Close Encounters 15

The explosions started before they even hit the first floor. The stairwell jumbled and shook her hard, and Kate found herself tumbling down the stairs into Castle's back. He braced her and they pressed against the wall, suffering through two more shellings in quick succession, the noise roaring in her ears.

When the world stopped shaking, they took a second to stare at each other and then - as one - turned and jogged down the last steps to the door. The window set into the metal was shattered from the explosion and beyond Castle's shoulder, she could see that a portion of the exterior wall had collapsed inward.

Stairwell was probably the safest place they could have been. Castle reached for the door and Beckett came out behind him, crowding to see, and before her the long hallway was a mess of debris and exposed wire, a dust cloud swirling around it.

She could see sunrise just past the gaping portion of the wall, and Castle gripped her upper arm, keeping her with him.

"We need to get out of here," he said. "Screw responsibility. We're going." He looked like he was spoiling for a fight.

"Agreed." This was out of their depth - limited supplies and no protection - and now that they had cases of the serum in her hands, she didn't want anything to happen to them. "Let's get out of here."

Beckett started forward, heading for the hole in the wall, but Castle yanked her back. "No. Not that way. They'll breach the compound through the gap they've made. We go out how we came in."

Her breath caught but she only nodded, followed him around the debris in the hallway. They had to climb at one point, choosing careful footholds as the chunks of concrete shifted beneath their weight. Castle got to the top of a pile of rubble and reached down for her; she lifted her hand for him and the whole mound shifted, dragging her down with it. She fell hard on her side and felt the backpack thump against her spine, her ribs scraped by the jagged remnants of the wall as the landslide picked up force and dumped her at the bottom.

A piece of concrete was pinning her.

"Beckett!"

"I'm - okay," she called back. She felt her knee pulsing, her hip on that same side, and she tried to rise carefully to her hands and knees. The concrete shifted and lurched to one side, trapping her now by the backpack. "The bag is stuck."

"I'm coming down for you," he said. "Stay right there."

"I'm okay," she repeated, sliding one arm slowly - ow, more slowly - out of the strap. She winced as she pulled free and then she twisted around to stand.

Only to be met with a gun.

The barrel of a Soviet-era MCM pistol that - though old - would no doubt do the job.

"Stay right there," Black said quietly.

"No!"

Another explosion rocked the compound and Castle used the distraction to launch himself at his father. He tackled the man to the rubble, felt the wind punch out of him, an elbow to his cheek that made him see stars. A scramble through the debris and then Castle was on his feet, drawing his gun, but so was Black.

And he was pointing it at Beckett.

Castle kept his aim steady and breathed hard through the whistling in his lungs. "Beckett. Behind me."

"Can't."

He risked a quick look over at her and saw she was crouched in the shifted debris, hunched protectively over - the regimen. Stuck in the rubble.

Fuck.

"Seems we're at a stalemate, Richard."

"Back off," he growled, slowly easing his way towards Beckett.

"Not another step," his father snarled, starting forward, weapon aimed at Kate.

Castle, despite himself, felt his five-year-old's heart seize, stop its beating. He was a boy standing in the snow again, reciting the verb forms of to carry in Chinese until he could get it right. Not another step, Richard.

"Kate," he rasped.

"I've almost got it," she whispered.

"Kate, please."

"Don't move - either of you," his father said, sounding a little more in control this time. It didn't reassure Castle, not one bit.

"We're leaving," Castle said. "We got what we came for and we're leaving. Kate."

She grunted something and he shot another quick look her direction, saw she was trying to shove her shoulder against a stone that had pinned the material of the pack. "Almost, Castle. I swear. Please. I almost have it."

"You tell her to stop or I will shoot."

Castle slid the last inch over; he was now within saving distance should his father actually shoot at her. "You shoot her and your body is the next to fall."

"Do you know how little that means to me? It would be worth it to rid you of her."

"I will fucking hurt you," Castle roared. "Don't you dare make a move. I will hold you here and give you to those assholes who blew open their own front door. Is that what you want?"

