Disclaimer: I do not own Castle, Beckett or any of the other characters from the show. I just like to play with them and only the original characters in this story are mine.


Conference Room – WayTech Factory

As they sit and wait Castle shifts in the leather conference table chair he is in and thinks back to everything that has happened since they took down the crew that had kidnapped the Aitken kids. After the tearful and gratifying reunion of the boy and girl with their parents, back at the Sheriff's station, the team had set to work.

Normally, on a TV show or in one of his books once the big final action set piece happens there may be a scene of two of wrap up followed by a personal moment and then that's the end of it. All nicely tied up so the audience or reader can go to bed thinking that all is right with the world. Reality, especially now that he has a badge of his own, is a very different beast. Sure, they've released Max and Selene Aitken back into the loving arms of their parents but that is by no means the end of it. There is a lot of work the taskforce has to do to make sure that the kidnapping crew get what they deserve.

Again, he wonders, if getting his Auxiliary Detective's badge was such a good idea? In the past, at the end of a case, he would, mostly, head home to write and leave the drudgery of wrapping up the paperwork and making sure all the procedural I's were dotted and T's were crossed to Kate, Ryan and Espo. Now he has to do his fair share. Not that he's afraid to do the work or the meticulousness required it's just that in the worlds that he creates it is so much easier and neater.

Then he looks at his wife seated next to him, her long brown hair forming a curtain that hides her strong profile from him as her head is bowed over the file she is reading. No, if the alternative was being away from her side, working as a part-time PI while trying to worm his way into her cases, as he did when he was banned, then getting his badge and the work he has to put in as a result is more than worth it. It's why he did it after all.

So, with Parkinson released from hospital, he joined Beven and their unknown accomplice in the cells at the Sheriff's station while Meehan took his place at the hospital, under guard, to have his shot shoulder treated and Salvio took up residence in the morgue. Meanwhile, all the physical evidence found at the crew's hunting lodge hideout had been collected together and brought to the Sheriff's Station. Before that happened, however, a light moment occurred when, just as they were finishing up at the lodge, a parade of black SUV's had arrived, disgorging a flock of FBI agents. He remembers with a smirk the satisfaction Kate took in telling the lead agent that it was all over and their services were no longer required.

Then there had been the round of interviews. First he and Kate had sat down with the traumatised Aitken children, with their parents flanking them and gripping onto the boy and girl as if they would never let them go again. Yet again he had marvelled at the empathy that Kate had shown as she had carefully and thoughtfully coaxed the story of what had happened to them from Max and Selene. He's not too proud to admit that he helped with trying to calm the nervous boy and girl and he thanks his lucky stars for all those years of open communication he had with Alexis when she was younger that seems to allow him to bond with children easily. One obnoxious little boy from a certain second grade class from last year notwithstanding.

The secret, as Kate did, was not to talk down to them but to treat them as they would anyone else that had been taken and held against their will. To try and keep things moving so that there wasn't enough time for them to dwell on what has happened to them. All the while still offering comfort and understanding when the inevitable emotions of fear and powerlessness at being taken would burst to the surface causing tears or flashes of anger or even for them to clam up and to have to be guided back to telling their story.

Eventually, between Kate and himself, they'd gotten the story and it was as much as they'd surmised. The suspects, Meehan and Beven, had picked them up after school in the guise of WayTech Security personnel saying their mother was unable to pick them up and their father had sent them in her place. Then, instead of driving them home they had taken the children to the disused barn on the Roggenkamp farm, tied them up, threatened them to keep quiet and sat them down in an old horse stall. Then the kidnappers had started unloading bags and cases, bringing them into the barn.

They had been there a few hours when Arthur Roggenkamp had shown up and, unfortunately for them, both Max and Selene had a perfect view of the suspect Parkinson sliding up behind Roggenkamp and slitting his throat. The elder Selene had tried to shield her brother from the traumatic sight but was unsuccessful. Now, he is certain, both children will need help, probably years of therapy, to try and get pass witnessing such a gruesome event.

Both children had broken down for a bit at that point and they'd all taken a break while their parents comforted them. Castle had taken the opportunity to go and raid the vending machines in the station's break room and had come back arms laden with cans of soda, candy bars and packets of chips. He'd deposited them all in front of the crying children and been pleased to see them dig into the junk food, tentatively at first but then with increasing abandon as only kids seeking a sugar high can.

