CIA
Chapter 6
Kate chose to sit in the back and go through the junk in the box on the flight home. They were stopping in Chicago and spending the night.
It wasn't a lot of junk, but it was still junk to her. The only thing that stood out was a ceramic figurine of a trio of elephants. She looked it over and wished Rick could look at it with her, but someone had to fly the plane.
She sat the elephants down and picked up the photos of her stabbed parents again. Most of them were close-ups, their faces not visible. Still, she knew they were her parents. She laid the pictures down and picked up the figurine again. It had an arch, so she turned it over on its back to look at it. She thought she saw something, so she took it into the cockpit with her.
"Babe, do we have a knife or something? I think I see something in this statue."
Rick stared at her. "Babe?"
Her attention was on the statue. "Hmm?"
"You called me Babe."
"Did I? I didn't notice," Kate replied absently. "Do we have a knife or something?"
"We do, but they're all plastic."
Kate frowned. "You don't like being called Babe?"
But Rick didn't answer while he focused on talking to the tower.
"You don't want to be called Babe?" Kate saw him hold up his hand showing one finger as he spoke into the mic.
Finished for the moment, Rick turned his attention to her. "Now, what were we talking about?"
"Do you have a knife or maybe a screwdriver? I need to pry open something. And I called you Babe because I care about you."
Rick searched his pants pocket and came up with a small pocket knife. "Here, see if this will work." He handed it to her, held up his hand again, talking into his mic.
"Babe?" Rick repeated.
"Never mind. …Babe." Kate smiled when she said it. She retreated to the back of the plane and sat down with his knife.
Rick shook his head. "Babe?"
~oo0oo~
Kate opened her hand. "Babe, what is this?" She gave him the small cassette.
"It's a voice cassette. Where did you get this?"
"In the elephants. Someone must have hidden it there. Can you play it?"
"No, I have nothing to play a mini cassette like this. It was inside the elephants?"
Kate sat down in the co-pilot's seat. "Yeah, it just popped out. What do you think it is?"
"Good question. I don't even have anything at home that will play this." Rick looked it over and handed it back to her. "Maybe we can find something in Chicago during our layover. After that, we'll have to wait until we get home. LAX is only a stop for fuel."
Kate turned it over and over in her hand. "I wonder what's on it. After all, it was hidden inside the elephants, so there has to be something on it."
Rick returned to her new name for him. "Babe? Really, Kate?"
"It's a term of endearment. I care about you. So your new name is Babe. It'll grow on you."
"Yeah, like a fungus," Rick muttered, and watched her scowl at him. He motioned for her to come nearer, so Kate leaned in closer. Rick kissed her, and she kissed him back. "Call me anything you like," Rick told her. "Well, not anything." Kate smiled at that and kissed him again.
Rick plucked the tape out of her hand and looked it over. "Could be anything, but why was it hidden away?"
Kate snatched it back from him since she found it, and she studied it again. There wasn't anything written on it to tell her what it was. There wasn't even a symbol, nothing.
~oo0oo~
Rick found a place that sold a player for the cassette, including the batteries. Now they were sitting in their hotel room in Double Tree by Hilton. It was just like any other hotel room they'd had.
"Ready?"
Kate nodded and watched him press PLAY.
What they heard chilled them to the bone. "I'm going to play it again." Rick pressed rewind, then PLAY. He tilted his head, listening intently. He looked up at her. "I know that voice." He listened to it again. "I recognize two voices. The one questioning is Captain Roy Montgomery of the 12th precinct. The one telling them he had people killed – your parents – is Senator William Bracken." He pressed PLAY and heard the same thing. "This could be the proof we need."
"Could be!? Could be!?" Kate exploded. "That bastard is sitting there calmly telling them about killing my parents!"
"Easy does it. We need to verify this first. It could be a fake, maybe anything but what we think it is," Rick cautioned.
"And just how do we do that?" Kate demanded.
"We go to the FBI for one. I would say we go to the Agency, but we don't have jurisdiction in the US. But first things first. First, we need to find out what chairs Bracken sits on. We go off half-cocked, and Bracken will find out about us and that tape. If that happens, we'll be next on that hit list."
