The Guild, Secretive U.S. Intel Operatives

Chapter 17 - Busted

Castle, as Mission Control to the Op, had been monitoring the actions unfold from the Guild catamaran using the boat's state of the art electronic surveillance equipment. After Espo and Ryan had set the blaze on the Warship, they proceeded to the rendezvous point where they were to join up with their female team mates and the 'fake' firefighters. From there they would exit the scene being extracted by Castle on the Guild boat. Castle had moored the boat in a spot just outside the shipyard. Rick prepared for an extraction of the op team to include Kwan's fake CCP team of firefighters. They were to be dropped off at her boat now moored at a distance away from the shipyard in open ocean.

Rick is monitoring the events of the Warship as it burns. A call comes in from Espo, "No joy on our two agents arriving at the rendezvous point."

"Scan for their location", is Castle's comeback.

Both Espo and Ryan grab their cell phones with a secret military app. The cells are beeping indicating the two women are still there at the shipyard, but the beeps are noticeably getting louder, indicating the women were on their way to them. They wait to spot their arrival. But the beeps get louder and still the two women are in not in view. The loudest beeps come just as the Vaughan hybrid yacht passes their location close to the shore as it sails to open waters.

"The two are on Vaughan's boat, intercept with prejudice", Ryan communicates back to Castle.

Rick quickly reacts, retrieving the boats mooring lines and anchor which had held the boat stationary for his monitoring of the ops. That took time off the clock, enough to allow Vaughan's craft to slip by and distance itself from the Guild boat. Rick starts the boat engines and goes in pursuit of the fleeing boat.

"On intercept course now", he radio's, but to continue on an intercept course would leave Espo, Ryan, and the fake CCP firefighters at the Rendezvous point without extraction.

Realizing his actions are stranding the remaining op team Castle contacts Kwan's boat, "The rooster has left the coop with hens in hand, intercept and capture. Last know course of rooster, 135 degrees."

The Kwan boat responds in the affirmative allowing Castle now to back track and extract the remaining op members. Once all members are on board, Castle relays that to the Kwan's boat. He gets a return message.

"Control be advised we have negative radar contact on Rooster. Suggest you join hunt."

With that radio message, Castle brings the boat to the last known heading of Vaughan's boat and then has Ryan launch surveillance drones hoping to get a visual on the escaping craft.

Back On Vaughan's Yacht

The two women come to consciousness but are now become aware they had been stripped of their dining attire and were clothed only in panties and bra. Kate upon coming into awareness realizes they are in the 'playroom' of Vaughan's boat. They are strapped to chairs, hands secured behind their back. In front of them on a table are their evening attire, and the contents of their hand bags, among them the syringes of knock drugs given to them for protection. The tracking necklace Kate had been wearing now also is on the table.

"Good to see both of you coming to", they hear, clearly the voice of Jonathan Carter.

"And what are these items we found on you two?", asks Vaughan pointing to the syringes and Kate's necklace.

"How are we to make of these items? Why would two reporters possess them?", asks Beng.

"We at times have interviewed dangerous people of interest and need to protect ourselves", Johanna Tan offers.

"Really, syringes with knockout drugs? And what of Kate's necklace, we know it is a tracking device and we have disabled it."

"My news organization keeps tabs on me, as it is not unusual to have a journalists captured and held for detention without any trace of their whereabouts."

"So that's your story Kate!? Well too bad your paper still won't know your location."

Little did the Carter/Vaughan duo know that both women had imbedded subcutaneous trackers that were still operational. Their location on Vaughan's yacht now known by the Guild team.

"Who do you work for?", Beng asks of the two women.

"We are journalist working for our respective news organizations", declares Tan née Kwan.

"What are you implying?", asks Kate Beckett.

"That you two are intel operatives", responds Carter.

"You've been seeing too many spy movies. The two of us are just journalists reporting news of interest, we are not spies."

Vaughan comes up to Tan in a dangerous manner. wielding a knife. He fondles Tan's body with it in a lewd manner. He runs it up and down her body making sure it touches her breasts in a carnal and sinister way.

