Usual disclaimers, no rights to any characters portrayed, this isn't the real world and it's not a Disney Princess story.
Pasadena - August 2008
Things were still quiet while the dust was settling after Graham, his people and the Intersect Facility got fried and those involved in pushing through the unlawful termination order were dealt with (well some of them were anyway), when Sarah got a call from Langley. She called for Chuck and they hit the button to shut and seal the doors before answering it on speaker. "Walker. Secure."
"Agent Walker, this is the Director Gordon. We have just discovered that a file of highly sensitive information has been stolen by Fulcrum and must be recovered as a matter of utmost urgency. Your new partner is on his way to Los Angeles. Your mission will be to accompany him to a function tomorrow evening and recover the information. You are to use any means necessary to recover this information from the man hosting this function, do you understand? After you complete this mission you will be returning to Langley with your partner as I am terminating your secondment to your current assignment. I do not know what Director Graham was thinking, an agent like yourself is wasted on something like that, but that will be rectified immediately."
"I'm afraid that I can't do that Director…."
"What do you mean you can't do that? Who the hell do you think you're talking to Walker? You're a CIA agent and you'll do whatever the fuck I tell you to do without question!"
'One moment please Director." She quickly conferenced Auntie Di in.
"Hello Sarah, is something wrong? I wasn't expecting to talk to you until later."
"General Beckman, I have the Acting Director of the CIA on the phone and he has advised me that he's recalling me from my current assignment and sending me on a mission with my new CIA partner. He has also advised me that I am to return to Langley with my new partner after this mission as he is terminating my involvement with the Intersect Project."
There was a silence for nearly a minute, which Diane needed to get herself under control before she spoke. "Director, you are apparently unaware of the terms of Agent Walker's assignment to the Intersect Project. If you have not been cleared to see the documentation for that I'm afraid that you will have to contact the Director of National Intelligence to request that he read you in. I suggest that you talk to the DNI about this but the short version is that Agent Walker has been permanently, irrevocably and exclusively assigned to the Intersect project and she can accept orders from me alone, she cannot being recalled or reassigned and she will not be completing any direct missions for the CIA, whether they be with any CIA agents or solo. If you wish to engage the Intersect team to complete this mission for you, the Director of the National Clandestine Service is quite aware of the terms and process, as she usually handled this for Director Graham."
From the sound of the Director's breathing, he was hyper ventilating as he worked himself up, so they were just waiting for the explosion. He didn't disappoint on that front.
"Who the fuck do you think you're talking to woman? Walker is CIA and she'll do whatever I fucking tell her to! As for you Beckman, clean out your desk because I'm going to make sure that you're thrown out on your arse before the day's through you stupid bitch!"
Diane took a breath "Very well Director, you'll have to talk to the President about that, because I only report to him and the DNI. In the meantime, do NOT try to contact any of my agents directly again! You may ONLY request our assistance through the proper channels like everyone else! Agent Walker, you are not to have any further direct discussions with the Acting Director of the CIA, is that understood?"
Sarah said "Yes Ma'am."
"Good, now please terminate this call."
Sarah repeated "Yes Ma'am" then cut the call without another word.
As expected, the screen lit up with a video call in seconds and Diane asked "Are you OK Honey?"
"Yes Auntie Di, it was unpleasant but nothing that I didn't have to deal with plenty of times over the past ten years."
"That's good, wait a moment, I want to conference in the DNI, and also the Director of the NSA briefly to warn him about the call he's about to get." They nodded as she did that.
When the two men came up on screen, she jumped into it "General, I expect that you're about to get a phone call from the Acting Director of the CIA, demanding that you fire my arse because I just informed him that under the terms of Agent Walker's assignment to the Intersect Project, she could not take any orders or accept assignments from him, and that he couldn't recall her from the project. I'm afraid that that call is most likely to be abusive."
He nodded "What am I allowed to tell him?…." Just then his desk phone started ringing and the DNI piped up "Answer it on speaker please General, I'll handle anything sensitive."
He nodded again and did as he was told "Yes?"
"Just what sort of half arsed operation are you running over there General?"
"Who is this?"
"This is the Director of the Fucking CIA! And one of your jumped up little bitches just had the nerve to try and tell ME that I couldn't do what I liked with MY fucking agents and then had her terminate my call!"
"From what I understand Director, General Beckman was correct in what she informed you."
"What, is that fucking bitch there with you now?"
