CH38

Alexis was still keeping watch as Rick and Kate took a nap after their evening exercises. She had heard all of it and while a part of her was "Ew-ing" over all the noise, a larger part of her was more than happy. She may be a cat now, but she also had a daddy and a mommy who both loved her a lot. AND she was praying that Kate was indeed pregnant. Alexis would guard the baby with her life.

Sudden movement caught Alexis's attention, however it was behind her and came from the tent as first Rick and then Kate emerged. It was really late and it was dark outside. They both had flashlights and were shining them on the ground. "Alexis?" Rick called.

"MEOW!" All clear!

Alexis watched them both come to her. "We're going on a midnight search. As soon as we arrive I want you to switch to tiger form. I don't want you getting hurt before you can change," he told her.

"Meow." I'll be a good girl.

"I doubt what we are looking for is in the middle of the village or up against the lake to the north. If I remember correctly, there are two possible locations. One is outside of town to the east while the other is at the southern tip of the village. Both are close to a road. Any preference?" Rick looked at Kate. He had one but wanted to see what she was thinking. "Let's start with the location east of the village. We can move on if we don't find anything," she suggested as he nodded, since that was also his choice.

He picked up Alexis and Kate took hold of his arm. Rick pressed the gem in his hand and they disappeared in a swirl of clouds only to show up just off of the road close to the most eastern building. There was a small line of trees with a dirt road or driveway on the south side. They walked to the end of the trees and looked down the road. It looked like three long storage buildings on the north side of the driveway, end to end. "I like it," she said, giving her opinion of it being a place to make heroin.

He put Alexis down and they watched her change into a Bengal tiger in just seconds. "Do not go inside any of the buildings Alexis. Leave what's inside to us," he told her.

"Growl." Got it Dad.

Rick and Kate kept their flashlights pointed down on the driveway as they made their way in while Alexis trotted far out in front of them. They reached the end of the first building and looked out into the courtyard that was the three large storage buildings." I think I can make out two more storage buildings to the west and what is probably a house to the south," she remarked. The house was hard to see because it was dark and there was a small grove of trees. The word storage building may be being generous in the description since they all looked more like a simple long ranch house than a farm storage building.

He patted her to get her attention and pointed. He had spotted a large, empty, flatbed truck, much like the hunk of junk they had spotted previously. Rick motioned for Kate to take the north side of the storage building while he walked the south facing the courtyard. Neither knew just where Alexis was.

They both noticed that the windows were blacked out and all of the doors were locked. They met up on the other end of the first storage building where there was a gap between it and the second. "There's one large double door on my side that's locked with a chain and padlock," he said. "I had two one person doors with one near each end," she mentioned and guided him around the corner. He watched as she unlocked the door.

Using their flashlights to scan the area, secure that the windows were blacked out, but not trusting to turn the interior lights on. "Looks like a packing location," he commented as they found the finished product already on pallets, some already wrapped up for transport with others that were just started. Kate took a look at the pallets noting that a number of them had carton after carton of plastic wrap with which to bundle wrap the bags of heroin onto a pallet.

Meanwhile Rick went over to one of the bags filled with heroin, took a knife a worker had been so kind to leave lying around, and cut one open. He used the knife to take some of the powder out with and dumped it into one of his own mini sealable plastic bags. "Please tell me you're not hooked on this crap," she said as she watched him seal the tiny bag. "Hardly. I'm going to put this on B5's panel and see if we're in the right place. Be right back." He vanished in a swirl of clouds.

There wasn't enough there to load onto a flatbed. Likely a few more days or weeks would be required before the next transport. Kate was starting to wonder where Alexis was so she went out the door they came in and around to the courtyard with her flashlight turned off to look for her. But she saw and heard nothing. The light from Rick's flashlight alerted her that he was back. He turned off his flashlight and stood next to her. "We're in the right place for what Coonan had in his storage area, which happens to be a match for what you found in your container," he told her.

"This place doesn't seem big enough to fill three containers, and if you are shipping whole containers why settle for the small amount Coonan was smuggling? Jewel cases just don't hold that much." She was perplexed.

"We haven't found our button pusher yet either, nor how the drugs are going to be distributed. We're still missing a few people," Rick pointed out. "Have you seen Alexis?" Kate shook her head. "Alexis can take care of herself. The next building?" he suggested as they walked between the two and stuck to the backside of the building away from the house for now.

It didn't take long to find that all of the widows had been sealed closed and the back wall only had just the one door. "Locked naturally," she said and went to work on the lock. She pulled but the door didn't open. "What, is it nailed shut or something?" she grumbled and turned on her flashlight to look closer. "Why is it nailed closed?" She had no trouble finding the nails and started cutting them, then pulled the door open.

Just inside the door was a sheet of plastic. "What have they got in here?" She lifted a finger getting ready to cut the plastic open only to have Rick grab her hand. "If this is the building in which they are processing the opium into heroin, this place is going to be caked in opium dust at the very least," he cautioned. "Think about how long they've been doing this." Kate didn't feel like being hooked on opium or heroin today so she closed the door and re-locked it.

