Author's Note: I'd like to thank phnxgrl, southerngirl1, Chkgun93, and TORONTOSUN for their reviews. We're starting this chapter where the last one left off. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: Just like last chapter, this one will have some language that might offend. Please remember that these are just statements of a certain ideology and not my own personal beliefs or opinions.

Chapter 6

"Beckett."

"Has Shane been transferred yet?"

"We're working on arranging transport as we speak." She signaled to Esposito. "How do I know Ryan is still alive?"

"You don't trust me?"

"Well, you're making it difficult to believe you've kept him alive. Most kidnappings I've dealt with have sent a proof of life video or let the hostage talk to us briefly. You've done neither."

"You do play hardball, don't you, Detective?"

Beckett's brow creased in confusion. "I'm sorry?"

"I've looked you up. You seem like a good white woman. I need you to prove yourself. Then I'll let you speak to him."

She looked at Castle. "What do you mean?"

"Prove that you're a pure white woman. So many people these days don't have a sense of pride in their race. So I want to know, do you?"

Beckett paused, weighing her choices. Ryan's kidnapper wanted to see if she was a white supremacist like him. She could be honest but she needed to stall for time. She was going to have to lie through her teeth and agree with him. Esposito caught her eye and nodded, letting her know he understood.

She sighed. "Of course I have pride."

"Then why is your partner a potato?"

"A potato?" She glanced up in time to see Esposito pointing at himself. Cassy's using some sort of slang term. "You're talking about Esposito. Look, I can't help who I'm assigned to work with. The best I can do is make the most of a bad situation." She caught Esposito's smirk and was glad she hadn't insulted him… yet.

"And your captain. I can't imagine having to work for an animal like that."

"Again, not a call I made. That was the brass at 1PP."

"Why not transfer precincts?"

"I like being a homicide cop. If I transferred to a different precinct, I'd have to change my focus as well."

There was a pause on the other side of the line. "You say you have pride. I want you to explain why you gave the eulogy at your previous captain's funeral. That sort of behavior is beneath you."

That bastard. Beckett was willing to lie and pretend about her current colleagues, but there was no way she could betray Montgomery's memory like that. But she also couldn't drop her "proud white woman" act either; Ryan's life was at stake. Maybe there was a way to preserve the persona…

"Listen, I'd love to go down the list of all the people I've disliked working with, but we could be at that for days. Are you going to let me speak to Detective Ryan and verify that he is alive or not?"

The voice on the other end chuckled. "I figured you couldn't explain your actions at the funeral. You're no better than the slimy mutts who've bought into the government funded politically correct propaganda."

The line went dead and Beckett cursed under her breath as she slammed the phone into the cradle. "Tell me we got an address."

Esposito nodded. "Yeah, SWAT is already on their way."

"Let's go."

Castle and Beckett strapped on their vests in silence, both nervous. Ryan was in the building at the end of the street; they wanted to save him, but at the same time they were worried he'd get killed in the crossfire. It was going to be tricky.

Castle patted his vest, checking it. "I'm going to assume you want me to stay outside."

"Good assumption. If things go sideways, I don't want to lose you too." She moved to join the raid.

"Hey." She turned back. "You're going to get him out. It's going to be fine."

She smiled. "Thanks." Beckett joined the raid, limping slightly as the bruise on her hip started to throb again. She should have been given a few days off to take care of her injury after the shooting in the ghost station, but Ryan's abduction had negated that. We're going to get him back right now; I can take time off after that.

Beckett took her position behind the SWAT team. They were lined up against the wall, ready to breech. The officer at the head of the line checked that everyone was ready, then opened the door and went inside. The rest of the group followed him in, fanning out to search the building as quickly and quietly as possible. Beckett followed the group that went right, gun out and down, eyes darting to check everywhere.

The hallway they were in had a few rooms branching off of it, but each one was as empty as the one before. Beckett was starting to get the feeling they were in the wrong building, but this is where the trace on that phone call had led them. He has to be here. The hallway ended in a set of double doors. The group paused outside for a count of three and then rushed through the doors.

They were in a large room, the remnants of a gymnasium for the abandoned community center. The other SWAT team was just entering through the door on the other side of the room, but no one else was in sight. Both teams quickly swept the room to no avail. Ryan wasn't here.

Meanwhile…

Alex and Sloan were sparring on the mat in the middle of the living room. It had been a while since she'd done this with him and it showed. Sloan normally was able to hold his own against her; today she'd already knocked him down five times and he'd only managed to get her off balance once. She was going to have to do this with him more often.

His computer chirped. "There's no way it's been an hour already."

Sloan lowered his arms and headed for the system. "That wasn't the timer alarm. Something else came up."

She was tempted to do a takedown while his back was turned, but that wasn't a fair fight. "What is it?"

