Becks Takes A Vacation
CHAPTER TEN
Some hours previously:
"You missed." Becks glared at the smirking guard. She had felt the wind created by the bullet as it flew over her head.
Not that she wasn't glad that he didn't actually shoot her, but it told her what kind of person she would be dealing with. He was just some guy hired to stand guard over this facility. He was someone who liked having power over others. A sly smirk of her own crept onto her face. He probably had performance problems.
He came over and grabbed her arm, making sure he squeezed hard. "Well, I guess that's your good fortune ain't it." He shook her a bit. "Just what the hell are you doing snooping around?"
Becks decided that antagonizing the hired help wasn't going to help her, so she changed tactics.
"Look, I didn't know I was trespassing on anything. I was out riding when my dirt bike crapped out of me." She tried to look helpless. "So I started walking, looking for help."
The guard leered at her and jerked on her arm. "Well, we'll just see what the boss has to say about that." He forced her along,
He took her to the back door and opened it. He dragged her along until they came across a wooden pallet that had bags of fertilizer stacked on it. He forced her to sit on one of the bags.
"Stay put." He stepped a couple feet away and pulled out a walkie talkie style phone and after thumbing something, began talking. He was talking softly enough so she couldn't understand what he was saying.
Becks began to look around her surroundings and was shocked. It definitely was a prefab building, but it was huge. It looked even larger from the inside than the outside. The floor was just dirt, but the metal walls, the windows located high up, and the metal roof all were as they appeared from outside. There were no interior walls sectioning the interior.
But it was what was in the building that was so remarkable. Looking up, hanging down from the ceiling were rows and rows of lights. Lights that Becks was sure were grow lights, which would fit in with the other major aspect of the warehouse. Under all those banks of lights were large tables covered with planters. Planters with plants in them.
It was then it struck Becks how warm it was in there. She was beginning to sweat. It had to be at least ninety degrees, or more, in the building. Above the light fixtures she could see a significant grid work of large metal pipes that seemed to be emitting a hissing sound.
She let her eyes follow the pipes back toward one corner of the building to what appeared to be a huge boiler. The place must be heated with a steam heat system. Not only did it provide the excessive heat they needed, but it also provided a high humidity in the building also.
All along the aisles between the tables native Indian women wandered along tending the plants. It didn't take a genius to guess what kind of plants those tables supported. It was one of those women that she had seen emptying some trash, and another out on a smoke break.
It definitely was a drug operation. Not only were they transporting drugs with their ATV couriers, but they were also growing their own supply of opium poppies with which they could produce heroin, cocaine, or whatever drug they wished that was derived from the poppy plant. And they could do it where no one would expect to find the tropical plant.
Becks had to figure out what she was going to do. It didn't matter if they believed her story or not, they couldn't afford to leave her alive after she had seen the inside of the warehouse.
Just another notch on the stupid scale for the guard for bringing her inside. Unfortunately, his stupidity was going to cost Becks her life.
The guard clipped the walkie talkie back onto his belt and grabbed her by the arm again. He perp walked her over toward what was obviously the front of the giant warehouse. They came upon a small space where there was a desk which had a computer, phone, and a tray full of papers. An expensive office chair was behind the desk, but it was empty. A couple of side chairs sat in front of the desk, but those were empty too. Nobody home. Becks hoped that meant she had a temporary reprieve.
The guard pulled one of the side chairs off to the side, a few yards from the desk. He grabbed Becks and forcibly sat her down in the chair. He produced some rope from a metal cabinet against the wall and proceeded to tie Becks to the chair.
"The boss isn't here at the moment, so you are going to have to wait. He will want to talk to you before he decides what to do about you."
Becks decided to push her story. "Hey, why all this drama? I'm just some dumb gal who broke down while riding my bike. I'm not some industrial spy or something. Just let me go and you'll never see me again."
The guard leaned over and leered at her, then patted her cheek. "That's not my call sweet cheeks. The boss will be back in a while. Just sit tight till he gets here." He stood up and leered once again. "I'll be back to check up on you." He turned and left.
Becks didn't know how much time she had. The boss will be back in a while. What the hell did that mean? Did she have, minutes, hours? She had to get free as soon as she could. She didn't know when her idiot guard may show up again.
Becks wiggled around in the chair. It wasn't all that heavy, but it was a wide chair and it would be nearly impossible to move with any speed still tied to it. Plus there were a lot of women wandering around whom she didn't know if they would stop her if she tried to waddle out tied to a chair.
