A/N: The timeline for this story is just after "Quarantine."

Many thanks go out to Lone-Ranger1 for brain-storming, assistance with Betas, suggestions, ideas, outline for the story, the distinctly Canadian "cultural" references and, of course, his friendship.

Gracias,

Sunny

Chuck's Canadian Crime Connection

Chapter 9

Chuck and Company to the Rescue

Blitz's Apartment

Chuck sat at one end of the sofa while Zack sat at the other with Dusty in between providing support. Blitz and Boone had taken their computers, clothes, personal items, and all the photos that had been on the walls, and shelves. "How long have they been gone?"

"Dunno. I got home late, and went straight to bed. I thought they were asleep, but they could have been gone already."

Chuck got up to pace, rubbing a hand through his hair. Amelia stopped him with a touch on his arm and pressed a cup of coffee into his hands. He smiled his thanks, gave her hand a squeeze then turned back to Zack. "Where would your mom have left a note?"

"Um, taped to the front of the TV, stuck to the front of the 'fridge, on the bathroom mirror, inside the 'fridge…" While he listed the places his mother usually left notes Amelia and Dusty checked but found nothing.

They heard the refrigerator door open then Dusty's muffled voice came to them. "Nothin' inside and all that's on the front is one of those number puzzle things."

"Sudoku?"

"Whatever. All I know is it wasn't here before." She handed the paper to Chuck who passed it to Zack. She resumed her seat next to him, with an arm around his shoulders. "Don't worry, Zack-ster. Chuck'll figure it out."

Zack nodded. "Sorry about before. I'm not usually such a drama king. And it's not that I'm a mama's boy or anything, but it was scary waking up to find them gone."

"Not a problem, buddy. You can call us any time. We'll get here as quickly as we can."

Zack smiled and looked down at the sheet of paper in his hand. Without thinking he reached for a pen and began filling in the spaces just for something to do. Chuck noted absently that Zack was left-handed, same as Boone.

Taking out one of the laptops they brought with them, Chuck booted up, and went to work. Amelia came to watch over his shoulder as he tapped into the GPS system for Blitz and Boone's phones, and computers. As he suspected, the GPS had been disabled on all their mobile devices.

As a last resort, he ran a check for recent charges to her credit cards, and that is how he found out that she'd cancelled all but one, a MasterCard that hadn't been used in several days. On a hunch, he hacked into her bank accounts, and again found only one still open. "Sorry, Zack. No luck." He turned to glare at Dusty when she popped a bubble next to his ear.

"Mom doesn't like being watched, so she disables the GPS."

Amelia exchanged sheepish looks with her companions. Chuck smiled and shrugged. "We'll stay the rest of the night, if you want. Wouldn't be able to go back to sleep now."

"Sure." He yawned, stretched, and went into his room.

~~O~~

Dusty groaned, and opened her eyes. She'd fallen asleep on the sofa, and someone had thrown a blanket over her. Chuck and Amelia were cuddled together in the recliner, also covered with a blanket. She went to the kitchen to start the coffee then went into the bathroom. By the time she emerged, Chuck and Amelia were beginning to stir.

She went down the hall to knock on Zack's door. "Yo! Zack! Up and at 'em. Prepare to get your butt whooped at Smash Brothers again." There was no answer, so she knocked again, with the same result. "You better be dressed, Zack, 'cause I'm coming in." She put her hand over her eyes, and pushed the door open.

~~O~~

Chuck heard Dusty moving around, and a short time later the smell of coffee roused him. Not long after that Amelia began to stir against his side, one leg coming up and over both of his. Her hand on his chest began to flex, the short nails digging in just a little. She moaned and muttered something unintelligible.

He was just about to doze off again when a hand gripped his shoulder shaking him hard. "Chuck! Chuck, wake up! Zack's gone!"

"What?" By now Amelia was awake too. They let down the foot of the recliner, and got to their feet.

"He didn't answer when I knocked so I went in, and he's gone!" She pushed a sheet of paper at him. "This was on his pillow."

