A/N: Thank you again for all the reviews. It is really helpful in the writing process. I have really enjoyed writing this so far. I hope you enjoy this next chapter and I hope to start getting a couple chapters out a week, life permitting. Usual disclaimer: I do not own Chuck or any of its characters. Please read and review. Thanks
It had been almost two weeks since the call. Team Bartowski had searched everywhere for any information on their secret admirer. General Beckman had been no help. She had no Intel on the mystery man and all her contacts had come up dry. Chuck was starring a computer screen in castle. He had run the picture of the mystery man and Casey's attacker through every database he could think of and nothing. How could this be? No one just doesn't exist in today's world. The frustration was staring to build inside of Chuck. How am I supposed to defeat this man and protect my family? That was the only thought that kept running through Chuck's head. He was finally pulled from his work by the sound of a door opening. He looked at the top of the stairs and there was Sarah. She looked beautiful as ever. Even with everything going on she still was able to put a smile on her face when their eyes met.
"Hey beautiful any luck with your contacts?" Chucked asked Sarah
"They've got nothing. It is like this group doesn't exist. In all my years I have never seen anything like this. Yes there have been secret groups, but there were always rumblings and whispers in the back ground. With these guys there is nothing." Sarah said with a hint of frustration in her voice.
"Casey still has a few feelers out and hopefully he will get something soon for us to go on." Chuck said as he turned his attention back to his computer screen. Sarah sat next to him and started to review the information that Chuck was working on.
"Sarah do you really think we are going to be able to survive this? I mean we have been up against it before, but this seems different. Here we are grasping at straws and we still have nothing to show. With the ring and fulcrum we at least new their objective. With this group we know absolutely nothing, and to top it all off they are just playing with us. I feel like we are stuck in a cat and mouse game, and we are the mouse." Chuck said with a hint of desperation in his voice.
"Chuck if I have learned anything from our time together is that you can't under estimate our team. I really wouldn't consider myself and optimist, but with our team I just know we can figure this out." Sarah said as she took Chuck's hands in hers. "We will make it through this Chuck. That big brain of yours will come up with something." Sarah pressed a quick kiss on Chuck's lips and went back to the information in front of her. She knew she was kind of blowing smoke at this point, but she had to be positive. The team needed someone to be and she was more than willing to take on the task.
"That is all the info we have gotten from the General, my mom, and every spy contact we can think of. It is basically a pile of nothing. Rumors and speculation that lead to dead ends and nothing but ghost stories told around the camp fire. The problem with that is even the ghost stories we have can almost all be accounted for or point to other groups." Chuck looked at the info again hoping that something would jump out at him. Just then his phone rang and Casey's picture popped up on the screen.
"Hey big guy any luck on the new bad guy. I see well keep us posted if you come across anything. Sarah and I will be in Castle going over everything. "As Chuck hung up the phone he could feel a since of desperation crawling over him. Casey had nothing, Sarah had nothing, and everyone they knew had nothing. They were right where the man wanted them desperate and in the dark. He had them cornered and Chuck knew it was just a matter of time until the man's evil plan would start to reveal itself.
Just as that thought was running through his mind all the monitors in castle went dark and was replaced with his image. "Hello Chuck. I figured a couple of weeks would be enough time for you and your team to wonder down the rabbit hole. So what did you find?" He asked already knowing the answer. Chuck and Sarah sat in silence neither one wanted to give the man the satisfaction of telling him they had nothing. "Well I will take your silence as a declaration of defeat. I told you that you wouldn't find anything, and now you know just how serious this really is."
Chuck just stared into the man's eyes looking for any kind of emotion or tells. Anything that could give his team the upper hand. "I guess you got us." Chuck replied. "I do have to be honest though always referring to you as the man in the picture is quite annoying any way you could give us a name to go with the face?" Chuck asked.
"Oh Chuck. Here you go again trying to make me the most important part of the conversation when you and your team are the true stars. I want to show you something Chuck." As the man completed his statement his image on the monitor was replaced, but unlike last time it wasn't images of Chuck's family. It was images of people Chuck had met in his life. There was Big Mike, Jeff and Lester, Lou, and even Hannah.
"Why are you showing me this?" Chuck shouted at the screen
"Just more motivation for you Chuck. You see desperate people tend to make desperate decisions. My organization and I have no doubt if you and your immediate family decided to disappear you would be able to do so. You do have four very capable spies at your disposal. Yes it wouldn't be ideal for your sister and her family, or any of you for that matter but it would definitely be an option. So we want you to know that if you run there are plenty of people left for us to come after. You see Chuck your compassion is both your greatest strength and your greatest weakness. The trust and compassion you show in this world is quite admirable and has suited you well over the years, but we are willing to bet that if you found out that….let's pick this one." As the man said this the image of Lou filled the screen. "I know she is just an exgirlfriend and all, but how would you feel if she was killed in a robbery gone wrong. You see Chuck even though you have had no contact with this person in years you still care enough about people that you couldn't live with yourself. What about this one?" The man pointed to the image of Big Mike. "A little something extra in his daily doughnut should do the trick. Now that I have your attention let us get down to some very important business." The man's demeanor changed his playful tone had now been replaced with a stern and forceful one.
