Chapter 10
"Morgan, Alex! It's good to see you guys." Ellie exclaims as the couple enters her home. "I've set out some blankets and pillows. Sorry we don't have a guest room setup yet."
"It's ok. Morgan and I can rough it in the living room. Hopefully, we'll only be here a day or so, and then we can head back."
"Speaking of being here a short time, Morgan do you have they package?" Ellie turns to Morgan.
"Yeah, it's right here."
Morgan hands Ellie a small box containing three sets of sunglasses, and an USB thumb drive.
Ellie immediately walks over to her laptop and inserts the drive. Her familiarity with her father's work allows her to find the file she is supposed to examine in a matter of minutes.
She begins looking at the encoding line by line. The examples used by her father, early in the research, helps her recognize a good line from a bad line, even if she cannot tell what particular mission file the line is pointing the Intersect database to review.
It is clear that the program designed to unblock the Intersect is a clean program. She would feel confident running the program on Sarah. Now she needs to examine the glasses.
She picks up a pair and begins looking them over. She notices that they are similar in design to most sports glasses available on the market. However, there is one notable difference. It looks like there is a mini-USB port.
She attempts to use her phone's USB charging cable and it fits. Fantastic, now she can simply plug the glasses into her computer. She finds that she is able to review the upload without running the program. She begins reviewing the file line by line.
-o-
"Kayla? Kayla? Hey you ok? Kayla can you hear me?"
Kayla Hart is slowly waking up to the knocking on her car window. The bright light of the sun hurts her eyes, and her head is pounding. On top of that she has a metallic taste in her mouth and it is very dry.
"Yeah… Yeah, I'm fine. What time is it?" She is trying to clear her head and focus on the person outside the window.
She finally sees her co-worker, employee really, outside the car. Her name is Jolie Zea.
"It's 8 am. Where did you go yesterday afternoon? Did you sleep here?"
"I… I don't remember. I remember agreeing to go out with a guy who used to be my neighbor and then you knocking on the window."
"Wow, must have been some party you two had together." Jolie is smiling suggestively. She thinking her boss took the walk of shame.
"I guess. I just don't remember anything. What time did you say it is?"
"8 am."
"Oh, no. I have to be at an appointment in an hour. Cover for me." She rolls up her window and takes off for the CTU complex.
-o-
Outside the CTU a van is parked watching the complex. Chuck is busy looking for a way to hack into the internal security feeds. Casey is trying to get a thermal image on the building, and while the temperature the cool February morning is 44 degrees the walls of the building are too thick to penetrate for contrast. Carina is monitoring the website feed showing Beckman.
Sarah is on her iPad watching a video she uploaded before leaving castle. She has her ear buds in and her eyes are filled with tears. She decided to watch the video Jeff Barnes made for her and Chuck.
She watches them playfully acting like they are going to bite one another at the nerd herd desk. She sees numerous still photos found in the apartment, including the photo she keeps in her go bag. She watches herself lay her head on his shoulder as they watch a movie in the entertainment section of the Buy More. She sees Chuck pulling her into the backroom of the Buy More and her face screams they are headed off to be together in that very special way. Jeff captured a clip of them walking out of the Buy More hand in hand.
I was just told to bring Chuck in so we could put him in a secure bunker. We were heading out to run away together. We were going to save his dad and run away together. My holding his hand was not a cover, and even when it was it wasn't. It's always been my way to be able to touch him without fear of removal from the assignment. I used the cover for my benefit to be close to him and to keep him away so we didn't get in trouble.
She feels a little guilty as she continues to watch. Then she remembers.
The pain, the searing pain caused by the Norseman Device. Chuck saved me, and then he married me. He risked being arrested as a traitor just to save me.
She closes down the video and looks around. No one noticed her; everybody was busy working on setting up to rescue Beckman. She clicked on Drop Box and opened the schematics of the CTU floor plans.
"Guys, I keep going over the plans and over them, and the only conceivable entrance is through the front door or through the garage, and both are highly problematic. The first floor houses the briefing room and the panic room. The second floor houses the detention center and situation room. The third floor is the servers and the offices."
Casey continues to scan the building and Carina is bringing the final pieces of surveillance gear online when Chuck speaks.
"What about underground? We use the sewer system to infiltrate the building from underneath."
Casey grunts. "That might work. What's our latest status on Beckman?"
Carina looks at the monitor and then at the team, "She's still caged and soaking wet."