"No Director, but she called me to warn me to expect your call. I would strongly advise that you do not attempt to take this matter any further, as that would not go well for you!"
Gordon sneered at him "I can see that you're as whipped as people say you are, General. Well you may be afraid of some skirt getting her panties in a twist but I can assure you that I'm NOT!" With that, he obviously slammed the phone down from the crash that they heard over the line.
The Director or the NSA cut the link and grimaced "Well, that was unpleasant!"
Diane said "I'm sorry about that General…." but he cut her off.
"No General, it wasn't your fault, it was..." He shuddered and then looked at the screen showing the DNI "How do you want me to handle this if he tries to follow this up Sir?"
"Just refer him to me General, you obviously won't be firing General Beckman or any of her people, and at the moment I'm not seeing much probability of the Acting Director's tenure being long enough to justify giving him any serious information about the Intersect Project or how it's handled. Quite frankly, I can't understand how he's managed to rise as high as he has with behaviour like that. I believe that I'll enjoy explaining to him in terms that he can understand, exactly how he will behave in regard to the Intersect project from this point on."
He looked at Diane and Sarah on screen "Agent Walker, General Beckman, I expect that your earlier communication with the ACTING Director was even less pleasant?" When Diane nodded, he went on "I apologise for that, you shouldn't have to take that. I don't suppose that you'd have a recording of that discussion would you?"
He could see that Diane was looking at Sarah and Chuck's image and he did as well. He saw the couple share a look and then Agent Walker said "Yes Sir, all calls on our phones here are recorded, we can upload it to the computer and forward it to you."
"If you could, that would be appreciated, I trust that there is nothing included that was private to you or the General?"
She shook her head "No Sir." He nodded "While we're on a roll, I don't suppose you'd have a recording of this discussion as well would you? I heard what he said but it would be good to be able to be able to use the exact words that were said when we deal with this."
"No Sir, but we can provide you with a transcript of the discussion if you'd like?"
He looked a little stunned at that, so Diane said "Both Agent Walker and Mister Bartowski have eidetic memories Director, so they can provide an exact transcript of what was said."
That confused him "Was I ever told that?"
Chuck piped up and said "Yes, a few times now Mister Mike" with a grin, but realised what he'd let slip when the DNI froze, as that had been what he'd been called in certain sensitive areas of the NSA, back when he was the Director of the NSA in the early nineties, but he hadn't been called that since then. The problem was that it had suddenly brought together the numerous other small things that had been tugging at his memory since this business started, including why Mr Bartowski's current cover identity was so familiar, as he now remembered another Charles Carmichael who'd worked for the NSA in that period. He was staring at Chuck's image as he asked quietly "General Beckman, if you could make the time, it would be appreciated if we could have a talk later."
She just nodded and said "Yes Sir, I'll head over once we finish this call."
With that, they wound up the video-conference and Sarah transcribed the discussion while Chuck got the recording off her phone, then they sent both to both Auntie Di and the DNI.
Once that was done, Sarah turned to Chuck and asked what had just happened?
He hung his head. "I screwed up, only people in the high clearance areas of the NSA when he was the Director from ninety two to ninety six ever called him Mister Mike. Auntie Di either has to try and convince him that she let it slip to me, or tell him the truth. The fact that I was working for them as an NSA analyst, Navy Lieutenant junior grade Charles Carmichael, at the time and dealt with him fairly often just adds to the problem as he's likely to remember the name."
Washington - July 2008
In Washington, Diane went straight to the DNI's office, and he asked her to take a seat, securing the office and activating electronic counter measures, but when he went to speak she held up her hand to stop him and pulled out a couple of devices that Stephen, Chuck and now Leslie had provided which were far more advanced and effective than what the DNI was able to get his hands on. Once they were activated and telling her that they were in fact secure she said "Yes, Sir?"
"This is more of a 'Mike' discussion Diane, after all you've been pretty much part of the family to me and Terry for over thirty years now, and I'm not sure that what I'm thinking at the moment isn't enough to rate sending me to the funny farm."
He looked at her for a moment and then asked her straight "Is Mister Bartowski really the same Charles Carmichael that you had working for you sixteen years ago?"
"Yes Mike, he is."
"How is that possible?"
"He, and his whole family for that matter, are brilliant. His parents and their best friend defected when the KGB disbanded and I managed to create a group on the quiet that was mainly made up of them, the original Special Projects Group. Even though they were still children at the time, Chuck and his older sister Ellie were working with their mother and her best friend from the very start, and you know as well as I do the value of what that group has done for us over the past sixteen years."
