Chuck vs. What has to be done
"I've
had dreams and I've had nightmares. I overcame the nightmares because
of my dreams."
--Unknown
Charles Irving 'Chuck' Bartowski – Charles Ian Michaelson
Sarah Walker – Sara White
John Casey – John Reynolds
?????????? – Christina Terrell
Eleanor Fae Bartowski-Woodcombe – Elizabeth Harrison
Devon 'Awesome' Woodcombe – David Harrison
Morgan Grimes – Martin Burns(KIA)
Anna Wu – Tina Cho (KIA)
Carina - Rachel Erin Davis
Special thanks go out to Mojo01 for helping me beta this story.
Chapter 3.
Christina glanced over at Chuck as he started mumbling in his sleep again. Christina queued up her comms. "It looks like he's dreaming again. Should I pull off? That last one he had was pretty violent."
John's voice came back over the comms. "No, the sleeping pill I gave him had a muscle relaxer in it. He shouldn't move much no matter how bad the dream is."
Christina gave Chuck a sad look. "You sound like this is a pretty normal thing. Chuck always deal with this when he sleeps?"
"No, this is the first time I've known of Chuck having any serious nightmares. But I knew everything we deal with would catch up with him eventually. It catches up with all of us."
Christina chewed on her thoughts for a while but eventually tried to relax into the seat of the mustang as the sounds of the C-130 they were traveling in were muffled inside the car.
**********
Chuck walked down the hallway of the hotel where Sarah had been taken from. He looked around and mumbled to himself. "What the hell am I doing here?"
A voice seemed to come from no where and everywhere at the same time. The sound of the voice was very mechanical and like text to speech programs on most computers. "It is time to review the most likely reenactments of the day that Sarah was kidnapped. You need to update your report and you also need to better understand your enemies."
Chuck moaned. "Oh god, not another nightmare. Can't I get just a little sleep in peace?"
The mechanized voice replied, "This is not a nightmare, Chuck. Protocol dictates that we do a review such as this within the first 48 hours after we study a crime scene. But due to the fact that you did not sleep for 5 days it took us signifigantly longer to process everything. You really should sleep more regularly. This lack of sleep makes both of us ineffecient."
Chuck checked his ears for earwigs, finding none he shook his head. "What the hell is going on here? Who is 'us' and who are you?"
"Who I am is simple and difficult to answer at the same time. I am you, and I am the intersect."
Chuck's eyes shot open. "Yeah, that's pretty vague."
"I was not finished with my explanation. I am both you and the intersect. The new intersect you uploaded contained a rudimentary AI in it. Basically it was a set of responses programmed to react to certain situations.
"The problem is that it was designed to work with an agent's trained responses to a situation. So the new intersect's features were useless to you to begin with. But that changed when Sarah's life was in danger in the intersect room. On a subconcious level you altered the AI of the intersect to help you save Sarah.
"Most people's subconcious would have rewritten the entire AI so that it worked for you when you needed it. But you are very different. You are scared that if you can do everything stored in the intersect, you would quickly become like John or even Sarah. Considering you are going through agent training, which is more likely to make you like them than just having access to the skills in the intersect, I could almost laugh at the irony. If I had a sense of humor, that is. In the end you compromised with yourself and you are only unlocking things that are generally innocent. The dangerous stuff you don't access unless you or someone else is in a lot of danger."
"Wait... so I have an AI in my brain that takes over when I'm in a dangerous situation? Does that mean I have multiple personality disorder?"
"No, you misunderstand Chuck. I am more like a secondary subconcious. A set of instincts that help you make sense of, and use the information from the intersect. And right now I'm only a small fragment of the original AI that you have rewritten, as well."
"Look, this is a dream, so I'm just going to go with things. Besides if I try to argue this with you I'm really just arguing with myself. So let's go see this most likely scenario you speak of."
The scene shifted, and Chuck was suddenly standing behind and to the side of two men. One stood behind the other and held a gun in the back of the man in front. Chuck closed his eyes and turned around. "I don't want to see this. I know Morgan is dead. I don't need to watch how it happened."
"Yes, you do need to see it. You need to understand on a conscious level what you already understand unconsciously. You need to understand just how dangerous and deadly these men are."
"Why?"
"Because you need to realize that unless we work together fully on this mission, you have about a 7% chance of survival."
"I don't like those odds. So can't I just agree that I need to fully accept the intersect?"
"Only if you believe it..."
Chuck stood there for a long time wrestling with himself internally. Finally with a long sigh he turned around. "Show me."
Chuck watched as the man used Morgan as a body shield while he entered the room set up for surveillance. Anna, both being the fresh agent she was, and deeply in love with Morgan, hesitated. That gave the mystery man all the chance he needed. He shot Anna in the chest. Morgan gave up on everything at that point and just dropped to his knees. The mystery man stepped back and put a round into Morgan's head. With the threats neutralized he quickly moved over to the surveillance equipment and went about erasing everything that had been collected, then disabled the equipment.
