Archeology and Espionage

By

UCSBdad

Disclaimer: I don't own Castle, Beckett, Nikki Heat, the Middle East…but you know that. Rating: K Time: in the near future after the story The Treasure of the Penelope.

Few people knew that Colonel Rick Rodgers wrote under the pen name of Richard Castle. He had written a series about a retired Special Forces NCO named Joe Flood. Flood had a knack of getting involved with people who had problems and helping to solve those problems. His book, Flood's Dig, had featured Flood going on an archeological expedition led by a gorgeous and brainy young woman named Dr. Nikki Heat. The following book, Flood's Heat, had seen their relationship go from professional to personal. His next, untitled book, would see them become a couple.

"No problem, sir. I don't want to involve Kate in anything dangerous." Rick said, and added mentally, like what you want us to do now.

"Okay, Rick. You'd better go, find your people and brief them. And get ready to go yourself."

Rick saluted and left, noticing that Captain Gates had her back to him as he left the bridge.

He first went back to his quarters to make sure he had enough clothing for an archeological dig and not just for a good time with his wife.

His first stop was to see Captain Fellowes, the Royal Marine. The British had a reputation for accepting eccentrics and Fellowes was definitely one of them.

"Good day to you, Colonel." He said as Rick entered his quarters.

"Is there some reason you're standing on your head, Tom?"

"It's very good for the digestion, keeps the spine properly aligned and does wonders for the brain. All the blood drains into the brain, don't you see? You should really try it."

"Maybe I will."

Rick explained the mission to Fellowes who seemed quite pleased.

"I had a great, great uncle who served in the Sudan back in the day. Since he spoke Arabic, he was sent to the Hejaz when that chap Lawrence was raising such a fuss back in the Great War. Can't say he ever thought much of Sudan. Nothing but rocks and sand and fanatical Arabs. But now they have some of those Chinese Johnnies. Do you think we might get a chance to pay them a visit?"

"Not unless things go badly wrong. We're just there to keep an eye on things. We'll stay in Saudi territorial waters, or international waters."

"Oh, well. We Brits are desert lovers, you know. Lawrence, Wingate, Burton and all those chaps. My lot are a bit more familiar with water, but we'll manage no matter what."

"If anyone asks, and we hope no one does, I'm on the dig because my wife is heading it up and everyone else military just came along on their own."

"Does anyone actually think any Chinese or Sudanese is going to believe that?"

Rick laughed.

"Not a chance, but they can't prove anything."

Rick left Fellowes and headed for Lieutenant Commander Borghese's quarters. He found him examining a map of the Red Sea coast of Saudi Arabia.

"Word travels fast, I guess, Junio."

Borghese looked up and smiled.

"So, it does, my friend. So, it does. We're headed for an archeological dig off the coast of Saudi Arabia? And should it be called a dig if it's underwater?"

"Yes, we're headed there and about the latter, you'll have to ask my wife for the proper terminology."

"And I assume we'll not be violating the territorial integrity of Sudan, much as we never ever violated the territorial integrity of the Islamic Republic of Iran?"

"Yes, we will not be violating anyone's territorial integrity unless things really turn to shit. As they sometimes do."

"Ah, then we shall see. I especially enjoyed the excitement when we went nowhere near the waters of Iran."

"With any luck, all we'll do is work on our tans."

Borghese shrugged and smiled.

"I can do that as well."

Rick gave him the information he had and headed for the flight deck where he knew CWO Wozniak would be.

As he went around a corner, he was slammed into by a familiar person.

"Colonel Rodgers! Is it true? I'm going with you? Oh, should I say anything about it in public? I'm sorry if I broke cover. But thank you, thank you, thank you! I'll do anything, anything, you want. Anything at all. Just ask."

Lieutenant Graham had gotten all of that out in one very long breath. Then she seemed to realize that the last part might sound a bit sexual.

Her face turned bright red.

"Sir! I didn't mean that…I would never… I know that you're happily married…."

"Lieutenant Graham." Rick barked.

Graham slammed to attention.

"Yes, sir."

"I think all you need to do is say thank you for this opportunity, Colonel Rodgers and I know I'll be glad you selected me."

"Yes, sir. Yes, sir. What you said. I'm really going with you? On a…" She lowered her voice, "…special ops mission? I'll get to fly?"

"Yes, Lieutenant. Now, you should go see about getting your stuff together, you'll be wearing civilian clothes. You do have civilian clothes, right?"

"Yes, sir."

"And do whatever you have to do to check out on TDY."

"Yes, sir." She looked at Rick for a second and then ran off.

Rick watched her run away and shook his head, then smiled. This should be interesting. He thought.

He went up to the flight deck and as he'd expected, he found Warrant Officer Wozniak working on one of his birds. He had a laptop plugged into one of the units in the cockpit and was mumbling under his breath.

"Got a minute, Mr. Wozniak?"

"If it's about our covert mission, sir, I sure do."

"It won't be very covert if everyone on this ship knows about it. Where did you hear it from."

