Manhattan

Huntington Towers

"We're on site, Finch," Reese said.

Reese and Castle were in a van around the corner from the 40 story building where Vines lived. Reese put the phone on speaker so Castle could hear it.

"I accessed the building's video feed," Finch said, "It would seem that there are five men in the lobby. According to my facial recognition program...All of them are members of the Black Daggers. They are armed, of course. Also, the main entrance is...protected by an access code," Finch said.

"Daggers," Castle said, "Vines looks dirtier by the second."

"Can you break the access code?" Reese asked Finch.

"I can probably manage that, Mr. Reese," Finch said, "Are you sure there isn't a less direct approach? By less direct, I mean less suicidal. This is twice tonight you leap into the lion's den."

"We're short on time," Reese said, "We need to close this down as quickly as possible."

Both Castle and Reese went to the back of the van to get ready. Reese had changed suits-he had spare clothes in his car-and more body armor. He also attached sound suppressors to a matched pair of fully automatic Glock 18 machine pistols. Castle was doing the same with a pair of Mac-10 45 ACP submachine guns.

"How you wanna play this, Reese?" Castle asked.

Reese looked over at Castle. The Punisher would probably just walk in and gun the Black Daggers down. He thought Reese might want to do it a little differently. And he was willing to respect that.

Reese told him. Castle gave one nod.

"Finch..."Reese said.

"The surveillance cameras around your...target area are down," Finch said.

"Thanks. Let's go, Frank."

Reese deactivated the speakerphone mode. The two vigilantes stepped out of the van.

"The door will be unlocked when you reach it," Finch said.

Reese could hear the controlled concern and tension in his friend's voice. But Finch didn't object further. Castle looked like he always did. The phrase "stone faced" was coined for him.

They reached the door, guns in hands, safeties off, aimed towards the ground and pushed the doors.

The five Daggers froze when they saw The Man In A Suit and The Punisher, especially since the Punisher was supposed to be dead.

For an endless second, nobody moved. Nothing moved. The five mercenaries stood still.

"Don't," Reese said simply. He was looking in their eyes. He knew Castle was doing the same.

One second crawled by. Two.

Their eyes gave it away. They were going to make a move. They all went for their weapons.

Castle lifted his twin Macs. Each Mac was aimed at a different henchman. Each hard man took a half dozen .45 ACP rounds in the chest. No Kevlar. They went down. A third one, further on his left ducked, rolled, pulled his pistol out and took cover behind a marble pillar. No more shot.

Reese raised his Glocks. Like Castle he had pre-selected two targets and he aimed at them. He brought them down with a burst to each center of mass.

Castle nodded over to Reese. Reese nodded back and fired double taps at the marble pillar as The Punisher set his Macs down.

"You can still walk out of here," Reese told the man.

"I can't," the man answered, "I can't do that."

Castle had pulled out a sound suppressed .50 Magnum Desert Eagle loaded with armor piercing bullets. He fired once. The high powered slug punched through the pillar and through the hit man's chest.

Castle put the large handgun back in his thigh holster. Then, both men went over to the elevators. On their way up:

"You gave them a choice, Reese," Castle said.

"I know."

"More than what they would have given you."

"I know."

There was a short silence. Then:

"We're good on the procedure, Frank?" Reese asked.

"We talk to Vines, see what he knows and he lives unless he makes a move on us."

"That's not gonna be a problem is it?"

"Whatever dirt Finch finds will be sent to friends you have with the cops and Vines will go down."

"How do you know we have friends with the cops?"

"The idea of a one-man-war on crime is romantic. But it's impossible. I'm usually alone doing the dirty work, but for Intel, cops are hard to beat. So many of them are frustrated with the system, they're willing to bend the law to make sure that justice is done."

Reese thought of his two allies in the police.

Detective Jocelyn Carter. A decorated veteran who became one of the best cops in the Homicide Task Force. Strong. Principled. She actually started as an enemy. Hunting down the Man In A Suit. She came up with the name, actually. It took some time, but she realized, like Castle said, that the law needed a nudge sometimes.