Eventually they had continued their tale. After the murder of Arthur Roggenkamp the children had been blindfolded, bundled into an SUV and driven away. When their blindfolds had, eventually, been removed they had found themselves in the room in the hunting lodge in which the taskforce later found them. When asked if they heard their kidnappers say anything during the time they held them or if they saw anything else they thought relevant and the thin, brunette Selene had said that when they were at the lodge she'd heard a couple of the crew discuss with the third, unknown, suspect about the 'job' they had to do at WayTech. She wasn't sure but from what they were saying it sounded like they were doing something at her father's plant that had nothing to do with holding them for ransom.

With that bit of information and once it was clear there was nothing else the two young people could add they had been guided out of the station by their grateful parents. They had then turned their attention on their suspects.

While he and Kate had looked on the other members of the taskforce had paired off and they interviewed they suspects they were holding. Unsurprisingly, Beven and Parkinson had stubbornly refused to say anything regardless of how Douglas and Gibson or Kent and Kaminski respectively went at them. Even when Parkinson had been confronted with the statement from the Aitken children of his role in Arthur Roggenkamp's murder he'd remained mute.

Then Espo and Ryan had taken a run at the third suspect. This one had been very different. For a start he looked nothing like a tough, mercenary like the rest of the crew. The young, slightly unfit looking, bearded Indian man looked anything but. In fact, if there was one word to describe him as he sat nervously in the interrogation room, it was nerdy.

Before Espo and Ryan had started they'd run his prints and discovered that his name was Vikram Singh and he had a record with convictions for computer fraud and hacking. Unlike his mercenary pals Vikram had folded like a cheap lawn chair upon being confronted with charges of accessory to murder and kidnapping.

The information had poured out of the hacker after he'd pleaded that he'd had no idea about the murder or the kidnapping until after they happened. He'd insisted that he'd been only hired for his computer skills and had even been threatened to keep quiet when he'd objected that this wasn't what he signed up for. Espo and Ryan hadn't believed him and had challenged him to prove it so Vikram had by telling them his story.

It is that story that now has Castle seated next to Kate in the conference room at WayTech with Vikram seated a few seats further down, Esposito standing sternly behind him. Seated next to Vikram is their own computer expert, Tory, who had driven up to Otisville last night to join the taskforce once the technical aspect of the case became apparent after Vikram's interview. She is currently tapping away at the laptop in front of her as Vikram directs her over her shoulder, all the while Esposito keeping a watchful eye on the bearded hacker.

Eventually their waiting ends as James Aitken, an overweight, balding man who Castle suspects is Bill Jackson, WayTech's head of design and development, and a disgruntled looking Simon Taylor of the Department of Defence enter the conference room. Upon entering the room the trio take seats on the opposite side of the table from where he and Kate are sitting.

Once they are settled James Aitken starts by asking, not unkindly, Castle thinks given what the taskforce has done for the man's family, "You asked to see us all, Captain?"

Before Kate can answer Taylor butts in rudely, "I don't know why you insisted that I be here, Captain. Now that it is clear this incident has nothing to do with the work WayTech does for the government I see no reason for me to be here."

"That's where you are wrong Mr Taylor," Kate tells him pleasantly but firmly. "As a result of our investigation into the murder of Arthur Roggenkamp and the kidnapping of Max and Selene Aitken we have discovered that all that has happened has everything to do with the computer processing chips that WayTech manufactures for the military."

"You see, Mr Taylor, the murder and the kidnapping were all just a part of the real reason a crew of mercenaries were here," Castle chimes in with. "The murder was an unintended occurrence, poor Arthur Aitken was in the wrong place at the wrong time. The kidnapping, however, was intended. Intended to be a cover for their real reason for being here as well as a way for them to get part of what they needed to get their real job done."

Kate takes over the telling of the story at this point, "When Jimmy Southwick, the WayTech security guard that this crew bought, was contacted, besides the use of his company SUV, security uniforms and local knowledge for the kidnapping he was asked for and supplied information on the security arrangements here at WayTech."

