In Castle's previous life as a writer, scenarios like this only played out in movies. In reality, no matter how audacious the warlord might be, he wouldn't actually fly an armed helicopter over Manhattan. If he did, the USA would teach him a harsh lesson. Andrews Air Force Base wasn't far from New York, and with the F-22's supersonic capabilities, any warlord bold enough to try such a stunt would end up as nothing more than a spectacular explosion in the sky.
But that wasn't Castle's concern right now. He picked up his phone and dialed Beckett, who was just about to leave for the day. "Beckett, bad news: a highly dangerous soldier, along with a foreign warlord, is about to have a showdown with a Los Angeles biker gang and a black ops CIA team in Central Park. Rally your officers and get the E.S.U. on board. We need to either capture or eliminate these maniacs who dared to bring their mess into New York City."
Beckett was taken aback by Castle's call. "Castle, how do you know about this?"
Castle replied urgently, fearing Dominic and his gang would soon clash with Shaw. "Didn't I tell you about Ramsey's software that can monitor events worldwide? We just saw it on our estate's supercomputer.
"There are four groups in total. The first is Dekard Shaw, a former elite soldier with the British SAS who turned into a hitman. He's here seeking revenge against this gang for hurting his brother.
"The gang is from Los Angeles, led by a bald guy named Dominic Toretto, a Latino. They have six members, four men and two women. Shaw is targeting them because they helped a Diplomatic Security Service agent named Hobbs capture Shaw's brother, Owen Shaw.
"The other two groups are led by an old CIA spook, and then there's this foreign warlord. None of them care about the safety of New Yorkers, so you need to secure Central Park immediately. Harry has already launched our drones to give you real-time intel on what's happening."
Beckett knew from Castle's serious tone that the situation was critical. Castle's credibility was solid, and she trusted his intel without hesitation. Furious at these groups' recklessness, Beckett felt a wave of determination. "Do they think they can just waltz into my precinct and start a war? They're in for a rude awakening."
Thanks to Castle's donations, the Twelfth Precinct had become the best-equipped in New York. Unlike officers in other precincts who were armed with outdated Remington shotguns, her officers carried the latest FN-SCAR rifles and wore state-of-the-art bulletproof vests. Now, with drones providing aerial reconnaissance, Beckett had everything she needed to ensure this mess would be cleaned up.
As she ordered Esposito and the others to prepare, Beckett mentally condemned the nerve of these intruders. Elite SAS soldiers or CIA black ops didn't intimidate her. If they thought they could wreak havoc in Central Park, the heart of her jurisdiction, they were sorely mistaken. As for the warlord and his thugs? Beckett was more than ready to handle them.
Meanwhile, the entire Twelfth Precinct buzzed with Beckett's loud orders. When her officers learned that a battle was expected in Central Park, they were enraged. Following Beckett's lead, they saw everyone involved as potential terrorists. CIA or not, anyone looking to disrupt their precinct wasn't going to leave unscathed.
Thanks to Castle's earlier donations and his skill at making allies, Beckett's standing in the Twelfth Precinct was at an all-time high. Her officers eagerly armed themselves and rolled out in a convoy of police cars toward Central Park.
In her patrol car, Beckett was on the phone with her superior, Deputy Commissioner Roy Montgomery, updating him on the situation. Montgomery, the former captain of the Twelfth Precinct, didn't hesitate to approve Beckett's request to deploy the E.S.U., New York's SWAT team. He knew that even with top-of-the-line gear, the Twelfth Precinct would need additional support to handle a former SAS soldier and a CIA-backed biker gang.
As Montgomery saw it, the NYPD had no obligation to defer to the CIA, especially since the agency was technically not permitted to operate domestically. The idea that they were in New York, engaged with a warlord's soldiers without informing local authorities, was insulting. If the CIA didn't respect the NYPD, why should the NYPD hold back?
Castle had already made it clear that the CIA operative working with the biker gang was a "ghost," a hidden black ops team leader. Given this, Beckett decided she'd treat everyone in Central Park as a suspect. If anyone resisted, her team was authorized to use lethal force.
By now, the two drones Harry launched were hovering over Central Park. One was positioned three hundred meters up, while the other hovered higher, providing dual surveillance feeds. These live feeds were transmitted from Castle's estate to the tablet in Beckett's patrol car as they sped toward Central Park.
Dominic and his crew had just arrived in Central Park. Just as Shaw anticipated, they were lightly armed, given the downtown location. They had basic handguns and submachine guns, far from the heavy-duty micro-missiles they used in Azerbaijan. Even the CIA wouldn't risk using such weaponry in the heart of New York, knowing it could reveal their involvement if there were any casualties.
However, Castle had made one critical oversight. In his rush to alert Beckett, his call had triggered an alert for the CIA operative monitoring the NYPD's communications. This tipped off the agency, causing the operative's suspicions about Castle and Harry to grow even stronger.
The veteran CIA operative was intrigued rather than alarmed. He didn't inform Dominic's team that the NYPD was mobilizing for an all-out assault in Central Park. Instead, he began pulling up everything he could find on Castle, finding it odd that Harry, who had only recently left his office, somehow helped Castle pinpoint Dekard Shaw's location almost immediately. This raised the operative's suspicion that Castle's supercomputer might contain technology similar to Heydrich's software, potentially capable of monitoring all of New York.
It wasn't far-fetched for the CIA operative to reach this conclusion. The fact that Castle had launched his drones right after detecting Shaw was an oversight on Castle's part, a slip that the CIA agent immediately picked up on.
This misstep shifted the operative's focus squarely onto Castle and Harry. The CIA's primary goal had always been to retrieve Heydrich's software. Now that Heydrich's prototype was reportedly unusable, Castle and Harry's supercomputer and its capabilities became the operative's new target.
As for Dominic and his crew? They were now expendable. The operative cared little whether they clashed with Shaw or got caught by the NYPD. His only objective now was Castle and Harry's technology.
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Solomon in Marvel (Chapter 924)
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American Detective: From TV Rookie to Seasoned Cop (Chapter 1316)
American TV Writer (Chapter 1402)
I Am Hades, The Supreme GOD of the Underworld! (Chapter 570)
Reborn as Humanity's Emperor Across the Multiverse (Chapter 660)
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