Kate dropped her hand from her ear to her side, letting her phone fall to the floor. Panic washed over her like a bucket of water. Vera Lynn's voice had haunted her since she first heard the recording on the pen left behind by Kelly Nieman. Beckett willed herself to quell the feel of terror brewing inside her; determined to catch Nieman Beckett pulled her gun. Running to the nearest uniformed officer, she flashed her badge and began to bark orders.
"Lock it down, now! Nobody gets in or out. We have a highly dangerous potential security threat." The uniformed officer pinched the radio attached to his jacket and started spitting words into it. Soon enough the roar of the crowd outside became silenced by the locked doors of the courthouse. By the time Beckett put her hand on the gigantic handle to the courtroom, she was already too late. A loud crack and crash came from inside, followed by the sounds of shattering glass and screams. Beckett ripped the door open. Castle was huddled on his knees, shielding Alexis with his body. Kate's eyes were drawn to the windows of the grand courtroom, where she observed two jagged softball size holes. A loud hissing was coming from the floor in front of Markowitz's bench. Two canisters lay, blasting out white smoke. As Beckett advanced toward the gate, Tyson slipped his shackles and disarmed the bailiff. Tyson hadn't noticed her yet, but the bailiff provided a human shield as the smoke swirled higher and higher. 3XK wasted no time putting a bullet square in the bailiff's chest with his own gun. McHale sprang in to action, lunging at Tyson, pushing his hands toward the ceiling; BANG, another shot rang out. Now Beckett couldn't see Tyson or McHale. CRACK! Another shot. Kate ran and knelt by her fiancé, holding the muzzle of her weapon firmly in Tyson's direction; suddenly, the magazine to a nine millimeter pistol came sliding under the gate. CRACK! A final shot. A few moments of quieting screams passed as uniformed officers flooded in and civilians flooded out. The holes in the windows seemed to suck the smoke out of the room. Beckett could now see a figure emerging from the diffuse white background, she aimed but remained restrained; and for good cause. It was McHale. He was covering his mouth with his left hand and waving at Beckett with his right, waving her out into the hall. Kate holstered her gun, and grabbed Castle by the waist, pulling him and Alexis out into the hall. Alexis wrapped her arms around Castle, and he held her tight. Pulling back, he brushed the hair from her face, her teary swollen eyes looking back at him.
"You ok Lexis?" she nodded to let him know she was," My God, Kate what the fuck was that?" out of breath, Beckett responded, huffing and puffing.
"Nieman. The phone call I got was that damn song." Kate brushed he hand through her hair in frustration. Matt came stumbling out a few seconds later. He took a few feeble steps to the other side of the hall before leaning up against the wall, and slowly sliding down to a seated position. The questions came pouring out of Castle and Beckett faster than they had when McHale was surrounded by reporters less than an hour ago. McHale answered as fast as he could.
"What happened? Where's Tyson?" Kate Barked at the disoriented ADA.
"Dead."
"Dead?! How?" McHale shook his head from side to side.
"No idea, that's your department" Alexis went to his side, kneeling next to him,
"Are you ok?" McHale shook his head; and coughed into his hand again.
"I can't … I can't breathe" McHale continued to cough. Castle knelt, placing a hand on his son's shoulder.
"That's completely normal, there was a lot of smoke in there, just take some deep breaths." McHale nodded and drew a few labored breaths that seemed to whistle. He turned and looked at Alexis. Without so much as a word, he raised his left hand and brushed away a tear on his sister's cheek with his thumb; and then his hand fell limp. Alexis abruptly looked to Castle and Kate, both stared back in horror. Matt had left a streak of blood on her face. Soon all three noticed the growing puddle of hot red blood that was beginning to soak into Alexis' jeans.