Well we had the Chuck season premier, now for my next update.
A/N- With the amount of time these guys spend on airplanes I'm starting to feel like I should write a fic for Up in the Air, which btw is an amazing movie.
Chapter 11- Honor the Fallen
Castle Base
Los Angeles
"Mr. Bartowski glad you could join us." Clark said as Chuck and his protector entered into the underground base.
"Wait the CIA has a base under a yogurt shop?"
"Orange Orange is just a front, like Universal Exports from the Bond movies." Bryce explained.
Chuck and Sarah descended the stairs and sat next to each other, "Where are Casey and Ding?"
"Ding is out getting lunch; Casey is with the prisoner, again."
"What's he getting?"
"Some hot dogs from Pink's."
Sarah smiled, "Enough for us?"
"Yeah."
"Wait, what's Pink's?"
They all stared at him. "Only like the best hot dog place in the world," Bryce eventually told Chuck.
"Okay, so what's with the prisoner? Did you crack the case?" Chuck asked.
"Yeah, we hauled him in, didn't take much to get the basic information out of him, but after that he clamed up."
"What did you get out of him?" Sarah asked.
"Fulcrum." Clark said.
Chuck flashed.
CIA Seal
A map of Columbia
Special Access Program
Termination Orders
Cancellation of funding
Operation: Reciprocity
The Fifth Freedom
CIA Seal
"Chuck, you okay?" Chuck came back to reality to find Sarah fawning over him, and himself on the ground staring up at the ceiling.
"Yeah that was just a big flash."
"What was Fulcrum?"
"CIA Program that grew out of Operation: Showboat." The word Showboat caused Ding and Clark to share an uneasy look.
As Chuck said that he flashed again:
Columbia
Drug Wars
Operations: Caper, Showboat, Eagle Eye, Reciprocity
Ding's personnel file
John Clark's photo
The final report
"You invaded Columbia! And you! You almost left them to die!"
They both nodded solemnly, they had no response to the charges.
"What—What happened to Cutter?" Chuck asked nervously, he didn't know what answer he wanted to hear. The man obviously deserved some form of punishment, but he was asking the original CIA assassin.
"He ran in front of a bus after I confronted him. Bastards burning in hell now." Clark said coldly.
"Damn straight Mr. C."
"So what's Fulcrum?"
"It was a CIA program that was supposed to protect America by any means necessary. It was supposed to be a temporary stopgap, only it didn't stop."
"Why didn't they just cut off the funding?" Sarah asked.
"They tried, Fulcrum found alternate revenue sources."
Silence descended across the room as they considered what Chuck had just told them. "So these guys are rogue CIA?"
"Yeah." They once again sat there staring at each other unsure of what their next move should be. After a few minutes they heard the interrogation room door opening.
Casey walked back into the main conference room. "Find out what you can from him," he said pointing back to where he came from.
"Who? Me?" Chuck asked.
"No moron, your girlfriend."
"Come on Chuck." She said grabbing his hand, "You can watch from the observation room, let me know if you flash on anything." Chuck followed her out.
***
Interrogation Room, Castle Base
Los Angeles
Sarah stood outside the door. She took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and steadied herself for the coming interrogation. She grabbed the door handle, opened her eyes, and wrenched it open. She moved with purpose into the room and sat down in the chair opposite the prisoner. He was in pretty bad shape, Casey had clearly been using more than verbal abuse in the last session. His left eye was nearly swollen shut and his lip was covered in dried blood.
"So, John you've been a very naughty boy."
He remained silent.
"You know your career is dead, right? You might be able to salvage some of it if you helped us out."
"Blondie if I helped you I'd have bigger problems than my career." He said with disgust.
"We can protect you."
"Really you think, you can protect me? You don't have any idea of who's even working for us."
"Oh?"
"Your team consists of how many people?" he said with a wicked smile.
Sarah looked at him with suspicion, "Five."
"So the team that brought me in plus you?"
Sarah nodded.