"One of the Brits, sir. He wanted to make sure he'd have a nice ride around Saudi."

"Let's hope it doesn't go any further than that. You have any problems with a covert mission?"

"Well, the last time we went covert, they painted our birds to look like some damned clown car or something. We could be seen from space, I'm pretty sure."

"I'll see what I can do about the paint job."

"And we're getting a Marine helicopter pilot?"

Rick nodded.

"We all look too much like a bunch of special ops people. She doesn't. You've never had any trouble with young officers before, have you?"

"No, sir. And I won't this time. One thing, is she hot?"

"Why you old dog, Wozniak." He said with a grin.

"I'm a happily married man, sir, mostly because I'm down range all the time. But a hot young lady can cause problems."

Rick tried to be diplomatic.

"Lieutenant Graham is not what I'd call hot, but compared to what you'll see in Saudi, she's a supermodel."

"I'll have a little talk with the troops, sir. One more thing. Why are we taking my birds on this? I thought we were doing an underwater archeology thingy."

"That's something I can answer from what my wife has taught me about the Romans. When they set up a naval port like we're going to, they didn't just sit in port, or go out and sail around the Red Sea. They patrolled the coast. When patrols went out, they always dug in for the night. They called them marching camps, and probably they put up watch towers, on high ground, maybe patrol bases inland. And where the Romans set up permanent forts, civilians followed and lived in what was called a vicus, a little town outside the walls of the Roman fort. Some of that maybe above sea level, or maybe caravan stopping places further away from the fort itself. It'll be a lot easier to move people and equipment around the desert by chopper than using trucks."

"Will we be armed, sir?"

"Hopefully not. We'll have weapons on the ship, but not mounted on your birds."

"So, they'll be inconveniently located when the shit hits the fan, sir?"

"Pretty much."

Wozniak shook his head.

"Same old Army."

Rick just laughed.

Wozniak pulled out s clipboard and showed it to Rick.

"These are the aircrew I want and the maintenance people. Okay, sir?"

Rick glanced at it.

"If you're happy, I'm happy."

They decided that Rick would fly into Haifa the next day. Lieutenant Graham would be the pilot in the Marine's Seahawk helicopter. Rick would meet with Kate, the Israelis and a representative of the Saudis. Graham would fly back to the Wake Island and begin bringing in personnel the next day. Wozniak would fly his MH 16s into the Israeli air base then.

Haifa Airport, Israel

Rick got off the helicopter in civilian clothes, carrying just a small bag. He was dressed in khaki slacks and a blue, short sleeved work shirt.

Rick had thought that Kate might meet him at the airport but was surprised at who was there.

"Lieutenant Colonel Ron Fields." Rick said with a laugh. "I might have known you'd find some way to get involved with this. And congratulations on the promotion."

Fields was dressed in jeans and a very loud Hawaiian shirt. He was no longer the tubby, balding, brand-new officer that Rick had first met in Niger. He had slimmed down, bulked up and now had hair plugs covering his once receding hairline.

"I got awfully bored teaching Special Forces medics the basics. I am a fully qualified trauma surgeon, after all."

"So, how did you hear about this?"

"Oh, that. You know I play golf with Colonel Peake, the commander of the 44th Medical Brigade back at 18th Airborne Corps. He heard that Father Colonel O'Neill, the Catholic chaplain for the corps, was a golfer and invited him to play. The way he plays would almost make you believe in divine intervention, by the way. However, O'Neill invited General Brougham to play with us and…"

"Wait one, Ron. General Al Brougham? The one with four stars? Commands Army Special Ops?"

"Exactly. Anyway, Brougham asked me where I'd been and what I'd done and of course I mentioned how you had done such a wonderful job in Niger, and he was very interested. I think that's when he got the idea of setting up another archeological dig across the Red Sea from our Chinese friends to keep an eye on them. The military is rather stretched right now, and our allies are busy elsewhere. The Israelis are keeping an eye on Syria, Lebanon and Gaza and the Saudis are focusing on the Iranians.

"And you mentioned that I'd need a good medical officer?"

Ron smiled.

"Actually, Colonel Peake suggested it without my even having to hint about it."

"I'm glad to have you with us, Ron. Now I have to go find Kate and arrange a meeting with the locals."

"I took the liberty of scheduling a meeting tomorrow, and Kate is in the terminal with an Israeli archeologist. One other thing, my problems with Grace might be over."

Grace was Ron's ex-wife. She came from a very wealthy family and was very used to getting her own way in everything. Ron had had an unfortunate affair with a young nurse which led to a nasty divorce. Grace had used her money and family connections to ruin Ron's life. Her lawyers had kept him tied up in court so he could hardly find time for his practice, the hospitals he'd had surgical privileges suddenly had cut those off, at Grace's demand. Her lawyers offered to represent any of Ron's former patients pro bono should they want to sue him for malpractice. Ron had discovered that the military was always short of doctors and that he could be directly commissioned from civilian life. It also meant that Grace would have to sue in federal courts and their interests were to protect members of the military. Ron had thrived in the Army and Grace was enraged.

TBC