Close Encounters 19

A siren screamed through the security station.

Wilson jerked away from Castle and headed for the command center, lunging through the glass door and behind the computers. The knot of guys around Castle seemed to be knocked off balance by the alarm's bone-rattling screech, and he knew he had to move fast.

He took the gun from the nearest guard's holster, shot the two with their jackets open, turned and shot the one he'd disarmed. He turned to Wilson to take aim, but Wilson had slapped the door shut and Castle knew it was bulletproof glass.

He cut his losses, the gun still gripped between his zip-tied hands, brought the weapon around to the holding room, ignoring the commotion going on behind him. He could only hope it was Esposito. Castle shot at the observation glass where Threkeld was being held, shot again until it spider-webbed. He smashed both fists and the butt of the gun into the cracking glass and it finally shattered.

Castle got his elbows into the sill and hauled himself over the ledge, swung down into the room. Threkeld was staring at him.

He pressed a finger to his lips in case the room was miked and Threkeld blinked, his eyes wavering behind his glasses. When Castle got to him, the doctor held up his bound wrists.

"You and me both," Castle sighed.

He dropped the gun in favor of yanking hard on his wrists. Zip ties had a week point, and the right pressure snapped Castle's right open. Threkeld stared at him.

"It only hurts a little," he promised.

Threkeld didn't even flinch. Castle did the same on his wrists and wrapped his arm around the man's shoulders, dragged him out of the chair. Threkeld was unsteady on his feet and Castle had to carry his weight back to the smashed window.

Where Hunt was holding out his hands, the remnants of a zip-tie around one wrist. He looked battered.

"Ethan?" Castle stared.

"No time. Hand him over. Beckett-"

Castle left Threkeld to Hunt and vaulted over the window, rolling into a crouch. When he lifted his head, he saw Beckett being thrown over a guard's shoulder by the neck, but she was clinging to the man. Castle darted forward, calculating the angles even as Kate kicked hard into the man's armpit and snapped off her shoe's heel. She staggered.

"Kate!"

There was a knife. Guard had a knife.

Kate twisted and brought her knee up into the guard's elbow; the knife dropped and Castle followed through with a left hook that brought the guard all the way to the floor. Kate lurched with the man's momentum and he caught before she could stumble.

"Damn it, my shoe," she croaked. Blood was smeared on her neck, her throat worked hard under the graze. She stepped awkwardly and grabbed hold of his jacket for balance, tilted on the broken shoe and brought her foot up.

Castle bent down and broke the heel off the good shoe, and her height dropped three inches. Kate gave him a weak smile and bent down to snag the gun from the dead guard.

"Fuck, this is fucked up," Castle heard, and he turned to find Hunt right there with Threkeld.

Kate glanced to Hunt then back to Castle, passing the guard's gun over to him. "Hunt played-"

"No time for a reunion," Castle said, cutting her off, fingers flexing on the gun. "Guy in the command center back there is in charge of this."

Kate darted a look past him but she moved for the door. "Esposito's coming through the back exit for us. Castle? You know where we need to go."

He didn't like it, but he took the lead with the guard's weapon while Kate followed in the rear with a gun she'd pulled out of her ripped clutch. Shit. He knew that weapon.

It only had five rounds. It barely did her any good.

It only took a few steps before Kate realized - someone was behind them.

She felt the ice go down her spine and she paused, opened her mouth to call quietly for her husband, but somehow Castle already knew. She didn't get a chance to say a word. He stopped dead and turned back to her, his eyes burning into hers. Hunt, holding up Threkeld, collided with Castle, but Castle shook his head, said something, and sent the two on ahead with the guard's gun.

"Kate," he said, coming back to her.

"Someone back there," she rasped. She felt it cold, cold down through to her bones. "Who was that-" She stopped and stared at him. "He saw you. Didn't he? Whoever he is, he saw you take out those guards like you do, super, and-"

Castle grabbed the gun from her hand before she could even finish her sentence.

She lunged for it, but Castle held her off.

"No! Castle."

"Go. Now. Get Threkeld to Esposito."

"Castle," she hissed.

"He knows my face, my identity. But he hasn't seen you."

Meaning, the man didn't know she was pregnant. Kate blinked, and Castle pushed her down the hall.

"Go. Get Threkeld to safety and I'll be right behind you."

If he kissed her, she wasn't going. If he did the whole damn good-bye shit, she was going to -

He didn't kiss her; he took off his shoes and socks, handed them to her. "For Threkeld. He's got nothing." And then Castle began stalking down the corridor, deadly, silent, completely capable. He didn't even give her a backward glance.

