A/N: It is not necessary reading, but this picks up after my prior short story titled "Chuck vs the Beach."

I believe Warner Brothers owns "Chuck." I'm not Warner Bros.

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It is spring, 2021, and the studio for "Chuck," which had been surprised by the strong and passionate response to its one-and-done webisode "Chuck vs the Beach" yet moved quickly to capitalize on it, posts a tweet on its Twitter account. The tweet says, "Why did Casey call?" Included is a hyperlink, "#Chuck" and "#Charah." The link is for a video; with a click it launches…

[Fade in. Setting: Interior of a modern, spacious executive style office. Camera: Set back to take in nearly all of the office, which has computer server racks occupying part of a wall, status lights glowing. One wall also has a few large wall monitors mounted on it, each screen with a Carmichael Technologies logo image showing. Two large desks, one with typical appointments the other with several additional monitors and decorated with vintage action figures. Another wall has a Tron poster. Camera: In tight on the interior side of office door.]

[Door bursts opens, Sarah (S) and then Chuck (C) enter at a brisk pace.]

S: It's a relief that your mom can stay at the house tonight with the kids.

C: When I got her on the phone, she could tell something serious had happened. Once a spy, always a spy [said with a small smile].

[Chuck moves behind his desk and begins waking up the computers and opening program windows while Sarah leans against her desk].

C: I'm still trying to process what Casey told us. They've been out of the spy life for years, why would anyone go after them now?

S: Good thing their instincts are still sharp. Sounds like if they hadn't realized they were being tailed, they might have been captured or killed.

C: Thank God they were able to fend off the attack and escape. Did Casey say he injured or killed one of the assailants?

S: Yeah.

C: [rubbing his head in disbelief] Alright, let's see what we can find out.

[Sarah walks from her desk, opens a small refrigerator, removes and brings to Chuck a bottle of chardonnay.]

C: Thanks, honey.

[Chuck hands Sarah a wireless phone headset; she slips it on and returns to her desk. Chuck opens the bottle of wine and takes a swig; Sarah starts dialing a number.]

[fade out, short commercial, fade in]

[Camera: Looking over back of desk monitor, on Chuck's face, who is staring at monitor. After a couple beats, he perks up, eyes darting to and fro.]

C: [excitedly] Sarah, I found footage of the attack from a Paris street camera! Check this out.

[Chuck gestures to one of the large monitors on the wall and, with a wireless keyboard in hand, hits a few keys. A paused video, somewhat grainy and shot from a high angle and at a distance, appears on a wall monitor. Chuck and Sarah move to stand in front of wall monitor to watch. Camera: Behind them facing wall monitor with a mostly unobstructed view of the monitor.]

[Chuck taps another key and the video plays, showing a physical altercation with Casey and Gertrude up against four men. Casey wrestles one attacker as another takes aim with a gun. Gertrude with a kick separates that attacker from his gun; Casey picks it up and, seeing one of the remaining attackers taking aim at Gertrude, fires, dropping that attacker while the others begin to shoot at Casey and Gertrude wildly. Return fire from Casey drives the attackers behind cover, and Casey and Gertrude are able to use that moment to flee.]

S: [nods approvingly] Marriage certainly hasn't made them soft. If Casey and Gertrude have lost a step, you'd never know it from that video. Can you run any facial recognition on the attackers?

C: [shaking head] The source video's resolution is too low. You have any luck?

S: I reached a contact in French Internal Security who owes me about a dozen favors. One of the attackers was found at the scene dead. They don't yet have a name for him, but they matched him to a photo they have of a suspect involved in an illicit military grade weapons sale. My contact is not directly involved with that investigation, but he does believe that French authorities have been in contact with US intelligence regarding the investigation.

C: I think we should call…

S: …General Beckman. I've already reached out to her office. Getting a bit of a runaround. I said it was urgent and they said [affecting an aloof tone], 'The Lieutenant General will join you when she can...'

[Another of the large wall monitors flickers, the Carmichael Technologies logo replaced with General Beckman (GB), at her desk in uniform.]

GB: Sarah. Chuck.

S: Oh, General, hello and thank you for taking our call.

GB: Of course, and I know why you called. I just received a communication from my counterpart in France, which included a video file from a street camera showing a fight and shoot out. The image quality was mediocre but there's no mistaking John Casey and Gertrude Verbanski.

S: Yes, General. Any clue why Casey and Gertrude would be targeted?

GB: Not yet. Although those two certainly made some enemies over the years, not all of which they put away, or put down, for good.

S: General, did the report you receive have information about the man Casey killed or the black market weapons sale that man was apparently involved in?

