508. Chapter 508

After Linchpin

Episode 4.16

By

UCSBdad

Disclaimer: Multiple choice quiz: 1. UCSBdad does own Castle. 2. UCSBdad does not own Castle. The answer will be in tomorrow's chapter. Rating: K Time: See above.

"This sucks, bro. They told you and not me? I was Special Forces! I had a top secret clearance, and they told you what Beckett and Castle were up to and not me? That totally sucks."

Ryan was beginning to wish he'd kept his mouth closed. "Javi, they didn't tell me anything. I was just jerking your chain. Giving you a hard time."

"Sure you were." Espo said sarcastically. "I know how these things work. Plausible deniability they call it. Except this isn't very plausible. And, of course you have to keep telling me that they didn't tell you anything. They probably threatened you with all kinds of jail time if you ever told anyone anything. But this is me. You can tell me."

Ryan shook his head. "Javi, I can't tell you anything because I don't know anything. I have no idea what Castle and Beckett and that guy were up to."

"The Middle East." Espo said suddenly. "That's what this is all about. Sure, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt and Syria are all falling apart. And a lot of other countries in the area are really nervous. That's it, isn't it?"

"Javi, I have no idea." Ryan knew it wouldn't do any good, but he told the truth anyway.

Espo thought. "It's not the Middle East? Russia? China? Africa, maybe? Damn it, bro. There's stuff that the CIA would be interested in going on all over the world. How am I supposed to figure it out?"

Ryan finally had had enough. "Look, Javi, I'm doing this for your own good. Do you have any idea what they'd do to me, and to you, if I said anything? And do you think they'd stop there? Jenny, Lanie, even Castle and Beckett might be next. And you know what they're like. Phone taps, microscopic bugs, truth serums, maybe even waterboarding. No matter what you do to me, Javi, I'm not going to tell you a thing. Because otherwise you might just disappear and no one would ever know what had happened to you. What kind of a partner would I be if I let that happen to you?"

Javi frowned and thought for a second. "I never thought of it that way. I guess you really can't tell me, can you?"

Ryan nodded. "But it sucks that I can't tell you."

"Damn straight, bro."

Captain Gates scowled at her phone, hoping that the person on the other end would be intimidated by the scowl. "Mike, I tried to talk to the Chief of Detectives and he wouldn't tell me a thing. So, naturally I thought of you. And, and believe me, I'm not doing this out of idle curiosity or injured pride that I was left out of the loop. I'm the precinct captain. If my people are suddenly dragged off on some secret mission, then the work they should be doing for me doesn't get done. And I have no way of making sure that nothing happens to my people while some unnamed Federal Agency uses them. And don't tell me that the Feds don't look at us as a replaceable asset to be used and then thrown away if we get damaged. We both know better."

Gates listened to the other end of the line. She didn't like what she heard and what she now had to say. "All right, technically, only one of my people was coopted on this, Detective Beckett. But Mr. Castle is a member of this precinct thanks to the Mayor. And before you say anything, yes, I have never really liked having Mr. Castle here. However, I would be very remiss if I didn't take note of the fact that both Mr. Castle and Detective Beckett were fished out of the Hudson River, more dead than alive. No matter what my personal feelings about Mr. Castle are, I will not stand idly by and watch a citizen have his life put in danger by an irresponsible federal agency. I will complain and that's exactly what I'm doing now."

Gates listened to the soothing sounds coming out of the phone and knew she would not be getting any answers. "Thank you, Mike. You now know how I feel. That's what I wanted to get across to One PP. Thank you for listening to me." She hung up the phone. She did show remarkable self control in not throwing the phone through the glass door to her office.

"You can't tell me anything about it, Sweetie?" Lanie asked her best friend.

Kate shook her head. "Not a thing. And believe me, I'd like nothing better than to talk to someone about it." I'm lying again. Kate thought. The spy parts, which is what Lanie wants to know about, I couldn't care less about talking about. The part with Castle and me? Now, that's what I need to talk about. Castle's smart. He knows I was jealous of Sophia. I'm his muse. And even if Sophia was the most dedicated and patriotic American ever, I still don't want her smiling at the man I muse for and talking about the old days when she was his muse. I'm his muse. I'm a one writer muse and I refuse to let my writer have any other muses. Kate almost laughed at herself. Good thinking. I'll just tell any would-be Castle muses that he's mine and he's off limits to any other women muses. Of course, I should tell Castle that first, but then I'd have to…stop lying. Subtext. There's a word that Castle uses. The subtext of this whole case has been lies. Sophia told one lie after another and everyone believed her. I told one lie to Castle and I've been telling it to him ever since. I'm tired of lying to Castle and terrified of telling him the truth. What if he's changed his mind? What if he stops loving me? What if…I hate this.

A tall, grey haired man walked into a nondescript building in suburban Virginia. According to the sign in the lobby, the building housed an economic consulting firm and a small biotech firm. The sign was a lie.

Once past the receptionist, the man walked through a remarkably sturdy interior door and walked to an unmarked office in the rear. He walked in, having been watched on closed circuit TV by the man in the office and a very competent security team.

"Dammit! Why wasn't I notified that my son was involved in an Agency operation?"

The man behind the desk smiled. "Nice to see you again, too, Jack. Sit down, make yourself at home. Would you like a cup of coffee? It's the Jamaican Blue Mountain you like so well."

The man sometimes known as Jackson Hunt glared, then sat and accepted a cup of coffee. "What happened?"

"Sophia Turner kept us out of the loop on the involvement of your son and Detective Beckett. We didn't know they were involved until Danberg told us after it was all over. You know how compartmentalized these things are. You know how compartmentalized they have to be."

"So who's behind it?"

The man shrugged. "We have the usual suspects. And they are people we never liked anyway, so we'd be doing our best to put them out of business anyway. But these things take time. You know that, Jack."

"Speaking of time, it's been a while since Beckett's shooting. What do you have?"

"We think we know where the shooters came from, a private corporation. But we don't know if it was a rogue operation or if the whole thing was approved. We'll find out. And remember this is not an official operation. It's completely off the books."

"Like we've never done anything off the books. Hell, half of what you and I do is off the books. And you'll damned well better tell me when you do get something."

"Jack, we'd like to handle this with a little bit of subtlety, please?"

"You have no idea how subtle I can be."

The man behind the desk laughed. "We're keeping an eye on the two of them and if we hear any chatter, we'll subtly let them know they're in danger."

The man who was sometimes known as Jackson Hunt finished his coffee and left.

Lies. Castle thought, sipping a Scotch in his darkened office. Every word that Sophia ever said was nothing but lies. And I just bought ever one of them. Oh, yes the CIA has such cool toys. It's so cool being a spy. God, how stupid am I? At least Beckett had her head on straight. She never trusted Sophia and for her reward, I almost got her killed by my first muse. And then she and Danberg had to rush off to save the world, since I was too shocked to do what I was supposed to do, be with Beckett no matter what. I'm supposed to be taking care of her. Keeping her safe. What a great job I did today. And am I keeping her safe? Will this deal that Montgomery made keep her safe? Is there honor among thieves? Among people who hire high priced hit teams? And what's going to happen if I have to stop her someday investigating her mom's case? I told Martha that she'd listen to me. But I never told Beckett what I was doing because I know she won't listen.

Lies. What do I do about them?

He poured another glass of Scotch.