A/N 6/16/12 – Thanks again to uplink2 providing beta services on this chapter. And thanks to somedeepmystery for sharing your thoughts about the story with me, and also to ww1posterfan for your endorsement on the Chuck This Blog.
I don't own Chuck.
Chuck Versus the Lost Years
Act 8 - The Best Laid Plans
- I -
"We are so close, Chuck. I think we'll have the coding work done in another day or two," said Manoosh Depak, as he tapped out a quick series of keystrokes and punched the Enter key with a flourish of his index finger. "Here, take a look at this." He pounded a few more keys with authority and slapped the Enter key again with a loud click.
Sarah was dozing in the chair next to Chuck, and her chin came up off her palm abruptly as her elbow slipped off the edge of the tall desk Chuck's workstation was on. "What? What'd I miss?" She exclaimed with some alarm.
Chuck chuckled, "Nuttin', honey. Manoosh is just getting a little excitable about our progress…look," he said pointing at the graphic representing the progress to goal chart Dr. Depak had sent to one of his monitors, "Ninety-nine percent complete, with only ninety-nine percent to go."
"Very funny, Chuck," Manoosh said, rolling of his eyes with a shake of his head. "We're much closer than that. Those figures take into account bug zapping and dry runs of all the code to date. I'd like to add that I found very few, well, less than a few, only two bugs that tied back to all the thousands of lines of code you've written or reviewed so far on this project. I wish I could say the same for my own record on that. I wasn't even close."
"Waitwaitwaitwait, when did you find the time to review all those lines of code and scripts? And I've never even seen a dry run completed while I was here."
"Like I told you, I don't sleep much. All that really remains to be done are less than a hundred lines of code and some API tie scripts for the brain physiology packages. Then we'll be ready to transfer the latest encoded database imagery from Ft. Meade to complete the update of the Intersect database in the monolithic memory core." Manoosh returned a satisfied smile to the incredulous looks written on Chuck and Sarah's faces. "I thought we'd do a download dry run using the new host interface room this evening if you feel like hanging around for that. I think you'll find the new holographic projection system quite impressive."
Chuck studied his friend across the table from him. Yes, over the last few days he was starting to see Monoosh Depak as a real friend as they had hammered away on this project. Manoosh had been literally living in Castle for the last ten days. Chuck didn't think he'd seen daylight in over a week, and now he realized as he smiled at him that it really showed. He had been too tired and preoccupied himself up until this point to notice. "Of course we'd like to be here to see that," he looked at Sarah questioningly, "How about it Sarah, are you ready to see how all of this is supposed to work?"
Sarah gulped and sat up straight in her chair as her attention swung back and forth between the two men and the magnitude of the conversation sank in, "Yes, I'd like to see it…very much. Although I'm not exactly sure how seeing it can be accomplished without going through a download. How do you explain that?"
Manoosh laughed, "Well, you're right, Sarah, you can't actually be in the download room when a full blown dry run is happening, we'll be watching the progress and the results here on the control monitors. But I can demonstrate how the projection system works without actual Intersect encoded images. Basically, we'll just be projecting the 3D containment shells without the imbedded imagery in them. The new Intersect will use three-dimensional geometric shapes to classify the datasets contained in them, and the datasets themselves are also layered three dimensionally."
"By placing the data in 3D container shells and sub-packages it can be recognized and accessed much faster by the brain," he pressed on, upon seeing Sarah's eyebrows lift. "In theory almost instantaneously, and with much less strain. If I were to show you a demonstration of the container system it would almost be like formatting and partitioning a file system on a computer, but without erasing any of the data that's already in memory," he said tapping the side of his head. "All an actual download would do differently is fill the containment shells with several terabytes of data."
"Well that's a relief, no more annoying memory erasing, and only a few terabytes," Sarah said with a hint of sarcasm. Her eyes had grown wide when he mentioned the word 'formatting'. She'd seen that message on a computer screen before; the one that warned 'all data already on the disk will be erased, are you sure you want to proceed?'
"Don't worry, Sarah," Manoosh said with a chuckle, "That still leaves you with, conservatively speaking, about 800 terabytes of unused space in your noggin."
"That better not be a dumb blonde joke." Sarah's gaze had danger hiding in plain sight within.
"Oh? Ha,ha! No, that's just how much estimated untapped capacity we all have," he answered, nervously. "The human brain is severely underutilized. We all have a lot of room to spare in there."
"So, what's left to do to finish this, Manoosh?" Chuck asked, grinning at Sarah's reaction to his partner's description of brain capacity.
"I've sent three scripting assignments to your desktop, Chuck, and your sister has sent you an email with the file names and command indexes you'll be pointing the scripts to. They should be in your inbox now."
Chuck opened up his email and looked it over. "Yup, it's right here. I guess I'll get started on it." He and Sarah shared a nervous smile. "This is getting exciting."
"Yeah, exciting," said Sarah flatly, with a sigh, "I'll take your word for it."
- II -
As they piled out of the elevator a highly customized silver Mercedes Sprinter van screeched to a halt in front of them with Morgan Grimes at the wheel. Emblazoned on the side were the words Volton Communications in stylized comic book graphics and an orange lightning bolt surrounding the lettering. Morgan was dressed in a company uniform with the logo over his left pocket and on the ball cap he had on his head.
Lori opened the sliding side door and jumped in as Tony Carmichael ran for the roll up door to the secondary parking garage. He stopped short at the door and whistled as he looked at all the vehicles in the parking area and spied several doors on the left wall of the large room. A short laugh came from him as he realized that none of the vehicles were black. "Casey! Which one of these Tahoes?" he yelled back into the main garage as he looked at the three Chevy's parked side by side.
"It doesn't matter, other than color they're all identical!" Casey shouted back, "Take the gold one!"
Tony ran to the four wheel drive Chevrolet Tahoe and opened the driver's door. As he was climbing in his eyes fell on three Porsches parked side-by-side parked by themselves in the corner of the garage - a dark metallic blue Porsche 911 Carrera 4S Cabriolet, a 911 pure blue Speedster, and a GT2 RS - all very rare cars. Apparently, his new boss was also a Porsche collector. He could think of much worse habits to have. "Whoa...nice," he muttered covetously under his breath. "I hope those are pool cars..."
Nope. They were all Sarah's. She just didn't know it yet.
Tony's eyes grew even wider when he started the Tahoe and immediately realized that whatever was under the hood was far from stock either. The engine made an absolutely intimidating sound and the large off-road tires barked as he dropped the transmission into drive and began to pull into the main garage area.
"I think I'm going to like working here," he said with a grin, pulling out of the aux parking area and watching as the roll-up door behind him came down in the rear-view mirror and the main garage entry door started its way up in front of him when he pulled in back of the van.
"We're all going out at once!" Casey shouted from the side of his car. "We need to try and confuse what's left of that surveillance team! Earbuds in, everyone!"
