Arc of the Curve
Chapter Thirteen

Victoria could honestly not believe what she was hearing. 'This is insane.'

Beckett waved her hand. 'You're not wrong.' She admitted. 'That's why we can't even begin to find them. We have nothing, a face maybe, but that's it. Could be long gone by now. Even if we do contact transport authorities, put out an bolo, what do we put on the description? Saved my life?'

'How about murder.' Victoria snapped back. 'You're a witness…'

'To what? Him beheading her? The indoor thunderstorm? I'm not a reliable witness Captain. If one hint of any of this gets to a lawyer they'll tear the whole precinct apart. What's left of it.'

'I won't risk the reputation of my precinct for one person Detective.' With that she realised Beckett had backed her into a corner. She shook her head and stood up. Victoria took the moment to look around again, the three of them were in his studio apartment. An apartment that would have cost Victoria a year's pay on rent alone. For all his faults Mr Castle had good taste, and the money to afford it. What got under Victoria's skin in the first place was that he didn't need to play detective. Over the years though she'd become worried he wasn't playing. 'So, where do we go from here?'

'Let's think about it.' Mr Castle said. Once again behaving like an overgrown child. 'On the one hand we've got a suspect, locked up and ready to go to trial. The problem there is we can't connect her to Bracken. Not without our friend Toni, who unfortunately can't do that because she's missing her head. Now we can connect our suspect and Toni easily.'

'Through a clue gained by your telepathic daughter.' Victoria pointed out, amazed that she could say it without a hint of sarcasm.

'Right. I'm no expert, but I'd say that might not hold up in court. So what we need to do make sure have a cast iron connection between our bomber and our assassin.' Mr Castle pointed out.

'What about Bracken?'

'Detective, other than your hunch we have nothing on the Senator. As you know all too well he's very careful and almost untouchable.' Victoria sighed. 'It's possible that he isn't connected and is just taking advantage of the chance.'

Beckett stood up and began pacing 'Too much of a coincidence, and what about those gun men outside the Old Haunt? No, he's after us and if we don't get him this time he's not going to give us another chance. It's only a matter of time before my car's brakes get cut, or a drive-by shooting while we're at a crime scene.'

Victoria frowned. 'Why hasn't he done that already? If you think he's capable of blowing up a police station…'

'We have evidence, nothing he can't squeeze out of but we errr…'

'Exaggerated it.' Beckett admitted. 'Truth is we've been bluffing him. He thinks we have enough to destroy him, but we're not using it because of Montgomery.'

'But he's guessed your bluff?'

Castle shrugged. 'That, or he thinks we'll take him down anyway and is trying to get there first.'

They were interrupted by a knock on the door. Given what they were just talking about it wasn't much of a surprise that the first thing Beckett did was grab her gun. Much to Victoria's relief Mr Castle wasn't licence to own a firearm but that didn't stop him from trying to get between her and door.

After a silent moment the two of them nodded and Castle crept up to the door, no sooner had he got there than there was another knock. Victoria drew her pistol, but let them take the lead. 'Who is it?' Castle asked before half jumping to one side, as if expecting gunfire.

'My name's Joe. Joe Dawson.' They called back. 'I need you're help with something Mr Castle, and perhaps I can help you and Detective Beckett.'

'What with?'

'Last night. I know what happened. Maybe even better than you do.'

The three of them shared a look. 'I don't know, what happened last night?'

'Detective Beckett witnessed a… Beheading.'

'How…?'

'I know the guy that did it.' He admitted.

'Nothing.' Javier didn't know if he should be angry or glad. 'You get anywhere.'

'The same as you.' His partner shrugged. After catching up on what the uniform's knew, which turned out to be zilch, they'd split up. Javier looking for evidence and Ryan witnesses. After a couple of hours they met back up at their cruiser. 'These warehouses have been abandoned for months, most of the companies that owned them didn't survive the financial crisis. Can't even afford security.'

'No one, not even squatters?'

Ryan shook his head. 'Their too big and draughty. Without heat or lights it's easier to find a place in the city. Hennesly must have tapped the mains.'

'She did.' Javier confirmed. 'But she did a bad job of it. Overloaded the breakers and blew it, big. When the Uniforms got here there were still electrical fires and the whole place looks like hell'

'That the official line?' Ryan asked skeptically. Knowing as well as he did the real reason for the electrical damage.