She wiggled about trying to shift her butt and her hands such that she could reach her back pocket. Years ago, when she was a rookie, her T.O. showed her a trick that might save her life someday.
He told her she should keep a nail file in her back pocket for just such situations. The first thing you try would be to test the knots. How well were they tied. If you couldn't get loose from them maybe you could loosen them enough to have more wiggle room for your hands.
Then you get your fingers into that back pocket that you have the nail file in. Once you've worked the file out of the pocket, then you can use the nail file to slowly cut into the ropes binding you. It was a slow process, but if you had the time, you could wear your way through your bindings.
Becks had never been put in the position to have to use the trick, but ever since she had always kept a nail file in her back pocket. The key is to keep a firm grip on the file. If you dropped it you were screwed.
Becks pulled the nail file out of her back pocket very carefully. She made sure she had a good grasp on the thing before she slipped it from its resting place. She had it pressed tightly between her thumb and her index, and middle fingers. She was also wise enough to have altered the nail file and had also cut grooves into the side of the file. She wiggled around until she was able to position the file against a length of rope. It wasn't a thick rope, more like clothes line from what she could feel. It didn't matter. It was going to take some time.
Becks began working on her deliberate sawing motion and then disengaged her mind. She began looking over the huge warehouse, nee indoor hothouse. She found herself sweating from the wet heat. She was surprised that there was a crew of people tending to the plants considering it was the middle of the night. Apparently they had chosen to give the plants a twenty four hour day.
Becks was only able to recognize six different women who were moving about tending to the plants. She wondered if the day shift was larger.
Four used hoses equipped with large perforated heads that allowed water to be dispersed in a gentle rain type effect. They would walk up and down the aisles created by the big tables that held the plants. They walked very slowly allowing a good drenching at each table, then move on to the next one.
Two of the women were just walking up and down in no particular pattern inspecting each table planter. Occasionally they would reach in and pull out something undesirable from the soil. Probably some sort of weed or dead leaves… or cigarette butts.
Becks could only guess at what they were doing since she had always been a classic black thumb when it came to plants. She only tried to have plants in her apartment two times in her life and both times the plants didn't last two weeks.
She felt bad because one had been a gift from Castle when he found out she didn't have any plants at her place. She had kept the tragic truth from him for several weeks, but finally broke down and confessed she had killed the plant. He had laughed at her heartfelt apology for the destruction of the plant. He shrugged it off. Some people just aren't plant people he'd said.
That thought suddenly brought on a painful memory of Castle and her boys at the precinct. She hadn't completely accepted Castle yet before she was snatched from her home dimension, but they were getting there. And after seeing Kate and Rick as a married couple, expecting a kid, she knew what probably could have happened with him and her.
She'd met Kate's Ryan and Esposito a couple of times, but they no longer acted like her boys did. They were older and had moved up in the ranks by then. There was none of that Three Musketeers spark that she used to share with Kevin and Javier. They were nice to her, thinking she was a relative of Kate's. And she was happy to see how far they had come over the years. It gave her hope that her boys would achieve the same kind of advancement through the ranks even without her there.
She couldn't' stop wondering how it might have been being partnered with her Rick Castle for all those years. Would they have followed the same path? Would her lack of patience with the man have chased him out before they could finally break through? Would they have been able to 'see the light' quicker?
Becks almost chuckled. Given all the stories that Kate and Rick had told her about those years, there were many things that they had endured that she was glad she never had to experience. Neither getting shot in the chest, nor being thrown off a building were something that she would have enjoyed. Of course there was also both of them being shot in their own kitchen.
Becks frowned. Maybe being shunted into this dimension wasn't so bad after all.
She turned her head and saw a line of lockers along the far wall back near that single door she had been going to sneak in when she got caught. She counted twelve lockers. So maybe each shift was only six native women who worked twelve hour shifts. These guys really were bad employers.
Becks could tell she had made some progress with the ropes, but she still had a ways to go and she was worried that the 'boss' would be back before she could affect her escape.
She wasn't sure how long it had been since the one guard who had caught her came back to check on her. But he was back.
Becks gave him an exasperated look. "Look, I don't understand why you are holding me captive. I'm just a girl who apparently got lost while riding my dirt bike. When it broke down I went looking for help. I saw one of the women tossing away some trash so I came down to see if she could help me. That's all."
The guard just shook his head back and forth. "That was your tough luck. You've seen too much now. But you can certainly try that sob story on the boss when he gets back."
"So, when's he coming back?"
