Posted 7 Feb 2019

A/N: Why put more wood behind fewer arrows when it's just as effective to put the same wood behind more arrows?

Kate felt her throat constrict. She had to remember to breathe.

"My mother," she whispered.

The spy didn't react. Her stone face was completely impassive. That meant she knew. Of course she knew. Carmichael Industries seemed to know everything. It was getting annoying.

How could they know and not come to her sooner? This was a deep betrayal, and Sarah waited until Kate could do nothing about it. Kate couldn't land the plane. When they landed, she couldn't hail a cab from the middle of an arms smuggler's secret camp. Then there was Castle. She needed them to find him. From what she heard about Castle's father, he wasn't trustworthy either. He was another spy. She needed to get to Castle to back him up so they could rescue Alexis, who was being held by yet another arms dealer. She couldn't take on an arms dealer in a foreign country without help.

"Are you wondering where the parachutes are?" the spy asked.

What? Parachutes? They were over the ocean.

Sarah acknowledged, "Yeah, it'd be a long swim, but there are emergency beacons in the packs, at least there were when we sold the plane. We had four packs with 'shutes."

"I'm not going to jump out of a plane."

"Good call, but if you are going to try to land the plane, please let me bail out first. The last time I fell out of a plane I was unconscious most of the way down. I don't recommend it. I want to be awake this time so I don't land in water again. I could aim for a train station. That'd be better than stealing a motorcycle."

"You think this is funny? You are messing with my life. My mother…"

"Was killed by Dick Coonan for a contract commissioned by Bracken. We know."

"How long?"

"When Castle was arrested last fall. Chuck…investigated some of your recent cases before he found the 3XK connection. He figured out Cole Maddox was also hired by Bracken."

"I called you to help find Alexis, not antagonize my mother's killer."

"You aren't working fast enough."

"Fast enough? This is my mother. She was killed when I was 19. They acted quickly and dismissed it as random violence, but I didn't. This is my life. You have nothing to do with it. I'm working as fast as I can."

"We need him taken out," Walker said in a no-nonsense tone.

"I may not fully understand how you spies work, but this isn't about killing him. This is about justice."

"That's why you saved his life a few weeks ago?" Sarah asked. Somehow, she knew Detective Beckett had saved Bracken from an unrelated assassination attempt.

"I was doing what's right. Whatever might have happened wouldn't have brought my mother justice."

"That's very 'Chuck' of you. Casey wants to shoot the traitor, and my instinct is to agree, but Chuck's too noble for that."

"If you know what Bracken has done, why don't you turn him in?"

"Why don't you?"

Beckett didn't answer.

Sarah asked, "Are you worried about retaliation?"

"They can come! Everyone else who has is dead."

"I like your confidence, but that doesn't get you justice." Sarah paused, and came to a realization. "You don't have enough evidence, do you?"

Beckett dropped her head. "It was destroyed by a bomb. The man who collected the information was killed."

"Maybe, or maybe Smith faked his death. That doesn't matter. What matters is Bracken knows you know."

Beckett nodded. Wait a second. How did she know about Smith?

Sarah said, "You're bluffing him. That explains the facial wound last fall. It was a parting shot before your détente. I know a pistol whipping wound when I see one, having been at both ends of one." Sarah huffed out an aborted laugh. "You have a pact of mutually assured destruction. Very 'Cold War' of you. Casey would be proud. Even with that, Bracken used you for protection a few weeks ago."

"I was hoping to find more evidence, and Bracken is a sadistic bastard."

"But you didn't find anything."

"No. I need what you know." Beckett knew she sounded desperate. The spy held all of the cards, as long as Alexis was hostage.

"Sorry, our evidence isn't admissible. There are national security concerns a lot more serious than a single, evil US Senator or even a caucus of them."

"What? Did you find it in one of the government computers in which you shouldn't have been snooping around in?"

Sarah hesitated. "I can't reveal our source."

"Instead you're taunting him by stealing his plane?"

"If our source is revealed, everyone I care about is put at risk. I can't chance it. We aren't taunting him. We're setting him up."

"It won't work. Bracken's too careful."

Sarah smiled. Not a pleasant one. This was more predatory. "Bracken's out of his league. He only lasted this long because we didn't know about him. If we were still in the CIA, we could have used the Patriot Act, even against someone like him, and this would be over. But now, we have to proceed carefully."

"Stealing a plane is careful?!"

