720. Chapter 720

After Dressed to Kill

Episode 6.14

By

UCSBdad

Disclaimer: Am I dressed like someone who owns Castle? Rating: K Time: See above

They were having lunch in a little place on the Upper East Side. It was more expensive than the usual places they ate, and the food was better, but they were still unhappy.

"Does everyone in New York give phony addresses when they talk to the cops?" Esposito grumped.

"No, some of them move every three months without paying their rent and don't let the DMV know so angry landlords can't catch them." Ryan explained.

"And there's Ms. Wells." Castle added. "She just crashes with one of her dozens of friends and moves when they start to get tired of providing free room and board."

"But we're cops, so we're going to suck it up and do our jobs, right?" Kate finished.

"I'm not a cop." Rick spoke up. "Do I have to come along?"

Kate smiled sweetly. "Only if you want me around tonight."

The guys laughed, and Rick and Kate joined in. Suddenly Espo stiffened. "Hey, three guys in ski masks just went into the bank across the street."

Kate grabbed her radio. "Dispatch, this is One Lincoln Forty, Detective Kate Beckett, badge 41319, I have a 10-30 at Stuyvesant Bank, corner of 19th and Lex. At least three males in ski masks. My team will keep them under observation."

Dispatch confirmed that they received her call and advised that back up was on the way.

"Castle, this could get dangerous. Why don't you go out the back and wait for us."

"Because it could be dangerous, that's why. I'm staying with you."

Kate decided that Castle wasn't going to leave, so she reached for her ankle holster and gave him her back up Glock 26. "Don't be a hero, okay?"

He smiled. "Same to you."

"While they're inside, we should get out vests out of our units." Espo said.

Kate nodded, then told the waitress that the bank was being robbed and that she should get the customers out back. Then she followed the three men to their cars.

They had just finished putting on their vests while kneeling behind their cars when Kate joined them. She quickly put on her vest. She leaned over and kissed Castle. "For luck."

"No doubt about it, I'm lucky."

As they sat behind their cars, a car pulled up by the bank and double parked.

Espo stuck his head up, looked around and then ducked back down. "That's the getaway car. The driver has a ski mask on, too."

Then they heard the sound of sirens in the distance, coming their way.

The three robbers walked out of their bank and just stood by their car. The driver got out as well, just standing there.

"What's the matter with those dummies?" Espo said. "This place will be full of cops in about…" Espo stopped. The driver had pulled a long barreled gun out of the car just as the other men drew weapons from underneath their raincoats.

"Oh, crap. Those are AK47s, and the driver has an RPK machine gun."

Kate stood up. "NYPD! Put down your weapons and get on the ground! NOW!"

The men looked around for a second before spotting Kate. That gave Castle just enough time to drag her down behind the car when they opened fire. He held on tightly while she tried to get loose.

"Castle, those bullets will go right through your vest, you and then through my vest and straight through me. The Kevlars are designed to stop a pistol round and maybe buckshot. Those rounds they're shooting are a lot faster and heavier than a pistol bullet."

"Thanks for the background. I'll be sure to put it in the next Nikki Heat. But I'm not letting you get killed."

Castle was distracted by Espo and Ryan shooting. That allowed Kate to wriggle free.

"Beckett!" Espo called. "I hit one of them right in the chest with a double tap. I saw him buckle when the rounds hit him, but it didn't slow him down any. They've got some serious body armor on. Try for the arms or legs."

Kate risked looking under the car. She could see the shooters' feet.

"Kate, the sirens have stopped. I think the units responding heard the automatic weapons fire and stopped."

Kate nodded and looked up the street. A uniform stuck his head around the corner, fired two rounds and ducked back. It looked like one round hit home, but it didn't seem to slow down the robber. Soon more and more 9mm rounds were being fired by the police as they arrived, joined by the louder roar of police shotguns. None of the rounds seemed to bother the bank robbers one bit.

Kate got back on the radio to advise dispatch that the robbers were armed with automatic weapons and appeared to have substantial body armor. "We need ESU here right now."

"All Manhattan ESU units are deployed already, One Lincoln Forty. ETA for a Staten Island ESU is a half an hour."

Kate swore. "Espo, keep shooting at them. Castle and I will try to knock their legs out from under them." She turned to Rick. "You ready for this?"