So Kate took a shaky breath and turned to follow Hunt and Threkeld. Sooner she got to Esposito, sooner she got a gun and could back Castle up.

There were only five rounds in that damn gun.

Castle breathed slowly, listening, unable to shut down the litany screaming in his own head.

Mr Wilson knew his cover. Mr Wilson had seen Rick Rodgers explode into spy mode and take out four guards, break the observational glass and rescue a doctor associated with the regimen program. Even if Wilson didn't suspect that Castle was super, he knew Rodgers was a cover.

And he knew who Mrs Rodgers was as well.

Castle could only come to one conclusion: Wilson had to die.

Thankfully, Wilson was following them and Beckett had sensed it, heard it somehow, before it could be too late.

Castle stepped lightly down the hallway, keeping the gun held in both hands, close to his body as he hunted. There were twists and turns this direction - they hadn't made it yet to the lone exit corridor when Kate had stopped - and he used those corners to his advantage.

He wasn't lost; he was backtracking the halls, snaking through the maze of closed, locked-door offices. Castle paused at a noise and listened carefully, hesitating at a corner.

He heard quick breathing.

Apparently Mr Wilson wasn't used to doing his own dirty work; he was breathing as hard as his rented embassy guards. Castle pressed himself to the wall. Wilson was just beyond the corner, coming a little too quickly.

Wilson had inspired quite a lot of fear in the guards, and he was most definitely Collective, but Wilson was only a man.

And Castle was more.

He crouched low to the ground and balanced on the balls of his feet, counted his breaths. The second before he was about to clear the corner and shoot, an icy cold fist gripped his spine. It stayed him, made him freeze in his tracks.

It was a decoy.

Castle pivoted in his crouch and brought the gun up, shot twice at the figure hurtling towards him. Wilson jerked, stunned, and stared down at the holes in his chest as if they were stains on his immaculate suit.

Castle shot him between the eyes and Wilson dropped. Three rounds.

Castle pressed back against the wall, carefully eased around the corner to check. It was a cell phone on the floor making the breathing noises, and Castle bent down, scooped it up.

He should take the phone with him, get what they could off its SIM card, for the contacts alone. And thinking of that-

He went back to the body, patted the man down until he found the tablet tucked into Wilson's inside jacket pocket. He pulled it out and woke the screen, saw his own face staring back at him - a DMV photo for Rick Rodgers.

And holy shit, the tablet was on a network.

He had no idea where this information had gone out to.

Threkeld was coming around, looking at little more with it, when Esposito shouted at them from the end of a long corridor, orienting them towards his voice. Kate turned and saw him sprinting down the hall, and she called to Hunt who had ranged a little ways ahead of them.

"Back this way," she yelled. "Espo!"

"Beckett. Where's Castle?"

"He went back. I need that gun."

"I gave you-"

"A damn bigger gun," she snarled. "Right now."

Esposito handed it to her in the next heartbeat, giving her the automatic. She spun on her damn broken heels and headed back into the maze of hallways, her direction unfaltering.

She sprinted, her shoes clattering against the floor, unable to take the time to be quieter. Her heart was pounding in her throat, but strangely - she didn't feel the baby at all.

Kate stopped before the T-junction, arrested by the silence.

Nothing inside her moving, nothing outside. That tickling sensation was gone, but so was the icy cold of fear. There was just - nothing. She pressed her elbows against her ribs and tried to be smart, tried to be better, tried to hold back.

But it was no use. She took the corner in a rush and ran full speed straight into Castle. He grunted and caught her elbows and something fell to the floor.

"Castle," she gasped.

"I need your help," he said, his eyes grim. He let go of her and bent down, grabbed something - a tablet. Held it out to her. "It's networked. I need you to-"

She snagged the tablet in horror, saw his face staring back at her. Not just his face, but Rick Rodgers's face.

"It's networked," he gruffed, cupping her elbows as she cradled the tablet.

"I can... I can't fix this," she moaned.

"Walker," he said. "Walker can fix it."

She stared up at him. "We don't have time."

"Walker can fix it," he repeated. He had started pushing her down the hall.

"No. Castle. The network, has to have network access. Walker and Mitch are too far-"

"I called Mitch," Castle said, shaking his head. "He's on his way in. He's-"

"You called Mitch?"

"Beckett, we need to meet them at the exit. Where's-"

She grabbed the lapel of his jacket and tugged him after her, started sprinting back for that corridor where she'd left Esposito. Castle jogged at her side, his hand fisted in the back of her dress, following her lead. She had the place ingrained; she knew it by heart. But these damn shoes.

She had the two of them at the corridor in moments, and there was Hunt - but he was ushering Walker down the hall. Mitchell had broken them in, thank God. She didn't think it would be possible.