"Chuck, Amelia and Dusty,

Sorry to run out on you. I know where Mom and Boone are. They left a clue, and I'm following it.

Thanks for everything, and tell Dusty she owes me a rematch.

Zack"

"A clue? What's he talkin' about?"

~~O~~

Chuck stared at the paper without really seeing it, the wheels in his head spinning faster and faster. His face brightened, and he snapped his fingers several times fast. Amelia grinned. He's been spending too much time with Dr. McKay!

"Where's that Sudoku puzzle? The one from last night."

Dusty went to Zack's room while Amelia searched the living room, and Chuck checked the kitchen.

"Here it is!" Dusty handed him the now filled in puzzle. "How's it gonna help us?"

Chuck took the page from her, and walked around, staring at it. "Don't know yet." He thanked Amelia absently when she passed him another coffee, and set a plate on the table with leftovers from the previous night's burrito bash. He sat down, still staring at the puzzle, forehead creased in thought while he booted up the computer.

Dusty leaned close to Amelia and whispered, "What's he doin'?"

Amelia shushed her. "Sh! Genius at work."

Orthogon Industries

A Multi-National Tech Firm

"Have you examined the data?" The voice coming out of the shadows was male, with an American accent.

"Yes, sir. It's viable. We'll go over it down to the last byte, and get back to you with specifics, but I can safely say that we've hit the jackpot." The man in the white lab coat heard the murmur of other voices, male and female, in a variety of accents. He tapped at the tablet in his hand, his voice trailing off.

"What is it?" This from a woman, maybe Russian.

"Well, if I'm right, and you can take that to the bank, this data contains information on devices now in use by the military that were reverse engineered from…" he paused again, as if he didn't completely trust his conclusions, "…alien technology."

Another male voice questioned, "Alien?"

"Of extraterrestrial origin. Yes, sir."

At the Safe House

"What's wrong?" Boone massaged Blitz's shoulders. She was staring out the window at nothing, literally. All that could be seen from the windows on this side of the building was an alley and a rusty dumpster.

"I'm worried about Zack."

He slipped his arms down around her waist, and pulled her close. "He'll figure it out."

"I know, but what if Sneaker follows him? It's nota coincidence that Mitch showed up while he was here. And I do not wanna go to prison." She turned to face him, laying her head on his shoulder.

"Same here. It's a good thing you thought to get us new identities. Where did you get the names John Robie and Frances Stevens?"

Blitz's Apartment

Chuck ended his call to General Landry, and sat there staring into space. Now that he knew the name of Blitz's employers, Landry was sending Mitchell and Cadman to help bring in Orthogon Industries' senior officers. It would take a few hours for them to get here. If he told his companions he knew where his ex and her boyfriend were hiding, they'd want to go there now, so he kept quiet, and continued to work.

It would take a little time to make the arrangements to stop Blitz and Boone from leaving the country. The work wouldn't take long, but he wanted to make sure they didn't find out until it was too late. When he was done, he opened the folder with the information he'd collected on Zack.

More than a few times, Chuck wondered about the possibility that he might be the boy's father. He liked the idea of being a parent, though he did have some doubts as to his abilities. He hadn't interacted with kids much once he'd gotten into high school. Most of his time there had been spent studying. He was also president of the electronics club, the math club, and the chess club.

Now, if there's a bigger nerd in here, please point him out.

He laughed to himself at the quote from the movie The Day After Tomorrow. That boy could have been him.

In high school, he'd been a bit shy, and understandably flattered when one of the prettiest girls in his class had shown an interest. At the end of their first day, Chuck had been completely smitten Brianna Krieger. He'd even dropped out of the clubs in order to spend more time with her.

And that was the beginning of his descent into a life of crime. He'd resisted at first, but he wanted to make her happy, so he did anything and everything she'd asked of him. He even applied to the same college so they wouldn't have to be apart. He'd already been accepted at MIT, but turned it down to go to Ryerson with the woman who said she loved him.

