I've done it again, sorry. For some reason the setup they had at Plant 42 looks too shaky to me now, so I've scrapped it. Raccoon City is now in what was a secret underground strategic airbase from the height of the Cold War that the Air Force hid near Mercury in the Nevada Test Site to keep it a secret. Other Raccoon City references still apply, but it's now located in the underground airbase, with a Combat Delivery Training Facility above ground to cover up the existence of the airbase... and they've acquired a passel of Soviet planes and helicopters, a handful of old tankers and a Super Guppy with the base. If anyone's interested, most of the changes are in chapters 3 and 9 (which is now called History of the World Part One because it got too big so I moved the part with that line and title to this chapter... Oops, sorry ;^).
Usual disclaimers, no rights to any characters portrayed and this is neither the real world nor a Disney Princess tale.
Graham's people weren't happy to see Chuck walk in with his handlers and the General's doctors, scientists and guards, especially when the General's people refused to let them take Chuck away for the testing. That escalated to pissed off when they said that they had Director Graham's authorisation as if that overruled any objections, and they were told that Director Graham had no authority to authorise anything with regard to this member of General Beckman's team.
Things just kept getting worse for them after that, because the General's doctors forbid any physical examination or testing of Chuck (which they had been planning to use to cover up implanting devices to monitor and track him, and provide a kill switch as well), citing that that was irrelevant to the Intersect, and all they would allow them to do was monitor his brain activity while they were showing Chuck images intended to trigger Intersect flashes.
They were getting more and more frustrated because this wasn't telling them anything new, and when he worked out that Chuck was getting flashes telling him that some of them were agents rather than scientists, one of the agents suddenly announced that it was time to start the next tests, waving at the equipment on a trolley in the corner.
Chuck was punch drunk from continuous flashes he was getting hit with in the testing, and he was having trouble getting Sarah and John to understand what he was saying about the agents because whenever he tried to speak they flashed another image at him, but that and the tells from the agents planted in Graham's team were enough to tip them off and they moved in. Sarah was demanding to know exactly what these 'next tests' were before anyone touched their charge so the agent started waffling about it being nothing more than applying mild electrical stimuli to various parts of the subject's brain and observing the results while the others kept trying to apply the electrodes to Chuck.
John's alarm bells were going off, so he grabbed the electrodes that they were trying to fix to Chuck's head and slapped them onto the head of the one who was doing all the talking, barking. "Hit it!" (No-one else had noticed that Sarah had seen what he was doing and positioned herself near the machine.)
A few seconds later the 'scientist' was twitching uncontrollably on the floor and John was ripping the straps off Chuck as he bellowed. "This testing is OVER!"
Seeing what this 'test' equipment they'd been trying to use on Chuck was doing to the man on the floor, Sarah stopped anyone getting to the machine to turn the current off, so the 'scientist' was well and truly fried by the time John had released Chuck and carried him out of the room, because no-one was willing to risk touching the wires while they were live after seeing what it was doing to him, and Sarah only turned it off as she went to follow Casey and Chuck out of the room... Robin covered their exit and then followed them.
Before they left, John barked at the NSA guards with them to take all of them into custody and get the full details of who they were and what their orders were out of them, and also to get NSA techs in to examine all of this equipment to find out exactly what it was intended to do.
They didn't have any trusted doctors around DC, so Di told John to get him back to Tipton Field and had Ellie and Leo Dreyfus heading for Tipton Field as fast as possible in a Shadow as soon as John told her what had happened.
Ellie and Leo gave Chuck a clean bill of health, and once she was sure that he was OK and Leo had given him a mild sedative to make him rest, Sarah left him in their care and slipped out to go to Aunt Jane's house to retrieve her CIA medals and the other pictures and papers she'd been keeping safe for her (Jane had been a good operative, so very few people would be able to find the safe that she had Sarah's things hidden in, and even fewer could break into it if they found it, but Sarah had everything she needed to get in and out quickly without being seen or detected). It was better this way, because her visiting Aunt Jane later that night to collect her things as they'd planned would have shown that they still had a connection and put Aunt Jane in Graham's cross hairs.
If he looked at the situation logically, Graham would understand that he needed Jane Bentley, because she had been the most effective Deputy Director of Operations in living memory for the CIA and she was no less effective as the Director of the National Clandestine Service, as the role had been known by since late Oh Five. After losing control of Sarah and the Human Intersect, and what happened at the Intersect Facility today though…. none of them were willing to bet on the fact that Graham would be rational or logical. Having his plans fail so spectacularly at both the Human Intersect meeting and the Intersect facility would have him scrabbling to ensure that nothing could come back on him, and desperate to strike out at someone…. but while General Diane Beckman seemed untouchable at the moment, the Director of the National Clandestine Service might not be so safe.
Chuck had recovered enough to convince Sarah, with Ellie and Leo's help, that he would be fine to come to the meeting with Carina and Zondra by the time they needed to go to the meeting, so they got ready in quarters on the base and headed out.
At the restaurant, Carina and Zondra took one look at Sarah's skirt suit and expression as she arrived and knew that this wasn't an 'I missed you, let's party!' visit, so she was greeted with. "What are you up to Blondie?"
"What, no 'Sarah, where have you been, we've missed you!' ?"
"Yeah, all of that, now tell us why you're dressed like that and why you arrived with Casey and those other two!"
Sarah laughed, but there was little humour in it. "I love you too Zondra! I've missed this, well like a hole in the head, but I have missed the two of you!"
Carina leant in to kiss her on the cheek, whispering in her ear. "What about tall, dark and gruesome and the leggy bitches over there and those other agents? Are they with you or after you?" (Auntie Di had everyone she had in DC, on the books and off, in the restaurant in case Graham tried anything.)
Sarah's lips meeting hers was rather a surprise, as that had always been something that made Sarah uncomfortable before, but Sarah shrugged, murmuring. "Sorry Red, someone's lesbian best friends were part of the package deal I took with the new gig and some things are changing in a hurry, but in answer to your question, they're with us, they're part of our... backup singers."
"OK, who are you and what have you done with Sarah Walker? I think I might keep you though, you're way more fun."
Sarah smiled mysteriously but sat forward and looked a little more serious. "So, are you two still screwing drug lords and chasing nickel and dime gang bangers most of the time?"
They looked at her until Carina growled disgustedly. "You know we are! What's your point?"
"Would you like to change that?"
That got their attention. "What are you saying?"
"Just what I said Zee, do you want to get away from what you're doing now, or not?"
Carina and Zondra looked at each other and Zondra said. "Of course we do! What games are you playing Blondie?"
"No games Zee, if you want out of your current lives, my new boss wants to talk to you."
They just looked at her as she stood up. "Well, come on! Do you want to talk to her or not?"
They scrambled to their feet and followed her to the private room that John, Chuck and Robin had gone into.
The two women noted the way the three at the table in the back and the other agents they'd identified around the room followed their every movement as they crossed the restaurant, without losing track of anything else going on in the restaurant… which said that the people in these people Sarah was working with were good. When they reached the room, Sarah knocked once and went straight in, closing the door behind them. There were four people in the room, only one of whom they knew, John Casey.
The younger man and woman who'd come in with Sarah and Casey were sitting at the table, and Carina noted the look that passed between Sarah and the guy as she entered, smirking to herself at the thought that she could have some fun here. She caught the look on Sarah's face when she headed for him though and abruptly changed direction to head for a seat across the table from him, because while winding up an angry Sarah was all part of the fun, actually hurting her was something else altogether! Sarah actually looked vulnerable and defensive when she sat down next to the guy, and that was another first!
