Close Encounters 27

Sasha hunted far ahead, scouting their way, coming back to them when Kate whistled for her. The second time, Castle put a hand out and caught his wife's wrist, made her stop.

Hunt was coming around; his eyes opened and a groan sank from his lips even as Castle laid the man against a tree.

"Hey. Beckett. He's up."

Kate came at his back and trailed her fingers over his bare skin as she moved before Hunt. She knelt down, palmed the side of Hunt's face. "Colin? Colin, I need you to open your eyes for me."

Castle rolled his eyes, straightened up again, ignoring the tender scene. Fucking hell. This part - this part he wasn't a fan of.

"Hey, there, Col. You okay? Think you can walk?" she was saying.

Castle peeled his folded up shirt off his shoulders with a wince, pain racing under his skin like fire. The burns crawled with damaged nerves already trying to heal, and he knew it was the fault of the regimen. If he wasn't super, it wouldn't hurt so much.

Of course, if he wasn't, he'd have contracted some kind of nasty infection by now. And out here in the woods, animal decay and plant detritus made for serious, life-threatening bacteria. He knew a guy who had contracted a flesh-eating bacteria from a bad parachute jump. The Army Ranger had survived the tree, just hadn't survived the bacteria that glommed on to open wounds.

Fucking hell. Kate needed medical care. His imagination was a little too vivid.

"Beckett. He gonna make it?"

"I hate the bloody woods."

"Guess that's a no?"

"I can make it, you bastard. Give me a hand. No, not you, Kate. Castle-"

He leaned past Kate's stupid offer, grabbed Hunt by the upper arm and heaved. The Scotland Yard Inspector and moonlighting Interpol agent got to his feet, but he felt really fucking unstable. He looked sick.

"Not sure you can make it," Castle prodded. "You seem-"

"I'll make it," Hunt gritted out, eyes catching his with fire.

There it was again, enmity. Cain and Abel, only Castle was pretty sure he himself was the brother-killer Cain. Hunt was too unmotivated - and he hadn't had John Black for a parent - to take that role.

At least that sibling rivalry would fuel Hunt now, keep him moving when his body screamed to stop - if only to impress Kate. Castle didn't mind that; let him. He didn't doubt Kate in the slightest.

But he couldn't help poking at Hunt all the same.

"You sure about that?" Castle asked him. "You look kinda sick."

"Castle," she huffed at him.

But Hunt's face soured, his eyes moving off towards the woods, the fire just beyond them. The blood from his head wound still streaked down his face, running freely. "Is - she - the car's gone?"

"Both cars are gone," Castle said. "But yeah, we got her."

Hunt swayed. Castle had to jerk forward to catch the man, a spark of real concern in his guts as he pushed Colin back to the tree. Hunt tried to wave him off, but Kate came up at Castle's side, her body pressed against his as she moved in to peer at Hunt.

"Colin, what's wrong?"

"Look at him," Castle growled. "He's walking wounded, Beckett. He's lost too much blood."

"Colin," Kate insisted.

Castle glanced back at the man and had to reach out and catch him again as he slumped forward. But Hunt wasn't passing out; he was bowing over his knees and breathing hard.

Just beyond Hunt's bent form, Sasha slinked through the trees, finally making an approach. Castle glanced back at his wife to see if she'd noticed, but she was kneeling gingerly in the pine needles at Colin's feet.

"Hunt. What is it, what's going on?"

"You - you got Diane Jolin?" he rasped, lifting his head and piercing Castle with a fierce look. "The car is - it's gone?"

"Burning, last I saw it," he said. "It's the best we got. I highly doubt she'll find you now."

Hunt's face twisted.

"Oh, God," Kate whispered. "Jolin is your mother."

"What?" Castle roared. Sasha yelped and skittered back another thirty feet, but Hunt only sank to the forest floor. Castle went down on his haunches, reached out to grip Colin's shoulder. "Your mother?"