"Casey let's take my Cadillac," exclaimed Nikki pointing to her car, "It's faster than your Ford."
"Is it bullet resistant? Does it have a missile launcher?"
Nikki's eyes grew wide. "No," she answered sheepishly. A missile launcher? That thing?
"Then we're takin' the Vic," he said with a sparkle in his eye, "Get in."
Casey opened the trunk of the Crown Victoria and grabbed a large black duffel and a nylon double rifle case. He threw them into the back seat as Nikki climbed into the front passenger seat and started to buckle up.
The Crown Victoria sprang to life and pulled to the front of the other two waiting vehicles. Casey toggled the VOX circuit on his watch and punched a button on his dash that activated an amplified comm repeater. "Okay, all at once, team, turn right going out, we'll pick up the 210 at Lake Avenue." He stomped on the gas and made a hard right turn onto Colorado Blvd with the Sprinter and the Tahoe not far behind him in the rear-view mirror.
"Where the hell are they going?" One of two remaining surveillance team members in the office across the street asked his partner with alarm as he watched the vehicles pull quickly eastbound onto the street too fast to I.D. the drivers or passengers in them.
"Shit! I have no idea, but we better call Preston," exclaimed the other man, reaching quickly for his cell phone.
"Talk to us Sally," said Casey, as he pulled onto the 210 freeway westbound and activated the red and blue strobes hidden in the Crown Vics running lights and floored it.
"The van is on 134 coming up on the Glendale freeway interchange, Colonel, the SUV is about six miles ahead of it traveling the same direction," said the voice of Sally Williams over everyone's earbuds, "The AMG is on the 110 just now approaching the I-5 interchange. The van and the SUV are going about 85, the AMG about 75."
"Okay. Morgan, stay within the speed limit and plan on eventually setting up surveillance wherever that Mercedes ends up." Casey looked over at Nikki with a look of exasperation on his face, "Damn, I wish we had found a way to put a tracker on Preston before he ran off."
"Maybe we did, Casey," Tony Carmichael offered over the comms, "I scattered some sticky button trackers around the vehicles in that alley when I was tagging the cars. Maybe one of those guys picked one up on his shoe."
"Whose bright idea was that?"
"Guilty as charged," Nikki said with a thin smile, raising her hand.
"Hmng" Casey pushed another button on his dash and an LCD multi-function display came out of the middle of the dash below the radio. "Pull up the telemetry, Lawson, let's see if we can figure out where these guys are going."
Nikki looked briefly at the command options on the display for each of the keys surrounding the display bezel. "This looks familiar. There's one just like it in the F/A-18 Hornet," she said, moving rapidly through the command tree, to pull up a moving map showing the van they were chasing as a moving icon. She studied it for a moment then scowled. "Oh, shit. This doesn't look good, Casey, they're turning onto the northbound I-5."
"Damn! Sally, notify Vincent Oddo about this. Tell him we need a tactical team at the Burbank Buy More, now!"
"Calling now, Casey."
Casey pulled his phone from his pocket and punched a speed dial number. Chuck's phone went directly to voicemail. He tried Sarah's number with the same results. "Try sending Chuck a text, Lawson, his phone is going directly to voicemail."
She pulled out her phone and texted: 911 pick up your phone! And a few seconds later received a 'failed to send' notification. "No good, Casey, I think they're being jammed."
Casey punched another speed dial number. "Gertie, it's John. Where are you right now?"
"I'm in Hillcrest looking at a house with the realtor." Gertrude could sense the urgency in his voice, "Why? What's going on?"
"No time to explain, Gertie. Drop everything and get to the Buy More, we need your help. Do you have Silent Suzy with you?"
"She's always in the trunk, you know that, Johnny. I'm on my way, I'll give you an ETA when I'm on the road." Gertrude hung up and ran out of the house leaving the realtor standing in the living room with her mouth agape.
"Gertie?" Nikki asked with an ear-to-ear grin. "You know you left your VOX circuit on, don't you? And who is Silent Suzy? And why are you and Gertie keeping her locked up in the trunk?"
They heard laughter that could only have been Morgan's, coming through their earbuds.
Casey turned bright red. "Put a sock in it, Grimes!"
- III -
"Damn you, McKay! What the hell were you thinking running an op without notifying us! What the fuck are you doing?" Sloan yelled into the phone.
"Relax, Edgar, I'm giving you what you wanted. The op hasn't changed; we just had to bump up the timetable. I'm getting your Intersect tech back, and if it works out I'll have a bonus for you, a human Intersect to play with also. We had to move while we had a window of opportunity. We only found out about it a short while ago."
"Fuck, McKay, you should have told us what was going on! I have an eight-man team on route to back you up. They'll be there in ten minutes. If this goes south your head will be sitting on the corner of my desk! And what's this garbage about a human Intersect?"
"There is a human Intersect agent in Castle right now. I'll get you your damned equipment, Sloan, just like we planned," Simon McKay coolly replied. "Now I suggest you take a chill-pill and be ready for our arrival. If I have my way, we're going to get everything we wanted, and much more." McKay ended the call.
Edgar Sloan slammed the phone on the receiver and then brought his other fist crashing onto his desk almost knocking his PC monitor over. "Damn him!"
- IV -
Richard Watson inserted two long bars on a ratcheting lock mechanism through the door handles of the double door leading from the Buy More sales floor to the break room and stock area at the back of the store, effectively barricading the back of the store from the front. As he walked back to the break room he stepped over the bodies of two NSA agents in green Buy More shirts laying in the hallway and motioned two men dressed in tactical gear carrying FN P90's to take up position at the corner of the hallway leading to the front of the store. When he strode into the break room he acknowledged Simon McKay and their eight-man tactical team with a nod, and motioned toward the security camera on the ceiling with his gun, "Comms have been shut down, the cameras are looped, the security system has been bypassed, and the other teams are in position. We're ready."
"Excellent, then let's get started, shall we?" Simon motioned to the lockers. "Time to open this door."
Watson reached into the locker that served as the hiding spot for the palm access scanner to Castle and placed his palm on the scanner plate at the back of the locker. There was a heavy clicking sound, and a section of lockers swung back, accompanied by the sound of an electric motor. The group descended the stairs into Castle, and McKay motioned to two of the men to take guard positions at the bottom of the stairs. The rest of the group slowly moved down the long concrete subterranean hallway toward the holding cells and the command center beyond them. McKay and Watson lead the group with McKay holding a tranq pistol up and ready, while Watson held a suppressed Sig P220.
- V -
"That's weird, I'm not getting a cell signal," Chuck muttered, staring at his phone after he pulled it from his pocket to check-in with Nikki Lawson.
"The base repeater must be offline," Manoosh responded casually as he kept typing away on his keyboard.
