XXXVI
Jim Beckett considered himself a physically fit man. Even though he was an attorney, he got the gym at least two to three times a week. But what he was dealing with right now was pushing him to his limits. He was in a 10 by 10 room, with only the illumination of one single 60-watt light bulb. He could tell that he was bound by the arms, legs, and midsection. It reminded him of what he had seen on TV and in the movies. He was on his back strapped to a stainless steel exam table. Chills runs down his spine not knowing what was going to come next. What he was able to put together in his head was that this was related to Joanna and the case she was working in Russia, it had to be. After about 15 minutes of him being conscious, he heard footsteps coming closer to the door to his left. The door open with a creaking squeak.
"Ahh, I see that you've finally awakened Mr. Beckett."
"What's going on, who are you people?"
"Those are two very good in queries Mr. Beckett. Ones that I will be happy to answer for you once I get what I need out of you. And I can guarantee I would do anything to get the information I need by any means available to me."
Jim was in over his head. He knew practically nothing about Joanna's case. He only heard what was said between Rick and Joanna. He's sure that he knows nothing that will get him out of this predicament...alive.
Xx
Joanna and Kate were frantic. Sometime while they were in Rick's office when he proposed, somebody took her father. She wanted to go after whoever took him with Rick's help of course. But then she remembered that he wasn't at a hundred percent yet, his arm was still in the sling. This severely limited his abilities. Her thoughts made her think about going out on her own and was putting together a plan to do just that.
Right then Rick walked out of the office and noted how deep in thought Kate was. He knew that she was going to go off the reservation and he needed to reel her back in. So, he told her,
"Kate, I'm going to call Eric and Mike and get them over here to help. I'm sure they could probably give us a hand and then after that I'm going to call my father again."
"Rick, are you sure that's such a good idea?" She asked after shelving her plan deep in the back of her mind.
"It's not that it's a good idea, one which I hate, but he'll get a location on your father quickly with his help, that I can guarantee."
"I hope your right babe."
Rick got busy making his phone calls. His first call was to Mike and he asked him to bring his laptop with the tracking program. Hopefully, they could track his cell phone seeing that it was not in the loft. It had to be on his person or close to where he is now. Then, he made a call to Eric. He explained the situation to him and he asked him to bring most of the armament they had on hand. They were going to need all the firepower they could get their hands on.
"Kate, could you do me a favor and wait out in the loft for Mike and Eric to arrive. Please close the door behind you."
"Sure babe."
Rick asked her to leave for two reasons. The first one she knew he probably wanted to be alone when he called his father. But he had a second ulterior motive in his mind. He carefully untied the sling from around his neck. He then slipped the sling from around his arm and neck. He stretched out his arm and flexed it repeatedly. He was slowly trying to work his arm back to normal. He got up from the chair, walked over to the closet and drew out two free weights. The first one was a 10-pounder the other a 20-pounder. He went back to his desk sat down with the 10-pound weight in his right hand. He propped his elbow on the desk with the ten-pound weight in his hand. He slowly moved his arm back and forth to get used to the weight. After about 10 minutes of using the 10-pound weight, he switches to the 20-pound weight. At first, this was little tough on his muscles and he felt the burn but he worked through it. About 30 minutes later, his arm was almost back to 75 percent strength. With his small workout done he reached for his cell. He unlocked it and hit speed dial number 3.
"What is it Richard, I'm kind of in the middle of something right now."
Through the small speaker, he heard what sounded like a muffled scream. He shook his head back and forth realizing what his father was doing exactly at that moment.
"Dad, Kate's father has been taken. We're going to try to track his cell phone. I don't know if we'll get lucky or not but it's worth a shot."
"That's a good place to start son. Right now, I have someone with me who can possibly give me a location for Mr. Beckett, but I'll have to call you back."
"Okay Dad, I'll be waiting for your call."
Hunt had the CIA's division chief for the Eastern half of the country tied to a chair. With the phone call he just received he decided to change his tactics. He slipped out the knife from his boot and placed it against the neck of his detainee.
"The first wrong answer you give me will end your life. And it won't be pleasant. Nod if you understand."
His captor just nodded to him.
"Who has taken Jim Beckett?"
"I can't say for certain, but I know the director of the CIA, the director FBI, and someone very high up people in the NSA have their hands in this mess. From my point of view, it looks like they're going to start covering their tracks, and they're starting with Mr. Beckett first. I should warn you, however, that Richard Castle, Kate Beckett, her mother, and Castle's mother and daughter are targets are on his list as well. And I wouldn't be surprised if they take them as a group. They know that they've been together since they ended the bombing threat in the market."