As Casey and Sarah's mystery man were 'he's and the woman who came in with them was too young to be this mysterious 'boss', it must be the last person in the room. On the face of it, the little red headed fiftyish woman didn't look that impressive, but she had to be powerful if she'd managed to get both the best of the CIA and the best of the NSA on her team.
The woman had obviously caught what was going through Carina's mind at least, because she launched straight into it. "Agent Miller, Agent Rizzo, nice of you to join us. Please, have a seat."
As soon as everyone was seated, the woman went on. "Thank you for coming ladies, I am General Diane Beckman, and as you will have by now worked out, Agent Walker, Major Casey, Major Cunnings and Mister Bartowski work for me. We are creating a new multi agency team, and we would like to invite you to join us."
Carina and Zondra exchanged a look at that, because while they may not have known her by sight, they certainly knew the name. "What can you tell us about this group General?"
"Not a great deal until after you've joined us I'm afraid, because just about everything to do with it is classified way above your current security clearances. We currently have high level CIA, NSA and DCS agents" (waving at Sarah, Casey and Robin) "working with a top level information specialist," (waving at Chuck) "and we've been cleared to add high level DEA and FBI agents as well. As I said, we'd like the two of you to be those agents."
She exchanged a look with Sarah and continued. "One thing I can promise you is that you will never be ordered or requested to sleep with anyone for a mission, nor will you be expected to risk getting yourself killed over anything inconsequential. Some of our missions will be dangerous, yes, but we'll be dealing with serious targets and making a difference."
The two women shared a look again and Carina spoke up. "That sounds like a wonderful opportunity General, and I certainly hope that Agent Rizzo will be able to take you up on your offer, but unfortunately I don't see any chance of the DEA releasing me, because I've proven to be too... useful to them."
The General looked at her sympathetically. "Do you want to join us Agent Miller?"
"Sorry Ma'am, didn't I make that clear? Yes! I would love to join your group General."
The woman nodded at that, and looking down, picked up one of the documents on the table in front of her and held it out it to Carina. "I don't really think that anyone will be able to stop you then, do you Agent Miller?"
Zondra was leaning forward to try and see what Carina had read that had shocked her so badly, but the General offered her the other document. When she'd looked at the document in her hands, she looked up with the same expression as Carina. "Is this real?"
Sarah answered her with a smile, the first time she'd looked cheerful since she got there. "Yes Zee, you should have seen Graham's face when the DNI forced him to accept mine."
Zondra turned to her, stunned, doing a double take when she saw that she was openly holding that guy's hand. She shook that off and said. "Just to be clear here Blondie, we're talking about the Director of National Intelligence of the United States of America... right?"
Sarah nodded. "Yep!"
Zondra shared a look with Carina then looked back at the General. "Well in that case General, it looks like you have your DEA and FBI agents…. so when do we get to find out about Lover Boy here?"
Diane looked confused until she saw their joined hands and frowned, then smirked as she saw a chance to move her plan along here, so she said. "Your behaviour begs a question Mister Bartowski, what are your intentions towards Agent Walker?"
Chuck looked at Sarah and said softly… "Very long term if she'll have me!" (They should have known better than to ask Anna to keep the fact that they were getting her to confirm that the CIA's rules for married agents hadn't changed quiet from him.)
Sarah was pissed at Auntie Di for pulling this shit, but elated that Chuck obviously knew what she was doing and was saying just what she wanted to hear! "Oh, she'll have you alright! For ever and ever…. Amen!"
Carina and Zondra were staring at the now kissing couple across the table from them, utterly stunned, and Zondra blurted out. "What the fuck's going on here Blondie?"
When she'd released Chuck's lips, Sarah turned to her and said. "Most of it will have to wait for your clearance Zee, but the unclassified part is…." She pointed at Chuck "This is Charlie!" and then Di "And my Auntie Di." She glanced at Robin, but decided that it wasn't the best time to share that.
Both women's heads whipped around at that. "Charlie? Your Charlie, the one you've been moping about since you were a kid?"
Sarah nodded happily and they shook their heads in wonder, but then they processed the second part of what she'd just revealed. "Wait a minute! You talked about your Auntie Di Blondie, but you never mentioned that you were Old Ironpants'… Sorry General…. Niece!"
Diane shook her head with a smile to dismiss the apology, because truth be told she rather liked having that reputation. "Sammie didn't find out herself until she started this assignment Agent Miller, as all she'd ever known me as was her Auntie Di."
Carina glanced towards the door. "What about the backup singers then, can you tell us about them General?"
"Backup singers?"
Sarah said. "Marco and the others."
"Ah…. Yes. Some of them will be going to Los Angeles with you to be part of the security company that's Major Casey's cover job, and perhaps your's as well. They will also be part of the support team we have on hand for the core team that you'll be part of. They are mostly off the books as far as any agency is concerned."
Di looked at her existing team and at their nods turned back to the two women. "As stated in those documents, this will be a permanent assignment unless you choose to go back to your agencies, and you may also resign at any time you wish. Once you have transferred, you will not be under the authority of your agencies at all, you will only accept orders from me, and in turn I only report to the DNI and the President. You will be based in Los Angeles with the rest of the team. So…. For the record, do you, Agent Miller, and you, Agent Rizzo, choose to join our team?"
When they both nodded and eagerly said "Yes, Ma'am!" she nodded and said "Good! Now we've had a change of plans I'm afraid, I was going to have you meet us tomorrow to fly to California together once I had your transfers processed, but due to incidents which occurred today the team are flying out tonight. Therefore you will be taken home to pack whatever you need in the interim, and then straight to Tipton Field."
She handed over some paperwork. "Fill out and sign these please ladies, and we'll have our people arrange for agency removalists to ship the rest of your belongings to you in California."
She kept talking as they started filling out the paperwork she'd given them. "I will get my people working on getting your transfers, clearances and the rest processed tomorrow and bring them with me when I follow you, but you'll be going back tonight with the team and the… what was it? Oh yes, the backup singers. Are there any questions ladies?"
When they shook their heads she went on. "Well in that case I will see you when I get to Los Angeles, enjoy your flight." She collected the Presidential orders and the rest of her paperwork and John and Robin escorted her out to hand her over to her protective detail.
When she'd left, the two women turned to Sarah and Carina pretty much repeated Zondra's question. "What the fuck Blondie? What the hell's going on here?"
She beamed at her. "You've just joined a team that makes the CAT Squad look ordinary Red!"
Zondra jumped in because Carina still looked a little dazed "What…." She stopped in frustration as she realised that most of what she wanted to ask about was going to have to wait until her clearance had been upgraded, but as Sarah had already said there was one thing she could talk about, so she said "For a start, explain this!" as she waved at the two of them.
Sarah beamed again (OK, that was going to get old real quick!). "Graham sent me to California to recover something that Larkin stole and sent to a supposed accomplice…."
Carina broke in at that. "Yeah, sorry about that Sarah, we never talked about him because of your rule about not discussing our sex lives, but it must have been a kick in the guts to have him betray you like that after the two of you had been together for so long…."
Sarah cut her off angrily. "Larkin and I were never together like that Carina! Casey did me a huge favour when he shot that bastard down like the vermin he was!"
They whipped their heads around to stare at Casey, who'd just walked back in with Robin, at that, but turned back to her as she continued.
"Most of the stories about Larkin and me would have come from the crap he made up to try and make himself look like a big man Red, and the rest would have just been his sleazy buddies' pathetic little fantasies about what they'd like to do to me, you, and any other woman that they can't get anywhere near in the real world. Larkin was nothing but a totally useless shit who spent more time trying to get into my pants than he did on our mission objectives even though…."
She stopped and glanced at Chuck before she turned to Carina. "Red, you're supposed to be the expert on all things sexual, did you ever get a gay vibe from Larkin?"