Opening the car Javier shrugged 'Hey, I'm just telling you what they told me. I can give Gates and the others the report. Want me to drop you off at home?'

'If you could, Jenny's probably worried about me.' Ryan got in. 'Hey heard from Lanie?'

Javier started the car and they pulled away. 'Yeah. She's taking some time off to visit her sister, she'll be back in a couple of days.'

'Anyone told her about Alexis yet?'

'Not me, and I ain't going to. She wouldn't believe me.'

'Same here, with Jenny I mean.' Ryan admitted. 'It's just… I'm Catholic and so's she. How can I tell her one of my best friend's kids is… what? A mind reader? A witch?'

'Bro, I don't know. All I do know is this worlds a lot more complicated today and might be worse tomorrow. We just gotta take it as it comes.'

When the door opened Joe found himself looking down the barrel of a nine millimetre. It was being held by a pretty woman with dark brown hair. Only there was nothing pretty about the look in her eye. Not that he could blame her. When you had people after you paranoia was a survival trait.

'Hand over the sick.' She told him.

'Can't walk without it.' He admitted, tapping his false legs. 'Landmine, back in Vietnam. Haven't been able to dance right since.'

The only man Joe could see, that had to be the writer Richard Castle, winced. That just left the dark skinned woman. She also had a gun, but wasn't pointing it at him. 'Can I come in?' he asked.

'Sure.' The writer agreed, crossing the apartment and pulling out a chair from his counter. Limping after him Joe was glad to see it had a high seat, which meant he wouldn't have too much trouble standing back up.

'So, Mr Dawson, what can you tell us that we don't know. Start with the name of the man that rescued me.' Joe could hear the edge in the detective's voice.

'His name? Which one, he's had so many over the years, but I know him best as Adam.'

'Adam what?' The other woman snapped, she was obviously another Detective. Given her age, and the look Detective Beckett gave her, they were probably the boss.

'Take your pick. He's used Adam, or something like it, for a very long time.' He wasn't trying to be difficult, but he could give them everything. First of all none of them would believe a word of it and second he didn't know how much of the truth his friend wanted him to go into.

Still he could see he wasn't giving them the answers they wanted. 'You have to understand, the world is not entirely what you think. There are lots of things that sound impossible, right up until you see it with your own two eyes.' Joe put his stick on the counter and sighed. 'I first found out about this when I was back in 'Nam. My CO was one of those marines that lived for war. He couldn't wait to be in the thick of it, still back then he was a good man. He just lost his way later on.' He shook his head sadly remembering his old friend and how he ended up nothing more than a killer.

'Mr Dawson?' the Author asked.

Joe chuckled. 'I am getting old, but I guess that's part of the problem.'

'Mr Dawson, if you can please get to the point before I arrest you for wasting police time.' the other woman snapped.

'There was an ambush. Officially I was the only survivor and dragged myself, without legs of course, through several miles of jungle. Got a medal out of it. The truth was my CO pulled me out of there. Even after taking at least half a mag from an AK-47. He just didn't die. He couldn't die. That's how I found out about them. They're called, believe it or not, Immortals.'

That got their attention. 'You've got to be joking.' Detective Beckett exploded while the author openly laughed. 'Immortals? What's that even mean?'

'It means Detective that they don't die. Not from gun shots, injury, disease, even age. Some have lived for thousands of years, not looking a day older than you or Mr Castle.'

'A thousand years, and no one's heard of them?' He asked laughing. 'Good story, but you're going to have to do better than that.'

Joe shook his head. 'They've kept themselves secret, afraid of what people would think. Lots of them are legends, most forgotten by all but a few. Those of us who know about them and study Immortals are called Watchers.' he waited for the obvious Buffy joke. Instead just got a few raised eyebrows. 'Yeah, best guess that Whedon guy got lucky. Back before I retired we decided it was better to let it go, that way the wrong people hear about us we can use that show as a cover.'

'So let me get this straight; You are retired from a secret society that collects legends about people that can't die. How does this help us, and what's it got to do with Toni Nelson?'

'You should know, after all you were there when she fell out of the window.' Joe smirked back at the writer before reaching into his jacket. The detective had her gun up in a flash, but not quick enough to stop Joe from pulling out the file. 'Everything the Watchers had on Toni Nelson. Or if you prefer Annabel Long.'

