Castle watched as his partner walked the perimeter of the shiny silver diner car in solemn contemplation. She took in every broken window, every wind-blown curtain, every drop of blood on a level that he was only starting to understand. He could just barely make out the sounds of the crime scene inside: Lanie and her team going about their work on the body, Ryan and Esposito talking to the uniforms who were first on the scene. It was then that Castle remembered his partner could now hear those same conversations as if she were standing right next to the person who was speaking. He hated to interrupt her, but Castle also knew that if they didn't enter the diner soon, her behavior would start being labeled as 'eccentric'...and eventually, suspicious. Castle approached Beckett quietly, placing a hand on her shoulder to physically telegraph his intention to speak to her as quietly as he dared. "Beckett?"

Beckett dialed her senses back at her partner's touch. He looked at her with a teasing, but sincere expression. "Did you find anything? Or were you eavesdropping on conversations we could have just heard by going inside in the first place?"

"All the windows look like they were broken from the inside out," Beckett replied. "But there aren't any glass shards out here. Still, I don't think our guy surrounded the place with...zombies, at any rate."

"Think he might have come here directly from the Chos?" asked Castle.

Beckett could only shrug. "Don't know...maybe. The air around this place smells...strange."

"Strange how?"

"A little like ozone. You know, how it can smell sometimes after a rainstorm?"

Castle caught on immediately, and Beckett swore she could almost see him connecting the dots in his head. "Huh," Castle commented, "so that's what that was..." As Beckett watched him curiously, he continued, "No, I don't smell it like you do...but I can *feel* it."

"Feel what?"

"Residual energy. There's a ton of it. It's hanging around this place like a fog. I'm kind of surprised *you're* not feeling it, to be honest."

Beckett asked her partner, "Kind of feels suffocating and...itchy, all at the same time?" Castle nodded. "Yeah, I feel it. I was trying not to think about it..."

"I think our guy pulled a shield around this place that was so tight that no one could get out...at least until he got the slaves he wanted. As to how that shield looked or sounded to the outside world..." He could only shrug helplessly in response.

Beckett thought about her partner's observations. "You think that's why we didn't get more calls about the attack? And why no one, to our knowledge, escaped...even though there were clear ways to get out of there if someone was desperate enough?" Again, Castle nodded.

The detective walked through the door that Castle held open for her. It was impossible not to crunch on broken glass as the investigators moved through the small space...a sound that Beckett found unnerving. She gave her badge number to the uniform that met her at the door. "Where are the witnesses?"

"We used tasers on sticks to subdue them, as you ordered, detective." Sergeant Thompson replied, "then we dragged 'em each into separate bathrooms and posted guards."

"Thank you, Sergeant," said Beckett.

Beckett crossed through the diner to Lanie, who was directing her techs on the way to pack up what was left of the body behind the counter. The ME turned to her friend in a morbidly humorous mood. "Your guy must have worked up quite an appetite, Kate. There's not much left of this one."

"Did you get an ID?" asked Beckett.

"Off the medic alert bracelet, oddly enough. Kate Hargreaves, 23. She had the bracelet custom engraved with her name and phone number as well as her date of birth and primary condition...epilepsy."

Castle mused, "What about the Chos? Did the women have any neurological problems?"

Lanie turned to Castle, mildly impressed by his question. "Tourette's, actually. It ran through the whole family on the mother's side, according to the medical records. Why?"

Beckett started to wonder what crazy theory her partner could be coming up with, then forced herself to mentally switch gears as she remembered that her reality could now be described as its own crazy theory. "Just trying to catch any connections between the victims," Beckett commented to her friend. "Any estimate on time of death?"

"Not enough left of her to tell until I run more tests, sorry."

"Let me know whatever you find." Lanie nodded.

Beckett squeezed her friend's shoulder in a show of sympathy and support. The detective then crossed the length of the diner until she reached Ryan and Esposito, who were talking to Castle near a back booth. "So whatcha got for me?"

Ryan gave his boss what little information they had. "It seems like the diner was probably hit sometime between 2 and 3pm. Witnesses in the neighborhood remembered seeing normal lunch traffic around the building, then nothing until seeing the building in the condition it's in now sometime after 3."

"I think the blank spot might be the effects of the shield," suggested Castle. "Kind of like looping security camera footage. It would leave the place looking in its normal condition until our guy was long gone and took all of his victims with him."

"Makes sense," agreed Beckett. "Did anyone...'talk' to our witnesses yet?"

"I tried," Esposito replied, shifting in place uncomfortably. "but I can't get anything off them when they're unconscious."

Beckett's eyes widened just slightly in surprise. "Tasers don't usually knock people out..."

"But they weren't just hit with the energy from the taser," added Castle, thinking out loud. "Our suspect was throwing around massive amounts of energy in these attacks."

Ryan asked, "So it's like they were struck by lightning and *then* tasered?"

"I think so, yeah," Castle replied.

Ryan let out a low whistle. "Sounds like a miracle that they're even alive."

"But are they?" asked Castle. "I mean, if we're talking about true zombies here, then they would be the *walking dead*. So are they really dead, or are they alive and the other wizard's controls just didn't take?"

"I might be able to get the answer to that," added a new voice to the group. The group turned to find that the ME's people were just wrapping up what little they had to do and Lanie had joined their conversation. In a matching hushed tone, she continued, "I did a little extra testing of my own when I got to work this morning, and I found out something I think we could use here."

"What's that?" asked Beckett.

"I'm blocked from, uh, 'examining' the dead. So if I can get in to see one of the witnesses..."

"We'll be able to figure out if these guys are still alive." Ryan understood immediately, and led the ME to the back of the diner.

After a few tense minutes, Lanie and Ryan re-joined the group. "They're alive, I'm sure of it," declared Lanie.