Carina frowned as she thought about it. "Are you kidding? The Golden Boy, gay? Come on, he screwed more women than….." She was running every encounter she'd ever had with Bryce Larkin through her head, as she also had a near perfect memory, and being a brainless bimbo was just as much an act as supposedly enjoying being the DEA's go to sexbot had been. "No…. You're right! He was very convincing, but it was always the cute guys who caught his eye first, not the women."
She saw the 'Told ya!' look Chuck sent Sarah and her eyes widened, oh no, she finally gets him back and he's fucking gay? But what about...? Sarah read the looks crossing over her face. "Oh hell no! Larkin was Chuck's room mate at Stanford, so he had to put up with Larkin trying to come on to him, but Chuck's best friend called it the moment she met him."
That last made Carina send her a questioning look and she nodded. So her dream guy's best friend is a lesbian? Curiouser and curiouser cried Alice.
With that out of the way, Sarah continued. "So I get to Los Angeles and engage the target, the woman who let me in calls for him and he comes out, totally engrossed in reading something as he's walking and then he looks up and it's Charlie! We were babbling on for a while, trying to catch up on the last eighteen years, but then I heard people running in the back office. I thought that he must have been keeping me occupied until reinforcements could arrive, so I was getting ready to fight it out when Mama ran into the room!"
"But I thought you said that Graham had her under lock and key to keep you under control?"
She nodded grimly. "That was what the bastard always told me, but he never had her! So that's where we are, we've got this new group set up in Los Angeles and you'll be working with us now."
Carina and Zondra were shaking their heads, but Carina turned to Chuck. "So Chuckie, how about you guys giving us some time to catch up with our girl here?"
Her response came from Sarah. "Carina, no! We've only been back together for less than a week, we can have a girls' night to catch up once things have settled down, and besides that we need to get out of DC ASAP!"
That had them staring at her again, Zondra found her voice first. "All of this has happened in less than a week? How the fuck did that happen? And what's the big hurry to get out of DC? You rob a bank or something?"
Sarah glanced at Chuck and Casey before turning back to her. "How it happened is part of what you're not cleared for yet Zee, but the need to get out of town in a hurry is because we've crossed Graham in a big way, twice in a week now... And he was seriously pissed the first time so I don't want to think what he'll be like now. That's why we have all the backup singers out there."
Carina and Zondra froze at that, because it was commonly held that crossing Graham was tantamount to suicide. There were no further questions after that, they just grabbed their bags and got the hell out of there. It didn't take them long to pack what they'd need until the rest of their things could be shipped over and they handed the keys and the finalised paperwork for that to the ones who would be remaining in DC.
They wanted to ask questions when they were just waved though the gates at some military airfield up near Fort Meade... what the hell was the Special Projects and Tactical Research Group?... and hustled aboard a stubby little airliner in the livery of the airline that many believed was a front for one of the big intelligence agencies, and they knew for a fact provided private extraction services to operatives who knew how to contact them, because Zondra had called them to get the CATS out of a bad spot after the Bimbo set them up... but they waited until they were in the air and everybody had visibly relaxed for that. The questions about what happened at the gate and the plane were answered by John saying that that while they allowed some other military aircraft to use the airfield, Tipton Field was actually their base... but Emerald Air wasn't a front for anyone's intelligence organisation but their own. "As Walker said, you'll have to for until your clearances to hear the rest of that, but this group has had people operating all over the world outside of the three letter agencies since Ninety at least, and Emerald Air is part of their support infrastructure... And as you already know..." Nodding at Zondra. "They also provide a freelance extraction service for a fee to those who are trusted enough to have their contact details."
Everyone needed a drink after that, so they broke out the food and drink and settled down for the flight back to LA, spending the time catching up. It was a surprise to find out that the lead pilot was this lesbian best friend, and to see how the 'backup singers' deferred to her and Chuck, as they were obviously experienced agents.
It didn't take Carina long to get drunk and morose and she tried to clear the air with Casey. "Johnny, about that picture, it wasn't me who sent it to everyone, I promise you! I don't even know who it was."
Zondra smirked at that. "Why didn't you ask Red? I do! It was the Bimbo, she was pissed because Casey just turned her down flat, and then went home with you. She was crowing about how she'd shown him, because she sent it to everyone she knew after you sent it to us."
She looked at Casey. "Sorry Casey, but I was seriously pissed at you at the time because of what you said to Red."
Carina looked at him hesitantly. "Are we good Johnny?"
He smiled as he pulled her into his arms and kissed her. "Of course we are!"
Zondra was looking relieved for Carina but she also looked as though she felt a little left out. Sarah picked up on that and chuckled evilly. "Do you think Zee would be Jeff's type Charlie?"
Chuck spluttered into his drink at that, because he knew that Zondra had generally steered clear of guys after what she had gone through when she was young and Zondra worked out enough from that to give Sarah a 'You'll be paying for that bitch!' look, which just got a grin from her.
"Hey, pretty much everyone else is taken, and you better stay away from my stepfather if you know what's good for you!"
To keep up the act, Chuck explained that Jeff was actually a great guy, but he was a little older and he'd probably be too tame for her anyway, while Sarah's stepfather had been known to both of them as Uncle Bry their whole lives, and he'd married Sarah's mother a few years ago. He stopped and looked at Sarah and Robin then and they nodded after they stopped to think about it, because the girls were more mellow and likely to accept what they heard like this. With that they launched into the story about how Robin was actually Sarah's stepsister, and she had another seventeen year old stepsister as well now, and a seventeen year old cousin too for that matter. They stared at her at that, whispering. "Ironpants'?" and she nodded with a smile, but looked a question at Casey, and when he nodded his permission she added. "Casey has an eighteen year old daughter too, and Chuck has a seventeen year old half sister as well as his older sister now."
When Sarah dropped the bombshell that Chuck had twin fourteen year old daughters though, they were so stunned that she grabbed her phone to get a picture of it. Zondra came out of it first and looked calculatingly at Chuck but Sarah shook her head. "No Zee, you heard me right when I told you about him, Charlie is only six months older than me, but he started young, real young! The girls' mother is actually one of Chuck's lesbian best friends, they wanted to experiment when their hormones were kicking in as they went into their teens and Charlie agreed because they meant, mean, a lot to him but Lou got pregnant. Her father dragged her off to Israel as soon as he found out about it and she only got to bring the girls back at Christmas Two Thousand. Ellie says that this one almost fainted when Lou introduced him to his daughters…." she added "Ellie is Nora, Chuck's big sister I told you about, they had to have their names changed when they were kids" when she saw the question on their faces.
As the explanations proceeded though, Zondra was getting more and more suspicious because she was seeing way too many parallels to the people who'd rescued her from that past life that Sarah and Carina didn't know about, including the plane they were on. She knew that Casey was part of that group, and she was beginning to suspect she knew who Sarah's Charlie was too, which Chuck confirmed by giving her one of the signals he used to identify himself when he was in disguise. She let the cat out of the bag then by blurting out. "Are you fucking kidding me? You were only twelve?"
That had Sarah and Carina staring at her in confusion. Chuck cleared that up for Sarah at least by saying. "Zondra is one of the ones I told you about when I was explaining how I came to be the Piranha."
The confusion lifted from Sarah's face, but it was almost instantly replaced by horror as she realised what that meant for Zondra, and she rushed to hug her.
While they were that close, Zondra whispered in her ear. "You do know he's the Chameleon, don't you Blondie?"
Sarah nodded and whispered back. "Yes, that came out the first night when they were filling me in on what I'd missed since my father took me away."