Their life in Toronto was going as well as could be expected until Blitz lost her scholarship. Grants didn't help much, so they were forced to take on jobs where they were paid cash. That's how they ended up working for Mitch, where he learned the business of bike thievery, and had been good at it. Extraordinarily good.

He brought in more revenue for his team than any other. At first, he basked in Blitz's praise. But the closer they got to graduation, the more restless he became. Day by day, the pride turned to shame for the things he'd had to do to make money for them to live on, and to help pay for her education. Not that they'd lived like royalty. They'd shared a tiny three-bedroom apartment with others, and still barely got by.

A week after they'd graduated from university, it all came crashing down. While Blitz was at a job interview, her third that week, he'd packed up his belongings, and returned to Calgary. There, he'd been offered a position as the head of the IT department of a large corporation. It was one of the companies he'd hacked into just for the fun of it. Their security had been ancient. He worked long hours to rebuild their defenses from the ground up making it one of the most secure companies in North America. That had been simple compared to sleeping at night.

Chuck was certain that someone would suddenly figure out that he'd been the one to breech their security, precipitating the restructuring of their IT department. Being fired, arrested, and convicted, he could've handled without blinking an eye. But the embarrassment his family would have endured, well it made him nauseous just to think the disappointment on the faces of his mother, sisters, and brother.

Dad would've just looked at him, shaken his head, and walked away. The silence he'd endured from his father when he misbehaved was worse than if he'd yelled. And being the youngest he was constantly pushing the envelope, breaking rules left, right and center in order to get his share of attention in a family of seven.

But Dad was gone, and so was his unique form of punishment. So, as a way of punishing himself, Chuck had joined the RCAF.

The joke, however, was on him because he found that he was actually quite suited to military life. As his squad mates were fond of saying, there was always someone higher up where you could pass the buck. However, he was done with others taking the fall for his mistakes. To that end he did everything he was told to do by his superior officers, kept to himself for the most part, stayed out of the way as much as possible, worked quietly in the background, and tried not to ripple the pond.

That's why he'd been more than a little surprised when he'd been offered a post in Antarctica working with Doctors Jackson, McKay and Grodin studying alien technology. The surprise had doubled Elizabeth Weir requested that he be join the expedition to Atlantis. She'd actually come to his quarters to make her plea, and that as much as anything else was why he'd agreed. If she had faith in him, then he must be doing something right.

It was there, in a galaxy three million light years from Earth, that he'd finally found a place where he felt like he belonged. He made friends, respected his superiors, was respected and trusted in return, and was happier than he'd ever expected to be. Until Blitz's email.

Chuck sighed, and brought his attention back to the job he was here to do: put Blitz and Boone in prison. A few minutes later his phone rang. When he saw the caller ID, he stifled a groan. It was time.

~~O~~

Dusty and Amelia were playing one of Zack's games waiting for Chuck to have an epiphany or get done doing whatever it was that he was doing. Their patience was rewarded when he headed for the door with his laptop case. The women shut down the game, grabbed their jackets, and followed.

Without being asked, Dusty gave him the keys to the Mustang. They didn't say a word as Chuck drove calmly through the streets of Toronto.

Finally, Dusty couldn't stand the silence any longer. "Where're we goin'?"

"The factory district."

"Why?"

He glanced at her in the rear-view mirror, and back to the road. "Because that's where Blitz, Boone, and Zack are."

The women exchanged confused glances. "How do you know?"

"The puzzle."

"The puzzle?"

He nodded. "Yeah."

~~O~~

The women waited, but he didn't elaborate, so Amelia ventured, "Explain your thought processes to those of us who aren't as quick on the uptake."

Chuck braked smoothly to a stop at the red light, and glanced over at Amelia in the passenger seat. "The puzzle is the answer."

Dusty blew a bubble. "So, what's the answer?"

"It told me not only know where they're hiding, but also know the name of the company that hired them."

"Don't make me hurt you, Chuck-meister!"