He nodded slowly "Why did you make all that up about him being a borderline basket case when he got the Intersect?"
"We had to get his mother's best friend's daughter out of Graham's clutches, and that was the only thing that Chuck could come up with that would be enough to sway you and the President at the time."
"Are you telling me HE did all that? Wait, are you telling me that Agent Walker's mother is the other woman in your Special Projects Group?"
"Yes, and yes, we'd been trying to find Samantha ever since her father took her away in nineteen eighty nine, so you can imagine what a shock it was when she just walked into Chuck's business on a mission for Graham a bit over a year ago. They grew up together and they were literally childhood sweethearts, he didn't stop looking for her since the day she was taken away, well none of us did, but I'm not sure that even her own mother was any more dedicated than Chuck was to find her."
"But why would Mr Bartowski, Chuck, fabricate such a dysfunctional life story and make himself look so weak and pathetic? The President and I pretty much felt that we had to throw the sad sack a bone to stop him crawling into a hole and giving up."
Diane nodded "Exactly! He created a case that made the two of you believe that he'd fall apart if we didn't ensure that Agent Walker never left, and furthermore she was never involved in the type of missions that Graham and other parts of the CIA seemed to love to make female agents do. So, to ensure that we kept access to the Intersect Database, you and the President pushed everything necessary through to protect Agent Walker and the rest of the team from anything of that nature."
He was getting angry now. "So you're telling me that he played me, the President and the rest of the American government for fools, just to make us do what he wanted?"
"Not exactly Mike, if you hadn't ensured those conditions were in place for them, Chuck, Sarah and the rest of the family, and probably Major Casey too I now realise, would have disappeared and you would never have seen any of them again. That family represents the best minds in the intelligence world, period, and you've seen plenty of proof of that! So if you hadn't done what you did, you WOULD have lost any access to the Intersect Data. Just between you and me though, if that ever does happen, never send anyone after them that you want to get back. Do you remember how good John Casey is?"
The DNI nodded, looking a little worried about where this was going.
"Mister Bartowski, his mother, his sister and Agent Walker are all far better than Major Casey, and there may be others in their group who are better as well, but even if there aren't any more who are actually better than him, they definitely have quite a few more who are almost as good. So if you want to take that family on, prepare to go to war. As you've seen, the NSA already found that out for themselves when they went after them."
She took in his reaction to what she was telling him.
"It doesn't need to get to that though Mike, as you've seen yourself, this family has been diligently working for the nation's interests for over sixteen years now, and they've been more effective and done more than just about everyone else. As long as the nation doesn't do anything to threaten the ones that they love, they will continue to do so. That being said, things like what Graham did, termination orders against any of them and what we had today with the Acting DCIA, are things that I can assure you they WILL regard as threatening the ones they love, and if those threats aren't stopped, well you definitely won't want to see what happens, because you could end up seeing American cities looking like war zones."
His worry had turned to outright fear now, so they talked for a while longer about the fact that they'd all shown that they were dedicated to working for the good of the nation and that they were fighting FOR America, rather than fighting against America, many times.
When the discussion was finished, Diane went back to her office and called Chuck. The first thing he said was "How much have I screwed things up Auntie Di?"
"I don't think that you have Honey, calling him Mister Mike just provided the final trigger to let him to put the things he'd been wondering about for a while together."
"How much did you tell him?"
"Pretty much everything, of course I only mentioned your parents and Emma as being ex-KGB, but I pointed out that the government had sixteen years of proof of your loyalty and contribution to the nation and told him that if anyone tried to come after the family, they'd probably be looking at American cities becoming war zones, which scared him after I told him just how good you guys are."
They all packed it in at that, but the next morning they got another nasty surprise.
Pasadena - August 2008
A little while after the Shadow Security office opened the next morning, a man came into Casey's reception area and tried to chat up Alex. Casey was ready to come out and pound him by the time he got around to what he was after.
"I need to see Sarah Walker."
Alex looked at him "I'm afraid that we don't have anyone of that name at Shadow Security Sir."
The look he gave her then was more patronising than lascivious, which she found she much preferred.
"Listen Sweetheart, I know Sarah's here because she told me to meet her here to work out the details for our date tonight, so why don't you just call her for me. Tell you what, if you're a good girl, I'll pick you up after I finish with her and we can have some fun…."
