Let us do something, while we have the chance.

Still don't own Chuck.

"You're a gift…"
Sarah

"You can count on me…"
Chuck

-Episode 4.24

Chapter —10 the Lichtenstein

Casa Bartowski
June 23, 2011

They had each gotten up earlier in the night almost morning. Their body clocks were just getting adjusted back to California time. Chuck rolled over awake looking at his wife, "Good morning, Beautiful."

Sarah pressed up against him, "Good morning. You getting up?"

"Um, I'm good," he kissed her neck and brought his arm around her waist.

Sarah smiled, "Yes."

In a while they were holding each other. Chuck pulled her a little closer, "Pancakes or waffles?"

"Pancakes, please." Sarah asked, "So what are we going to do today?"

Chuck rolled out of bed, "We'll check in with the General to see if she has anything else, but I think we ought to plan on going back to Volkoff and see if we can find out a little more." He was almost at the bedroom door, "I'll start them."

"I'll be right in," Sarah responded. They had started a morning routine. Chuck would begin the preparation of the mix, pancake, waffle or gravy, and then begin the other parts of the meal. Then when Sarah had finished her shower she would relieve him and finish the meal.

When Sarah in her bathrobe came back in the kitchen, she asked, "So, today we'll be mostly at the Central?"

"Yeah, I think so." Chuck offered her a cup of coffee and then headed to the shower.

Sarah was putting the pancakes on the table when Chuck came in from dressing. "Looks great." Sarah took her seat then he sat down. "I guess I'll also have to stop by Buy More for a little while. I am sure there'll be a stack of computers in the back for repair. I wish those guys could get some of them done."

"Okay, just don't spend all day with them." She eyed him, "You know what I mean."

"Yes, of course," Chuck nodded.

"I'll get the trip to Volkoff set up. Who should go?" Sarah finished putting syrup on her pancakes and passed it to Chuck.

"Let's take Zondra and Carina. Zondra can help with any IT stuff we need and you and Carina can check with the Intelligence Section. I would like to know how they are getting information."

"Your mom said it was mainly from all the people they sent out to do their sales. They would keep track of everything and provide almost constant reports," Sarah shrugged her shoulders. She really wasn't that sure either.

"Okay, let's check on that."

Sarah smiled at Chuck, "You know, we did say we ran a free lance spy organization."

"Right," he took a sip of coffee.

"We'll check," She nodded and picked up her ringing cell phone. Sarah looked at the display and saw that it was Zondra. "Good Morning. Sure, we'll be right over." She hung up and looked over at Chuck. "Zondra, apparently General Beckman has something for us. She wants a meeting in thirty minutes." She took her last bite of the pancakes. "I'll be back in a second."

Chuck finished his coffee and put the dishes in the washer. Sarah came back in the kitchen just as he finished cleaning up. "Okay, let's go."

Orion Central
June 23, 2011

Gather in the conference room where Chuck, Sarah, Casey, Alex, Zondra, and Carina. Morgan was back at Buy More dealing with a delivery. Mary was taking care of Clara while Ellie and Devon were at work. Chuck had just finished refilling Sarah and Casey's coffee cup when the screen came on.

"Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, we have a problem that we need your help with. As you know the IAEA has recently highlighted a suspected link between Wissen Nuclear and terrorist organizations." General Beckman waited a second and then pictures began to show next to her. "Our information indicates the following men will be trying to contact Wissen representatives. They include Ali Assar, Kassandra Martin and Nester Chocker. We would like your organization to break those connections. Any questions?"

Chuck and Sarah shook their heads. Casey watched them and spoke up, "None, General. We'll get back with you." The screen went blank.

Sarah looked over at Chuck, "Did you get anything?"

"Well, Mom may know a little more about Wissen. They were started in the early eighties. Mainly out of then East Germany. Likely backed by the Soviets and KGB. They were early arms traders and finally went into nuclear power production. The information on that side seems a little muddled with several reports of sales of nuclear components, but most of the reports were later shown to be false. After the German unification, the headquarters of the company has not been traced." Chuck's eyebrows narrowed. "Okay, a guess. This could be linked to the other organization we are trying to find."

Carina and Sarah nodded in agreement.

"So, anyway each of the others is tied with various terrorists groups. They are not that high up, but their locations are not generally known. Each has a lethal background. Ali generally operates out of Turkey, Egypt or other Middle Eastern countries. And then Kassandra from Argentina is sought of freelance and operates out of the buying country. Then Nester is from Eastern Europe," Chuck finished.

Carina looked at them, "So, how are we going to do this?"

In a chorus she heard, "A Lichtenstein."

"Do we need to get your dad?" Chuck asked.

Casey grunted an affirmative.

"Well, let's get a little background on this first. I think we ought to go with the plan we had this morning. Let's go over to Volkoff headquarters with Carina and Zondra. We can get more information there. Casey, Alex and Morgan can handle things here. When we figure out how and where to do this, they can start lining things up while we get in place," Sarah's eyebrow went up looking for agreement.

"Sounds good, let's head over this afternoon. That way we don't lose too much time," Chuck smiled in response.

"You just want to get out of doing the computers," Sarah smiled.

"How'd you guess?"

Volkoff Industries
June 25, 2011

Chuck, Sarah, Carina and Zondra were at the long table in a dark room at Volkoff. Chuck was busy at the keyboard in front of his position. Each of the other seats around the table was similarly equipped but Chuck said he would set this one up. The room was one of the secure rooms in Volkoff. Peter Romin had set it up for them. Carina and Zondra just finished sweeping the room. Peter gave them six new cubes to position and they had been turned on. Chuck's job right now was to verify that they were connected to the Volkoff computer core and nothing else. He was still typing away.

