A/N: The gang continues playing Scott's Game.
Once again, thanks for the most encouraging reviews and I apologize if I confused you with all the technical details in the previous chapter.
Chapter 7 – Kill Screen
"What is that?" Casey asked.
"What?" Chuck asked. His gaze followed Casey's pointing finger to the forest on one side of the dirt road. He immediately hit the brakes. "Sarah, Morgan, look," he said. A section of the treeline bordering the road was flickering.
"Whoa," Morgan said.
"Chuck, what is going on?" Sarah asked.
"Just a minor glitch, I guess. It happens sometimes to game graphics. I'll just steer clear of it."
"Yeah, we'd better do that," Casey agreed.
"What does your screen show?"
"Everything appears normal. No flickering. It looks good both on thermal and on the day channel."
"OK. It's nothing to worry about then." Chuck carefully skirted the area of the disturbance. Once they had passed it he pressed down harder on the gas pedal.
-O-
"I think we may have something here," Alex Forrest said, looking up from the file she'd been reading.
"Care to share it with me?" Carina asked.
"There are repeated mentions to someone unnamed, who really made an impression on the Ring agents who met him. Apparently he was a somewhat regular visitor to the warehouse. He must have been someone important, as he always had an armed escort." Alex gave Carina the file to study.
"He is a scientist," she said after a few minutes of reading. "And they called him by various, mostly derogatory, names, too; 'egghead', 'Nutty Professor', 'Dr. Weirdo', 'Mad Scientist', "Dr. Wirestein', 'Professor Gadget'. He always talked only to the head of the cell, but still piqued the others' curiosity. If possible, I'd like to interrogate the cell leader and see what he has to tell us."
"I'll contact the General."
A few minutes later the two lady agents wrapped up the teleconference with General Beckman. She had adamantly refused to allow either of them to leave the assignment and interrogate a former senior Ring agent, but instead suggested that they do it over a video link. With no other option, they agreed. It would be better than nothing.
The General had also sent them the file of the aforementioned agent. According to it she'd been captured by Team Bartowski after she tried to turn a man she'd mistakenly believed to be the infamous Charles Carmichael only to be thwarted by the real Carmichael (Chuck). She'd been shot and was in a coma for a month, but when she recovered she cut a deal with the CIA and was given witness protection in return for the information she provided on the Ring and its operations in the West Coast area. Her name was Sydney Prince. Alex and Carina were scheduled to contact her in a couple of hours, which was as soon as it could be set up.
-O-
Chuck was driving at a breakneck speed, enjoying the performance of the powerful vehicle.
"Slow down, Moron," Casey growled. "We don't want to attract undue attention."
"Casey's right," Sarah said. "We are coming up on a crossroads, be careful."
Chuck grudgingly slowed down, but still went through the intersection fast. Then he started going faster.
"Didn't I just tell you to slow down?"
"Sorry, Casey, but we picked up a tail and they don't look friendly to me." He mashed the accelerator to the floor, occasionally sneaking a glance at the rear view mirror. Casey looked in the mirror on his side and saw a Humvee and a dune buggy, both heavily armed, in hot pursuit. He then slewed the RCWS around to deal with the new threat. Quite surprisingly, it was Morgan who'd reacted first. Before Casey even had his hands on the joystick, he'd grabbed the M249 from their stock of weapons, opened a firing port that was located in the rear door, stuck the barrel out and started firing. He knew that trying to aim from a moving vehicle was pointless, so the best he could hope for was to lay down suppressive fire, forcing the mercs to keep from getting too close until Casey could use the stabilized weapon under his control to rid them of their pursuers.
Surprisingly, as he locked the sight on the leading enemy vehicle, which happened to be the dune buggy, Casey saw it swerve abruptly, go out of control and roll several times until it wrapped itself around a thick tree trunk.
"You did that, numb nuts?"
"I think so," Morgan replied. He must have hit the unprotected driver of the dune buggy.
"Good job, little buddy," Chuck enthused.
"You did great!" Sarah added.
"My turn," said Casey with an evil smirk and pulled the trigger on his joystick. The fifty caliber machine gun stuttered and the heavy rounds turned the interior of the Humvee into a charnel house after penetrating the armor glass windscreen as if it was made of rice paper. The enemy vehicle lurched to a halt, steam pouring out of its punctured radiator and smoke coming out of the engine.