"It's rattling the cages. We know about his drug pipeline. One of my bridesmaids is DEA, and we've sent her some leads. She's not subtle, but she's good. I give his organization three more weeks, six at the tops. She thinks the job is a necessary step to make her a godparent, but Chuck's sister and even Morgan are far more maternal, making them higher on the list. However, severing the connection between the drugs and Bracken isn't enough. That'd just be cutting off his current money supply. He's a politician. He can always get more. Getting him nervous about his plane will make him sloppy."

"He's not up for reelection for six more years."

"Try three. That energy speech you stopped. That's the first step in a Presidential run. We can't let that happen."

No. That couldn't be. Her mother's murderer was not going to be President. "He couldn't."

"Have you read his energy plan?" Sarah asked.

Kate shook her head. "No one reads those. They're always fiction."

"I have a lot of free time to do risk assessment while Chuck is doing his computer thing. Bracken's plan classifies Ethanol enriched gasoline as a wholly renewable resource, not just the corn-based percentage. That farce will help him win Iowa, even though that part of the plan would never get past his own party's platform. It makes him look just independent enough from his party. Coming from New York, he'd have to be incompetent to lose New Hampshire. The reason it was so easy to alter his flight plan was he had another passenger flight already scheduled to run an empty plane for pick-up. It was to South Carolina to fly his state campaign manager back to New York."

Those were pieces that together made too much sense. "He's really gearing up for a Presidential run?"

"We both know he has the money to at least partially self-fund, at least on the surface. It'd make him look independent of the lobbying groups, even though this plane proves otherwise."

Kate said, "He's hiding too much. He knows better than to throw himself into the spotlight. He couldn't survive it."

"Presidential candidates really don't get vetted as well as you'd think. If he were to win the Iowa caucus and the first two primaries in New Hampshire and South Carolina, no one else would be able to get funds, and he'd walk away with the nomination. That would short-circuit most of the vetting. It would also mean a Secret Service detail. At that point it'd be too late. I've worked Secret Service. It'd be too hard to take him out at that point. Preventing his early wins would give us time to gather other evidence."

"You say you worked for the Secret Service, but you're talking about assassinating a US Senator."

"I'm talking about protecting the people I care about from a traitor. I said he was affiliated with the Ring. Three years ago we took out the Ring's Director and Elders after they tried to kill us and had successfully completed their intelligence coup. We defeated them, and now most of the organization has been dissolved. Most of those who got away were low on the food chain or were part of the foreign branches. Anyone else who escaped was extremely well insulated, likely one step below the Elder Council. People like Bracken."

"You have evidence Bracken is one of those people, but you can't use that evidence?"

"Currently, coming forward with the evidence is more dangerous than other options. We can still take on Bracken. Revealing our source would be taking on everyone. By everyone I mean every rogue spy, arms dealer, and dictator with an agenda. We did that for five years. It led to my memory being wiped. Not again, if I have anything to say about it. We'd only reveal our source if Bracken was assured of winning the election. We can't risk a former Ring ally as President. He'd have all of us killed."

"Presidents can't just kill people."

"They absolutely can. Trust me. I'm a former CIA assassin. We've taken on powerful enemy espionage factions that were trying to kill us, three times. That was hard enough. If the full weight of the Presidency was behind an erasure order, our lives would be over."

"Why don't you take him out now? I'm after justice, but I have the feeling you don't care about that."

"I don't, not really. I mostly care about safety. If we can do a little good in the world, that's a bonus. However, Chuck and I are considering babies. We were giving my memory problem and recovery a year. That time's up. Now it's all about risk assessment. Bracken is in a group of five or so that need to be neutralized before we start a family and truly retire from the spy business."

"By neutralized, you mean kill," Beckett said.

"Chuck's doesn't like that."

"Wasn't he CIA too?"

"Yes, but he cheated on his Red Test. That's what we call the first kill order test for trainees. Chuck doesn't kill people. He doesn't like real guns, which is the real reason I brought the tranqs. He couldn't smuggle those on a commercial flight to Russia, and the arms dealers will only have the real thing. If necessary, I'll take out Bracken, but I avoid that sort of thing as much as possible for his benefit. Chances are Gertrude will mail him a grenade before it gets that far."

"Gertrude?"

"Casey's girlfriend. She's ex-KGB, converted capitalist. Carmichael Industries has a partnership with her company. She runs a security consulting firm, and by 'security consulting' I mean wet work. We handle their more advanced tech needs, and Casey does a lot of missions for them."

"I see." She really didn't.

