And now the conclusion. Hope you like it :)
Disclaimer: The usual
Later, after an hour of reaffirming their relationship and survival in various positions, both were lying in each others arms, enjoying the warmth their bodies exuded, the room illuminated by the bright full moon. Their rest was cut short, when their bedroom door was kicked open and a massive man was standing in the frame, pointing a shotgun at them.
Letting out a scream of surprise, Rick and Kate sat up, with Kate covering her topless upper body with the blanket. After a few seconds of nothing happening, they looked at each other and then the gunman in confusion. Only then did Kate realize that he had a mask on.
"Don't worry, he couldn't move even if his life depended on it. Which it kind of does." the voice of their guest came from behind the gunman, right before the owner of the voice appeared.
"What did you do to him?" Kate asked.
"Highly concentrated, fast working paralyzing agent. Made from the poison of a south american spider." Dough answered, and dragged the gunman into the main room of the suite. "Get dressed and come out here. We have work to do." he called from the outside.
Rick and Kate got out of bed and put on clothes. The thought of being surprised by a maniac with a gun when you are only wearing panties made Kate blush and somewhat relieved that they allowed Dough to stay. It was a little unnerving for Kate that they had to be saved twice in one day by a professional killer, despite the fact that said person never showed any ill will towards them.
After putting on shoes, they joined Dough in the main room. He had propped up the gunman at the table and bound him to the back of the chair he was sitting on so his upper body wouldn't fall on the table. It was only then that Kate noticed the other two people lying unbound on the floor in the doorway to Dough's bedroom. She raised an eyebrow to him.
"Put the same stuff into them. Don't worry. Now lets see..."
With that, he went to the sitting gunman and put a small case onto the table that resembled a toolbox.
"What the hell is that thing?" Rick asked as he saw the contraption Dough took out of the case.
"It's an injector combined with a skin regenerator. See this little vial on the top?" Dough asked and pointed to the small vial that contained a light blue liquid. "This is a substance that regenerates the skin after you took out the needle of the injector. That way you can disguise the fact that you injected something into a body. A heroin addict could fool someone into believing him he doesn't do it when the obvious marks are missing on his body."
"It looks like the miniature pistol Will Smith used in Men in Black." Rick commented and earned himself an eyeroll from both Kate and Dough.
Without preamble and to Kate and Rick's revulsion he first rammed the injector into the jugular of the gunman before changing needle and vial only to ram another injection into his jaw. The guy began to scream and yell, which earned him a slap on the face from Dough. That alone didn't shut him up but one look into the eyes of the man who slapped him did the trick. Dough for his part just calmly sat down opposite him as the man's glazed eyes started to clear.
"What did you inject him with?" Kate asked.
"The first injection is a substance only known as SP-117. It's a russian developed truth serum that works like the others but it has none of the side effects like nausea and the victim has no recollection afterward. Kind of like high doses of scopolamine. The second injection counteracts the paralyzing agent I gave him earlier. But it works very locally so only the jaw muscles can move again."
With no more explanation, he turned to the gunman.
"What's your name?"
"... Eduardo Tahibi." the gunman said after much effort not to.
"Okay Eduardo. Do you work for the cartel?"
"Yes."
"Who sent you?"
"My boss."
"What's his name?"
"Tuco Ramirez."
" Is he the highest boss or your direct superior?"
"Direct one."
"And who does he report to? Who's the leader of your cartel?"
It was obvious to Rick and Kate that the gunman was trying hard not to answer the question. But the drugs coursing through his system made all his efforts futile.
"Nico Salamandra." Eduardo blurted out.
The name caused a sharp intake of breath in Kate. The name Nico Salamandra was a legend in law enforcement circles. A phantom. No one has ever laid eyes on that person, not even his closest lieutenants. He ruled with an iron fist, enemies or investigating agents disappeared without a trace only to reappear dead with their bodies mutilated as a warning to others.
Both the mexican and american authorities have placed high bounties on information that lead to capture of him. To his credit, John Dough seemed unfazed by the prospect of taking him on. But Kate was very nervous. She and Rick again got dragged into something that was, much to her chagrin, way over their heads.
"And where would I find Nico Salamandra?" Dough asked.
"I don't know."
"How did your direct supervisor get his orders?"
"A courier sent them."
