Chapter 4:
"Morgan!"
The short, bearded man gave a jump and stopped making kissy faces at Anna at the sound of Big Mike's booming call.
"Hey, Big Mike! How can I help you?"
"Where's Chuck? He was supposed to be here before the store opened to pick up an early shipment. Delivery guy left a sticky note to say no one was here to open up. He has a lot of explaining to do."
Morgan's eyebrows rose. "Wow, that's really not like Chuck. I mean, I know he's been a little weird lately but he's usually on top of these things. I'll find out right away."
"You do that, Morgan. Tell him if he's not in my office in fifteen minutes he's going to be spending his lunch breaks for the next month in the cage doing inventory!"
With his threat hanging in the air, Big Mike took a huge bite of his danish and walked back to his office.
Morgan gave a half-hearted salute before grabbing his cell phone and hitting speed dial 1. He listened as the phone went directly to voicemail.
"Hey, buddy, it's Morgan. Man, Big Mike is pissed. You were supposed to be here early to let some dude in for a delivery. Where are you? Get over here as soon as you get this message."
As he hung up the phone, he couldn't quite ignore the nagging feeling that something was wrong with his best friend.
Opening up his phone again, he pressed speed dial 2 and waited. After a couple of rings, someone picked up.
"Hello."
"HI, Ellie. It's Morgan. Listen, is Chuck there? He was supposed to be at work today and Big Mike is looking for him."
"Sorry, Morgan. He wasn't here when I got home from my shift." He could hear rustling sounds over the phone.
"Yeah, I'm in his room. His bed doesn't look like he slept in it, do you thinkā¦"
Before Ellie could finish her sentence, a wide, knowing grin plastered itself on Morgan's face.
"No worries, Ellie. I think I know where he was last night. He said he and Sarah were going out yesterday, you know, as friends. I guess they got a little friendlier then they thought that they would!" Morgan did a little happy-dance at his last statement.
Rolling her eyes on the other end, Ellie said good-bye. As Morgan shut his phone he went half skipping, half running over to the Nerd Herd desk to share the news with Lester and Jeff.
Casey, who had been lurking near the appliances, had overheard the entire one-sided conversation. With his face set in grim lines, he gave a quick glance to make sure no one would notice him leaving, and made his way over to the Weinerlicious.
As he entered the restaurant, he saw that Sarah was just finishing up serving a bag full of greasy corn dogs to a number of equally greasy teenage boys who were ogling her.
Rolling his eyes, Casey crossed his arms and waited for her to finish up.
The boys turned once Sarah gave the customary Weinerlicious "farewell, come again" greeting and, noticing Casey and his forbidding stance, gave him a wide berth before leaving the store.
"Casey, what are you doing here? You're supposed to be watching Chuck at Buy More."
Casey made his way to the counter. He lowered his voice and said, "That's the problem, Walker. Chuck's not at work today. Big Mike made a stink about it and Morgan tried to reach him on his cell."
"Did he?"
"Would I be here if he did?" Casey remarked gruffly.
"Let's try Ellie."
"Mighty Mouse already thought of that. Turns out Chuck never made it home. Morgan's doing a little jig with the rest of the nerds because he thinks he spent the night with you."
Sarah's eyes widened at Casey's last statement. "We need to find him, Casey." She reached under the counter to take out the hand-held device she used to keep track of Chuck's GPS unit.
As she turned it on, her communicator gave two short beeps, signaling that Director Graham was paging her.
Placing the hand-held device on the counter, she grabbed her pager and read the brief message on the screen.
She looked up at Casey with dread. "We have a problem."
Sarah and Casey raced into the Buy More and quickly made their way into the Home Theatre Room. Seeing Jeff taking a nap, Casey picked him up and wordlessly dumped him outside of the room, shutting and locking the door behind him.
Jeff pounded on the door for a moment until Casey opened the curtains a little and glared menacingly at him. Jeff, upon seeing the look on Casey's face, turned and made a beeline back to the Nerd Herd desk.
The television panel came to life suddenly and Director Graham's troubled face appeared on the screen.
"Agent Walker. Major Casey. There's been a breach in security. One of our agents hasn't given her bi-weekly report and we're unable to readily determine her location. I have assigned agents to find her, but we suspect Fulcrum is behind the abduction. It is essential to get Chuck and secure the intersect. We will put him in one of our safe houses until such time that we deem the threat has been eliminated."
Sarah started to interject, to tell her boss that Chuck was missing when she was stopped by Graham.
"We will not, I repeat, we will not put him in one of our holding facilities. He is not being extracted at this time, so hold your objections."
"Why do you think it's Fulcrum?" Casey asked.
"Nearly three months ago some of our data files were compromised. Information about Bryce, everything we have in our general database, was accessed. We set up a surveillance on any agents that we were concerned would be targeted but nothing happened. Until now. The agent that was taken was Bryce's former partner. We suspect that they're looking for Bryce."
Director Graham finally noticed that there was a tall, gangly presence missing in the room.
"Where is Chuck?"
Casey and Sarah exchanged a look, before Sarah explained the situation. She tried to give her report in an unaffected manner, but even she could hear the thready quality of her voice as she struggled not to let the fear that was swamping her escape.
"What part of your mission about protecting the intersect did you forget, Agent Walker!"
It was Casey who surprisingly stepped in. "We had no reason to suspect anything untoward would happen to Bartowski. He was just walking the dozen steps to his own home from my apartment."
"Be that as it may, we must find him. NOW!"
Both agents nodded affirmatively and, even as the screen blinked out, Sarah grabbed the unit from her pocket and keyed in her pass code. Her hands shook slightly as the map displayed on the screen.
"Looks like he's moving west bound. Let's move, Walker."
Instead of stalking away as was the norm, Casey grabbed Sarah's arm and led her out of the Home Theatre room. He paused to make sure that any and all intelligence equipment was properly secured.
Sarah followed wordlessly.
Even with his hand grasping her wrist tightly, she couldn't help but notice that Casey's hand trembled slightly.
There was no mistake. They both knew it. They had to find Chuck. Soon.
A/N: I hope you're enjoying it! Thanks to all those who commented, especially to Go Chuck Go who mentioned this fic on TWOP! Thank you!!