"You got it?" Walker called.

"Hush, you damn idiot," Hunt hissed, head-checking the corridor. They met in the vast whiteness, and he immediately put his back to them, guarding their way.

"What are you doing here?" Castle harshed.

"I volunteered for this, don't ask me fucking why. The four of us are gonna have to do this on the run. Mitchell and Esposito busted Threkeld outta here and made a fucking scene at the back."

"What?" Castle growled.

"No use - couldn't help it. We can't go back that way, though. They're headed inside now, headed our way."

Kate shoved the tablet at Walker and brought her own weapon up, Castle at her side forming a wall. He growled something to Hunt and then turned to her. "We can't use the back exit; we can't use that damn door because it leads straight into the party. We are fucked."

"No. Actually. There's another way," she croaked. "Come on."

Thank God for the Hulk.

Castle was right on Beckett's lead, not happy with her taking point but not able to see a way around it. She'd led them to a concrete staircase that he'd missed in his previous searching, and they started up the stairs - horribly vulnerable to whatever might be coming down.

Hunt had the rear guard while Walker tried to network and run at the same time. It couldn't be easy on him, the jostling, getting jerked from doorway to doorway as they had run, but Castle had to give the man props for the cool way he handled himself.

Beckett had been right - Walker had something to prove to them, after Black, and they were getting a man more dedicated and loyal than any other they could have chosen.

When they got to a wooden door at the top of the stairs, Castle shouldered Beckett aside and went first, easing it open with his bulk blocking the line of sight. He waited a moment, listening, and already he could hear the security guards down in the atrium calling for attention in German and English, herding people.

The mission had truly gone to hell.

"Walker?" he called tightly.

"Almost there, almost..."

"Okay, Beckett, stay with him. Hunt. On me." He gave Kate a hard look, traded guns with her, and whatever rebellion had been fomenting seemed to die in her eyes. Hunt slithered up between them and Castle let the man go first, slid out from behind the door after him.

His eyes had to adjust to the relative dark, the muted hallway with its offices, the wood paneling. He checked the gun Beckett had given him - she had fucking knifed that guard, stabbed him in side of the neck, fuck she was badass-

"This way," Hunt murmured.

Castle gave him a suspicious look.

"Look, I know Agent Black has had some apparently nefarious dealings with you in the past, but he really did tell me to provide back-up. I can't do that if you're constantly second-guessing me."

Black did what?

"So, follow my lead here. We'll clear the floor, shimmy out a window on the side of the property; it's right against the trees. I scouted my exits before I got here - unlike some people."

Castle turned and yanked open the door, got a faceful of Beckett's gun. "Stand down, Beckett. What the hell is Hunt talking about - my father providing back-up?"

"Explain later," she said tersely. "But it's all we got right now, so if you want us to get out of here-"

Castle shut the door on her, fury in a tight, hot ball in his throat. He gestured for Hunt to go first, leaving Kate at the top of the stairs with Walker, and they quietly began to work the hall.

He texted her when the first floor was clear and she and Walker crept out of the stairs, hurrying to meet them at the far end. Kate's shoes were in one hand, a look on her face that he chose not to argue with. Hunt had secured the fire exit stairwell, and so they began to climb.

"Why are we going up?" Kate hissed.

"He scouted a window escape," Castle muttered. He wasn't sure he believed Hunt but from the sounds that rose to them from the atrium, the second floor hallway wasn't going to be clear for long. The security team was probably concentrating on the back command center, but eventually someone was going to remember that access stairs they had just used.

Hunt's shoes made an odd echoing sound in the stairwell that Castle didn't like, but it could be because he was actually wearing shoes. Castle had left his with Beckett and she'd put them on Threkeld - or he hoped she had, since the man had been in tatters - and Beckett's shoes were ruined in her hand.

Or it could be that Hunt had a tracker in his shoe. A small device in the sole that was causing that metallic-

"Here we are," Hunt said, easing open the stairwell door. This was the business side of the embassy's main building and the floor was pitch black, the carpeting industrial, the paint well-worn. Nothing like the marble finishings in the atrium.

"You first," Kate told Ethan. "Lead the way."

Castle reached out and squeezed Kate's free hand, Walker bumping between them - apparently having used the pause on the landing to work some kind of magic. He held up the palm-sized tablet in triumph.

"I did it. I got it. Everything's erased."

"Was it sent out?" Castle asked, ushering the man over the threshold with Kate at his back.

"There's no 'out' to send it to. He was using the embassy's in-house network to call up the guest list and then he cross-checked your name to the skimpy background check they'd done. None of this was even google-searched, so I deleted some history, the cache, those normal things, and then I rewrote jibberish on top of your names in the guest list.