Sarah is looking at the building through binoculars when Kayla Hart pulls up and enters the garage.
"Kayla's home."
"Good now we can see how many bad guys I get to shoot." Casey says with a satisfied look on his face.
-o-
"El, have you been up all night?" Devon is staggering into their dinning area with a cup of coffee in hand.
"Yeah. I got to looking through some of the other files Chuck loaded on the thumb drive and I figured out how to encode pictures for upload."
"Wonderful! What does that mean?" He asks taking another sip of coffee.
"It means that if Sarah does not get her memories back by unblocking the intersect and uploading a clean version or removing it all together, I can use the last upload on whichever pair of glasses we use to load pictures, videos, and other things related to her life on the glasses. She could then upload those."
"That's awesome! So what are you going to do?" Devon asks, meaning what is the next step.
Ellie understands, "I'm going to send Morgan home with one pair of upload glasses, and the removal glasses and this message:
Chuck and Sarah,
The program looks safe, and the glasses I've given to Morgan are a clean version of the Intersect. You've got a few options. You can run the removal program with the removal glasses, but I'm not sure that will help Sarah's memories. You can run the program that unblocks the Intersect and immediately remove it, or overwrite it with a clean version. I'm confidant that has a better chance of working memory wise, but it's not guaranteed. The final option is to not do anything and let me work on loading her memories on the pair of glasses I'm keeping here.
Your Sister
Ellie"
"Well I may not know as much as Chuck and you about the Intersect, but I know this, if we don't wake Morgan and get him back to LA they can't make a decision."
He looks lost in thought for a moment. He looks deeper in thought than she can recall.
"Devon are you alright?"
"Yeah, I was thinking about a philosophy class I took at UCLA. There was a quote from the Christian Bible I never understood until Chuck and Sarah. It says that hope deferred makes the heart sick."
He stops and thinks a little more. Ellie just looks at him because she can tell he has more to say.
"You know when I first found out Chuck was a spy it was right about the time Goya invited us to the embassy, and I asked Chuck how he did it, being in a cover relationship for two years and not falling in love. Of course, he lied but that was because his heart was sick, and he was putting off hope. They both did that for so long."
Again he pauses and now Ellie can tell Devon is trying to stay composed.
"You know I may be able to repair a physical heart, but if your work is successful you'll have fixed two emotional hearts and fulfilled their hope. A hope that at one time neither of them dared voice for fear the dream would vanish."
"Devon that's incredibly beautiful and deep." Ellie is in tears thinking about her brother and Sarah.
"Awesome that is just… just…" Morgan can't finish, so he rushes Devon and places him in a hug. "Come on Ellie, group hug."
"No, Morgan, No." Sometimes she still sees the schoolboy who crushed on her.
"I guess I better go get Alex up. Man, this was a short trip." Morgan yawns as he walks back to the living room area.
-o-
"Kayla, welcome to the big time."
Jonathan Sands greets her as she steps into the second floor briefing room.
"Let me introduce you to everyone. This is my boss Edgar, and our financer Dale Richardson. Gentlemen, this is Kayla Hart."
"Jonathan, not to be rude and with no offense to you Ms. Hart, but why is she here?" Edgar asks.
"She's how we are going to free our two award winners."
"Is that right, and how do figure she can accomplish that task?" Edgar raises an eyebrow.
"Easy, using my credentials we're going to get her a conjugal visit with one of the prisoners. I'll escort her in so that the search does not reveal what she'll smuggle into the prisoner."
"Not to rain on your parade," Richardson speaks, "but those types of visits are normally limited to spouses."
"Gentlemen, maybe I didn't introduce her to you correctly." He hands each man a newspaper article, some identification cards, and a medical report.
After a few minutes of reviewing all the documents they both turn to look at each other and then at Sands.
"Well done. I'm sure our friend will be glad to play husband to Ms. Hart. He certainly enjoyed playing the part of a loving boyfriend with another lady when he was trying to gain control of the Intersect from the CIA." Edgar smiles, and Richardson laughs.
Richardson looks at Edgar. "Ok let's go see how our guest is doing this fine morning. Jonathan, the delivery items are over there. Our friend dropped them off this morning. Take Ms. Hart and set our friends free."
Edgar chuckles, "As soon as we know you're on site preparing to loose our friends we'll begin breaking our guest. Until then, we'll just play around some."
-o-
Outside the CTU the Intersect team is making final preparations for their rescue operation.
