Just Another Day: Chapter 3
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DISCLAIMER: Most of these characters are not mine at all, but they are memorable. Thank you, Mr. Marlowe. The others? Yeah, they're mine
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11:42 a.m. West Coast Time on Monday, May 14, 2012, in the Cafeteria at the Castles Complex in Sausalito, California
"Wait a minute . . . you're saying that you just let her walk out of there?" Richard Castle exclaims in surprise. "After what she had just . . . confessed to you?"
Sam Carlos laughs, a genuine laugh at the perceived naiveite of his good friend.
"Yes, Richard, I allowed her to walk away," Carlos tells him, still smiling. "Just as you and your team allowed her to walk away from here a few weeks ago. At least I knew what she had planned for me."
"The better question, Rick," Willie Crockett adds, "Is do you know what she was planning to do here to you out here?"
There is silence at the table for a few seconds, before Mike Monroe answers for both Rick and Kate Beckett.
"Point taken, Mr. Carlos," Monroe smiles. "Not that I am going to question Lindy's judgment in making that call."
"Nor should you," Carlos agrees. "We make these battlefield decisions in the moment, and then we must live with that moment, yes?"
"That's a Stanford University philosophy and sociology degree at work right there," Kate laughs, and the table smiles and chuckles with her. She takes a long swig from the water bottle she carries with her, gazing across the room at the buffet line.
The group watches as the line finally begins to die down, and if by some pre-arranged agreement, the fivesome stand as one, and make their way over to the buffet line.
"Smells delicious," Wille Crockett admires.
"That's right . . . this will be your first meal here," Kate remembers. "Prepare yourself for a treat, Willie."
As they approach the buffet line, one final resident enters the cafeteria.
"Mmm, and here we go," Kate smiles, mumbling under her breath.
"What was that babe?" Castle asks her, but Willie Crockett has seen what – or who – Kate has seen. The large, fearsome man fights not to smile.
He is almost successful.
"Hi Kate," Jackie Henderson beams brightly, walking briskly and immediately offering and accepting a long hug from Kate Beckett. "So, tell me, are we still on for tomorrow afternoon?"
"You bet," Kate replies, smiling. "Bring your A-game, sister," she laughs, and Henderson joins with her. Slowly, she turns her attention to the large black man standing next to Kate. She nervously runs her right hand through long red locks of hair.
"Hello Mr. Crockett," she smiles demurely.
"It's Willie," Crockett corrects her, smiling himself.
"I was hoping I'd run into you again one sooner or later," she tells him. "I am glad it turned out to be sooner."
"As am I," the large black man tells her.
Behind the encounter, some ten feet away in line, Richard Castle smiles mischievously, leaning over to Sam Carlos. At the same time, Mike Monroe shakes his head with an almost unnoticeable roll of the eyes.
"Oh, he is never going to hear the end of this," Castle smiles.
"Richard," Carlos laughs with him, "Please believe me when I tell you that it would be an extraordinarily horrific idea to kid Willie about what is happening right there."
Castle looks at his friend, smiling . . . and a few seconds later, his smile fades as he recognizes the friendly warning being offered.
"Geesh, Rick, even I didn't need a paint-by-numbers clue to stay away from that landmine," Mike Monroe laughs.
"Indeed," Carlos continues chuckling. "Listen to your astute security chief, Richard. This is an important moment for my friend over there. I have not seen him take an interest in anyone in a number of years."
The men are quiet, gazing at the interaction before an approaching Kate Beckett snaps them out of their semi-trance.
"Eyes forward, boys," Kate tells them three men, with a serious tone. "Give our friends some space."
"Well-spoken, Katie," Carlos nods. He moves sideways, as do Castle and Monroe, allowing Kate to the front of their line.
"Oh, gentlemen to the core, I see," Kate smiles. "Thank you."
She turns to the guest worker behind the buffet counter.
"Can I have a Caesar salad, extra croutons please," she asks, as the men fall in line behind her.
"I need to get back to Willie and Jackie, as I am sure – or at least hoping – they are going to want to sit down."
"Why not give them the privacy I thought you just advocated for, Katie?" Sam Carlos asks, genuinely confused by Kate's seemingly sudden change of heart.
"Rules," Richard Castle answers for the ex-detective. "We have rules about what men are allowed here. Employees, workers, family and security and visiting investors, such as yourself are fine. Anything other than that is off limits. One of our earliest decisions was limiting the men who would be wandering around on campus."
"These women have just escaped some brutal situations," Mike Monroe continues, "and we don't want to do anything, or allow anything that can cause them concern."
"We don't want scenarios where a woman allows visitation here from the man who hurt her," Castle adds.
"Plus, it makes your job all the more difficult if we just allow anyone to waltz in here," Kate concludes, as she gathers her tray and walks over toward Willie Crockett and Jackie Henderson.
"I had not considered such things," Sam Carlos admits to the two remaining men at the table. "I suppose you have the same concerns if the perpetrator against these women was another woman?" he asks.
"Yes, and we actually have a couple of those scenarios," Castle agrees. "But as you can expect, those are much more difficult to manage."
"So, we ask each woman – a few days after she has been here – to compile a list of acceptable visitors . . . you know, family members. That way if a man or woman comes here who is not on the list . . . not a brother or sister, a father or mother, then we turn them away," Mike Monroe states matter-of-factly.
"And you have had no issues or problems with this?" Carlos asks.
