Reborn as Richard Castle in Criminal Minds

Castle was now at the chubby guy's house. Coincidentally, the house wasn't far from Simon's planned escape route and the rendezvous point with his men. Castle planned to go there partly to support the overly reckless Officer John McClane and hopefully help him hold off Simon's gang. He also wanted to be in a position to save John and Zeus from a distance if they were in danger. Indeed, Castle intended to support John, but this cunning guy had already decided not to engage directly. Instead, he planned to use his marksmanship to support John from afar. As mentioned before, Castle had no intention of leaving his trace in today's events.

Vincent Adler had both money and manpower. What if he found out about Castle's involvement in these events and became suspicious? As for the gold bars promised to the chubby guy, Castle thought Simon had mobilized fourteen garbage trucks in total. Couldn't he just take a few bars from any of the other trucks? Moreover, Castle had a massive personal space. If given the chance to get close to those fourteen trucks loaded with gold, he could easily make all the gold that Simon and his men painstakingly transported from the Federal Reserve vault disappear without a trace. Believe it or not, one hundred tons of gold bars don't take up much space. His thousand cubic meters of personal space could effortlessly make Simon and his men's spoils vanish.

If Castle wasn't already wealthy and wasn't saving this sneaky disappearance trick for Vincent, he might really do it to give Simon a taste of what a paranormal event feels like.

Of course, he wouldn't do that now! At most, he would find an opportunity to help the chubby guy get a few gold bars as souvenirs. Still, he had to visit the spot where Simon was parked to prevent Officer John McClane from recklessly dragging the not-yet-bald and thus not-yet-strong Zeus into a suicide mission.

With two drones tracking Simon and his men from over two thousand meters in the air, Castle didn't even need to ask John and Zeus for their exact location. He quietly drove his Mercedes to an abandoned building near a dam construction site on the East River in New York City, not far from where Simon and his men were temporarily hiding.

Castle pulled a semi-automatic sniper rifle from his personal space and watched with satisfaction as Simon got out of his truck about six hundred meters away, talking to his men. Meanwhile, sneaky Officer John McClane was about three hundred meters away, quietly approaching Simon's parking area with Zeus, who had innate stealth skills but was useless in broad daylight.

Castle could tell from John's actions that his decision to come to the scene was wise. Our hero John clearly had no intention of waiting for police backup. He was ready to play the lone hero again, but this time, he wasn't alone. He had Zeus with him.

Zeus was genuinely cursing his luck. How had he fallen for Castle's sweet talk that morning and ended up following this crazy cop? Now, because he helped rescue the white cop earlier, his hardware store might have already been trashed by angry black folks. And now, this lunatic was dragging him into a suicide mission against Simon's well-armed and numerous gang. This was sheer madness!

Despite his efforts to dissuade John, the cop wouldn't listen. He kept insisting they couldn't let Simon and his men get away with the gold, preparing to charge and fight. This wasn't something a normal person would do!

In the abandoned building, Castle watched through the sniper scope as Zeus, looking reluctant and muttering to himself, was dragged by John towards Simon's hideout. Castle quickly had the chubby guy deploy a drone equipped with a laser eavesdropping device aimed at these two clowns. Soon, he heard Zeus complaining about John leading them to their deaths through his earpiece.

Zeus and John were now less than two hundred meters from Simon's gang, so Zeus's complaints were whispered. Yet, the chubby guy and Castle, stationed far away, were almost rolling with laughter at their antics.

John was desperately trying to convince Zeus to help, promising he only needed Zeus to create a distraction near Simon's gang to attract their attention. He had no intention of dragging Zeus into a fight. But Zeus couldn't accept this plan calmly. He tried to prove he was just an untrained civilian, not capable or obligated to fight armed robbers.

John finally displayed his slick talk as a veteran NYPD cop, telling Zeus that if he successfully distracted Simon's gang, John would ensure Zeus got a reward from the police department.

Money talk worked wonders on Zeus. As soon as he heard about a reward, he threw caution to the wind and agreed to help John, vowing to fulfill his task.

Castle and the chubby guy laughed so hard at these two negotiating a deal for a police reward within two hundred meters of dangerous criminals. But jokes aside, Castle decided to stop John and Zeus's suicidal plan because the NYPD ESU (Emergency Service Unit) was en route by helicopter. There was no need for John and an untrained Zeus to risk their lives.

Castle estimated it was safe to call Zeus without Simon's gang hearing the ringtone, given their distance of about two hundred meters. He also believed Zeus had silenced his phone after Castle's first call in the subway tunnel.

Taking a gamble, Castle dialed Zeus. Luckily, Zeus had indeed set his phone to vibrate. When he got Castle's call, he smartly pulled John into a corner full of building materials.

Zeus, puzzled, answered the call and was surprised when Castle asked him to hand the phone to the reckless John McClane. Zeus handed the phone to John, who was baffled, and sensibly moved away to keep watch.

"Officer McClane, this is Castle. I know what you're planning, but I called to tell you there's no need to engage Simon directly. NYPD ESU is on the way by helicopter and will be there in five minutes. Just keep an eye on Simon's gang, and you'll safely crack this case…"

Castle's straightforward advice irked John a bit. Yes, he wanted to rush in and fight Simon, but not just because Simon had made a fool of him. There was another crucial reason.

He didn't want to follow Castle's advice, but he knew Castle was right about his limited time to confront Simon directly. Once ESU arrived in five minutes, his chance for personal revenge would vanish.

John had made up his mind to kill Simon once he learned Simon's motive was similar to his brother's heist at Nakatomi Plaza years ago. John was all too familiar with these fake terrorists who planted bombs for money. He knew they had no humanity and wouldn't hesitate to harm innocent people to get their loot. If he let Simon go, John was certain he would strike again soon.

John wasn't a saint. If he had a chance to eliminate Simon and prevent future harm, why leave such a threat alive?

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