Page 124 of Until the End

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I-495 East, Virginia

2:42 p.m. EDT

Castle raced down the freeway, weaving through traffic, following the last GPS signal.

Two of Kit’s trackers had been disabled, the red blinking lights blipped off into oblivion. They must’ve been the ones Sanborn found in her clothes.

The one in her hip was still functional, pinging from a location in Belle Haven near the river.

He was close, so close his fingers ached. If Sanborn had hurt her, killed her, God, he didn’t know what he would do.

Castle shook his head, at a loss. How could the one man in the world he’d admired the most, respected the most, trusted above anyone, be capable of this?

As Castle racked his brain for answers, something he could sink his teeth into, the third light on the GPS tracking device went out.

His heart stumbled and gave a great kick. What the hell? What had happened to the signal? Panic unlike anything he’d ever experienced swamped his system. His lungs felt like sandbags and he couldn’t breathe.

He loved Kit, needed her in every way imaginable with an intensity that rattled him to the bone. If he failed her, didn’t bring her back safely, he wouldn’t be able to live with it.

Sweat trickled down his face and arms. His skin was feverish and his brain a fuzzy nugget from the waning drugs slowly filtering through his system.

As he squeezed the steering wheel, blood leaked from his hastily bandaged hand. He was not giving up and he was not giving in.

Surrender wasn’t in his nature.

Continuing on the interstate toward Belle Haven, he called Willow at the Gray Box. “Has the team gotten back from the raid in Maryland?”

Maybe Gideon could fly over Belle Haven and ascertain something from the sky.

“Gotten back?” Willow asked. “No. They only just found the bioweapon. How do you know about the op?”

“Wait, what do you mean they just found it? Didn’t they locate it a couple of hours ago?”

“We didn’t get the tip about the water plant until half past nine. The team took the chopper at ten.”

“That’s not possible.” Sanborn had been at Castle’s house talking about the op in the past tense shortly after ten. “What tip? Did you find something about the water plant on the Sentry hard drives from Kit?”

“I don’t have any drives marked Sentry. I have one external hard drive with copied files. Sanborn turned the original hard drives over to the CIA and FBI for intel-sharing purposes, but I never saw them.”

More like those drives disappeared for covering his ass purposes.

“Do you know where Sanborn is now?”

“Liaising with the other agencies.”

Castle growled in frustration. “I need your help.” He debated how much to tell her and what to keep to himself so that he didn’t sound nuts. God knew he felt nuts. Completely certifiable. He couldn’t incriminate Sanborn, a man well-respected in the community. A man whose word would carry more weight than Castle’s accusations as long as there was no concrete proof to substantiate it.

“I’m tracking Kit Westcott,” Castle said. “She was kidnapped. But she has a tracker. I was following it toward Belle Haven when I lost the signal. The last location was near the water. Can you check out the area, tell me what’s around? I need something to work off.”

The sound of keys clacking furiously carried over the phone.

Come on, Willow. Give me something. Anything.

“There’s a park, country club, restaurants…hold on. I found some recent imagery. There’s a large facility.” Rapid-fire typing clattered down the line as she worked her magic. “It’s the new supermax prison to replace the Hole, strictly for high-value threats to national security. There’s a commencement ceremony today.”

That had to be it. Why a prison, Castle didn’t have any idea. “Who’s attending?”