Decisions and Dominoes Chapter 36
The smell of the slaughter house affected everyone the same way. You could tell by the faces each one made when they first arrived; they were as sour as the rancid blood itself. From the outside the place still looked abandoned; on the inside it was a different story.
In a room that was deep in the center of the building, Hunt and his people had set up their own tech base. Everything that had been available in the utility truck outside the precinct was available here. Perimeter camera feeds of the warehouse grounds took up a bank of six screens which was being closely monitored by one of Hunt's men. A second bank was under the control of the two men who had taken Castle and Beckett to the safe house with Martha and Alexis. Their role seemed to be more offensive than defensive; they were interacting in real time with what appeared to be other assets at alternate locations. The other half of the large room had been converted into sleeping, eating, and briefing areas. It would seem that Hunt had set up his own mini base camp.
Castle and Beckett's arrival was what the others had been waiting for. Kevin was the first to greet them as they crawled out of the back of the van, "Hey, welcome to the worst scratch and sniff sticker ever."
Javi walked up sniffing the air, "It's not that bad really."
"Compared to what; your laundry?" Kevin took the cheap shot.
Javi gave Kevin the death stare; he just laughed.
"Smells like a slaughter house," Kate observed with her usual rationality.
Castle nudged Kevin, "I personally liked the scratch and sniff reference; very 80's."
Ryan and Castle exchanged affirming fist bumps. Javi rolled his eyes as he led Kate and the others to Hunt.
"Wow, this is quite a set up," Castle marveled.
"The best part of being a spy, son, is having the most innovative toys," Hunt was clearly glad to see Castle.
Kate watched their interaction and couldn't help but smile; there was no doubt, they were father and son.
"If you two are ready, we can begin," an emotional curtain dropped revealing Jackson Hunt intelligence asset as he led the group over to the briefing area where wooden saw horses and plywood had been used to construct a very large table which was divided into four separate quadrants each having maps, satellite intel and photos.
Hunt posted himself at what was the head of the table while Javi and Kevin stood to one side of him and Kate and Rick took the other. Castle surmised that the five soldiers who filled in around the rest of the make shift table were mercenaries hired by his father.
"As you know, the kid agreed to provide us with the most probable locations where 3XK might be hiding in the New York area in exchange for keeping him free of bullet holes," Hunt began by making eye contact with each person around the table.
"That's the good news. The bad news is that there are four possible targets. We have pulled all the intel available about each one, but there is no actionable intelligence that leads me to believe that any one of the four is more likely than any other to be the current hole he's hiding in, so that means we will need to recon them all."
Beckett and Castle exchanged looks, "Is this happening today?"
"Son, it's happening now," Hunt revealed.
"To make is easy for everyone, I have labeled each location with a code name." Hunt pointed to the first one, "This is target Alpha. Clockwise we have target Bravo, Charlie and Delta."
"Easy enough," Javi observed.
"Your location name will also be your team name when you are using the two-way. No cell phones on this op; too easy to hack, trap and track."
No one seemed to have any questions so Hunt continued, "Esposito and Ryan, you have Alpha location and are Alpha team."
"Got it," the boys immediately began quietly studying and assessing their target and the available intel.
"Tango and X-Ray, Bravo is yours," Castle recognized them as the team who had driven the van to the safe house and then here.
"Charlie target goes to Yankee and Zulu," that left just one more assignment.
Hunt turned to Kate, "That leaves Delta for us."
Kate was set, "Great, I'm ready."
"Wait a second. What about me?" Castle looked like the little kid on the playground who always gets picked last for kickball.
Hunt put a hand on his shoulder, "Son, you and Whiskey are going to stay here, hold down the fort and make sure that junior stays put."
Castle looked from his dad to the merc Whiskey and back again, "I'm going to babysit Tyson's little brother while you guys go out and find the asshole that came into my home, threatened my family and put a bullet in my chest?"
"That pretty much sums it up," there was no apology anywhere in his response.
Kate wasn't quite so willing to dismiss his argument, "Castle, you go with your dad. I'll stay here with Whiskey and we'll make sure our little rat stays safely inside the maze."
Hunt wanted to keep his son safe particularly since he was already injured, but he could see there was no fighting this one, so he didn't, "All teams are a go in 120 minutes."
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Sitting back and watching everyone prepare to leave made Kate skittish. She didn't regret giving up her spot on the Delta recon team to Castle, he deserved and needed it; but the decision did worry her. His gunshot wound wasn't exactly healing well, his PTSD seemed to come and go at will, and the Castle who was methodically loading three extra magazines with rounds for his personal Sig Saur 228 was not the Castle Kate knew five months ago. The old Castle, though impulsive, was willing to hang back and actually worried about being shot. This new Castle was still impulsive, but had added conscious recklessness to his behavioral repertoire which had him seeing his own safety as less than paramount. Hunt had told her how he had breezed into her apartment that day not knowing who or what was waiting for him. The fact that he thought winging it with Tyson was a valid play; well that made her case.
"Gather in everyone. It'll be dark in less than ten minutes," Hunt called the teams to another room where four black vans waited.
As Hunt gave last minute equipment, supplies, and reminders to the teams, Kate couldn't take her eyes off Castle. He was dressed in black night operation fatigues. His Sig was holstered and he had a backup weapon jammed into his belt in the small of his back. He stood next to his father exuding a similar confidence looking every bit the part, but what validated her apprehension was the look on his face. Kate had only seen it once; it was during Alexis' kidnapping, and that time she had almost lost him.