"He wasn't part of the team that got me out, but I found out later that he had planned and directed the entire operation, and he came to see me a number of times at their base outside New York to help me work out what I wanted to do with my life and came up with the background and plan I needed to get into the FBI a few years later so I could go after other bastards like the ones who took me when I was thirteen. It was a major head fuck when I found out that the girl that I'd poured my heart out to on his first few visits was actually a guy, the Chameleon, but that was nothing on finding out just now that he planned and executed a global operation like that and did everything else when he was just fucking twelve!... You've got yourself one hell of a guy there Blondie, but watch yourself with him, he can talk anyone into or out of absolutely anything... The first time I met him as a guy, I was ready to hand him my panties and let him do whatever he wanted to me by the time he left, and I was still recovering from my time with the slavers! He was just being nice to me and helping me deal with everything that had happened to me but he's the only guy I've ever considered doing anything with after what those bastards did to me for three years. I think he'd give Montgomery, the CIA's Seduction Master, a run for his money!"
Sarah snorted softly. "Well Uncle Roan did say that Chuck was the best student he's ever had. Given that Chuck was only nine when he started training him and the way that brain of his he soaks up everything he's taught like a sponge, I can't say I'm too surprised about that."
"What the fuck? Ironpants is your Aunt, the Seduction Master is your Uncle... What's next? Are you going to tell me that you're related to Graham too?"
"Auntie Di is Mama's sister and Uncle Roan is as good as our uncle. Charlie and I have been calling him that all our lives because he and Auntie Di have been together since before I was born, and he is my cousin's father. If I wasn't so glad to have the two of you safe with us I'd kick your arse for that Graham comment, but you'll hear a lot of other names you know tomorrow... Fuck it, Red will have to wait until she sobers up to hear this, but Auntie Mary, Charlie's mother, is Frost, and you would have heard of her as Akela as well. Uncle Bry, my new stepfather, is better known as Bagheera, Charlie's sister Ellie is Raksha, Casey is Baloo, Uncle Roan is Mysa and Anna in the cockpit is better known as Rikki..." She nodded at the question Zondra started to ask. "Yes, that does mean that Charlie is Mowgli Zee, as well as the Chameleon and the hacker known as the Piranha. Anna is well known in hacker circles as the Lotus too, but I only know about those names from Charlie and my friend Pete..."
She looked over at Chuck and decided to fill Zondra in on some of what she'd learned on the way to DC. "This is a global organisation that has more resources at their disposal than most countries Zee... in fact... you know how one of our briefs in the CATS was to dig up whatever we could find about the arms dealer Dimitri Volkovich and an ex Soviet Bloc country called Gordia?"
Zondra nodded. "Well Chuck is Dimitri Volkovich and Gordia is the country he made up using the old Slavic term for a fortified settlement for the Volkovich persona and the rest of their party on an operation in early Ninety Six because so many countries have appeared, disappeared and reappeared under different names over there since the Soviet Union shattered the way it did that it's impossible to know all of them...So saying that they were from a small ex-Soviet Bloc country was the perfect way to remain untraceable and they've kept using the Volkovich identity since then because it worked so well, so effectively they're Gordia. They have at least seven or eight thousand people in the group, and from what I've been told at least a quarter of them are like the ones who got us out that time you called for help. This is just one of over a hundred and fifty of these Smiliners and one of the several hundred planes and helicopters they have, ranging from high capacity utility planes and helicopters to tanker aircraft and heavy lift strategic and tactical transports and supersonic jets... they have seventy six supersonic jets that can do over Mach Two Point Seven Zee, and six of them can do over Mach Three! Oh, and they also have three modified XV Fifteens, six modified Ospreys and three other tilt rotors that are a lot bigger as well!..."
"And on top of that, they have fifty eight big... I'm talking between three hundred and eight hundred and twenty feet long with all but seventeen over five hundred feet... ships based on landing ships, landing dock ships, amphibious assault ships and tankers, all of which have been seriously modified and upgraded, plus six LCU Sixteen Forty Sixes, ninety six aluminium LCM Eight landing craft, eight French CTM landing craft and twelve of the Russian Serna fast landing craft that are also upgraded, forty eight LCT Five or Six ferries... and a fucking submarine! They managed to get the old Barbel after it was decommissioned and rebuilt it into an improved amphibious assault sub!... They've also got another six, hundred and eighty foot converted ex Soviet Tarantul class corvettes, a three hundred and ten foot icebreaker and four more that are two hundred and seventy feet, eighteen, two hundred and ten foot rescue and salvage ships and fourteen, hundred and ten foot tugs from World War Two at their bases around the world. Chuck described them as if they were just boring old work boats but from the file he's kept about why they fixed them up and maintain them, half of them did more in World War Two and subsequent wars than most warships did... Oh, and they also have six improved SOC Five boats, twelve improved SOC Riverine boats, a pile of airborne combat vehicles, weapons that you wouldn't believe and hundreds of off road trucks like the ones they retrieved us with... And if having their own Army, Navy and Air Force wasn't enough, they also have the cream of the world's intelligence communities... That's why Auntie Di is confident about making a difference, because they've been on top of the game since Nineteen Ninety!..."
"This is my family Zee, but I can hardly believe what I'm hearing about everything they've done since my father took me away... Oh, and here's the real kicker, as Chuck pointed out, I was the reason they started all of this! After my father took me away, Mama went off looking for me and Graham sent Auntie Mary into Russia and set her up to be killed because she wouldn't go and drag Mama back to the CIA. Then Uncle Stefan did something stupid and dangerous because he mistakenly thought it was safe and it started to fry his brain. Auntie Di, Uncle Bry and all of Mama and Auntie Mary's friends had apparently gotten together by then and decided to create this organisation to get the resources they'd need to find Mama and me and get Auntie Mary, Chuck, Ellie and Uncle Stefan to safety... So all of this pretty much came about because my bastard of a father took me away from Mama and everyone else who loved me to use me as bait for his cons..."
Zondra was shaking her head. "What the hell have you gotten us into Blondie?"
"A group that has the power and collective ability to stand our world on its head Zee, and the power to protect us from all those sick bastards who want to use us any way they feel like it, but you already know that, after they saved you and gave you a new life."
That got a nod, but Zondra suddenly stopped and angrily asked. "If Montgomery's like your uncle, why the hell didn't he get you out of this shit when you went to the seduction school at the Farm?"
"Because I didn't go to seduction school Zee! I'm pretty sure Graham was deliberately keeping me away from Uncle Roan to prevent him trying to help me get away like he did Carina a few years earlier when he found out about what they were doing to her, because I was sent elsewhere whenever he was at the Farm. Graham had very different training planned for me anyway, which he knew that Uncle Roan would have definitely tried to stop if he got wind of it, because that's what he tried to rescue Carina from."
Zondra pulled back to look at her. "You mean?..."
Sarah nodded grimly. "Yes, I was given very in depth and hands on training in as many filthy and perverted sex acts as they could squeeze into the time available. The only reason I gave in to that was because that bastard threatened to make me watch while Mama was being put through it in my stead if I didn't..."
It was Zondra's turn to cry and hug Sarah then, but Sarah whispered that it was alright because Charlie was helping her get over that and she just nodded.
To bring Carina and Sarah up to speed on her real situation, Zondra explained that she had been taken by a sex slave ring when she was barely thirteen, but their big money customers had apparently liked the way she stayed a pretty little thing with enough spirit to put up a fight because they'd been making sure she wasn't marked too badly and moving her around their up market establishments in America and Mexico for almost three years by the time the group that Chuck and Casey were part of took down the slave ring and rescued her and the others in her position. She also told how the group, and in particular Chuck in his various guises, had looked after her while she healed, then set her up with a whole new life that stood up to all checks and fast tracked her getting into the FBI a few years later with the high school diploma and degrees she needed so she could go after others like the slave ring who'd had her.
