Over the next couple of days, the castle settled down. Ranger and the kids spent more time in the room with me, and even though I was in bed for that time, the children seemed to relax a bit. We had picnic lunches on the mattress, and the girls told me stories of things that they had done. Lindsay, my mom and dad, and Kate and Cindy had been doing an amazing job of keeping them busy and having fun. We also had the girls read me bedtime stories as well, and they greatly enjoyed that. Ranger bought a new 'I Spy' game for the girls' tablets, and we had fun working on the puzzles together.

I had been on morphine for two days but Kai gave me acetaminophen with codeine and let me go down to the living room to be with the team to listen to the takedown. Ranger and Kai gave me a sponge bath again, and dry-shampooed my hair. They searched through the different options I had to wear, and came up with a flowy pair of black culottes and a white crepe tank top with light and dark gray flowers and a pearl-gray shawl-collared sweater. It showed off my bandages more than I wanted, but we were running out of longer loose clothes to hide them.

Ranger carried me down to the family room and settled me on the most comfortable sofa. Kai brought my blanket down, and spread it over my lap as I was sitting there. Once again, I was thankful that Lindsay had thought of it.

Everyone joined me within minutes, and Miguel grinned when he saw me. He gave me a hug. "Nice to see you", he said.

I grinned. "Nice to be here."

Ben walked into the room carrying his laptop. He sat down on the other sofa, set up his laptop, and logged into his secure site as all the other people found places to sit – chairs, sofas, window seats, floor. Ben turned up the volume on the laptop, and we could hear his takedown crew walk into Felix's office. "Felix Smythe?", said the head of the capture team.

"Yes?"

"I'm here to arrest you."

"Arrest me? For what?" We could hear the panic in his voice.

"Arranging with a third party to torture and murder Ben Fowler and Stephanie Plum."

"I did not."

"Give it up. They have you on tape."

"People are trying to frame me."

"Uh-hunh", said the man as he snapped on cuffs. "Tell it to the courts."

"You can't fucking do this. Ben is the real double agent."

"Who said anything about being a double agent?" said the person picking him up.

"He is. I have proof."

"Then make sure you have access to it when you go into the courts."

"But I have fucking proof!"

"I'm glad. That will make your day in court more interesting." As he marched Felix out of the office in cuffs and as the people on staff were silent, watching him go, Felix screamed and swore his innocence and told the man of Ben's guilt.

"Ben, I know you are listening in on the transmission. I am going to fucking kill you. And now that I have your girlfriend's name, I'm going to kill her too."

I captured my breath, closed my eyes and concentrated on regular and deep breathing. Ranger put his hand on my shoulder in comfort, and I leaned back into his body and willed the panic away.

The person capturing him chuckled. "I don't think that is your wisest idea. She is a commando, surrounded by commandos, all of whom would look forward to an excuse to take you down. And quite frankly? I, too, would love an excuse to take you down. So please, resist arrest." I smiled. I liked the description of me as a commando, and in a weird way, it gave me confidence. Commandos were like Wonder Woman. They could always get themselves out of trouble.

As Felix was escorted out and put into the car, he said, "I get a phone call."

"If you weren't working with the Taliban then, yes, you would get a phone call. However, you don't get a phone call since you were working with terrorists."

"Of course I was working with the Taliban. It was my job."

"No", said the supervisor. "Your job was to oversee files relating to the Middle East. Now that you've been dropped off, this transmission is ending." We could hear Felix struggling as the officer took him into the station. "Dylan?" he said.

"Computer is seized, sir. There were a lot of interesting things on his screen. It looked like he was in the process of creating fictitious proof against Ben that supported his claims. We got here just in time."

"Thank you, Dylan", said Ben, "and thank you to the team. Felix is one of those people that are particularly good to get off the streets."

"I agree, sir", said the supervisor. "I'm ending transmission. See you back in the office in a couple of days."

Nick had been watching his computer through the whole transmission. "Excuse me", he said, "but the three amigos just bought lunch for themselves at, you guessed it, Subway." He told them the location.