"No, that's a triple redundant system, not supposed to happen." Chuck looked up at Sarah, and she nodded curtly to him, her eyes narrowing slightly. He pulled up the Castle communications system on his computer and scanned the status of all the inbound and outbound communications of the base. Sarah walked over to one of the peripheral workstations and started to look at the security feeds.
"Nothing seems abnormal here, Chuck," said Sarah pointing to a tiled image of six different camera feeds as she toggled through them with the space bar.
"All three repeaters are down, and that is not supposed to happen," Chuck repeated, mostly it seemed to himself. He picked up the desk phone at his workstation and speed dialed the Carmichael Industries office only to be greeted by a fast-busy signal. He dialed the extension in the command center with the same result. He punched the intercom button and was greeted with silence. "We have a problem."
Now he had Manoosh's attention, and the doctor picked up his desk phone to try it as a growing look of alarm spread across his face.
Chuck paced quickly over to Sarah and looked at the camera feeds over her shoulder. He then reached around her and started to scroll through the individual feeds and stopped at the one of the command center and studied it for a few seconds.
"Hold it, Chuck," said Sarah pointing at the monitor, "Look."
He peered quickly at his watch, "Frakfrakfrak," he said looking at the master clock display she was pointing at on the wall in the picture, "That was almost ten minutes ago!"
"You're right, we do have a problem," Sarah agreed, her demeanor slipping into CIA operative mode.
"Just a second." Chuck started to type furiously on the keyboard. "When I designed this system I installed firewalled redundant feeds just for this sort of event." He smiled at the look of surprise on Sarah's face, "Hey, I don't even want to think about how many of these things we've looped on our own missions over the last five years, it seemed like the prudent thing to do. I buried the redundant feed deep enough so it would take a first class hack to find the backdoor."
After a few more seconds of rapid fire typing the pictures on the camera feeds abruptly changed to reveal several men duck walking down the access corridor from the Buy More. They watched as the men walked past the corridor leading to the room they were in. The two men at the lead of the group both looked right at the camera above the door leading into the Intersect lab. Both Chuck and Sarah flashed when they saw Simon McKay's face. As they blinked out the flash looking at each other Chuck was the first to speak. "He used to work for Clyde Decker!"
Sarah returned a tight-lipped nod as a very ugly history of the man Chuck referred to tickled at her memory, "That was Agent Richard Watson with him. It's curious, he isn't in the Intersect."
"Sarah!" Manoosh's face was ashen as he stared at her, "Are you flashing?"
She looked back at the doctor like she had just been caught with her hand in the cookie jar, "Y-Yes, it started happening a couple of days ago after you gave me the governor."
Manoosh ran his hand over his face in exasperation, "Why didn't you tell anyone? I'm not so sure you should be doing that."
"It's only happened a couple of times, Manoosh, and it doesn't appear to be causing any major problems," Sarah said apologetically. "The governor seems to be controlling the intensity, and you and Ellie have had much larger things on your table the last few days."
"Then you just make sure you leave that governor on, Sarah. My fear is what could happen if you're not wearing it." Manoosh walked over to his desk and pulled a small metal disk that looked like a tan anodized button battery from a drawer. "Here, I meant to give this to you this morning. Keep it for an emergency. Just squeeze it hard to activate it and peel off the adhesive backing. You can stick it anywhere, but behind one of your ears is probably most effective. It will last for about twelve hours."
Sarah fixed a slightly anxious gaze on him as she accepted it and slipped it into the coin pocket of her jeans and nodded her understanding before very consciously reasserting her concentration back to the situation at hand and turning back to Chuck. "We have to do something to stop those guys, Chuck, Ellie and the rest of the science team are in the command center."
"I know." Chuck moved back to the security camera feed and checked all of them sequentially. "There are a total of ten men. Two at the bottom of the stairs leading from Buy More and eight headed for the command center counting McKay and Watson. Body armor, P90's, handguns and tranq guns." He looked thoughtfully at the screen for a minute. "Why the tranq guns?"
"They might be here to abduct someone," said Sarah, confirming her husband's suspicions judging from the look in his eyes. "We need to arm ourselves, and these guys look like our best opportunity to do that," she added, pointing to the men at the base of the stairs leading to the Buy More.
"Chuck, what about your sister? Those men look they're almost to the command center," Manoosh blurted, clearly distressed as he jumped from his seat and started to head for the door.
Sarah grabbed him by the elbow as he was going by her. "Where do you think you're going Doctor? If you go out there you'll only make matters worse. By the time you get to the control room they'll already have Ellie, and then you, too."
"Damn it, Sarah, we can't let anything happen to Ellie," Manoosh shrilly objected, "Tell her, Chuck…she's your sister!"
The pain on Chuck's face couldn't have been more obvious, "Sarah's right, Manoosh, we need you to stay here while we rescue my sister. When we get her we'll bring her back here. This is the most secure area in Castle and only the four of us have complete access to this lab from the second security door. So, please, sit tight while we take care of this."
Chuck and Sarah strode quickly to the door, "I wish we had a couple of those Duke Nukem sentry drones right about now," Chuck lamented as he turned to look at Manoosh before opening it.
Sarah looked from her husband to Manoosh over her shoulder and locked her eyes on his, "Stay here Manoosh. Do. Not. Leave. Do I make myself clear? We need you… I need you. If you get yourself into trouble trying to be a hero I'll never forgive you… I have enough problems with Chuck."
Chuck rolled his eyes and looked at his wife with mock offense, then pushed the door actuator switch after a quick glance at the security monitors. As they stepped through the outer door and looked down the hall Chuck turned to Sarah and asked, "Well, do you have any ideas how we should take out those two guys, my super-ninja-spy girl?"
She smirked at him and grabbed his hand as she started to walk down the corridor to where it joined the main passage, "I do, but I don't think you're going to like it."
- VI -
Ellie Woodcomb was sitting at the conference table in the main room of Castle. She was discussing the final preparations for the personalized Iv4 download packages with six of her science team members when eight heavily armed men clad in black walked into the room with their weapons leveled at them.
Simon McKay smiled at all the very startled faces around the table and motioned with the barrel of his tranq gun when one of the men started to get to his feet. "Unh-uh, no heroics, sit down…NOW," he added when the man hesitated.
"Sit down, Albert," Ellie asserted, shocked by the intrusion, her hands balled into fists on the table in front of her. "Do you want to get yourself killed?"
The middle-aged member of Ellie's team settled back into his chair with a combination of resignation and anger written on his face. "What are you doing here? What do you want?" he asked, looking intensely at McKay with a livid edge to his voice.
"Oh, I think you know exactly why I'm here and what I want, and at least one of you is going to help me get it," McKay calmly replied, motioning to one of his men, and then gesturing toward the row of computer racks behind a glass wall on one side of the room. The man walked into the equipment space through the sliding glass doors.