He saw his father's attention shift for just a moment, a brief second, and that was all Castle needed to step fully in front of Beckett, shielding her completely.

"You idiot," his father growled.

"I got it," Beckett gasped. "Castle, I got. I have it."

"Stand up," he barked over his shoulder, his eyes still on his father. "We're going. We're going, Black. You hear me? You don't get to do this. We're leaving you here."

"Don't think I won't shoot you, son. I will. It's for your own damn good."

"I will fucking shoot you first. Don't think I won't. I ache to kill you. Be rid of you for good."

"Rick," she hissed.

He half-turned to her, being careful to keep himself in front of her, but she came up at his side and tried to maneuver around him. Castle reached out his free hand and wrapped his arm around her waist, hauled her behind him, struggling to keep his aim steady on his father as she struggled.

"Beckett, what did I say?"

"You can't. You can't shoot him. You promised me."

He paused; he'd made that promise on top of a hundred other promises that he fully intended to keep, to always keep, and if his word meant anything at all to her-

He had to keep this one too.

"They're coming for you," Castle bit out sharply. "You might want to get out of here."

"Coming for me. How did they find me? How did you find me? That's the real question here, Richard. You have some damn big leaks in your department if they're here."

"Who are they?" Beckett spoke up. Castle could kill her with his own bare hands, holy fucking hell, woman, would she not just shut up and stay safe?

"You planted a bug on me," Black said, blinking now as if he was surprised. "You must have. Where? What is it? You're not safe if I'm not safe. You hear that, Kate? He's not safe if I'm not safe."

"What are you talking about?" she blurted out.

"Shut up," Castle growled. "You, both of you, shut up. We're not having a conversation. There are no deals. We're leaving."

"No, tell us. Tell me, John. What do you mean?"

"If they find me, it's only a matter of time before they break me."

"I hope they fucking shatter you."

"Castle," she barked. "Shut up. John, who? Why are they after you - what does it have to do with Castle?"

It was all spiraling out of his control, so fast he couldn't hold on. "No. No - Kate. We're leaving him here. He's fucking alive, like I promised, and we are too and we are getting out of here. We're going home-"

"They're looking for him," his father said, talking louder to make himself heard. "Everyone else flunks out. They go fucking insane, Kate, but you already know that, don't you? Saber told you, as if he could somehow hurt me with the truth."

"Saber?" she gasped. "The truth. What truth? What about the others?"

"It's not the others they want. This whole facility is designed to replicate and mass produce the only success I've ever had with the program. The only success - and they want it. They want Richard. And they will destroy everything to get to him."

They want him.

"No."

"Kate, we're leaving." Castle gripped her by the arm, his weapon still trained on his father, and he began to haul her into his chest.

"No, no, wait. Wait. It's you - they're here for you," she croaked. But Castle was blocking her view of Black now, his whole body coming between her and the rest of the world. "Castle, baby, please. We have to - if they found him here. With the tracker - our tracker - it's our fault."

"I don't care."

"You should care," Black called out. "You should care because everyone you touch is involved in this. You think they have any regard for your wife? Your family? They will fucking murder her like I've always wanted, so maybe I should just tell them everything they want to know-"

Castle went very, very still. Kate lifted her eyes to him and saw the grim, deadly intent and she grabbed him by the back of his neck, yanked his head down to hers. "No. No, Castle. Not just for him, not just for the regimen, but for you. You don't do this. You are better than this."

"Maybe I'm not. I'm destined to destroy him. Him or me, Kate."

"No," she insisted. "You're not murdering your father."

"We have what we need," he said. "We have it. You won't have to worry about my health any more. Just let me-"

"No. You can't. You can't. I'm not married to a murderer."

"You have an extraction point?" Black said. "Because we need to get this show on the road."

Castle growled and turned to face his father. "You are not coming with us."

"I have no wish to fall back into CIA custody. But however they found me - they will find me again."

"The GPS tracker," Kate said loudly, knowing she was giving it away. "That's how they found you."