Chuck stood staring at the scene in shock for a while. The infiltrator had not hesitated to execute Morgan. Chuck fought with his rising emotions for a long minute before turning around. He saw that the mystery man was stopped mid-stride.
"So I guess we can control this just like a DVR huh?"
Emotionless, the voice replied, "Did you expect any less?"
Chuck barked a harsh laugh that had no humor in it. "Okay smartass, lets continue."
Chuck followed the man as the scenario began to play out again. The man met up with another man just outside of Carina's hotel room. The men set up and breached the room perfectly. One going left and low, the other going high and right. Two shots rang out. The man high and right shot Carina in the forearm. Due to the impact Carina squeezed off a shot that hit Sarah's phone. Sarah didn't even try to raise her gun, she saw that the man low and left had a perfect bead on her. Sarah flicked the safety to the on position on her gun and dropped it. The high and right man injected both women with something he pulled out of a pocket and soon they were both asleep. The men carried the women out unchallenged.
"Those guys were agents, very good agents. Its the only thing that makes sense. Carina was the target I believe. Sarah was just, well, Sarah, known as one of the best, and they took her for the intel she might be able to provide. Which means without a doubt she's being interrogated somewhere. How long can an agent of Sarah's caliber stand up to torture?"
It took a moment before the mechanical voice replied. "It all depends on the torture. Her records show that she had good scores when trained to withstand torture, however. Under normal torture techniques, she should easily be able to last days without any signifigant psychological damage. Then, seven to ten days with moderate psychological damage. It was estimated that within two weeks she would completely break, though."
"Wait... I have Sarah's records in here??"
"Of course you do."
"Why haven't I ever flashed on her then?"
"Deep down, do you really want to?"
"I guess not. I keep hoping she will talk to me about it all when she can. So, two weeks until she talks."
"No, you misunderstand. Sarah never gave up any true information under duress training. It is estimated that within two weeks she will be beyond help to recover from the torture and carry on as an agent. Her psyche profile led her instructors to believe she would find a way to end her life, after that point."
"Oh that's just fan-freaking-tastic. If they have been torturing her from day one then I've got, what, less than a day before she's just a little crazy. And just over a week before she's suicidal. DAMMIT!"
"Calm down and think rationally, Chuck. We have evidence that they were moving her for at least five days of that time. So chances are she's only had to endure perhaps 2 days of actual torture. But realistically, it's probably more like one day. And as you said, these guys were very professional agents. They aren't going to rush this, they know it will take time to break another agent."
"Oh that just makes me feel loads better. She is still being tortured."
"This is an undeniable fact. To quote the Colonel, are you going to whine about it, or do something about it?"
Chuck started to scream out in rage, but he quickly realized he was yelling at himself. "AHHH! Shit, shit, shit, shit and double shit!" Chuck exhaled heavily. "How do I know I can trust you?"
A figure materialized in front of him and Chuck found himself looking at, well, himself. The only difference was the new Chuck was dressed in a set of black tactical mission gear. The copy shrugged at the original and in the same mechanical voice asked. "Can you trust yourself?"
"Sarah seems to think I should. And I trust her completely." Chuck held out his hand to his clone.
The clone shook his hand and nodded. "Now our chances are better than 70% for a successful rescue. Get some sleep, your subconcious and I still have work to do."
Chuck nodded, and the dream faded away as he fell into a deep, dreamless sleep.
**********
Christina noticed that Chuck finally settled down into a deep restful sleep. 'About time, he tossed and turned for about 30 minutes. Still almost 2 hours till we touch down, get all the sleep you can Chuck... Might not get another chance for a while.'
The Mustang pulled over next to John's Crown Vic and Chuck got out, leaving the engine growling lightly in the background. John leaned back against the Vic and eyed Chuck. 'Well the kid looks focused, I hope he's not trying to pull that whole cold agent routine again.' "At least that toy of yours is a good Ford product."
Chuck smiled. "Is that a compliment?"
"Only for the car. Lets go get some lodging set up and then we can get a plan together."
"That won't be necessary."
Christina walked up to the two men and broke into the conversation. "What won't be necessary?"
Chuck stated, "Lodging."
Christina looked at the car. "I hope you don't plan on us sleeping in that again?"
Chuck snickered. "Nope."
A van pulled up and out stepped Stephen Bartowski AKA Orion AKA... "Dad. Thank you for coming."
Stephen embraced his son. "Of course. There's no way I'll stand by while those rat bastards have my future daughter in law. You holding up okay, son?"
Chuck smiled. "Surprisingly yes. But I'll be better when we get Sarah back. Are we set up?"
Stephen nodded. "Yes, it's all ready." Stephen pulled open the side door of the van.
John's eyes bugged out and he said with a touch of awe in his voice. "Is that an Orion special mission support package?"