GB: How do you know about the weapons sale? Never mind, it doesn't matter. Yes, two days ago a small cache of an exotic high-powered rifle hit the black market. The man that John killed was in an image that French agents were able to pull from dock security cameras of the transfer of the rifles to buyers we believe are active terrorists. What is strange is despite securing an image of the rifles, US Intelligence hasn't yet identified them. [Beckman looks to her side and addresses someone off screen in a commanding tone.] Put that photo up on the screen.

[The monitor that Beckman appears on goes into split screen mode, with her on one side and a still image of a burly man in light tactical clothing caught in mid-motion holding a distinctive looking rifle.]

[Chuck's head wobbles, eyes flutter and the flash sound effect plays as a rapid series of images fill the frame.]

C: [somewhat breathlessly] X-34 sniper rifle.

S: Chuck?

GB: [with a look of disbelief] Did you? Did you just flash?

S: It happens, General, although very infrequently now, and given the age of the Intersect upload Chuck has, it is rarely of any use. What was that you said, Chuck?

C: X-34 sniper rifle. Russian military design, in development about ten years ago. Highly effective in early testing, but Russia went in a different direction, choosing a somewhat inferior design that was substantially cheaper to manufacture. And, General, I think this final bit of information could be important: manufacture of the X-34 never went beyond prototypes, and the entire batch of those prototypes went missing soon after Russia decided not to put the X-34 into production. Their whereabouts were unknown until Hartley Winterbottom shut down Volkoff operations and surrendered its locations and physical assets in Russia to the Russian Government nine years ago. The prototypes were in Volkoff's inventory.

S: So the Russians took them back and then what?

C: They didn't, at least not nine years ago. Those rifles and some other military hardware in Volkoff's supply that the Russians didn't have plans for were left in storage at Volkoff's Site B. Site B contains a massive vault that Volkoff built to withstand just about any conventional means of penetration. Even the Russians didn't try to break it open.

S: So how did the Russians operate the vault?

GB: I can answer that. We had one of Volkoff's inner circle members who was among the few people other than Volkoff who could open the vault. We were able to motivate him ["motivate" said with an edge; Chuck and Sarah briefly glance at each other] to cooperate with us and with the Russians to open and then seal the vault. He was able to get us through the various codes, fingerprint and retinal scans.

C: Where is he now?

GB: Dead, he died in prison. [Chuck and Sarah again glance at each other, this time with wide eyes; Beckman picks up on the look.] Of natural causes, I assure you.

S: And Site B today?

GB: Still sealed as it was nine years ago and untouched as far as our periodic intelligence reports have shown.

[Chuck cocks his head as an idea grabs him; he strides back to his desk and begins working on the computer.]

C: Let's see… Ok, I'm in… here's the video library… and unlocked… now let's run those through the image difference algorithm…

GB: [addressing Sarah] What is Chuck doing?

S: [with a mixture of amusement and pride on her face] Oh, just letting his nerd run free.

C: Here we go! [Walks back to stand with Sarah in front of wall monitors; with a few keystrokes on his wireless keyboard an image of an industrial building in an isolated, forested location appears on one of the wall monitors.] Here is satellite imagery of Site B.

GB: [voice rising, tinged with incredulity and annoyance] "Satellite imagery"? Meaning top-secret US reconnaissance satellite imagery?

C: [abashed] Uh, yeah, well, there might be one or two minor defects in the NSA's firewalls that I've recently discovered. [perking up] General, Carmichael Technologies would be happy to offer the NSA its friends and family discount on our cybersecurity services.

[General Beckman stares daggers at Chuck, who wilts under her glare.]

C: Uh, perhaps a conversation for another time.

GB: [said without amusement] Yes, perhaps another time. So what is it you think you've found?

C: I ran the satellite imagery through some algorithms of my own design. There's no recent ground activity, except three weeks ago there's this: several trucks arrive together at Site B.

[Another keystroke and the satellite video begins playing on the wall monitor, showing trucks pulling up to Site B and several men jumping out and heading to the entrance of building and, with almost no delay, entering.]

C: Now jumping ahead only a few minutes [keystroke] and the men who entered are already coming back out hauling crates, and they remove a lot of them. These guys went through the outer door without any sign they had to force it open and apparently had access to the vault inside in a matter of minutes.

S: So they didn't break in, simply not enough time elapsed to have gotten into the vault by physical means. They were able to unlock the vault.

GB: Perhaps the security measures were hacked?

C: There may be a handful hackers in the world that could hope to get through that quickly.

S: [to the General] Chuck being one of them.

