877. Chapter 877

After A Murder Is Forever

Episode 6.08

By

UCSBdad

Disclaimer: I've not owned Castle since forever. Rating: K Time: See above.

Author's Note: This is a sequel to Chapter 818.

Freetown, Sierra Leone, 1997.

"Are you out of your mind?'

She smiled at him. "No more than usual."

He shook his head in disbelief. "I won't let you do this."

It was her turn to shake her head in disbelief. "Castle, how do you think you're going to stop me?"

He opened his mouth and then realized he had no good answer to that. "Okay, I'll go with you."

"You will not! You're my competition, remember? I work for the New York Ledger. You work for the New York Sun. My bosses want my pictures of the war here before anyone else's. They don't want to be scooped by their main competitor. And that's you, remember?"

Castle held his tongue and counted to ten. "Okay, I'll leave my camera behind. You can get all the photos. I'll tell my editor it got damaged or something. But I'm going with you. The government doesn't control much outside of Freetown. And the rebels, the RUF, are a bunch of sadistic killers. I'm not going to lose you, Kate."

Kate Beckett put her arms around Rick. "That's sweet. But if your editor found out you went off to the blood diamond fields and didn't take any pictures, they'd fire you. And I don't make enough money to support us both." She spoke quickly before he could say anything else. "Besides, the people from Executive Outcomes said they'll take me on the raid into diamond country. Me, not me and my boyfriend."

"Executive Outcomes? They're nothing but a bunch of South African mercenaries!" Castle said, raising his voice.

"They are not! Some of them are English." Kate shot back.

Castle raised his eyes to the heavens. "Oh, so that makes it all right?" He pulled her into a hug. "Kate, I love you. Please don't do this. It isn't safe."

Kate kissed him. "Castle, I love you, too. But I'm a photojournalist, just like you are. I'm not going back to the US and take pictures of the Mayor of New York opening a new library, or something. So, I'm going to be doing something dangerous no matter what." She pushed her boobs into his chest. "So what do you say we go to our room and fool around a little bit?"

When Kate got up the next morning, Rick was gone from their hotel room. She hoped he wasn't going to do something stupid, but then she remembered who he was. She sighed. "He's Rick Castle. Of course he'll do something stupid." She checked herself in the mirror when she was ready to go. She wore tan cargo pants, an olive drab tee shirt and a photographer's vest filled with all the paraphernalia she'd need that day, including a 9mm Glock.

Arriving at Lungi International Airport, Kate quickly spotted the South African mercenaries she'd be flying with. She stopped and began taking photos. They'd be flying in three Russian built MI-8 helicopters with an escort of a MI 24 gunship. The soldiers were gathered around their helicopters. They were heavily armed, again with mostly Russian made weapons, such as AK 47s and dressed uniformly in camouflaged fatigues. About three quarters of the eighty or so men were Black South Africans, veterans of that country's Apartheid era military and the rest were white. Once she'd taken her photos, Kate headed for her contact, Captain Reid.

"Captain Reid?" She asked. "I'm Kate Becket, New York Ledger. Glad to meet you. I'm flying with you today."

Reid glared at her. "The bloody people in London stuck you with me to get some so-called good publicity. But at least I have someone to look after you so you don't get in the way."

"Who do you…? Kate began.

"Coffee, Ms. Beckett? Grande skim latte with two pumps of sugar free vanilla?" Said a very familiar voice.

She whirled around. "Castle! What are you doing here?" Then she took a look at what he was wearing. He was dressed in the same camouflaged fatigues that the soldiers had and had an AK 47 slung over his shoulder. "What are you doing?" She demanded.

"Getting you your morning coffee." He raised an eyebrow. "Don't I always do that?"

"Mr. Castle has agreed to come along and take care of you on our mission." Reid said.

"Mr. Castle is not a soldier, he's a journalist like me." Kate said angrily.

Reid shrugged. "Well, we found out he knows his way around an assault rifle and he's been under fire here and there, so today he works for me. Looking after you. If you go, he goes. Understand?"