"Dispatching a team to that location", said Ben.

"Are you tracking the three through security cameras?" said Ranger.

"On it", said Dirk. "It looks like Raphael and Eduardo and Garrison are in the Subway? That was a coincidence."

Ranger smiled. "I have three strike team members sitting in all the Subways in downtown Inverness today", he said.

Ben looked at him in shock and Ranger smiled again. "They fucking hurt my wife", he said softly. "I am not taking the chance that these assholes get away – and neither are any of my team. There are three Subways in the center of town, which is where they have primarily been frequenting. There are three team members in each of the locations right now, and they are going to do a citizen's arrest and wait until your team can get there. They may not even rough them up much."

Ben grinned. "Thank you."

Ranger spoke into his earbud. "Okay, everyone, it's showtime. We have approval to do a citizen's arrest. The official British team will be there momentarily."

Nick carried his computer over so that I could see, and everyone gathered behind me so that they also could see what was going on. I could tell that he was recording the transmission.

Raphael walked up to Zalmai as the other two men approached the other two suspects. "Zalmai Omar?"

"I don't speak English", said Zalmai in a panic as he saw the cuffs come out. Nick started translating.

"Then luckily I speak Arabic", said Raphael. Zalmai went white as Nick started translating. "I'm making a citizen's arrest of the three of you for the bombing of the graduation hall at the university."

"You can't make an arrest. You aren't a British citizen. You're American."

Raphael smiled. "First of all, you aren't a British citizen yourself. Second of all, I have tri-citizenship. My mom was English, my dad was from Iraq, and I was born in the US. It can be handy – like when I am arresting someone in the UK." Ben looked at Ranger in shock, and Ranger smiled.

"You asshole. You can't arrest me. I was working on the direction of the head of MI6."

"I don't think so. I have spent the last few days with the head of MI6 and I can guarantee you that he did not order his own death. How did you meet Felix?"

The man sagged. "In the mosque. He seemed like a good man who wanted to spread the truth to the world."

"What is the truth?"

"That Taliban rule is the far more effective rule compared to that used in other countries and, because of that, should be adopted by other countries."

"I see. But many other countries are democracies and, if the citizens believe that Taliban rule is the way to go, I'm sure they will vote it into power. You cannot make decisions for other people."

"They won't decide to adopt Taliban rule. People are weak."

Raphael smiled. "No, they aren't. And shouldn't people have the right to decide what kind of leadership they want? Shouldn't they have the right to decide whether they follow a Taliban rule or a different rule? Isn't that the whole point to democracy?"

"Maybe it shouldn't be a democracy."

"You and I have different viewpoints, my friend. And that is the joy of a democracy."

"I am not your fucking friend!"

The British strike team flooded the restaurant and, as Raphael handed Zalmai over, he said, "you can say that again. I don't befriend fucking assholes."

The British strike team exchanged cuffs, thanked our team, and left with the three in custody.

Raphael smiled and looked at the other two men. "Who wants a sub?"

"Me!" I said. "Six-inch, whole wheat, double cheese, lettuce, tomato, cucumber, green pepper, bacon and triple olives, with extra mayo and sub sauce."

"Excellent", said Raphael. "Anyone else?" There were no other people interested in a sub. "Okay. We'll see you in about half an hour."

"Thank you", I said.

Raphael laughed. "It's our pleasure, Steph."

I looked at the team as they relaxed after the takedown. "You all did an incredible job", I said. "I appreciate all the work you did to find the people responsible for hurting me."

Julie sniffled, and Miguel looked at me with wet eyes. "Steph, we had to find those assholes, not only for you but also for us. It was a way for us to control our anger, and to feel like we were doing something to help."

I nodded. I could understand that.

"I've been so scared that they are going to come back", I said, "especially now that I can't protect myself."

"We understand that, Steph", said Dirk. "And the four of us? We'd do anything to protect you."

I looked out the window as a car drove up, and I looked in shock as the passengers got out. "I am grateful to hear you say that", I said as I turned white. "You can start now. Val and Grandma are here."

"Fuck", said Ranger.