"We already have one man on your team; you really think you can protect me? If I started talking right now I probably wouldn't make it out of this room alive." The former ambassador said as his smile grew.
Sarah turned around and glanced at the one-way mirror. It only took her another moment before she headed to the door. Chuck unlocked it, and she sighed in relief when she saw him again. Then she realized that he very well could be Fulcrum. John didn't know about Chuck, he hadn't ever seen him and Sarah hadn't included him in the team member total.
"So one of them is Fulcrum?" Chuck asked.
"So he claims."
"Does he have a reason to lie?"
"Cause dissension in the team, try and get us to take down one or our own."
"Or he could be telling the truth."
"Yeah." Chuck opened the door to the observation room and waited for Sarah to enter.
Sarah walked in and took a seat near the rooms computer. You didn't happen to flash on anything did you?"
"Nothing important, no; just his personnel records."
They sat there pondering what to do for a minute. It wasn't an easy prospect to begin a spy hunt for someone on your team, someone you trusted with your life.
Chuck spoke first, "So we need to find out who the Fulcrum agent is."
Sarah nodded, "I'll call Director Foley we're going to need her help."
"Does your cell work here?"
Sarah shook her head, follow my lead. She said dragging him back towards the conference room, and exit, by his hand.
Sarah put on her best innocent girl expression, and put on a gently smile, "Uh Mr. Clark? Do you think me and Chuck could have the afternoon off? We are kind of jet lagged and that guy isn't saying anything to us either. Chuck didn't flash either."
Clark looked at her suspiciously; he could tell something was up, but the look she was giving him told him that whatever it was was more important than some afternoon delight. "Fine."
Neither relaxed until they were in the safety of her rented Porsche. Sarah immediately started for their hotel.
***
Chuck and Sarah's Hotel Lobby
Los Angeles
"Yes, Director I understand, but can we really trust the Intersect with someone who could be Fulcrum?"
"Agent Walker I have known Mr. Clark for my entire career, and Mr. Chavez for his entire career and I will personally vouch for their trustworthiness. I know General Beckman will do the same for Colonel Casey, can you vouch for Agent Larkin?"
Sarah bit her lip in concentration. "Can we trust Beckman? Her and Casey could both be Fulcrum."
"I'll look into it, but I think we can trust someone who has given everything she has to protect her country. I'll give you permission to look into this, but I don't think we have a traitor on the Intersect team."
"What are your orders?"
"Take the day, we'll have a packet for Chuck to review and I'll have my team working through the night to clear everyone. I don't expect that it'll take too long to confirm everyone is clean." MP said before hanging up.
Sarah sat down on the bed next to Chuck. They sat there in silence for several minutes before Chuck moved further up on the bed and placed his hands on her shoulders. She closed her eyes and bowed her head as he began giving her a shoulder massage.
"You seem tense." He said with an unseen smile.
"One of our team members is a Fulcrum agent, hell they might all be Fulcrum. Chuck, you're the only one I can trust." She sat sinking into his strong hands. She felt the stress just oozing out of her muscles and she melted into him.
"How do you know you can trust me?" Chuck asked idly.
Sarah's head shot up, her eyes open again, and her muscles immediately filled with tension again. She quickly glanced around the room for her gun before she heard his laugh.
"Relax Sarah I'm not." She spun around and punched him in the arm. "Ouch!"
"Don't scare me like that ever again!"
Chuck rubbed his arm and after a minute they calmed down again, "So what did she say?"
Sarah rolled her shoulders indicating for him to resume the massage, "She said that we should sit tight for the rest of the day and she'd have something for you to review in the morning. She doesn't think the threat is real, apparently they dealt with something similar with some terrorists a few years back."
"So we've got the rest of the day to ourselves?"
"Yeah. You thinking what I'm thinking?"
Chuck just smiled.
"I'll get the massage oils." Sarah said happily jumping off the bed.
"Wait—What?"
Sarah let out a short happy laugh, "What? Like you said I'm tense and in need of a massage. Why what did you think I had in mind?" She said with a wink.