She turned back to Castle. "We'll talk about this later."

Reid walked off to talk to his officers and speak on his radio. Then he waved his hand over his head. "Mount up. It's a go."

Castle pulled Kate into the back of a helicopter and sat down next to her. Over the roar of the engines, Castle told her what he'd learned. "Scouts from a local pro-government militia found a convoy of rebels from the RUF about seventy miles east of Freetown. The scouts say that the convoy has fourteen trucks loaded with smuggled weapons and ammo headed for an alluvial diamond mining area another fifty miles farther out. The convoy is stalled at a damaged bridge. We're going to shoot up the convoy with the gunship and then we land and the soldiers will destroy the weapons."

"Just stay out of my way when we land, Castle. I do not need a babysitter, do you understand?" She said coldly.

He leaned in and said in her ear, "I love you Kate."

She turned and smiled at him. "I love you, too. But I'm still mad at you."

The troop carrying helicopters went into a holding pattern a few miles from the stalled rebel convoy while the gunship attacked. Kate could hear the pop-pop-pop of the machine guns and the roar of rockets, but could see nothing. She tried to move to a window, but it was blocked by a soldier.

"Dammit. I can't see anything!"

Castle noticed the change in direction of the helicopter. "Sit back down. We're going in."

All around her, the soldiers were checking weapons and gear, and when the rear ramp was lowered, she could see that they were just above the treetops. Then they flared in for a landing and everyone began yelling, "Go! Go! Go!" Everyone poured out of the chopper.

Once outside, the scene was anti-climactic. There were burned and shot up vehicles on the road, and a few bodies, but most of the rebels seemed to have fled. Still, Kate began shooting as the soldiers set up a defensive perimeter and others began checking the few undamaged vehicles.

She went over to Reid who was talking to a local dressed in civilian clothes, but carrying an assault rifle.

"Who's Reid talking to?" She asked an African soldier.

"A local scout. He says there's a big force of rebels headed this way, maybe an hour away. The gunship had to go back to rearm. We'll blow up what's left of the weapons after we grab whatever weapons and ammo we can and be going." He smiled at her. "Good mission. Two wounded, not badly, and we won't have to worry about this convoy."

"Why are you fighting here?" Kate asked. "This isn't your country."

The soldier shrugged and patted his AK 47. "This is all I know. And they pay well. I have a family."

Before Kate could ask another question, there was some shouting around a shot up pickup truck and she saw Reid and several others sprinting towards the vehicle. She and Castle ran after them. They found Reid and some of his men examining some grey stones that had been in a leather pouch. "What are those?" Kate asked.

Reid laughed. "When your boyfriend is ready, he'll have one of these cut and polished and set in a ring for you. These are uncut diamonds, Miss Beckett."

One of the South Africans grabbed a small stone and threw it to Rick. "There you go. Now you have the start." The others laughed.

Castle looked at the stone. "I can't believe that people are dying for these things." He tried to hand it back to Reid.

"Keep it, Mr. Castle. People in South America fight over drugs. It's over oil in the Mideast, in deserts it's over water. A lot of places they fight over food." Reid shook his head. "There's nothing wrong with the diamonds, it's what's wrong with people." There was a brief pause, then Reid began giving orders. "Section leaders. Check out the trucks and set explosives to blow up anything the gunship missed. Go through the undamaged trucks and see if there's anything we can use. I want to be wheels up in a half an hour. Move it!"

That night, back in their hotel, Kate snuggled up against Rick. "Thanks for coming with me today. I didn't need any protection as it turned out, but what you did was sweet. And I'm turning over half my photos to you so you can send them to the Sun."

He kissed her softly." You don't have to do that."

She shrugged. "And you didn't have to do what you did." She waited for a moment. "So, what are you going to do with the uncut diamond?"

"Have it cut and made into a ring and give it so someone."

"Who are you going to give it to? Anyone I know?"

"You know who I'm going to give it to."

She kissed him again. "Yes, I do."