"Front door?" she suggested, not pleased since it was probably on the other side of the building facing the open courtyard. It didn't take long to reach the other side and after waiting to see if they could see anyone, they walked to the only door they saw. "Locked," he moaned. "Doesn't anyone trust anybody these days?" He had it unlocked and open in seconds.

Just inside was an airlock-type room. There were cabinets on one side filled with bags that had hooded suits and booties inside them while the opposite wall had reusable plastic respirator masks hanging there. "Looks like they suit up before entering," he commented and took down an x-large for himself and a large for Kate. She bundled up her hair and pulled the hood over her head after putting her booties on. "Why does this make me feel like I'm an astronaut getting ready for a spacewalk?" she asked, only to have Rick hand her a respirator mask to complete the ensemble. The blasted thing actually restricted her ability to breathe and forced her to really work at it.

They both turned on their flashlights not trusting that no one would see them turn the lights on. "Propane tank inside the building. That certainly sounds safe," he said sarcastically when his light showed it. "It keeps it off satellite images," she countered, getting him to grudgingly agree. "There are containers of raw opium, equipment needed to turn it into a powder and a way to put it into bags that are sealed to be taken next door." Rick worked his way down the processing aisle. "You can destroy a lot of lives with what's in this building," Kate remarked.

"Can we burn it down now?" She really liked the idea of it being gone. "After we find their books. How much they're paying the locals. How much they're earning. Where's all the money for that? Who's in charge of this place? Where's it all going? We get that and we can burn this place to the ground. It means putting all the locals out of work though," he pointed out. She felt bad about that. They were just doing what they could to make money and support their families. It probably paid better than working in an apple orchard, plus it meant year round paychecks, not just seasonal work. It was just all those people who were hooked on this stuff. Kate placed a hand on her stomach. She was maybe almost a mother and already knew what it was like to be pumped full of drugs.

"The next building or the house you think?" she queried, eager to leave this building already. "The next storage building is likely another one of these; I vote for the house to find the books," he said and they headed back to the airlock to get out of their monkey suits. Being back outside allowed them to take in deep breaths of clean air. "I'm so glad I don't work in there," she declared just as a dog started barking. "OH SHIT!" Rick ran across the courtyard for the small grove of trees that was likely hiding a house with Kate right behind him. The dog only barked 4 times and was never heard from again.

He moved through the trees and found a grass clearing on the other side. The problem was that it was even darker because of the trees, forcing him to turn on his flashlight and follow the natural bend of the trees around the grassy area. It soon became clear that there was a house and since there were children's toys out in the grass, it also told them something else.

Rick almost stumbled on Alexis as she was laying down licking her paws. "Alexis!" He was down on the ground with Alexis instantly with Kate on the other side. "Are you alright?" He looked her over in the darkness.

"Growl." I'm fine Dad, it was just a dog.

He knew Alexis could handle herself. Kate, after having seen the children's toys, was a little more concerned that Alexis had just killed someone's pet. The child or children were going to learn what it meant to lose someone they loved. "The house obviously has at least one kid. Now what?" she asked. "If we tag all of them while they are still sleeping we can search the house quickly," he said and assumed she would agree. "Back to being a cat Alexis." He waited for her to change before picking her up. "We skip the locks and just teleport from room to room," he advised.

He put Alexis down once they were inside. It was ridiculously easy to teleport silently from room to room and point a finger. "They have a little girl, babe. She looks to be about 5 or 6 years old," Kate pointed out. The news had Rick hanging his head. Alexis had, in all likelihood, killed someone's pet. "Take Alexis downstairs with you and start searching including the basement," he instructed. "And where will you be?" It sounded like she was going to be doing all the searching. "I have a task to perform. Give me about 30 minutes and I'll be back to help you."

He disappeared in a twist of clouds only to end up next to a heavily damaged dog. "I'm so sorry puppy." He kneeled down and touched as much of the dog as he could and they both vanished.

It wasn't that big of a house. A living room, kitchen with an eat-in dining area and a table for four, along with a single restroom. Nothing was fancy like Kate was now used to. In fact everything was kind of rustic looking, practically handmade. They had food, electricity, and running water. The little girl even had some of her toys in the living room. "Likely bought using drug money." Kate felt bad about taking the income away from them. Still they would probably find another buyer after this. A door lead to the basement where it appeared the mother did a lot of canning. There was jar after jar down there, all labeled in Turkish. They were ready for hard times. She scanned everything with her finger and headed back upstairs just as Rick was coming down the stairs. "It's a house with a family, nothing more," she told him.

"Let's head back to our tent site," he said as she picked up Alexis. In a heartbeat they were back at the tent. "Just before sunrise we'll move to the closer tree line so we can keep watch during the day," he stated, getting her to agree. Besides, they still had the other two storage buildings to check though they were probably filled with real farm equipment since they were presently surrounded by fields. They also needed to go to the other village that possibly had a warehouse-like building.