"And as part of the ransom demand you were asked for your security codes for the factory and administration password for your system, weren't you Mr Aitken?" asks Castle of the surprised business man.

"Yes, that's right," the man nods quickly.

"Jimmy Southwick had been told that this crew were here for a heist. To steal some of WayTech's proprietary computer chips for a competitor, but they weren't here to take something. No, they were here to leave something behind," Kate tells them confidently as she stands and makes her way over to where Tory and the suspect, Vikram, are sitting.

Castle gets up and goes over to Bill Jackson and asks, "Mr Jackson, could you give me that sample of chips from your latest production batch that we asked you to bring?"

The man nods and hands Castle a small plastic box with about a dozen computer chips embedded in grey foam. Castle gives his own nod of thanks and takes the chips over to Kate, Tory and the hacker, handing the box to Tory.

Tory then takes one of the chips from the box and inserts it into the open motherboard she has set up on the table that is linked to her laptop by a ribbon cable. After a few taps of her keyboard, swipes and clicks of the mouse trackpad and words of guidance from Vikram next to her she looks up at Castle and Kate and says, "It's here."

"What's there?" asks James Aitken with just a little confusion.

"The kill switch, Mr Aitken," Castle replies. "The real reason this crew was here. The reason they kidnapped your children and the reason they employed the services of a convicted hacker like Mr Singh here was to install this kill switch on every new chip you produce."

"A kill switch?" asks a now very concerned Aitken.

Kate nudges the shoulder, none too gently, of the hacker as she tells him, "Why don't you tell them what you were paid to do, Vikram?"

Timidly the man tells them, "I designed a program to be added to your servers that would be hardwired into every chip that is produced. It's a very simple program, even if I do say so myself. Just a few lines of code that would survive any reformatting or reprograming of the chips due to it being embedded as part of the manufacturing process. Also, as it's so small and part of the base code of the chip it would remain undetected by any anti-virus software. The program itself is designed so that upon receipt of a pulse of energy on a specific frequency the chip will instantly fail. All someone has to do is send a burst on the right frequency, it doesn't even have to be a particularly powerful burst, and whatever piece of hardware that has one of these chips installed will die, hence kill switch."

"The night after you paid the ransom, Mr Aitken, Vikram and his buddies broke into your factory and loaded his program directly onto your servers. The plan was that with you so distraught over the kidnapping of your children that you wouldn't notice or think on why they wanted your codes and password," Castle tells Aitken sympathetically.

There is a moment of shocked silence from the three men seated on the opposite side of the table at the revelation. Eventually, Bill Jackson gets up from his seat and hurries over to where Tory and Vikram are. He quickly scans what is on the screen and to show him that it is not just one chip Tory removes the one currently in the motherboard and replaces it with another from the box Jackson himself supplied.

A few more taps of the keyboard has Jackson standing up, scratching the back of his neck and confirming to Aitken in shock, "They're right, James. There's code in the chips that I don't recognise. I can't tell what it will do but I can only think it will do what this guy says."

"So you see, Mr Taylor. Given the national security implications of someone being able to fry the equipment on any plane, ship or tank that has these chips with just a single burst of energy is why we requested your presence here," Kate tells the man from the DOD who is now properly put in his place.

"Fortunately, we discovered this before any of these chips could be sent off to be installed into any such equipment, so you're not going to have to go thorough and rip them out of anything that has them installed. Goodness knows what would have happened if our investigation had been shut down for some reason. A lot of very vulnerable sensitive military hardware for sure. Hardware that an enemy would have been able to disable at the press of a button," adds Castle pleasantly but with a hint of irony.

Now a little chagrined at playing into the mercenaries hands with his attempt to interfere with the taskforce's investigation, Taylor asks, "I assume that someone else paid for these mercenaries to do this. Do you know who?"

"Unfortunately, they aren't talking and Vikram here says that he was employed by them, only met with them and knows of no one else who could be involved. We are pulling their lives apart. Looking for a money trail that might lead to their employer. It's a lot of work. Work that we could sure use the help of some friendly federal agencies to complete," suggests Kate.

"Oh, I'm sure I can help you with that, Captain. Quite a few agencies will be interested in what you have uncovered," responds a now eager Taylor.

