Disclaimer: Don't own HH or AWM's stuff. But if you scramble their initials, you get WHAM H, which sounds like a George Michael cover band.
Chapter 10
Site 34 - Queens, New York
Castle and Beckett walk into the deserted warehouse about ninety minutes later only to find their partners in the midst of an argument that is about to slide completely out of control. But, as usual, Castle isn't sure what to do about it.
"You are not going to be in the room," Booth yells at Beckett.
"You are not keeping me out."
"If you go in there, he's going to know you are involved."
"I really don't care. This asshole wants me dead, and I want to look him in the face when he says it."
"You go in, there is no going back."
"I think we crossed that line a while ago," Beckett says, and promptly ends the argument by turning and walking into the ersatz holding room they'd set aside for Bracken in the back of the warehouse. Booth immediately follows, right on her heels.
Castle looks over at Brennan. After a second, they both seem to agree - they need to be there too. Brennan steps inside, but hangs near the door, and Castle follows her.
The room is largely dark, except for the center of the room, where a single bulb hangs over Bracken. The warehouse, a deserted mess held in escrow by some shell corporation about thirty levels deep on Booth's friend's P&L, has been their base for the last day. Castle is a little fuzzy on the details, but apparently Booth and Brennan have some very very rich friend who is determined to help them. He can't begrudge them that, after all, he's the one that has begged more than a favor or two from the mayor.
Still, the whole thing feels cliche. He can't help but think, given the time, he could write a better scene for them.
Bracken looks up from the chair he is taped to. "You," he yells, seeing Beckett. "I thought we had a deal!"
Beckett strides across the room, grabs the back of the chair Bracken is in, and pulls. He drops, landing painfully on his shoulders and he grunts hard as the wind leaves him. Even though the guy is a jackass, Castle can't help but grimace in sympathy.
Beckett leans down, getting her head close to Bracken's. "You want to talk to me about our deal? What part of our deal included your idiots ransacking my apartment? Leaving a bullet on my counter? Any of this sound like the terms of our deal?" Her voice is low and calm, and both Castle and Beckett are straining to hear her. It worries Castle, since he knows the contained fury version of Beckett is rarely an act.
"I am a U.S. Senator! You have any idea what you've gotten yourself into?"
Booth places his hand on Beckett's shoulder. She give him a look, but allows herself to be pulled away. Booth takes her place, leaning down next to Bracken.
"Hello, Senator. Feeling okay? Can I get you anything?"
"What is this? Bad cop, stupid cop? Do you have any idea what kind of power you've brought down upon yourself?"
Booth looks away, as if he is staring into space. "You don't get it, do you? It took us hours … hours, Senator, to figure out how to get to you. All your money, all your power, and we can still get to you without even breaking a sweat. Let me ask you something, Senator. Do you have any idea what real power is?"
Beckett and Booth, at odds just minutes earlier, seem to be utterly in sync now as Beckett kneels down again on Bracken's other side. She looks at Booth, but speaks to Bracken.
"You buy power. You rent it any play with it, thinking you control it. But you have to borrow it from others. We have it."
Bracken looks ready to spit at both of them, but isn't speaking, so Booth continues.
"All these ex-military guys that you keep sending out, that make you feel like some sort of powerful general … who do you think keeps defeating them? Senator," Booth says, leaning in, "who do you think trained them?"
"What are you talking about?"
"Coonan. Lockwood. Maddox. Broadsky," Booth says. Castle notes the confused look in Bracken's eyes at 'Broadsky.' He stores that tidbit away for latter. "They all had to learn their craft somewhere, didn't they? I taught all of them, Bracken. They know how to kill. I know how to kill. They know how to get away with it. I know how to get away with it. And tonight, you learn who is really in charge."
Castle is startled to see how quickly Bracken shuts down, goes white. Bracken starts talking rapidly, but too quietly. Only Booth, and maybe Beckett, can hear. Castle and Brennan both move forward.
It is the same thing, over and over.
"It's not my fault, I've done what he wanted. It's not my fault, I've done what he wanted. It's not my fault, I've done what he wanted."