"Knock-on-wood, no," Castle answers, doing exactly that . . . knocking on the tabletop as he speaks.
Suddenly, several phones interrupt the conversation with a loud buzzing alert sound, indicating that some type of problem has been detected. Castle looks at his phone, as does Mike Monroe. Kate Beckett pulls her device out as well, glancing at the emergency alert message staring back at her.
"It's from Paul," she speaks loudly, back toward the table where Castle, Monroe and Carlos were sitting, but are now all standing.
Paul Jeffries works in the command center here inside the administration building at the complex. He spends his shift in front of the large displays, monitoring the campus cameras that are spread out across the acreage.
Monroe has already pinged the surveillance man, who answers on the first ring.
"Mike," Paul answers.
"Talk to me," Monroe requests, officiously.
"Motion on the outer edge of the campus, northwest area five," Paul remarks.
"Same area where we had the breach months ago," Kate mentions, as she is now standing alongside the others.
"Yep," Paul agrees. "And you're not going to believe this, but cameras have picked up a man with what I can only assume is a gas can, walking through the tree lines toward the campus."
"You can't be serious," Castle remarks, while Sam Carlos gets yet another view of the challenges that his new friends face for the good that they are trying to do.
"Lindy is already on her way in one of the ATVs, along with Marcus," Paul mentions.
"Tell Lindy to . . . never mind, I will tell her myself," Monroe declares, quickly disconnecting the call and placing a call to Lindy Matthews. She, too, answers on the first ring.
"Hey," she answers, "I guess you know I am on my way to our uninvited visitor."
"Yes, Paul told us," Mike Monroe replies, then adds, "Lindy, whoever this is, we need them alive. We have to know who and what and why."
"Spoilsport," Lindy remarks, and Marcus Duncan barely stifles a chuckle. Knowing that Lindy is on speakerphone, Monroe issues the same request to the man with Matthews in the vehicle.
"Marcus, I mean it," Mike intones. "We need to know what is happening and why. So we need this guy alive, no matter what our perimeter signs out there say."
"Understood, boss," Marcus reports, while Lindy smiles as she rolls her eyes.
"What he said, Mike," she offers, then disconnects the call.
"Can't this thing go any faster?" Duncan asks, then quickly snaps his head forward to avoid the stern gaze from his colleague.
Back at the campus administration building, Richard Castle bids a hasty adieu with the newest investor from the city, while Mike Monroe hits the general alarm for the campus, indicating everyone should take shelter until further notice.
"Just another day," Castle chuckles softly, guiding both Carlos and now Willie Crockett toward the doors. "Get off campus quickly. We will call you."
"Attention on the campus," Monroe begins, and speakers throughout the campus – in the admin building, in each of the residences, at the food barn, and through large outdoor speakers throughout, blast his urgent message, live."
"There is a situation we are attempting to verify. Please take shelter, and prepare for a potential rapid evacuation," he finishes, and then hangs up and dials 911, to let the first responders know there could be a potential fire on the campus.
A moment later, he walks out of the cafeteria toward the lobby, where he finds Richard Castle. He moves over to Castle, who still stands in the doorway at the main entrance to the administration building.
"They gone?" Monroe asks.
"Yes, thankfully," Castle answers. "Friendships aside, I am sure that Sam doesn't want to have to explain his presence here – or anywhere else – to the authorities when they are coming to investigate any kind of disturbance."
"Hmmm, didn't think of that," Monroe replies. Glancing around, he notices her absence.
"Where is Kate?" Monroe asks.
"Last I saw her, she was more or less herding the families out of the cafeteria and back to their residences."
"It's always something here, isn't it," Monroe remarks, sadly.
Richard Castle is silent for a few seconds as he continues to watch the SUV containing Sam Carlos and Willie Crockett drive away in the distance. Finally, he turns toward his old friend, opening his mouth to respond, but catches himself, as suddenly, a low rumbling begins. It starts out slow and steady, sounding like an ominous growl from a predator. All at once, it crescendos, with a louder roar and a jolt that shakes the building.
"My God, this feels like an explosion," Mike remarks. "We're too late," he bemoans, now worried about the woman he cares for who he knows – at this moment – is rushing toward an unknown intruder who, at least according to Paul Jeffries, most likely does not come with good intentions.
Richard Castle, however, knows better. No, he hasn't prepared for an all-out assault on the campus by forces armed to the teeth. No, he hasn't prepared for a covert European assassin to penetrate the campus, disguised as a wounded woman. No, he hasn't prepared for the admission of a resident to uncover a sex trafficking operation, No, he hasn't prepared for what appears to be an arsonist, and no, he sure as hell hasn't prepared for someone to drug him, as he has been drugged.
But this?
Yeah, this is something he could anticipate. This is something he prepared for, adhering and expanding beyond what some would consider draconian building codes. Now, this morning, he is overjoyed that he has taken such precautions, expensive as they were.
"No Mike," he tells his friend, grabbing on to the base of a large table unit. "This isn't an explosion. This is an earthquake."
The two men stare at one another, as the shaking continues. Unbelievably, Richard Castle is almost laughing now.
"It's just another day, Mike," Castle replies. "It's just another day in paradise."
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A/N: I posted the first three chapters of our new story all at once, and I will be posting the next three chapters in the coming week or two. Since my history is that life gets in the way, I am posting multiple chapters at a time. I hope you enjoy where we go with this newest story on the west coast.