"I know you have this cold war, mutually assured destruction thing going with Bracken, but Casey is a Reaganite: victory through strength. We're going forward no matter what. If you want to be a part of it, that's fine. You could be an asset. If you want to stay on the sidelines, that's ok too. Either way, this is happening. I just thought you have a right to know." Sarah sighed and waited a moment. "How can I get you to trust us?"

"It's my mother."

"How big is your circle?"

Kate stayed silent.

"Castle?"

She gave a single nod.

"Your team? Esposito and Ryan."

"Yes."

"Your captain?"

"No. It's only family. Well, part of it. Castle and I haven't decided if we should tell Alexis, Martha, and my dad, but for now it is just the four of us."

"That might be for the best until right before it's time. Then, they need to know so they understand any fallout or blow back and can help where it makes sense. At least your team knows now. Protecting them by keeping them in the dark is the CIA protocol, but it always backfires for long-term missions. We kept my sister-in-law and her husband out of it for three years, but when her dad was killed and we were about to be, they fortunately helped anyway. Just think of it this way: now your team includes the five of us with Carmichael Industries. We will keep it compartmentalized from our partners. Your new circle is a little bigger group, and it's better equipped. You've met four of us in person, and the fifth you met in calls is Casey's daughter, Alex, who manages our office and is starting to quarterback ops."

"I want to bring Bracken to justice. Killing him without a trial will make him a hero."

"Not with the drug pipeline ties, which would come out. Drug kingpins aren't made into heroes. Prison might be a solution, but people get out of prison. Case in point: Alexis's kidnapper was in prison until recently. Morgan says the only way to make sure someone is really dead is if you see brain matter. Yeah, I know. Invoking Morgan doesn't help my cause, but he has a point. Chuck says impalement works, not that he'd ever do that. He's afraid of needles, which are just little foils for impalement. Frankly, I'm fine with making Bracken impotent, figuratively. If he's too afraid to do anything, he's not a threat. We're still in the recon phase. Even the drug pipeline op is compartmentalized. A lot can change."

The knot in Beckett's stomach didn't unwind, but her head knew there was nothing she could do about it now.

Sarah adopted a lighter tone. "But first, we need to rescue Alexis. You really should get some sleep. In a few hours, we get to stare down some arms dealers, so I need you rested."

Kate woke and checked her watch. She was surprisingly rested considering she only had a little over four hours. The cabin lights were on, and the plane engines changed pitch. It felt like they were descending. Game face time. Last night was a mess of stealing planes and trampling over her Bracken investigation. She still wasn't sure how she felt about it all, but it'd have to keep.

She changed into the 'covert spy' outfit she had cobbled together: black pants, dark gray turtleneck, black leather three-quarters length coat with wool lining, and her black, high-heeled boots. She finished up in the restroom just as she felt the plane touch down, with the jolt almost knocking her over. So much for the "Fasten Seat Belts" warning.

After the engines shut down, Sarah emerged from the cockpit, wearing the same outfit as last night. Or was it morning? What time was it?

"It's 4:47 pm local time," Sarah said as Kate checked her watch. "I was hoping for better time, but we're ok. I have a few minutes to talk these guys down before we leave to find Chuck."

Kate noticed the spy appeared unarmed. The tranquilizer guns were loose on a seat. Seeing her eyes, Sarah said, "They're arms dealers. They have us outgunned anyway. I need you to stay close. If something goes wrong, make sure they don't get between us. I'll get us out. Do you know French?"

Arms dealers, French, what? Oh yeah. They were in France. "I haven't used it since high school."

"That's ok. They're French Moroccan, so the accent will be a little thick. Just keep quiet and look tough. Can you do that?"

"I stare down murders for a living."

"But normally you have a gun. This time, our hands and feet and my knives are our only weapons." What knives? "You need to act like that is more than enough. You need to sell it."

"Even though it isn't."

Sarah shrugged and the corner of her mouth tilted. She must have had the delusion of thinking it was enough. Two effectively unarmed women against an army. Even Kate wasn't that naïve.

"You have to sell it," she repeated. "Can you do that?"

"Yes." That sounded more confident than she felt. For Alexis, for Castle, she could do it.

"One last thing. No mention of Alexis. As far as they are concerned, the mission is to take out Gregor Volkov."

Kate nodded.

"Let's go."

A half hour later

Well, that was a disaster. Kate had almost been convinced that this spy team would rescue Alexis, take out Bracken, and she and Castle would live happily ever after.

After seeing how they operated in the field first hand, she had no such delusions. At least she was alive, and on her way to Castle.