Chapter 6: Breaking point

Kate walked back on into the bullpen noticing that Ryan and Esposito were on their computers conducting some sort of search for Illyana. Hunt was in the conference room on his own computer that she couldn't tell what was on it. She walked into the conference room and shut the door loud enough to have Hunt look up from his computer.

"I want the truth Hunt." Kate said walking over to the table and placing her hands on it. She looked at him directly in the face. "Did you know about McCord's brother and the real reason she is on this case."

"I knew about her brother yes, but I was informed that she passed all the necessary test to remain on duty." Hunt told her leaning back in the chair. He eyed her for a moment before continuing. "Besides her team didn't run the operation, DOD did, with a member from her office attached."

"Come on Hunt, you know and I know if you can put on a good front and answer the questions right, you can be cleared." Kate replied standing straight up and put her hands on her hips. She sized him up for a moment. "There should be no reason she should be working this case."

"I have my orders. Until she proves otherwise, she is allowed to conduct her team's investigation, while we conduct ours." Hunt said scooting back towards the table and his computer.

Before Kate could reply, there was a knock on the door, and Ryan poked his head in. "We found something."

Kate and Hunt walked out of the conference room and over to where Ryan was sitting at his computer. Kate, Hunt, and Esposito gathered around. "We were searching for Illyana and any private flight she may have taken out of the country."

"Yeah, our boy Anton says to Europe somewhere." Esposito answered as he looked at the screen.

"Well, I checked with the FAA in the past few days to see which private aircraft filed flight plans to Europe." Ryan said as he clicked on the link. More than a dozen showed up on the screen. "Of the 16 here, most are corporate jets that carry CEO's and such. These 3 are privately owned aircraft."

"Let's see, that one is a movie star, that one is a successful producer." Kate said as she looked at the number of the last aircraft and the name. "Volkov Investments Inc. That was Illyana's company in Paris."

"Ryan where did she fly to?" Hunt asked as he pulled out his phone.

"Switzerland." Ryan replied to the question.

They saw Hunt call into his phone and speak German into it. He listen to the reply and acknowledged it and hung up. "That was a contact of mine, he's going to see what he can find out."

"How long did he say it would take?" Ryan asked as he closed the screen down on his computer.

"About an hour." Hunt replied. They all nodded and moved about to go back looking for any evidence on where the deal may take place.

Kate stood in front of the murder board and began to update with critical information as she looked over everything. Things were starting to piece together now. She stared at it wondering what could be the crucial piece that would break this thing wide open. Hunt came out of the conference room to stand next to her.

"You know you have been staring at the thing for the last 20 minutes." Hunt said to Kate with a smile on his face. He looked at the board too. "You know it's not always what you see in front of you that provides the information, sometimes it's between the lines that provide a crucial piece of information."

"I know that." Kate replied as she continued to stare at the board. She closed her eyes for a second wishing Castle was there to help and try make sense of all this. "Castle would often crack a joke, or look at the board and find one thing we overlook."

"Sounds like him." Hunt stated as he started to walk away and back to the conference room. He spun around for a moment to look at Kate. "For guys in my line of work, it's not always about what we see, and know, but instead of what we don't see and know."

Kate shot him a look, then went back to the murder board. Something about Hunt's words stuck with her. She picked up a folder off her desk and began to thumb through it. "Ryan, that jet that we assumed flew Illyana to Switzerland. They have to send bills somewhere right?"

"Yeah either to financial holding company or a business address." Ryan replied. Then he realized what track Kate was going on, and began to type something into his computer. Yet before Ryan could answer, a familiar face came storming into the bullpen.

"Beckett, you hijack my investigation, and put into protective custody the one person that could led me to Volkov." McCord said angrily as she walked to get into Kate's face. "Then you arrest the person who could give me critical information that would also help break this case wide open."

"Don't give me that crap McCord." Beckett replied angrily back as she now got into McCord's face. A small crowd was starting to gather in the bullpen. "You been pushing us aside to fit your own personal vendetta."

"Oh I see you been playing with the conspiracy theorist husband of yours again." McCord stated as she threw up her hands and spun around as in mockery. "I passed my psych exams Beckett. Maybe you should see one, and get your husband check out as well."

"Oh yeah, lets recap because my husband is generally right." Kate said as she pulled out a stack of printouts that she was able to convince the nursing staff to let her print. "Your investigation into this arms sale led to intelligence stating that arms sold by an arms dealer to an ISIS cell in Northern Syria. You were able to convince the military to launch a raid in hopes to capture a cell leader to lead you back to Illyana."

"That's not out of the ordinary Beckett. What's your point?" McCord asked not realizing the track that Beckett was on.