"If you tell us the truth I will promise a kind death, otherwise, you will be tortured in a manner that you will not endure. I suggest you come clean", Vaughan says.

Carter comes up to Kate and feels her up in a similar fashion as Vaughan, but without using a weapon. He used his hands instead, copping a lewd feel of Kate that is unwanted and quite disgusting to her. He threatens her saying, "Keep denying it Kate and give me a reason to interrogate you in a fashion you will abhor."

Kate is feeling violated despite having steeled herself for such an attack. But she will not submit to their perverted aggression. She responds back to Carter with, "Is this your way of demeaning captive females for information. You are a horrible degenerate!"

"Oh my Kate, putting up a fight. That will makes this interrogation all the more enjoyable."

Kate responds by spitting on Carter's face.

"You got a feisty one JJ, just the way you like them", says Eric Vaughan of Kate's defiance.

"Well, let's see how long she can hold out until I break her."

"And you Ms Tan will suffer a similar fate if you continue to hold out like Beckett here", Vaughan says as he plants a vicious kiss to Tan's lips, his hands now all over her. Tan fights him off and even manages to knee him where it hurts most. Vaughan falls back in pain.

Kate witnesses this is with sheer horror and disgust. Both women had mentally prepared for this possible outcome and were showing resistance to the two men's threatening actions toward them. But it was a brave mask, deep down in their psyche, both women were terrified where this was going.

Breathing heavily and showing pain from being kneed, Eric says to Tan, "Foreplay, love how you are making this interesting and more seductive".

With his comment both women realize these men were true monsters, more so than they had known them to be. Their psych profile did not bring out the viciousness and depraved nature of the two. They were predators of an extreme nature, with the money and means, to force women to appease their animalistic proclivities. Death too good a punishment for these men. They abused women in the most hideous manner, then threw them away like trash, once they had used them. Then they moved on to their next victim.

Both men once again approach the two women with evil intent, primal lust evident in their eyes. They behave with the women in a manner resembling a predator about to pouch on their prey. Both Tan and Beckett are ready to fight to the death if necessary. They would go down fighting and never submit to these men's malevolent primal longings. The two would not make it easy for these perverted aggressors.

Just then a jolt is felt by the boat and it is bobbing in an uncontrolled manner on the water. Castle had launched a different kind of drone along with the surveillance drones in pursuit of the two women. This special drone, larger than the surveillance ones, was equipped with two mini-missiles that resembled flares. When launched against a capital warship, it could only render a 'sting' to such a vessel, but for a much smaller private yacht, the effect was damaging. Two mini-missiles struck Vaughan's yacht, one tearing a hole in one of the two pontoons , the other starting a fire on the main deck.

As the ship bobbed violently, both men forgot their interrogation and immediately leave the 'playroom' to see immediately what was happening. As they exit the room, they see the fire on the main deck and immediately aid in putting it out. The boat crew was trying to do damage control and stop both the fire and water now entering the port pontoon. During all this, Kwan's CCP crew using underwater ski jets had made its way to Vaughan's craft.

Kwan's boat had managed to get radar contact with the escaping Vaughan vessel and had immediately taken an intercept course to it. They were able to close the distance between Vaughan's boat and their's and now had gotten into striking distance to the hybrid. So a boarding party with faster underwater jet ski's were deployed and had caught up with the fleeing vessel.

Just as the drone attacked, they had boarded the boat. Seeing Vaughan and Carter leaving the playroom, the CCP boarding party immediately checked out the room and found it guarded by

Beng who they take out. The two women were tied up but quickly released from their bindings. Wet suits are quickly provided them and they don the suits in haste. The boarding party with their rescued agents make it out the room and do a quick dive into the surrounding ocean. As they thread water, two small thermos sized oxygen tanks are retrieved and given the female agents. This gave them enough air to make it back submerged to Kwan's boat.

The two women are transported underwater via small submersible ski jets. Two of the CCP boarding party remain behind allowing them to attach explosives to the other pontoon of the boat. As they make the retreat back to the CCP boat, the explosives are detonated tearing apart the remaining pontoon of the yacht. In minutes the boat sinks taking the crew and passengers to a watery grave.