"Oh." Kate relaxed a bit. "Sorry."
"It's okay. At least one of us has a level head," Rick teased.
Kate just stared at him. "OH. So, I don't have a level head?"
"No." Rick kissed her and kept kissing her.
~oo0oo~
Kate found herself next to Rick as he sat in front of some computer screens that she somehow missed seeing when she was back here on his plane. She watched him type out something and felt him go stiff.
"Oh, hell. Bracken's sitting on a committee overseeing reports from the FBI." Rick looked frustrated. "That means we need to be extremely careful."
Fear flashed through Kate. "What do we do now?"
"We contact the Agency and ask them for a recommendation on who to contact with the FBI," Rick responded. "That, and we're extending our stay here in Chicago while we wait."
Kate felt better and relaxed a little. "That's fine with me. Just so long as I still have you."
"Let me contact the Agency and ask who we talk to and how. We can't just walk into their offices. Bracken might get a picture of me, then talk to Montgomery and find out I'm Stryker with the DEA. That's something I want to avoid."
Kate didn't say a word, just smiled at him.
~oo0oo~
Rick sent the message that very night and waited for a response. "Does this plane have a bathroom?" Kate asked.
"Forward, just before the cockpit on your right. It's small, but it's all we have." Rick watched her get up and enter the bathroom. She was back a few minutes later. "I got a response already. We can expect Special Agent Shaw at our hotel tomorrow morning."
"What do you know about this Shaw person?"
"Not a thing."
"Great." Kate didn't like that one bit.
"We have to trust him and the Agency. It's not like we have a choice, Kate."
Kate heaved a sigh. "No, I suppose not. Can we leave now? I'm hungry."
~oo0oo~
They didn't leave their hotel room while waiting for Agent Shaw to arrive. Finally, there was a knock on their door, and Rick answered after peering through the peephole. "Richard Castle?" Shaw queried.
"You're Agent Shaw?" Rick was surprised that it was a woman.
FBI Agent Jordan Shaw showed him her credentials. "May I come in?"
"Sure." Rick stepped back and made way for her to enter.
He introduced Kate immediately. "This is Katherine Beckett."
Shaw got right to it. "I'm told you have something special for me."
"I do." Rick went over to the tape player and played it for her. Then he played it again. "I recognized two of the voices, Agent. One belongs to Captain Roy Montgomery of the 12th precinct in New York City. The other voice is Senator William H. Bracken."
"Play it for me again," Shaw asked. So Rick rewound it and pressed PLAY for her.
"The one asking the question is Montgomery, while the one telling them that he had people killed is Bracken," Rick clarified.
"You don't make this easy on me, do you? A US Senator ordered someone's death. The Becketts?" Shaw asked while looking at Kate.
Kate nodded. "My parents, Jim and Johanna Beckett."
"We believe that shortly before the Becketts' deaths, Kate was singled out and kidnapped while attending Stanford. White slavery," Rick explained. "I found her in Bangkok."
Shaw raised an eyebrow. "Bangkok. You certainly get around, Castle. I won't ask you what she was doing in Bangkok. My imagination is enough."
"Bracken sits in on updates with the FBI," Rick cautioned Shaw.
"Meaning that if I open an inquiry into his actions, the man will hear about it and do one of two things. Either make a run for it to a nation without an extradition treaty, or he'll fight it out. Literally," Shaw told them.
"Are you going to do anything?" Kate asked her. "He killed my parents!"
"Anything I do will have to be off the books, or he'll find out about it," Shaw said. "But, yes, I intend to do something all right. I'll need that recording from you, Castle."
"I made a copy I can give you. The original stays with me," Rick told her.
Shaw nodded her agreement. "That will be satisfactory. I need to get back and assemble my team. How do I contact you if I need you?"
"Use this." He handed her a burner phone. "It has one number in its memory. This phone." He showed her another burner phone.
"Thanks." She took the phone and put it somewhere safe. "I never thought I would be working for the CIA."
Rick grinned. "That's okay. I never thought I would be working for the FBI."