Whatever else he was planning to say was cut off as Casey burst out of his office and took him by the throat.
Alex barked an order at her father "Dad, No! You can't kill him, not yet any way."
Casey didn't like that much but reluctantly conceded that she was right, and relaxed his grip on the man's throat, slightly, as he bit out. "Get Sarah and the others to meet me in the bunker ASAP."
Alex nodded "Right, now remember, no killing yet!"
The only reply she got was "We'll see!" as he dragged the man into his office.
Carina and Zondra were the first to arrive in the bunker, as they were in the same building, and seeing two beauties of their calibre saunter in, the idiot immediately started preening and attempted to be charming.
Sarah and Chuck arrived together five minutes later, dressed rather more expensively, as befitted a couple who owned and ran a very successful business together and he broke off trying to chat up Carina and Zondra to focus on Sarah.
The intruder was too tied up in leering at Sarah and obviously celebrating his luck for being partnered to a hottie like this to even notice Chuck for a while, but when he did, he spat out "Bartowski? What the hell are you doing here?"
Chuck tried to stay calm as he responded "I'm where I'm supposed to be Watterman, the question is what are YOU doing here?"
Watterman leered at Sarah again as he said "I'm here to get my partner to take her back to where she belongs."
Chuck stopped Sarah with a gentle squeeze of her hand as she began to move forward to attack the tool. It took her a little while to get herself under control, but she squeezed his hand back and gave him a grateful smile when she did. Chuck looked at Casey and he nodded, initiating a video link to Diane.
As the link came up, she was saying "John? I wasn't expecting to hear from you, is this about…." She stopped when she saw Watterman sitting at the conference table and her eyes narrowed in anger "Who is that and what are they doing there?"
Chuck responded "His name is Allan Watterman General, and I presume that he's CIA as he came in here saying that he's come to get Agent Walker, his partner, to take her back to where she belongs."
She didn't bother trying to cover up her anger this time "I thought that we made it quite clear to that idiot yesterday! Wait a moment."
After a bit of quick work on the keyboard, the screen split to show the DNI as well "Hello Diane, what….Who is that?"
Chuck repeated what he'd just said to Auntie Di and the DNI sighed in resignation. "General, can you connect that idiot into this so that we can deal with him once and for all please?"
Diane said "Of course, Sir" and after a little more keying a third screen popped up, showing the Acting DCIA. As soon as he saw her he started "Beckman? What the hell do you think you're…." He cut off abruptly when he realised that the DNI was there as well.
The DNI didn't look happy as he said "I believe that you know who I am, DIRECTOR?"
Gordon said "Of course Sir!", while obviously thinking 'What the hell have I gotten myself into here?'
The DNI went on "I was under the impression that between the General and the Director of the NSA, they had managed to explain the situation to you yesterday Director, but I apparently overestimated your comprehension capabilities, so obviously I will now have to spell it out to you…."
Diane interrupted him "I'm sorry Sir, but don't you think we should have Major Casey take Mister Watterman elsewhere before you go into this any further?"
"No, you're quite right General. Major Casey, if you could remove Mister Watterman from the room while we discuss this, it would be appreciated."
Casey said "Of course Sir" and went to stand up, but Chuck cut in.
"Excuse me Sir, but wouldn't it be better if Major Casey and the rest of the agents stayed for this discussion while I escorted Mister Watterman from the room?"
Diane looked confused at that until Chuck added "There was also an issue involving Mister Watterman and Major Casey's assistant earlier which may create difficulties."
Her eyes went wide in what would be best described as a horrified expression at that and she quickly said "Yes Mister Bartowski, that would be best, thank you."
Watterman didn't know who that guy was, so he went to argue, until Chuck dug into a nerve point as he grabbed his shoulder, putting him into too much pain to do any more than stumble along with him as Chuck dragged him from his seat to steer him out the door and into another meeting room, sealing the door there before he dumped him into a chair and moved away as he pulled out his phone to send Watterman's salient details through to Auntie Di.
Back in the other meeting room, DNI was wading into the Acting DCIA. "Director, I am having trouble understanding why you were apparently unable to comprehend what you were advised of yesterday, because as the…." He made a show of reading what was in front of him 'Director of the Fucking CIA', I would have expected your comprehension skills to be right up there, but I've heard both General Beckman and the Director of the NSA explaining the process that must be followed to you, and still you sent…." He was interrupted by the text from Chuck that Diane had just forwarded to him and snorted in derision as he read it "Mister Watterman to the highly secret operational base of another organisation to demand that he see someone who didn't even work at that cover business? Explain this to me please?"