Carina was well and truly plastered by then but she understood that what Zondra was talking about was really important, so she decided that the questions she wanted to ask about all of that, along with all those planes and helicopters she saw in their hangars at El Monte Airport... and the hangars themselves for that matter... would all be better left until she was sober enough to make more sense of the answers.
Given the state that Carina especially was in, when they got back to El Castillo they just showed them to the apartment that would be their's until they found somewhere they wanted to stay. The first thing Chuck did when they were alone was make sure that Sarah understood just what he'd done for Zondra and some of the others that they'd rescued. Sarah told him that she'd pieced it together from Zondra's significant pauses and what Ellie had told her when she first arrived. She could hardly complain about him doing that when he didn't know whether he'd ever see her again, especially as the main reason he did it was to help those girls heal, so she reassured him that it was alright and went on to what to her was a more important question, because this was the first chance they had had to talk in private about what was said at the restaurant.
"Did you mean it, what you said?"
Chuck nodded. "Of course! I know that they've all been telling you about how I searched for you every day that you were away because I was empty without you…. Well now that you're back, I want you to stay with me! Auntie Di was a bitch to pull that stunt in front of Carina and Zondra, but Anna showed me those rules she asked her to look up on the quiet, so I understand why she was pushing for it, she wants to make sure you're safe, just like I do… Did you mean what you said?"
"YES! I've been dreaming about being be back with you ever since Papa took me away, in fact…. When we were in the bunker, I was looking at Ellie's achievements and thought 'this is one hell of a family I'm marrying into!' I tried to tell myself that I didn't mean that, but I lost that argument damned quick because I don't ever want to be apart from you again! So yes! If you'll have me, I'm your's Charlie!"
Carina especially would have been shocked to know what Sarah was joyously doing that night, because they'd watched her put just about every man who tried to do that with her in hospital or in the ground for two years, and many of them hadn't been being aggressive, just insistent. The smart ones had avoided injury by running away while they could, the lucky ones got off lightly, but most of them got hurt, bad.
Come morning, when Zondra finally got Carina out of bed, they went looking for Sarah. While she was happy and relieved to have them there, especially Carina because the DEA had continually been putting her in positions where she would most likely be raped and beaten, and potentially killed, Sarah did not appreciate having to tell her to 'Go back and put some fucking clothes on!'. Carina was obviously back in the space of trying to wind up Sarah by getting a rise out of Chuck and the other guys, because she was just wearing a flimsy robe (Sarah didn't want to think about what she was, or wasn't, wearing under that robe).
Zondra just shook her head at Carina as she scuttled out, because she'd told her that she was going to piss Sarah off if she tried to play that game here, but she took the opportunity to try and explain what Sarah had discussed with Chuck the night before. Sarah just reassured her the way she had Chuck that she understood and was glad that Chuck had been able to help her heal.
When Carina returned, more appropriately dressed and looking genuinely contrite, Sarah started in on her, telling her in no uncertain terms NOT to try and play her games around her fiancé or Rick Noble, Rocky Johnson, Benjie, Sam Colt, Albert Laurent... or Skip for that matter. If she wanted to have fun with Casey, Jeff or the other guys that was their business, but if she stepped on any of the other women's turf she was liable to get her arse kicked.
Carina was staring at her in shock, they both were actually. "You were serious about that? I thought you two were just pissing about!"
"Have you forgotten that we were kept apart for over eighteen fucking years Red? I'm not ready to risk losing him again and Chuck says he feels the same way, so yes, we were fucking serious! Auntie Di thinks that she's managed to manoeuvre us into getting married to protect me from seduction missions, because Auntie Mary told them about the old rules that are still on the books which forbid forcing married women into seduction missions or having to do anything of the sort with their partners, but Chuck knew about that because they got Anna to make sure they still applied… but we're getting married because we can't stand the idea of being separated again, not because of anything anyone else said!… Speaking of Auntie Mary….. The reason Rick is off limits is that he and Ellie are a couple and he'll be my brother in law one day. Ellie is one of the sweetest people I know, but she's also a Navy SEAL with one hell of a temper, so you don't want to cross her Red! And Auntie Mary? You've heard of her, as Frost, and Akela! For that matter Auntie Phoebe, Rick and Rocky's Mom, is six foot two of piss and vinegar who used to be better known as Cleopatra Jones! You don't want to fuck with my family Red, if you push them too far you won't come out alive! and for all the fact that you all too often put on that stupid skank act to piss people off, I do love you, so I don't want you dead! Rocky's married to Zoe and they have a son, Benjie, who's too young for you and is going out with Casey's daughter Alex... Sam's Robin's partner, Albert is Bai's partner... and Skip's off limits because he's gay and it would just upset him, he's too nice to have to put up with that."
Carina was staring at her, but she laughed at that. "Ellie... a SEAL? Come on Blondie, it was working up until you tried that!"
When that made Sarah snarl at her, she was asking herself why the fuck she'd opened her mouth. "Just try her Red! She'll wipe the floor with you…. she always needs more sparring partners actually because not many can keep up with her. Have you ever heard of Raksha Red?" Carina nodded hesitantly. "Well Ellie is Raksha!"
Carina looked at Chuck and asked. "If your sister is Raksha and your mother is Frost, who the fuck are you Chuckie?"
Sarah gave her an evil smile. "I would have thought that that was obvious Red… Chuck is Mowgli...and in case you didn't get it last night on the plane, he's also the Chameleon and the Piranha. He's a SEAL too…. and while we're filling you in on the team, Casey is Baloo, Uncle Bry is Bagheera, Uncle Roan is Mysa and Anna is Rikki, Chuck calls her his pint sized pit bull but I wouldn't suggest you try that because from what I've seen she can almost certainly kick your arse too… And Rick is Daruka... Now are you starting to see what you've joined?"
Carina was staring at her, nodding slowly, but something else occurred to her. "What about your Mama Sarah? She's obviously one of these people too so who is she?"
Sarah shook her head with a smile. "Mama isn't involved in that side of things much, thank god, but she was a legend in her day, as the Fox, the best analyst the CIA ever had, she generally works on the Information Dominance side of things with Ellie, Skip and Jeff. Chuck, Anna and Auntie Mary work on that side too. Auntie Di commands both sides of the team."
Carina had been reduced to standing there, shaking her head, so Sarah gave an evil grin and said that they may as well see the Dungeon now and led them to the lift.
When they came out of the elevator on B2 and saw the operations centre, Carina and Zondra's 'What the fuck?'s tumbled out as one.
Zondra shook her head as she looked at Carina and said "I don't think we're in Kansas any more Toto!" and matched Carina's grin when she replied "Who are you calling a dog, bitch?"
Neither they or Sarah could understand why the others all burst out laughing at that, until Chuck put the image of the poster they had in the Emerald Air offices up on the screen. It was of Dorothy getting off an Emerald Air transport at some remote airfield with Toto in her arms and looking around, and that was the caption across the bottom.
Chuck grinned and said. "Dorothy's line is actually the unofficial slogan of Emerald Air... It's an inside joke though because we only have these up in the back offices."
Zondra facetiously suggested. "Why don't you add 'Emerald Air, National Airline of Gordia' then?"
That got a laugh from most of them and Chuck nodded. "That's a good idea, I think I will.", but they had to explain what Sarah had told Zondra about Gordia on the plane to Carina, who was beginning to get pissed off about just how much she'd missed because she was so drunk on the plane.
While they were blown away by the operations centre, Carina and Zondra reacted to the armoury the same way the all the other operatives did, running from one piece of deadly hardware to the next like kids in a candy store.