***
"You just let them go? We need the Intersect interrogating the prisoner not getting laid!" Bryce bemoaned as soon as Chuck and Sarah left.
"They did get something out of him; I presume they're going to check it out now." Clark responded calmly.
"How do you know?" Bryce barked back.
Clark just stared at him. "So anyone else want take a crack at the prisoner? Or should we break out some cards?"
They all exchanged glances, Casey was the one who usually wanted to interrogate the prisoner, but even he seemed reticent about returning to the interrogation room.
"Cards it is." Clark said before dealing the cards out.
***
Sarah lay splayed across Chuck's chest happily running her fingers along his arms and hair. "Sarah?"
"Hmmm?" She said happily.
"Why did you join the CIA?"
Sarah picked her head of his chest and met his thoughtful gaze. "I…It's not—Why did you join?"
Chuck shrugged, "I'd graduated from Stanford and didn't really know what to do. So I was working in the Buy More while I tried to get a real job at a game design company, I was hoping to get a job at Infinity Ward actually, well this strange guy walks into the Buy More and asks me if I could fix his computer. When I finished he handed me his card and told me to call him when I had some free time."
Sarah moved up, resting her head on his shoulder now, "And you called him."
"Well his card said Central Intelligence Agency on it, how could I not?"
Sarah's voice dropped to a soft whisper, "and then he asked you to serve your country."
"And then he asked me to serve my country." Chuck repeated softly in her ear.
"You've saved my life, you know that right?"
Chuck just shrugged again, "I was just doing my job, but I'm certainly glad you're still alive."
Sarah let her eyes slip shut again, they still had time before they had to get up.
"But you never told me why you joined."
Sarah stiffened. "It's not a nice story like yours."
He only responded wrapping his arms around her and holding her close to him.
"Revenge." His arms immediately went slack around her causing Sarah to panic. As she felt his hands on her, pushing her away, her breath caught in her throat. She couldn't breathe, he was leaving her over one word. She couldn't bear to look at him, to see the disgust that she was sure had to be in his eyes, but Chuck had other ideas as he forced her to look at him.
"What happened?" He said softly. She collapsed against him smiling, he wasn't breaking up with her, he had been trying to show her that he forgave her. Two words were all it had taken to calm her. She let out a self-conscious laugh when she realized how silly she was being.
"My father was killed, I wanted revenge and the CIA offered me that."
"How did he?"
"You remember in Langley? The stars on the wall?
Chuck remembered. Nearly 100 stars adorned that wall to CIA officers who had fallen in the line of duty. Chuck worked every day to make sure they never ended up there because they lacked a gadget of some sort and now he hoped to never find Sarah on that wall.
"My father is one of them. Mary Pat is the one who told me, although she wasn't the director back then. When she told me what happened I—well I just wanted to hurt the men responsible. When I finished training she made sure I was assigned to tracking the same organization that my father was killed by."
"What happened?"
"I found out who was responsible. I killed them." She said with trepidation. Sarah didn't want him to that she was some sort of monster.
"What about your mother?"
"She was with him when he died. They brought down a plane."
Chuck placed a soft kiss on her temple. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."
Sarah nuzzled into his neck, she was done talking. Just as she was about to start another round she heard her phone start ringing. Sarah groaned, "Stay right there, don't move, don't breathe, just stay right there this won't take long." He gave her a smile and relaxed back into the pillow with a smile.
Sarah rolled off him and moved over to collect her phone. "Walker here." She said coldly into the device.
"Put Charles on." Sarah tossed the phone over to him on the bed before jumping on the bed herself.
Chuck grabbed the phone with a puzzled look on his face, "Who is this and how did you know I would be here?"
"Charles its five in the morning, where else would you be then in her bed?"
Sarah saw blush creep up Chuck's neck, "Uh…What is it you were calling for?"
"We checked out the team let me know if any of the following words cause you to flash? Salamander, Grackus, Seaborg, Pinata."
Chuck flashed then again, and again. For each word he flashed. "Everyone's clean."
