In this chapter Chuck's two worlds meet and he has to do his best to stop them from colliding. It doesn't help when his bosses want him to have some skin in the game.

Chapter 10: Some skin in the game

The advantage of working for a large multinational corporation was there was plenty of talented people around that you can ask for advice. This was certainly true about Roark Instruments. Ted Roark had the talent of getting the best out of his people without the drawback of the usual office politics and bickering. Maybe because Ted was an autocratic and he was the biggest shareholder which meant he could not be replaced. Ted made the big calls and Ted usually was right. The staff at Roark all seemed to on the same page and they all wanted to help you get the best out of yourself. Sydney Prince was the Director of Human Resources, she was one of these people that you could approach about almost anything and she was wise and knowledgeable about the world Chuck had fallen in to. Chuck was up in Sydney's office and the topic of conversation was about seduction.

"Have you heard of a Roan Montgomery?" That triggered a flash and Chuck verbalised what he saw.

"Uh, the guy lives in Palm Springs. He knows a lot of ladies. a lot of ladies. So, what's the deal with this Roan guy?"

"He's a legend in the C.I.A. Incredible spy. Real old-school James Bond type."

"Yes I can see that."

"Roan taught classes at Langley called, Infiltrating and Inducement of Enemy Personnel, at the academy, we called it Seduction School. All recruits have to attend classes, even Sarah."

"Really, The CIA teaches agents how to kiss etc? I find that hard to believe."

"Is that so? Chuck I want you to kiss me."

Chuck stared at her, he was taken aback by her forthright manner.

"Come on now. Don't be shy."

She had a way of making herself cute and vulnerable that could draw any man in. A nervous Chuck stood up and crossed over the room to where Sydney was standing. She moved in by putting her arms around him and tilted her head up for a kiss. He put his arms around her then he leaned in to kiss her lips. He gasped in surprise as Sydney deepen the kiss, then he pulled out of the kiss to look down into her eyes.

"Does that kiss feel familiar? Does Sarah kiss you that way?"

Chuck was stunned for a moment before coming back to reality, "What are you trying to tell me?

"All recruits are taught how to kiss like that, even me; Roan has been around for a long time."

"Smooth moves there Sydney!" Ted Roark was lending against the door frame looking at the two in the office. "I'm not interrupting anything important?"

Chuck and Sydney stepped back from each other and both turned to their CEO in the doorway. Sydney reached up and adjusted her hair, Chuck stood there like a stunned mullet.

"I was just demonstrating to Chuck some of the techniques the C.I.A. uses to train their agents on how to control their assets."

"Sounds good, perhaps you could demonstrate that one to me later!" Ted said in jest.

"Thank you, Sydney; you have helped me made some sense to the chaos that is swirling around my brain at million miles an hour."

"You're welcome, that's what I'm here for. Are you going to Friday night drinks? You are well I'll see you there."

Chuck quickly left her office to return to his own, he left Ted and Sydney to talk.

They waited until Chuck was inside a lift and out of earshot before continuing their conversation. Sydney expressed her concerns that Chuck might have fallen in love with his handler. She had seen this agent that had been assigned to manage Chucks' life, and she believed that a young horny male like Chuck would sooner or later fall for his handlers feminine charms. If that was to happen then there was a danger of Chuck compromising Fulcrum. It was something that Ted and Sydney were determined not to happen. It was decided that the time had come for Chuck to have some skin in the game. If Chuck talked then he would go down with the sinking ship, just like the rest of them.

Friday night drinks in the executive suites and Ted was not happy. It seemed that Malena was contracted to do a job for Fulcrum and Chuck inadvertently got her arrested. If you are going to take on the might of the US government then you are going to need some serious firepower, and lots of it, La Ciudad was the most dangerous arms dealer in the world and she was brokering a deal to supply Fulcrum with the necessary equipment. Now that La Ciudad was out of the game Roark lost the sizeable deposit for the shipments that were no longer coming.

"I'm going to have to consult with the others and see what we can do. Chuck, you're supposed to steer any connections to Fulcrum away from us." The comment made Chuck feel awful about himself.

"Alright, alright," Ted responded to his increasingly panicky programmer. "You couldn't have known, sometimes plausible deniability has repercussions. Try to keep us in the loop. We'll take care of it." Ted patted Chuck on the back. Now that Chuck thought about it, he was almost killed by friendly fire and it gave him the shudders.