They did ask why were most of markings on the weapons and equipment still in Cyrillic though? The argument that they'd obtained the weapons etc via the connections that Mary had made in the time when she was trapped in Alexei Volkoff's world was accepted, as that made sense, but the idea that a fairly large and diverse group of Americans could all read Cyrillic well enough that there was no need to relabel everything? That didn't fly anywhere near as well. While they accepted the explanation given, their expressions said that they wouldn't stop until they worked out what the real story behind this was.
General Diane Beckman was rather testy by the time she arrived late the next afternoon, because her people had spent the last day questioning the ones they arrested at the Intersect facility yesterday and examining the equipment (especially the device which had electrocuted Graham's agent), trying to find some proof that Graham had been behind it, but the bastard had covered his tracks too well.
Even with the video recordings her people had been taking throughout, all of the official evidence that they were able to uncover pointed to the agent who died at least being a Fulcrum plant, and Graham's scientists were sticking to the story that they hadn't known half of the people there, so how were they supposed to know that the agents weren't scientists from another area? Her people had reported that they'd just looked smug and shrugged when they were told that they would have had to be totally incompetent not to see that those men weren't scientists, because being incompetent wasn't enough to get them charged with anything, and they worked for Graham, so they wouldn't be getting fired either.
They'd even had to release Graham's surviving agents, because their official orders had been to provide covert security for the testing, and they couldn't get away with questioning them more…. Strenuously…. because this issue was attracting a lot of attention and too many people were watching. The one who was fried had supposedly been the only one who had known all the details of the plan to eliminate Chuck, and officially as far as the others knew that machine was just one of the props they were using to pretend to be scientists.
Most of the equipment had been legitimate test equipment, it was just that one device which had been doctored to make it look as though it malfunctioned because it had been damaged by a power spike or something when Larkin blew up the facility, but there was nothing obviously wrong with it. Her techs had found a switch which would have fried the machine and destroyed the evidence, but Sarah had stopped anyone else getting close enough to activate that switch before she turned the machine off.
Their orders had obviously been to find out what made Chuck the only one capable of successfully hosting the Intersect, and then make sure that he had a fatal accident with that machine, but the one who had been fried had been a good enough agent to pick up that Chuck had identified some of them at least, so he'd decided to eliminate Chuck before he could say anything, because they weren't getting anything useful from him anyway.
What it came down to was that even though she knew with absolute certainty that that bastard Graham was behind this, they didn't have any fucking way to prove it! So he was getting away with it! The only thing the evidence really helped with was squashing Graham's charges that John Casey had attacked and murdered one of the men he had there to provide security without cause, because the video showed the man being evasive when questioned and that he had only received what he was doing his best to have inflicted on Chuck, so that video recording, along with the tech's reports about how the machine had been deliberately doctored to electrocute whoever was hooked up to it, proved that John had in fact saved Chuck from being murdered!
Graham wasn't at all happy to see the way Walker had been working with Casey in those recordings either, but he didn't say anything because he was still banking on getting her back under his control. That was the reason he'd ordered Bartowski to be eliminated as soon as the testing was done, because without the Human Intersect there could be no Human Intersect project. The way he saw it, that would make the conditions of that order he had been forced to accept null and void so the CIA could claim her back.
In the end, after she'd spent almost a full day searching in vain for proof of that bastard's guilt and been forced to agree with the DNI and the President that while they all knew that he was guilty as sin, there wasn't a damned thing they could do about it!….
At least Chuck had sent his personal VIP Smiliner back to pick her up from Ronald Reagan and fly her to LA with her protective detail, because it was big enough to put the protective detail in separate section of the plane and shut them out of the lounge where she was. If she hadn't been able to do that, she would have almost certainly shot one of the dumb shits... Half of them were cute enough that twenty years ago she probably would have had a bed made up quick smart and used them to get rid of some of the tension... Shit, she would have done that fifteen years ago... No... No she wouldn't have. She'd never admit this out loud but taking responsibility for Chuck and Ellie when Stefan put them in her care had changed her for the better. She might have made them work harder than most adults when they were still children but she did love them, and trying to be a better maternal figure for them had made her become a proper mother for Josie... No-one but her father would ever call her Josephine, she loved the man to death but he was too pretentious for his own good much of the time. At least he couldn't do that with their daughter's middle name, because she'd chosen that one, and she gave her the no nonsense name of the toughest woman she knew in the hope that some of that toughness would rub off on her and ease her path through life, Mary Conrad.
About the only thing about the last twenty four hours that cheered her up was the memory of the Administrator of the DEA's face as he was being forced to acknowledge receipt of the Presidential Order to release Carina Miller to the Human Intersect Project, and seeing Mike kick him in the arse to make him execute those orders now! Bob was never going to be a problem, he was a good man, and as she knew he would, he'd launched an investigation into how an agent of Zondra Rizzo's calibre had been pushed aside and buried in nickel and dime gang investigations so much of the time since the CAT Squad had been disbanded, as she was doing more important work than that when she first became an agent over a decade ago!
Mind you, it had been a shock when Chuck had told her that Zondra had been one of the lost children. If she ever knew about that she'd forgotten, but then she didn't have Mary, Emma and their children's eidetic memory, so that was entirely possible. She'd often wished that she did have their perfect memories, because it always seemed so easy for them to learn how to do everything perfectly in no time at all and pull obscure but crucial facts that they'd seen somewhere out of the air to solve cases, but Mary had shown her the flip side of that 'gift' when she described everything that Volkoff had done to her in excruciatingly explicit detail when they were trying to convince her to accept Vivian over ten years after the act. She hadn't missed the reason that she was the one who was told all that rather than Emma or Ellie either, because she might be able to forget what she was told, but they wouldn't.
She suddenly smiled as she remembered that there was another thing to be happy about, the fact that she'd managed to manoeuvre Chuck into proposing like that and Sarah into accepting his proposal. Those two would never be happy unless they were together, but if they'd worked out that she was trying to set them up they would have just refused on principle. She hadn't wanted to have to come out and say that marriage would stop Sarah being ordered to be her targets' and partners' fuck toy, but she would have if it came to that…. she was just glad that she didn't have to, as that would have almost certainly gotten messy.
To avoid all the paperwork that damaging one or more of her protective detail would have required, Diane told them all to shut up (because she could still hear the idiots) and slept the rest of the way to LA. She was a little mollified to see John and Jeff waiting with the stretch Towncar and one of Chuck's marvellous Lincoln Continental Stretched Hardtop Convertibles, so she told her protective detail to get in the Towncar with Jeff while she settled into the back of the Continental, the ride to Arcadia wasn't long enough for being crammed into the back of the Towncar to become a problem, even with Jeff going around the block a few times to confuse them about where they were.
When they arrived in El Castillo, her protective detail tried to argue when they were told to park themselves in the lounge in the Shiloh Security Storage offices while the General went off somewhere else with the people she was calling 'her team', but they were reminded of how she'd gotten the name 'Old Ironpants' when she dressed them down and then stormed off.
Chuck had caught Casey's expression as Carina and Zondra were asking questions about the Cyrillic markings and saw that the fact that he'd held off asking about that himself didn't mean that he hadn't been thinking it, and that didn't bode well for keeping the relationships they'd had to date. He could also see the other questions that Carina at least didn't know enough to ask yet going through his head, like just how had this group of extraordinary people come together? A few at this level coming together, that's life, but a group this big? That had to be planned.
When Auntie Di came down to the Dungeon, he dragged her off to a meeting room with Sarah and the core family members to discuss how they were going to handle the fact that John, Carina and Zondra all knew that they weren't being told the whole truth about the team and that was bound to come back and bite them in the arse down the track. It didn't take long to agree that they needed to tell them what was going on, and Mary, Roan and Charly all agreed that it would be best to tell them that they'd been sleepers when they came to America too.