"But that doesn't prove the missing people aren't dead," insisted Beckett, "just that the ones our guy didn't get control of aren't dead."

Castle's mind was persistently trying to put the puzzle pieces together. "We know that the women who were killed all had neurological problems. What about Matthew Cho?"

Lanie shook her head. "No Tourette's, sorry." A realization dawned on the ME as she continued, "but he *is* bipolar..."

The new information locked the pieces of Castle's theory into place. "I'll bet we'll find other psychological disorders when we look at the medical records of our witnesses to this attack. And I'd bet my next royalty check that means the missing people are alive and under the wizard's control." When the other four members of the group regarded him quizzically, Castle continued, "When you create a spell, you have to take every possible issue with your target into account. It's one of the biggest reasons Alexis warned me off of teleporting. If someone in my target destination moves a sofa when I'm in transit I could literally wind up *in* the sofa."

"So you're saying our perp based his spell off of how a normal, healthy human brain functions?" asked Ryan.

Castle nodded. "And the spell went cockeyed anytime it ran into someone whose brain didn't fit that pattern. A neurological disorder on top of the spell killed the person. A psychological disorder meant the guy lived, but the wizard couldn't control them."

"We still need to see what happened here. Until we do we're just working off of theories," mused Beckett. "Lanie, any ideas as to when these guys might wake up?"

A chaotic clash of banging noises from the restrooms gave Beckett the answer to her question. Wincing, she commented, "I guess they're awake."

"Then I guess I'm up," Esposito declared nervously. He motioned for his partner to join him as he walked back to the restrooms.

They returned a few moments later. "Did you get anything?" asked Castle.

It was hard not to miss the chill that ran down Esposito's spine as he recalled what he had seen. He chose his words carefully. "The vic wasn't eaten by one of those...things, she was eaten by at least five of 'em. Our guy is getting more skilled each time he hits. The hostess was stabbed by the wizard the same way he got David Cho. After that, the wizard had her and Cho totally under his control."

"Was *anyone* able to escape?" asked Beckett, holding out hope against the answer she knew was coming.

As Beckett expected, Esposito shook his head with a shudder. "A couple of people tried, but the glass shattered back in their faces as they tried to climb out a window. It was like shooting fish in a barrel...every person they bit turned immediately *except* for our vic. She collapsed in a seizure after she got bit, and then five of those things jumped her...We're just lucky the attack wasn't during a meal rush."

"While this confirms my theory," Castle mused, "It still leaves one question unanswered. The wizard clearly got the results he was looking for...this time." When Esposito nodded his agreement, Castle continued, "So why stop here? Why not take his zombies and start his attack in earnest?"

"He doesn't have enough people yet," Esposito replied. "At best, he's got eighteen slaves right now. That's not a small crew, but it's not an army either."

Ryan asked the group, "So where's he going next?"

"It won't be a hospital," remarked Beckett, "but that's about all we can be sure of." She turned to her team. "And he can't attack too many more places without drawing attention on a much bigger scale than us. It's going to be big, and it's going to be soon. Esposito, go over your memories of the two attacks again. See if there's *anything* you can see that will tip us off to what this guy's eventual goal is. Ryan, I need some idea of the most likely nearby targets. For all we know they could be attacking as we speak. Lanie, how soon until we can get the autopsy results on the Cho women?"

Lanie looked at her watch and frowned. "It's after 5 now. Even if I can get the prelims done tonight, none of the tests would even get started until morning."

Beckett pinched the bridge of her nose and let out a frustrated sigh. "Okay, do the best you can. I'm going to work with Castle to see if we can find a way to counter this shield so our guy can't hide behind it anymore."

As the group broke up, Ryan pulled out his cell phone. "I better call Jenny," he told his partner, "let her know tonight's going to be late."

Jenny stomped around the kitchen trying to fix dinner...even though food was the farthest thing from her mind. Very few of her everyday activities had taken precedence that day. Her students, her friends, the rest of New York City...everyone kept her at arm's length. Jenny was consumed the entire day by one thought; a thought that buried her normally gentle personality under a green curtain of rage and jealousy.

Was her husband having an affair?

Her rational mind kept trying to tell her that she was being ridiculous. "It's just my hormones," she said to no one in particular. "I'm probably just being silly." After all, she had been *convinced* that her then-boyfriend had been sleeping with *Natalie Rhodes*, of all people, and almost lost her chance to even *get* married to the man she loves because of her irrational, raging jealousy.

But then who was this Alexis woman? Kevin had barely spoken more than two words to his wife since he got back from the Hamptons, but he called *Alexis* the minute he got home. Why?

In Jenny's mind, that only proved that Kevin cared more for this Alexis woman than he did for her.

He *had* to be having an affair.

The ring of Jenny's phone interrupted her angry thoughts. "Hello?"

"Jen?" Her husband's voice came through on the other end of the line. "Listen hon, I'm probably going to have to stay late at the precinct tonight. A big case dropped this morning and I'm going to be stuck doing a ton of research."

I'll bet, thought Jenny, he's probably heading off to spend the night with *her*. She tried and failed to keep the bitter edge out of her voice. "Okay, honey. Any idea when you'll get home?"

"Sorry, no," Kevin replied. "It'll probably be after you get to bed."

"Then I'll see you tomorrow, I guess."

"Honey, is everything okay?"

Jenny took a deep breath and let it out slowly, trying to remain as civil as she could. "I'm fine, Kevin. I'll see you tomorrow." *click*

Ryan hung up his phone and turned to his partner, frowning in guilt and confusion. "Javi, did you ever feel like you did something wrong, but you had no idea what it was?"

"Bro, I'm dating *Lanie*." Esposito teased his friend with a smile and a reassuring wink. "I feel like that every day."

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