Xx
What Hunt really needed was to be in two places at the same time. He needed to be back in New York trying to get to Richard to help him there, but he also needed to find the location of the directors. He knew the FBI director personally, he was a friend when he needed one, and he knew he owed him some favors, but as it sits right now, those favors have just been moved over to the balance paid column.
"Where did they take Mr. Beckett?
The division chief gave Hunt's question a lot of thought before he actually answered him.
"I can't say for sure, but if I were a betting man I'd say he has him in the waterfront warehouse in the Bronx."
"How do I find this warehouse."
"It's actually hidden in plain sight. It's a secure facility with at least 10 armed guards. They carry everything from AK-47's to Mac 10's. But I haven't been a part of their operation in years so they could have upgraded their weaponry to include anti-personnel weapons. Claymores or equivalent.
"Do you know the location of the FBI and CIA directors right now?"
"I'm pretty sure that both directors are at River Bend Golf and Country Club. They play there once a month and today is their designated day."
Hunt usually killed his detainees. But since he had received the information he sought, he decided to have a heart. He withdrew a heavy sedative and injected the needle into the division Chiefs neck. Pushing the plunger, he released 30 cc's of diazepam, but he had also added an additional drug to put him into a coma for at least 15 days. By the time the doctors figured out what was wrong with him, the pentobarbital would have swelled his brain causing his internal organs to shut down one by one. He left the division chief unconscious in the chair. He withdrew his phone and placed a call to his son. Richard never picked up.
Xx
Mike and Eric had arrived and Eric went right to Rick, who was comforting Kate.
"Rick, the Tahoe is downstairs in the garage. I have everything loaded in the rear cargo area. Everything we have is there. What are you expecting?"
"Eric, we're at war. It's the only way to describe the urgency of what we need to do next."
"Then you need to come with me. You need to make sure that we have everything we need to get this done."
They all walked back to the service elevator that had granted access to the garage. Once Eric had unlocked the Tahoe, Rick pulled open the rear cargo door. His eyes went wide when he saw what Eric had loaded up.
"Eric, when you make a decision, you really go with the unknown, don't you? Rick asked as his smile grew larger.
"Hey, I try."
"You did well. Modified M4's with 30 round clips, Colt 9mm SMG's, UZI's with 50 round clips, Remington 10 and 12 gauge shot guns! Where in the hell did you get your hands on a pair of M320 grenade launchers?"
"Rick the less you know the better."
"How much ammo do we have to go along with us?"
The M320's have just under 50 rounds between the two of them. I was able to get over 4000 rounds for the Colts, the M4's have around 2000 rounds, the shotguns are just about unlimited. The UZI's well that's where we fall a little short, I was only able to get my hands on two spare clips for each UZI and we have 800 rounds roughly 200 rounds per weapon."
"Alright, everyone back upstairs. We need to get a plan together."
When Rick got back to the loft, he decided to leave his mother and Alexis at the loft when they left. He'd have Mike, Eric, Kate, himself and Johanna. He'd use Johanna and Kate as a backup. He would give Mike and Eric the Colts, he'd take one M320 and a UZI and one of the M4's. For Kate, he'd give her an M4, and one of the 10 gauge riot guns. He'd also give Mike the honor of carrying the other M320. With the weapons assigned he made his way to his desk. He noticed his phone there with the blinking light indicating that there was a voice mail waiting. He retrieved the message and listened.
"Richard, I have a possible location on Jim Beckett. He's at a CIA secure location in the Bronx. Call me back ASAP."
Rick deleted the voicemail per protocol and hit number 3 on his speed dial. The call connected.
"Dad?"
"Richard, I need to give you the location of the CIA's warehouse, but be warned there is an assault team in place, and they'll most likely be waiting for you. There are 10 targets. Happy hunting, son."
"Dad, what are you going to do?"
"I'm going after the heads of all this mess. Richard, I'm going hunting as well. Soon this will all be over."
Rick wrote down the address from memory and rushed out to the main room in the loft. When he came to a skidding stop, everyone stopped talking.
"I know where your dad is Kate! So, here's what we're going to do. He waved everyone over to him and everyone gathered around Rick and he described the plan he had unfolding in his head….