Removing the small backpack he was wearing, he pulled a black box from it followed by some rolled up cables, inspecting the computers as he set the high capacity data capture module at the base of one of the racks. He then pulled a keyboard/monitor drawer from the middle of the rack, opened the folded monitor, and started to work at the keyboard. After a moment, he turned and nodded curtly to Simon McKay, before he reached into his pack and pulled a battery powered screwdriver from it, and started to quickly remove the screws from several of the rack panels.
"Now, Dr. Woodcomb, you and your associate here," he motioned to a young woman sitting to Ellie's right, "Get up, and move over to that wall."
Ellie and her research assistant, whose eyes were as big as tea saucers, exchanged tense looks and slowly started to rise. Albert quickly started to rise again from his seat and yelled, "Now see here, if you want anything leave these women out of it, I'll-"
*Thwack* Simon shot him in the throat with a tranq dart and Albert tumbled over the back of the chair behind him landing with a sickening thud, punctuated by the dull crack of his head hitting the floor. McKay swung the gun back on Ellie and her assistant. "MOVE."
Ellie placed her hand on her assistants forearm in an attempt to calm her, "It's alright, Ann, just do as he says and we'll get through this."
"That's the spirit, Doctor," Simon said laconically. "If you follow my instructions to the letter all of you will come out of this alive. However, if someone else tries to do anything like what this idiot did…" He motioned to Albert's body on the ground, then to Richard Watson who casually waved the barrel of his suppressed Sig and smiled thinly.
Ellie glared at Watson then shifted her gaze back to McKay, "Let one of us look at Albert," she requested with a hint of defiance in her voice. "He hit his head on the floor awfully hard."
"I'll let one of your other associates look him over." He motioned to three of his team members and then to the four remaining doctors and scientists sitting at the table and the still body lying on the floor. "Take these people to the detention cells and keep an eye on them. And let one them have a look at their colleague's head."
Two of the men jerked the remaining team members from their seats and ordered two of the male doctors to pick up their unconscious team member and carry him from the room while the third armed man lead the way. "Now, Dr. Woodcomb, let's pay a visit to the Fab Lab," said McKay as he gestured down the connecting hall with his tranq pistol.
As they reached the door to the fabrication lab Ellie stopped in front of the palm scanner by the door and, once again, glared at Simon McKay in defiance. McKay grabbed her roughly by the wrist as Richard Watson grabbed Ellie's assistant by the shoulder and placed the end of the suppressor against her head as Ann Kelly gasped. "Open the door, Doctor, I'm only going to say it once," McKay said as he guided her hand up to the scanner and he placed her palm onto it while Ellie punched in an access code with her other hand.
- VII -
Casey pulled into the Buy More parking lot and stopped just inside the entrance driveway briefly while he and Nikki scanned the lot for threats. The black SUV they had tracked was parked in front of Cobra Holdings, but the van was nowhere to be seen. "Let's pull up in front of the store, Casey, I want to do a quick recon of the sales floor."
Casey grunted in reluctant affirmation and pulled the Crown Vic in front of the Buy More off to the side of the front doors. Nikki opened her door and jumped out toward the entrance doors while the car was still moving. As she walked up to automated doors and started to step through the first set into the entry alcove she saw Big Mike walk from his office and trundle up to the double doors leading to the back of the store… and bounce off of them with a look of angry confusion on his face. She froze when she heard him bellow a, "What the hell?" that she could hear through the closed sliding door in front of her.
Mike shook the doors violently, and several store 'associates' started to trot toward him. Nikki was suddenly astonished to see Big Mike dive rather nimbly to the side of the doors, eyes wide, as the sound of hail on a tin roof filled the air and the metal and wire reinforced glass of the double doors was instantly perforated with multiple bullet holes.
Nikki quickly dropped to a crouch with her suppressed pistol raised as several 5.7 millimeter bullets struck the glass of the door in front of her. One of the sales associates went to the ground struck in the abdomen while the rest scattered for cover and customers scrambled for the doors in panic. Lowering her gun to her side, she watched the panicked customers running toward her and spun around to run back to Casey's car now stopped in front of the doors with the passenger door open.
She dove into the car, and Casey gunned it, causing the door to swing shut as he pulled away. "Around back!" Nikki exclaimed quickly calming herself. "They've blocked the rear of the store. They must be using the back entrance."
Casey spun the wheel hard over and accelerated around in a one-eighty punctuated with the sound of the racing engine and squealing rubber, circling around the parked cars in the lot, and then around the store to the back entrance at the loading dock. They slid around the back corner of the store and came to a screeching halt.
Parked in front of them crossways blocking the driveway was the van they had been chasing and two more beyond it. Six men standing next to the van with FN P90's leveled their weapons on them and opened up on the Crown Victoria causing Casey and Nikki to reflexively drop down out of the line of fire behind the bullet-resistant glass and composite armor of the car. Casey cursed while Nikki shouted over the deafening din of bullets striking the bodywork, "I'm sure glad I didn't talk you into taking my Cadi! What now?"
"Dammit," Casey yelled for the third time, "Those bastards are going to pay for this!" He reached across Nikki and opened his glove box. "Grab those M-4's for us," he shouted, pointing to the back seat while he armed the rocket concealed in the car's headlight with the switch in the glove box.
Nikki dove over the seat and was pulling the rifles from the case in the back seat when Casey mashed the second button to launch the missile, shouting, "Fox two!"
Her head shooting up over the back of the seat, Lt. Commander Lawson, Navy fighter pilot blinked in surprise as the small missile shot away from the car with a loud whoosh. Homing in on the hot engine block of the van only about sixty feet away, it exploded with a thunderclap that flipped the van over from front to back in a cloud of flying shrapnel, pieces of auto bodywork, and asphalt. The flying van landed on its roof right on top of one of the men shooting at them, crushing him, and the rest were thrown to the ground by the concussion of the explosion.
"Holy shit! I want one of those for my Cadi!" Nikki exclaimed when she and Casey flung the drivers side front and rear doors open simultaneously and stepped quickly out behind them. Pulling the charging handle back sharply, Nikki then tossed an M-4 to Casey and reached in the car to drag the duffel from the rear seat onto the ground at her feet.
Just as Casey brought the rifle to his shoulder the armored door window glass in front of him spider webbed with a loud smack and he whipped the rifle on target through the crook over the door hinge. The three round burst dropped the adversary crouched in the store rear doorway like a sack of potatoes. Three of the men knocked to the ground by the exploding van were now starting to pick themselves back up.
"Here," Nikki barked, shoving a ballistic plate carrier vest with several magazine pouches attached to the front of it under the back car door between his legs, "Let's get the hell out of here, we're too exposed!"
She scrambled around to the back of the car while Casey grabbed the vest and shoved the rear door shut to follow her. Casey started to don his vest as Nikki quickly popped up to peer through the rear vehicle glass and assess the situation, only to be greeted by more bullets slapping the armored glass and bodywork. She dropped back down and swiftly took aim around the side of the car, dropping one of their assailants with a burst into his legs. A hail of bullets then struck the Crown Vic from the direction of loading dock and from around the wrecked van.