C: Thanks for the vote of confidence, honey, but I don't think so. Don't get me wrong, the Piranha [waggles thumb at himself and spoken with some swagger] still has the moves, but [swagger dissipating] perhaps not the speed I once had. Maybe one of Volkoff's lieutenants who could access the vault was involved?

GB: No. [Chuck and Sarah both turn to General Beckman to see what she means] Hartley Winterbottom gave us a list of every senior member of his Volkoff organization with that access and they've all been rounded up, or killed, mostly by John and Gertrude. We were using private contractors for that work given that pretty much everyone at the NSA and CIA considered anything related to the Agent X fiasco as toxic. [eyes briefly losing focus, reflective] John and Gertrude were a force to be reckoned with.

S: [Looking over at Chuck] Not quite everyone with access is accounted for.

C: [after a beat] Meaning Hartley and Vivian? I can't believe it. It's an impressive feat, but I think someone quickly hacked their way past the vault's security. General, you need to send agents to Site B or ask the Russians to investigate. Site B's system can only be accessed locally. Someone is going to need to go onsite to try to figure out how the vault was opened.

GB: Sorry, Chuck, but that's not going to happen. Relations with Russia are dangerously on edge. We cannot take the risk of sending agents to a sensitive location like Site B within Russian borders. And the Russians won't lift a finger while it looks like the weapons will be more of a threat to us and our allies than to the Russians.

[A few seconds of silence pass, then Chuck and Sarah turn back to each other, a look of shared understanding passing between them.]

C: We should go. If it was hacked...

S: If it was hacked, who better than you to figure out how and possibly who. [some worry creeping into her voice] But we haven't done this sort of field work in years.

C: I know, but it should be safe, there hasn't been any activity at the site since it was hit three weeks ago from what I can tell from running the satellite video through our system. If we wait, whoever it is might make another attempt on Casey and Gertrude. And, if it is Hartley...

S: If Hartley Winterbottom has somehow slipped back into being Volkoff, he knows us and we might be targeted next.

C: Yeah. General, how does the US government feel about quickly arranging for a private jet to be fueled up and ready to fly?

GB: Agent Walker, can you -sorry- [softer, to herself] it's like the old team is back. [voice returning to normal] Mrs. Bartowski, can you still fly a Gulfstream?

S: Of course, General.

GB: I'll make a call. Good luck. [The wall monitor with General Beckman flickers and returns to the Carmichael Technologies logo.]

[Sarah walks to the Tron poster. It is on hidden hinges and she swings it away from the wall to reveal a small safe, which she unlocks and from within removes a semiauto pistol and a tranq gun. Sarah goes to Chuck and hands him the tranq gun. He looks at it with unease and then locks eyes with Sarah. She checks her gun's magazine, press-checks its chamber, and with a grim look on her face heads for the office door.]

C: [after a beat, spoken quietly, mostly to himself, and with a look of concern] Here we go.

[Fade out; end of episode.]

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Thank you for reading and a big thank you to WillieGarvin for providing some great feedback on the draft, helping me tighten up the story.

As with "Chuck vs the Beach" I am imagining how more "Chuck" could come to the screen in a budget and logistics conscious way via short webisodes. So I'm writing "on a budget" in that I am limiting cast and sets/production needed to film the imagined webisode. For example, the Casey/Gertrude fight with their assailants is watched on a monitor and is shot at a distance. This means stunt doubles can readily play Casey and Gertrude. Also using a short commercial break to allow for some passage of story time. In a way it is me giving myself a little more hope that we could see Zach, Yvonne and perhaps a couple others reprise their roles and give us some more "Chuck" goodness.

Luke's landspeeder in A New Hope was a model X-34; using that designation for the rifle is a nod to "Chuck vs the Third Dimension." In that episode, the model of the bomb being used by the terrorist was IG-88, which is the name of a Star Wars bounty hunter character.

It would probably be more correct to say NRO rather than NSA with respect to responsibility for the satellites, but the show never worried much about using agencies correctly so why should I start. :-)

The final moment is a very loose callback to "Chuck vs the Role Models." There is a scene with Sarah and Chuck in the kitchen talking about the Turners, who have double-crossed Chuck and Sarah. Sarah racks her pistol's slide, holds it up and says, "This is how I deal with stress." Then starts walking away. That is lighter and humorous than what I have in my story, which I intended to have a serious edge. The way Zach in that show episode, sotto voce, says, "Here we go" with a look of concern is, however, just about how I imagine him delivering that line in my story.

If people enjoy this, I hope to continue it. I expect I need two more webisodes (chapters) to complete it.