"To the best of my knowledge, neither General Beckman or the Director of the NSA have any authority over any part of CIA operations Sir."
"There's your core problem right there Director, because as you've already been told, nothing to do with any part of the Intersect team is a CIA operation. Quite aside from that, both General Beckman and the Director of the NSA have been highly respected members of the U.S. Intelligence community since the nineteen seventies, and I know for a fact that General Beckman advised you to contact me yesterday and the Director of the NSA confirmed her advice, why didn't you?"
"With all due respect Sir, I do not take orders from those below me."
The DNI took a moment to try and get control of himself before he responded. "No-one, at any point, ORDERED you to do anything, DIRECTOR, in fact the only person who was attempting to throw his weight about in areas where he had no authority was YOU! And you better watch your tone and be careful about who you're referring to as being below you if you know what's good for you. As I said, both General Beckman and the Director have been known and respected in the American Intelligence community since the nineteen seventies, and that's rather more than I can say for you!"
He was quiet for a moment as he gathered himself "I will say this once Gordon, so listen up. As General Beckman advised you yesterday, Agent Walker was irrevocably transferred to the Intersect Project under direct orders from the President at its inception. She is no longer under the control of the CIA and she will not accept any orders or assignments from the CIA. She accepts orders ONLY from General Beckman, who in turn ONLY accepts orders from the President or myself, so I better not hear of you ever trying to give orders to anyone on the Intersect team again! The ONLY connection that Agent Walker has to the CIA is that she has retained her identity and authority as a CIA agent, just as the other agents in the Intersect Team have retained their identities with the agencies that they were transferred from. These rights are irrevocable, just like their transfers. Do you understand me Gordon?"
The Acting DCIA responded through gritted teeth "Yes, Sir."
"So we will NEVER have to deal with another incident of this nature from the CIA, will we?"
"No, Sir."
"Now tell us what this mission that you decided that you needed Agent Walker for is."
"I don't believe that this should be discussed in front of non-CIA people, Sir."
"This is the best team we have, and if it's as important as you told Agent Walker it is, it needs to be addressed as a matter or priority, now out with it."
"Are you telling me that Agent Walker has shared details of a classified discussion with her superior?"
"How many times do I have to tell you this Gordon? NO! I'm telling you that Agent Walker shared details of an unauthorised contact that should never have been made to her WITH her superiors, General Beckman and myself, who are both cleared far higher than you are by the way, as are the rest of this team, now give me the details of this damned mission!"
Gordon made an effort to control his temper and began "A deep cover agent we have inside Fulcrum got word to us that Fulcrum have managed to steal a storage chip that has an encrypted database of highly sensitive information on it. Supposedly included in this database are the identities of all of our deep cover operatives..."
The DNI cut him off at that point "Wait a minute, when you say 'all of our deep cover operatives', are you referring specifically to the CIA's deep cover operatives, or what?"
"No Sir, it's apparently every deep cover operative in the American Intelligence community…."
"WHAT? You knew that this type of information was already in Fulcrum's hands and failed to report it out of some territorial bullshit? That's criminal, if not treason, Director and if they do manage to get access to it, your's will be the first head to roll, I can assure you of that! General, can we get Mister Bartowski back in please, we need to recover that information right now! Gordon, send all the information about this to General Beckman immediately so that we can get the Intersect team in there!"
Carina ducked out to get Chuck as Gordon tried to argue "Sir, something this important needs to be handled by competent spies, that's why I sent my best agent to be partnered with Walker..."
The DNI snorted "Best agent? Watterman is your best agent? If he's the best the CIA has to offer you may as well give up now, Watterman is a joke, no, we will be using the best we have, the Intersect team!"
Carina and Chuck came back in, with Watterman in tow as the DCIA was saying "Who have you got there to partner with Walker for a mission like this Sir? Major Casey? Everyone would see through that in an instant, the only agent that you have in Los Angeles who is capable of doing this is Agent Watterman."
Against her better judgement, Diane answered him. "Not that we answer to you, 'Director', but Agent Walker will be working with Mister Bartowski, using their established cover of the Carmichaels."