"I'm on em', get your vest on," Casey shouted over the suppressed sound of supersonic bullets cracking the air all around them.
"I'm already wearing it! I had the first shift, remember?" she replied, her eyes sparkling with humor despite their dire situation.
They exchanged unspoken words with their eyes and popped up to fire on their quadrants when they heard the staccato smack of bullets rapidly striking bone almost instantly followed by the supersonic crack of passing rifle bullets. Four men behind boxes on the loading dock fell in lifeless heaps below clouds of red vapor. Casey spun around and looked behind them. He raised a thumb and grinned at his girlfriend, Gertrude Verbanski. She smiled back at him over the scope of a bipod mounted M-4 sniper rifle - with a barrel that looked like it was mostly silencer can. Gertrude had Silent Suzy perched atop the roof of her car about a hundred and fifty yards behind them, on the road above the parking lot parapet wall.
He looked over to see Nikki nodding with approval, "Lawson, get over to the office and see if you can get into Castle that way. We'll see if we can get in this way."
"Roger that, Casey. Tell Gertie thanks for the assist," she said, beaming at him as she tossed him her M-4 and drew one of her suppressed STI pistols from her shoulder rig.
Casey smiled broadly back at Nikki and cuffed her affectionately on the shoulder before she scampered off around the corner of the store. Gertrude watched the exchange with possessive interest through her riflescope before she swung Silent Suzy back to the loading dock to engage the enemy agents attempting to come out the rear door.
- VIII -
They stood alert at the bottom of the stairway, staring down the corridor, listening to the sound of someone running toward them. A slender woman wearing jeans, a hoodie, and orange Converse sneakers came sliding around the corner some seventy feet from them and dashed down the hall toward them alternating between looking over her shoulder and looking at them with a fearful look in her eyes. Her blonde hair was pulled back in a short ponytail, and it bobbed and flew around as she ran.
"Help! Help! They've got guns!" She shouted hysterically as she ran toward them.
"It's her, hold your fire," one the men in black tactical clothing muttered to his partner as they watched the young woman running toward them at breakneck speed.
"Stop! Don't come any closer or we'll shoot!" roared one of the men at Sarah Walker as she skidded to a stop about ten feet from the two men with an expression of wild-eyed terror on her face.
"Oh, damn!" She said, upon 'realizing' the men in front of her weren't friendly. "What is going on here? What do you men want? Please, don't shoot!"
One of the men started to reach for the radio on his shoulder when Sarah took another step toward them causing him to come up short and level his P90 at her.
"Don't!" His partner ordered. Dropping his weapon on it's sling around his neck, he started to pull a tranquilizer pistol from a holster on his vest.
Sarah flashed. Then they all suddenly looked down the hallway, to the sound of large feet slapping the concrete floor at a dead run, and Chuck Bartowski rounded the corner with his arms flailing madly for balance as he turned the corner in the hallway and his Chuck Taylor's came tromping loudly towards them.
It was all the distraction Sarah needed and, still looking over her shoulder down the hallway toward Chuck, she took two quick steps forward and landed a fierce outside-in crescent kick to the temple of the intruder standing in front of her. The ball of her right foot hit her adversary with so much force the man's head and neck made a dreadful snapping sound. He flew violently into his partner next to him, knocking the second man off balance when the recipient of the explosively aggressive kick was flung toward the floor unconscious, or worse.
Sarah settled her stance as the remaining enemy agent recovered and finished pulling his tranq gun, firing it as she sidestepped and ducked. She blocked his gun arm with a sweeping motion of her left arm on the man's wrist as her right arm flew up vertically, augmented by the force of her now quickly rising stance. The base of her palm struck his chin with a loud crack and the man's jaw was slammed rearward into the nerve bundle in its joints, rendering him instantly out cold. His feet left the floor and he flew backwards landing on his back on the stairs behind him with a loud clang when he hit the metal steps.
"Whoa! That was close!" she heard Chuck exclaim a few steps behind her with a pronounced exhale as she spun around to look at him with alarm.
Chuck was standing there, rocked back onto his heals with his left hand in front of his enlarged eyes holding a tranq dart between his thumb and forefinger – he had caught the dart out of the air as it was flying towards his face.
"Wow, nice catch, sweetie," said a wide-eyed Sarah. "Sorry, I shouldn't have let him get a shot off."
"Are you kidding me? That was awesome! You put those dudes down hard with two blows. I guess you've been eating your Wheaties," he answered with unmasked admiration.
Sarah grinned back at him and then turned to pick up the tranq pistol from which Chuck had caught the dart and tossed it to her husband after engaging the safety. She then grabbed the sling of the suppressed P90 and pulled the weapon from the unconscious enemy agent along with his silenced Sig pistol which she stuffed into the back of her waistband and the man's radio, which she clipped to the edge of her front pants pocket. Taking the second agent's tranq gun from his holster, she fired two darts into each of the men before tossing the gun to Chuck and taking a spare tranq dart magazine from the man's vest, also tossing it to him.
"I'd say we're well-armed now," Chuck said, examining the high-tech heat his wife was packing. "But after what I just saw, it's obvious you're plenty dangerous without it."
"The more dangerous the better." Sarah's hushed tone of voice was scarily cheery. "We have to move quick, we may have been heard," she added, peering down the hall. Wide-eyed Chuck then fell-in on her quarter when she started to move down the corridor with the P90 up. His tranq gun was up in his right hand and when his left hand came to rest on her right shoulder, Sarah removed her left hand from the front grip of her weapon and covered Chuck's hand. With a smile, she turned to give him a quick kiss before they shuffled quietly down the hall.
Just as they reached the junction of the hallway leading to the Intersect download lab there was a sound like the hand of God slapping the ceiling above them.
"What was that?" Chuck asked as they locked eyes.
"An explosion upstairs. My money is on Casey," Sarah replied with a gleam in her eye.
- IX -
Nikki Lawson ran down the side of the Buy More store with her suppressed handgun held concealed and ready, close to her leg. As she reached the front corner of the store she brought the weapon up in an isosceles stance braced against the corner of the building and swept the area in front of the store, her eyes scanning for threats. Customers were still pouring from the front doors into the parking lot, and shouting could be heard coming from the inside of the store.
Satisfied that there were no armed adversaries she holstered the handgun and sprinted across the parking lot towards the offices of Cobra Holdings Corporation. There was no one in the SUV she and Casey had followed here that was now parked at the curb in front of the offices. She ran around the front of the vehicle and up to the edge of the windows of the office reception area next to the front door. In the reflection of a glazed picture on the reception area wall, she could see a man in a business suit sitting at the receptionist's desk. Without a seconds hesitation she walked to the door and stepped into the reception area.
"Hi, where is Greta today?" She asked the man lightly, carefully appraising his body language as he sat behind the desk.