I bet, thinks Castle. The implications of this will mean that everyone from the CIA to NCIS will want a piece of this investigation. He just hopes that they don't forget who it was that uncovered it in the first place.


Sally's Diner, Otisville – Later the next day.

Castle takes a bite out of the large cheeseburger and feels the various juices and sauce dribble down his chin. He quickly puts the burger down and plucks a napkin from the dispenser on the table to swipe it clean and looks around the immediate vicinity. What he sees are that three tables near the back of the diner are filled with the members of the taskforce all enjoying a meal and some down time.

They have all come here for an early dinner before getting in their cars and heading back to New York. They're heading back because the case of the murder of Arthur Roggenkamp is closed and, as they've been told, anything else is out of their hands.

It's because of that why there is an empty seat next to him at the table he is sharing with Ryan and Espo as they wait for Beckett to join them.

When they returned from WayTech, after the revealing the real reason behind all that had happened, they had continued to complete the necessary paperwork and started trying to track down who was behind the sabotage of the WayTech computer chips. They had continued the work again today and then, not more than an hour ago, Kate had received a phone call from Commissioner Hayward back in New York.

At the completion of the call a slightly annoyed but admittedly unsurprised Kate had told the team to wrap everything up in preparation to handing it over to the feds. As he thought might happen, given the national security implications of what they discovered, a multi-agency taskforce, made up of many letters, CIA, FBI, NSA, DCIS and NCIS, would be taking over the investigation for those behind the attempted sabotage at WayTech.

He's just waiting now for Kate to join them as she tries, one last time, to keep their taskforce a part of the investigation. He doesn't hold out much hope and in all honesty neither does Kate but that's not to say she isn't going to try.

He looks over at the other two tables occupied by the taskforce members. Tory and Lanie are sitting with Investigator Gibson and from the wrapt look on the young NYSP Investigator's face he suspects that Lanie is telling yet another of what she calls her Caskett stories. At the other table Kent and Douglas sit with Kaminski and are both watching the Connecticut Detective as he recounts some anecdote that requires a lot of hand movements. From the gesture that looks like he's aiming a gun Castle surmises it might be from his days as a Marine.

They're all good people and despite some shaky starts from a couple of them they've gelled well with himself, Kate, Ryan and Espo. He just hopes they continue to work so well together.

He moves his gaze from his contemplation of the team and back to the meal of cheeseburger and fries with a chocolate shake on the table in front of him. In a way he's glad Kate took her time before joining them to try and argue the taskforce's continued involvement in the investigation, as futile as it may be. Lately she's been on a bit more of a health kick than normal. Making sure they eat healthily and exercise regularly. Their regular meals at Remy's have been regulated to once a week and no take-out unless absolutely necessary.

It started during his training to become an Auxiliary Detective as a way for her to help him reach the physical requirements to graduate. Then, once he got his star, she decided that they should continue using the argument that he had to keep in shape to keep up with the other, younger, detectives on the team. Totally disregarding that he'd been keeping up with her, Ryan and Espo, all younger than himself, for over seven years now. So the fact that he can sit and eat one of his guilty pleasures without a disappointed look from Kate makes this treat all that more sweeter.

A few minutes later he's demolished half his burger when he feels the feather light touch of Kate's fingers as they walk across his back and shoulders. He immediately looks up guiltily at the smirking face of his wife as she looks down at him and then pointedly at the half consumed burger in his hands.

Seeing the look Espo chimes in gleefully with, "Lookout, bro. Looks like you're in trouble. I told you. You should have ordered the salad."

Kate gives a huff as she takes her seat next to Castle and then gives another pointed look at Espo as he takes a bite from his own greasy double beef and bacon burger as she says, "You're one to talk, Espo. Anyway, I don't mind if Castle has a burger now and then just as long as he works it off with me later….at home." She ends giving the Latino a knowing look that has both him and Ryan, next to him, gagging on their food in disgust at the salacious implication.

Castle leans over and whispers in her ear, "I'll hold you to that…or rather to me, later."

She turns her head to look him in the eye as he sits back and gives him a quick wink. Now he's eager to scoff down the rest of his meal so that they can get on the road and back to Manhattan and their bedroom as quickly as possible. He's just annoyed that Kent and Gibson will be riding back with them in Kate's now repaired and drivable car even if it still looks like red Swiss cheese with the bullet holes in it. Otherwise he'd be encouraging her to make a quick stop along the way home to make good on his previous statement. Oh, well, he'll just have to get them through their meals quickly to cut down to as little as possible the delay before they get their special, private time.

