BROOKLYN STATION HOUSE

0143 hours

Franklin was there along with a few detectives. Franklin made the introductions quickly. Then, he got down to business.

"I had a tip on where I could find Castle." Franklin told Feinstein and O'Reilly. "While scouting the area, I found this guy in a sniper position. I disarmed him and knocked him out."

"What about Castle?" Feinstein asked.

"He was there. He and I shot it out with the mercs-". Franklin said.

"You guys teamed up?" Feinstein said.

"Yeah." Franklin answered. "The guys were there for Castle. Some kind of ambush. When it was all over, I tried to bring Castle in He...resisted arrest and got away."

"Damn." O'Reilly said. "This is too weird. Like that movie, where the cop and the hitman join forces against the bad guys."

"The Professional?" Feinstein said.

"No, that was the one where the hitman helped the little girl get revenge on Gary Oldman."

"Right, right…"Feinstein said. "The Specialist?"

O'Reilly: "God, you suck. That was a Stallone movie-"

Feinstein: "He was a bomb expert, you're right. Oh! Oh! You mean 'The Killer'!"

O'Reilly: "That's the one. That had some cool action scenes. Impossible, but cool."

Franklin broke in: "If we can get the prisoner to talk before he lawyers up, we could find the rest of these bastards."

"And where these bastards are-" Feinstein said.

"Castle might be." O'Reilly said.

"That's how I see it." Franklin said. "You called the INTERPOL guys? They might wanna be in on this."

"They called us." Franklin heard behind him. It was Peter Niemans, the one with the short beard. He was with Arkady Danko, his partner, the big, clean shaven, Russian. Neither looked that were torn out of a deep sleep.

Danko:" I can tell you from experience, these men are hard to crack."

Niemans: "That is a reason why Rastovillich is so elusive."

Feinstein: "Maybe we can deal."

Mason, a local detective, said." That would be hard. What do we have on him? A weapon's possession charge. Like I was telling Franklin, we can't prove why he was there. It's all circumstantial. "

Lewis, his partner, said. "Maybe you could discuss this with him in private. Show him the error of his ways…"

Danko: "Such…talks…do not always have results. These are hard men. They have murdered and tortured dozens in their lifetimes. They live with the threat of death and capture."

Niemans: "And if there is not much to hold them with, well, they have very little to fear. Not too mention near fanatical loyalty to their leader."

Feinstein.: "So we're not even gonna try?"

Franklin:" Maybe we should."

MANHATTAN

SHIELD OPS CENTER

0143 HOURS

Castle admired the prisoner's toughness. After having broken his ten fingers and toes, and working those, the man refused to talk. He screamed plenty. He even spat in The Punisher's face once.

Very tough man. He was naked and tied to a chair in a sound proofed room.

Castle had a small table with several tools and utensils. Also several adrenaline shots. In case the stupid bastard decided to go into a coma or something. That would be a pain in the ass.

He took out a pair of pliers. He told the man, in Russian:

"I am going to rip out your teeth. One by one." Castle said. "I take no pleasure from this. I will torture you until I break you. You will not die. You will not be allowed to die. Pain is all there will ever be in your existence."

The man didn't answer. No bravado. He was saving his strength. The man's eyes had the same resolve.

"I am patient." The Punisher said. "I am not tired. My only limits are those of my imagination."

Castle thought of the victims of this gang war. The families of the mobsters. The children.

The old couple that was killed in Brooklyn just to draw him out.

Wrong place, wrong time. Like The Castle family.

And those were the thoughts that kept his fatigue at bay.

"Very well." Castle said. "Let's continue."

BROOKLYN STATION HOUSE

0146 HOURS

Feinstein, O'Reilly, Danko, Niemans and Franklin went downstairs to the holding cells to talk to their prisoner.

Danko walked over to the prisoner who was laying on his bed. They exchanged a few words in Russian. The prisoner then said something.

"That…"Niemans said. "was a mistake."

Danko grabbed, one handed, the man by the collar, yanked him off the bad and shoved him against a wall.

"What did he say?" Feinstein asked.

"He threatened Danko's family. "Niemans said.

Danko lifted the man off the floor. More Russian.