"And how does the courier get them?"
"I don't know."
"Can you describe the courier?"
"No, she always comes with a motorcycle and never takes off her helmet."
"She? How do you know it is a woman?"
"Visible breast bulges under the leather."
"Okay. What was your exact order?"
"To kill you and your two associates."
Dough turned his head towards Rick and Kate and shot them an apologetic look. It seemed Kate's prediction had come true and they both were already knee deep in danger.
"How did you know where to find me?"
"Informants on the street saw you enter here. And his name is known to the boss." the gunman said and pointed his head towards Castle.
"Weren't you worried that the surveillance cameras filmed you coming up here?"
"That's what the masks are for."
"If you had succeeded, what would have happened?"
"We would have returned and our boss would have ordered to courier back to report your death to Salamandra."
"So no one is ever in direct contact with Salamandra?"
"Not that I know of. I have no idea if the courier meets the boss or if she picks up the orders from drop boxes."
Without acknowledging Eduardo anymore, Dough checked his watch. got up and made his way over to Rick and Kate.
"Well, that could have worked out better. Makes my job a bit harder when no one knows how the boss looks like."
"What happens now?" Kate asked.
"I will find Tuco Ramirez and question him. I can try to get in contact with the courier and tail her."
"I mean, what will happen with these three? Will you kill them now?"
"No, I did that half an hour ago when I injected them with the paralyzing agent."
"What?" Rick asked, shocked.
"Yeah, it works inwards. The first thing to get paralyzed are the outer muscles so you can't move. Then the paralysis spreads inwards. After about thirty minutes, it reaches the heart and lungs. The victim dies of cardiac arrest."
As if on cue, when Dough finished his explanation, Eduardo's head dropped. The restraints were keeping his body up but the way the head lolled around she knew he just dropped dead.
"Great, how do we explain three dead bodies in our suite?" Rick asked.
"We don't." Dough answered. "Come on, we have work to do. You put on some gloves." he told them and both hurried to comply. Dough went to the bodies and injected something into all three of them and then took out a small notebook and started typing.
"What are you doing?" Kate asked.
"Hacking into the surveillance system of this hotel. Now please be quiet, I have to concentrate." he said and went back to his work. They waited in silence for two minutes.
"Aha. Got it." Dough said. "We're in luck. They came up the eastern stairwell and the camera on this floor covering it has been broken for two days. Come on."
Dough jumped up and went to the other two men who were still lying on the floor into his bedroom. Without hesitation he grabbed one and threw him over his shoulder and picked up the other by the belt. Kate again was amazed by the strength he displayed.
"Mister Castle, take the big guy. Don't forget to cut the restraints first. Detective, you will stand guard. And for heavens sake be quiet out there. The last thing we need is another guest sticking his head out the door and seeing us."
Rick manhandled the big guy over his shoulder and both followed Dough into the hallway. They hurried towards the stairwell Dough had mentioned and Kate was mesmerized by the way the assassin moved. Rick next to her puffed and you could hear his footsteps on the carpet. But even though Dough was right in front of them carrying two bodies, she couldn't hear a sound. No hard breathing, no sounds of a footstep.
When they reached the stairwell, Dough went down halfway and dropped the bodies. He mentioned for Rick to do the same and after a minute he had lain them out in a manner that looked as if they had walked single file up the stairs and had dropped dead at the same time. Satisfied with the layout, Dough hurried them back into their suite and got back to his notebook.
"What are you doing now?" Kate asked.
"Manipulating the recordings. Before we went out, I looped the hallway camera so it wouldn't record us moving the bodies. Now I only have to delete the part of the recording that show them entering this floor and nobody will know that they were ever here. As far as their investigation is concerned, they got up the stairwell but between floor three and four and they suddenly died."
"You can do that?"
"Yes, thankfully it's very easy here. The surveillance system that they use records thirty minutes and saves them on their server. So each day consists of 24 videos each thirty minutes long. I just have to delete the one showing them on this floor and replace it with another. Then a little tweaking of the time stamp and we're good to go."
"But if their coroner is any good, they will know that they died of a toxin."
"They would, but before hacking into their system I injected them with a masking agent that put their time of injection to twelve hours before their death. For them, they got injected with a toxin that stopped their heart twelve hours after injection."
