CHAPTER 12 - THE PLOT THICKENS

As they drove back into the city, Kate smiled remembering the fun they had on their mini vacation. It was a nice relaxing weekend, full of cuddling and times when they just talked or read. They had dinner at a nice restaurant but nothing fancy. They walked on the beach and talked about their wedding and what they wanted. They discussed children and money. Kate felt at peace with it all and was thankful that they had taken the time to be alone while they could.

As they entered the garage, Rick's phone rang. "Castle…oh, hey Mark!" He listened for a bit and then smiled. "Excellent! Great work, man! Send me what you have. Thanks!" he hung up and looked at Beckett. "It's coming together Katie love!" Then he kissed her. "Let's head up and I can give you some of the details." They grabbed their bags and headed to the elevator.

Rick opened the door and they took their bags inside. Rick went to get coffee started while Kate took their dirty clothes and started the washer. After messages were checked and coffee done, they headed towards the couch. Kate looked over at him. "What did Mark have to say?"

"This is serious, Kate. We are entering into some dangerous territory. We now have to brief POTUS as we have verified not only internal items, but international ones as well."

Kate's eyes widened. "What did they find out? Oh, and what's POTUS?"

"Bracken's the ringleader for sure...but we knew that. The account number we gave him is his campaign fund account when he was first running for the Senate. The thing is we've heard about the 'Dragon' but that isn't Bracken. For the sake of the op we'll still refer to him as that. The 'Dragon' is someone else. Bracken is known as 'Lazarus' by his associates. Mark's sending the details, but he told me that the account was the first of several and it was the key to unraveling the whole mess. We have a monetary trail that ties him to Coonan, Lockhart, Maddox and many more. We have new names to look at as well. One is so high that we need to let POTUS know what we are doing. POTUS is what we call the President of the United States...much less to say."

"How will we do that without tipping Bracken off?"

"Well, tomorrow POTUS will be in town to meet with the Israeli Prime Minister at the UN. When he leaves there he is supposed to make his way to Midtown to visit a daycare. I'll call Jordan to see if she can get us access there and we can give him a quick rundown."

Kate looked alarmed. "We?"

"Yes. We. Come on, he's a nice guy! Even Mother likes him and she hasn't liked a politician since she flirted with Reagan at the Kennedy Center gala back in 1983."

"Okay."

Rick dialed Jordan's number. "Hi Jordan...yeah. Listen I need you to call Thorne. We have a situation. See if he can come down here for a six am briefing...yes I know but I want to do it in person and we don't have much time. Yes and we need to find Hunt as well. Just tell him the game's afoot. He'll know what to do. Thanks. See you in the morning. Oh? It was good thanks. All right...bye."

"You know, now I understand why you look at me so oddly when I am on the phone about a case. I kind of know what was going on but I'm not sure."

He smiled. "Well, she thought we could do the briefing remotely but with POTUS in the picture I would like to be sure that we are secure. Oh, and she wanted to know how our weekend went."

"That was sweet of her."

"Yeah, she's really a nice lady with a crappy job. She's had a rough couple of years since she first worked with us, but I don't think she's let it get her down."

Kate was concerned. "What happened?"

"Well, I doubt she would care if I told you...a couple of months after the Dunn case she called me in tears and asked if I knew a good lawyer. Her husband left her and their daughter for his 23 year old assistant. I helped her find a place she could afford and had Steve's office represent her."

Kate frowned. "Why did she call you?"

"Well, it's because she needed a friend. And she knew that's all I would be since I was so in love with you."

"Damn...sorry, Rick. She is the only one that has ever had me concerned when it came to you."

"Katie love, if we had never gotten together...maybe I would have asked her to dinner. But my heart is yours."

Kate smiled. "Thanks, Alex. You already know you have mine as well."

Rick stood up. "We have to get up pretty early; let's get ready for bed."

"Sounds like a plan."

TCOP

Rick and Kate walked into the office a little after 5. Jordan was there along with most of the team. About 5:15 the elevator doors opened; Thorne and Hunt came over. Rick took them into a conference room and closed the door.

Kate's phone buzzed with an incoming text about 5:45. She read the text and headed over to talk to Jordan. "Rick just texted me; he wants us to get people moving so that we can get started soon."

Jordan looked up at the door and nodded. "Okay, people. Let's get ready to head into the briefing room."

Kate watched as the other agents who had been milling around began to head to the room. She went over to make sure that the techs headed over as well. As she made her way back to Jordan's desk, the door to the conference room opened and Rick came out shaking his head. The directors headed directly to the briefing room.

Kate looked at her partner. "You okay, Rick?"

"Yeah...they just won't give up."

"What do you mean?"

"Later, okay? I do need to talk to you about it but we don't have time right now." She nodded her acceptance and the three of them headed towards the room to fill everyone in on where things stood.