Watterman snorted in derision "Bartowski? He's a broken down computer repairman who fell apart after he got kicked out of Stanford for cheating, no, you need a real spy for a mission like this, me!"
Casey turned on him "Shut up you pathetic piece of shit, Bartowski's ten times the spy you could ever be!"
Watterman sneered at him. "What, are you still pissed because I was stealing your toy for the night Casey? Alright, I'll let you have her back, I've found something much better now anyway." He finished by smiling lasciviously at Sarah and giving her a look that he probably believed was enticing.
Chuck stepped up to stop Casey as he lunged at the tool while Carina and Zondra did the same with Sarah and Diane quickly texted just WHO Major Casey's assistant was to the DNI. When he read what was on the phone's screen he looked up in horror "No?" When Diane nodded grimly his face hardened and he said "Get that idiot out of there! Watterman, if they ever find you near the Intersect Team's base or cover business, or anyone associated with that team or cover business again, or you say ANYTHING about that team at all to ANYONE, the team is authorised to shoot to kill, do you understand?"
Watterman stared at the screen, wondering what just happened, so the DNI repeated his question "DO YOU UNDERSTAND?" and he nodded, gulping "Yes, Sir!"
At that, the DNI asked "Could you get him out of there please Mister Bartowski?"
Chuck said "Yes, Sir" and grabbed Watterman in the same place he had before, frog marching him out of the room, bunker and building, to give him a push that all but threw him across the side walk to land on his car (which he'd parked right in front of the door) hard enough to make a nasty dent.
As Chuck came back into the room, the DNI was asking Diane "Do you have the information for the mission yet General?" When she shook her head and said "No Sir", he looked at the Acting DNI's image "Gordon! I told you to send all the information to General Beckman over ten minutes ago, if she doesn't have it within the next minute you'll be sitting in the worst black site I can find until we decide what to prosecute you on!"
She got it just inside the deadline and put it up on screen. As Chuck was looking at the data that was listed as being included he asked "When and where was this stolen?"
Gordon wasn't going to answer until the DNI barked "You were asked a question!" and he grudgingly said "Some facility in Fort Meade a bit before Director Graham was killed."
The DNI asked "What is it Mister Bartowski?" Chuck glanced at the Acting DCIA "It appears to be an update to the data for, you know, Sir, so it would appear that there's more to this than we've been told."
"Is that correct Director? Are you still trying to withhold information from us about this? I told you to send ALL the information to General Beckman! Sent the ENTIRE file to her RIGHT NOW unless you want a troop of men like Major Casey to be kicking in your door to drag you out, screaming like a little girl, inside the hour!"
Inside a minute, Diane got a much bigger file and she went white as she saw the rest of the information. When she put it up in place of the earlier information, most of them swore when they saw how much the the scope had increased, and how long the CIA had been sitting on it, the DNI included.
He grimly said "Don't try to leave town Director, I can assure you that it will go much worse on you if we have to track you down!" then looked at Diane's image and said "General?", nodding at Gordon's image. She nodded and cut the link to him.
The DNI sighed "This is bad, we HAVE to recover that information and any copies that may have been made before Fulcrum or anyone else gets their hands on it. Can you get into that function tonight?"
Carina piped up "The Carmichaels and their friends now have invitations Sir, so we'll have three couples in there."
Zondra spoke next "We're also working on slipping a few more of our people into the serving staff, so we should have enough coverage Sir."
Sarah took over then "Chuck and I will take the lead Sir, we'll try to get away to find the chip and any copies of the data. If there's too much attention on us though, one of the other teams will have to go after it, but that will probably require a follow up visit to make sure that they haven't missed anything, given that Chuck is both the Intersect and our best computer expert."
The DNI nodded tiredly, "I'll leave you to it, Godspeed….And by the way Chuck, when this is over, I'd like to see you in Washington for a discussion about recent developments."
Chuck just met his gaze, saying "Yes, Sir" before the DNI cut his link.
Hollywood Hills - August 2008
When they started circulating at the function, which was a birthday party that the one Fulcrum hired to break the encryption on the files was throwing for himself, Chuck and Sarah ran into a lot of people who knew the Carmichaels from the society circles and they spent a little while mingling, but the Carmichaels had already established the fact that they avoided PDAs, so no-one was at all surprised when they slipped away out of sight after they started nuzzling each other. Between the nine of them inside the function, they'd attached numerous remote access devices to the computer and security networks and Anna and the other techs out in the van had taken over the systems. This meant that as far as the security cameras went, Chuck and Sarah were effectively invisible, and they talked them past any guards roaming the mansion as well.