To that end he signals to the waitress behind the counter and the middle aged woman brings over Kate's grilled chicken burger, fries and strawberry shake that he ordered for her when he placed his own. Once the meal is placed in front of her she gives him an appreciative look, "Thanks, babe, but remember a treat is fine once in a while just don't think we're going to eat like this all the time."

"Yes, dear," he responds dutifully.

"At least Beckett isn't asking you to go on a cleanse like Jenny is again. Now that she is expecting for the second time she wants me to watch my health even more so and insists I do a cleanse like I did just before we got married," Ryan tells him as he shudders with revulsion at the memory of the disgusting green concoction that he was forced to subsist on during that time. That was until he finally broke over some delicious Chinese take-out. To clear the memory he shoves a handful of ketchup covered fries into his mouth.

To get off the topic of diets, Castle, after Kate has taken a bite of her burger, asks her, "So how'd it go with the Commissioner? Did you at least get them to keep us in the loop on what the feds find out?"

Kate swallows what is in her mouth before she responds, "Yeah, I got that at least. They are still taking over but the Commissioner is going to make sure that we have a regular line of communication with the taskforce so they will let us know what they discover. Probably through Douglas. He agreed that it was the least the feds could do after we uncovered this whole thing for them."

"I still don't see why we can't keep running with the investigation ourselves, Beckett?" raises Esposito in protest. "As you said, we uncovered the whole sabotage angle so I think we have the right to keep going and find out where this leads."

"Espo, we were sent out here to solve Arthur Roggenkamp's murder and we did that. Saving Max and Selene Aitken and stopping the sabotage at WayTech was a bonus. Finding the people behind the sabotage and the kidnapping is outside our remit and beyond our resources at the moment. Let the feds handle it. It is their responsibility after all," Kate justifies to her friend and subordinate.

"Besides, as Kate said, they're going to keep us posted on what they find," Castle adds in support of his wife. "Let them do the dull work of following the money. We did the hard part and now they have us to thank for averting a major disaster for our military."

"That's right," continues Kate. "In fact, the Commissioner wants me to pass onto everyone his thanks and admiration at a job well done here. He added that both the Governor and the Director of the FBI have also passed on their congratulations at such a speedy resolution to the case and the stopping of the sabotage."

Castle watches as Espo's chest puffs out a little in pride at the praise and he admits he feels the same way himself at hearing such appreciation of their efforts.

"Yeah, well so they should," says a prideful Esposito before taking another bite of his burger.

Castle then feels Kate's knee bumping with his under the table and he looks at her questioningly as she says around a mouthful of chicken burger, "Eat up, Castle. The sooner we finish, the sooner we head home."

Castle takes a long slurp of his shake before responding, his voice dropping an octave, "Don't worry, Kate. I have more than enough incentive to get done as quickly as possible. Just make sure you eat everything because with what I have planned for you you're going to need every last ounce of energy when we get home."

As he looks at the pleased and expectant twinkle in Kate's eye he ignores the snorts of disgust from across the table.


A/N: So there you have it. The full resolution of the case and everything is revealed. Except who is behind it all. That is for another day.

You may recognize one of the characters I included in this chapter. I know I said I wouldn't comment on the show but now it is on hiatus and I'm near the end of this story I thought I could get away with this. After episodes 8x07 & 8x08 I, like a few other fans and writers, got a bit annoyed with the Vikram character and his active encouraging of Kate to keep up with the whole separation thing. I'm hoping that if Castle ever finds out, the next time he sees Vikram, he clocks him. So, in reaction, in my universe I made Vikram a bad guy, even if a rather weak one, and this will be the last you will see of him.

Also, I'm no computer expert so my idea of the 'kill switch' may be totally wrong but I thought it might be at least plausible. Regardless this is fiction so please excuse some artistic license in service of the story.

Thank you to everyone that has kept with this story and posted such positive reviews. Knowing that there are people out there appreciating this story is so very gratifying.

Just an epilogue to go.