Beckett and Castle both looked at him expectantly, waiting for him to start speaking. He was looking around the room nervously, his leg bouncing up and down as he did so. He was obviously ill at ease, but it looked an awful lot like he was getting ready to speak, to say something that would help them find Hunt.

"Ok ok," the man began, "I was sent here to try and find out what you'd found, and then I was to take any and all files, notes, and pictures I could find pertaining to your investigation."

Neither Beckett nor Castle looked impressed by his admission. "We already know that," Beckett chided, "You're going to have to do better than that if you want us to protect you."

Castle remained straight faced at her words, but he wanted to smile. He loved seeing Beckett like this, having total control over the room and the people in it. This was where he had first fallen in love with her, seeing how she managed to get answers even out of the hardest criminals. She was powerful in this room, and she was beautiful.

Across the table the man's leg began to bounce even more, his nervous energy trying to find some output.

Beckett and Castle watched him expectantly, waiting for him to say more, to tell them something that he thought was worthy of them keeping him safe. "I was told," he tried again, "That the victim was one of ours, and his girlfriend was too. I don't know what they were asked to do, just that they were to work in this country with the man you know as Hunt or Smith or Simmons or Carter, or whatever, as their handler."

"Keep going," Beckett instructed as he stopped talking.

The man nodded and Beckett and Castle saw him swallow hard before he spoke once more. "I only knew him as John Smith. I knew it wasn't his real name but it wasn't my place to ask who he actually is. I'm just clean up; I go in after an op and make sure that there's nothing left behind that can be linked back to the agency or the operatives involved."

Beckett and Castle shared a look, now they were beginning to get somewhere. They both looked back to their suspect expectantly, remaining silent so that they wouldn't break his chain of thought.

"All I was told was that the operation was over, and that one of the operatives had died. My orders were to clean out both the apartments, get rid of any trace that either operative had ever been there, while someone else took the woman in for debriefing," he continued, beginning to babble slightly.

"Do you know where the woman was taken?" Beckett asked; her tone more gentle now that he was talking.

He shook his head, "No, I never had anything to do with debriefs, I'm just clean up."

"Ok," Beckett accepted with a nod, "So why did my Captain find you here?"

The suspect looked around the room, his foot tapping again. Beckett and Castle waited patiently for him to speak again. "I cleaned up the woman's apartment, making sure that there was no trace left of her, and then I went back to base, where I was going to get my debrief." He looked back to Beckett and Castle. "I did that and was about to get sent back home, to wait for whatever it was I was going to have to do next, when Smith came to me. He didn't send someone else; he came to see me personally, and told me what he wanted me to do."

Beckett and Castle both understood that that was big news for him; it was obvious that people in his line of work rarely saw the man who was in charge. It was a guess but both of them suspected that an organisation like the CIA would keep everything on a need to know basis, and people like their suspect would take orders from one person, who would take there's from someone higher up.

"So what did he want you to do?" Castle prompted.

"Smith wanted me to get all the information you had on the death of the operative and the disappearance of the other. I came last night but couldn't find anything aside from the whiteboards. I rang Smith, asked him what he wanted me to do. He instructed me to leave everything as it was and then come back when you were all here, that way your files would be out because you'd be working with them. I came back over the lunch break; I was hoping to avoid as many people as possible and take the files, erase the board, and then leave you with nothing."

Castle and Beckett shared a look, both wanting to smile but both knowing that that would give the game away, knowing that they finally had something to go on.

Beckett turned back to their suspect. "Do you still have that number?"

The suspect nodded. "I had to remember it so that it wasn't written down anywhere."

"Tell us the number and then we'll see what we can do about keeping you safe," Beckett bargained.

It took less than a second for the suspect to nod. Beckett got her pen ready and then wrote down the number that the suspect reeled off.