Sarah just watched as all of this unfolded in front of her. Her spy training had kicked in and she was looking for anything that could help them with the man in front of her. Confident to the point of arrogant she thought to herself. Maybe this is something we can use. The fine line between confidence and arrogance is something spies have to walk all the time. You must have the confidence to do your job, but not become so arrogant that you become sloppy. Sarah continued to watch as the man showed the images of people Chuck had come into contact with. This group knew everything there was to know about them as a team. They showed images of people that were merely a blip on the radar over the last five years, but there they were on the screen. Their only sin was crossing paths with team Bartowski. Sarah could see Chuck's demeanor starting to change. The fear and desperation that was there earlier was slowly being replaced by anger and determination. She thought back to right before their wedding. She remembered Casey telling her the story of Chuck's and Decker's exchange in the prison. She knew that once you threatened Chuck's family and friends he would do anything to stop you. She was glad to see that anger brewing in Chuck she knew they were going to need it if they were to survive this.
"My husband asked you a question, and since you obviously are avoiding it I think it only fair that I ask it again. What is your name?" Sarah asked knowing that she was poking the bear a little bit.
"I am so sorry. I almost forgot you were there. I get so involved in my conversations with Chuck here I forget about anything else. I will tell you the same thing that I told him. I am of no importance. I am just the messenger and your team is the true star of our show. "The man grinned at Sarah and then moved back to Chuck.
Sarah decided it was time to press and see what if anything she could get from the man. "You say you are just a messenger and we are the stars then why don't we get to talk to the real brains of the operation? I have dealt with lackeys like you in the past and all they do is get in the way. Why don't we cut out the middle man and talk to the boss." Sarah said with a grin on her face.
The man on the screen just went quiet. Sarah could tell his pride had just taken a blow, and that is what she was going for. She knew it was a risk, but it was one she felt like she had to take. She couldn't sit back anymore and watch this man threaten anyone and everyone in their lives. The man just stared at Sarah as if he was contemplating what to do next. Finally an evil smirk crept across his face. "So I am just a nothing to you. An insignificant pawn on your chess board. Well how about a demonstration of what I am capable of." Just then an image of Sarah's father appeared on the screen. Sarah couldn't tell where he was or what he was doing, but she could tell it was him. The way he carried himself, the mannerisms when he spoke, and the way he smiled. It was definitely him.
"You see Sarah with the flick of a button I could end him right now. All I have to do is make the call and bang it's over. Let's see how insignificant you think I am after I hit this button right….here." he pressed the button and on the screen you could see two bullets strike the wall behind her father. He quickly covered himself and ran.
"Stop. Please stop. Just don't hurt him." Sarah pleaded. This group really knew everything about them if they were able to locate her father.
"You see Sarah. I had my man miss. Just a couple inches to the left and you would have had a funeral to plan. But as luck would have it I don't have time for you to do that right now. I have some business to get to. I will tell you what how about you call me Mr. Smith if that makes you guys feel better and we can move on from this nonsense of who I am and what I want." His arrogant grin had returned and looked at Sarah and looked at Chuck and just continued to smile at them.
"Ok now that we have all that settled we can move on to business. Tomorrow morning you will receive an envelope with everything you need to know about your mission. Times, dates, parties involved, you know all the fun spy stuff. You complete your mission and no one gets hurt it is that simple. You fail to complete you mission well then someone you know won't get to see much more of this beautiful world. I will be in touch. Oh and Chuck…Good luck." Mr. Smith just smiled and just as when he appeared the screens went black and he was gone.
"Sarah what were you thinking pushing him like that you could of gotten someone killed." Chuck was freaking out over the events that had just unfolded in front of him.
"Chuck. Calm down. I tried to push him to see if I could get him to slip up. I didn't figure he would hurt anyone, because he still needs our cooperation and he knows that if he hurt someone over something as small as pressing his authority he wouldn't be able to control us with fear much longer." Sarah said almost trying to convince herself as much as Chuck.
"What did I miss?" Casey said as he walked down the steps. Chuck and Sarah just stared at him.
"Come on you two. Put your lady feelings aside and just tell me what happened." Casey said.
Sarah explained to Casey everything that had transpired when Mr. Smith had contacted them. She also informed him about the upcoming mission.
"So what is our play? Do we go through with the mission or do we try to come up with an exit strategy?" Casey asked.
"I think we have to plan on doing the mission. There is no way we can protect everyone and there is no way that we can come up with an exit strategy by tomorrow." Chuck replied.
"I agree with Chuck, but I do think we have to start working on an exit strategy of some kind. We know absolutely nothing about these people and they know everything about us. "Sarah tried to continue her with her thought, but Chuck quickly interrupted her.
"That is it Sarah." Chuck grabbed Sarah's face and gave her a giant kiss. "We have been going about this all wrong. We have been digging into who this Mr. Smith is when we should really be digging into our lives." Chuck said.
Casey and Sarah just looked at Chuck like he was nuts. "What are you talking about?" They said in unison.
"You both said that they know everything there is to know about us. How is that? They have to have bugs, cameras, people, and who knows what else gathering information on us all the time. If we can find common links in all of our lives and our friend's lives then maybe just maybe we can use that information to track this group down. I know it is a long shot, but it is the only shot we have." Chuck was excited he finally felt like he had something that he could sink his teeth into.
"Ok calm down Bartowski, before you going getting all excited let's start doing some digging and see what we can find. In the mean time we need to be ready for whatever this mission is tomorrow. I doubt we are going to be able to figure all this out by then. We are probably going to have to get our hands dirty. We need to figure out a way to secretly keep Beckman and your mom in the loop. Whoever this group is obviously has friends in high places. "Casey said.
"You are right. I will set up a secure network for Beckman and my mom to be able to contact us on. I also say we try to keep as much of our communication the face to face variety. I will do some research tonight and then we should all get some rest, because who knows what they have in store for us tomorrow." Chuck replied.
With all this the team started to prepare for whatever Mr. Smith and his group had in store for them. They still knew nothing about this group or their ultimate objective, but at least now they had something to run with.