"Won't they find the masking agent?"
"Not if they don't know what exactly to look for. It gets masked by the body's own hormones."
"Good lord, is there nothing you don't think of?" Kate asked, exasperated.
"If you want to survive in my line of work, you can't have police investigating all your hits. Especially in today's world where everything gets recorded. If some medical examiner places the time and cause of a death to a specific time and I get recorded close to this place, I become a person of interest. If that happens too often, my career is over. Although most of my hits appear as accidents or natural.
"Okay, I'm done. Nobody will know they were ever on this floor or this room."
"What happens now?" Rick asked.
"Go back to bed. When you wake up tomorrow I will be gone. I will leave the address of the place where you need to pick up my package and where to leave it. After that, I'd advise you to abort your vacation and return home. The fact that three people died in this hotel tonight under strange circumstances won't make your departure suspicious."
"I think, we will do that." Rick said and went into their bedroom. Kate hesitated and turned to Dough.
"Can I ask you something?"
"Sure."
"How many people have you killed in your life?"
"Are you really asking for my number?" Dough asked and Kate couldn't help but smile at his choice of words. She said the same to Rick during the Michael Bailey case. Although in her case the number represented something else.
"Kind of, yeah."
"You don't want to know. You really don't." Dough said with a sigh and looked out the balcony window.
"That high?"
Dough only shook his head and went to his bedroom. Kate looked after him and went to Rick and hers, joining him in bed and quickly falling asleep.
After dreaming of people walking into their bedroom, shooting them, strangling them, always doing something bad to them, Kate woke up when dawn was outside the window and after getting up she realized that Dough had kept his word and was gone. His bed was made, the room tidy. Nothing in the suite showed anything that a third person has ever been here.
If it weren't for the piece of paper with an address and an envelope on the table, Kate might have thought the whole thing had been a dream. She picked up the paper and sighed before making her way back to the bedroom and snuggled back into Rick's arms. She couldn't fall back to sleep but she enjoyed the warmth Rick excluded.
She didn't know how long she had been lying there when Rick woke up. He kissed her good morning and after their morning routine they ordered their breakfast and discussed their plans for the day.
"Here are the addresses where we get the package and where we have to drop it off." Kate said to Rick as he stuffed another piece of bacon into his mouth.
"Is there a time on it? Or can we do that today on our leisure?" Rick asked.
"No, but I guess we shouldn't wait too long to do it. We're supposed to give this envelope to whoever is there at the pickup."
"Want to do it after lunch? We could combine it with a little shopping and the streets are pretty full so we hopefully avoid any more attacks."
"Sure, sounds great. But I think we should abort our vacation as Dough suggested. We're too high profile here at the moment and the last thing I want is to watch you die."
"I also would hate to see you die... again." Rick said quietly, remembering the day Kate was shot.
"Do you think we're somehow cursed? Every time we try to go on vacation, we're getting pulled into something."
"I don't know. But during the Hamptons thing at least we weren't in mortal danger. Next time you take a vacation, I'm taking you on a cruise."
"If you take me on a cruise, the ship will be boarded by pirates." Kate replied with a smile.
"Don't invite the devil." Rick said but had to laugh as well.
They enjoyed the rest of their breakfast in silence and made their way into the hallway. They noticed the police tape on the eastern stairwell. Looking at each other they made their way to the western stairwell and exited the hotel.
"This time it doesn't feel like we're being followed." Rick said as he walked hand in hand with Kate.
"Yeah. We're close to the place where we have to pick up Dough's package." Kate said and pulled Rick towards a small shop that looked like an antique store.
When they entered it, they were surrounded by old things. The air smelt like a mixture of dust and musk. The clerk behind the counter looked like his wares, old and also smelling of musk. Kate handed him the envelope and he disappeared into his backroom. Kate watched around and saw Castle play with some of the merchandise, making her smile. Before she could say something, the clerk came back and handed her a small box. She got Castle and they headed back out to the streets.
"Where to now?" Rick asked.
"The address for the drop is about two miles from here. Lets stay on the busy streets."
They made their way through the streets, dodging groups of other tourists and over eager street vendors. Kate couldn't help but notice herself to be on the lookout for anything. Every street vendor or tourist could be a hidden cartel member or informant. She shook her head at her suspicions. One day with John Dough and her paranoia was in full swing.