"Won't they know that-"

"They won't know unless they look very, very carefully. And even then, all they'll get is that three names were erased from their database. I did his too, throw them off."

"You erased our names from the guest list?" Kate asked, pushing up between them.

"Yes. I figured-"

"You figured right," Castle sighed. "Thank you. God. Thank you-"

"You should be in the clear. I got on their network and checked traffic and he didn't send any emails, didn't report to anyone. I assume you... ah, took care of him?"

"It's taken care of," Castle said quickly. "And now we need to get out of here. Can you hang on to that thing without it being tracked?"

"For now, yes. I can do a more extensive wipe of the tablet when we get back to the safe house."

"Then put it in your pocket and let's hustle."

Just then, Ethan appeared as if from nowhere, an open door and his smug, arrogant grin. "I got it. Right here. Come on."

Castle stayed in the back of their group while Kate and Walker followed Ethan inside what turned out to be some kind of executive boardroom. She scanned the room quickly, noted the luxury, and then she saw the balcony at the far end of the panel of windows. It had tables set up like a cafe, maybe to take lunch meetings out there.

"Balcony leads where?" she asked Hunt.

"It's something of a drop," he warned her, glancing back at Walker. At least Walker had good shoes. "But if we go the slow route, it's a shimmy down a pillar to a first floor porch at the back. The roof is flat and houses HVAC vents, that kind of thing."

"Let's see it," she told him. Hunt turned and opened the sliding glass door, and immediately an alarm sounded.

Hunt swore but Castle was already shoving them out onto the balcony, pushing at them from behind to get going. Kate ran to the far end of the modern cafe set-up, pressed her hips into the metal railing to lean forward and look down.

It was something of a drop all right. The first floor with its vaulted windows and atrium ceiling meant the porch roof was closer than it should have been, but it was still a long way down.

"Kate?"

"I can do it," she told him. "Walker? What about you?"

Walker peered over the edge and then back to the sliding glass door. "I guess I have to, don't I? I can do it."

He probably couldn't.

"When you drop, you gotta roll," Castle told him. "Don't land on your feet, let your knees bend and absorb the energy and roll into it."

"All right," Walker said.

"Or you can climb down-" Kate started, but she stopped, all four of them looking at each other. They didn't have time for a climb, and they all knew it. Embassy security would know already which alarm had been breached and be coming for them.

"Hunt, you first," she said.

Ethan put a foot on the railing and swung around like a monkey, gripping the metal bars with both hands on the other side now. His feet swung for a second and then he dropped, making a crunching sound as he hit the porch roof.

But he rolled and came up cleanly, started heading to the far edge, not even looking back. He disappeared over the first-floor roof's edge in a second.

They were on their own, no doubt.

Kate went next, rolling over the railing and lowering herself down inch by inch until she hung from just the concrete slab of the balcony. She didn't look at Castle; she knew he was holding it in, everything, all of it.

Kate let go and felt her dress flutter around her legs and the warm air like a caress, and then she hit the roof and rolled, her knees and hips stinging but okay. She had to be okay. She got to her feet and gave a thumb's up above her, and she saw the grim determination on Castle's face as he turned to Walker.

But Walker was already climbing out on the ledge.

He had to admit - Walker had guts taking that leap.

Beckett had been so very right when she'd said that publicly forgiving the man would create the strongest loyalty. He had jumped off a balcony for goodness sake.

Castle followed easily, rolling and coming up on his feet without a hitch even as Kate sighed at him. She had no room to sigh. Her pregnant self had taken that fall like a professional and while that was good for this mission, for escaping alive, it bothered him on another level.

What were those pills doing to her?

She took his hand as they ran across the top of the flat roof, dodging vents and pipes, boxy contraptions with no names, metal ductwork. Hunt was gone, disappeared, but Castle didn't want to be responsible for Hunt anyway.

Hunt had no idea about him, about the regimen. If he got caught, it might actually work in their favor. A convenient patsy.

At the end of the roof was a massive oak tree shading the far side of the building, and it was easy to reach out and grab a limb, move deeper into its branches and then down the far side of the trunk. Even Walker didn't seem to have a problem, though his face was red and he was sweating by the end of it.

They landed on the soft grass just inside the fence and Castle took out his phone, called Esposito.

"Where are you?"

"Northwest corner by the fence. Wooded area. Can you extract?"

"I damn well will."

Castle heard the call of security guards near the front and then Beckett clutched a fistful of his jacket, urgency in her grip. "Castle-"

A voice boomed out. "What the hell are you doing?"

