A.N. HUGE, huge thanks to ne71 for his assistance on the next couple of chapters.
If you like bits of this, then those bits must be Nick's.
I don't own Chuck et al.
Previously on Chuck vs La Republica….
"Are these police aware of your connection to Jimminez?"
"It is difficult to be certain, but I believe so, and behave accordingly."
Jets ROARED overhead.
They strafed the whole corner of the block. Canon and rocket.
4. Capture
The men took the trio of Americans away in the back of a truck. Chuck and Sarah shouting their innocence to deaf ears.
It was more dungeon than prison.
A tiny part of Chuck felt all it needed was Marty Feldman as….was it Eye-gore, or Ee-gore? Either Marty, or Michael Palin hanging upside-down yelling "You lucky, jammy bastard."
That part withered after Sarah had been taken from him.
They'd been there about an hour before she was taken. Photographed, fingerprinted and threatened, all the fun things. At first into one holding cell, and then moved to cell just for them.
A man in his fifties, fit, dressed in civilian clothes and a short haircut was paying too much attention to them. He ordered Sarah's removal.
As she was taken away, Chuck and Sarah locked eyes the whole time. They spoke each other's names.
The man in civilian clothes pulled his smart phone out, and began sending a message.
Now Chuck was scared. Even while sharing a cell with Casey. They were chained to the benches.
Sarah was chained to the ceiling in a cell of her own. Not quite on tiptoe.
The man in civilian clothes came into her cell. He was holding a riding crop for some reason.
He began "Mrs An-der-son…."
Sarah surprised herself. Her first reaction was to laugh "What, are you doing that scene from The Matrix?"
Bless you Chuck that was the perfect deflection. 'My name is Sarah Carmichael. Why am I here? I'll have you know my husband …."
The man began again "Mrs Anderson. You might have forgotten me, but we have met before. Columbia? About three, four years ago? And you had a different husband then. Bruce? What happened to him? Ah, these CIA arranged marriages, they never last, do they?"
Oops.
A large man in uniform came into Chuck and Casey's cell. He introduced himself as Generalissimo Bosco. The head of the air force. Chuck recalled he was one of the junta leadership. So, a nation's leader is here to question me. Not good.
"So, seńor Carmichael, how well do you know your wife?"
"Sarah, where is she? What have you done…."
"Please seńor, do not insult me. She is not your wife. She is CIA. This we know."
"Please, we're just….."
Bosco cut Chuck off "You were armed. Armed spies. We found these" indicating two hand guns "on your so called wife. And him." He indicated Casey.
Casey laughed. "I'm his bodyguard. It's my job to be armed. And the lady gun? Please. We're American. Everybody carries a gun. Except him."
Sarah knew him now. Rafter. Wasn't he supposed to be dead?
Sarah remembered, Rafter had been on their side at the time. It had been a 'brush past' that went bad. Bryce delivered the case, and Rafter had seamlessly taken over possession. The local cartel started tailing them soon after. When they heard the shooting start in the distance, assuming that the package was in danger, Bryce and Sarah had needed to be creative. When they lost their tail, they tried to recover the package. They found the kill zone. Rafter must have been forced to 'hard target' himself across an intersection, and got caught. There was a fresh blood pool, drag marks through it, and scoring from the rounds fired. His body and the package were gone.
Rafter continued conversationally "How did you get in here? We watch the flights in. You did not arrive…..normally. But then, that would be normal for the company. Hmm?"
He circled her, letting the crop drift around her midsection.
So, he must have been dirty at the time. Faked his death. Sarah remembered they'd had to leave the area, there was activity building up. The local news reported finding a body fitting his description two days later.
"You will talk, agent. Everybody talks. Just how will the CIA assist the rebels?"
He swung the crop at her stomach.
Sarah didn't make a sound. But it hurt.
The next time, he struck her from behind.
Bosco was confused. Carmichael was not a spy. The man was obviously in love with his wife. Rafter must be wrong. The CIA couldn't send a civilian on a spy mission, could they? The bodyguard seemed to find it amusing.
"Look at him. Do you really think he's a spy? Of course he loves her. And look at her, all she does is shop, and her nails. I don't think she's ever done a day's work in her life. Sorry boss." He concluded to Chuck.
Chuck managed the rare feat of looking indignant and hopeful at the same time.
Internally he thought Boss? Crap. He's gonna make me pay for that one.
Time passed.
Casey was grateful that Bosco was just a straight military man. As interrogations went, Casey had had worse from LA cops over a speeding ticket.
'They might be buying the millionaire routine. But, why did they separate Walker? If they suspected we were spies, then we'd all be separated. They had something on Walker. If Volkoff owns the secret police, they might have some files on us….. Crap. How well do they get on with Costa Gravas, or Grenada?'