In a way it was the best time to do this, because they had all of the core team there (Stefan didn't count in something like this), as they had called most of their best people in from around the country when Sammie arrived and they started preparing for a fight with Graham, so they could just sit everyone down and lay it all out. John in particular would most probably have an issue with how many of them were Russian defectors (he saw things a little too black and white sometimes), but they were planning on using the fact that he'd already accepted the ones he knew had been burned and show that their circumstances weren't that much different.
The discussion got a little heated at times, because it turned out John had a bigger issue with the ones who had been literally or effectively burned by the American agencies and military, but eventually John conceded that their reasons for disappearing like they had were at least as valid as his had been, probably more. He did have an issue with Mary, Roan and Charly having been KGB sleepers up until the Seventies, nearly the Nineties in Charly's case, but had to concede that he knew that they'd all been working in America's interests for the last seventeen years or so, because he'd been working closely with them for that long! So he let that go as well.
With that out of the way, John went through all of their qualifications and shook his head, all up they had five or six hundred 'friends', of which about three quarters had been high end special operations operatives (many them Russian, which explained the Cyrillic weapons markings), with many of them functioning as intelligence operatives at times (the same way both he, Bry and Roan had started actually), and the rest had been high end intelligence operatives, with most of them operating in special operations functions at times. They also had thirty or forty high level analysts who'd been burned by the people they worked for because they'd uncovered intel that they weren't supposed to.
Over half of the operatives were Russian, or ex-Soviet at least, a quarter or so American and Israelis made up about half of the rest. A handful of the Americans, like Zoe, Rocky, Rick, Sam, Robin, Sydney, Lexie and Vicky, were working for Auntie Di on the books and other Europeans made up the rest (though Sue hadn't been their only ex-Chinese operative either)... The 'tribe' was at least three times bigger than their 'friends', but they were mostly ex special operations operatives and ex Soviets, and while trusted enough to be part of the group, they weren't trusted to the 'friends' level... and then they had half the friends' numbers in the younger ones from the 'lost children', the ones they'd rescued and helped make new lives for themselves. Many of them like Zondra and Vicky had gone into the military, intelligence or law enforcement fields to have a chance to go after bastards like the ones they'd been rescued from and hopefully spare others from going through what they did. The family had been keeping an eye on them in case they got in trouble, and many of them had been recruited into the Spectre group when the time was right... Along with numerous others who'd gone into the analysis side of things.
It didn't take John long to come to the same conclusion the General had, this was one hell of a formidable crew they had here!
Carina was shaking her head at everything these people had done when Chuck suddenly had one of those seizures that Sarah and John recognised as him getting a lot of information from the Intersect. Once she was sure he was okay, Sarah asked. "Chuck, did you just flash on Carina?"
He shook his head slowly, looking at Auntie Di. "Not exactly... Auntie Di, what were you doing for that five months you took off in Seventy Eight when you were at Harvard?"
Di froze at that and slowly turned to look at him, obviously remembering that he had most of the information about their world in his head now. "As I expect you already know Chuck, the same thing I was when I got my friends to help me get my group based in California in Ninety, trying to hide the fact that I was pregnant."
"What happened to your baby in Seventy Eight?"
"I gave her up for adoption, because after what they did to Emma I wasn't going to subject a child, or myself, to all the shit that would have been coming from the Beckman family about the fact that I had let myself get knocked up by some random arsehole who was trying to recruit me for the CIA and I didn't have the decency to get rid of my bastard so that I didn't embarrass the family..."
She stopped as she suddenly realised that there must be a reason that he had come out with this when he was looking at Carina and gasped. "No!"
He nodded. "I saw Carina's original birth certificate in her records from the CIA, but it's more complicated than that."
"Even more complicated than that fact that my niece's best friend is actually the daughter I gave up for adoption when she was born and kept a secret from everyone because I was a teenager from a judgemental and totally unsupportive family with no one to turn to...?"
She turned to Emma when she went to say something. "I know that you would have helped if you could Em, but there was no way of talking to you without the CIA finding out because they already had you locked down, and that would have exposed your connection to the Beckmans and put you in more danger. They would have just used that to control me, put more pressure on you and blackmail the Beckman family to keep it quiet. The Beckmans and the CIA had already done too much to you Sis, I wasn't going to give them anything to hurt you more with..."
She looked back at Chuck as Emma started to cry and he nodded again, trying to avoid looking at Auntie Em because that would have made him break down too.
"What can you tell me about that random arsehole you got knocked up by Auntie Di?"
She looked confused. "Not much, Mama must have had good genes even if she was a coward because while not a patch on my big sister, I was still on top in most areas the CIA was interested in so they tried to recruit me. I told their recruiter that I wasn't interested when he approached me, as the Beckmans already had my career mapped out for me, but for some reason they were determined to get me, so they sent an agent to seduce me into agreeing. His name was John Butler... he was shallow and self centred and had an ego the size of Texas but he was incredible in bed... he was also extremely pissed off when I told him afterwards that I still wasn't interested in accepting any offers from the CIA..."
Di glanced at Carina and then hung her head in shame.
"The problem came when I realised that I was pregnant a couple of months later, because as much of an arsehole as Butler was, I found that I couldn't bring myself to terminate the pregnancy, there was a life growing inside of me and it was far too precious to flush down the toilet like that. I didn't say a word to anyone, but I quietly made arrangements to disappear for the period when I couldn't hide the fact that I was pregnant. As I said, I couldn't subject another child to what the Beckmans put Emma through, so I made arrangements for the baby to be adopted and I was assured that she would be taken in and raised by a good family as if she was their own. I gave her up at birth, but not until after I had named her. I named her Katherine Hansen... Katya... and I had used Mama's birth name as the mother and John Butler as the father. I knew my daughter would be a smart cookie so that would give her a way to find us if she wanted to when she grew up, but she would hopefully be safe from the Beckmans..."
She raised her head to look her godson in the eye. "What could possibly make that any more complicated Chuck?"
Chuck glanced at Emma, Sarah and Carina and then met her eye. "The fact that John Butler was the main cover name Joe Blake was using in the late Seventies, and Carina has his eyes, just like Sarah!"
Everyone was staring at him in shock and horror at that, and Di glanced at Sarah, Carina and Emma in turn as she gasped "No! It can't be!", but now that Chuck had pointed it out, she could see it, Sarah and Carina did have the same eyes and while she'd never actually met the man her sister was with she had learned by the time he was three not to question her godson's memory, so she had no doubt he was right about Butler, Blake or whatever his name was too. She could also see from Carina's expression that the wonderful upbringing she'd been promised her daughter would get hadn't happened, and that was almost certainly how she'd ended up in the CIA's clutches at nineteen according to her records, though from her real birth date it had actually been seventeen.
After all the crying and shouting had died down, Carina told her story. What Di was told had been true, up until her adopted father walked out on them with some girl half his age when she was five. Her adopted mother had started drinking after that and had one boyfriend after the other moving in with them. As Katya grew she was getting more and more unwanted attention from those boyfriends, until she had to hit the current boyfriend in the head with an iron to get him off of her when he tried to rape her when she was twelve. Her drunk 'mother' had started screaming at her for that and called her a whore, accusing her of trying to steal him from her.
Katya threw whatever clothes and money she could find into a bag and left. She spent the next five years living on the street, making a living by picking pockets, burglary, safe cracking and conning dirty old men who wanted to get it on with a gorgeous young girl out of everything they had. She'd lived rough for much of that time, but she did have periods where she was living the good life on what she got from cleaning out the old perverts. Of course she got beaten up more than a few times, and raped a number of times when she couldn't get away too, but there were only a few times that she'd been hurt bad enough to end up in hospital, up until she used a party at a trust fund jock's family's house as a way to get in to clean out what valuables she could find when she was seventeen.
