Unexpected Appearance Chapter 19

Rick and Kate shield themselves behind the sparse cover of the van while she returns fire. "Castle, we've got to move. There's a light coming from over there and a door. Come on, now!" Kate lays down covering fire as they run toward the light. They slam a steel door behind them.

As they gaze around their new surroundings, the sound of an engine revving and bolt being thrown behind them echoes through the cavernous space. "We're locked in!" Rick exclaims, staring at the tubing running along the steel walls. "It's a freezer container!"

Shivering, Kate zips her sweatshirt. "Tell me about it."

"We've got to shut it off." Searching for controls, Rick trips over something hidden beneath a layer of frosty plastic. He lifts the covering for a look. "It's a body. It's Jamal! They must have killed him after he delivered the bomb."

Kate pulls her hood over her head. "I didn't see any sign of his truck."

"I didn't either. These guys would know the cops would be searching for Jamal and what he was driving. They probably drove it somewhere to act as a decoy."

"Right. It would be just radioactive enough to trigger the detectors of the cops executing a search grid. Fallon, Montgomery, our guys, will all be looking in the wrong place."

"Which includes not looking for us," Rick says.

Kate pulls out her cell phone. "I've got no bars. You have any?"

Rick checks his own phone, shifting position to see if he can pick up a signal. "No."

"We've got to get out of here!" Kate exclaims, throwing herself against the door.

"Wait! Wait! Beckett, that door's solid steel. All you're going to do is break your shoulder."

"Do you have any better ideas, Castle?"

He takes a fob out of his pocket. "This is one of the extra features of my car. It puts out an emergency signal. It's supposed to be on a different frequency than cell phones so that it won't hit interference. It might get through." He presses a button.

"How will we know if it worked?"

"Someone will show up."

"Castle, we could freeze before that happens."

"I know. We've got to shut down the cooling mechanism, but it looks like the controls are on the outside."

"So what do we do?'

Using his coat sleeve as a barrier, Rick tests one of the pipes running along the container wall. "Thank God! It's like the one's in Mother's old freezer."

"Castle, it's too soon for you to be delirious from the cold. What are you talking about?"

"During one of Mother's longer spells between gigs, we lived in a cheap apartment with one of those old refrigerators where you had to manually defrost the freezer compartment. When ours got so frosted up that there wasn't even room for her consolation pint of ice cream, she tasked me to do something about it. There was a clear warning on it not to use anything sharp. Unfortunately I was 14, with teenage impatience. After a few minutes of fruitlessly going at it with hot water, I grabbed a hammer and a screwdriver. The metal perforated like it was paper, and the gas leaked out. There wasn't enough to be toxic to me, but it killed the refrigerator. Mother and I lived on cereal for the rest of the month to pay for it. Fortunately, after that, she signed with a company in New Jersey to make industrial safety films. That tided us over until she could get back on stage."

"Castle, does this story have a point?"

"The point of my screwdriver, or in this case, of your bullets. How many rounds do you have left?"

Kate checks her weapon. "Four."

"That should be enough if you distribute the punctures throughout the container."

"Castle, if I miss and the bullets hit the steel walls, the ricochets could kill us."

"Then don't miss, Beckett."

Kate gets her gun as close as she can to the tubing and fires. As the shots ring inside the container, their ears ring with them, but the active cooling stops. She jams her hands beneath her armpits. "It's still damn cold in here."

Rick wraps his arms around her. "We should huddle for warmth."

"Castle…."

"I know, Dr. Motorcycle Boy. But optimistically, assuming someone responds to my signal, we don't know how long it will take. We need to survive, Beckett and my coat is a lot warmer than your sweatshirt. If you get inside it with me, we can conserve what heat we have. He holds his coat open. "Come on!"

Hesitantly, Kate gives her silent agreement.

"What the hell!" Hunt exclaims as a text appears on his secure phone. "The CIA satellite had already monitored relatively low levels of radiation from a warehouse, but he hadn't connected it with his son. Now, an analyst had picked up an emergency signal from the same location - from a car registered to Richard. Hunt's temporary quarters while he replaces Gray are in mid-Manhattan, but he can push his non-descript Ford to eat up the distance uptown. He'll push it hard.

Using the plastic that had covered Jamal as extra insulation to wrap around and beneath themselves, Rick and Kate huddle together on the floor against a wall of the container. "Beckett, I'm sorry," he says. "I got you into this. If I hadn't insisted that McCann coming here was no accident, we wouldn't be in this mess."

"And we would have never found the bomb – or Jamal," Kate points out. "At least now we have proof for Fallon that Jamal wasn't behind a terrorist plot. And we know the bomb's in a van."

"We also know that by now, that van could be anywhere, and the bomb is set to go off at four o'clock tomorrow afternoon. The city is running out of time. Wait! Beckett! I hear something. Someone's sliding the bolt."

Kate reaches for her gun. "Castle, I'm out of ammunition."

"Point it anyway. Maybe you can bluff."

A tall, white-haired figure appears in the doorway. "You two just can't stay out of trouble, can you? Come on! Let's get you out of here."

"There's a bomb in a van. I need to contact my people!" Kate says, leaning on Castle to struggle to her feet.

"A message already went out from high enough channels that the DHS Sec can't ignore it. And Fallon can't ignore his boss." Hunt assures her. "But you can call as soon as you're outside."

Rick points to the body. "And unfortunately for Jamal, the evidence is frozen and waiting."

Still shivering despite the blanket he holds tight around his shoulders, and desperate for a hot shower, Rick lets himself into what he expects to be an empty loft. Holding another blanket, Martha looks up. "Are you using that blanket?" Rick queries.

"No! It's for you." Martha wraps it around her son. "You poor thing! Your friend Ryan called and told us you and Beckett had an accident. Something about a body in a freezer. Richard, you really must learn to be more careful."

"Mother, believe me, I'm trying my best. But what are you and Alexis doing here? I thought you'd be snug in your Serenity yurt in the Catskills."

"Alexis was too anxious about her exam to relax. The Serenity Oasis can't help those who can't be serene. We'll go another time."

"Now listen, both of you, and don't ask any questions. There may be an …. event. It could be very dangerous to be in the city. I want you to drive out to the house in the Hamptons and stay there."

"Dad, what's going on? Does it have something to do with what's been happening to you and Detective Beckett?" Alexis asks.

"That's a question," Rick says. "Please, just go." Alexis pulls out her phone. "What are you doing?"

"Calling Ashley."

"No! You can't tell Ashley. You can't tell anyone. They'll tell their loved ones, who will immediately pass it on. That will spark a panic that will make things a thousand times worse."

"Dad, that's not fair."

"You're right. But this isn't about fair. So get out of here, please. I need to know you'll be safe."

"Richard, you come too," Martha pleads.

Pulling his blankets more tightly around him, Rick sinks down on the couch. "I will when I can."