After Becket finished speaking, Bob stood up calmly and said goodbye to Castle, Mozzie, and the others. "I'll head over to the FBI's New York office with Director Becket. Rick, thanks for your help. Once this is over, I'll come back for that beer."
"Oh, and Harry—tell him I appreciate all the fun things he introduced me to."
Hearing this, Becket chuckled. It seemed that in just one night, her usually silent and stoic super sniper had made friends with her boyfriend. "Bob, don't worry. From the looks of things, you're just going to the FBI to give a statement and testify. They won't detain you, and they wouldn't dare. If things go quickly, you might even be back in time for dinner with Castle tonight. The NYPD will still be around to keep you company!"
Bob Lee Swagger wasn't a man of many words, but he wasn't stupid either. He knew that this favorable situation was thanks to Castle and Becket's efforts. Without saying much, he took the lead and walked out.
Esposito and Ryan quickly followed Bob, while Becket pretended not to know what Castle, Neal, and Mozzie were planning. She casually suggested to Castle, "If you're not coming home tonight, you should have Alexis come here for the weekend. It's Friday, after all. I'll be going now. If anything comes up, call me right away."
With that, Becket nodded goodbye to Neal and Mozzie and walked out of the hall.
Once she left, Neal looked at Castle and Mozzie with envy. "I finally understand why Rick is stuck at the 12th Precinct. If I had a sexy and charming girlfriend like that, I wouldn't want to leave either!"
Castle, amused, teased the annoyingly handsome man. "Oh yeah, Mr. Ladies' Man, wasn't it you who jumped into bed with your old flame Alex as soon as your girlfriend Kate went to the West Coast?"
"Right, and what's your excuse for leaving Kate out west? Planning to start something with that insurance investigator?"
Neal was well aware of Castle's uncanny intelligence network and knew exactly who he was talking about. "You must be joking. Why would I be interested in an insurance investigator who's been chasing me for years just to find out where those stolen paintings ended up?"
Castle silently thought to himself, If I hadn't stepped in and found Kate when she went missing, you would've hooked up with that insurance investigator while solving Adler's case after Fuller blew up that private jet. She would have even helped you uncover Adler's secrets before leaving when she found out about the treasure swap.
The person Castle was referring to was Sarah, the elite insurance investigator who had been tailing Neal for years because her company insured several paintings suspected to have been stolen by him. Now that Neal's deal with the FBI was over, Sarah was back on his trail.
So, when Castle brought up the topic, Neal acted like he had been scalded with hot water, abandoning his usual calm demeanor.
Mozzie, who was standing nearby, smirked mischievously. "Sarah's not bad-looking…"
"Heh heh heh…" Castle and Mozzie both cackled mischievously, like seasoned troublemakers.
Neal rolled his eyes dramatically. "Rick, did you forget? You haven't sent that email we drafted last night to Vice President Andrew. What are you waiting for?"
"Oh damn, I forgot! Quick, quick! Let's send the intel we gathered to our dear Vice President! I can't wait to see if he freaks out when he reads it."
Prompted by Neal, Castle hurried to the corner of the hall, grabbed Mozzie's laptop, and began the process of sending the email. After confirming several layers of protection to prevent tracking, he sent the email to Andrew's chief of staff.
In less than a minute, the email appeared in the inbox of the chief of staff, who was in the middle of a tense discussion with Andrew about how to handle the current crisis. Noticing the new email with an attention-grabbing subject line, the chief of staff immediately opened it, only to have his face turn pale after just a few lines. He quickly called Andrew over, saying, "Mr. Vice President, you need to take a look at this email that just came from an anonymous account."
Andrew leaned over and began reading the email carefully. It was a detailed account, written by Castle with input from Neal and Mozzie, summarizing the events of the previous day. The email clearly outlined the plot orchestrated by Montana Senator Charles Haan and carried out by former CIA Africa Division head, Colonel Johnson. It also explained why Charles was targeting Vice President Andrew, providing a clear origin for their animosity.
At the end of the email, Castle, with the approval of Frank, also disclosed that Charles had impersonated Andrew's people in an attempt to frame the Vice President for an assassination attempt on Frank Moses, a former CIA agent feared even by the agency itself. The email concluded with a warning that these retired operatives had now banded together and were planning to retaliate against Andrew.
Reading this, Andrew's face turned green. Only now did he realize that his assassination attempt in Times Square yesterday was merely the beginning of a larger plot. The real goal of Senator Charles Haan was to use this incident to draw media attention and then expose the truth about Andrew's involvement in massacres in Africa and South America during his military service. This would not only destroy his reputation but also force him out of office.
Andrew, who had suspected as much, now understood that he was facing a disaster. Panicked, he momentarily forgot to investigate the source of the email. It was his chief of staff who remained level-headed. "Sir, we had already speculated about this, and this email just confirms it. What we need to do now is deny everything from those years and find anyone who knows the truth. We need to silence them, and quickly. Also, based on what this email says, those retired operatives think you sent assassins to kill them. We must deal with this immediately. These old agents are serious threats, and we need to upgrade your security right away!"
Andrew wasn't dumb—he had earned his position as Vice President. But in his younger years, he had been too reckless, leaving behind too many dark secrets. In recent years, he had been trying to eliminate anyone who knew about his past. But there were just too many people involved. In the African massacre alone, there were at least 50 witnesses, and while the South American incident involved fewer people, there were still 11 who knew the truth. How was he supposed to find and silence all these people scattered across the world?
The chief of staff knew that silencing all witnesses wasn't the best idea, but there was no time to be picky. The most important thing now was that Senator Charles Haan, for some unknown reason, hadn't yet exposed Andrew's misdeeds. That gave them a slim window to act. If Charles revealed everything to the media, Andrew's career would be over.
Meanwhile, what was Senator Charles Haan doing? Why was he sitting on evidence that could bring down the Vice President?
Charles was busy dealing with the furious CIA director. After learning about the events in New York and discovering that five active CIA agents were involved—agents who were close to Colonel Johnson—the director had tracked down the mastermind behind the plot. The CIA's intelligence-gathering capabilities were still formidable when they needed to be, and unable to find Johnson, who had gone to New York to try to clean up the mess, the director had cornered the short, stocky Charles Haan in his office!
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