"Where are you headed now?" Shaw inquired.
"I'm flying home," he replied. "Depending on where I am, it may take some time to make it back to Chicago, but I'll warn you."
"That's okay. I don't think I'll need you for that. Just stay close to that phone." Shaw paused, then she asked, "May I ask how you know it's Montgomery and Bracken?"
"I planted a listening device in Montgomery's office. He called Bracken from there. I used voice recognition to ID Bracken. Don't worry. So far as either of them knows, I work for the DEA."
"DEA, nice. I'll be in touch." Shaw took the copy, put it in a plastic case to protect it, and headed for the door. "This may take some time," she warned them.
"I expected nothing less, Agent. Good luck."
"To us all," Shaw said and left.
~oo0oo~
Rick and Kate didn't spend a minute more than they had to in Chicago. They flew to LAX, fueled up there, and then headed home.
"It's good to be home," Kate declared.
"Amen," Rick commented while he headed for the bedroom, as did Kate. They unpacked and changed clothes. Everything went into the washer. They hadn't planned to be gone for so long, so they had worn the same clothes.
"Hungry?" Rick asked.
"Starving," Kate replied just as her stomach growled, causing her to blush.
"Let's see what we have." Rick opened the refrigerator and the freezer. He looked over at her. "How about we eat out?"
Kate smiled at his choice. "Works for me."
~oo0oo~
Done with dinner, they went grocery shopping. After spending two hundred and twelve dollars, they were home with what they had bought. Some were usual stuff, and some were a splurge like the T-bone steaks that would go out on the grill later. At a whopping thirty dollars, they were an expensive splurge.
"Now I know why eating out costs so much," Kate commented as she helped put the food away.
Rick glanced at her. "Are you sorry you came?"
"No. I only wish things cost less, that's all. You're sure you can afford this?" Kate didn't want to be spending all his money.
"We can afford it. That, the HOA, and the cost of the jet fuel," Rick told her.
"You have to buy your own fuel? I thought the Agency owned the jet." Kate was shocked to hear that. That meant the trip to Syracuse and Montreal had cost them more than she realized.
"It is, but I pay for the fuel and the maintenance. Which reminds me, she'll be due for another round of maintenance soon," Rick mentioned. "This last trip put a few miles on her."
Kate frowned. "Why do you call the jet her? It could just as easily be called him."
"Because I'm a guy. I'm the one that flies her. You learn to fly and get your own plane, you can call it him."
"Oh, I see." Kate glared at him for that. Then she came up to him and slipped her arms around him.
~oo0oo~
Kate searched the bed but came up empty. The sheets were cool to her touch, telling her he'd been gone a while. Still naked, she got out of bed and searched the place for him. She found him in the study, sitting in front of the computers.
"Did you get something from Shaw already?"
"No, I've got a mission."
"You haven't fully recovered from the last one yet," Kate protested.
Rick ignored that. "I'll be gone a while for this one."
She stared at him. "Define a while."
Rick made a guess based on what he knew. "Ten days to two weeks maybe."
"Two weeks!? What am I going to do for two weeks?" Kate didn't like that at all.
"I'll leave you extra money. Since we just went grocery shopping, you should be good for a while."
"That's not the point." She was going to have to do without sex for two weeks. "Fine, where are you going this time?" Then she proceeded to answer her own question. "And you can't tell me because I don't have a security clearance. What about my security clearance?" Kate asked since he had asked them a while ago.
Rick shook his head. "They turned you down. I warned you they would."
"Because I was a WHORE. But I'm not now. Besides, I'm your girlfriend," Kate argued.
"They didn't tell me why, only that they turned you down. You'll live."
"When do you leave?" Kate wasn't sure she wanted to know, though.
"Tomorrow morning, early."
"Then you're making love to me all day today. Think you can keep up, mister?"
"I'll do my best." Rick smiled. Honestly, he liked the thought of making love to her all day.
"We'll see." Kate leaned down to get a kiss.
~oo0oo~
Rick was packing an overnight bag, planning to travel light. "So we're doing this?" Kate asked.