As a leggy beauty in a tiny dress, she'd never had any trouble getting into those parties, and after having a feed, a few drinks and making out with some cute guys she'd slipped away to start collecting the best of the valuables in the house, but the trust fund jock and his buddies caught her in a part of the house no-one was supposed to be in. There were at least a dozen of them and they had taken turns with her for a few hours, but after they'd all spent themselves they started amusing themselves by defilng and hurting her as much as possible. One of them had made the mistake of leaving a cork screw on the coffee table next to where they'd been having her on the floor when he opened another bottle of wine and she'd managed to get her hands on it. Even though she could hardly see or stand by then, they were all dead inside ten minutes, and she quickly grabbed whatever cash she could find, took clothes from the sister's room to replace what they'd torn off of her and got the hell out of there.
She was beginning to think that she'd gotten away with it, as while the Sallinger Slaughter House as they were calling it was all over the news, the cops still had no leads about who could have done it. Unfortunately, some of those jocks' families had been well connected and were calling in favours to make sure that that bitch who killed their boys got her just deserts, so about a month later a van pulled up beside her as she was walking down the street and the next thing she knew she was handcuffed to a desk in a room with a big evil looking black man playing the security video of her killing all those jocks with a cork screw. The bastard had made a point of fast forwarding through and deleting the hours of video of them raping and defiling her to make it quite clear that what they did was inconsequential, he had video proof that she was the slaughter house killer and that was more than enough to get her the death penalty in that state. Then he laid it out for her that she was going to do anything and everything he said, and excel at it, or she would be getting a one way ticket to the death chamber. She said that he'd laughed when he told her that it would be Carina, rather than Katherine, that Katya stood for now, and Miller instead of Hansen... She glossed over the training that she'd gotten at the Farm and other places, just saying that Graham had been pissed off that she hadn't become the unstoppable killing machine he wanted her to be, so she'd been loaned to one of his friends at the DEA to use as a honey trap to get them into the cartels' and dealers' organisations, but she apparently still belonged to the CIA so he could take her back any time he wanted.
Di broke down over what she'd sentenced her daughter to and all the girls rushed to comfort the both of them after that story, but Sarah saw Chuck leave without a word. She looked at Casey, worried, but he waved it off, making a gun with his hand and pantomiming shooting. Sarah got the message and nodded, Chuck was going to work off some of his rage at Graham by blasting targets away for a while.
They were both wrong about that though, because Chuck's first priority was actually to find all the video evidence that Graham had on Carina and scrub every instance of it from the CIA's systems, along with anything else he had on her, and anything that could be used against her in the DEA and other systems too. While he was at it he did the same for Sarah and Zondra, though there was little that could be used against Zondra in any of the systems. Then he went to blast targets, but he was still doing that when they all came out, and Anna came hurrying up to grab Sarah and Carina and drag them into a meeting room a bit later. As soon as she sealed the door she turned on them. "What the hell was in your records? Chuck didn't clean up after himself when he got out of the systems he was scrubbing details of you from and he's never been angry or unsettled enough to be that sloppy before!"
Sarah and Carina looked at each other and then explained about the 'special' sex training they'd both been forced to go through by Graham, but she shook her head. "No, that's not enough for this... Sorry, I know that it was terrible and I promise that I will do everything I can to help you and Chuck get Graham back for that, but as bad as that was, there had to have been something else to set him off like this?"
That made them look at each other again then Sarah explained how she'd been set up to be gang raped for the first couple of missions and how Graham had kept trying to trick her into missions where that would be the only option, and that she'd been his private executioner for most of the last nine years, and Carina told them both about what she'd been made to do for most of the last twelve years.
Anna was looking sick, but nodded when they finished. "Yeah, that would be enough to set him off..." She looked at Sarah. " Look... You are the only thing that can stop him now Sammie, you need to get in there right now and talk him down before he goes off in a rampage to deal with the ones who hurt you, because as good as Chuck is... even he isn't likely to survive blasting his way through the CIA alone to kill Graham... oh he'll kill him alright, but I don't see him getting out alive and I'm not ready to lose him!"
Sarah just nodded, understanding what Anna was and wasn't saying, and she headed straight for the urban combat range. Anna cut all of the feeds out of the range to give them privacy and then went back into the meeting room, where Carina was explaining to the others what Chuck would have seen in her and Sarah's records.
This time it was John who got to comfort her first and he assured her that none of this changed how he felt about her at all, not even the fact that she was his boss's daughter and the sister of one of the very few woman who could scare the shit out of him. She looked at him, confused, at that and he nodded in Mary and Ellie's direction to indicate who the other ones were...
Once Sarah had talked Chuck down, the shock of Carina being Di's daughter and Sarah's sister had died down and their new team members had been properly filled in on and integrated into the group, Diane disgustedly conceded that she had to get back to DC, but she wasn't in the mood to put up with those lumps upstairs any more. She'd already decided to replace them with a protective detail of their own people now that the Spectre group was officially operating outside the normal channels so….
She suddenly turned to Chuck. "Can someone fly back to DC with me in one of the Sonics or Shadows Chuck?"
He looked at her quizzically. "I suppose so, but why Auntie Di?"
"Because I'm getting shot of those idiots up there as soon as I get back to DC, and the fighters will get me back to start the paperwork sooner!"
He shook his head. "I'd come with you Auntie Di, but I don't think we can get away with the Human Intersect disappearing for most of a day just yet."
"I know that Honey but most of the crew here are qualified to fly them, so who's up for a trip to DC?"
Anna shared a look with Chuck and they nodded together. "I'll come with you General, people don't pay as much attention to me and I'm officially qualified on the F Twenty Two, so we can openly take one of the Shadows and make it a quicker trip."
Di looked at Chuck hopefully and he shook his head at her. "Alright Auntie Di, I'll tell the guys at Red Mountain to get a Shadow ready, lodge a flight plan and get your boys tickets on a commercial flight to Ronald Reagan for you while you run upstairs to borrow one of Auntie Em's flight suits, seeing as you seem to have already forgotten all about your protective detail."
She just grabbed his shirt to drag him down far enough to kiss him on the cheek and ran off to do as he said.
When her protective detail's collective jaws dropped at seeing her in an Air Force flight suit (being the same size as her sister was handy) she realised that her godson had left this for her to explain, so she just told them that she'd been called back to DC urgently, so a helicopter to Edwards and supersonic ride to DC had been arranged for her and there would be another protective detail and car waiting for her at Andrews. Therefore Major Casey would be making the arrangements for them to return to DC via a commercial flight. They weren't at all happy about that, but held their tongues because they'd gotten a reminder that the General's bite was worse than her bark and all these people seemed even more on edge than they had been before. And what's more, they'd heard stories about Major Casey, and given that they had no idea where they were past the fact that it was somewhere in Los Angeles and fairly close to the airport they flew into (their GPS devices and trackers hadn't worked in the car or the building and the windows in the car were some sort of smart glass which had turned opaque when they started moving), they had a sneaking suspicion that it would be all too easy for them to disappear without a trace.
They were driven to Bob Hope in the same Town Car, so they still had no idea where they were until Major Casey opened the door and barked at them to get out. All their tickets were arranged and they were rushed through to the terminal because they barely had time to board before the airliner left the terminal. The early departure didn't help them though, because it would be at least ten hours before they landed at Ronald Reagan after the layovers in both Salt Lake City and Detroit.
As planned, by the time they got back to DC, they had all been reassigned and General Beckman had a new team of their own people looking after her.