Despite her misgivings, their trip was uneventful, the drop point nothing but an old mail box. This measure was so old it might even work. If she didn't know Dough was the best of his trade, she would have pegged him for an amateur for choosing such a poor spot.
"Come on Rick, we're done. Lets head back and pack. I want to be out of this country tonight." Kate said.
"Right. Lets hurry. I have a feeling that something bad will happen soon." Rick said and they picked up the pace.
After about ten minutes it happened. A large transporter stopped beside them with screeching tires, the side door sliding open and two men with masks on shooting at them. Kate realized that they had been hit by tranquilizer darts when she saw the ends sticking out of her body. She tried to turn around and run and drag Rick with her but her eyes were already falling shut.
She only partially felt herself hit the ground before strong arms grabbed her and dragged her into the transporter.
"Wake up!" a female voice shouted through the curtain of unconsciousness. Kate opened her eyes to see a middle-aged woman standing in front of her, long black hair framing a face that saw too much hardship. When the woman saw Kate awake she went over to Rick whose had was still hanging low.
Kate flinched when the woman gave Rick a hard slap on the cheek, yelling the wake up call at him like she had at Kate. Rick slowly woke up, lifting his head and looking around. When his eyes found Kate, his features relaxed slightly.
The look that passed between them told each other more than words could express. They were scared, being bound to uncomfortable chairs with an unknown woman screaming at them. Her eyes told him 'I love you' and his reciprocated in kind.
"Well well, now that you are finally awake, you can start to give me some answers." the woman started in very spanish accented english. "Tell me the name of your associate."
"I have no idea who you are talking about." Rick said, which earned him another slap in the face.
"Don't take me for a fool. This man!" she shouted and held up a picture, showing both of them together with John Dough in the alley where they had met them first during their stay.
"He saved us from a mugging. We thanked him but didn't ask for his name."
"Don't lie to me. You were seen leaving with him. You entered your hotel together and he didn't come out that night. Furthermore, my men went in but only came out feet first the morning after!"
"Your men..." Rick said to himself, loud enough for Kate to hear.
"What was that?" the woman asked him.
"You're Nico Salamandra!" Rick exclaimed.
"You're very astute Mister Castle." she said and his eyes went wide. "Yes, I know who you are. And your IDs were in your pockets. Just because you are a rich author and your squeeze is a police detective won't stop me from killing you when I have what I want."
"You know he will come for you." Kate said.
"So? I am guarded by a group of elite bodyguards who only live to obey me. This compound is walled and riddled with sensors, if a pigeon sneezes on the ground outside I will know about it. This window is made of two inch bulletproof glass. The door is solid steel and only I know the code for the lock. Nobody but me gets in here. So even if he gets onto this compound, he will never make it into this room. And even if he manages to get to the door, my men will kill him once he tries to open it."
Kate looked at Rick and sighed. She had no idea how to get out of this situation. Their only hope was John Dough but he probably didn't even know where they were. Hell, Kate didn't even know where they were.
"Call him!" the woman shouted.
"Excuse me?" Kate asked.
"I said call him."
"How? Why would I have contact information for him?"
"Oh you don't? Then whose phone is that?" the woman asked and held up an old looking cell phone.
"Not mine and not his." Kate answered and pointed to Castle with her head.
"Really? Strange that it only has a single phone number in its memory."
"Even if it is his phone and I call him, what should I say?" Kate asked.
"Tell him, you have information on me and you want to meet."
"Why would I do that?"
"Because if you don't I will kill your lover here. Slowly and very painfully. And you will get to watch me do it. Lets call, shall we?" Nico said and dialed. She put the phone on speaker and held it close to Kate.
"Yes?" came the familiar voice of John Dough out of the speaker.
"Beckett here. I have information for you on Nico Salamandra. Can we meet in person?"
"What kind of information?" came back from Dough.
"Personal ones, maybe even the location."
"Personal ones like Nico Salamandra is a woman? Or that she is in a secure room behind bulletproof glass on a walled compound guarded by fifty bodyguards who are very well armed?" Dough said and Nico's eyes went wide with surprise with Kate and Rick showing the same reaction.