After a quiet day in the office and there were no mission briefs, Chuck had a rare night at home by himself. His good buddy, Morgan was occupied with a girl from his work and then there was Sarah, well he didn't know where she was tonight but his other handler Casey was home, inside watching the History channel.

His peace and quiet was interrupted by a knock on the door. He was surprised that his visitor was his old nemesis Bryce Larkin. Larkin had come over with a peace offering, a slab of beer. What the heck, drinking another man's beer on a week night , maybe ordering a pizza or two, spin a few yarns and tell a few lies and half truths. Chuck knew Bryce always had an alternative motive with everything he did, here was a chance to get some answers out of him for a change.

Chuck let Bryce in and the two men settled down, drinking beer around the coffee table.

"So, what do I owe this honour of you darkening my doorstep?"

"I wanted to clear the air between us."

"And the beer?"

"To be enjoyed, as always."

With that Bryce handed Chuck a beer and then both men took a pull of their beers. Nothing was said for a while, the silence was deafening. Bryce was the first to crack.

"It's been five years, surely you must have questions?"

"Why did you frame me back at Stanford?"

"Revenge. You stole my girl."

"Who? Jill?"

"I came back from summer training at Langley and found you two going for it like rabbits."

"What, really?"

"Yeah, I caught you two going at it like rabbits on the island bench in the kitchen. I went outside and waited for you to finish."

"Well that was nice of you."

"Don't you remember that crack about the cockroaches?"

Chuck took another sip of his beer as he leant back and thought back to happier times, he started to blush when he remembered the island bench, the act and the comment. Bryce noticing the change in Chuck's demeanour, he thought he would press on.

"You saw that?"

Bryce took a swig and gave a nod and smirked at him.

"Well you did disappear on us. You were gone for months without a word!" Chuck was trying to justify his actions, "and you knew how well Jill and I got on."

"But I thought you had a thing for Cherry?"

Chuck laughed, "Even Cherry had a thing for Jill."

"Wow. I never realised. So do you know what ever happened to those two?"

"Well let's see, Cherry has a photography studio in Hollywood, it's on the Sunset Strip."

Bryce slowly nodded at that.

"Jill." Chuck continued, "Jill got a research job on the East Coast, Boston I believe, working for one of those Hi-Tech medical foundations. I haven't spoken to her for quite some time."

"So you didn't go the distance either. She definitely had the drive and the ambition, she certainly was a lady with many talents."

"Yeah well what do you do? The tyranny of distance was the killer." Chuck took another swig of beer. "She was East Coast, I was West Coast and her boss was right there. It didn't take her long to wrap those long slender legs around his hips."

A little bit of small talk, and then the pizzas arrived. Pizza and beer can't be beaten. Chuck told of what he knew of former classmates. He didn't kept in touch with most of them but he knew Steve Hunter died in an automobile accident last year, leaving behind a wife and two kids. He was surprised when Bryce told him how Allan Watterman had been busted for securities fraud.

"Anyway we have a bigger problem, there is a small group of disgruntled CIA agents weren't happy with how the CIA were handling things. They banded together and got some serious financial backing and have created their own spy outfit known as Fulcrum."

That comment made Chuck choke on his anchovies. Bryce knew about Fulcrum but hopefully not that much. Now that got Chuck anxiety up, if he hadn't been half tanked by the beer, the amber ale had been calming him now he was starting to feel sick to the stomach.

"When the government ordered the CIA/NSA to share their Intel after 9-11 they created the Omaha project. They wanted an agent to be able to access information quickly so to be able to complete mission without unnecessary delays due to faulty intel. As a project leader I was under immense pressure to get the project operational. We were spending millions for dollars but the candidates could not handle the Intersect properly. There was only person I knew who could handle it and make it work. Someone I could trust it with …."

"Me?" Chuck interjected.

"You!"

"Why me?"

"Like I said I was under immense pressure for results!"

"So you sent me the Intersect to save your career."

Bryce gave him a wry smile and then finished the beer he was holding before reaching forward for another one.

"Do you remember Professor Fleming?"

"You mean Professor John Fleming, who taught psychology and symbolism at Stanford? The man that accused me of cheating. Of course I remember him."

"Professor Fleming was a CIA recruiter on campus."

"Really? I did not know that."

"He was going to short list you for the Omaha project. This meant that you were basically being drafted into service of the US government."

