When Becket finally got back to her apartment which she nicknamed the crater, she immediately powered up her burner phone to make sure Vikram had destroyed all remnants of his LOKSAT files. Ah, yes, Vikram, the man who started it all with that fateful call on his first day as head of the Twelfth Precinct. That first call told her two things. Most of her old team was dead, and the probable trigger was her odd query about LOKSAT. Within a matter of days she and Castle were being shot at, and Rita, of all people, had inexplicably come out of nowhere to save the day and warn her off any further dealings with LOKSAT.
How foolish she had been to even consider that her solo investigative skills were up to the task of unmasking a man so brutal and covert, but that's what happens when you fall down the rabbit hole without your plucky sidekick. Up until now, Castle had been on the periphery of real harm from the local bad guys, but this new adversary saw things very differently. This opponent assumed from the outset that both were on the same page, and each qualified as a loose end subject to the same grim fate. That horrific understanding prompted much of their last fight where he argued for them to work together, while she wanted him out of harm's way while she alone took on this new nemesis.
After the initial violence mysteriously subsided, her life became a blur of work at the precinct, her private investigation, and fitful periods of sleep at the crater. The problem was her solo investigation was going nowhere, and she knew she needed help. That led to a series of late night calls with Vikram. Both had complimentary reasons for wanting to uncover LOKSAT, and each was struggling to find anything useful about their target.
Much to her surprise, that's when providence suddenly smiled on their clandestine endeavor. Back at the 12th, Torrie had been an up-and-coming IT liaison, and reports of her expertise quickly found its way down to 1PP. An offer from Cyber Command soon followed. It was a well deserved step-up for her, but the vacancy created an opportunity whereby both could collaborate on a much more intimate basis. When his application arrived, she quickly disclosed their former partnership knowing that Gates would certainly listen to her input before any final decision was made.
What HR and IT did not know was that the night before his full day interview, Vikram spent hours at the crater where she prepped him with all the right answers. As expected, he aced the interview, and his name was among the two finalist the HR representative would be presenting to both Kate and Assistant Chief Gates. At the meeting, the HR representative offered an objective rundown of each candidate's pluses and minuses, and then Kate got to say her peace. The spiel that followed was well rehearsed and made clear Vikram was her choice. Gates wanted to support her protege, and the right decision soon followed.
Once he was on board, no one took notice of their weekly private meetings to supposedly get feedback about his orientation process. The meetings served three different purposes. First, he had purchased a rather sophisticated bug detector that he activated just as the meeting started. While scanning, they would discuss his workload and any problems he was having. Provided the scanner remained silent, they would then plunge next steps in the LOKSAT investigation.
Because of his prior work with the Feds, he was a quick study when it came to the security protocols utilized by the NYPD to thwart unwanted intrusions by outside hackers. After less than a month, he was regular accessing confidential law enforcement databases with clandestine queries. The problem was that none of this was leading anywhere. Whoever LOKSAT was, they had perfected a comprehensive cover that would make any number of three-letter agencies proud. These repeated dead ends took their toll on their initial enthusiasm, and the weekly meetings starting getting testy with barbs flowing across both sides of her desk.
This was the state of affairs on that fateful night when on her way back to the crater, she was purposefully bumped into by Rita. As they disengaged, Beckett felt a hand definitely leaving her coat pocket amidst a gruff barely audible apology. When she returned to the crater, she pulled out the note and was told to head to a certain address. Once there, she was to round the block twice, and if there was no sign of Rita, she was to hit the buzzer for apartment four-thirteen. With no sign of Rita, she buzzed the apartment and took the stairs to the door marked four-thirteen. When the door swung open, there on the opposite side was a gaunt and rather weary looking Jackson Hunt staring right back at her.
If the unvarnished truth about LOKSAT was ever told, that night would surely be marked as the beginning of the end, while Kate's train ride back from DC would be the final act in an ingenious plan to insure that she and all her family were beyond suspicion when the inevitable recriminations began after LOKSAT's brutal death.
"Well, well, well, Kate – long time no see. Sorry about all the cloak and dagger stuff – old habits that keep us alive."
"What gives Jackson? You don't do social calls."
Before he could respond, Rita shoved her way past the closing door and removed her jacket revealing a pair of serious sidearms. Whatever she was guarding against, she was definitely packing plenty of firepower. After securing the door, Hunt motioned them all towards a table in the middle of the room with a bottle of scotch and 3 rather larger tumblers. "I heard from Rick's liquor store that he buys this brand because it is your favorite. Couldn't resist giving it a try?"