Carina looked over at Sarah, "So, you haven't explained who Lichtenstein is."

The corners of Sarah's month went to a smile, "It's a Con we tried once. My dad was here and..." She watched Chuck while she explained the rest. He was finishing and nodded at her description of the events. "Anyway, we are thinking of something similar."

Chuck interrupted, "Okay, we are set." He hit a key and the Orion shadow became visible again.

"Sarah, Carina, Zondra and Chuck, a good morning to each of you. What can I help you with?"

"We have a few questions, but first I assume that you have verified that we are secure?" Chuck asked.

"Yes, there are no others listening in on this."

"Is there a difference using the offices here?" Sarah asked.

"Oh yes dear, there would be some expectation of this at Volkoff. It's not like when you're at the other location and someone could see the hole we create when we are talking. But there is still a limit."

Chuck wasn't that happy with the last answer. He was sure they were connected directly with the computer core. He did not know of a way that an outside source could be used to determine that. But he decided that time was critical to get some answers. He went on, "Is Knowledge is Powder connected to Wissen Nuclear?"

"Yes, there are Knowledge is Powder agents at Wissen," the Orion shadow answered.

"How far back does the connect go?" Chuck continued.

"To their beginnings."

Sarah was thinking ahead, "So, do you know where Wissen is located now?"

"Unknown location."

"Can you provide a listing of their people?" Chuck followed Sarah's thinking. This was going to have to be reversed.

"List has been sent to your computers."

"Next, we have three names: Ali Assar, Kassandra Martin and Nester Chocker. We need everything you have on them. Then we need you to put a priority on determining their location. And once their location is determined, we need you to track their movements and location until we intercept them." Chuck requested. Chuck made a few entries on his computer, "If you could, load the information you have on the three into this framework."

"Done. Their current positions are included. You will get automatic updates to on their positions. It would be best if we conclude this." The Orion hologram vanished.

Chuck went around the room and turned off each of the cubes. Then he set them outside the door of the conference room. When he got back to his seat, he unplugged his computer and turned it off. "Please if you would all do the same thing."

When the girls had done the same, Chuck began. "Okay, after we get done here, I'll ask you to leave the room for a minute. Orion placed their information into a format for the Intersect. I'll be able to up load the information. It will be a lot easier to access than reading through all of it." He paused and took Sarah's hand, "Do you think I should have him put all of the Volkoff intelligence into the format so I can add it to the Intersect?"

Sarah's eyebrows went up in surprise. Carina and Zondra were also. Sarah shook her head, "Chuck, I don't know. I mean how much can the Intersect and you deal with? Will that be too much information? And it is likely to have some conflicts. I think you need Ellie to take a look at that idea."

Zondra offered, "Would seem to me that the way you are handling it now would be the best. Whenever we are asked to do something, you can ask them for that information and then load it. That way you can focus on it. But you should check with Ellie."

"Okay, I'll ask Ellie," Chuck answered. He knew Sarah would be concerned and it was nice to know that Zondra was thinking about it too. "Anything we need to discuss?"

"We do need another session with Orion. I think it knows more about Knowledge is Powder," Sarah said.

"Yeah, it is avoiding things and there is likely a link there," Carina added. She smiled at Chuck, "It's like you are avoiding me. Sure we had contact but…"

"Got it. Married remember?" Chuck was holding up his ring finger.

Sarah was giggling.

Chuck shook his head, "Alright we'll do this again. Give me a couple minutes and I'll be right out." He stood while the girls got up and left. Once they were gone he went back to his computer. He did check the files first. Everything was in order and there were no problems with the files. He initiated the upload. It was over in a couple minutes and Chuck came out of the room. Sarah and the others were standing there. She asked, "You alright?"

"Yes, fine. Everything was good. I've got a good idea about these people and what they're doing. When we get back together this afternoon and call Casey, I'll let everyone know the highlights." Chuck took her arm, "Let's get back with Peter and continue with the rest of the business we wanted to conclude."

They went over and met up with Peter. Chuck and Zondra went to look at the IT section and Sarah and Carina went to talk with the intelligence analysts.

Orion Central
25 June 2011

Casey was on the phone, "Morgan, get down here. You can take care of that later. They are going to call in another two minutes."

In a few seconds Morgan was coming down the stairs with Alex. They got over to the table and the call came through. Chuck, Sarah, Carina and Zondra were on the screen. Casey and Mary were seated at the table with Morgan and Alex.

Chuck started, "Okay, from what we found here we'll have to reverse the Lichtenstein. We'll have to take the place of the buyers. Morgan we are going to have you fill in for Ali Assar. The Intersect should have enough in it to keep up with any language used in the discussions. We'll have Sarah as Kassandra Martin. While Kassandra is from Argentina, her background is German and with Sarah's German it should work well. Then Carina is going to take the place of Nester Chocker. All the information we have indicates that there have been feelers out there from these people, but no firm contact has been. In no case has a buyer met one of the Wissen people. So, the first meeting will be on Tuesday. Sarah, as Kassandra, will meet one of the Wissen people. Casey, that also means we need you to turn the real Kassandra over to General Beckman."

The meeting continued to outline how the operation for the first buyer was going to work.

Unknown Location
June 27, 2011

There was a Minuteman Statue on the desk. The slogan underneath was Knowledge is Powder.

"Contact with principles, expected this week." It was the end of a long report.

The reply was, "Report any deviations."

A/N Please leave a review.