"YOU WON'T COME NEAR ME, YOU HEAR ME?" Nico shouted into the phone. "IF I SEE YOU OR GET WORD THAT YOU WERE SEEN ON MY COMPOUND I WILL KILL YOUR FRIENDS!"
"You made a grave mistake Nico." Dough stated calmly.
"And what is that?!" Nico yelled into the phone.
"You assumed that bulletproof glass is really bulletproof." he said and hung up.
Nico Salamandra had only a second to wonder what Dough meant before her head exploded.
John Dough smiled when he saw the confused look of his target through the scope. His gloved finger depressed the trigger, which caused a chain of reaction that in 99 of a hundred cases resulted in the death of the target.
Combined with the design of his custom sniper rifle, that he could dismantle in less than a minute into pieces that fit easily into his backpack, the ammo he used made the usual protections of bad people obsolete. The barrel, made with his own exact specification was a hair's breath thinner than the bullet. Half a dozen very flat panels running the inside length of the barrel sheared off the excess width of the bullet, the panel alignment causing the bullet to start a fast rotation, which guaranteed a stable flight.
The bullet exited the barrel 0,06 seconds after the depressing of the trigger with a exit velocity of 2859 feet per second. Since the target was only 925 feet away, the bullet reached it in less than a second. The flash was bright enough to be seen by Nico Salamandra but with a flying time of less than half a second she had no time to react at all.
During its flight, the bullet lost speed and height due to gravity and air friction. But the scope was adjusted to compensate exactly that. When the target was in the center of the crosshairs, the barrel targeted a point about 15 inch above the target. At a shorter distance this could have led to him missing the target but the scope was preset to exactly 925 feet.
When he told her that bulletproof glass is not really bulletproof, he was right of course. Glass could be made thicker or harder but it wasn't different from other armor materials. It was subject to the same laws of nature and those don't allow the existence of an immobile object which is the glass and an unstoppable force which is the bullet. Bulletproof glass was designed to stop or deflect the most widespread forms of ammunition that was used worldwide by hitmen, terrorists or homicidal maniacs. But a high caliber bullet can destroy it.
As can specialized ammunition. His bullet was, like his rifle, made to his exact specifications. The core was a small amount of cesium, surrounded by a tungsten mantle formed like a needle with the whole thing encased in a lead sabot.
When the bullet hit the glass, it transferred an enormous amount of kinetic energy. The glass, which in reality was an extremely viscous liquid bulged inwards but when the strain of the impacting force became too much it began to buckle. Microscopic cracks appeared at the point of impact which spread outwards in a cobweb shape.
These hair cracks were prove that the glass was doing its job because the formation of those cracks used up a lot of energy. The glass buckled in a very small area but it stopped the bullet. The rest of the window held and the 33 grams of lead were flattened by the impact without penetrating the glass.
The tungsten needle wouldn't be as easily stopped like the soft lead. The 3 millimeter needle with the bulge at the end shed its lead hull and broke through the weakened glass. It covered the distance to Nico Salamandra's head in the blink of an eye with the uneven crack structure of the glass impacting its flight stability.
The needle started to spin slightly and hit Nico Salamandra right under her left eye. The skull density changed the trajectory, the bullet ripping through the brain matter and shattering apart. The cesium reacted with the brain fluids in the same way every column 1 elements reacted with water. Violently. The explosion fractured the back of her skull, the pressure pushing the brain matter into the direction of the fracture.
Before Nico Salamandra's body had came to rest of the floor, John Dough had his sniper rifle packed up again and a zip line shot at the walls above the next door window. Hooking himself to it, he flew over the compound, closing in on the window that was made of regular glass.
Exactly 85 seconds after Nico Salamandra's brain had been distributed around her room, a crash was heard in the neighboring room. Thirty seconds after that crashing sound, an immensely hot and bright flame shot out of the lock. Both Rick and Kate, having seen that on TV and in real life, saw the effect of a thermite charge eating through the lock.
When the charge had fizzled out, a kick opened the door and a grim looking John Dough entered the room, wasting no time with words and cutting the binds of Rick and Kate. They got up and looked in astonishment at the window that had a small hole in it surrounded by a cobweb of slivered glass.
"How...?" Kate started but Dough silenced her with a gesture.
"We don't have time for long explanations of my awesomeness. Her bodyguards know I'm here and they will attack soon. We need to get ready."
