740. Chapter 740

After Kill Switch

Episode 7.08

By

UCSBdad

Disclaimer: I demand to be flown to a place where I own Castle. Rating: K Time: See above.

"Has the dog found anything?"

"Not yet, Captain Beckett, but even I can smell it." The officer inhaled. "The sickly sweet smell of a decomposing corpse. It's around here someplace."

"Captain?" Called the K9 officer. "Linda has alerted. I think we're close to the corpse. The smell is greater over here."

"How could someone die in a subway repair yard?" Rick Castle asked.

"The same as people die everywhere else." Kate replied. "The permutations and combinations of death are infinite." Kate sighed. "Sometimes I think I've been at this too long."

"Captain, I think I found it." The K9 officer called. Both Rick and Kate hurried to where he was standing.

"The subway people just tossed some boards over this pit. It looks like they used drive subway cars over the pit and then worked on the undersides." He shined his flashlight down into the pit. "I can see what looks like a shoe and a pant leg. And Linda's really alerting." Indeed the dog was growling deep in her throat.

Castle took a step forward, and a broken board began to give way under him. As he leaned one way, Kate grabbed him and pulled the other way, causing both of them to crash through the boards and fall into the pit.

The fall was only some six feet and Kate landed on her feet. "Castle if I tore my coat, you're going….hey, are you okay?" She asked quickly.

"I think we're in trouble. I'm kind of all tangled up in this guy."

Kate grinned. "You'll take a very long shower all by yourself tonight, then. Maybe two showers."

"That's not the problem. This guy's wearing a suicide vest."

"He's wearing what?" Kate pulled out her flashlight and confirmed what Rick had said. He had landed on a corpse and the corpse was wearing a suicide vest.

"The good news is that there's a timer on this thing, or I think it's a timer, since it's in Arabic. But it's stopped. All I have to do is….Oh, shit."

"Castle? What happened?"

"I tried to move and I did something. There's a red light and it's flashing. I think those are Arabic numbers and….No, they're words. Not numbers."

"We heard you, Mr. Castle." The K9 officer called down. "I've called the bomb squad. They're be here in no time."

"You should climb out of here, Kate."

"Like you left me when I was standing on that bomb?"

"No, more like when I defused that dirty bomb and you went off with Josh. You should go somewhere safe."

"Okay, if you bring up the dirty bomb, just as I was too slow to tell you that I wanted to go to the Hamptons with you, I was too slow to tell you that I really wanted to be with you and not Josh. So, this time I'm not being too slow. I'm telling you that you're my husband, the man that I love and I'm not going anywhere. Just forget about getting rid of me, okay."

"I love you, Kate."

"I love you, too, babe."

"Beckett! Castle! Are you really trapped with a bomb?"

"Yes, Javi. You and Ryan should get out of here. The bomb squad will he here soon and they'll need to work."

"Hey." Castle called. "I see the guy's wallet. It's in his coat pocket. Let me get it out."

"Castle, don't you do anything."

Castle smiled at Kate. "I got it out." He handed it to her. "Give it to Ryan and Esposito. See if they can figure who this guy is and what he was up to."

"We're on it."

The bomb squad arrived several minutes after the two detectives left. They lowered a small video camera down to examine the bomb more closely.

"Captain Beckett? Mr. Castle?" Gollwitz, the bomb tech, called down to them. "Those aren't numbers displayed on the screen. Not Arabic numbers, anyway, but we don't know what they are or what their purpose is. And the guts of the bomb seems to be on the back of the device. We can't see much from the front."

"Do you want me to reach in behind the bomb and try to…" Castle began.

"NO!" Gollwitz yelled. "Don't do anything, Mr. Castle. Just try to remain calm and don't move."

"Sure, remain calm." Castle said sarcastically. "What's to get excited about? Just some plastic explosive." Castle looked up at Kate. "I'd really be a lot less upset if you'd go somewhere safe, Kate."

She shook her head. "I've spent years trying to get myself to where I am right now. I'm not going to move. Ever."

"Beckett?" Ryan called. "We have something. The guy is Hassan Obied, a Lebanese Shiite. He ended up on the wrong side of things back in the old country and came to the US as a refugee about twenty years ago. He was in his sixties then, and like a lot of old immigrants, he didn't fit in. Had trouble with the language, couldn't find food like in Lebanon, had no job, felt disrespected. A year or so ago he started hanging around some radical Islamists. We think he figured he had nothing to live for anyway, so why not do something to make himself important."

"And he had a bad heart. Really bad." Esposito added. "That probably killed him before he could do anything."

"One thing. He lived by the subway. He hated it because of the noise. Javi and I think he wanted to blow up a bunch of subway workers as revenge."

"Mr. Castle?" Gollwitz called. "I got an Arabic translator on line. He says that what the device is showing are verses from the Koran. And he says that the same verses keep repeating over and over."

"I'll bet that it's not part of the arming system." Castle said. "He just wanted to read something in his last minutes, but died before he could set the trigger mechanism."

"That may be, Mr. Castle but…."

"Castle!" Beckett screamed.

"I'm standing up. Nothing happened."

"Get out of here!"

"You first, Beckett." Castle grabbed her around the waist and lifted her up. Ryan and Esposito got her under the arms and pulled her away from the pit. Castle followed quickly.

"Don't ever do that again." Beckett whispered in his ear.

"Maybe next time you'll listen when I tell you to move to somewhere safe." Castle sniffed himself. "I stink. I need a long, hot shower."

"I'll be happy to help you with that."

"I thought you said I could handle that by myself."

"I think I'll handle you all by myself. Especially the handling part."