"Good, tell Agent Walker I said so. Goodbye Chuck." Mary Pat said before hanging up.
Chuck turned to Sarah who was sitting, naked, on the bed next to him. "Everyone's clean."
Sarah nodded, "Well I guess we have to go talk to Clark then." She climbed off the bed and headed over to the closet.
***
Sarah walked in on the interrogation room again with a small vanilla folder, this time she was smiling. There were two reasons for her smile first she was quite happy about the plan and second the mission called for it. She sat down and kept the folder closed. "We got your agent on the team"
John smiled, "Who do you think it was? I highly doubt your incompetent CIA could manage to figure out who it was."
"Bryce Larkin." Sarah said with a smile, "Wasn't difficult when half the team that brought you in practically built the CIA."
John smiled, "That's exactly what makes you so incompetent, you're weak, sentimental, and far too quick to trust. Fulcrum is willing to do what is necessary to defend this nation, we're willing to sacrifice for this country unlike you cowards. You people are pat—"
***
"Sarah! Sarah! What the hell?" Chuck said as he burst into the room.
"What?" Sarah said before looking down at the ground, John Vasconti lay at her feet, writhing in pain. Sarah looked puzzled for a minute. She didn't remember attacking him or anything. "I—I," she started before remembering what he had said. "My father gave the CIA everything he had, don't you dare disrespect his sacrifice you selfish bastard." She ended her statement with a stiff kick to the face. The former ambassador stilled.
"You really shouldn't do that." Bryce said from the observation room.
Sarah spun around and stared at the one-way mirror, "Why the hell not? He's not going to give us anything from simple interrogation."
"Well I doubt the President is going to let us torture one of his ambassadors."
Clark, unseen by everyone else, smiled. "I'll deal with further arrangements. In the mean time Chuck you mentioned something about a Fulcrum operation in Brussels?"
Chuck turned around, "Yeah something to do with NATO. I don't know any specific operational plans though, just some fake passports."
"Casey take command, get the team set up in Brussels, Ding and I will deal with Mr. Vasconti."
Casey nodded.
***
36,000 Feet (12,000 meters) Over Germany en route to Brussels, Belgium
"Drink sir?" The stewardess asked.
"No, thank you." The agent replied annoyed at the interruption. He turned his attention back on his laptop. He didn't have much time before the buyer wanted the program and he was looking forward to this payday. Another couple like it and he'd be able to buy an island somewhere and relax for the rest of his life. Fortunately the program was relatively simple; unfortunately he wasn't a computer programmer by profession. Normally the Ring would provide him with a partner who could deal with the menial task his cover involved, but he was being lent out to Fulcrum and they weren't as well equipped as the Ring.
He noticed that his assistant appeared to be stirring, "Honey do we have any meetings scheduled for today?" He whispered in her ear more out of habit than a need for secrecy.
"No I know you hate first day meetings." Rob smiled. That would give him more than enough time to meeting with his Fulcrum contact, pass off the program, and get ready for the rest of his, rather minor, role in the operation. It would have been a very displeasing task were it not for the city, one of the few European cities he still enjoyed visiting. Most of the others were tainted with the memories of double-crossed friends, dead enemies, and blown ops.
His assistant turned to face him, now fully awake. "Do you think we can go to Paris after we finish up here? You don't have another meeting scheduled till the end of the month."
"You might be able to persuade me."
Her eyes twinkled, "Oh? And how might I persuade you Mr. Hayes?"
"You always find a way Carina." He replied with a smirk.
***
"Mr. President have you ever heard of Fulcrum?" The CIA DDO asked.
"No, who are they?"
"We don't know sir, all we know is they're dangerous and we have a hard time finding them. I'd like to have your permission to run an op to hunt them down."
"You want a pardon for your actions in doing so." Ryan concluded.
MP looked at the floor, "yes sir."
"Tell my secretary how many and I'll sign them first thing in the morning, I'll leave them blank fill them out for whatever you need."
"Thank you sir."
A/N- I've been having them jump around a lot, do you guys mind that or?