The light changed, and he pulled forward again. "Sudoku means 'single number.' The objective of the puzzle is to fill a 9×9 grid with digits so that each column, each row, and each of the nine 3×3 sub-grids that comprise the grid or boxes contain all of the digits from one to nine."

"So?"

"So, it's also known as a Latin square." From the corner of his eye he could see Amelia had caught on, but continued his explanation for Dusty's benefit. "A Latin square is a table filled with different symbols in such a way that each symbol occurs exactly once in each row and exactly once in each column. It is also called an Orthogonal Array Representation." He paused to let Amelia draw Dusty a picture…literally. "Her client is Orthogon Industries. OI is the parent company of an abandoned plant in the factory district."

"How'd ya know that's where they're hidin' instead of some other factory that's owned by the same company?"

He gave the women a sly smile, and pulled a sheet of paper from his pocket. Amelia unfolded it to see the puzzle they'd just been discussing. Someone had drawn a picture within the puzzle using the placement of the numbers. It was a picture of a dancing hot dog with a top hat and cane, the logo of Big Dog Sausage Company.

Dusty blew a bubble, let it pop. "Coolness."

Big Dog Sausage Company

Abandoned Factory

Chuck parked the Mustang where it couldn't be seen by anyone watching from the building. Amelia opened the door to get out but he put a hand out to stop her. "Please wait here."

"Why?"

"I need to get Zack out before we take them down, or he could end up in jail, too." The women exchanged a concerned glance but he beat them to the punch. "He's just a boy. I'd hate for his life to be ruined by something his mother did. He'd probably rise above it eventually, but I'd rather he didn't have to."

"What if he won't leave?"

Chuck got out, and grabbed the laptop case from the back seat. "Haven't thought that far ahead. Just have to wing it." He passed the case to Amelia. "I need you to do something for me. On my signal, I need you to…" He outlined his plan while he took items from the zippered compartments of the laptop case, and shoved them in various pockets.

While he did that, other vehicles arrived, police, and unmarked government cars. Chuck went to the trunk, passed Dusty a radio, and pushed the other one in yet another pocket. He left the women alone while he had a whispered conversation with several dour men and women in suits. They didn't look happy, but finally nodded in agreement. Before he left, one of the men passed him something. He looked at it with distaste, and reluctantly clipped it to his waist.

~~O~~

Chuck crept silently along the side of the brick building until he came to a locked door. It seemed the best place to slip in unnoticed. The building was old so there were no keypads or card readers. All he needed was a key, or a reasonable facsimile. He crouched beside the door, and pulled a small case from his back pocket. He opened the case, and chose two tools slim tools. Carefully inserting both into the lock, he gently probed until he heard a click. Maybe I should add lock picking to my list of skills on my résumé.

He took out a life signs detector. It came on automatically, and he silently thanked God that the ATA gene therapy had worked for him. He swept it around the edges of the door checking for booby traps. Finding none, he slowly turned the knob until the door opened just far enough to enter. Knowing that Amelia, Dusty, the CSIS agents, and police were watching he stuck his hand out, flashed them a thumbs up, and shut the door with a near-inaudible click.

Chuck heard voices, and made his way in that direction. They'd taken up residence in one of the offices. Moving from one hulking piece of equipment to another, he crept around to the hallway that went to the bathrooms. Zack was just coming out of the men's room. They stared at each other with wide eyes for a moment then Chuck raised his finger to his lips for quiet.

Taking Zack by the arm, he dragged him into a supply closet filled with rusted metal shelves, a few empty cardboard boxes in various sizes, trash, empty cleaning supply bottles, spider webs, and dust. Lots of dust. Leaning in one corner was a string mop that was stiff and brown with age. A rustling sound told them there were probably more than a few rats lurking in the dark. The air was dank and stale. In fact, the whole building smelled of disuse, rotten meat, and rat droppings.

"What are you doing here, Chuck?" Zack whispered. "You're gonna put Mom and Boone in jail."