"Yeah," Hunt croaked, tilting his head back. "Bloody hell."

"Shit."

Hunt blinked and put a hand against his bleeding forehead. "Yeah, well. She was a right terrible mum, playing me off against him, so don't. Just - don't."

There was a long silence that wasn't silent - the woods were on fire and animals were moving ahead of them, escaping the smoke and the blaze, and the crackle of flame was as loud as their own breathing.

But Hunt was bleeding, and the fire was getting closer, and they still had miles to go.

"Kate," Castle said quietly, nodding to her. He leaned forward and scooped an arm under Colin, hoisted him up. "Lead us?"

The woods were pitch black where they weren't eerily alight, and since their phones were completely powered down to keep from being tracked, Castle was grateful Sasha was with them. Not right, what they'd done, not right to involve their wolf - either of their wolves - but the pack had already been threatened. Ride or die. They had been forced to; they'd had no choice-

And he realized he was making silent excuses to Colin Hunt, excuses the man wouldn't care to hear anyway.

"This way," Kate promised, starting off again. "We've got maybe another mile or so. Sasha might catch up to them before we do, bring us some help back with her."

As if hearing her name and understanding went hand-in-hand, the wolf's ears perked and her glowing eyes came back to them. And then in a breath, she was bounding away, scouting the trail ahead.

Castle stuck close to Colin Hunt and they made their laborious way through the woods.

His mother.

"You gotta fucking put me down," Hunt grunted. Every breath was a grunt, and he sounded bad, Castle had to admit. "Bloody hell, put me down, my eyes are going to burst out of my fucking skull-"

Castle dumped him from his shoulder, cutting off Hunt's colorful complaint. The man listed sharply into a tree and Castle got a smack on the shoulder from his wife for it, but Hunt was fucking heavy and slowing them down and Castle wanted out of these woods.

"Rick," she sighed at him, crouching to look into Hunt's eyes.

"We're half a mile from the rendezvous," Castle muttered. "Maybe less. And he can't just suck it up?"

Hunt lifted blank eyes to him and Castle immediately relented. If the sibling rivalry shit couldn't get Hunt back on his feet, then there was no point in pressing it. His fucking mother, damn it.

Kate gave him a calculated look, and he saw she had just clued in to what he was doing, trying to take Hunt's mind off the pain - physical and emotional both. She quirked her lips and he gave her a half-shrug and turned away, scanning the area ahead of them. The woods were no longer crawling with animals, as they had been since the explosion, and he figured the fire was far enough behind them - and that the dog scared smaller prey into hiding as well - that it probably accounted for the sudden preternatural silence.

"Kate, whistle for Sasha."

She did, a piercing sound that echoed against the trunks and ruffled the treetops, sharp and clear in the humidity. Castle's gaze roved over the woods, something attentive and wary stirring in him.

Sasha didn't show up.

"She probably found the other vehicle," Kate said. "They've leashed her."

Maybe. He kept his eyes forward, turned his body slowly, orienting to the quiet in the woods around them. When he rotated his head, he saw it.

"Beckett, your gun," he said sharply.

He felt rather saw his wife scramble up, abandoning Hunt against the moss-covered trunk. She pressed her shoulder into his back. "In my hand," she murmured. "Where?"

His own weapon had been lost in the Rover. Beckett had their only piece and he was beginning to regret their haste. "My three o'clock."

"I don't see it." She was peering past him, gun at the ready. "What if it's Sasha?"

"It's not the dog," he said grimly. "A man."

"Our security team-"

"There's no reason for one of our security team to be hunting us."

"Fuck," she whispered. "Get Hunt on his feet; make him. He can't go over your shoulder if we're running for it. I'll guard your back."

Castle swallowed, scanning his gaze up and down the ridgeline that ran parallel to their track - and had been for the last few minutes.

"Castle. Now."

He cursed and dropped down to grip Hunt by the arms.

The man gave him a grim look. "You're gonna have to leave me."

