Now What? Chapter 44

"Mr. Burgess," Kate begins.

Defiant eyes glare across an aging conference table at her. "It's General."

Kate shrugs. "I suppose it is, while the military bureaucracy works through the procedures required to strip you of your rank. All right, for the time being, General Burgess, to call you a leech on society would be insulting to leeches."

"Like you, leeches are disgusting, but at least they can still serve useful medicinal purposes. You, on the other hand," Rick adds, "only spread your poison and promote destruction."

"I don't have to talk to you, either of you. And I don't have to listen to this," Burgess claims.

"You are correct that you don't have to talk to us," Kate agrees, "but your superiors confirmed our right to speak to you. Isn't that correct, Lieutenant?"

Burgess' counsel from the JAG core nods. "That is correct."

"And you will find it to your advantage to listen." Kate continues.

Burgess sneers. "And why would I do that?"

"Because," Kate explains, "I control what you treasure the most."

"Cops can't read minds, much as the public would like you to believe you do," Burgess counters. "You know nothing about me."

Kate holds up her phone and begins swiping through pictures of Burgess' collection. "I know that we found these in the attic of a building you hold title to. Of course, if they aren't yours, I can have them auctioned off at the department's next property sale. Or if our people don't feel they're worth the trouble, they could go to waste disposal with the other junk that piles up."

"You can't do that!" Burgess protests. "You can't just strip a citizen of his property without due process. It's unconstitutional!"

"Yes, it is," Kate agrees, "so I take it that you are admitting that these are your property and you have a lawful right to keep them."

"Yes, yes, all right. I don't know how you found them, but they're mine."

"We found them, General because you're not as smart as you think you are. We have testimony as to just how extensively you've violated the laws of this country for decades now. We also know that your forces may be out there to kill from the shadows. And I doubt that your advocate's opponent would have to work very hard to fit your activities under the Patriot Act as spreading terror in this country. The army might just decide to ship you off to Guantanamo for interrogation. You would have no rights, and you'd never see your shiny little medals again."

Burgess turns to his counsel. "Can they do that?"

"It's possible," the military attorney admits.

"The military has enough of a PR problem already," Castle says. "The last thing they need is a public trial of an officer who's been using their resources to ship in drugs to destroy the fabric of American society."

Burgess' eyes dart around the room as if some magic exit will appear. Finally, he slumps in his seat. "What do you want?"

"We know about your dark website. To start with, get on it and call off any hitters you have out there," Kate says.

Burgess shakes his head. "There's only one at large right now, but I can't call him off. He can only sign onto the site again to request payment for a completed mission."

"Who is he?" Kate asks.

"His name is Cedric Marks. He also uses Cole Maddox as an alias. He's a merc who worked in Afghanistan, a weapons expert."

"And where can we find him?" Kate presses.

"I don't know," Burgess admits. "He likes to fly under the radar."

"If you ever want to see your collection again, you'll have to do better than that," Castle warns. "How do we find him?"

"Look, maybe you can use his condition."

"What condition?" Kate demands.

"Somewhere along the line, he picked up an unusual form of malaria. He needs to keep taking medication to keep it under control. He'll have to get that somewhere."

"What's the name of the medication?" Kate demands.

"It's his problem, not mine. I don't know."

"Lanie might," Rick suggests.

"I have to make a call," Kate announces, rising from the table, "but I'm not done with you." Rick follows her out of the room but goes toward the opposite end of the hall outside.

Lanie Parish's thoughtful face looks out from the screen of Kate's phone. "I'd have to test the man's blood and identify the parasite to be sure, but from what you've described, it would be a strain resistant to the most common treatments. The most likely medication would be a combination of drugs that would hit the bug at different points in its life cycle. I'm just guessing, but I believe that the most effective one under the circumstances would be pyrimethamine and sulfadoxine. He could get those in one pill, but it wouldn't be in the regular stock of the corner drugstore."

"So where would he get it?" Kate inquires.

"There's a pharmacy near the UN that caters to the needs of diplomatic delegations. If anywhere would have it on the shelf, that place would. I'll text you the names of the most likely drugs."

"Thanks, Lanie. That helps a lot." Shoving her phone back in her pocket, Kate turns as Castle strolls up. "What have you been up to, Babe?"

"I left a message for Gray. Now that we have names, we need a face to match."

"Great, and Lanie's given me a great start on where he's been."

"Are you going to talk to Burgess some more?"

"Some, but then I'm going to send him back to Fort Hamilton to worry about getting dragged off to Guantanamo while we hunt down Cedric."

Rick grins. "The hunted become the hunters. I like it."

The pharmacy clerk frowns at her monitor. "No Cedric Marks or Cole Maddox. No prescriptions for any of the medicines on your list either. But…."

"But what?" Kate questions.

"We had an incident a couple of days ago. Some guy managed to sneak behind the counter to where we keep the pills to fill prescriptions. When one of the other clerks spotted him, he took off out the back. As far as we could tell, he didn't get anywhere near the safe where we keep the controlled substances, and there were no signs anyone tried to get into it. So we figured that if he was looking for something, he didn't get it. But I don't think anyone thought of checking drugs no one could sell on the street."

"Could you check now?" Kate asks.

The clerk nods. "It will take me a few minutes."

As she disappears into the back, Rick gets a message alert. He enters his daily code to unscramble the attachment. A picture of a dark-haired white man appears on the screen. "Beckett, we've got a face."

The clerk returns with a troubled expression. "There's a bottle of Fansidar missing. That's one of the combination antimalarials you mentioned."

Rick hands her his phone. "Could you show this to the clerk who saw the man back there and ask if this was the guy?"

"Yeah, sure. I'll be right back."

Kate can hear the muffled sounds of conversation, and the woman returns to give Rick back his phone." "She only saw him for a minute, so she can't be 100% sure. But she thinks it was him."

Rick favors her with his brightest smile. "Outstanding! You don't know how much we appreciate it."