Unexpected Appearance Chapter 21

Ryan, contact the DOD," Fallon instructs as they, Esposito, Kate, and Rick, stare at Hayes through the glass of Interrogation One. "See if you can get 20s on any of the guys he served with in Afghanistan. Find out if any of them are in the wind."

The slim detective acknowledges the command and trots off across the bullpen. Fallon looks at Beckett. "You ready?"

Kate's eyes flick to Rick, who gives her an encouraging nod. "Yeah," she answers Fallon, "but this guy isn't living in reality. He thinks he's some kind of savior. We're going to have to work around that."

"As much as we can. But we don't have time to go along with whatever all his delusions are. We break him no matter what," Fallon declares.

"Understood," Kate agrees.

When the determined pair enters the room, Fallon leans on the table, looking down at a cuffed Hayes. "Look, I know you're angry, and I understand. But what you're doing, what you're involved with, is not the way."

"Radford, you're a soldier," Kate says, "but the people in this city are not your enemies."

"I have no idea what you're talking about," Hayes claims.

"Look," Kate continues, "we know about you going up to the storage facility in Washington Heights and the warehouse."

Hayes shrugs. "What of it?"

"We know there was radioactive material in the storage facility. A dirty bomb was in a van at the warehouse. So don't insult us and tell us you don't know anything about it," Fallon retorts.

Esposito shakes his head. "Fallon's wasting his time."

"Why do you say that?" Rick queries.

"Hayes is Special Forces. We're trained for this. Never give up information. Never to give up your position if you're captured. Even with Beckett's help, Fallon can't break him – not in time."

Fallon leans in, his face practically touching Hayes'. "Do you see yourself as a great hero doing this for some mighty cause? You think that's how people are going to see you? Because I'll tell you right now, soldier, if you let this happen, you'll go down in history as America's greatest mass murderer. Is that what you want?"

Hayes' gaze meets Fallon's glare. "When the bomb goes off, do you think they're going to be looking at me? Someone sets off a bomb, they think terrorist. So they'll be looking for a terrorist, not a patriot. Not one of their own."

Fallon's fists pound the table. "Is that what you think you are? A patriot? There's a word for men like you and it's not patriot. It's traitor."

A smile twists Hayes' lips. "The powers that be have no use for a traitor. So when they find their terrorist, and they will find their terrorist, I'll become a footnote in one of your files. Hell, the way they operate, they'll probably redact me, because anything else would be an inconvenience to their self-serving narrative. So why don't you do us all a favor and accept the inevitable?"

Fury flashing in his eyes, Fallon shoves the table into Hayes and overturns it, knocking Hayes to the floor. He crouches over him. "You think this is a joke? You think I'm playing with you?" He pulls his gun and points it at Hayes' head. "Where's the bomb?"

"Fallon, no!" Kate exclaims.

Fallon doesn't move. "Where is it? Where's the target, Radford?"

"Fallon!" Kate yells. She draws her gun, training it on the agent. "Lower your weapon. Now!"

"Not until he tells me what I want to hear," Fallon spits out. "Where is it?"

"Lower your weapon," Kate repeats.

Fallon pushes his gun barrel against Hayes' temple. "You ready to go all the way?"

"I'm prepared to die for my country," Hayes retorts. "Are you?"

"Put down your weapon, now," Kate commands as Ryan and Esposito charge into the room.

Fallon holsters his gun and stalks out.


With shaking hands, Kate tries to fill a mug with coffee in the breakroom. "I've got that, Rick says, filling it for her. "I saw what Fallon did. I grabbed Ryan to back up Esposito. You OK?"

Kate shakes her head. "Fallon pulled the same sh*t on me again! That sonofabitch used me as a prop in his good cop bad cop game, just like he did with Nazihah. After we got out of that room, he told me his gun wasn't even loaded. Mine was. I could have shot him. The guy's crazy, Castle. How does a man get so far off the rails?"

"I know how," Ryan says, pouring coffee for himself. "I talked to an old buddy at DHS. He told me Fallon's wife died on 9/11. She rode the second tower down. They were on the phone together when it happened."

"That kind of trauma will damage a man, perhaps irretrievably," Rick says. "But you know, when I convinced my family to get out of town, I couldn't tell them much about why, but I forbade them from telling anyone else that something might happen. I felt like a monster. Fallon believes he has to act like one every time he's assigned to something like this. And maybe the DHS thinks it needs a monster."

"And you don't agree, Castle?" Kate asks.

"I might if Fallon's gambit had worked. But it didn't. And he's not moving on. What we need is someone who can avoid tunnel vision and go with whatever chances we have left of finding the bomb before it's too late."

"What do you mean, Castle?"

"I mean that Hayes said the powers that be would find their terrorist, and he obviously didn't mean what he regards as an American. So, with Amir and Jamal out of the picture, who's left?"

"Nazihah!" Kate exclaims. "But Fallon said he bugged her house and has a team on her."

"Maybe he stopped worrying about her once he focused on Jamal. And after we found Hayes, he homed in completely on him. If Hayes is so unafraid of dying, he has others in place he thinks will still pull off the plot, terrorist patsy included."

"We need to find Nazihah. Ryan," Kate queries, "which of Fallon's guys is supervising her surveillance?"

Ryan puts down his coffee. "That's Barker. I'll see what he knows."

"You know," Kate says, cradling her warm mug. "I didn't think I could be so pissed off at someone and feel sorry for them at the same time."

"Ah, that's because you don't have a teenager," Rick says. "But I take it you mean Fallon."

"Yeah. But I can't afford to feel pissed off or sympathetic right now. We're running out of time to find the bomb."

"Barker says there's still a team on Nazihah, but he can't raise them," Ryan reports grimly.

Kate dumps her mug in the sink. "Let's go!"


Rick points at two very dead men in a car outside the Alhabi home. "Barker's team."

Kate sprints toward the steps of the house. "Nazihah! Nazihah!" She hurriedly checks all the rooms. "She's gone, Castle. So's Mollica."

Rick points to a note on the table. "And Hayes' team set up their terrorist."

"'Allah Akbar. God is great. I go to my glory against the infidel,'" Kate reads. "Nazihah's their new terrorist. They're going to have her set off the bomb. And they'll probably do exactly what Fallon did."

"What do you mean?" Rick asks.

"Use the baby as leverage."

Rick's jaw tightens. "And both sides see it as for the greater good."