"Tracker," Black said, the word cold on his lips. He looked straight through her, his disdain for her now a terrible and chilling thing, as if he no longer cared what the consequences would be, he would kill her.

He would end her.

"If I'm tagged, I need to know how. I need to destroy the tracker, Richard, because when they find me - they will get everything. All of it. You."

"I don't care. Let it burn. Let them make another squad of Delta Forces to go batshit insane. It's not my responsibility."

"You think I can protect you once they get their hands on this?" Black yelled. "They'll know. They'll have you."

"Protect him from who?" Kate shouted.

"How do you think we got this program funded?" Black snarled. "You little bitch. You think you know everything, but you have no idea what you've done."

"You shut the hell up," Castle growled back. "She didn't do this. I'm the one who wants nothing to do with you. I'm not your machine; I won't be soulless. I want more and I want her-"

"Well, you won't have her - you won't have anything if they get their hands on the program," Black interrupted. His voice was like ice, in control again. "They'll slaughter everyone around you and take you to some underground lab. So you either destroy this tracker or you destroy your whole life."

Beckett stiffened. "It's in your arm. He injected it - under the Army tattoo on your forearm."

Black gave it a brief flicker and narrowed his eyes. "Richard. When they get me, they get you too. Every man can be broken. It might take longer than most, but they will find a way to crack my head open. And then they'll know it's you - my own son - they'll know you're the only one to survive."

The only one to survive? Oh, God. "Castle," she rasped.

"Kate," Black said quickly. "Get a knife. We're digging it out. Right here, right now. You're digging it out of me."

"Okay-"

"No," Castle said. "No. We are leaving. You get rid of your own tracker."

"If you don't do this - I'll only follow you. I'll bring them with me, right to your doorstep. I'll bring them right to Kate."

"You bastard."

Kate gripped his shirt and stepped closer, but halfway towards Black. "I'll do it. I'll dig it out of his arm - it's not that far under," Beckett said quickly. "And then they can't get to you, Rick. They won't know it's you." She turned sharply to Black. "Right? They don't know who it is you've been experimenting on, and that's what they've come for. Because you haven't made good on your promises."

"The program is sound; they're unwilling to train their children. Unwilling to put in the work."

"But not you," Kate said. "You had him. And he's perfect."

"He's perfect," Black echoed. Something went over his face that made her flesh crawl, the animal and un-humanness of it. "He's the completion of all my work."

She clenched her fists. "I'll dig it out. Castle, the knife. I need the knife."

"No," he said. And for just a second, he closed his eyes - like he couldn't believe what they were doing. "Not you. I'll do it."

"You?" Black said, sounding struck. "No. Her."

"Me," Castle growled. "Or no one. Give me your arm. We don't have much time."

Castle pulled out the machete.

"No!" Beckett gasped.

She must have seen his face because her horror flipped to a shocked, shaky laughter. At least there was that. They were at odds, but they hadn't been divided - they weren't conquered.

"Was that a joke?" his father hissed. "I didn't raise you to screw around, Richard. Complete the mission."

But he held Beckett's gaze with his own, let something of the grim smile play across his face - forced it to hold there. They were going to be fine; it would be fine. They would survive this as well.

Castle gripped the strap on Beckett's shoulder, tugged once on the backpack to get her attention. "I'll dig it out and then we go."

"Don't kill him."

"I made you a promise, didn't I?"

She didn't respond, only nodded, and he used the moment of distraction to swing his fist around and clobber his father. He grabbed the gun-hand and twisted Black's arm, the weapon clattering away. His father stumbled back, but Castle kicked the weapon into the debris. With his fingers wrapped around his father's arm, he yanked Black upright.

And then he reached into his pocket for his combat knife - the aluminum Spyderco Embassy Automatic - brought to his father's arm and he thumbed the release. The blade sang as it opened, perilously close to Black's vulnerable veins, and Castle couldn't help feeling pleased that he'd not only disarmed his father, but thoroughly unmanned him.

"Might want to bite down on something. This is going to hurt."

His father ignored him.