"Greta fell ill rather suddenly," the man answered with a smirk, "so I'm sitting in for her for the rest of the afternoon. Can I help you with something?" His hand moved below the edge of the desk to his lap.
"No, I'm afraid you'll be of no help to me. I'm headed downstairs, tell the security officer I'm heading in."
"I don't think so, Miss, you're not looking very well either," he said, leaning forward.
Nikki quickly sidestepped to her right and crossed her arms across her chest. Both of her suppressed STI pistols came flashing out of her coat and she dove to the ground and rolled as the desktop in front of the seated man splintered from the bullets coming through it towards where she had been standing a split second before. As she came up on one knee her assailant was rising from his seat, gun in hand, and a second one was coming into view in the security office doorway with his gun leveled at her. Her pistols fired twice simultaneously, and both men's heads snapped back viciously from the impact of the four 230 grain .45 caliber bullets striking them in their foreheads.
The two Fulcrum agents then toppled to the floor with a heavy thud. "I'm feeling just fine, never better," she said to the startled and glazed eyes staring up at her, "But I think both of you asshats are going to need some Excedrin, for headache number .45," she added, grimly, as she holstered one of the pistols and strode purposefully into the security office towards the palm scanner.
- X -
Simon McKay and his three associates walked out of the Fab Lab carrying a duffel bag with Ellie and Ann Kelly walking at gunpoint in front of them. As they stepped into the server area their computer man looked up. "Right on schedule," he said as he pulled the cables from the racks and started to place the data capture device back into his backpack, "We have a complete database download, plus some more. I wish we had time to stay around a bit longer. They appear to be doing some interesting things here we hadn't considered, but judging from that explosion a minute ago I get the feeling it's time to go."
McKay walked over to one of the computer consoles and started to pull up the security feed from upstairs in the Buy More.
"You can forget that," his tech man said, "the feed quit a few minutes ago, but it was up long enough to show both our planned exits have been compromised. The men at our primary egress point have been killed. We're going to have to use the third option."
"Very well," said McKay with a scowl, "It's time to go. We'll collect Dr. Depak and the Bartowskis on the way out." He prodded Ellie with the barrel of his pistol and moved towards the corridor leading to Buy More meeting up with their three other men at the holding cells along the way.
As they turned one of the corners in the long corridor that lead under the parking lot to the Buy More they came face-to-face with Chuck and Sarah Bartoswki. Sarah raised her weapon at them and two of McKays men in front responded in kind.
"STOP," declared McKay with cold finality, "lower your weapons, or I'll kill Dr. Woodcomb and her friend." He held his suppressed Glock 26 to Ellie's head using her as a shield, as Richard Watson did the same with Ann Kelly.
Sarah kept her P90 up pointed at McKay. "Fat chance, you scumbucket, the only way you're getting out of here is in a body bag."
"Tsk, Tsk, that's very bold and colorful language Agent Walker, I wonder how your husband feels about it?" McKay smiled thinly and jerked his chin toward the pained expression on Chuck's face.
"Sarah…" Chuck started to say.
"Chuck, we can't…you know it," she said with hooded eyes, her mouth drawn into a taut line.
McKay started to walk forward with Ellie and pressed the silencer of his handgun into the side of her head as he held her head firmly by her hair. "You can, Agent Walker, and you will. All of you are coming with us, or Chuck's sister is going to die right here and now." McKay's eyes had the very hard and cold look of a remorseless sociopath.
"Sarah, we have to. It's Ellie and Ann. This isn't over…there's always another way." Chuck reached forward and placed his hand on his wife's weapon pushing the muzzle down. "We always find another way." She looked over at him with a hard but very pained expression etched on her face. Chuck lowered his tranq gun and placed it on the concrete floor at his feet.
"Dammit, Chuck," Sarah intoned. She unslung the P90 and set it on the floor, "This isn't going to end well. You know the rules about hostage situations."
"You don't need them. There's always another way," Chuck repeated looking her in the eye as he started to back away from the weapons on the ground, edging back toward the junction in the hallway a dozen steps behind them.
They managed to take a half dozen steps back before Simon said loudly, "That's far enough, Mr. Bartowski," as he and his men stepped toward Chuck and Sarah closing the distance between them. "Turn around and place your other weapons on the ground. TWO FINGERS…NOW, " he shouted as he ground the end of the silencer into Ellie's temple.
Chuck and Sarah exchanged another hard look and turned to remove the weapons from the backs of their pants waistbands using two fingers as ordered, placing them on the ground at their feet. McKay's men moved forward and held tranq pistols on them while they collected the weapons.
"Thank you for your cooperation," McKay said dryly with a condescending smile as he released his grip on Ellie's hair and shoved her forward towards Chuck and Sarah.
When McKay walked up to them, and they started to turn to walk up the hallway, Sarah and Chuck saw a suppressor mounted on a uniquely familiar handgun leading around the corner down the hallway behind Simon McKay and his men. Nikki Lawson silently stepped out into the hallway and raised her weapon. When Richard Watson's head snapped forward and ruptured from a double-tap striking the back of his skull, Ann Kelly fell to one knee screaming, her face spattered with blood.
Pandemonium then ensued as Nikki dropped another two of McKay's men between her and McKay, but couldn't get a clean shot at McKay without risking hitting either Chuck or Sarah. She was forced to take cover when they whirled their weapons around to bear on her and returned fire.
Meanwhile, Chuck and Sarah had used the short seconds available each grabbing Ellie and Ann and shoving them around the corner towards the doorway leading to the Intersect download room. But they found themselves at gunpoint again as Nikki started to advance down the hallway with both her pistols up akimbo and a steely look of determination on her face. McKay and his remaining four men had stepped behind Chuck and Sarah using them as shields, and pulled them back down the corridor out of Nikki's line of fire while they'd held their weapons trained on them.
They'd barely rounded the corner to the hallway leading to the download room when, hearing a mechanical sound, McKay spun around and saw Ellie and her assistant disappear through the security door at the end of the hallway. He cursed, and keyed his radio mic to utter a short command.
"Give it up," Nikki Lawson shouted from down the hallway, "There's no way you're going to make it out of here!"
"On the contrary, Ms. Lawson, you're the one who isn't going to be getting out of here," McKay shouted back around the corner, turning to look at the security station next to the entry door to the lab in disgust.
McKay raised his weapon at Sarah and was just about to order Chuck to open the security door when six more men burst down the stairs from Buy More and laid a withering blanket of automatic weapons fire down the corridor towards Nikki while more armed men advanced down the stairs. She dropped to one knee and immediately shot two of the men before diving back to cover around the corner in the hallway.
Seeing an opening caused by the distraction the gunshots had caused, Chuck and Sarah both lashed out at the men around them in a flurry of feet, elbows, and fists. They quickly got the upper hand, but then gradually fell unconscious in a heap in each others arms with tranq darts in their backs from Simon McKay's pistol.