"What the hell does that mean?" Castle asks before he can stop himself. Bracken's eyes are clamped shut, tears coming out of the sides.
Beckett looks up. Seeing Castle, she pulls him away, and all Brennan and Booth follow the pair to the far corner of the room. Out of Bracken's earshot, they can still hear him muttering. He looks over at them and yells.
"I'm still your man! Tell him!"
"What did you say to him?" Castle asks Booth. They'd all agreed beforehand that they needed to find a way to scare the hell out of Bracken to get him to talk. None of them, however, expected him to break this quickly.
It is Beckett that speaks. "We may have misjudged who's in charge here."
Castle looks at Booth.
"There is someone else, someone higher up. Bracken seems to think we're here..." Booth says.
"...to eliminate him," Beckett finishes.
"Something like that."
Brennan, who hadn't yet spoken, finally pipes up. "What was the exact evidence that we had that Bracken was the one after you?"
Beckett tries to stare her down, but Brennan is oblivious. "The account used to pay Coonan and others was tied to Bracken."
"That's it?" Booth asks.
"There might have been more, but we lost it in the explosion."
Booth stifles a swear. "It's too clean."
"What does that mean?" Castle asks.
"Program guys would never work with an operator dumb enough to leave a trail like that. Unless it was..."
"Unless it was a false trail," Beckett spit out.
"Yeah."
Castle wonders if he should speak. "Or..."
Three heads turn towards him.
"Unless they made him do it."
Booth makes a 'go on' gesture.
"Well, like you said - we thought The Program was working for him. But what if it's the other way around? What if they set up a few little things like the bank account, so they could bring down Bracken, if he was no longer useful?"
"Useful?"
"He's a Senator. A Senator with a decent outside shot at the presidency. Pretty nice pawn to have, if you need it."
They all thought through that for a few moments, the room quiet save for Bracken's whimpering.
"So now we have the reverse problem," Booth says. "Instead of finding out how Bracken was able to use Program guys..."
"We have to find out how Program guys found to use Bracken."
"Yeah."
"Well, at least the lynchpin is the same," Beckett says, turning back to Bracken. Booth grabs her arm.
"What's your plan?" he asks. None of the anger from the fight before is there. Now it's just two experienced interrogators, trying to find a rhythm together.
"Wing it," she says, and strides off to their prisoner. There is no hesitation this time as the other three follow.
"Think I mean business now?" Beckett asks Bracken, once she is standing over him.
"I don't … I don't understand," Bracken says. "He said you were a threat. I did what he told me to do."
Kate leans down, right into Bracken's face again. Lying on his back, tied to a collapsed chair, he looks far less scary than he had when they thought he was a criminal mastermind. His face, covered in sweat, looks small and stupid. He is a puppet. They can all see that now.
"How did you learn about Raglan and McAllister?"
"What?"
"The cops you were blackmailing. How did you find out about the kidnappings?"
He starts shaking his head. "No no no..."
She puts her knee down on his shoulder. With his arms tied back, her weight starts to push his shoulder out of its socket. He yells.
"I didn't know about the kidnappings until after!"
"Then how did you blackmail them?"
"I wasn't blackmailing them! I was paying them!"
"What?"
"My boss made me! She gave me the money, and I'd scrub it clean and give the cops their cut!"
"Your boss?"
"Yes, my boss! She started all of this! I had no choice, you have no idea what they'd do to me otherwise! Please, stop! Let me... my shoulder! Please!"
Booth, who had been standing off a bit to let Kate work, cuts in. Kate stands up and Bracken gasps at the release of pressure on his shoulder. "We need the story, Bracken, and it better be a good one," Booth says. Bracken, sweating, nods vigorously.
Bracken makes a short series of wheezing gasps, trying to get himself back under control. Kate seems to decide that the torture part of the interrogation is over, so she nods to Castle, and the two of them right Bracken's chair. They give Bracken a minute to catch his breath.
"I'll tell you."
"Everything," Beckett says.
"Yeah, yeah, everything..." he says. And then, with one last breath, he begins.
A/N: I haven't been keeping up with my review replies, but to all of you who have left kind words - you are what's kept me from giving up on this tiny little story, so thank you.