"No, but let's do it anyway."

She kissed him. "For more luck." She whispered.

They lay down so they could shoot under Kate's car and began firing. "I hit him." Castle yelled.

They did hit the robbers' feet and ankles. They could see their pants' legs jump when a round hit. All that did was attract the robbers' attention to them. Bullets tore through the cars, but all were high.

Then they heard several soft plops in the distance. A grey cloud enveloped the gunmen.

"Tear gas!" Kate yelled. "That'll slow them down."

But it didn't slow them down at all.

"Damn! They must have gas masks." Espo coughed as he got a whiff of tear gas.

"Hey, officer."

A skinny, bald headed man stuck his head out from his shop door, several doors down from them.

"Sir, get back in your shop. It's dangerous here." Kate called to him.

"Jimmy's Pawn Shop." He said, pointing to his sign. "I have an old M1 Garand rifle here, ammo and ammo clips. You look like you need more firepower."

"Damn straight." Espo said as he crawled towards the pawn shop, then crawled back with the rifle in his arms.

"You know how to shoot that?" Ryan asked.

"I know how to shoot everything, bro." Espo slid rifle rounds into the clips and then slammed one eight round clip into the rifle. "Everyone shoot at their feet to distract them. I'm going to shoot the machine gunner first. Start shooting."

As soon they started, Espo stood up and put three rounds into the machine gunner's chest. This time he was knocked back against the car, but kept shooting. Then he ran out of ammo and had to drop one empty magazine and insert a fresh one. When he did so, Espo shot at the weapon. He could see the other man desperately working the action.

"I hit his weapon and knocked it out."

But the man tossed down his machine gun, pulled a pistol and started walking towards them, firing as he went.

Espo fired the rest of the rounds in the clip and the man suddenly dropped. They could see blood pumping out of his neck. Soon the blood stopped and he was dead.

"I hit him in the throat. Tell everyone to shoot there." Espo screamed.

Seeing their friend go down, the three remaining gunmen got in the car which drove slowly off on four bullet riddled tires.

Espo stood up and fired round after round into the car as it wobbled away as Kate got on the radio to tell the uniforms to aim for the throat.

In another minute they saw officers get up and run toward the now stopped car. "We got them." Someone yelled.

Kate briefed Captain Gates. "Three died at the scene and one died on the way to the hospital. There are three dead officers and seven wounded, sir."

"Where did they get those weapons?" Gates demanded.

"Detective Esposito says they're Chinese made copies of Russian weapons. He said a lot of those are smuggled into this country illegally. But we're working with the ATF on that, sir."

"And that body armor? What the hell was that? I've never heard of anything that could stand up to that kind of firepower."

"They're prototypes of an Israeli body armor system that covers the whole body. However, if you use a gas mask, you're vulnerable in the lower face and throat. The armor was stolen from JFK about two months ago, probably by one of the robbers who worked there. Embarrassingly enough, the armor was being sent to the NYPD for evaluation."

"I hope this doesn't mean we're going to have to outfit our people like they're in a war zone?"

Kate just shrugged.

"And the four shooters?"

"Four guys in their early twenties with delusions of being bad asses. We raided their apartment and found more weapons and ammo as well as some more conventional body armor. We also found stacks of violent video games and violent porn, sir. We found a notebook with their plans in it. It looks like they were more interested in shooting it out with the police than in the bank robbery itself."

Gates shook her head. "That's insane." She looked up at Kate. "You did an excellent job, Detective. You and your team." Gates took a deep breath. "And Mr. Castle." She mumbled.

Kate suppressed a smile. "I'll keep you up to speed on the rest of the investigation, sir."

"Go home and get some rest, Kate. You deserve it."

She walked out of Gates' office and back to her desk, where her team was waiting. "Okay, we're done for the night."

"How about I take everyone out to dinner?" Castle asked. "Anyplace you want to go. Just name it."

"You know. "Said Ryan, "I've never been shot at in Remy's."

"Me either." Espo added. "Sounds good after the day we had."

Rick looked at Kate who smiled and nodded.

"Okay, and I'm buying the first round of beers."

"And all the other rounds, bro."

"And all the other rounds. Of course."

Author's note: I still feel lousy, but I finished After Veritas last night, so I'm posting this today.