"All clear behind us now," Sarah confirmed.
"Drive on, Moron."
"Where are we going?"
"According to our briefing file we need to destroy a WMD storage facility. It's north-west of here."
"The road leads there," Sarah said, after studying a map.
"We'll need to stop and plan for this phase of the operation."
"We will, don't worry, Chuck."
Chuck kept driving on the road until the car navigation system told them that they were just a couple of miles from their new target. He stopped and had Casey do a scan of the surrounding area using the thermal sight of the weapon station. No signs of human presence were detected, so Chuck drove the armored vehicle off the road and into the cover afforded by trees and heavy brush.
"Why did we stop, buddy?" Morgan asked.
"Nature's calling," said Chuck, opening his door and going to relieve himself. The others also took the opportunity to do their business in the woods. Once they were done, they got together for a planning session. Casey laid the maps and satellite photos on a folding table he'd set up inside the Renault.
"It doesn't appear to be heavily guarded," said Sarah.
"It doesn't need to. If not for the guard shack and the hut near the bridge this place would be almost undetectable.
"It's carved into solid rock."
"Nah, they probably expanded a preexisting natural cave," Casey said.
"It looks almost impossible to destroy by air."
"Not even bunker buster bombs are effective. In fact, nothing short of a nuke can do anything to this place, and perhaps not even that, unless it's a deep underground detonation."
"We need to gain access inside the bunker. There is no other way."
"Agreed. But the area around has been denuded for about five hundred meters. There is no cover at all. It'll be suicide to try a direct approach."
"Chuck is right," Sarah said.
"That he is, Walker. That's why we are going to take out the guards from a distance. Fortunately we have rifles powerful and accurate enough to do the job at that range."
"Good. It's settled then. Now, can we have some lunch?" Morgan asked.
"I'm famished," Sarah admitted.
*grunt* (Might be a good idea to fill up now that we have the time)
They had a quick lunch of not so tasty MREs and then they proceeded to drive as close to their objective as they could without being detected. Leaving the vehicle under the cover of some trees, they carefully went to a spot overlooking the bridge and the bunker entrance.
"I see seven guards," Casey said.
"Anyone in the hut?" Sarah asked.
"There's nobody in there," Chuck replied after taking a good look with a portable thermal camera.
"Let's take them out," said Morgan. "I'll get the weapons." He went to the Renault and got Casey's sniper rifle, the MSG90A1 which he gave to Sarah, the Mk.14 for Chuck and the HK 417 for himself.
"You're learning, numb nuts," Casey said.
"Thanks. I do the same while playing Call of Duty. I always switch to bigger guns at these ranges." He then put his Intersect glasses on and pressed the activation button. Within seconds he knew sniper techniques, among other things.
Casey used the suppressed rifle to take out the mercenary nearest the radio. Almost simultaneously, Sarah, Chuck and Morgan dropped three more with headshots. One of the remaining three started running for the radio, but he dropped dead with two bullets in him, courtesy of Sarah and Casey. Chuck and Morgan killed the other two as they were trying to take cover. The way to the bunker was clear. The four agents went back to their car and Chuck drove them to the foot of the hill by the bunker entrance.
-O-
"I don't know who it was," Sydney told Alex and Carina over the video link. "The higher-ups always had at least three agents watching over him. He was none too happy about it. I guess he didn't like working for the Ring."
"Did you happen to learn anything about what he was working on?" Carina asked.
"No. We were strictly prohibited from discussing anything business related with him. He must have been working on something very highly classified. All he used to do at the warehouse was take delivery of some boxes, electronics mostly."
"Do you know anyone who might be able to shed some light on all this?"
"Sorry, no. We operated in cells, but then you already know that. A number of cells reported to a hub, which acted as an intermediary between us and headquarters. I was very low in the food chain," Sydney said, running a hand through her hair. Ever since accepting the CIA's offer of witness protection she'd done everything asked of her, told them everything they wanted to know and now all she wanted was to leave the spy business behind and live a normal life. She thought of the nice guy she'd started dating a couple of months ago. Fortunately he was at work and would not notice her absence. "You'll have to ask someone placed higher than I was," she added.
"Is there anything else that you remember?"