"Don't know yet." He sat down and turned on the monitors. "A keyword search hit. Let's see…It was on the police scanner. Okay, Beckett is calling something in."

"Let's listen in."

"Done."

Beckett's voice came in over the police scanner. "Detective Ryan's not here. I need CSU and I.T. at my location to process a scene."

"Copy, Detective Beckett. Sending CSU and I.T. to your location."

"What happened to Ryan?" Alex took off her arm guards and Sloan started to type.

"It looks like he was abducted last night."

"Is The Gentleman behind it?"

"Not according to the case file. It looks like a Jeremy Cassy is the suspect. He's a white supremacist."

"Why would a white supremacist abduct Ryan?"

"No idea." Sloan pulled up Jeremy Cassy's phone info. "Let's see if I can track him down."

While Sloan tried tracking Ryan's abductor down, Alex went into her room and changed. She was not going to let Kate lose someone else she cared about. If there was any way to help, she was going to do so. Once she was dressed, she packed her bag and returned to the living room to see Sloan throw up his hands in frustration.

"What happened?"

"His phone is offline. I'm guessing he's currently using a burner; I'll have to keep an eye on the I.T. team to get the burner's number."

Alex set her bag down and leaned over his shoulder. "What do you mean?"

"According to the police, he used an app called Dark Phoenix to redirect where the call was coming from. I.T. should be able to get the number the call originated from off that and go from there. Where are you going?"

"I'm going to head down there so I'm close enough to help if necessary."

"That's a dangerous game."

She kissed him and slung her bag over her head so the strap crossed her chest. "Dangerous is my middle name."

Meanwhile…

It took almost an hour for CSU and I.T. to arrive. That was precious time lost that they desperately needed to find and rescue Ryan. Beckett glanced at her watch as the techs got to work. Ryan had been abducted a little over twelve hours ago. Time was quickly ticking away and not even an oversized tank of liquid nitrogen could slow it down. They needed to find something fast.

Esposito came over. "So Tory says the reason we traced the call here was because of the setup over there. You should talk to her; she wants to show you how it works."

"Meaning you didn't understand her tech talk."

He shrugged. "That's more Ryan's department."

Beckett nodded and headed over to Tory with Castle in tow. "Javi said you had something to show me."

"I had a feeling he didn't understand what I was talking about. I'll try to simplify it so you do. This little setup is how they fooled our trace. It's basically a relay; just download an app from the electronic black market, hook the phones together with a cable, and you can use another phone to call this burner phone," she held up the phone that was connected to Ryan's phone, "which will redirect the call through Detective Ryan's phone."

"How'd the call get to the precinct?"

"That's the other half of the app's job. The precinct, or more specifically your desk extension, was preprogramed into the app. When the call got redirected to Ryan's phone, the app made his phone dial the preprogrammed number."

Castle looked up from the phones. "So when we traced the call, the trace zeroed in on Ryan's phone."

"Exactly. The app also prevents the connection between the phones from being detected, so we didn't know a relay was being used."

Beckett bit her lower lip in thought. "Is there a way to track the phone that originated the call?"

Tory nodded. "We have the number he called from now, but it's off. I can keep a search open for it. If he turns it on and calls anyone, I'll know."

Castle shook his head. "Jeremy Cassy went through a lot of trouble to throw us off his scent. I'm willing to bet that number belongs to another burner. He'll have tossed it by now."

Tory nodded. "That's entirely possible. I'll keep a search open anyway, just in case."

"Thanks." Beckett walked away and then pulled Castle to the side. "What was that back there?"

"What?"

"I realize Cassy has probably tossed that original phone, but that doesn't automatically disqualify the possibility that he was dumb enough to think his setup worked and kept the phone. We're trying to find and rescue Ryan; if keeping the possibility that Cassy kept the phone, no matter how slim that possibility is, I want to keep it open in the hope that we might get lucky and find something."

Castle held up his hands. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to discard the possibility he held onto the phone; I was just bringing up the more plausible alternative."

Beckett sighed. "Good. Sorry I yelled at you. I'm just terrified we won't find him in time."

He pulled her into his arms. "I know. I understand. I'm scared too."

Her phone started to ring. "It's Gates." She answered. "Sir?"

"Does I.T. have anything yet?"

Beckett could tell something was off in Gates's voice. "Not yet. Something wrong?"

Gates sighed, the sound creating a strange staticky noise. "I just got word from the prison. Shane Cassy was stabbed to death in the yard an hour ago. Apparently, they've already called the brother to notify him."

Beckett looked up at Castle in alarm. "He knows?"

"They said it went straight to voicemail but we don't know how much longer that will last. Light a fire under I.T.'s chairs. We need to find Ryan before Cassy turns his phone back on."

A/N: Duh-duh-dun.