Castle pivoted towards the man, drawing his weapon, but it was only Hunt coming out of the trees, running an avoidance pattern. "Hunt-"

"I told you to wait there for me. I turn around and you guys are running off into the trees."

"You bolted," Castle growled. "You left us."

"I was going to get the damn fire escape ladder. Unlike you, I had an actual plan. I had contingencies in place."

"We had a plan, and then your arrival kinda shot it all to hell," Castle roared, shoving hard on Hunt's shoulders.

"Rick!" Kate stepped into him, hands snagging his wrists and holding him to her. He glanced down and the flicker of fear behind her eyes made his guts clench.

"Kate-"

"We have to go," she said intensely. Her head turned back to Hunt. "We have to go. What was the plan?"

Hunt threw him a wary look, but he pointed vaguely towards the eastern corner of the campus. "I scouted an exit through the fence. We can make our escape there."

"Rick," Kate said softly. He glanced down at her and she had scooped up the phone; he hadn't realized he'd dropped it when he'd confronted Hunt. She gave it back him, her fingers lingering over his palm. "Sometimes we have to accept help from him. Sometimes our goals line up just right."

He didn't believe that for a second, but there was no other choice. "Hunt. Lead on."

He did, and they followed Hunt as he wound deeper through the trees, circling away from the corner where Castle had asked Esposito to meet them. He pressed the phone to his ear with his shoulder. "Espo?"

He heard the chatter of guns and the scream of a car horn as someone went by at a high rate of speed. A car chase. Shit.

"Esposito?"

"I'm - uh - I'm here. What do you need me to do?"

"Are you fucking taking fire?"

"Yeah. Mitch split off with Threkeld. I'm the decoy. You got some Collective bastards out here, you know."

"Look, we're following Ethan Hunt." He lifted his chin and risked calling out to the man. "Hunt. You have a vehicle out there? Because ours left with the doc."

"I got wheels. I had an actual plan, you arsehole."

He gritted his teeth and spoke into the phone. "You hear that, Espo?" Castle glanced over at his wife to see if she'd caught Hunt's snide remark, but Beckett was hurrying Walker. Castle could see that the man had been injured - probably twisted an ankle or knee jumping from the balcony - and he was slowing them down.

"Espo?" he said into the phone, hurrying to Walker's side. He got a shoulder under Walker's armpit and carried most of his weight. "We have a ride. You be safe."

"I got - got you. I'll circle back-"

"No. You just get the hell out of here, Espo. We'll rendezvous in New York, got me?"

"Naw, man. You need-"

"Beckett and I have this handled. You're too hot right now."

"I am not fucking leaving you guys," Espo growled.

"Yes you are, Esposito. That's a damn order." Castle ended the call and shoved the phone into his pocket just as Hunt led them to the fence.

There was a guard gate.

"What the hell?" Beckett hissed, grabbing Walker and keeping him back. "Hunt. What the hell-"

"It's abandoned," Ethan said smoothly. "I did my research. They don't use the back entrance because it's so wooded - their security chief suggested it would be too easy for snipers. So they locked it up back here, but I busted the lock about six hours ago when I got the call. We can crawl through the guardhouse to the other side."

"The call from Black," Castle said dryly, pressing Kate back with a hand when she started to step forward. They were still in the thick of the woods on this side of the property and he could hear the guests even from here, the sound echoing against the tree trunks.

Either they'd gotten really lucky, or Espo and Mitch's break-out had been so spectacular that the embassy security forces didn't know they still had unwanteds on their soil. He was guessing the latter, since Esposito was taking fire.

"Hunt, you first," Castle said, shifting in front of Kate and Walker both to hold them back.

Hunt tossed him a condescending look, but he slid out from the shadow of the trees and made straight for the abandoned guard house. He used his elbow to bust out a window that seemed to have been previously weakened. It was smart - it's what Castle would have done himself, if they'd needed a secondary escape route.

But they hadn't researched this mission like they usually did; they hadn't put the time into making it perfect and working out every kink because they didn't have the time.

And how, exactly, had Hunt had the time? It was Castle's father who had found Threkeld's location for them. When had his father known about the Austrian Embassy? When had he sent Hunt - only six hours ago?

Ethan reached through the splintered remains of the window and gave a wrenching shove, and then the door was cracking open. He really had come to back them up, Castle didn't doubt that now, but what he wondered was whether or not Hunt had been here long before them.

He didn't have time to stop and interrogate the man. Kate was pushing past him, herding Walker ahead of her, and she gave Castle a measured look as if to say, trust him or not - this is our only option.

She was right. Walker wasn't an agent and Beckett was pregnant. Hunt was their only option.