"I don't think so. No, wait! I once overheard him and one of his bodyguards talking. The bodyguard called him 'Scotty', but I don't think it was his real name. I'm certain it was an alias."
"One more thing," Alex said. "What can you tell us of any dealings the Ring might have had with Volkoff Industries?"
"Not much, I'm afraid. Volkoff mostly supplied weapons, but there were a couple of joint operations I heard about. My cell was never involved in them, in any way. I can't give you any details. I know these operations took place, but not what they were about. My guess is that they were operations to acquire weapons technology."
'Thank you, Ms. Prince, you've been helpful," Carina said.
"You are welcome, Agents."
"Have a nice afternoon," Alex said and signed off. "Well, that wasn't a complete bust," she told Carina.
"We still need to find someone who knows what this Scotty was up to."
"I'll let the General know." Someone knocked on the door. Carina approached it carefully, gun drawn.
"Alex, Carina, are you in there?" It was Ellie. Carina relaxed and holstered her pistol. She opened the door and smiled.
"Hi Ellie. We're both here."
"Any news from my brother, Morgan and the others?"
"They sent us some stuff to look into," Carina lied.
"So they still haven't found Sarah and John."
"It's only a matter of time," Alex interjected. "Chuck sounded pretty confident on the phone."
"He'll never give up. Chuck will find them, trust me on that," Ellie said and turned to go back to her apartment. "Dinner will be at eight," she told the two agents over her shoulder. She smiled as she knew that they were both drooling in anticipation of another home cooked meal.
-O-
"We need to try and bypass this electronic lock," Chuck said.
"Can't you do it?" Sarah whispered, meaning the Intersect. Nobody mentioned Chuck's special skills aloud so as not to compromise the secret.
"I can try," he replied and focused on the keypad by the door. No flash. "I guess it'll just take us a little longer," he said and went to take the necessary equipment from the Sherpa. Casey and Morgan covered them as they hooked up a special device to the keypad. It took them a few minutes, but in the end they managed to get the heavy reinforced door open.
"Piece of cake," Sarah smiled.
"Shall we?" Chuck asked.
"After you," she replied.
"Cut it out you two, will you?" Casey grumbled.
"Look out for other security systems," Morgan advised.
"Good call, little buddy." The place was apparently equipped with its own generator and a sensor that activated the interior lights automatically when someone entered the correct pass code. The four walked carefully along the corridors and took a long elevator ride down, before coming up to the main storage chamber. A lot of crates were neatly arranged inside.
"This doesn't look like a weapons storage room," Chuck commented.
"He's right," Casey agreed. "There is no environment control except for the ventilation system and the air conditioner. Whatever they have in here must be pretty insensitive to storage conditions."
"There are no booby traps or other security measures in the crates," Sarah said.
"Then let's open one and see what's inside," Morgan suggested, hefting a crowbar that he found on the floor. The others let him open one. "Wow," he said, after taking a peek at the contents.
"What is it?"
"Chuck, you are not going to believe this! WMDs my ass! These crates are full of gold bars! There is enough gold in here to start a small country."
"What? Let me see." Chuck, Sarah and Casey crowded around the crate Morgan had just opened.
"So the intel was wrong," Casey commented.
"What do we do?"
"We report it, Walker. But first, we block the entrance so that the bad guys cannot get to the gold."
"Sounds like a good plan."
"What are we waiting for? Let's do it!"
-O-
"Excellent job, Colonel. Your team has a perfect score so far," Scott said through the interface link to the team's ruggedized laptop. Casey grunted in acknowledgment.
"So, are we done here?" Chuck asked.
"Oh, I'm sorry, Agent Carmichael," said Scott. "I forgot that people must be very worried about you and your friends. I tend to get too focused on work to the exclusion of everything else. I wonder why my wife hasn't divorced me yet. Anyway, I'll shorten the demo level by giving you one of the alternate final missions. Your briefing file is being uploaded as we speak. Good hunting." He signed off.
"Looks pretty straightforward," Casey said as he went over the file Scott had sent them. "We need to take out their air defense coordination and fire distribution center in preparation for a UN intervention. With their SAM system blind the assault force should be able to approach unhindered."
"This reminds me of Street Fighter," Morgan said humorously.
"More like the Return of the Jedi, little buddy."