"That's not happening - she wouldn't leave if I tried it," Castle said quickly. "So you better get to your fucking feet. Or Kate will die trying to defend you. Understand me?"

Colin Hunt gripped Castle's forearms, fingers biting into his biceps. "Pull me up."

They had barely covered fifty feet when the attack came.

Bullets clipped the underbrush at Kate's feet; she turned and unloaded three rounds of her own into the trees at the ridgeline.

"Beckett!"

She followed the sound of his voice blindly, her eyes and gun trained on the woods, and after a few paces, she was yanked off her feet by her husband and dragged behind a fallen trunk.

Fuck, her head was swimming again.

"Stay down," he husked.

"Take this," she murmured, pressing her weapon into his hands. "Three gone."

"Shit," he muttered, half rising to take a look over the tree.

"Why did he shoot?" she said, her cheek against the rough edge of bark. Moss tickled the back of her neck and then she realized it was Hunt tugging on her shirt. She turned and saw him crouched at her other side, a hand wrapped around the root system of the fallen tree.

"I got an idea. Get Castle."

"Castle," she called, turning to look at her husband.

Rick gave her his attention though he didn't take his eyes away from the ridgeline. "I don't know why he was shooting; there's no damn light to see. Makes no sense."

"Castle, Hunt has an idea."

Castle sank back down under cover, leaned past her to address Hunt. "What."

"There's a deep hole where the roots pulled up," Hunt said. He didn't look good. "I can hide there. You two go. Bring reinforcements."

"No-"

Castle gripped her by the arm, halting her immediate rejection. She shut her mouth, tried to overpower her own automatic dismissal. Tried to reason with herself - and with them.

"I could stay with you," she said slowly. "Castle is faster alone. He'd be drawing their fire anyway."

Hunt shook his head. "It's deep, it's fucking dark, it's ideal for one person. Plus I'm pretty bloody certain they're not after me. Jolin let me run, thinking I was done for, right? And they're not after him. If you stay with me, then you keep their attention right here."

"Fuck," she moaned.

Castle let out a breath. "He's right. Leave him in a hole in the ground and they'll never find him. Hunt-"

"I know. And you'd better fucking come back for me."

"We're not leaving you in a hole," she hissed.

"You're not going to have much choice in the matter," he said. He was already scooting backwards. "Once I fall in, impossible to climb back out without help."

"No-!"

But Hunt had already disappeared over the edge, a tumble of limbs and loose dirt, the thud of a body hitting the ground.

"Fuck," Castle said, sounding impressed, and she hated him a little for that. Hated them both.

Kate scrambled to the ball of roots sticking out from the fallen tree, tried to peer through the darkness into the hole. "Hunt," she called quietly. "Colin?"

"I'm okay. Can't see me, can you?"

Shit. She had no idea where he was; the hole was lost in deep blackness. "I can't see you. Please don't be stupid-"

"This is the smartest thing. But I better see your gorgeous face in a few hours, hauling me back out of here."

She grit her teeth and shot a look over her shoulder to Castle. He nodded and she turned back to the darkness where Hunt had disappeared. "I'll be here. Whatever it takes. You're family, Colin. You hear me? Even if you don't want it, can't deny blood."

"Get out of here, Kate."

Fuck, she was going to have to leave him.

Castle gripped her upper arm. "You okay to make a run for it?"

"Yes," she said. She didn't know; she'd have to. The dizziness seemed to come with sudden movement. A concussion maybe.

"It's dark," he murmured at her ear. "Choose stealth over speed, sweetheart, and stick close to me."

The woods had never felt more alien to her. Hunt back there alone, and the two of them moving as quietly as possible over limbs and underbrush.

The moon was enough to light the way, but the shadows were steep and confusing, and she kept hearing something pacing them.

It wasn't the dog.

"Why is nothing happening?" she whispered.

"Maybe he's injured."

"Maybe it's a lure," she said.

