Recollection Rick

Chapter 33

As Rick leans in to study the evening's episode of non-celebrity Recollection, Dana tentatively approaches. "Can I join you, Mr. Castle? Recollection is one of the few programs on T.V. I really like."

"Of course," Rick invites. "Is Alexis coming down too?"

"I don't know," Dana admits. "She said she has history reading to do, and except for science history, that's never been my forte. Other than the standard trivia subjects like presidents and dates of battles, those are questions that the players get and I miss."

"What do you beat them on?" Castle asks. "No time for modesty," he urges. "I need to know where my opponents' weak spots will be."

"Yeah, you're going to the tournament of champions, aren't you?" Dana responds enthusiastically. "Alexis showed me your last two outings on the celebrity version. You killed it!"

"And I'd love to keep killing it," Rick confides. "But the competition is going to be a lot stiffer than what the celebrities posed, and that was challenging enough. So, help me out. What kind of questions do the winners, particularly the champions, miss most often?"

"Hands down, science. Not necessarily the math questions. They can practice for those. And if they like to play cards or gamble, they can be pretty quick with arithmetic and odds. What trips them up is mostly stuff from high school or even middle school that they memorized for a test and immediately forgot. Unless they're in the fields, they know barely any chemistry, physics, or biology. You already have a handle on the literary categories and what would come up in a game of trivial pursuit. And you've got nerd culture like Star Wars, Star Trek, and the animation universe down cold. In the games I saw, you knew more about D.C. and Marvel than I did, and that's saying something. I started reading comics at four. So if you cram on the hard sciences, I think you'll have a better chance of coming out ahead."

"I get you about forgetting stuff I studied in high school. I remember almost nothing about A.P. Physics," Rick confides. "But the hot girl who was copying off me – never mind. She wasn't half as gorgeous as my wife, and definitely not as sharp. Back on track. Any suggestions about how to start my return trip to the scientific realms?"

Dana absently rotates his fingertips over the smooth surface of his watch crystal. "This could sound a little weird, but I've always found it easier to learn with music. One of the things I like about Alexis is that she gets the music-science connection."

"And how do I learn science with music?" Rick presses.

"There's great stuff on YouTube. Some of the acapella parodies are really cool. I've even seen music videos that are prep for AP exams. You know how music sticks in your head. Science music can do that too."

"I still sing the alphabet in my head to find a file," Rick confesses. "I can buy doing it with science. Thanks, Dana. I'll give it a shot."

The boy tugs on the edge of his shirt. "I'll be pulling for you, Mr. Castle."

"Good. Now join me for the last two rounds. Let's see if we can beat the contestants."

Grinning, Dana plops next to Rick on the couch.


"You and Dana spent a lot of time together tonight," Kate notes as she climbs into bed next to Rick.

"When he's with me, he isn't with Alexis," Rick points out. "And he seems to be a nice kid as well as smart. He was as good as at least 2 out of the three players on Recollection. He might win that Lee award and be out of here."

"And if he doesn't?" Kate asks.

"I'll deal with it if it happens. Maybe I can pull some strings at Hudson U to get him an R.A. position or something so he'll get a break on housing. But I think he'll win, Kate. And then what do I do about Alexis dating a boy with his own apartment? It might be safer to keep him here."

Kate nestles into Rick's shoulder. "Babe, Alexis will do what she decides to do, no matter where Dana ends up living. You're going to have to find a way to accept that."

Rick turns sideways to pull her tight against his body. "Yeah. I know. I wish I could have frozen her at six when she thought boys were dumb."

"I have news for you, Babe," Kate confides. "To a lot of women, grown-up boys are still dumb. We just love you anyway."

"As a participant in the upcoming Recollection tournament, I don't find that comforting."

"Then," Kate purrs, "I'll have to see what else I can do to comfort you."


Fallon's mind and eyelids are fighting the pull of slumber when the computer sounds an alert. He jerks his gaze back to the screen. The algorithm tagged the cellphone buyer as Hamed al-Ruqai, a brother of the slime that engineered an embassy bombing. Not the biggest fish, but a significant catch. If Fallon can get his hands on him, he could be the key, not only to the New York operation but to uncovering terrorist nests in the Middle East and Africa. However, right now, preventing the bombing of the museum or anything else in the U.S. has to be Fallon's primary objective. And al-Ruqai won't be short on resources. If the agent makes a slip capturing him and his local organization, all hell could break loose.

Fallon checks the time – four a.m. Beckett will be in bed, but someone will be up at Coast Guard intelligence. If al-Ruqai is bringing in men and/or materials, they could very easily be coming on a ship already on the watch list. Knowing which one will narrow down what satellite data Fallon needs too. He's tempted to turn Husayn over to Beckett. The assassin is unlikely to know much more about al-Ruqai's plans. Still, if he remains under D.H.S. jurisdiction, he'll be helpless to assert the customary rights an N.Y.P.D. suspect has. For the moment, Fallon wants to keep the Somali firmly under his thumb.


Rick wakes up humming Bohemian Rhapsody, or rather a parody of it, about String Theory. He doubts Recollection will go for theoretical physics, but you never know. If nothing else, the harmonies in the arrangement were clever.

He's not surprised that Kate is already out of bed. From what she told him, when she left the precinct the day before, data was on its way. She's anxious to see what might have popped during the night. Lily will want Mama any minute too. No sound that he can detect through the door of the bedroom emanates from the kitchen area. Good. He'd like to be in place to make sure that Alexis and Dana emerge from the mezzanine separately.

Also, he needs to cut up some vegetables. Mother and Alexis have been leaning on him to eat a little more healthily, and Kate's veered to their side. Putting mushrooms and peppers in an omelet should stave off the disapproving looks for a day or two. And he feels like slicing into something anyway.

He's almost finished with his prep duties when Alexis bounces down the stairs. She looks happy. Too happy? No, she doesn't have that cat who licked up the cream look that Kate gets when – ew! He never wants to think about the image that just barged into his head, again. Alexis likes to get an early start on her school day. Perhaps Dana prefers sleeping in. No such luck. Rick hears the door of the guest room open. Through lips forcing themselves into a smile, he greets the teens.