When Kwan's crew make it back with their recovery package, a message is sent to Castle on the command boat, it stated : "Rescue successful, yacht eliminated."

Back at the shipyard a larger ship is now also totally destroyed.

The mission was a resounding success.

Mission Complete

Once on board the CCP boat, both women were immediately looked at by the watercraft's doctor and cleared of any physical injuries, but the mental wounds cut deep for both women. Each was brought to a special room used to help restore operators back to physical and mental well being. The special room was much like a 'meditation' room where the women could confront the horrors of their mission and heal. Both women, like other agents, were taught how to compartmentalize their reactions to a mission and seek inner strength to heal both body and psyche. For this mission it had become even more significant to do so given the circumstances both agents had endured.

To explain the loss of Carter and Vaughan both women send to their papers a cover story to be released to the reading public. It is a news flash and a scoop for both women. They report with similar articles that an accident at sea had caused the lithium batteries of the hybrid yacht to explode and ignite an onboard fire that sank said boat; sadly taking its occupants to a death at sea. Upon release to the public, a media frenzy happens and captures global attention. Weeks later the excitement vanishes but stories of hostile takeovers of Carter's and Vaughan's enterprises make the news. This is the story the public knows.

What could not be told was how a clandestine organization known only to a select few had stopped a global confrontation and kept the world free from an organization whose goal was global domination of the geopolitical scene. No one would know of the real success and of the untold hero's and heroine's that made it happen. Such was the world that Castle and crew inhabited. Unlike the military their success is unknown and there were no parades or holidays to commemorate them.

Back On The Guild Boat

The next day after the successful op, Kwan returns Kate to the Guild boat that had now caught up with them later that previous night. Good byes are said and Kwan thanks them in the name of the CCP for helping to eradicate an organization that threatened to over throw the current ruling body. Both crews had grown close and would never forget the association despite the fact that in the future they could be on opposite sides. When departing talks are done, the Guild team has a welcome home meal for Kate.

Finishing a celebratory meal, the 'boys' speak to Kate.

"Well done little sis, put another notch on your gun handle", says Espo.

"Ditto to that!", adds Ryan.

"Well, we two will get back to our duties, but boss man wants a private talk with you. So the two of us are back to work."

After the 'boys' leave, Rick then says to her, "All's well that ends well, I have taken you off watch duty, at least for the first week back. This to allow you some time to get into a normal routine."

"I appreciate that Castle."

"Use the time well Kate."

She doesn't get good sleep for the first two days back but soon returns to her normal sleep pattern. Then, on the night of her last watch free day, she wakes up at midnight and can't get back to sleep. So she decides to have a midnight cup despite the fact it could keep her up even longer. As she gets to the galley, Espo is relieving Rick for the night mid watch. Castle sees Kate as he heads back for some rest.

"Kate, what are you doing up so late? I told you to make good use of your time. You return to regular watch duty tomorrow."

"Could not get back to sleep so I decide to have a midnight coffee break realizing it could further hinder my efforts for remaining sleep time."

"Well, let me join you, I think there is some decaf we can brew for a late night cup. Then both of us can head back to our rooms and try to get some rest."

They finish their coffee and then head to their cabins. Rick's cabin is the first in line as they head back. But Kate stops by his door making no attempt to go to hers.

Both understand what is happening.

"Kate, are you sure?"

"Rick, our jobs are dangerous and we may have little time remaining to be together. I do not want to waste any more chances that we may have left to be together. I want us, this is the right time."

Rick takes her in a tight embrace and plants a passionate kiss to Kate's lips. As they end their kiss, Kate's head is spinning and she swoons.

"Best kiss ever", she tells Rick.

"That's because I too don't want to waste any more opportunities left to us", he tells her as he opens the door to his cabin and with a look, invites Kate to enter. Kate does not hesitate, she takes a step in, after seeing that no one else is around to see them. Once in Rick's space, she shuts the door quietly behind her.