Castle jerked to a stop. "Fuck. It's a lure."

She paused at his side, their shoulders brushing, and Castle turned slowly around, putting his back to hers. He had the gun still in his hand, her weapon, and she really hated being defenseless.

"Two of them," Castle croaked. "Oh, hell. Beckett, get down." He yanked on her the moment bullets shattered the darkness; she felt bark blowback into her arms as she dove for cover.

But there was no cover.

"Move," she croaked to him. "Gotta move, Castle."

He was hauling her over a bush, dragging her with him until she got her feet under her. They dashed between the tree trunks and now she saw where the man ahead of them had shown up, the man behind them driving them forward into a trap.

That's why he had shot at them, to run them into his man up ahead.

They blazed apart to navigate a wide tree, but they came back together around the other side, his hand reaching out to grip her by the elbow. She shook him off to run, crashing through the woods, trying to take the lead because she had better orientation.

"Man at your twelve!" he gasped.

She jerked her head up, eyes skipping from her feet to the path ahead and she halted.

Castle ran into her back, hooking an arm around her collarbones to keep them both upright, raising the gun with his other arm.

He was aiming at Diane Jolin.

She was dressed in dark blue combat fatigues, blending with the night except for the horrid shock of white hair crowning her twisted, angry face. She had her weapon trained on Kate.

Jolin was alive.

"All my life," Jolin shouted. "All my life wasted. You did this to me; you made this happen."

Beckett trembled, pain pulsing through her head.

"Diane," Castle called out. "Jolin, we can help you. Something's happened, but we can make it right."

"There's no making this right."

Kate heard the man in the woods at their back making his rough approach towards them. Soon Jolin would have reinforcements. Soon they would be outgunned. They had no other choice. For Colin's sake as well as their own.

"Castle," she breathed, choked by his steadying arm around her neck.

But in the next instant, a streak of brown-blurred white leapt across the open space with a snarling violence. Teeth and red chatoyance, their wolf attacked Jolin, bringing her down.

Castle rocketed forward, calling for Sasha, heading for the tangle. He had just made it up the rise to them when a gun fired. The dog yelped and Kate started running.

But in the next instant, Castle fired.

The sound echoed in Kate's head as she climbed through the underbrush and skidded to a stop before the inert body of Diane Jolin. Blood and brains were streaked in her white hair.

"Oh, God," Kate husked. "Sasha-"

The wolf was a long way off, scared by the gunfire, her hackles raised and her teeth bared, slinking through the trees.

"She's not hurt," Castle breathed. She jerked her eyes to him in the moon-licked darkness and saw him breathing hard.

"You've been shot," she gaped.

"A graze."

"Castle-"

"We have to go," Castle said tersely. "No time for that. Her man is coming up at our back."

"We're going to lead him straight to James?"

"No. We're going to lie in wait." He brought his hand up to his shoulder, fingers came away streaked with blood. "Grab her gun."

Kate stared at him a heartbeat longer, but she moved when she heard the man running through the trees. He had heard the gunfire, obviously, and was coming for them. Beckett bent over the body of Jolin, pried the weapon out of her clawed hand.

She had scratch marks down her arms, defensive wounds from blocking an attack, and at her throat was the shining blood of a fresh bite.

Sasha.

"Beckett, let's go. We need to hide."

Her hands were shaking, but she gathered up the gun and gripped it tightly, got to her feet before her husband.

"Your shoulder."

"We need to hide. We'll ambush him as he comes up the rise. You take left - climb a tree to get the drop on him, like Tunisia, remember? I'll flank right."

He was fine; he was super, augmented, regimen-infused. It would hold long enough to pick off this last man and get to their waiting security team.

Beckett slunk off through the trees at his direction, shoving the gun into her holster. She picked a broad-limbed tree with lower branches, and she began to climb.