McKay, livid from the turn of events, gathered up the duffel Watson had been carrying, and motioned to his men as they picked themselves up from the sudden beat down they had received at the hands of Chuck and Sarah Bartowski. "Get these two, NOW, we're getting the hell out of here, goddammit!"
Picking up unconscious Chuck and Sarah Bartowski, they retreated down the corridor behind the remainder of McKay's men, towards the stairs leading up to the Buy More. Two of them dropped along the way, from the return fire of Nikki Lawson's pistols. As they exited into the break room three of the enemy agents stayed behind and kept up automatic cover fire on Nikki at the other end of the corridor from the top of the stair landing.
With a quick sidestep out into the corridor, Nikki engaged them, dropping one of them from the top of the landing onto his head on the concrete below. Her foot then slid on something slippery on the floor causing her to lose her footing and she dove back behind the corner of the hallway as bullets impacted the wall next to her. Nikki looked down to see blood pouring from a wound in her right leg into a puddle on the floor.
Sliding down the wall to sit on the floor, she toggled the push-to-talk switch on the transceiver on her watch, "Casey! Chuck and Sarah have been tranqed and abducted, they're coming your way!" But there was nothing but static in her earbud, "Casey!…Casey!…Damn!" She pounded her fist on the floor in frustration, then pulled her belt from her pants and started to wrap it around the bullet wound.
- XI -
Casey and Gertrude continued to engage multiple enemy agents at the rear of the store making little headway towards the loading dock entrance because of the heavy block construction of the rear of the store and continual fire from the rear doorway. However, none of the enemy agents were getting out of the store either because as soon as any of them tried to exit the back door of the store Casey or Gertrude quickly cut them down. They were starting to pile up on the loading dock and the sight of all the bodies had stifled the will for anyone else to try and come out.
The sound of sirens was starting to be heard coming from points around the store and several helicopters could be heard in the air. Casey looked over his shoulder and saw a UH-60 Blackhawk flying in low from the east and a police helicopter circling about five hundred feet overhead. All of the sudden, the Blackhawk exploded and fell to the ground in a long agonizing arc, a tangled ball of wreckage and flying rotor blades and debris. Casey looked up to see a smoke trail leading to the point of the explosion where the helicopter had once been to the roof of the Buy More above him.
Another smoke trail erupted from the roof and he watched the MANPAD rocket erupt about twenty feet away from the police helicopter in a dirty brown explosion that caused the chopper to spin wildly out of control and crash onto several cars in the parking lot as bystanders scrambled to get out of the way. Several news helicopters that had been lingering nearby quickly turned tail and flew away from the area.
Casey looked back at his girlfriend and watched as she panned her rifle towards the roof to engage the targets there. She took several shots, then there was the sound of machine gun fire, and Gertrude's car was engulfed in smoke and dust from being riddled with bullet holes as she ducked down behind it. Casey felt his phone vibrating in his pocket. He answered it and heard Gertrude shout, "Son-of–a-bitch! They've got MANPADS and a SAW on that roof! Who are these freakin' people?"
Another helicopter could be heard coming in, and Casey looked up again to see a Bell 430 swooping in to settle over the roof of the Buy More in a hover. He looked back to Gertrude again and watched her try to bring her rifle to bear towards the roof only to have to duck behind the car again as it continued to be shot full of holes by machine gun fire.
"What are you trying to do? Stay down Gertie!" He shouted into the phone.
"Johnny! They've got Chuck and Sarah! They're on that helicopter!"
"WHAT?" Oh, damn!
The helicopter lifted off and swooped away at low level as another one, this time a Bell 230, came in to extract some of the remaining tactical team on the roof. Gertrude stood up and engaged them offhand with Silent Suzy. The machinegun fire abruptly stopped and the helicopter settled heavy onto the roof as Gertrude emptied her M-4's magazine into the cockpit.
The roof of the Buy More wasn't designed to hold the weight of an 8000-pound helicopter concentrated into such a small area and it disappeared into the store. A cloud of dust, debris, and rotor blade fragments shot from the front doors of the store as it all came crashing down on the sales floor below with a dull roar.
A few seconds later Big Mike came staggering out of the doors covered in grit and choking on the dust.
Casey had had more than enough. He charged the rear door to the Buy More with his M-4 engaging targets on the run until the magazine was empty, and then pulled his Sig from the small of his back dropping two more enemy agents as he advanced through the rear of the store towards the entrance to Castle. Gertrude frantically reloaded to cover her man's back from the remaining enemy agents around the vehicles below the loading dock, quickly dropping two of them before the remainder once again scrambled for cover and Casey ran into the store and out of sight.
- XII -
John Casey walked around large number black clad bodies lying in the long main corridor of Castle, as he made his way towards the command center, his handgun up and ready to shoot any enemy agents still present in the subterranean base. As he approached the infirmary he heard a feminine groan of pain.
He rounded the doorway frame to see Nikki Lawson on an examination table that was covered in smeared blood surrounded by several doctors working on what appeared to be a bullet wound in her thigh. There was an IV bag hanging over her and her black jeans were sliced open almost up to the waistband. In spite of the apparent wound Casey caught himself admiring the toned and tanned leg, and blushed when he saw Nikki looking at him with a big grin on her face mixed with a grimace.
"Damn, Lawson, did you get yourself shot? I thought that was my specialty."
"Yes, I finally let someone shoot me, Casey. There's a first time for everything. Hopefully, this will be the last for this."
Ellie looked very intensely back and forth between the two agents, "You're very lucky, Nikki," she exclaimed, "The bullet narrowly missed your femoral artery. Fortunately, it was through-and-through and didn't fragment or tumble. No major damage, except hydrostatic shock."
"It still hurts like hell," Nikki observed with a thin, grimacing smile as Ellie wrapped gauze tightly around the sutures she had just completed. "Thanks for patching me up, Ellie." She turned back to Casey. "Where are Chuck and Sarah, Casey?"
"Captured," Casey said, with a downcast frown, his mouth drawn into a line.
"What? No!" Nikki started to step down off the table and her breath hitched as her foot settled on the floor. "What are we doing here? Let's go, we need to find them!"
Ellie's face turned to one of shock as she looked again between Casey and Nikki then recomposed herself when she realized what Nikki was trying to do, and reached out to grab her, "Wait a minute! Hold on, Nikki, you shouldn't be putting any weight on that at all."
"Just give me something minimal for the pain, Ellie, I still need to be able to function. I'm not going to sit still while Chuck and Sarah are in the hands of those assholes. C'mon, Casey help me out here," she said placing her hand on his shoulder for support, "Let's get to the command center and get started, we haven't got a second to lose."
- XIII -
Morgan Grimes pulled the spy van up to the curb across the street from the underground parking entrance to the twenty-four-story Century West office building in Century City. Tensions were high in the vehicle because they had been listening in to the action at the Buy More over their earbuds and they were all resisting the urge to get back on the freeway and head to Castle to help Casey and Nikki.