Kate was snuggled up next to Rick inside their combined sleeping bag, neither of them wearing a stitch. "Babe where did you go?" He was quiet for a moment. "I went outside and picked up the dead d… animal and took it to a pet cemetery. I gave it a name and arranged to have it buried. It was someone's pet and if we hadn't brought Alexis, the little girl would have gotten to keep it."

"That's sweet Rick, really." She kissed his chest and loved him a little bit more. "Then I went to a pet store and bought her a Golden Retriever puppy and left it in her room with the door closed so it couldn't escape. She deserves to have someone to love, especially after we destroy her parent's ability to make money," he added. Kate raised up on her arms so she could look down at Rick. "You bought her a puppy!?" She kissed him and put as much love as she could into the kiss for him and what he did.

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They both woke to the sound of the alarm from Rick's phone. Neither of them had any bars but that didn't stop their cell phones from being useful. "Ooh, too early," she groaned. "We need to pack up and move before the sun comes up. After that we can take turns going home to use the shower," he offered, which motivated her to get up since she had a goal to look forward to.

Packing went fast since they didn't have much out and then they teleported to the closer tree line that was part of the fish hook. "Back in a flash." She gave him a quick kiss and was gone in a cloudy swirl. Rick meanwhile found a bush and watered it before going back to their camp and waiting for Kate.

She was trying to take a really fast shower when her finger began pulsing like a heartbeat, telling her that B5 wanted to talk. She was only wrapped in a towel with another on her head. "What's up B5?"

"There is a delivery of 10 thirty pound bags of puppy food at the front door," B5 told her. "SERIOUSLY!?" She was going to kiss his face off for that. "There was also a woman who came to the door and stayed for close to an hour, pressing the doorbell and knocking constantly," B5 added and displayed a picture of her from the security camera. She was relatively tall, fair skinned, and had flaming red hair. She was dressed nicely and wore heels. "I think I've seen her somewhere before, I just can't..." Kate twisted her head like that would help. "Can you ID her?" she asked.

"Her name is Meredith Lee," B5 stated. "YOU ARE SHITTING ME! Alexis's birth mother was here?" Kate's mouth was hanging open. "Do you know where she went?"

"She called a taxi and went to a hotel downtown," B5 responded.

Kate knew what she wanted to do but they had a mission that took precedence. She also had a lot of dog food at the front door. First she had to get dry and get dressed.

She worked at getting all of the dog food past the front door and into the foyer, then picked up one of them and teleported back to their campsite where she dropped the bag of dog food and saw Rick's face as she teleported back home to pick up another one.

She finished moving all of them to their campsite then literally jumped into Rick's arms and kissed him. "I love you so much Mr. Castle." He had gotten the girl a puppy and a lot of puppy food. "Not Mr. Beckett?" he teased, watching her shake her head. "You've earned the name Castle this time babe. You're an amazing man." And Kate kissed him again.

"I haven't seen anyone moving yet, but it's early," he told her even though the sun was only just starting to think of coming up. "I'll be back in a few." He evanesced in a swirl of clouds.

Kate began praying that B5 would do as she asked and not inform Rick that Meredith had been at their front door. She wanted to handle it herself and not burden either of them. She would tell them eventually, but not today.

He was glad to be under the hot water spray of the shower. That was his kind of camping. He still had one thing to do after showering, getting dry, and getting dressed. He needed a lot of steaks to feed Alexis since she was going to be in tiger form for the rest of the day and mostly all night. He took 9 New York Strip steaks out of the refrigerator, put them in a large bag, and teleported to their campsite. "Anything?" he asked as he displayed his bounty to Alexis who quickly turned into a tiger and devoured her breakfast.

"Growl!" Thanks Dad!

Rick walked up next to Alexis. Kate, who had the binoculars out, was looking across the fields and two roads that separated them. "The little girl is out with her puppy along with what looks like her mother. She seems to be happy while the mother appears to be looking for their …animal." She just barely stopped herself from saying the dreaded word.

"We'll search the other storage building tonight and leave the puppy food in it just before we light their storage buildings with the heroin in them on fire and burn out their ability to make it, then move on to the next village." He explained his plan. It hopefully meant the parents wouldn't get rid of her new puppy because they couldn't afford to keep him. "You're still an amazing man, babe and I love you for it." She kissed him again.

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He was cooking breakfast on their little stove when Kate got his attention. "They're showing up for work," she said as she watched a line form at the airlock for both men and women to go inside. "Did her parents go inside?" he asked. "Just the father that I saw." Kate answered his question as she handed him the binoculars so he could look.

"Ooo this is interesting. A man just showed up in one of those ancient flatbed trucks and he's armed with an assault rifle," he told her. "He went into the packing building."

"So there is a supervisor of sorts here, maybe he has the books," she theorized, wishing they had a way to keep tabs on him all the time. They were going to need to follow him home today so they could get their hands on his books and maybe abandon him in a deserted place.