Detective Lionel Fusco. Gruff, older, jaded and formerly dirty cop. Reese turned him around. Fusco was not a bad man. He took bribes to take better care of his son. And his heart was never in it. And he's proven his guts and smarts countless times since.

Two very different people. Both essential allies to Reese and Finch.

Considering who Reese was with this time, it would be best not to involve them just this once. Not directly, anyway.

"And if Vines is dirty? You'll have no problem with letting him live?" Reese said.

"I'll get over it. The people behind the sale of Cortex, though..."

"Yeah."

Reese thought of those pictures again. Those kids driven insane by the drug. He managed to keep his anger in check.

"We'll see," Reese said.

"Hm," Castle said.

"What?"

"Just like McCall," Castle said, "trying to change your ways."

"You think it's ridiculous?"

"No. I've seen your work. Nothing ridiculous about that. I disagree, that's all. Some people need to die."

"Why are you agreeing this time?"

"For one, you ran into a building filled with killers to save my ass."

"You're welcome."

"And, I have no problem with you. You do good work, Reese. You and Finch."

Finch overheard and said: "Thank him for me, Mr. Reese."

"Finch sends his thanks," Reese said.

Castle nodded once and went on: "I'm willing to respect your methods like I did for McCall. But, if you're working with me, you can't completely disagree with how I do things."

"Actually, remember, there is a threat on your life. So, I'm only here to make sure you don't come into any harm."

Castle looked at Reese. And said nothing. Reese smiled. Castle didn't, but his eyes lost some of their usual coldness. That would be the equivalent of a hysterical fit of laughter for him.

"Penthouse coming up, Mr. Reese," John heard in his earpiece.

"You have eyes inside the penthouse?" Reese asked.

"No cameras inside. An alarm system some might call advanced...deactivated, of course. One heat signature in the bedroom. No companion. No pets. The counselor is sleeping."

"Heat signature?" Reese said.

"I hacked a satellite when I realized there were no cameras in the penthouse," Finch said casually.

"Of course you did," Reese said as he holstered one Glock. Castle slung one of his Macs on a shoulder.

The elevator doors opened directly into the penthouse. Reese and Castle, weapons leading, crept around soundlessly over to the bedroom. When they found the sleeping lawyer, Reese stood in the doorway. The Punisher stood over him. On Castle's signal, the light went on. Castle slapped him awake. A stiff backhand on the cheek.

"What! What the hell!" Vines said.

Vines eyes opened. Adjusted to the bright light. And then, he saw Castle.

"Oh, my God," Vines said.

Castle put his silenced Mac-10 in Vines' face.

"The Cortex drug," Castle asked.

"What?"

That earned Vines another slap. And another.

"Stop! Stop that, please," Vines pleaded, on the verge of tears.

"You hired a bunch of mercs to kill me earlier tonight. They failed."

Reese heard in his ear: "Mr. Reese, the counselor has some sort of electronic ledger in his computer files. He's been receiving hefty sums of money for several months from an individual called 'T.H.' I found no traces of these transactions in the counselor's banking records, so they were probably in cash."

Reese whispered, "All right."

"All right, yes, I hired the Black Daggers!" Vines shouted, "I work with the Cortex people, but I can't tell you who-"

Castle fired a silenced round into a pillow next to Vines' head. In the room, even a muffled gunshot sounded like thunder.

"No! Please!"

"You have one more chance," Castle said.

"Holloway! Thomas Holloway!" Vines shouted.

"'T.H.'" Reese said.

"Please," Vines said, "He said he'd hurt my family if-"

That earned Vines another slap.

"You have no family, scum. So nobody will miss you," Castle said, putting the muzzle on Vines' forehead.

"No!"

"Frank," Reese said, "Ease back a little."

Castle looked down at Vines and removed the gun from his face. And he stepped aside. Vines let out a breath of relief. Reese handed him a handkerchief.

"Here, Counselor," Reese said.

"T-Thanks," Vines said.

"Look. We understand you were probably under pressure to do what you did," Reese said, "Tell you what: you tell us what you can on this Holloway, we'll leave you alone."