He sat back as they opened it. 'You're saying this is real? Then how…?'

'Turns out there is one way to kill anything, even Immortals. Beheading. Of course even then you've got problem. Way we understand it, well there's something inside each of them. Something that keeps them going. They call it a Quickening. I'd call it a bottled up thunderstorm. Pop the cork and you've got one hell of a light show.'

They were still looking at the file, or unless Joe missed his guess the pictures he'd included. 'This can't be possible.'

'Afraid it is.' Methos said from the doorway that Joe had expertly forgotten to close.

Alexis wasn't sure what woke her. Given the way she felt she couldn't have been asleep long. Checking her clock it had only been a couple of hours, but there wasn't much chance of her getting back to sleep.

She'd been this way before. Her first day of collage, her first Date, that time Dad took her to see Star Wars in the theatre. She was just too wired to sleep. She had the world at her finger tips, how could she spend any time with her eyes closed.

She was a Tomorrow Person. She wanted to go surfing in Australia? All she had to do was grab a board and teleport over there. Skiing in Europe? She didn't even have to click her heels together. She could be swimming in Dubai, stop off in China for a takeaway on her way to get a tan in California and still be back home before the sun set.

More than that she could reach out, listen to people across the world. Hear their thoughts like other people heard conversations. Heal injuries with a touch and even move things with the power of her mind.

Most amazing of all, she wasn't alone.

After all those years hiding from everyone, even herself, all she had to do was be who she was meant to be. She was smart enough to know that her new friends were the exception and not the rule that didn't seem to matter. Of course there would people that were afraid of her and some of them might lash out in that fear, but she could take that. As long as her dad accepted her she could do anything.

As if summoned Alexis felt her Father was close by, downstairs. Yawning she dug into the closet where she had left some of her old clothes that Gram's hadn't thrown out.

Alexis wasn't sure how, but even if she couldn't read peoples minds she still had a good idea if someone was near. If she knew them well enough she could even sense who. As if idly she reached out. Kate was still there, so was Captain Gates as well as someone she didn't know. Picking what both looked most fashionable and functional she headed to meet them

She was almost at the top of the stairs when she felt something else. Hostility. There was something terribly wrong. Catching herself Alexis peaked out around the corner.

'I save your life and I can't stop by and ask for a cup of coffee?' The stranger at the door said sarcastically but Alexis's gut suddenly went cold. she couldn't read this man.

He was a blank space, an emptiness. It as just like what she had felt with Bracken, only a thousand times worse. And he was in their home!

Methos stepped inside, keeping his hands in plain view. 'Is that what you want? A coffee?' Richard Castle asked incredulously.

'No, never liked the stuff personally.' He admitted easily. 'Joe and I knew you'd never believe him. Even after what you've seen and that file, so I came. Partly to prove what we're telling you is true and partly so we can find out what the hell is going on around here.'

The woman with them had a look of utter confusion on her face. If the wind changed it would probably freeze like that. 'What are you talking about?'

'Antonia. As soon as Beckett and her team shot her out of a window she should have gotten out of town. Left New York and not come back. Instead she sticks around and even goes after Beckett. She was scared of something, or someone. Scared enough to risk exposing what we are to the police in a very public way.' Methos pointed out bluntly. 'Either she was willing to risk exposing us, which is bad news for everyone, or she had an ace up her sleeve. So the question is who hired her, and I'm willing to bet you detective know the answer.'

'What if I do?' Beckett asked, not lowering her gun.

'Then I keep out of their way. You don't live as long as I do without being careful.'

'And if they're like you?' Came a shaky voice to his left. Methos spun and saw a pretty young woman, with red hair, that was looking at him like he was a venomous snake.

'All the more reason to stay out of their way.'

'Alexis? What's wrong?' Mr Castle asked, he was obviously her father and just as obviously concerned at the look of shear terror on her face.

'He's like Bracken… I can't, I can't sense him. It's like he's not there.' Methos didn't know what she was talking about, but then, still looking at him, she raised a shaky hand and pointed at Joe. 'But I can sense him. I know who you are. I know. I know.'

'Who is he Alexis?'

'He's Death.' She said, her voice breaking. 'The fourth horseman, Death on a horse…'

Methos winced. 'Well, this is awkward.'

End Chapter Thirteen