There were sounds of a woman in pain coming from a distance. Casey looked at Chuck. Yes, he'd heard the screams, and yes, he knew who was making the screams. Chuck seemed to be holding it together, which both puzzled Casey, and impressed him. Considering that is was Chuck.
More time passed.
To Chuck, it felt like it had been a lifetime since Sarah had been taken. And what were they doing to her?
Part of him knew that Agent Walker would do her best to survive. It was Sarah he loved and needed to know was safe.
Later in the afternoon, Chuck and Casey felt the explosion. Felt like it came from some distance away, but connected to the prison. After a moment, alarms sounded and guards were running and shouting outside the cells.
Casey and Chuck were on the alert.
Then there was weapons fire.
Casey turned to Chuck "Take your left shoe off."
"What?"
"I put lock picks in your left shoe. Take it off." Chuck could feel the 'moron' phrase was rising to the surface.
Chuck decided not to tempt fate with the obvious 'You put lock picks in my shoes?' He did however wonder what else was hiding about his person.
Chuck flashed once he'd found the lock picks. He then freed himself and Casey.
The cell door was a problem.
"Can't you pick the lock?"
"For some reason, the builders failed to leave a key hole on this side of the door, moron."
Annnnd there it was.
It sounded like a small war was taking place in this wing. Weapons fire, shouting and screaming.
Then there were men outside the cell. Armed men. Not in guard uniforms.
In rapid-fire Spanish the tall armed man demanded "Who are you. Why are you in this wing? This is for the political…."
Casey responded in Costa Gravan accented Spanish "Who are you? Are you with the rebels?"
"Yes"
"We were sent here to help Jimminez. We were to meet with….." he clicked his fingers at Chuck.
"Ahh…G…Gomes." Chuck stuttered, having been caught post flash when he was uploading Spanish.
"Meet with Gomes. He's our contact."
The tall rebel replied "Gomes is dead. Do you have a …..safe word?"
Chuck frantically tried to remember the mission brief he'd read on the flight from LA.
The rebel was getting unhappy with the delay.
"Uncle target!" blurted Chuck "Uncle target."
That was enough. The tall rebel called another over, who unlocked the cell.
Once in the corridors, while they were headed for the wall breach, and then outside, Chuck asked about Sarah.
"There are no women here." The shorter rebel replied
"Tall, blond, blue…."
"No women."
"She was with us, they took her…" Chuck looked around frantically. He had no idea where Sarah had been taken.
"Come, we go."
Chuck tried to reason with Casey "We need to find her."
Nothing.
"I'm not leaving without her, man."
Casey grabbed Chuck "These guys made a pretty damned big noise getting in here. Reinforcements are about to turn up, moron. Not the kind we want. We need to move. Now!"
"I'm not leaving without her, man."
"Bartowski, Walker's been escaping from places like this, when you were dry-humping your first co-ed."
Chuck stood his ground "I am not leaving. Without. Her."
Casey weighed his options. Before 2.0, it would have been so much easier.
Casey chose reason "Chuck. Look around you. We got out of here because we got damned lucky. And you want to go charging back in there. Armed with what? Lock picks and harsh language? Chuck, you know Walk .. Sarah. She's a survivor. I know you don't like it, but we need to move. Now."
To ram Casey's point home, uniformed soldiers were now visible across the plaza. They fired something that looked like a stubby, big-mouthed shotgun. The large round bounced once and exploded like a grenade.
Close. Too close.
Chuck decided Casey was right.
Rafter had persuaded Bosco to move the Carmichael/Anderson woman.
First, as a hostage, she would be valuable. It would mean that the agencies would pay attention, but in the interim, ransom her to provide arms for Republica.
And that would save Volkoff millions.
Secondly, while waiting for ransom, he would have the opportunity to extract everything the Anderson agent knew. All he needed was time, and he would have that.
'No negotiation with terrorist' - Hah! Half of what he'd done for the company was basically paying off terrorists.
All he needed now was to draw Jimminez, and his rebels into a killing ground, and use the squadron of Eagles to smash them.
And, to make his day, the navy had actually done something useful. By pure luck, they'd intercepted a shipment of heavy arms, mortars, and light field pieces.
Sarah cleaned herself up as best she could in the palatial bathroom. She hurt, but could move, and no bruises showed.
What could she use for a weapon? Sarah felt the urge to do some damage.
The dress she'd been given was ridiculously short. And tight.
She cursed the lack of coms. They'd ditched the earwigs while in the truck. Those would have been hard to explain away.
She prayed he was alright.
Ooh wait, that comb has a nice sharp pointy bit…..
The rebels, Chuck and Casey were now in a running fire fight with the army.
The ground forces were probably upset about the prison bombing. Or something.
The rebels drew back to another plaza in the city. There were more rebel forces waiting, to provide enfilade fire, bogging the regulars down, and allowing the rebels to regroup in a safe area.
A.N. An-der-son. Bryce was an SF fan. We know that. Am surprised that The Matrix ref was never used in the show.