Feinstein and O'Reilly were nervous. Franklin was watching silently.

Danko let go of the man. The man laughed and said more words.

"We will get nothing out this man." Danko said, disgusted.

"Couldn't we deal?" Feinstein said. "Offer immunity?"

"He fears Rastovillich more than he fears the American justice system." Danko said. "He believes Rastovillich can find him wherever he goes. It is not that far from the truth."

"Damn it." O'Reilly said. "So now what?"

Niemans said. "There is not much to do."

"So we got nothing!" Feinstein said. "Nothing but the biggest body count in recent years and a prisoner who won't talk."

"Maybe we should try harder." Franklin said.

Feinstein: "What do you suggest, Franklin? The phone book therapy? Torture? We're not fuckin' savages! This isn't some fuckin' third world dictatorship. And if word ever got out in the media…"

O'Reilly: "There isn't shelter big enough to cover us from that shit storm."

Feinstein: "I'm already afraid of the public reaction to the night's events."

Franklin: "So that's it. We've lost."

Feinstein: "We have rules and laws, Franklin. It's what prevents us from turning into them."

Franklin: "You're right. I agree. It's just…"

Feinstein :"We'll get another lead. We'll get something. For now, rest. You're running yourself ragged, Franklin. Get some sleep."

Franklin: " Yeah."

MANHATTAN

SHIELD OPS CENTER

0152 Hours

It occurred to Castle, after the fourth tooth, that the man would have trouble talking, so he stopped.

The man still showed no signs of cracking.

This proved to be hard work. But The Punisher knew a hard ass when he met one. Before the interrogation began, he knew it'd be hard.

"Very well." Castle said, still in Russian. "Now, let's work on your articulations."

The Punisher grabbed a wireless power drill.

And he got back to work.

ELEKTRA WAS IN HER quarters, meditating, trying to find her center. Someone knocked on the door.

"Come in." She said.

It was Black Widow.

"Can't sleep either?" Romanov said.

"Who needs sleep?" Elektra said, offering a chair.

"It's odd." Romanov said. "I know so much about you. I actually helped rob your corpse and fought with the Hand to defend it. "

"You'll forgive me if I don't remember that." Elektra said. And smiled.

Widow allowed herself a smile. Elektra said:

"At the briefing, Fury said you and he ran into Matt."

"We did. Fury used the ultrasonic device on him and then knocked him out."

"That's what happened?"

"Yes."

"Matt will be...aggravated."

"I know that. We'll cross that bridge when we reach it."

Silence.

"Matt was insanely in love with you." Widow said.

"He loved you as well."

"No. You were the one. Or perhaps Karen Page."

"Maybe…I warned him about me. I had a darkness in me. That was unleashed when I watched my father die in a random act of violence. But even when I became everything he despised, even I did everything to drive him away, he was there. He never let go."

"Matt is…passionate."

"He's troubled and has his own demons. But still remained the most noble man I've ever met. And my only love."

"He wouldn't be happy about us working with The Punisher."

"The Punisher is something else…"

"You've met him before?"

"We had an affair."

"Really?"

"A one night thing. I was intrigued."

"I would think a man like him would give up on…earthly pleasures."

"He has…Mostly. I think he and I had a lot in common. I think pain, rage and hate have swallowed that man's soul. He lives in the abyss and doesn't mind that. He knows what he is and accepts. He knew what I was and accepted it. It was more a joining of wounded souls than anything."

"Interesting."

Silence.

Widow: "He's torturing that man right now."

Elektra:" Is that a problem?"

Widow: "I disagree with the method. But we need information. And we have no time for anything else. I don't think I could go through with it. I've done interrogations, I've used deceit, violence, seduction…But torture…"

Elektra: "We're at war. War is an ugly thing."

Widow: "The worst part is we'd have a hard time doing anything else with our lives. It's in our blood."

Elektra: "It's fate."

Silence.

Widow: "Fury is here for duty Shotgun is here for the money. I'm here for both. Castle has his reasons. How about you?"

Elektra :" Working for Fury, I always feel like I'm doing some good. And when I asked him who else would be with us, he mentioned a few names. When he said yours, I said yes."