Castle couldn't help noting the irony of the old motto live by the sword. Beckett and the knife to her neck was now his father and the precision-crafted switchblade to a wrist made for slitting.

He pressed the point of the blade into the Army tattoo - the blur of ink so faded it was impossible to recognize. His father didn't even move and Castle felt that old stubborn determination rise up in him again - to make his father flinch.

He hadn't managed to accomplish that feat as a boy, but at least this time the pain would be real. And intense.

He was going to enjoy this.

Castle cut into the skin with the point of the knife - quickly, though; they didn't have the time to make it last. He used the three-inch blade to dig into his father's arm, the muscle rippling and twitching as pain receptors went active.

"Castle."

He ignored Kate's quiet warning and he curled his wrist to scoop at the flesh, felt the hard edge of the tracker meet the metal of the knife. He sliced upward - slowly this time - making sure it didn't slip off the edge of the knife and back into the man's arm.

"Rich-Richard," his father grunted.

He smiled and cut the tracker out, gripped it with his thumb and the edge of the knife to hold it up. "There."

"Then let's get out of here."

Beckett stood at his side, shoulder to shoulder, and their eyes met for a moment in understanding. He turned back to Black and shook his head. "No. You're not coming with us." He turned and unzipped the outside pocket of the pack still on Beckett's shoulders, yanked free the satellite phone.

He tossed it to Black, who was bleeding copiously from the open wound and holding his arm above his head. Black caught the phone with his other hand but gave Castle a raised eyebrow of indignation.

"Take that. Origin point is marked. We flew in a Cessna. You can pilot it out."

"No."

"I'd take it," Kate said quickly. "You know he enjoyed digging into your arm, making you bleed. That's the best I can do to control him. I know we need you. But he doesn't care."

Black stared at them.

"Explosions have stopped," Castle said quietly. "They'll be making entry in seconds. I suggest you run."

"And you?" Black sneered.

"We have our own plan."

Castle raised his gun and took aim at his father. "Go."

Black's eyes turned expressionless. Castle had seen that look a thousand times; he knew it was the end, a void, the way his father had of going absolutely cold. Nothing would penetrate that blackness, that vacuum.

His father was the ultimate black hole.

"If you're going to persist in turning me aside," Black said carefully, in control. "Then there's something you should know."

"What?" Kate breathed. "Tell us."

Castle could not care less. He kept his gun steady on the man in front of him. Black's gaze remained burned to his for one second longer, and then he turned his eyes to Kate.

He smiled. "Deal's off, Kate Beckett."

Castle's finger twitched on the trigger but Black was already gone, disappearing around the corner and behind a half-bombed wall, out of his sight.

And then he heard the thunder of boots on the ground.

"Kate," he rasped, turning to shove her forward. "Time to go. Go, go, go!"

Gunfire chattered behind them and she had no way of knowing, no earthly idea if Black had escaped.

They needed him; Castle needed him. Black had all the answers.

At first, she'd had to struggle against the urge to turn around and go looking for the man. She'd wanted to dart back into the rubble and see him with her own eyes, asking him to explain about the program, about what might have been done, about why the others all went crazy but not Castle.

There were so many things that might go wrong.

But when the bullets started in earnest, when the team coming in behind them seemed to spot them and shots called out, when she felt Castle's grunt at her back and knew he'd been hit and it became clear to her that they might not escape this-

All she wanted was to survive.

Finally, for once, her instinct to live kicked in hard. She was the one sprinting ahead of him, the backpack slamming her spine with every hard jolt of her feet. She raced towards the back wall where they'd accessed the compound, coming around the corner at a fast clip.

She stuttered to a halt at the damage, felt Castle plow into her from behind, cursing at her to keep going.

"It's gone," she said dumbly.

"Good," he hissed, dragging her forward. "Easier on us."

The wall was gone. It'd been obliterated. All that remained were burning trees and the dust-motes on fire and the jagged chunks of concrete. If they'd been an hour later, if they'd taken their time after the river, if there'd never been the river's fast current, then they would have been on that wall.

Or they'd have missed Black entirely. No regimen.