TCOP

The three of them headed into the briefing room. Rick had picked up his planner when they passed his desk. He looked up at the assembled agents and the two directors as well as Jordan and Kate standing behind him. "Good morning, everyone. Thanks for coming. This is a status meeting for task force 13-081 Codename: Dragonslayer. I am sure you all remember Agent Shaw and Detective Beckett.

"Let's begin. As of this morning we know the following:
1) The target codenamed Dragon is United States Senator William Bracken.
2) There are approximately 125 additional individuals that we need to retain; some are current office holders including one other Senator, three Congressmen and the Vice President.
3) We have tracked operations to include both interstate and foreign activities within three foreign countries.
4) Bracken is responsible for at least 32 murders via conspiracy. He is also into extortion, bribery and illegal campaign funds.

There is much more but we are still collating evidence. We actively have one agent on his security detail, one in his personal staff and three others in support positions. Agent Shaw will brief you on inter-agency cooperation."

Jordan stepped up. "We are currently working with the CIA, CyberCom and the Secret Service. We will be contacting the US Marshals to assist us in rounding up suspects when the final operation goes down. AD Hunt has offered teams to assist the take-down in Switzerland, Turkey and Colombia. Detective Beckett will now inform us on Bracken as a threat assessment."

Kate stepped up. "Bracken and I have crossed paths several times. He is dangerous and has a wide network of moles in many organizations, including the FBI, CIA and the NYPD. We believe he is a psychopath; he certainly has many of the indicators." Kate then stepped back and Rick stood behind the podium.

"We have approximately seventy two hours to complete our Intel, and then we will plan execution. Let's get this bastard. Dismissed."

As they filtered out, Hunt and Thorne nodded to the three on the dais to wait. Once the others were gone they closed the door. Thorne looked up at Rick. "So, are we confident that we are going to have enough information and evidence to nail this guy?"

Rick nodded. "Besides what we said in the meeting, we have financial records back to 1995, as well as a lead on a recording that will implement him in at least one of the murders. That, people, is our smoking gun."

Kate and Jordan looked at each other before Jordan spoke. "When did you get this information, Rodgers?"

"About 30 minutes ago. And it was very cryptically described." He briefly looked up at Hunt. "Do we know when POTUS is due?"

They heard the door opening and a couple of Secret Service people entered the room, followed by the President. "That would be now, Agent Rodgers."

Rick looked around at the others and chuckled. "I think you broke them, Sir."

They were not prepared for the loud braying laughter. "You didn't warn them, did you Rick?"

Rick chuckled. "No, Sir. Always keep them on their toes."

The President laughed again and then sobered. "Shall we begin?"

Rick looked up at Thorne, who nodded. "Yes, Sir. We are currently working on a high profile case involving Senator Bracken. Based on what we have found out so far, we are going to be charging him with over thirty counts of conspiracy to commit murder, almost two hundred county of bribery and over one hundred counts of extortion among others."

"That's quite a list. Surely he did not act alone?"
"That is one of our problems, Sir. We have identified well over a hundred co-conspirators. And Sir, the VP is one of them."

The President sat heavily. "I can't believe it...I've known him for years!"

At that Thorne interrupted. "Sir, the evidence is irrefutable. I have seen it and both Hunt and I have confirmed it. We have also confirmed the evidence in regards to Senator Wilkinson and Evans, Jamison and Robards from Congress."

The President sat and looked towards the floor. "When will the arrests be made?"

Rick looked at the man. "Our operational window is from Wednesday night at 10 PM to Friday morning at 6 AM, Sir."

The President straightened his shoulders and stood. "Very well. Now what can I do to help?"

TCOP

As the meeting continued at the New York FBI Field Office, the Senate Office staff for Senator Bracken began filing into their newly painted offices. Admiring the changes, they went about their business and copies came on, copy machines warmed up and gossip around the water cooler and coffee machine began. And in a room a couple hundred miles away recording devices and real time analysts settled in to find the final pieces needed to complete their mission.

The Senator arrived shortly before nine AM and went straight through to his office. There was a vote scheduled for mid-afternoon, but before that he had to get the latest update from his special projects. He picked up his phone and called for his personal assistant. "Send Jerry in as soon as he gets here...oh and get me a coffee."

Ten minutes later he was sipping on his coffee working on a draft of his speech when the door opened. "You wanted to see me Mike?"

"Yeah Jerry; come on in and take a seat while I finish this sentence." The older man sat down and opened up his planner. When the Senator got this way he knew something was up. "So, Jerry," the Senator began, "Where are we on finding that tape?"

"Well, we took inventory at a couple of places and nothing has come up so far. Are you sure it even exists?"

"Montgomery alluded to it and it wasn't at Raglan's place. Did you check at the Detective's apartment?"

"We did more than once. And her desk at the Precinct was done by our guy there. Nothing was found."

"It has to be there somewhere. Anyone check at the writer's place?"