They got into the host's office and vault, but while they found quite a bit of incriminating material and humongous amounts of cash and bearer bonds, they couldn't find the chip. Chuck hacked his way into the systems and found that the decryption processes were still running, and everything he located on the system relating to the files was luckily still encrypted. That was a relief, so with that they locked everything up again and went back to the party to find the chip, stopping for a make out session when they were back in a 'safe' area to explain what they'd been doing, and because they wanted to to tell the truth.
They were back on the dance floor and working their way closer to the host when Chuck snorted. Sarah just looked at him, waiting for him to tell her, them, what he'd discovered. As they were dancing cheek to cheek he spoke softly in her ear "Are you still as good a pick pocket as you were when you were with your father?"
"Pretty much, yeah, why?"
"Because our host just dropped his keys and I flashed on the key fob as he was picking them up, the chip that we're after is in his key fob. If I keep him occupied for long enough can you get his keys and either get the chip out of the key fob or take the key fob without him noticing?"
"I can take the key fob and have his keys back in his pocket inside a few minutes, no problem, but getting the chip out would take longer, I really have no idea how long that might take. Couldn't we just swap the key fob so he wouldn't notice?"
"Maybe, do any of you guys have key fobs on your keys? If so, can you hold them up so that I can compare them to his please?"
Over the next five minutes, the ones that did engineered situations to show him their key fobs and Chuck said "Carina, your's is pretty close to his, can you get it off the key ring and hand it off to Sarah when we bump into you please?"
"Sure thing Chuckie, just give me a minute…." With that she dropped her clutch and got down to pick up everything, and the next time the two couples bumped into each other she handed the fob off to Sarah.
They finished the next dance near the birthday boy and Sarah bumped past him to grab something for them to eat while Chuck was wishing him happy birthday, slipping the keys back into his pocket as she touched his arm to steal her husband away to have a nibble before they got back on the dance floor.
Of course they still had to wipe out everything on the systems and ensure that he didn't have any other copies of the files anywhere else, but they did feel a little better with the chip in their possession.
Their relief was short lived, as Jeff suddenly swore "That CIA agent who was at Shadow today, he's here!"
Casey cut in "Where is he?" But just as Chuck was telling him to let it go, Anna said "Don't worry about him, the host is leaving with a woman, and from his expression it's not for happy time."
Chuck asked "Where?" "Heading for the door in the back corner." Chuck got a good look at her and flashed "She's Fulcrum, she must be here to get the decrypted files. This could be good, if we can grab her to see what we can get out of her and grab him as well."
Jeff piped up "It looks like Wattawatta might have had the same idea, he's just ducked out through the foyer to cut them off."
Chuck nodded to himself "Right, we'll get behind him while someone else follows the others" and with that he and Sarah wafted across the dance floor and through the foyer deceptively quickly while Casey and Carina headed after the other pair.
They got the rear hall as the pair were coming down the hall with the Fulcrum agent berating him about the fact that he'd promised to have the information on the chip decrypted for them two weeks ago, so what was he doing throwing a party?
The man tried to be suave, but he just came across as a tool, at least he was bright enough to realise that though and he changed tacks to ask about his fee. At that moment, Watterman stepped out, pointing a pistol at him and saying. "You're going to open your vault for me and get me that chip!"
The Fulcrum agent stepped out from behind the host (hiding something behind her purse) and asked "What are you doing here Allan?" He smirked at her "Juliette! This is perfect, now I'll bring in the grand slam, the chip, him, and a senior Fulcrum operative. This will show those bastards who the real spy is!"
She smirked back at him, saying "Oh yes it will Allan!" as she quickly swept up the suppressed pistol that she'd been hiding to shoot him right between the eyes. The host was standing there, frozen in fear, as she turned back to him, but Casey quickly stepped forward to knock her out cold, muttering "Dammit, I wanted to be the one who killed that bastard, nice shot though!"
Chuck and Sarah ran up to them, Sarah checked Watterman and smiled grimly at how definitively the Fulcrum agent had dealt with the bastard as she picked up his pistol while Chuck scooped up the pistol that Juliette had dropped. Chuck grabbed the key fob that Sarah had slipped into his pocket and held it up, asking the host whether there were any other copies of the files on this?