Each team approached their assigned van. Hunt gave Castle eye contact and a head tilt in Kate's direction. Kate watched him approach her, her heart stepping up its cadence as he neared, "Hey," he greeted her their way.
"Hey," she responded melting into his chest and breathing him in as he gripped her waist and pulled her in; her arms wrapping around his neck.
Castle's mouth found Kate's parted lips waiting for him. He felt a difference in her; it was impossible not to now that his anger wasn't blinding him. There was abandon in her kiss; no, not abandon, it was surrender; the kind she had described to him in her apartment. He savored the feeling wanting more of it.
Castle's radio squawked an interruption, "Bro, seriously?"
Castle and Kate rested their foreheads together for a moment longer before she whispered softly, "I love you, Rick."
Turmoil clouded Castle's face, "Kate, I…"
Kate kissed Castle hard on the mouth, "Go, Castle. Find the bastard and let's finish this."
Castle nodded, kissed her once more on the lips and jogged over to the van and got in. She helped Whiskey open the bay doors far enough to let the vans slip through. She watched until their tail lights were swallowed up by the night.
"Guess it's you and me, detective," it was the first time Whiskey had spoken directly to her.
Beckett nodded affirmatively, "Where's the kid?"
Whiskey smiled, "Hunt roofied him a few hours before you guys got here. The dude's kinda needy. Keeps crying and hollering about his brother coming to kill him. He should be coming around any time now."
Kate let herself enjoy the mental image, "So you're saying Hunt was being a humanitarian when he knocked him out for a few hours?
Whiskey was leading the way to where the kid was being kept under lock and key, "Might not have helped the kid, but it sure helped us."
Kate laughed softly, "Nice."
The door to OffKilter's room had been altered. It not only had the original handle lock and a deadbolt, but slider locks had been added at the top and bottom of the door and an additional deadbolt was reinforcing the first one. The window in the door had been covered with metal plating that could only be accessed from the outside. Hunt wasn't taking any chances.
Whiskey reached the door, pulled out the keys and joked while opening the door, "Shall we see if sleeping beauty is up yet?"
The hallway light flooded the darkened room. Kilter bolted up right on his cot, "What the fuck!"
"Look whose up?" Whiskey teased.
"How long has he been locked up in here?"
"Probably a good six hours," she could tell he was guessing and that it was probably longer.
"I'm hungry and I need to use the bathroom," he was holding his head like he had a serious hangover.
"I'll take him to the head. There's stuff for sandwiches in the coolers," Whiskey announced pulling the lethargic hacker up from the cot.
Kate found her way back to the main area easily enough. She found deli meat, bread, and some mustard and decided that would have to do. After she made the sandwich she dug around and found some potato chips and a bottle of cold water.
Just as she decided that she had scrounged up the best there was to offer in the way of food, Kate thought she heard something. She waited and listened, but didn't hear it again. Kate drew her weapon; they should have been back from the bathroom by now.
Kate wasn't quite sure where the bathrooms were, so she back tracked to Kilter's room and went the direction she had seen Whiskey take with the kid. Three corridors later and too many doors to count, she saw a sign for the restroom. As she reached the men's room, she noticed that the door was slightly ajar and the light was still on. Kate took a deep breath and kicked it the rest of the way open. She immediately saw Whiskey on the floor by the sinks. He had a nasty gash as though his head had been smashed against one of them. Kate whirled around and checked behind the door; no one. Her attention locked on to the stalls; all five doors were closed, but not locked. She quickly checked for feet and didn't see any. If he was in there, he was standing on the toilet.
Kate kept her gun trained on the stall doors while backing up to check Whiskey. He was dead; his neck broken and his weapon and radio were missing. Kate fought rising panic and went for the first stall door. He wasn't there. Four more doors later, she was amped on pure adrenaline but hadn't found him.
"Shit," she whispered trying to come up with her next move. The worst part was that she didn't know exactly who she was looking for. Was Tyson here having found out his brother wasn't dead or was the kid not just a kid?
Kate decided that whoever it was would most likely be looking for a way out or attempting to access the technology. Even with a plan in mind it was slow going clearing every place that someone could be hiding. Just as Kate got back to the room where the boy had been held, she heard static from a radio.
The sound came from a room the opposite direction she had planned on going. She had to make a decision; go after whoever it was or go for help. The fact that someone had that radio made Kate's decision for her; the teams could be led into a trap with it.
Kate pressed her back up against the wall on the same side as the only door remaining in the hallway. She slid slowly toward the door, trying not to make any noise hoping that he would think she had gone the other way. A silent curse crossed her lips when she realized that the door was completely closed.
Taking a deep breath, she kept her body flush with the wall and reached out her hand for the door knob. When she tried to twist it, it spun in her hand. She wiped the sweat from her palms on her pants and tried again. The handle turned. It wasn't locked. Kate shoved the door open as far as she could from her awkward position. The radio squawked this time and she could hear voices, but not what they were saying.
Kate took a second to draw in a couple of cleansing breaths trying to slow the hammering of her heart and went through the door. The room was so dark she had to fight rising anxiety as she tried to find him. Static crackled from her left behind what was shaping up to look like a closet door; she swung wide giving her room to fire if he lunged at her.
When she had the angle, Kate kicked the door open wide revealing the radio; sitting on the floor. She knew instantly that she had been played; they all had. Only a second later, her brain registered an agonizing pain and before allowing her the refuge of losing consciousness, granted her a final thought; Katharine Houghton Beckett wished she had said yes.