The Feds began to swarm Altman and informed Stottlemeyer that this was now in their jurisdiction since it had become a galactic crime.

"Galactic crime?!" he responded. Had to be a first. Truth is, Leland was in no mood to continue the investigation at this point in time given that he had just lost his best friend; and, beyond that, he knew that if he were face to face with Wagner, he would personally make sure that he died a slow and torturous death and so he willingly stepped aside knowing instinctively that he had more important things to care to. He couldn't let himself go there. He had to think of Monk and what he knew would have been his last wishes.

Natalie. He would have wanted her cared for, that was for sure. Since she had come into Monk's life, Leland had seen a profound change in his friend unlike any other time except when he was with Trudy. Even then, it was different. Trudy understood him and he idolized her. She was his first, and up until Natalie only, love. But then along came his assistant. Beautiful, spunky, and smart. Natalie was very nurturing but also not afraid to call him out when he was shoveling a pile of manure - not that Monk ever would have actually touched manure. Still, she was good for him and he knew it and he respected her for it, though he would often protest.

Monk had never admitted it to Leland, nor, Leland was sure, had he admitted it to himself; but, Natalie was the one person in Adrian Monk's life that made him feel alive again and he loved her. She and Leland were Monk's best friends; but, if Leland had to wager a guess if it came to a contest between the two, he would be looking for another friend. A beautiful symmetry of likeness and difference, theirs had the making of a true romance - if only Monk could let go of his fear.

Leland dialed Julie who came and picked up her mother and the Feds took Wagner straight to prison, making plans to apprehend Grayson as soon as he returned from orbit. The governor and Altman board of directors wanted to keep the story out of the press, but it was just too big. Any "attaboys" that the Governor hoped to get were eaten up with a need for damage control. Landing on the moon for the first time since the 70s would have been huge enough, but add to that a Federal kidnapping plot and the scandal of the murder of San Francisco's most famous detective and they had the guarantee of several days of 24 hour news cycle. Every channel would be ablaze with the hot scoop of the story and Greenway would be neck deep in controversy. And no explanation or effort at politicking would ever help him to recover from it. In short, he was finished.

Upon the craft things were seemingly less chaotic. At the very time that the countdown was occurring, the crew of the Zenith sat strapped their seats awaiting liftoff. All but one of them was wholly unaware of the additional cargo that they now were carrying, but that one smirked as he considered the ingeniousness of the crime they had just pulled off. Sure that Wagner would take care of Natalie, he rehearsed a scene in his mind of how shocked he would be when they discovered Monk's body and imagined the speech he would give regarding how dangerous it could be to wander about in these places unaccompanied, why one might have an 'accident' as Adrian Monk apparently had.

The lights were turned off to conserve on energy needed to propel them into space and each of the crew took a deep breath as they listened to the countdown. It was in moment, in the darkness of a closed storage container, that Adrian Monk opened his eyes. "Where am I? What is that rumbling sound?" he wondered. He raised his harm towards his face but found he was in some pain. "Why is it so cramped in here?... Oh, my head is throbbing... And my arm... Oh no! " He began to panic and his heart began to race. "I can't feel my arm!...I can't feel... Oh, there it is." He sighed in relief.

And then he remembered.

Wagner. It was Wagner. Wagner and Grayson. They had kidnapped Natalie. But then, he found her and they ran. And they almost got away, but he was shot in the arm and he told her to run. Did she make it?

Monk closed his eyes as he tried to recall what happened after that. "I thought I was about to take Grayson out but then I felt something hard hit me in the head." he said to himself. From there, he couldn't remember a thing. "Oh please, let her be okay!" he said as he tried to focus and keep himself from losing control. Quietly he took in several breaths until his heart rate felt normal and he felt he could continue. Reaching up, he felt along the sides of the container, looking for some sort of latch.

"What is this?" he mumbled as his hands skimmed the smooth surface of the hard rectangular box. His heart sank. "Oh crap! Am I...am I in a casket?!" he asked. "I am! It's a casket! I'm in a casket!"

Adrian began to pound on the sides of the container, screaming for help and hyperventilating as his claustrophobia kicked in (so much for having it licked), but with the rumble of the engines he could not be heard.

"They...they've buried me alive! And they buried me... vertical!" he said, stopping to consider the situation. "Why would they bury me vertical? Is this some sort of sick joke?

I feel so cramped. Everything feels so tight. What is going on here? What an unnatural feeling. This casket is not long enough! Fiends. They can't even bury me in a casket that fits my body?" Monk tried to move in the tight container, but there was little room.

"Just great! They've buried alive in a vertical casket built for a dwarf! So this is how I die." he complained out loud as he again struck the side of the container. "Ow!" he said, when the movement strained his already painful shoulder.

Suddenly the whole room started shaking violently causing a knot to rise in Monk's throat. The roar of the engines became deafening and sounded like one continuous peel of thunder from a lightning strike that was right upon him. "E-e-e-earthquakkkkkke?" he surmised as his heart began pounding again out of fear. Soon he felt the g-forces pressing his body into the bottom of his "casket". He could not resist it, even though he tried. Now he was really hyperventilating and his breathing became shallow. "What's happening? HELP! HELP! SOMEBODY!" Seconds later the blood pooled in Monk's lower extremities and he found sweet relief from the nightmarish scene as he promptly passed out.

20 minutes after the Zenith exited the atmosphere and the crew began to move around, a knock came upon the command module door.

Commander Stevens and Grayson were still seated and were paying attention to some gages monitoring conditions aboard the vessel. Stevens unbuckled his safety belt and opened the door.

"Hey Commander Stevens. Commander Grayson, it looks like we have a problem..." said crewman Shizuku Naomi

"Problem" the veteran astronaut asked. "What's that?" Stevens responded.

"Yeah, no problems here. Everything seems to be running smoothly. Air pressure is good." Grayson replied.

"No, all the levels are fine. It's just...I just went into the space lab storage bay and opened one of the containers...We, uh, well, we seem to have a stowaway."