"Like I am now, thanks to you."

"True but you wouldn't have all the perks that Roark Instruments have given you. Would you rather work at Roark and moonlight on the side or be in some secure Government facility that officially doesn't exist?" I remembered when you told me about the testing and how well you went. Professor Fleming confirmed that your results were off the charts but I needed to something drastic to stop Fleming from forwarding the results to the CIA. Did you know Fleming was trading test scores for sexual favours? It was a simple case of blackmail, and I hacked the system and erased your results.

"That was very thoughtful of you."

"I knew that if I gave you the Intersect, you would be smart enough to make it work. All of our secrets would be safe and that the right CIA would send the right agents to protect you and they did."

"Sarah?" Chuck's brow furrowed.

"Sarah!" Bryce looked confused for a moment; he was reading Chuck's facial expressions. "What wrong with having Sarah in your life. She's smart, she's pretty, she's one hell of an agent and despite what she claims, she can be witty and very funny."

Chuck nodded his head in agreement. Bryce took another swig of his beer and then got serious.

"The Intersect was suppose to be top secret but the word had got out. I found out that a small group of agents wanted to use it for other less noble purposes. I knew there was a group but I didn't know who they were. I knew I had to flushed them out so I set up that Silicon Valley company and the termites came a running."

Bryce pulled out a photo of Tommy Delgado

"Chuck, beware of this guy!"

Chuck knew who it was as he often had poker nights at Tommy's place. According to Bryce, Tommy was a C.I.A. agent who went rogue. Delgado was now actively recruiting other disgruntled spies from every agency. Tommy made the mistake of attempting to recruit Bryce, but Bryce was patriot, he had lost both parents in 9/11. With that warning Bryce decided to leave, he got up and finished his beer before moving to the front door.

"Hey, uh, Bryce you have forgotten your glasses."

"You keep 'em. If you're going to be a spy, you're gonna need them."

"I don't, I don't want to be a spy."

"From what I've seen, it's a little too late for that, Chuck. I'm sure you hate me right now. But someday you're going to realize it's all for the greater good."

After Bryce had left through the front door, Chuck retired to his bedroom with the glasses in his hand. As he stood in front of his bedroom mirror his vanity got the better of him and he put the glasses on and in a mock Sean Connery voice.

"Not bad. Carmichael. Charles Carmichael."

The password triggered the glasses, before Chuck knew it he had an update of the government intersect downloaded into his brain. He felt like vomiting and the room started to spin and Chuck had to lay down on his bed

"I hate Bryce Larkin."

"Mornin' Casey!" Chuck chirped as he walked across the plaza to enter Roark's building. Casey set up his cover as a handyman in a Mr Fixit shop two doors down from Lou's Deli. He has mobility, closeness to Chuck, and can fix shoes, cut keys and repair zippers and handbags.

"Hurm," he grunted with a usual Casey expression on his face.

"I forgot to invite you to dinner with Sarah, Ellie, and Awesome tonight. I figured that since you might be monitoring us anyway, you might as well-" Chuck looked to the side and flashed.

Unfortunately, he got a glimpse of a Chinese guy and flashed on the man's tattoos.

"Uh Casey!"

"Did you flash?"

"Yeah and it's not good. That guy on the stairs," he pointed to the man "he's carrying a weapon and he's also the leader of a Triad gang in downtown LA that the FBI have been tracking for years. He has ties from Singapore to Tokyo and they are laundering millions in an out of China!

"So after a brief car chase, we were able to run the suspects off the road and arrest them. We suffered no casualties and had no escapes."

Graham looked up from the report as Sarah finished the debrief.

"And the Intersect," Beckman asked, "how has that been working?"

Chuck stood up from where he was seated and began to report on its performance.

"Umm, you know it has its moments".

At first, he was nervous about talking to the general and director. But after a few missions, he's become a bit more comfortable interacting with all the government people. The fact that nothing Fulcrum related has come up yet has just made things easier.

After Graham and Beckman sign off, Sarah turned to Chuck. "Good job, Chuck. You did great."

"Yeah," Casey smirked, "you only screamed like a little girl twice."

"And you need to stay in the car." Sarah looked a little more serious at that. "We can't protect you if you go off after the enemy. I don't want you to get hurt." Sarah was giving Chuck a soft but intent look that Chuck had to look away from. She seemed really concerned for him.