He tried to bluff it out until Chuck pressed the still warm tip of the suppressor to the same spot as Watterman had been shot and repeated the question "Yes, yes, they're on my computer, I'll show you!" Chuck shook his head "Are there any other copies OTHER than what's on your system at the moment?"
"No, they're the only copies, I swear!"
"What about backups, or off-site backups?"
"The backups are all in the storage silo or my vault, I keep everything in-house for security."
Chuck called Vinnie and Zondra to come help and Casey and Vinnie carried Watterman's body and the Fulcrum agent out to the van while Carina and Zondra escorted the host and Chuck and Sarah headed back to his office. As before, Anna and the others kept them from showing up on the security monitors and talked them past the guards. Sarah opened and emptied the vault and desk while Chuck got into the computer, killing off all of the decryption processes and deleting anything on the system remotely related to the files before telling Anna to disconnect from the systems and releasing a rather nasty version of malware onto the network to corrupt and destroy absolutely every file attached to any of the systems.
The others came in with bags to cart everything that they'd collected out, and Casey brought them a rather large bag of thermite charges, along with their weapons and a couple of ballistic vests, just in case they had to shoot their way out of there. When they'd finished in the office, they headed to the computer room with Casey. They tranqed the sysadmins who were running around trying to save the systems and dragged them out of the computer room, then Chuck and Casey quickly went through and attached thermite charges to every processing and storage device in there, as well as the storage media. Sarah was both amazed and amused by how well they worked together as she watched them, it was like a practised dance, they never got in each other's way and always seemed to have what the other one wanted ready at the right time. She shook her head, thinking that this must be the result of working together closely for sixteen years.
Chuck smiled evilly as he activated the remote detonator to turn nearly a million dollars worth of state of the art computer processor and storage hardware and media into piles of worthless metal and plastic slag, then they headed out. As soon as they were clear of the building, Anna destroyed the security systems, much as Chuck had done to the computer systems (minus the thermite charges), after they'd copied everything off the systems, ensuring that there was no real possibility of recovering any images of any of them from the system.
The others left straight away with the van to deliver the host, the Fulcrum agent and Watterman's body into custody at the local FBI office, so they piled into the stretch limo with the other three who'd been inside as serving staff and headed back to the Castle. They had to laugh when they got there, as Carina and Zondra were sitting outside in a Lamborghini (presumably the host's), waiting for someone to let them in. Once they were all inside, they got the story out of them. Carina had gone to recover her key fob from his keys because it had sentimental value to her, but when she saw the Lamborghini key she decided that it would be a shame to let a nice car to go to waste, especially as she just happened to know people who could alter all the records so that it would show up as being her's, so she and Zondra hopped in and drove it home. They were happy to report that it was one sweet ride.
Once they were changed, they all headed down to the Dungeon to contact Diane and the DNI to report on the mission. Overall, everyone was happy with the outcome, as they'd recovered all the data before it could be leaked, as well as capturing a Fulcrum agent and the one who had been decrypting the files for them, so they were hoping to be able to get quite a bit of information out of the two of them. They didn't exactly regard Watterman getting killed as a win, but they weren't too broken up about it either. He wasn't supposed to be there at all and it was the way that he'd foolishly tried to confront the host on his own with no plan in a vain grab for glory that got him killed, so they couldn't be blamed for that.
Of course Diane and the DNI advised them that Gordon DID blame them for Watterman's death, and that he had even gone so far as to accuse them of killing him and doctoring the video that he was shown of the shooting when they contacted him right after they got off the link to Los Angeles. The DNI told them that he'd asked why Watterman hadn't been recalled after the meeting at the Intersect team's base and Gordon had told him that he didn't think that it was necessary to do so. They said that they'd offered to supply copies of the videos for analysis to prove that no tampering had occurred, but the man just kept ranting and making accusations, so they gave up.
The DNI did request that the team look into the Acting Director of the CIA's history, to find out how the hell someone like that could ever end up in a position like that. It didn't take them long to get to the bottom of the matter, Graham had been grooming the man, promoting him above his ability and covering up all of his discretions and messes for over twenty years to ensure that he had a puppet who had neither the intelligence or willpower to question what he was doing. Knowing Graham he would have made sure that he had backups for this one, but the plan was obvious when anyone looked at it, to ensure that he had a puppet who wouldn't ask questions between him and everyone else so that he could do what he wanted without anyone seeing what he was doing.