"Her camera showed 5-6 men per floor. Therefore, a good rule of thumb is double that number. That means we could be facing around 30-40 trained personnel between all three floors." Casey is running down the odds.
Chuck has been dealing with the odds for the past five years, and he keeps beating them. He has every intention of beating them again.
"Guys, Hart and Sands just left. We should have placed an audio bug on her." Sarah remarks as she watches Sands SUV drive away.
Carina looks up from her monitor.
"We've got activity in the general's cell."
Everyone stops to watch. Hoping things remain relatively calm for now.
-o-
About 5 hours earlier.
"Sir, I've got Colonel Theil on the horn." Sergeant First Class Moss tells his commanding officer.
"Colonel, this is Major Mallock. General Beckman is being held hostage at the former CTU facility in Los Angeles. You're tasked with assembling a strike force to reinforce our agents located on the ground."
"Major, I can have a team ready in an hour. However, I will need access to four UH-60 choppers capable of running silent."
"Roger, I'll authorize through the general's command all the resources you need. Contact Colonel John Casey of the NSA for a ground sitrep. He is the agent in charge, and you will answer to him upon arrival."
Major Mallock is looking at the situation board and the live feeds from both team Intersect and the general's cell.
Colonel Theil acknowledges his commands, and hangs up the phone. Time to get busy. They should be on site in less than five hours.
-o-
Casey just confirmed Colonel Theil's team is in position to begin an assault.
"Ok, what've I missed?"
Chuck looks at Carina and Sarah. Carina decides to give the sitrep.
"The general has been removed from the cage and knocked around a little bit, but she seems to be holding her own. Is the strike team in position, Johnny?"
Chuck looks slightly irritated that the general's office authorized a strike force from Fort Irwin to rescue Beckman.
"Since I guess we are rescuing her she want get too mad about the bill."
"Hey, I remember that, you ordered an assault, complete with tank to rescue me from Shaw before we all knew he was evil. Well you suspected but none of us did. I appreciated the tank." Sarah smiles at Chuck.
"You ordered a tank to rescue Sarah?" Carina asks.
"Choppers, air support, a tank, and a very large task force. Impressive isn't it?" Sarah says proudly.
"Very!" Carina agrees.
"It was a waste of tax payer money to bring in that much fire power." Casey grunts.
"And is this a waste of tax payer money?" Chuck asks.
"No, because a single task force is not over kill."
Carina interrupts.
"Guys, they are hoisting Beckman in the air."
They look and see that Beckman's hands are secured behind her, and they are now connected to a hoist to that her shoulder are nearly out of socket and her feet are barely touching the ground. They noticed that there is a battery charger close by and buckets of water. Now is the time to start moving to rescue the general.
-o-
The Carmichael Industries jet was preparing for take off. Morgan and Alex were already on board.
As the flight crew were running over their final checks, a figure crept from the shadows and climbed the landing gear. The figure immediately moved to the luggage area and hid on board.
Looks like Morgan and Alex are bringing back more than just the Intersect glasses.
The new passenger thinks:
I'm not sure what Chuck and Sarah have gotten into this time, but I'm not going to let anything else happen to them. I should just offer my help, but Sarah has never trusted me too much and now with everything that has happened… Oh well, if I don't look out for them who will.
-o-
"You've got a visitor." The guard announced.
"A visitor? I've not seen daylight in months, and now I've got a visitor?"
"What's the matter, you don't want to see your wife?"
Is this some kind of sick joke? I'm going to kill whoever is messing me.
"Yeah, I want to see her. It is all I've wanted for years."
-o-
"Alright Colonel Theil we're moving to join your men in the tunnel system. Have the other men provide over watch. No one exits alive, we will use the tunnels to withdraw as well as insert." Casey radios to the strike force commander.
-o-
"Hey honey, I've missed you so much!" The prisoner greets his fake wife, Kayla.
"Oh, I've missed you too baby."
Kayla moves forward and kisses her husband on the lips as she slides the shape charges into his pocket.
They spend the next hour alone with Sands outside the room. To most people she and her husband were catching up on lost time. However, she was briefing him on the plan of escape.
"There will be a van waiting for both of you as soon as you breach the exterior wall and make it to this rock formation."
"And then?"
"And then we get you back in LA, where you can exact your long sought after revenge."
-o-
"All teams, we are a go for insertion. Go, go, go!" Casey gives the order and the battle commences.