"The target vehicle is in there," Lori Compton said, looking across him toward the building across the street as she slid into the passenger seat of the van next to Morgan. The sliding side door to the van opened, and when Anthony Carmichael stepped into a seat in front of one of the surveillance consoles, the tension increased thirty-three and a third percent. They all exchanged an anxious look between them as they silently communicated their desire to know more information about what was happening across town, and where Chuck and Sarah might have been taken. Anthony ran his hands through his short black hair and exhaled forcibly with exasperation before turning to the console in front of him and trying to set up a video link between them and Castle.
After a few minutes of work at the keyboard, Anthony scowled at the monitor in front of him and then shifted his gaze to Morgan and Lori. "Direct communications to Castle are still down. Sally says she hasn't been able to reach them either, and she and the other analysts think we lost comm with Casey and Nikki because they are in Castle and the repeaters are still down along with the rest of the systems. It looks like we're on our own here for a little while."
Morgan climbed out of the drivers seat and moved to a seat in the back of the van next to Tony. He started to grab some bags of equipment from a storage locker and was setting them next to the sliding door when he looked back up at his two teammates, "I just thought of something," he said, pulling his cell phone from his shirt pocket and scrolling through his contact list. "I'm sending both of you a number, you may need it." Then he punched the call button, and placed the phone on speaker after he activated the vox circuit on his tactical transceiver.
"Hello, Morgan, what can I do for you?" The voice on the other end of the line asked, somewhat breathlessly.
"Hi Gertrude, I'm glad I could reach you. I'm on an assignment that Casey gave us along with a couple of colleagues. It may be connected to what is happening at the Buy More and we need additional information. We've been out of communications with Casey for a while, can you tell us what's going on there? The last thing we heard was you telling John that Chuck and Sarah were on a helicopter. What happened?"
They all listened as Gertrude gave them a rundown of what had happened since she had arrived at the store to back Casey up. She was now outside the store with several Agency people from the JPL Annex securing the scene and she had been just been informed by a runner that Castle was secure, everyone inside was okay, and that they were trying to get the communications systems back up. She had witnessed Chuck and Sarah being put onto the helicopter, and they were unconscious. As Gertrude was describing the helicopter to them they all looked up at each other with a start when they heard the sound of beating rotor blades reverberating off of the buildings around them.
Morgan yanked the sliding side door open and jumped out of the van to look up. "Gertrude, you said that helicopter was black with orange stripes down the side?"
"No, I hadn't got to that part yet, but those are its colors. Why do you ask?" She inquired, her voice filled with surprise.
"Because it's landing on the roof of the building across the street from us!" Morgan's whole body tensed and he exchanged a look of urgency with Lori and Tony, "Gotta hang up now, Gertie. Tell Casey that we think Chuck and Sarah are here! We'll call you back in a bit."
Gertrude stared at her disconnected phone, her eyes narrowing. "Gertie?" She emitted a low guttural growl from the back of her throat, "You are in such deep doo-doo, Johnny Casey," she muttered under her breath.
- XIV -
They crossed the street and entered the building lobby. She had a tool belt over her shoulder and he was carrying a black nylon tool bag in one hand and a small hardcase in the other. Walking up to the building receptionist's desk, they flashed their company I.D. badges at the female security guard/receptionist sitting at the desk watching several security feeds.
"Hi," said the short bearded man as he set his tool bags on the ground and folded his arms on the counter in front of him. "We received an emergency call about a down telephone system at Tempest Industries on the twentieth floor. It seems the OC-12 voice/data carrier has gone down. We'll need access to the building D-Mark and the company PBX in the twentieth-floor equipment room."
The woman looked at Morgan and Lori skeptically and consulted her computer in front of her. "I didn't receive any calls about this. The tenants are supposed to notify us first if there are any building infrastructure problems. I'm going to have to call upstairs to verify this," she stated curtly, reaching for the phone on her desk.
"Good luck with that," Morgan replied with a broad smile, "They called us from a cell phone."
The receptionist gave the two of them a perplexed look as she listened to the fast-busy tone in her headset. "You're right, I can't reach their offices." Just then, the phone on her desk rang and she answered it, talking briefly into her headset, before ending the call with a click of her mouse button. "That was one of their middle management people on his cell phone verifying the problem. I'll grant you access to all the equipment areas," she said, handing them a security pass card. "If you need anything else come see me or call the number on the back of the card," she added with a smile.
"Thank you, Daphne," Morgan said courteously. "Hopefully this won't take very long, but sometimes SONET network problems can be a major pain in the…well, you know," he added as he grinned at her.
Anthony smugly watched the reaction of the woman from the camera in Morgan's cap being displayed on his monitor in the van as he set his cell phone down on the console in front of him. "Very smooth, Morgan, baffle them with techno-speak. I think I saw her eyes starting to glaze over. I'm sending the location of the equipment room to your tablet now."
Lori watched Morgan work with the security camera feeds for the twentieth-floor office spaces and hallways. He moved very quickly as he patched their monitoring equipment into the security network node undetected. "I'm impressed, Morgan, where did you learn to work with this stuff like that?"
He briefly glanced up at Lori and smiled before he looked back to the work he was conducting and his smile turned back to something much more serious. "I learned from the best, and he just happens to also be my best friend. He's somewhere on this floor with us and I'm damned well going to find him."
Lori gave him an understanding pat on his back which he acknowledged with a brief wistful smile over his shoulder.
Morgan connected a final patch cable to his video pass-through box and clicked an icon on the tablet next to him, then picked it up, and Lori moved closer to watch the security video feeds with him. Both of their expressions became very grim as they watched Chuck and Sarah being carried down a hallway with their chins on their chests, each held by two very large men with their hands under their armpits. Chuck and Sarah's feet were dragging the floor and their hands appeared to be bound behind their backs.
Seething with anger, Morgan started to rise as he reached into his tool bag and pulled an MP-5K from it and cycled the bolt.
Lori rose with him and quickly grabbed him by the arm before he could step towards the door. "Whoa, wait a second, Morgan," she hissed at him, "No heroics, do you hear me? We're going to do this the right way!"
He glared back at Lori for a second before nodding to her. His shoulders then sagged, and his expression softened leaving only the fire remaining in his eyes. He looked at his feet for a few seconds and dropped the SMG on top of the tool bag. Then he pulled his phone from his pocket hitting a speed dial number with determination now written on his face as he brought the phone to his ear.
"Morgan, it's been a very long time, what's the big occasion? Trouble on the homefront with Alex? You know, I'm always available for an intimate chat if you need to discuss it with me in person," said the sultry and playful voice of Carina Miller on the other end of the line.
A/N I hate cliffhangers. Good Lord, did I just do that? *Groan* Share your ire with me by writing a review.