"Ready how?" Rick asked, not really wanting to know the answer.
Instead of answering, Dough shed his cloak that was still studded with broken glass and revealed a tight black bodyglove underneath, with body armor covering his chest, arms and legs except for the joints. He took off his backpack, which was more a roll of linen and unrolled it, revealing a startling collection of guns and knives.
Taking out two handguns he passed one to Kate and one to Rick along with several magazines. Kate, her police training taking over, checked the gun and put the spare magazines into her pocket. Rick on the other hand looked at the gun with a face that told of apprehensive revulsion.
"I know that you are not used to killing other people Mister Castle." Dough said. "But you might not have another choice. But to make it easier for both of you, it would be best if you concentrated on covering my back. You do not want to be in front of me when the shooting starts."
They heard the heavy trampling of several pairs of feet coming down the hallway towards the room they were in. Dough mentioned for them to get behind the large table that dominated the inner side of the room while he took position next to the door. Only then did they notice the Katana in Dough's hand.
The first of the bodyguards that came through the door died without uttering a sound, his head almost sheared of his body as the Katana passed right through the neck, opening it to the bone. The second one had time to shout out his surprise before the Katana was rammed into his chest, piercing it at the exact location to pass between two ribs through the heart and almost half of the blade exiting the back.
The third bodyguard tried to stop but his momentum carried him onto the blade, his position relative to the one in front of him making the sword penetrate his heart as well. Dough, realizing the Katana was stuck in two bodies, quickly let go of it and drew a wicked looking combat knife before retreating two steps into the room at an angle away from the door.
More bodyguards came through the door, shouting and were met with fist and blade by someone who was an expert at hand to hand fighting. Every swing of the knife wounded an enemy, opened an artery or severed ligaments. One bodyguard tried to kick the assassin but Dough caught his leg, rammed his knife into the thigh and pulled it down to the knee, opening it up. Three quick slashes into the chest silenced the screaming attacker.
Once again Kate couldn't believe her eyes. It took fifteen seconds for John Dough to kill eight elite bodyguards without firing a single shot. And he wasn't even breathing hard. Rick looked as if he might throw up at the grisly sight in front of him. The carpet was wet with blood, the coppery tang of it permeating the air around them.
Without saying a word, Dough emptied the desk and stuffed every file he found into his backpack and then mentioned for them to follow him, before grabbing his sword from the dead guards and setting out at a brisk pace with his familiar silence. No footsteps were heard from him while she and Rick made comparatively lots of noise. Suddenly another group of bodyguards closed in on them. Dough ushered them into a nook in the hallway as the attackers opened fire with their automatic rifles, the noise deafening in the confined space.
Dough mentioned for four attackers and Kate nodded. Quickly leaning out during a break in the fire he popped off two shots and mentioned two fingers to Kate, again amazing her with his marksmanship. Another burst of enemy fire rattled through the corridor, hitting the walls and bouncing off, making the group realize that the walls were reinforced concrete. Kate sent a silent prayer as thanks for it prevented deep penetration.
Another break in the fire led to Dough shooting the other two guards in quick succession, opening the way for them again. When they entered a large room with a raised gallery, their problems multiplied extremely. About twenty guards were standing on the gallery, guns raised. Still, they had a bit of luck, when the space before the door was wide enough for them to hide.
"They have a machine gun." Dough stated exasperated before any way of answering by the deafening roar of a rapid fire, belt-fed machine gun along with a number of automatic rifles. The large caliber of the machine gun caused concrete splinters to split off the walls. If they couldn't silence the gun, it would eat through the walls at some point.
Kate looked over to Dough, who was digging around in his pack, taking out a tube and a few round objects. With a shock she realized it what it was and she pointed Rick's gaze into Dough's direction.
"He has a grenade launcher!" she shouted over the noise of the gunfire. Rick's eyes went wide as they watched the assassin work, holding the tube in a ready position. When the machine gun stopped firing, for whatever reason, Dough held it out and pushed the button of the tube launcher, sending a grenade in a parabolic arc towards their enemies.
A loud bang that put the gunfire noise to shame rang out from the confines of the hall, followed by screams of pain from guards who were hit by shrapnel before a series of secondary explosions that sounded like extremely loud firecrackers told them that the machine gun ammunition must have detonated.