"Sir we have a better chance of breaking into Fort Knox. And I am sure she wouldn't want them involved; since they got engaged, she's been on a leave of absence and neither have been seen except for the other night at the gala. Evidently they are spending time out on Long Island...most likely making like bunnies." He snorted.

Bracken glared. "What would the odds be of making her a widow?"

Jerry looked surprised. "Sir, you've always kept away from the writer as he is too high profile. Are you sure you want to open that can of worms?"

"I want her miserable, Jerry. After she has been miserable for a while, I want her gone. No one threatens me and gets away with it. Then we go after Montgomery."

"I'll look into it then and get back with you."

"I want to know something in two weeks."

"Yes Sir!"

Bracken turns around in dismissal as the other man leaves. He knows that he needs to be careful, but there's too much riding on the next few months to let anything happen.

TCOP

When the Senator had headed back to DC, Gabriel had been told to stay in New York for a couple days to work up some ways to improve security at the house. He was able to tap into the video feed and watch the meeting between Bracken and his chief of security. He called Riley and asked her to get Beckett and meet her at her apartment.

He was leaning against his car when they arrived. Riley walked over and grinned. "So, what's up?"

"Bracken admitted in a meeting this morning to several things, one of them being that they had been in Beckett's apartment. So I thought we would take a look and see what they had done."

Kate shook her head. "I haven't been here in a few weeks except to check the mail. I moved most of my stuff to Rick's loft."

Gabriel smirked. "Well, it won't hurt to take a look around, now will it?"

Ten minutes later, Kate angrily exited her bedroom. Even though things had initially appeared to be all right, she knew something was off.

First, the matchstick that she always stuck in the door when she closed it was already on the floor when she opened it. The matchstick trick was something she had picked up from Rick's second book. His character had a suspicion that someone kept going in his room and that was how he confirmed it. A broken piece of matchstick just below the doorknob would not usually be noticed as it fell to the floor.

Next, her computer chair was not as she had it. She was very particular about the placement of the chair when she was not using it.

Finally, her copies of Rick's books were in order. She always kept his first and second novel reversed. She had never known why, but it seemed right. She had just recently found out that he had actually written the second one first, but initially refused to publish it. Once his second novel had been published and hit the best seller list, fans had clamored for more and he had done an edit and published it. Thankfully she had her mother's copies at the loft.

Nothing appeared to have been taken. She checked her nightstand and made sure her mother's datebook was there. Riley noticed her holding the book. "What's that?"

Kate looked up. "It was my mom's date book. The one she had in her office when she was killed."

Gabriel walked in as she finished. "You mind if I take a look?"

Kate held it out. "You won't be able to read it...the woman had a code."

Gabriel flipped through it. "She was killed in January right?" Kate nodded. "It looks like she had dinner planned with you and your dad on the 9th."

Kate looked up surprised. "That's right. How did you know?"

"It's written in her book." He flipped it open to the date. Written at 7 PM was 'JKD- UP'. "It means Jim and Kate for Dinner at the usual place."

"Wait...how can you know that?"

"Oh, it's Delta shorthand. Was someone in your family in the Army?"

"Yes, my grandfather. He was in World War 2, Korea and Vietnam. He got out in 1969 when he was wounded. Why?"

"He must have taught the shorthand to your mom. That's what the whole book is coded in."

Kate looked at him. "That may be helpful. Can you come back with me and show Rick?"

"Let's go." They locked up and headed back to the FBI field office.

TCOP

When they got back to the office, Gabriel and Riley headed to the tech office to get the pages of Johanna's journal scanned into the system. Kate looked around and saw Rick talking to JJ. She smiled when she saw him showing her a picture of Alexis and she showed him a picture of a little boy. Kate walked up and smiled.
"Oh, he's a cutie. What's his name?"

JJ smiled. "Henry. He's a handful, just like his daddy."

"He'll have them eating out of his hand."

Rick smiled at the two of them and then turned towards Kate. "How did it go?"

"Someone had been in there. The toothpick had fallen."

Rick chuckled. "I knew that would work. I used to do it on Mother all the time."

JJ looked confused and Kate winked at Rick. "I once read in a book about placing a matchstick in your door when you close it and then breaking the matchstick so that people can't see it. If you later open your door and the matchstick is already on the floor you know someone went in the room."

JJ looked impressed. "Wow. That's a very cool low tech way to do that. Not many would suspect something like that. That's ingenious."

Rick smirked. "Why thanks, JJ. I did it in 'Flowers for your Grave'."

Kate chuckled. "Anyway, we looked around and nothing was taken but there were signs that things had been looked at. I was looking to make sure that my mom's datebook was there when Gabriel saw it. Rick, you remember what her coded entries look like?"

He nodded. "Yeah she had her own personal shorthand."

Kate looked over towards the tech area. "It wasn't as personal as we thought. It seems that my mom wrote in a code that is used by Delta soldiers and Gabriel is in the process of working with Garcia to decipher it."

Rick smiled. "That's great! All we need now is to find that tape and if what we think was written in that book is there then we have him."