Widow: "Me?"

Elektra: "I guess I was curious about you, the way you were about me."

Silence.

Widow :"Maybe we could see each other, once all this is done. Get to know each other."

Elektra :"As…friends?"

Widow: "Of course."

Elektra: "I would like that. I have few friends. Hard to maintain any kind of relationship in this line of work."

Widow: "Don't I know it. All we have to do is survive this insanity."

Elektra: "There's that."

WHEN THE PRISONER'S LEFT EYE BURST INTO a splatter of blood, the damaged man put everything he had into the scream.

"You don't understand, do you?" Castle said in Russian in a graveyard voice. "I'm rage. I'm vengeance. I'm an inexhaustible well of pain and violence. I have nothing but my war. It's all there is for me."

The man's good eye looked up. Something was creeping up in it.

Terror.

Sheer Terror.

Castle saw that the man was beginning to understand the madness that was unleashed upon him. It wouldn't stop. Castle was holding the small welding torch, the one used often to repair electronic components. It served other purposes.

"Do you see now? Do you see what your kind has set upon the world?" Castle asked. " Men like you murdered my family. Men like you murdered me. I'm…the man who punishes. Your comrades have murdered innocent people. I cannot find them, your comrades. So I punish you. I will keep punishing you until you tell me where they are. And maybe, maybe, you shall earn the sweet release of a quick death."

The man didn't answer. He was quivering. Coughing, vomiting blood.

"No answer." Castle said.

More coughing. More blood.

"Maybe I'm wrong."

Coughing. Blood.

"Maybe you realized what you were." Castle said. "Maybe you believe you deserve this. Maybe you do not feel like you have paid enough. Maybe you are a religious man and you believe in redemption. Very well. Who am I to stand in the way of your expiation."

The Punisher brought the small welding tool close to one of the man's testicles. The man flinched but said nothing.

"Still no answer?"

The man was trying to breathe. It seemed painful.

"How must I interpret your silence? You agree with my opinion? That you deserve more pain."

Fear, madness and pain were in the man's good eye. Somehow, the tear ducts were still intact, and Castle saw tears.

"All right, then. Let us continue."

"NO!"

Of all the sounds the man had made, that resounding "no" was the loudest.

"What was that?" Castle asked.

"No…no more…"

Coughing. Blood.

"I'm not sure I heard you right." Castle said.

"I will….I will talk. "

"Talk?"

"Yes…"

"About what?"

"I will tell you…about…where to…find…Rastovillich…."

More coughing. More blood.

"Ah. Good." The Punisher said.

Then the Punisher dressed the man's wounds, gave him morphine. The man seemed confused now. He wasn't used to tormenters helping their victims. Castle just need the man to be well enough to answer.

"All right, my friend. Tell me what you know."

SOMETIME LATER, PUNISHER LISTENED to the man's story. He made him repeat it three times. Each version was identical to the other . He took notes.

"If you lied." The vigilante said. "I will Punish you even more."

"I swear, it's the truth…."

"I hope it is. For your sake."

CASTLE STEPPED OUT OF THE CELL.

He would need to shower. But all the work actually paid off. He knew that the cell had cameras, that everything was recorded.

Fatigue crashed on him like a ton of bricks. He was tired.

The man's screams. The man's blood. Castle's family's blood. The faces of countless victims of the last decades. He could almost hear the screams of the mobster's families in Staten Island. The screams of that elderly couple. Calling out to him. Blaming him. Screaming for vengeance. Seeking Punishment for the guilty.

Rest. Sleep. Fatigue brought sloppiness and mistakes. Mistakes cause the wrong people to get hurt.

For now, rest.

BROOKLYN

0204 HOURS

Franklin was sitting in his car few feet away from the cop shop.

Once again, he was at a crossroads.

He could go to the thug that was being held prisoner in there and beat some answers out of him. That would lead him to Rastovillich, Tatamovich and their army of murderers. That could stop the coming gang war and lead him to the Punisher.

Or he could sit and wait for better leads.

Be a thug and care only about results. Be a cop and care about ethics.

How far was he willing to go to see that justice was done? Breaking the law?

What should he do?