American TV Writer

While Castle sat in Winston's office at the Continental Hotel, sharing all the hidden secrets of the Brotherhood of Assassins with Winston, Sloan had already sent out one of his killers, known as "The Gunsmith." This assassin had quietly positioned himself outside the 12th Precinct, ready to take out the easiest target on Senator William Bracken's hit list—Beckett, the precinct captain.

To carry out this plan, Sloan even had the assassin codenamed "Fox" take Cross's son, Wesley, outside, knowing full well they were risking a deadly encounter with Cross, who was hell-bent on retrieving his son from the Brotherhood. Sloan was gambling, trying to divert Cross's attention away from his real objective—killing Beckett—by using Wesley as bait.

The reason Sloan was so desperate to help Bracken, even in such a dangerous situation, was that he hoped to secure the senator's patronage. However, Sloan was unaware of the current internal investigations targeting Bracken, and thus, he had no idea that the man he was trying to support was on the verge of collapse. Unaware of Bracken's shaky standing, Sloan still believed he could gain favor by sending his assassins.

Unfortunately for Sloan, he had no idea what kind of person he was provoking. Both he and Bracken believed they could act with impunity because they had previously dealt with people who followed the rules. But what if they encountered someone who, like them, didn't play by the rules and was even more ruthless?

Castle, it turned out, was precisely the type of person who didn't play by the rules and had both the ability and the means to strike back even harder.

Beckett, the precinct captain and Castle's girlfriend, along with his daughter Alexis, were his most cherished people—his Achilles' heel. Sloan, by sending the Gunsmith to ambush Beckett outside the precinct, had no idea what consequences this decision would bring.

After spending an afternoon at the Continental, Castle had reassured Winston about his safety and even promised to support him in gaining more power within the High Table, thanks to Castle's close relationship with the heir to the D'Antonio family, one of the Twelve Leaders of the High Table. In fact, Winston was already feeling elated. With the information Castle had shared about the Brotherhood's internal conflicts and their base location, he could secure significant rewards from the High Table. Castle had given him everything, including the exact location of the Brotherhood's hideout—a piece of intelligence that was incredibly valuable.

In an even better mood, Winston learned from Castle that his favorite former assassin, John Wick, was going to be a father. Winston marveled at John's fortune. If it hadn't been for Winston introducing Castle to John years ago when Castle was researching a novel about assassins, John might never have been able to completely leave the assassin life behind. Recently, during the internal power struggles of the D'Antonio family, Santino had held John's "blood oath marker," but John had managed to get it back without any cost, thanks to his relationship with Santino's sister, Gianna.

As the day grew late, Castle bid farewell to Winston and decided to head directly to the 12th Precinct to pick up Beckett. He had no idea that soon he would be showcasing his elite combat skills right in front of her.

Since Mozzie had taken Castle's Mercedes back to New York with the little guy and their belongings, Castle had to take a taxi to the precinct. The moment he stepped out of the cab, his highly developed instincts—thanks to his "Jason Bourne" skill set gifted by the System—picked up a sense of danger. He immediately realized that he or Beckett was being watched. Remembering the information he had just received from Winston about the Brotherhood accepting Bracken's contract, Castle quickly deduced that Sloan had indeed sent an assassin after Beckett.

Fury welled up in Castle. He had always kept a respectful distance from the Brotherhood's strange, cult-like organization, but now they were stepping over the line. If they thought they could push him around, they were sorely mistaken. He'd make them pay for underestimating him.

Pretending not to notice anything, Castle calmly walked into the precinct and went straight to Beckett's office. As soon as he entered, he wasted no time in explaining the situation.

After listening to Castle's account of Sloan's plot, Beckett remained calm. She had always known that declaring war on Bracken would make him fight back. She just hadn't expected him to resort to the same old tactics of trying to eliminate witnesses. It was truly disgusting.

Beckett was about to call in Esposito and Ryan, but Castle stopped her. "Beckett, I don't think you should involve them. I might not have explained it well enough before, but these assassins aren't like the ones we've dealt with before. They're top-tier professionals.

What makes them truly terrifying is their ability to shoot bullets that curve mid-flight. Bringing Esposito and Ryan into this could result in unnecessary casualties."

Beckett looked at Castle with disbelief. In her experience, no one could shoot a bullet that curved. It sounded like nonsense.

Seeing her skepticism, Castle sighed. "Remember that case at the Metropolitan Tower not too long ago? The one where I insisted you hand the investigation over to the FBI?"

Beckett nodded. "Of course I remember. There were six victims: an Indian woman, four men in work clothes, and a man in a suit carrying two guns, one of which was an old-fashioned smoothbore pistol."

Castle finally revealed the secret behind that case. The man with the old pistol was none other than Mr. X, the number two in the Brotherhood of Assassins. He had been killed by Cross, the top assassin in the Brotherhood, who had betrayed them. Cross had sniped Mr. X from Brooklyn, hitting him on the rooftop of the Metropolitan Tower in Manhattan. That showed just how dangerous these assassins were.

Castle argued that involving Esposito and Ryan in this was reckless and unnecessary. It was better for him and Beckett to handle the situation themselves.

Reluctantly, Beckett agreed, trusting Castle's judgment. While she wasn't entirely convinced about the curving bullet story, she knew Castle wouldn't exaggerate without reason. Together, they decided to face the assassin outside the precinct head-on.

After recalling what he could from his past life about the Brotherhood, Castle realized that they rarely sent more than one assassin for a single target. This meant that the Gunsmith was likely the only one lurking outside. And since Castle figured that Fox was busy mentoring Wesley, she wouldn't be the one attacking today, which was a small relief for Castle, who had a soft spot for women, even assassins.

Even though Castle was confident in his ability to protect Beckett, he decided it was worth showing off some of his abilities to her. He quickly called the little guy, who was back home thanks to Mozzie, and asked him to launch two drones and get them to the 12th Precinct as fast as possible. The drones would help track down the assassin lurking outside.

The little guy, surprised by Castle's urgent call, quickly understood the gravity of the situation when Castle explained that a killer was lying in wait. Immediately, he launched the drones and began hacking into the surveillance cameras around the precinct, hoping to locate the assassin before it was too late.

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