Chapter 10

"Casey," Chuck hissed, peering out from behind a fridge in the appliance aisle. "Pssst...Casey."

"Excuse me ma'am," Casey said with a fake smile to the woman he was showing a Beastmaster to. "I just need to talk to my co-worker for a moment. Why don't you take a moment to check out all the features this beauty has?"

"What do you want moron," Casey said as he grabbed Chuck's arm and dragged him back towards the Nerd Herd desk.

"Ellie and Sarah are talking right now...what do you think they're talking about?" Chuck asked as he straightened up and smoothed his shirt down.

Rolling his eyes, Casey glared at Chuck. "Are you serious, Nancy? Jesus Bartowski, I thought you would have figured it out by now. I'm not your coffee clatch girlfriend. You want to go play paddy cake, go talk to Walker."

With a chuckle, Chuck reached out to pat Casey on the shoulder, hastily withdrawing his hand at the man's glare. "I'm kidding big guy. Seriously, I just wanted to let you know that I got a call for an emergency on site service call, and the idiot twins are missing in action again. I need to head downtown to take a look at a server farm."

"Keep your watch on," Casey grunted as he looked over his shoulder to make sure his single white female was still pining for the Beastmaster. "I'll let Walker know."

With a nod, Chuck snatched up the metal toolcase he'd already prepared. "Don't wait up for me!" he said with a smile and a jaunty wave to Casey, who just grunted before turning back to the woman he had been serving.

***

Thirty minutes later Chuck pulled up outside the office block address he had been given over the phone. Picking up his case from the passenger seat, Chuck jumped out of the Herder and wandered through the doors and to the security desk.

"Hi, someone called about a computer emergency?" Chuck asked brightly of the security guard who was sitting at the desk.

The guard just stared at Chuck for a few moments, causing Chuck to become a little nervous. He hoped this wasn't another prank call; last month Lester had sent him out on a bogus install that had him explaining to a private bank's security force why he was trying to walk into their vault with a pack of computer tools. Looking down at the work order he'd filled out he sought out the name of the person who'd called.

"Ummm...it's for Barnes...Mr. Barnes I guess...it was a guy I was talking to on the phone...or maybe a really manly woman, you know? Says it's for Tipping Point Financial...ringing any bells?"

The guard grunted in a way that really reminded Chuck of John Casey and simply said "Fourth floor," before punching a button to buzz Chuck through to the elevators.

"Right, thanks, uhmmm, Jacques," Chuck said as he read the guy's nametag. He couldn't help but think that the guy certainly didn't look like a Jacques.

Stepping into the waiting elevator Chuck pushed '4' and leaned back against the back wall, humming along to the Muzak playing over the speakers. Just before the doors closed he heard a voice call "Hold that elevator!" Reaching out his arm Chuck stopped the doors from closing and waited until the man who'd called out stepped onto the elevator.

Two men in dark suits soon entered the car and nodded silently to Chuck. Before he could nod back however, Chuck's senses were overrun by crashing images as both men triggered flashes. Trying not to drop his tool case Chuck reminded himself over and over again not to freak out. Not one but two agents suspected of being Fulcrum. As calmly as he could he reached down with his right hand and pressed the panic button the side of his watch over and over again. Hopefully Sarah and Casey got the message.

"You're going to TPF?" the taller of the two men asked in a heavily accented voice when he saw what floor Chuck had pressed.

"Yeah," Chuck answered softly. Holding up his case, he tried to speak in a more normal tone. "Computer emergency."

"Servers must be on the fritz again," the other man grunted softly. "In house guys haven't been able to figure it out."

"Uhhh...I guess so," Chuck nodded quickly, still repeating the refrain of 'Don't freak out!' in his head. "Not really sure."

Before anyone else could say anything Chuck's phone began to ring, playing 'Lady in Red'. Blushing furiously Chuck fumbled his phone before he pushed the talk button under Sarah's smiling face. "Hi...honey," he said quickly.

"Chuck, you triggered the panic alarm, is everything okay?" Sarah asked.

"No, no. I don't think I'll be back anytime soon," Chuck said nervously. "Looks like this is going to be a big job. I should probably pick up flowers, right?"

"Casey," Chuck heard Sarah say over the phone. "Chuck's in trouble, he's used the danger close and enemy contact phrases. Chuck, we've got your location on GPS, we'll be there in fifteen minutes."

"Right, that's good to hear," Chuck said, trying to ignore how clammy his hands felt. "I'll talk to you later."

Disconnecting the call Chuck slid the phone back into his pocket as the doors opened on the fourth floor. "Trouble at home," he said with a nervous laugh.

"Whatever," the taller man grunted as he and his partner stepped off the elevator and left down the hallway to the right.

Turning to the left, slightly in a daze, Chuck wondered if he should just get back in the elevator and get the hell out of there.

"You're from the Buymore?" a woman asked before he could answer his own question. Turning around Chuck saw a petite brunette woman about his own age wearing glasses and stylish business outfit with a skirt and a jacket.

Smiling nervously Chuck nodded his head. "That's right...you have a computer problem?"

"Thank god," the woman sighed. "I'm Elise, I'm one of the techs here. We're having some kind of glitch with our domain controller and no matter what we do we can't figure it out. We need to get our domain back up or my boss's boss will rip some heads off. You're going to be able to fix it, right?"

"Well I can certainly take a look at it," Chuck said with a nervous confidence, trying to ignore the 'rip some heads off' reference. "Did you do any Windows updates recently?"

"They did one last night, but we've rolled it back and it didn't help. Why the hell do they push those updates through so quickly anyway? More often than not they screw up something else in the process of fixing something small."

"I know, right?" Chuck said with a smile and a forced laugh. "I'm Chuck, take me to your computer."