Thinking about Ben Gates, that poor fool, Castle suddenly remembered the plot of National Treasure 2 from his past life. According to that storyline, Gates was supposed to go to Buckingham Palace in London to retrieve a wooden carving hidden in a secret compartment of the Resolute Desk inside the Queen's office. Only then would he return to the U.S. and sneak into the Oval Office to find another matching carving. And when he couldn't locate the one hidden inside the desk there, he was supposed to "kidnap" the President to obtain the location of the legendary Book of Secrets, which was stored in the Library of Congress.
Wait a minute—wouldn't this mean that Benjamin, the current President, was about to be "kidnapped" by Ben Gates?
Damn. With how much the original plot had already changed due to his own involvement, plus the fact that Benjamin now had Michael Banning and Moz by his side—both vastly more competent than the useless bodyguards in the original film—would Ben Gates even be able to pull off his stunt and get the President to reveal the book's location?
And if Gates couldn't follow the original sequence of events, would he still be able to discover the lost City of Gold hidden beneath Mount Rushmore as he did in the movie?
Now that was interesting.
Castle figured that once he finished dealing with this whole treasure-hunting trip in India, he should check in on that adventurer—who, thanks to his recent stunt of "helping the Freemasons recover their lost treasure," had skyrocketed to fame and was now playing the role of a big shot at some university.
After all, his own perspective on things had completely shifted. And considering how he had looted a significant portion of the treasure hidden beneath Trinity Church's basement last time, the Freemasons' supposed "grand discovery" had ended up making far less impact than it should have.
Would Gates, when he finally met that antagonist who looked eerily similar to Ed Harris—the actor who played the tragic Brigadier General Frank Hummel in Castle's favorite film, The Rock—still be able to uncover the lost City of Gold?
That, however, was a problem for another day.
For now, he needed to finish packing, get Beckett (who had already secured her leave), and join John and his family for their flight to Sri Lanka.
---
Three days later
By now, everyone who stood to make a fortune from Castle's plan had completed all necessary preparations.
- The U.S. Navy had already deployed its fleet from Malé, heading north toward the waters near Kochi, Kerala. They would be in position to provide close-range protection when Castle snuck into India.
- The three major aircraft manufacturers had dispatched personnel and equipment—including demolition tools and weapons—to facilitate the excavation and transport of the treasure.
Everything was ready.
Time to move.
On a rare sunny January morning in New York, Castle and John's families—six people in total—headed to MacArthur Airport with Big Ivan and ten Russian bodyguards. There, they rendezvoused with a team of 50-60 personnel sent by Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, and Boeing.
All of them boarded the Boeing 747-400, a jet identical to the one used as Air Force One, personally arranged by Boeing's CEO.
Their destination?
Sri Lanka.
And just like that, the treasure-hunting operation was officially underway.
---
Meanwhile, at the United Nations in New York
At the exact same moment, Moz, who had recently been promoted to Assistant Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, was standing at the UN Security Council's podium, presenting a mountain of evidence—including video recordings and documents—to the UN General Assembly President and all permanent UN representatives.
His accusation?
Turkey had dispatched intelligence agents to plan and execute a kidnapping attempt on Richard Castle, a renowned American novelist and genius weapons designer.
While the FBI and other U.S. law enforcement agencies had successfully thwarted the kidnapping—preventing any serious consequences—that did not mean the act itself wasn't a grave offense.
The only reason there were no casualties was because the U.S. had successfully protected its "valuable scientist".
But this blatant violation of international law—an attempted kidnapping of a foreign scientist—was a line that no nation should ever cross.
---
What was truly hilarious was that, since the United Nations Headquarters was located in New York, many of the UN representatives present were huge fans of Castle's books.
As soon as the U.S. urgently called for this meeting, everyone was curious about what had happened.
But the moment they saw Moz standing at the podium, backed by overwhelming evidence, and realized the whole situation involved Turkey's intelligence agency attempting to kidnap a best-selling novelist, the entire assembly erupted into chaos.
Sitting nervously in the crowd were the Indian and Japanese UN representatives, sweating profusely.
They knew their countries had also participated in the same operation—and that their intelligence agents had also been captured.
Would the U.S. expose them too?
But to their shock, Moz never mentioned India or Japan once.
Instead, he pinned the entire operation solely on Turkey.
This left the Turkish representative furious—while the Indian and Japanese representatives sat there, utterly baffled.
---
Of course, this was all part of the U.S. government's strategy.
1. The real goal was to use this incident as a justification for military intervention in Turkey. If they could frame Turkey as the sole culprit, they could secure international legal backing for their next moves.
2. Unlike Turkey, India and Japan were still useful strategic allies. It wasn't worth burning bridges with them—especially with a conflict with Turkey looming.
3. By isolating Turkey while keeping India and Japan in the dark, the U.S. could drive a wedge between them—exploiting their short-sightedness and selfishness to ensure they wouldn't side with Turkey in the future.
The U.S. knew exactly how greedy and short-sighted both Japan and India were.
So Moz's decision not to expose them served a double purpose:
- It made India and Japan too scared to interfere.
- It ensured that Turkey would resent them for not stepping in to defend their so-called "alliance."
---
Sure enough, as Moz continued his fiery accusations, the Turkish representative—his face twisted with rage—kept trying to defend his country.
But the Indians and Japanese?
They stayed completely silent.
Even as the Turkish representative began glaring at them, silently demanding their support, they did nothing.
And seeing this, Moz couldn't help but smirk.
His divide-and-conquer tactic was already working.
By isolating Turkey, he was eliminating potential obstacles for the inevitable U.S. intervention.
Now, no other country would dare openly support Turkey, because no one wanted to be associated with a nation caught red-handed in such a disgraceful act.
And with the U.S. taking the moral high ground as the "victim", they were in the perfect position to escalate matters even further.
---
As the UN delegates reviewed the overwhelming evidence presented by Moz, Turkey found itself completely isolated.
Even those who might have opposed the U.S. found it impossible to defend Turkey's actions.
Why?
Because every nation feared the same thing happening to them.
If kidnapping foreign scientists became an acceptable tactic, then who would be next?
So while many leaders disliked the U.S., they couldn't justify siding with Turkey.
Meanwhile, some UN representatives—especially those who were fans of Castle's books—were left wondering:
Why was a best-selling novelist being treated as a top-tier scientific asset?
But the moment they glanced at the reports detailing Castle's connections to top U.S. defense contractors, they immediately understood his value.
Turkey had tried to play dirty—but they got caught.
And in the world of international politics, getting caught was the real crime.
______
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