castle asked.

"I hate the bureaucracy. We're dealing with multiple agencies from two countries. Assuming the operation goes off at all, it slows everything down and just makes things more complicated. When Jared Stack first invited me to apply to the AG task force, I thought that there would be a way to cut through that kind of red tape, that if there was a threat that I'd be free to respond. When I got there, I found out it wasn't what he told me at all. Everything was about agencies guarding their own private fiefdoms, even at the expense of justice. I couldn't handle it."

"I know," Castle whispered softly, rotating his thumb over her palm. "That's why you gave the press the leak that got you fired. Still, right now we need power and you reached out to where that power is. Whatever the complications, we'll deal with them and it's better not to be alone in this. Next to taking down Bracken practically by yourself, this should be a piece of cake."

It was late afternoon when Beckett and Castle returned to the 12th. Beckett wrote up as complete a report as she could for Captain Gates, glossing over information gleaned from Castle's dreams. "You do have a talent for getting involved in complicated cases, Detective," Gates commented as she read Beckett's summation, "or Castle pulls you into them."

"Castle didn't pull me into Rochet's murder, sir," Beckett responded. "I'm just following the evidence wherever it leads."

"Just make sure that's all you do," Gate's warned. "I don't need my best homicide detective running around after international conspiracies."

"Yes sir," Beckett agreed.

"Are you ready to knock off for the day?" Castle asked an irritated Beckett when she returned to her desk."

"More than ready," Beckett gritted out.

"We haven't had anything except coffee since breakfast, you want to go out?" Castle asked, hoping to improve her mood.

"Castle, I am really tired and I'm sure you are too. Honestly, I don't think anything is going to come close to what we had with Maddy last night anyway, so can we just pick up some burgers to go at Remy's?"

"Sounds good to me," Castle agreed.

Kate and Castle curled up on the couch with pleasantly greasy paper bags, playing back the recording of the day's Temptation Lane. "This is nice," Kate murmured.

"The food, the soap opera, or the cuddling?" Castle asked.

"Yes," Kate replied, "but mostly that the web of evil in the plot on Temptation Lane is even stranger than the one in our case. In a weird way, that's comforting."

"They've got a name for the conspiracy on the show, don't they?" Castle asked.

"Yeah," Kate confirmed. "They're calling it the Proxy Plan. Why?"

"Somehow giving things a name can make them easier to deal with, or at least to talk about," Castle answered. "We should give a name to our web of evil."

"How about The Cookie Conspiracy?" Kate teased.

"No," Castle mused. "That makes me think of blue fur. How about Rochet's Regimen?"

Kate nodded thoughtfully. "That actually makes sense, if he's the one who came up with the drugs."

"So when this episode is over, how about if we put Rochet's Regimen and ourselves to bed for the night?" Castle proposed.

Kate made a show of stretching and yawning, rubbing up against his body. "Deal."