"Yes." The boy looked skeptical. "Please trust me, Zack. I won't let your mom be hurt if I can avoid it, and if you don't leave now, you could end up in prison, too."

Zack's brown eyes that were so like his yet not lit up with understanding. "You're a cop, aren't you? You're all undercover."

Chuck sighed, and pushed a hand through his hair. "Something like that. Look, Zack, the truth is…"

The door to the store room opened, and Boone stuck his head in. "Who're you talking to?" Chuck had jumped inside a large box and ducked down out of sight. He felt a spider crawling on his hand, and it took all his will power not to scream like a little girl.

"No one. Why?"

"Must be my imagination. This place is spooky, even in daylight." He shuddered dramatically. "Your mom's looking for you."

"Okay. Be right there."

The door closed, and Chuck popped up out of the box, brushing frantically at his skin, clothing and hair. "I hate spiders!"

Zack shivered in revulsion too then pointed in the direction Boone had just gone, shaking his head. "How could that boneheadbe my biological father? I must've gotten recessive genes." At Chuck's shocked expression he elaborated. "Mom told me the other day." He shrugged, and smiled shyly. "I was sorta hopin' you were my dad."

Chuck matched his smile. "Me too." He hooked an arm around the boy's neck and pulled him close. "Doesn't mean we can't be friends. Now get your stuff, and get out. Go!" Zack gave him one last nod, and hurried out.

~~O~~

Dusty watched Chuck through binoculars while chewing her gum lazily. She blew a bubble, let it pp, and sucked it in. "What if Zack won't listen to him?"

"Chuck's pretty persuasive."

Dusty snorted. "Yeah. He convinced you to do the nasty with him."

Amelia looked away with a grin. "It was my idea."

"Oh? Go get 'em, Spunky!" When Amelia didn't respond Dusty lowered the binoculars, and looked at her. "What's wrong? I know the sex is good. In fact, everyone knows the sex is good."

"It's just that we're friends, and we work together."

"So, keep it on the down-low." Again, Amelia didn't respond.

"That might be doable." Amelia smiled dreamily. "Chuck has the most amazing hand-eye co-ordination." She saw Zack sneaking out the door Chuck had gone in. Dusty leaned out the window, and whistled.

~~O~~

Waiting for Zack to leave, Chuck inched down the hall toward the office where he could hear Blitz and Boone talking. He couldn't understand what they were saying, but it didn't matter. If it all went according to plan, they'd be arrested soon, and this would all be over. He and Amelia would return to Atlantis, and their lives would go back to normal.

Thoughts of the new relationship they had settled in his brain and refused to be dislodged, causing his body to react in typical fashion. He shifted to ease the tightness in the front of his jeans, but it didn't help, so he did his best to ignore it. He ducked behind a machine whose function was a mystery when the office door opened, and Zack stepped out.

Blitz followed, one hand on the doorknob. "Where are you going?"

The boy stood there with his hands in his pockets. "To the store on the corner. Back in a few."

"Okay. Be careful. And if you see anyone suspicious hanging around, don't come back. Find a place to hide, and call me at the number I gave you."

"Will do. Mom?"

"What, sweetie?"

He paused, then said, "I love you."

She smiled, and reached up to brush the hair from his forehead. "I love you, too, honey. Now go. And come right back."

He waited for his mother to go into the office and close the door to grab his black backpack leaning against the wall. When he got out of sight of the office, he ran for the exit Chuck told him to use. As soon as he stepped out the door he heard a shrill whistle, and headed for the Mustang.

Dusty leaned out the window. "Hey, Zack-ster. You talked to Chuck?"

"Yeah." He looked anxious. "This really sucks! Mom and Boone are gonna be in jail in a few minutes, and I'll be on my own."

"You won't be alone, Zack." Amelia squeezed his knee in comfort. "You can always count on us if you need anything. Even if it's just someone to talk to. Shades will look out for you, too."

The boy shrugged, and looked down at his lap. "Doesn't make it any easier."

TBC