"Yet when the intel was passed on, the cell moved, and the raid was launched 24 hours too late." Beckett told her as she set the papers down on the desk. She then went face to face to McCord. "On the way out of the area, their helicopters came under ground fire and your brother's was shot down and a number of his team including him, and an agent assigned to your team was killed. And after you buried your brother, you made it your personal mission to avenge him because of your intelligence screw up and not realizing that those cell members wouldn't stay there. Maybe you should have turned it over to someone who could remain objective."

McCord didn't say anything this time, but instead of walking out and lodging a complaint to the commissioner, she took a swing at Beckett. Kate was able to block it, and take McCord down in an arm bar on top of her desk. Ryan came over with cuffs as Kate brought McCord's other arm behind her. "Agent Rachel McCord, you are under arrest for attempted assault on a police officer."

As Ryan snapped on the cuffs, McCord shouted out. "The charges will never stick. I'll be out in an hour."

"I don't think so McCord, I saw everything." Hunt stated coming out of the conference room pressing the screen on his phone. "I just got off the phone with the President, and until a investigation and personnel evaluation is complete you and your team are sideline. Detective she is all yours."

Ryan and Beckett stood McCord onto her feet and stared face to face with her. "It's not just about your brother McCord, it's about everybody."

Kate passed off McCord to a smiling officer. "Put her in lockup and lose the paperwork for 24 hours."

Hunt came over to stand next to Beckett as the officer led a shocked McCord down to lockup. "You goaded her into that didn't you?"

"No she just needed to be put her in place. Rick did to me a couple years ago when I really got into investigating my mom's murder." Kate said as the elevator door's closed. She then looked at Hunt. "Because he walked away not wanting to see me kill myself and what it would it do to him. Then it took me hanging off the side of a building for me to realize what I really wanted to go after.

Kate held up her hand with her wedding band on her finger. Hunt smiled and looked at her. "But you knew beforehand what you wanted."

She nodded. "Yep, but it took that incident to realize it."

Ryan came up interrupting them. He heard the small conversation, so he had a smile on his face. He walked in between Hunt and Kate. "Got that address. It's a PO Box located in Brighton Beach."

"So that is a big fat nothing then." Hunt stated as he looked at the paper.

"Not necessarily." Esposito replied to the statement as he came over now. He pulled out his notepad and flipped to the pages. "I talked to the manager there, he says only three people are authorized to pick up mail from that box. I gave descriptions to the man of Illyana, Nikolai and Anton. All three match."

"Well that makes Anton a little bit more important than a simple bodyguard then." Hunt said as Ryan handed him the information that they had learned. "Let's talk to him again."

"Well before you do, I was able to talk the manager to get the billing address." Esposito told them handing over a piece of paper. "It's a small apartment in Brighton Beach."

The team gathered their belongings and raced out of the precinct towards the address that was given to them. As soon as they arrived the quickly moved to the apartment and knocked. "NYPD."

When there was no answer, Esposito kicked the door opened and a second after Beckett led everyone into the apartment. It was a small one bedroom that was quickly cleared. Beckett holstered her weapon. "Let's tear this place a part to find something telling us where this deal is going down."

As they began searching the apartment, Hunt's phone rang which he answered and spoke in German. After listening to the reply he thanked the person in German. "Illyana was there in Switzerland, till this morning our time. She's on the way back. Landing at Tetterbourgh tonight."

"Well so far all I see is a lot of nothing." Ryan said after checking all the obvious hiding spots.

"I got something." Esposito replied pulling a flash drive from behind the nightstand.

Hunt looked under the fridge and pulled a sealed airtight bag that had been secured to the bottom of the fridge. "Love it when old habits don't die."

Kate came over and looked at it. "Shipping invoices?"

"Probably, but we'll get it to my folks for interpretation." Hunt replied. He looked to Ryan. "Who rents this place?"

"Volkov Investments." Ryan replied with a no emotion as he continued to check apartment. He opened the closet. "Whoa. Guys you have to see this."

Hunt, Kate came into the room as Esposito turned around and stood in shock at the closet. Instead of clothes, there were rifles, pistols and on the doors were photos of the team.

"Well I'm guessing this is where the team that killed Captain Gates, her friend, and tried to kill Castle hangs out." Esposito answered as he walked over to the closet.

"Ryan call ESU and have them process this entire apartment." Kate told Ryan who nodded as he pulled out his phone.

"Beckett, you have to look at this." Esposito called to Kate who came over as Esposito pulled a picture of the door. It was of a Kate walking into Bellevue Hospital just that day. Her jaw nearly fell through the floor.

==================================The case will be coming to a climax soon folks.======================================