A matter of minutes.

"Beckett, move."

She scrambled up over the rise of rubble, her hip and knee locking with pain as the debris shifted. Castle caught her around the waist and swung her over a gap; she gasped when a rod of rebar caught her leg and tore at her pants. Blood oozed thickly and Castle groaned.

"Shit, I'm sorry. I'm sorry-"

"It's okay," she put him off, getting to her feet on the sloped rubble. A burning tree nearby made the air ripple and warp with heat; it was hard to breathe, hard to talk. Smoke clung to the rubble and the dust choked her. "I'm okay."

"Let me see."

"Did you get shot?" she asked instead.

"Not really."

"Castle."

"It's a graze. Matches your cheek," he said pointedly. She gave up asking after him because it was only fair, and he was still conscious and on his feet, and even though he was super, a bullet wound could possibly bring him down if it was bad enough.

And he wasn't down yet.

"Let me see your leg," he said.

"Can we get off this hill first?" she muttered. "They're shooting and I want to be as low a profile as we can."

He laughed, his hand coming out to grip her elbow. "Look at you, sweetheart. Actually trying not to die for once."

"Don't be a bastard," she muttered. But he was grinning at her, his teeth white in the haze of smoke. "Stop smiling. It's like a beacon."

He closed his mouth but he was helping her down the side of the rubbled wall. Her calf wasn't bad, but it did burn with pain. Somehow the scrapes felt worse than a bullet wound, and the insult of her abraded skin clamored for attention.

And then it began to rain.

"Oh, damn it," Castle growled. "Not what we need."

"But them either," she pointed out. "The smoke is getting worse. Makes it difficult to take shots at us."

At the last, they had to climb down the face of the rubble's cliff, picking their way carefully. Castle called out good handholds for her or guided her feet into stable positions. She didn't know how he was doing it, going down first, and a few times when rocks tumbled down and he let out a noise under his breath, she knew he'd nearly fallen.

"I got you," he said suddenly, hands clamping around her hips. He lifted off her the side and set her down on the ground, beautiful, solid ground. "They're no longer chasing us. Your leg."

She sighed but turned her knee to bare her calf for him. The grime and dust made a paste that seemed to have stopped the blood; Castle gripped her ankle and poked at her, apparently not satisfied.

"It's got to be cleaned out soon," he said finally, standing up once more. His face was grim. "But we don't have the time right now. We need to get to the extraction point."

"And call who?" she said. "You gave Black our phone."

"The sat phone we used to track him, sure. But not the distress beacon."

"Distress beacon?" she gaped.

"You think after Russia I'm ever going to let us go anywhere without one of those? It's that black little button hooked to the machete's harness."

"What?"

"You knew it was there."

"No. I did not." She could smack him; she really could. "You kept that from me."

Castle laughed and caught her hand even as she moved to grab the sheath at his thigh. Their fingers tangled and her breath caught, and even though it was pouring rain and she was choking on smoke and there was a highly-skilled mercenary team on their heels, she had a moment of blinding, shocking lust.

So she kissed him, smudged the smirk right off his face, wrapping her arm around his neck to yank him closer. He groaned and the rain drowned them both, but he was sucking on her tongue and winding his arms through the pack and around her, and she felt the heat of him scalding her skin, and then the steam hissed around them and curled through the smoke.

"Kate, I love you, but this is not a good time for this," he rasped at her mouth. But he kissed her again, and she felt the blood under her fingers now where the bullet had grazed him. He grunted when she gripped his shoulder a little harder, one of his knees sliding between hers, and it would be all very sexy if not for the sound of chopper blades coming through the rain.

"We gotta get out of here," she gasped.

"Extraction point," he said, grimacing and pulling away from her. "I hope you remember where it was. I could get us there, but it'd take longer."

"I remember," she said. "Move west to get out of their range, and then we'll come up on it from the south."

She headed off into the smoke and burning trees, felt Castle right at her back.

But closer than that was the heavy touch of the pack and all the regimen inside.

They had what they'd come here for.