"Yes, and I added a few special things that neither the CIA or NSA know about yet. So careful with it, John. I know about your propensity to blow things up. Anyways, your going to need this and more."
John's eyebrows furrowed. "Why is that?"
Stephen closed the door. "Lets go to my safehouse and I'll explain why."
Everyone nodded and got in their respective cars. Christina chose to ride with Chuck again. "Holy crap! Your dad is actually Orion?"
Chuck shrugged. "Yeah. Is that a big deal?"
Christina rolled her eyes. "No, I don't guess its a big deal unless you consider the fact that almost all of the cool spy gear came from projects he was a part of. Stuff these days is just evolutions of stuff he's made over the years. The only one that's even come close is some kid they have bunkered. But even that kid is still a hack compared to your dad."
Chuck laughed. "Calm down. I'm starting to think you've got a crush on my dad."
Christina gave him an admonishing look. "Please. He's old enough to be my dad. Cripes he might actually be older than my dad."
The elder Bartowski's voice came out of the car radio. "I am. But I'm in much better shape than him."
Christina let out a surprised squeak. The only sound that came from Chuck for a while was laughter, though.
Stephen set a laptop-looking device in the middle of the table. "This is one of the newer things I've been working on."
A 3-D holographic image of very realistic detail came into view, covering most of the area of the tabletop. Chuck grinned at his dad. "I take it you finally got the refraction matrix stabilized?"
"Yeah, a long time ago. Hardest part was getting a graphics processing unit that could handle the level of detail I wanted without getting hot enough to cook itself."
Christina stood there with her jaw agape. "I can't believe you made this, Orion. This is... amazing."
Stephen pointed at the holographic emitter. "This? I didn't design this. Chuck did. I just helped him work out some of the kinks while he was in training."
Christina stared at Chuck, who just shrugged it off. "I got bored before I started training. It's no big deal, anyways."
Casey broke up the moment. "Yeah its really pretty and shiny and stuff. Now lets get back to the part where I get to shoot people."
Chuck nodded and then leaned over the image. "This is the Director's house. His security is above anything the CIA would set up for him, so we are assuming that the Ring arranged it for him. He has a small security force of about 12 men on the grounds at all times. They seem to rotate out every 12 hours at 6pm and 6am. Which doesn't really matter, since we are going in tonight."
John shook his head. "Tonight? I've got enough guns in my car for a good fight, maybe a quiet infiltration mission. This is storming a compound, though. "
Stephen stood up, walked over to a wall and placed his hand palm down on the wall. A door swung open into a weapons locker. "I think you'll find everything you need in there. This house was set up as one of the rally points in case there was ever a situation that would require making entry on the White House or the Pentagon. Some paranoid analyst came up with the scenario back in the 60's and this place has been updated yearly ever since."
John looked over the room and grunted. "Okay, we've got firepower. But we are four against twelve. Are you even up to this kind of field work Mr. Bartowski? And then Chuck and Christina are only through about a third of agent training. Do you really think we can handle this, Chuck?"
Chuck gave John a very level look. "I am 100% positive. I wouldn't bet Sarah's life on anything less."
John stared at Chuck for a long time before stepping up close to Chuck and growling at him. "Don't make me regret trusting you on this. Now what's your plan."
Chuck nodded. "At approximately 0100 we start the mission. Dad is going to access their security system. He's going to make it look like there is an incursion by 3 or 4 men of possibly middle eastern descent from that area. Your job will be to make them believe that. That enough gunplay for you?"
John shrugged. "We will see."
Chuck barked a laugh. "Okay while John is keeping them occupied over there, Christina and I will make entry over here." Chuck made some hand gestures and the picture changed to a 3-D cutaway of the interior of the house. All 3 floors were represented, and as Chuck talked he moved the pictures around, pointing things out. "There's no evidence of a safe room in the house from Dad's scans. So, odds are we will find him in the bedroom here on the second floor. We make a quiet entry and grab the Director, then exit here.
"As soon as we make our exit I'll advise John over comms and he will rendevous with Dad here. We all drive away and meet up here by 0600. Everyone onboard? This is your chance to walk away before we totally go off the reservation."
John grunted. "Okay, its a decent plan. Simple and open to improvisation. I'm in."
Christina nodded. "I'm in as well."
Chuck smiled. "Thank you both. I'm gonna grab some shuteye. Lets reconvene at 2300 for mission prep."
Chuck went upstairs and sat down on the bed. He pulled out his cell phone and dialed a number. "Michaelson secure...
"...Did you find her?
"...Good, tell her I said thank you for the assist. Everyone is onboard, we make our entrance at 0100. I'll need you prepared to facilitate the extraction.
"...My answer hasn't changed since the first time you asked me. Yes she's worth it.
"...Thanks for your concern but I'll be fine. With the intersect's help I can handle this. Just be there tonight, I want this to be a clean op with no losses."