The guard shrugged. "Not sure. Could be a few minutes, could be a few hours. He didn't tell anybody where he was going."
Becks rolled her eyes. "He's not too bright then if he's trusting the likes of someone like you to watch over whatever the hell this is."
The guard chuckled. "Oh he's definitely not stupid. Do you see all those cameras up along the roofline?" Becks looked where he was pointing. She could see cameras positioned every few yards all along the top of the wall just before it met with the roof rafters.
Great, Becks thought. Now she knew that the boss was also paranoid.
"So, I see you have a steam boiler over there to provide the heat." Becks used her chin to point toward the big boiler with the piping leading up into rafters. "But what provides you with electricity way out here." She was pushing for as much information as she could and was counting on the boredom of security work to provide it.
He puffed his chest out, like whatever he was going to say was his idea. "There's a big generator in a shack behind the processing building. It runs on fuel oil. The tank is right next to it." She guessed that was the log building she saw earlier.
Becks gives the guard a nod. "I guess your boss thought of everything."
The guard nods solemnly. "Oh you better believe it. The boss ain't no dummy that's for sure."
Becks couldn't help thinking; 'No, but the help sure is'. She looked around tried to figure out how she would get out once she cut through her bindings. It seemed that there was only the large garage style door in the front corner, flanked by a standard egress door. And the other standard sized door in back. The one she had seen the women use.
She knew that if she could get to it, that back door was her best bet. It led her out closest to the surrounding forest, and back where she'd come from. If she reached the tree line before they could stop her she had a chance to get to her bike and be off before they could catch her. If that would be their choice.
Her problem was, she didn't think that keeping her around once they got whatever information they could about her, would be the likely outcome. It was clear that the boss was no dummy. He had hired help that was only capable of handling the menial tasks they were assigned. That way he didn't have to worry about them getting any ideas on how they might be able to better their station.
"Look, I know you don't believe that I accidently wound up here because my bike crapped out on me, but it's true." Becks tried to give him her best chagrinned smile. "I have to admit, I don't know where I am? Can you tell me where I am? What town are we closest to?"
He chuckled. "You must think I'm stupid." She had to bite her tongue. "I'm not telling you that. What good is it to have a secret base of operations and then tell every stranger where it is?" What good indeed she couldn't help but think.
He grinned, which showed his missing teeth. "Tell you what. You tell me where you think you are and we'll see. Maybe I'll give you a hint."
"Well, since you put it that way, I have a feeling I'm not in the U.S. anymore."
He laughed. "Wrong country sweetheart."
So she had crossed over into Manitoba, Canada. Where was Dudley Do Right when you needed him?
Now she needed chuckle head the guard to leave, she could feel that she was getting close to cutting through the ropes. If she was able to get free before the boss came back it would probably be for the best.
Becks wiggled in her chair but she was still well bound. "I saw another building as I came down. A big log cabin type place. Anyone working in there?"
"You're kind of nosy."
"Just inquisitive." She knew he didn't know what that meant.
"That's the production group, but they are currently in Win- er, out getting supplies."
"Hey, things must be pretty easy around here. You haven't had to do any sort of rounds for quite a while?" Becks heard footsteps coming toward them.
"Yeah, well, I'm pretty much free to make up my own routine. The boss trusts me."
"The boss trusts you to do what you are being paid to do." A deep voice interrupted their little confab. A short swarthy fellow just walked up.
Why were drug bosses always short swarthy looking guys Becks wondered.
She realized that she'd been captive for quite some time, and she had no idea how long that had been. She knew it had been hours since she'd been caught, but how many, it was hard to judge. She was worried that her legs would cramp on her.
"Is it morning yet?" She asked.
The guard and the boss looked at her. The guard answered. "Yeah, the sun rose a short while ago."
The boss glared at the guard. "Why are you still standing here?"
The guard looked a bit sheepish. "Ah, I was guarding the prisoner?"
The boss nodded. "It looked more like you were flirting with her." He gestured toward Becks. "She's tied to the chair isn't she?' The guard nodded. "So get back to work. I'll talk to her then I'll decide what is to be done with her."
Becks didn't like the way he said that. She watched the guard scurry away and turned back to the boss.
"Hi, my name is Rebecca, and I think there has been a giant misunderstanding here."
The boss grinned. "Oh, is that right. Just what misunderstanding would that be then?"