Once he was certain that Kate had climbed a tree, Castle skulked to higher ground away from her line of sight. The low-lying area where they'd been driven into Jolin's trap was below him, Beckett on the slope at one side, him the other. This ridge had been the man's last known position, and Castle wanted his wife well clear of the shooting.

His arm was bleeding. He touched the place again, debated pressing leaves or mud to the wound. His fingers came away tacky though, so he expected it to slow and stop eventually.

Meanwhile, he left a nice little trail through the woods, smearing his fingers on ground cover until he found his spot to make a stand.

Castle holed up in a screen of overgrown blackberry bushes, the new-growth canes bowed heavy with fruit, the thorns catching at his clothes. He was careful not to get blood anywhere nearby and leave an accidental trail; he had to press his good hand over his shoulder and worm his way deeper into the brambles.

He got into position, his belly to the ground, his elbows against the roots of the blackberry bush, the gun propped and held steady by his low stabilization. Sweat was trickling into his eyes and he could fee the thorns that had gotten caught in his clothing.

And here came Jolin's man, moving cautiously now in the quiet, a faint flicker of skin-reflection from the moon overhead. Castle found and lost him a few times, but it looked as if the man was following - vaguely - the blood trail Castle had left for him.

He fucking hoped Sasha stayed well clear, scared far away by the gun going off beside her head. Jolin had tried to fire at the wolf, but Castle had spoiled her aim by his arrival. The woman had tried to readjust, but it had been the exact wrong thing to do. Castle had been grazed but not before he got off his shot, mere feet from her, point blank to the head.

Jolin's skull exploding in grey matter had probably done it for Sasha. He wasn't sure they were going to get the dog back.

That was fine; he'd take it so long as she didn't come slinking back to him now. Let her find Kate in a tree on the other side of the gully, let her not come here.

The man was moving again, hunting Castle through the dark trees.

Castle swiped his palms off on the grass and dirt in front of him to keep the blood from making his fingers slick, and he set his face down level with the barrel of the gun.

The last man came into the narrow space between the blackberry bushes and the gap in the trees. Castle held his breath, waiting. He had - he thought - one bullet left. He'd lost track when Jolin had fired at them from above, shooting a few rounds wildly to divert the woman's attention from Kate's dodging run for cover.

One bullet. He had to wait, he had to time it just right.

The last man paused, eyes flicking over the darkness and moon shadows. Castle could see only the gleam of the whites, the darker impression of his outline merged with that of a tree. He needed a clear space; he needed the man to step forward.

Jolin's agent seemed to know, seemed to sense the not-right in the air.

One more step.

Suddenly, the man darted forward, racing through the gap in the trees. Castle didn't panic, didn't let it make him shoot too soon; he just took aim, counted his breath, fired.

The man dropped with a groan, the sound burbling and of pain, blood in the throat. Castle wormed backwards out from the blackberry bush and got to his feet, kept well away from the man, waiting.

Sure enough, Jolin's agent got his weapon up, arm shaky, fired a round off into the darkness, the wrong way, but close enough for Castle to go still. Another shot in the dark.

Kate was going to come running; he could feel it in his bones. She was going to fucking run straight into this and Castle had no more bullets to put the man down.

Just then, Castle heard the bush shivering at his side and felt the animal at his back. He didn't move, couldn't move lest he give himself away to Jolin's agent, but the beast stopped right at his heel.

Sasha.

Castle lifted his fingers and the wolf put her nose to them; she was trembling, steaming with breath and humidity, and she pressed her body against his leg, all silent.

The man fired another shot in the direction that Kate would be coming from and Castle sank to his knees in the repercussion of the sound. He put his face to Sasha's, arms around the wolf. "Shh, hush, quiet. Quiet. Go find Kate. Sasha, go find Kate."

Whether or not the wolf understood his intention, Sasha knew Kate. She was gone in an instant, a moon shadow herself, the flicker of white fur nonexistent. Sasha would, at least, delay her.

Castle sat down to wait out the man's gurgling death - and to listen for his wife's approach.