"Alright, next time a random thug aims a missile launcher at the car, I'll stay in it." He smiled and seemed to diffuse the situation a bit. "Oh, and let me just remind you that we have thanksgiving dinner tomorrow night with Ellie and Awesome. I think she's going all out this year, even Morgan got an invite."

Sarah's smile dazzled and she looked happy and excited. "I'm looking forward to it."

Chuck leaned heavily against the door and sunk down to the floor when he got back to his place. He held his hand out and he watched it shake a little, he did not have a steady hand and he wondered if it was the stress. He was settling into his role as a double agent for Fulcrum and the government, but it was still a lot of hard and messy work. He had to relay information to two masters. And if Fulcrum showed an interest in someone he flashed on, they tried to contact that person or group. Things just got stickier when the government wanted to shut them down. So far, Chuck has been barely hanging on and keeping his stories straight. Fortunately, the missions have not yet directly clashed with Fulcrum.

Chuck's anxiety levels were up again the next morning when he had an unscheduled meeting with Tommy Delgado in his office. Tommy had heard that there is a decryption program that could render CIA security useless. The seller is Otto Von Vogel. He will be hosting a party as a smoke screen for him to meet potential buyers. Tommy with the mass resources of Ted Roark wanted to acquire this software. He had come into Chuck's office to check if Chuck had anything in the government intersect that he should know about.

Chuck was concerned that if Tommy knew about the decryption program then possibly the CIA knew about it as well. He hoped that if that was the case then his handlers would not be called upon to recover it.

In a hastily arranged meeting in the Mr Fixit shop, Beckman was addressing the team,

"The last thing we need is for a rogue organisation having access to all of our secrets."

"Okay."

"The mission is at a chalet tonight at being hosted by Otto Von Vogel. Vogel is a German national who deals in exotic weapons and other unsavoury items. Otto has created a decryption program that could render CIA security useless. Your mission is to find and recover the software and have it placed in CIA custody. Casey you will pose as a potential buyer and Walker will be his hired companion. And Chuck, you will be acting in an observational capacity on this mission. You will stay in the van and monitor the live feeds. I'm told you have great hacking ability so you should be able to watch the action on the chalet close circuit television."

Chuck had his work colleague Rod Barnes to park his company car near the Chalet who then caught a cab home. Chuck hoped that the stakeout van would not pass his parked car but he had moments of anxiety when that happened. He managed to distract Casey and Sarah long enough so that when they drove pass they didn't notice.

Chuck watch as Casey and Sarah disappeared towards the party. Sarah dressed as according to the brief, she was wearing a red gogo mini dress that had cut out sides which meant that she couldn't wear underwear. Her six inch heels made her wiggle while she walked. When Chuck first viewed what she was wearing he nearly had a coronary. She was absolutely stunning and dead sexy. Speaking of deadly Chuck wondered where she hid her knives.

Flicking thought the different camera feeds Chuck identified Tommy Delgado in another room. Chuck knew that Tommy was on the CIA hit list and wanted to warn him about his handlers. He muted his microphone and rang Tommy on his phone. Tommy felt his phone vibrate and checked who was calling.

"What do you want, I'm working!"

"You have to get out. My handlers are in the next room and they are coming your way."

"Thanks pal but I'm not leaving without what I've come here for!"

"You have to move. They just entered from the other door!"

Tommy slipped into the next room; fortunately he has the cover of a crowded room so his opposition may not spot him easily. This complicated things a bit as now he had to avoid two spooks as well as getting the memory stick.

Chuck could go nothing more than watch the monitors, he noticed that Sarah suddenly zeroed in of Otto Von Vogel. Sarah with that dress soon made friends with Otto.

"Um, Tommy. The CIA have got to Von Vogel first! You better get out of there."

"No Way. The game just got more interesting."

Chuck was force to start a high risk game of keeping the two opposing forces apart. It was made more difficult because Tommy wasn't obeying Chuck's directives. He found it easier to send Casey and Sarah on a wild goose chase to avoid Tommy. Tommy's effects were not successful in obtaining the memory stick and he was getting an itchy trigger finger and Chuck had to keep him away from his two handlers.

Finally Chuck saw that Tommy has been spotted so he hacked Otto's system and allowed Tommy to escape.

"Tommy, you've been made. Get out of there."

Tommy heard the warning quickly made his way though an open door and closed it. Chuck electronically locked it to stall Casey's and Sarah's pursuit of him.