Silence followed as the smoke cleared. When Rick and Kate opened their eyes again, they noticed John Dough gone. Kate risked a quick look, seeing Dough speeding up the ramp to the gallery and methodically dispatching the wounded guards. Although she knew it was necessary, she felt repulsed by the coldhearted actions he showed.
"Come on. The garage is this way." Dough yelled and took off towards a side door.
Rick and Kate ran behind him, entering the large garage filled with several types of vehicles. Motorcycles, SUVs, pick up trucks and regular cars. Despite several vehicles standing close to them, Dough ran towards a black SUV in the back of the garage.
"Get in!" he shouted before jumping inside. Rick and Kate got in behind them, finding Dough in the back of the vehicle, sitting at some contraption looking like a turret.
"You drive." Dough said to Kate, pointing at the keys in the ignition.
"How do we get out? The door is closed." she asked.
"I will take care of that, just drive. This car is armored and heavy, factor that into your driving style."
Kate took off towards the big double doors. Dough activated something behind them, lifting himself up through an opening in the roof. Before she could wonder what he was doing, they heard the whining sound of turning minigun barrels before a tremendous amount of bullets impacted against the doors. Dough raked them in a circling motion, weakening them before Kate rammed through them, the outside light momentarily blinding her. She sped over the compound towards the main gate and Dough again raked the minigun over it, shooting out the large locks, making the door swing open by itself.
Bullets were impacting the vehicle, leading Dough to turn the gun and strafing it left and right, turning the remaining guards to pulp before Kate rammed through the Gates and they sped towards the near city.
"We're outside the city." Rick mentioned, looking around and seeing smoke rising from the cartel compound. Dough lowered the gun down into the SUV and locked the turret.
"Brace yourself." he said before the shockwave of a huge explosion hammered them from behind.
"What was that?" Rick asked.
"I think their gasoline tanks exploded." Dough answered.
"How?"
"Someone might have placed a few explosives with timers on them."
"Is that why we had to hurry like that?" Kate asked.
"What do you think. Drive faster please, we should be gone before the authorities show up."
Kate floored the SUV, speeding down the road and following the directions she got from Dough. Their route led them through a forest and over fields, away from the main roads until they hit the edge of the city.
"We'll leave the car here. Would be too suspect to drive something like this into the city." Dough ordered.
They got out and started walking through an area of the city tourists usually avoided. But every time some people closed in on them, one look from John Dough made them turn around and give them a wide berth. It took them twenty minutes to walk to the closest cab station.
"Our paths will diverge here." Dough started. "By the way, you don't need to leave your vacation yet, the only cartel members who knew about you are dead."
"What about this superior to those gangers in our hotel room?" Rick asked.
"I questioned him. He won't bother anyone again."
"But what if he told anyone else about us?" Kate asked.
"Unlikely. The cartel was working like an underground movement. Salamandra issued orders to certain cells who aren't in direct contact. Each cell works in a certain district so they don't cross themselves but it makes inter-cell communications difficult. But now we should depart. I have to report to my employer that the mission is accomplished. Until next time, detective. Mister Castle."
"Wait." Kate said. "How did you know where we were taken?"
"Oh, that reminds me. I want my transmitter back. I put one on your ring that you wear on that chain around your neck last night." he answered, earning a glare from Kate at his audacity.
After he retrieved his bug, Dough shook their hands and walked away. Kate and Rick got into a cab and drove to their hotel. When they entered their room, Kate turned to Rick.
"Listen Rick, should we ever go on a vacation again and we see John Dough somewhere there, we will pack and leave immediately. If we see him again in New York, I will take an emergency vacation and we will get the hell out of there."
"Agreed." Rick said and hugged her tight.
But as dangerous and nerve-wracking the whole experience was, Rick couldn't help but smile. It might have aged them ten years but it has been an amazingly exciting time. Only then did he notice the package on the floor by the door. After opening it, he found a note that said 'Maybe usable for your books'. Rifling through the papers, he found them to be reports from his previous cases.
Rick laughed to himself and showed them to Kate. It would take weeks to get through them, but he was sure, his new character would have a lot to do.
A/N: Well, I hope you liked it. But I just realized it was kind of longer than I expected.
Review please :)