Vines breathed. Collected his thoughts and spoke...

"Thanks, Counselor," Reese said.

"You...you won't kill me?" Vines said.

"No," Reese said, smiling. "Honest."

Reese pistol whipped Vines on the head and knocked him out. He then pulled out a syringe and stuck it in Vines' neck. A sedative. He should be out for hours.

Later, Reese and Castle were both in the van. No squad cars. No sirens. They were clear.

Finch was on speaker.

"It would seem that the counselor did not attempt to obfuscate us," Finch said.

"That means he didn't lie," Reese told Castle.

"I knew that," Castle said.

"Oh. Then you're pretty smart...for a Jarhead," Reese said.

Castle didn't smile. But his eyes had a fleeting trace of something like humor.

"Thomas Holloway," Finch went on, "38. Graduated high school same year as the counselor. Grade A student. Genius level IQ. Masters and PhDs in chemistry. Worked with several pharmaceutical companies. Some memos suggest he stole merchandise. He sued them for slandering. He won. 9.8 million dollars. A few arrests for possession. No convictions thanks to his former school mate. No work history for the past year. My guess would be that is when he started on his criminal enterprise."

"He would need facilities to cook the Cortex," Castle said.

"Check out his properties. A warehouse, a hangar, an old factory. Somewhere isolated where cops wouldn't go looking," Reese said.

"I'm tracking them down," Finch said, "I see cars, houses. Hm. It would seem that our chemist and the counselor have set up several dummy corporations. Possibly to launder money. I think I may have something. An abandoned rock quarry, outside of the city."

"Typical," Castle said.

"Considering the efforts invested to attempt to conceal this transaction, I would surmise that this is what you gentlemen might be looking for," Finch said, "Now, let's take a look at that location. There we go. Look at the screen on the phone."

It was night vision, Reese saw. Finch probably hacked another satellite. There was a large hangar like structure. There seemed to be sentries on the roof. Armed with assault rifles. Six. Others on foot, at ground level. Four men covering each side. Plus more in SUV trucks in roving patrols. Four trucks in all. Four men per truck.

"Anyway we can see inside there," Castle asked.

"Maybe if I can switch to infra red," Finch said.

The image switched to infra red. There were a lot of heat signatures inside. There was one large signature, too big to be person.

"What is that," Reese asked.

The image changed to X-Ray. They saw a dozen armed skeletons walking around inside. And a big machine with a conveyer belt several yards long.

"It's automated," Reese thought.

"Holloway knows that the temptation to steal might be too great," Castle said, "Since he probably did it himself."

"So he programs a machine with his formula," Reese said, "It also probably does the packaging as well. Then it's loaded in trucks."

"And sold to party goers in the city," Castle said.

"And according to the GPS on his phone, Holloway is on location," Finch said.

"Good work, Finch," Reese said.

"So...what's next?" Finch asked.

"We go there and we take them down," Castle said.

Reese looked at Castle. When he realized the Punisher wasn't joking, he said: "We're going to take a fortified site protected by fifty hardened killers."

"Yeah," Castle said. "All of the main objectives are at one place at the same time."

"I get it now," Reese said, "It wasn't the Daggers or Holloway threatening your life: it was you."

"I have to agree, Mr. Castle," Finch said from the phone, "I can certainly understand risking your life in a war or in a cause. But blindly leaping into a suicide mission...surely, there is a better way."

"There's the difference between us, Frank," Reese said, "We care about your life even if you don't."

Castle said nothing for a second. Two seconds. Then:

"These men, selling this poison," Castle said, "I can't tolerate their existence one other second. The law can't stop them, not when the people who should stop them are the ones sweeping the Cortex ODs under the rug. It's not just the Punisher being vengeful and wanting blood. It's not just some death wish: there is no other way to get them."

Castle paused. And went on:

"You guys are about saving lives," he said, "We destroy that lab, countless lives will be saved."

"We have a problem, then, Frank," Reese said.

"Not necessarily, gentlemen," Finch said, "I may have a solution that could very well be satisfactory for all involved."