"Chuck open the door." Casey ordered over the intercom

"I'm working on it. Just give me a minute."

"Work faster he's getting away." Sarah voice echoed in his ear.

"Almost got it." Chuck already had it but he was stalling so he could give Tommy a few extra seconds so he could slip by and then get away. He watched as Tommy moved from security camera to security camera, then he released the door. "Got it. Try it now!" he said with urgency.

Sarah and Casey quickly opened the door but Tommy was already gone, just like Chuck allowed it. Just so his handlers didn't think he was completely useless Chuck said over the microphone "He heading for the car park."

Chuck didn't think that Tommy would waste time trying to steal a car so he had to warn him to get moving. He got out of the van and creeped to where he could get a advantage point then he heard it. Just what he didn't want to hear. Gunshots.

Tommy squeezed off a couple of shots around the bumper of the car before he sprinted to the side of a building. His eyes scanned his new position to look for a way out, but the agents after him were closing in on his tail.

"Psst, Tommy. Over here."

Tommy recognized the voice coming from behind him. He looked around and saw Chuck gesturing for him to hurry on over. Tommy fired another shot before he quickly snuck his way over.

"What do you want? In case you haven't noticed I'm rather busy keeping avoiding two government agents that are after me" Tommy said. He fired a couple more shots to keep them pinned in their positions.

"Don't worry, duck down this alley way all the way down and turn left, there should be my company car." Chuck said as he threw Tommy the keys.

"Thanks, man. Anything else?"

"Please don't shoot my handlers. I know their doing their jobs and technically you're in the wrong okay?"

Tommy just glared at him!

"Um, also you need to hit me," Chuck said with some trepidation. "Make it look like you got the jump on me. I have to maintain plausible deniability with those two."

"Okay, will do."

Before Chuck could reply, Tommy hit Chuck on the jaw and Chuck was down for the count. Tommy's ring left a gash that would require stitches. Sarah and Casey found him lying in the alleyway. He came to with Sarah shaking him to wake up.

"So you just let him get away? And you let the Intersect get damaged?" Graham was understandably pissed. Beckman seemed no better.

"Sorry, sir and madam. We couldn't find any trace of him after he knocked out the asset." Casey was doing a good job maintaining such a stoic facade in the face of such scrutiny.

"I'm sorry the most," Chuck interjected. "I thought I saw him and wanted to get a closer look to make sure it was him. The next thing I know, I'm on my back in a dingy alleyway looking up at Sarah."

"Be quiet. If you can't keep out of danger, we might have to put you in a bunker for your own protection," Beckman fumed. "In the meantime, we are continuing our search for Tommy Delgado. As for you two, make sure that you keep the Intersect safe."

They signed off and left Sarah, Chuck, and Casey in his apartment. Sarah was tending to the cut on the side of his head from where Tommy hit him.

"Chuck," she started, "you have to stay in the car. I don't know how many times we have to tell you, but we can't protect you if you keep getting in dangerous situations like that. I, we could have lost you."

"Sorry again. I'll try harder to do what you and Casey say. And I'm sorry that you guys got in trouble for my actions."

She smiled warmly in response and finished bandaging him up. Chuck couldn't help but feel a little guilty over his deception.

Tommy's poker night went ahead even though he had a run in with Chuck's handlers. Thanks to Chuck's help Tommy managed to evade capture. Chuck was in two minds about attending as he still had a bandage on his chin from where Tommy hit him.

In order for Tommy's place to remain off the radar Chuck had to leave his GPS tracking watch behind. He had hacked into the surveillance that Casey kept on his own apartment. And to make sure that Chuck didn't arouse any suspicion from Casey and Sarah, he had looped the video surveillance in his own apartment to make it look like he was doing nothing particularly interesting. This would give him a window of opportunity to do something that his handlers would not be able to eavesdrop on him. He was free for approximately three hours.

He had hailed a cab to get to Tommy's; he got dropped off two blocks from his place and then walked the rest of the way. The best thing about poker night was that Chuck was a better player than the others. He usually ended up in front by the end of the night. Chuck didn't care about the money so he always made sure to lose often enough so not to create grudges from his other players.

He snuck home at 1 in the morning with the small amount of winnings in his pocket. He entered by the Morgan door and got in position to turn the looped feed off. Once that was achieved he got into bed knowing he pulled one over his handlers.

."