"Yes, we are. You'll be fine. Here's the burner phone to Shaw. If she calls, answer her questions as best you can." Rick handed her the phone. "I doubt she'll call, but just in case. Tell her I'm out of the country."
Kate felt so sad, but she knew she could do nothing to change things.
"You have the keys to the Jeep, and I've left you extra money, enough to last you two weeks. I should be back by then. …I will be back." Rick put his arms around her and heard her sniffle. It hurt him that he was leaving, but it was his job.
"Please tell me it's not Bangkok," Kate pleaded. She didn't want him to be bringing back another woman.
Rick chuckled softly. "No, it's not Bangkok." He stopped at the door and kissed her. "Go enjoy living in Hawaii. It's why we moved here." Rick looked at her and kissed her again. Then he picked up his two bags and left.
Kate watched as he entered the elevator. Then she turned, closed the door, and leaned against it. "I love Rick, really love ypu," she admitted to herself.
On day one, she spent it at the pool with her sunscreen. Day two was at a different beach with her sunscreen and cover-up. On the third day, she visited the Arizona Memorial. The fourth day she went back to Diamond Head. But she decided not to climb it. She had done that before. She was here for the Pineapple Smoothie and to rest in the middle of Diamond Head, out on the grass.
On the fifth day, she grilled one of the T-bone steaks they had bought. It was going to spoil if she didn't. The sixth day she did the same. The seventh day, she visited the North Shore and went to the beach there.
The eighth day, she chose to do the Makapuu Lighthouse Trail. The ninth day, she decided she needed to be close to home and stayed in the pool with her sunscreen. On the tenth day, she settled on visiting the Byodo-In Temple.
The eleventh day, she went to the Ala Moana Center. It was a shopping tour, but she only window-shopped, conscious of her money. She also attended the Aloha Stadium Swap Meet & Marketplace, another shopping trip. While she was tempted to purchase something she didn't. She wanted to be frugal with her money.
On day twelve, she went grocery shopping for essentials and spent the rest of the day at the pool. The thirteenth day, she went for Group Surf Lesson: Two Hours Of Beginners Instruction.
The fourteenth day dawned, and she was making herself breakfast when she heard the front door and raced to it. "RICK!" She was happy. Then she noticed something. "You're bleeding!" Kate shrieked. She rushed to help him limp his way to the sectional. "Take off your pants. I'll get the medical kit." Kate ran to retrieve it, and when she returned, she found him trying to lift his ass off the sectional to pull his pants down.
"What happened?" she asked as she opened the kit.
He rolled his eyes. "I got shot, obviously."
"Again?" Kate looked at his wound the second his pants were down. "There's blood everywhere." She started cleaning him up. "How did you even get home?"
"With great difficulty. You're going to have to dig out the bullet."
Her face turned white. "Please tell me you're joking."
"Give me a local and dig out the bullet."
Kate rummaged through the kit. "Local, local. …Got it! What do I do with it?"
"Hand me a disinfectant wipe, then hand me the local." Rick wiped his leg, then took the syringe and injected it himself. "You're going to have to cut open the wound a little more and use the forceps to pull the bullet out."
"Oh, God, I hate this!" Kate took a deep breath and focused on what she had to do. After scrubbing her hands, she opened the sterile package with a scalpel inside it and readied herself to start cutting.
"You can do it. Just a little cut."
Kate nodded, and she began to cut. "That enough? You're bleeding even worse now."
"Good, that's good. Now dig out the bullet. It's going to hurt, but that's okay."
Kate took the forceps and started to insert them. But she hesitated. "You're sure about this?"
"Yes." Then he warned her, "I might pass out on you."
"Pass out?" Kate hated this more than she had words for.
Rick didn't scream, but he did pass out on her. She pulled out the bullet a moment later. "I got it!" She held it up for him to see, but he was out cold.
She got to work, cleaned off his leg, and put four stitches in where she had removed the bullet. She left him where he was for now and checked her work. She was happy with what she did, given it was a first for her. Kate sat next to him, waiting for him to wake up. She was full of questions that needed answers.