Becks took a deep breath. "Look, I understand that I might have trespassed on your property here, but it wasn't intentional. As I tried to explain to that rock-headed guard, I was riding my dirt bike when it broke down on me. I had been riding around in northern Minnesota. I have friends up there."
"Where are you from?" He asked. "You're obviously not from Minnesota."
Becks shook her head vigorously, keeping in character. "No, I live in New York. I was just visiting."
His smile never left his face. "So, where are your friends?"
Becks dramatically rolled her eyes. "That's what I'd like to know. Obviously we got separated somehow. I don't know how I wound up in Canada. I mean, really, Canada!"
He chuckled but waved a hand, indicating she should continue.
She nodded. "So, as I was saying. I must've gotten separated from my friends. And then to add more trouble onto the situation, my dirt bike crapped out on me." Becks shrugged. "Not knowing where I was I saw a wider trail and followed it hoping it led somewhere that I could find some help."
Becks took another breath. "I came over a hill and saw the light on the pole in your lot so I thought maybe someone might be there who could help me."
"Did you think to call your friends?"
Becks tried to look contrite. "I did, but the service up in northern Minnesota is spotty at best and I think my battery is low."
The grin was still in place. "May I see the phone?"
Becks pulled a face. "Well, it's not like I can give it to you. Someone thought they should tie my hands behind my back." He gave her a hard stare. She rolled her eyes again. "It's in my jacket inside pocket."
He reached in, taking care as he pulled the phone out of her pocket. He looked it over, thumbed it on.
"Well, the battery seems okay. I see that you had an incoming call that failed."
"See, I told you." Becks made sure she sounded petulant.
The boss scrolled a bit. "It seems you have a text message here." He read it. "Becks, we got held up and are going to miss our rendezvous. Just head back to Joseph's place once you're done with your search". His brow rose.
Becks shook her head. "I never saw that text, not that it would have done me any good. My bike was on the fritz." Becks didn't have much confidence that the boss would by her story after she saw his expressions when he spoke the work 'search' on the text.
The boss carefully slipped the phone back in her jacket pocket. "I have to say that you are very good. You almost could convince me that you really are a lost biker, but you made one critical mistake." Becks raised her brow. "You were never afraid. It's obvious you know what this operation is all about, and that means you know we are the bad guys. But you never broke a sweat." He grinned wider. "If I had to guess I'd say you are a cop. How you ever got a clue about us, I'll never know. I don't imagine you'd be willing to tell me?"
Becks just glared at the boss. In a perfect climactic movie moment the rope she'd continued working on finally parted. It only took a couple twists and turns of her hands and wrists and she was free.
She had the advantage of surprise, youth, and adrenalin. Becks leapt out of the chair, grabbed it by the back and swung with all her might. The boss was staggered, but he had gotten an arm up and that had prevented him being knocked unconscious.
Becks dropped the chair and sprinted toward the back door. She ran full speed then made a perfect baseball slide under one of the rows of tables just as a bullet whizzed over her head.
She heard the women screaming and causing a lot of appreciated confusion as they fled the building. Another shot rang out, but Becks had slid under another row of tables and came up running for that back corner door.
She was breathing heavily when her hand grasped the door knob. As she pulled the door open, another slug buried itself in the door frame. She could hear the boss screaming for his guards.
It was morning and she could see that it was a bright, mild day. She sprinted up toward the peak of the hill that had started her adventure late the past night.
Tiny dirt volcano's erupted around her as more bullets struck the ground near her as she ran up the hill. She didn't have any idea if she would be able to get back to her bike before they managed to find their target.
No sooner had she let that thought escape when a hard blow to her left shoulder knocked her to the ground. She screamed as she hit, then rolled as another shot kicked up some dirt a couple feet away from her.
She struggled back to her feet and like a three legged dog she continued to scramble up the incline. Her hope was to make it to the cover of the trees. Maybe she could lose them in the forest and double back to get her bike.
"Her shoulder burned as if on fire. Her vision kept blurring on her. She was getting close, at least she thought she was.
Just then a bullet, as if fired by a trick shot artist, struck a fair sized rock and ricocheted, striking her in the calf. It caused her to lose her footing and she fell to the ground.
She lay there, waiting for the final shot that would end her. With her cop's grim humor she thought back on how lucky that she'd been to avoid the shootings Kate had endured over the years. If it didn't hurt so much she'd laugh at the irony of it all.
Suddenly, not knowing if it were her losing her mind, or if it were real, but she swore she could hear the scream of a woman.
"Becks!"
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
A/N: Found her.
All Readers are Appreciated, Review if you wish