"I stand corrected. After all, you have your Leia with you – and Chewie."
"Are you implying that I'm the Wookiee, numb nuts?"
"Who'd you rather be, Sugar Bear or Darth Vader?" Sarah teased. Chuck and Morgan laughed.
*grunt* (Shut the fuck up and focus on the job at hand)
They boarded their vehicle again and drove off towards their new objective. Chuck stopped close to it and they took up positions on a nearby hill to observe. It was a complex of concrete bunkers and a large pedestal supporting a huge antenna for a 3D phased array radar. It was no more heavily guarded than the gold vault, and much easier to approach undetected, so Casey decided that some shock and awe was the order of the day.
They would use the armored vehicle for the initial assault to breach the perimeter. Chuck drove it at the best possible speed up the hill and Casey used the heavy machine gun on the sentry posts with great success. The garrison belatedly started forming up to counter the attack, but lacking heavy weapons they could not hope to stop Team Chuck. The remotely controlled fifty caliber gun was firing short bursts as Casey used it to flush out the mercenaries from whatever flimsy cover they could find, while Sarah and Morgan were spraying bullets with their weapons out the side and rear firing ports. Soon, the few surviving hostiles were those that were barricaded inside the bunkers, which were too thickly walled for even the M2 to have any effect on. The situation called for some heavier firepower.
"They must have called for reinforcements, so we have to finish here quickly," Casey yelled over the din of the gun battle and let loose a burst from his HK 121.
"I have something that might help," Sarah said and opened the rear doors of the Sherpa to take out the rocket launchers she had appropriated from the helicopter base arsenal.
"These will do nicely," Morgan said.
"On my mark, covering fire!" Casey said. "Three, two, one, MARK!" The embrasures of the nearest bunker were smothered with automatic weapons fire and Morgan fired the first AT4. The weapon worked as advertised and the bunker's occupants were eliminated. Chuck and Morgan then fired the smaller RPG-22s at a couple of smaller structures, effectively suppressing the enemy fire from them. Casey used the last AT4 to destroy another fortified guard post. All that remained was the main bunker housing the radar electronics and the communications and data link systems to the surface-to-air missile batteries.
Covered by Chuck and Morgan, Sarah and Casey carefully approached the massive structure and fired their two RPO-A rockets. There was no way anyone could have survived that kind of firepower. For good measure they placed a large demolition charge at the base of the radar antenna and set the timer. A spectacular explosion as they were driving off blew the thing to pieces.
Scott contacted them again and directed them to the west coast of the island. There was a villa there, and it was deserted, but he didn't tell them that. The team carefully entered and after a few minutes of searching found nobody inside.
"There's no one here," Chuck said.
"That's weird. There is no intel either," Casey said.
"Let's go that way," Sarah suggested.
They all went to the veranda. What they saw astonished them. Instead of mid afternoon, it was dusk outside, the sun having almost completely set. It was very beautiful; the sky, the beach, even the light ocean breeze. Suddenly, the sky was lit up by a most impressive fireworks display.
"Wow," said Sarah, as Chuck drew her closer to him and they held each other as they admired the sight.
"It's the kill screen," Chuck said, almost in awe, as the word 'CONGRATULATIONS' appeared in the sky.
"It was a good mission," said Casey. "You all did a great job."
"We beat the Game," Morgan gloated. A TV screen came on with their last instructions. They were to fly back to the island where the mission started, change into the clothes they had been wearing before entering the virtual world and then they would be brought back to the real world. An amphibious aircraft was anchored in the surf, which the Intersect identified as being a sleek AeroVolga LA-8. They left everything behind except for the weapons they had at the start of the operation.
Chuck even surprised Sarah by sweeping her off her feet into his arms and carrying her to the boarding ladder. Casey took the controls with Morgan navigating, while Chuck and Sarah cuddled together in the cabin. The flight was very pleasant and Casey made a perfect landing at an airstrip that had magically, or rather digitally, appeared on the island forty minutes later. They headed back to the bungalow and quickly changed. Scott directed them to a room.
"Did you make sure not to leave any of your stuff behind and to take everything you brought here with you?"
"We did," Casey answered. "We double-checked, too."
"Good, you are ready to return, then."
"Beam us up, Scotty," Chuck said.
