A/N: The good news is, my company has limited my travel for financial reasons so I am trying to put the finishing touches on my project from my office. That means I'm working less hours and writing more. Should be able to update regularly. Hope you enjoy.

Sarah vs The Missing Asset

Chapter Eleven

Chuck, Amanda, and Casey had been dumped unceremoniously in the back of an older C-130 transport plane. Casey had been injured by a very hard blow to the head and was out cold.

Amanda and Chuck had been tranquilized and had come too at the same time. The loud drone of the transport's engines gave Chuck a surreal feeling that he was dreaming. But when he looked over and saw Amanda stirring, he moved towards her to see how she was doing.

The plane was nineteen seventies vintage and had cargo nets along the sides. Besides the three of them, it carried no cargo.

Chuck remembered the precision raid the Fulcrum commandos perpetrated on Amanda, himself and the two CIA bodyguards that stayed in the house with them. He remembered looking at the two lifeless bodies of the CIA agents as they sat in their car as he was whisked away to the airport. In route, both he and Amanda had been drugged.

Chuck had no idea what had gone wrong. How Fulcrum knew that there was even a mission going on. And, how they got Casey. But he knew that they had been tipped off somehow. He knew that Amanda had spent the last two years developing her cover story and that she was trying to lure someone there to be taken into custody.

So what had gone wrong?

Chuck made his way to her and helped prop her to a sitting position.

"Are you OK?" he said yelling to be heard over the roar of the jet

"I'm fine, but it looks like Casey may need medical attention," she said leaning over to examine his wound.

"You have any idea what went wrong?" he said to her.

She shook her head. "My best guess is that my "Father" is playing it safe."

"Our target is your Father?"

Amanda smiled at Chuck. "You know for a spy you really are dull sometimes."

Chuck caught on then. "Yeah, I'm known for that. So how did you fool some Fulcrum honcho into believing you were his daughter?" Chuck asked curiously.

Amanda finished examining Casey and turned to look at Chuck. "It's a really long story. I don't have time to go into here. Maybe later. Right now, we need to figure out how to get out of this mess."

Just then an older man stuck his head into the cargo bay of the C-130. "Amanda, could I see you up here for a moment?"

Chuck watched the expression on Amanda's face turn from that of a professional spy to a really frightened woman. "Amanda, are you OK?" he asked.

She looked down at him as she moved past him on still unstable legs. "Honey, I guess you're gonna get a chance to meet my father afterall," she said knowingly.

Chuck looked at the back of the retreating figure just in front of Amanda. He wished now that he had paid closer attention when he had the chance. He knew that was one of the things a real CIA Agent would have been taught to do. Oh well, nothing to do but wait, he thought.

X-X

Amanda Irving was a real CIA Agent. She had already thought of how it looked finding the CIA in the house with her and her fiancé. She knew that if she didn't have a logical story, Rich Trask would throw her out of the plane. It would not matter that the former CIA operative had a deep seated regret of abandoning a mother and her daughter when he was a young man. The CIA Psychologists had uncovered this psychological idiosyncrasy and developed a plan to capture him years after he left the CIA and became Fulcrum's top strategist.

The middle section of the plane had been converted into a plush area by which to fly. The seats were all first class in size and the galley was accessible and fully stocked. Rich smiled warmly at Amanda and asked her to have a seat.

"How did you know Daddy?"

"Know what?" he said still smiling.

"How did you know that we had been kidnapped?"

His smile faded and he looked confused for the first time. Amanda felt hope that her ruse might actually work. The only problem was that Chuck would have to have the same story or they were dead. She knew she would not get a chance to warn him. She could only hope that he continued to be as fast on his feet as she had been led to believe.

"What do you mean kidnapped?" he said.

"The two men in the house had kidnapped us at gunpoint. They were talking to other people on the radios. They said they had the target. They hadn't been there very long when your guy's showed up and saved us."

The smile returned to the old man's face. "So that guy back there was one of the guy's who kidnapped you?'

"No, at least not one of the men I saw. I've never seen him before."

The old man shook his head as he thought. When he came to a decision, it was clear from observing him that he was a man of decisive action. "I want you to sit in that chair over there. I don't want you to say one word. If you do, your fiancé is likely to get hurt. Do you understand?"

"Yes," she said meekly.

"Go ahead now. Sit over there in that chair while I go and get your fiancé…what's his name?"

"Charles Bartowski."

The old man went to retrieve Chuck and in a moment they both were sitting down across from each other. Chuck looked somewhat nervous and tried to catch Amanda's eye but failed.

"So Charles, Amanda here tells me what has happened. It's not that I don't believe her but if you don't tell me the same story…well lets just say you're going to have a bad day."

Chuck's mind raced. What story could Amanda come up with that would explain the CIA Agents in the same house with them. He thought and thought but nothing came to mind.

"Tell me what happened to you today?"

Chuck's mind fought for more time. He didn't have a clue. But then a flash of insight came and he knew what it had to have been. The only thing that made sense.

"Uh, we were captured at gunpoint sir. I don't why. I didn't have a chance to find out because your men came in and took them out. I don't know much more than that."

Amanda allowed herself to look at Chuck for the first time and gave him a huge smile. This guy is pretty good. No wonder he and Walker have been good together, she thought.

Chuck returned the smile and let out a huge sigh of relief.

"All right then. You both are coming to my villa. I want to get to know my daughter and her fiancé."

Chuck gave Amanda that wide eye stare of his that said 'now what."

X-X

"Greg, I asked you to coordinate this mission because you're the best project manager the CIA has… not because I want to rekindle an old flame. Is that understood?"

"Yeah, I didn't mean anything by it. I guess I remember how we use to work and I just fell back into that mode."

"I need you at your best. If you can't give it to me let me know now and I will get Jeff Harvey in here. This is too important to me to have you screw it up."

"Got it. I'm good. We're history. No doubt about that. Uh, if you don't mind me asking. What's so important about this project?"

"I do mind. But remember…we are not going to fail on this one. I will expect nothing less than every ounce of effort you've got to give. Others have given their all already." Sarah still felt a tinge of guilt when she thought of Bryce.

Greg in a flash of insight realized that Sarah was speaking of Bryce Larkin when she said 'others had given their all'. Greg had never liked Bryce. Actually that was putting it mildly. Sarah and Greg had gone out a few times when Sarah finally accepted a date with Bryce. The rest was history for the two spies which left Greg out in the cold. He had never really gotten over that.

Or Sarah.

"OK, assemble the team in thirty minutes. I want to talk to everyone as a group. We'll all hear the same story once." Sarah said as she looked at her vibrating phone. "I've got to speak with Mella. I'll see you in thirty."

Greg watched Sarah leave to meet with her boss. What the Hell, Bryce is dead and Sarah seems unconcerned. I guess the rumor is true. She's hooked up with some super secret undercover goon and he's in trouble that's what this is about. Greg watched her until she was out of sight. I wonder who else she'll throw under the bus to get this stud back, he thought.

X-X

"You wanted to see me sir?"

"Walker come in. I've got some additional Intel. It's precious little but it might get the train rolling."

"Thank you sir. I take anything I can get at this point."

"First off, the hit was flawless. We have no evidence whatsoever to lead us even in a general direction."

Walker waited for something she could actually use.

"This is what we know. Rich Trask was the target of this operation. He is always guarded by the best agents Fulcrum has. He rarely leaves his compound in the Caribbean and because it is a small private island, we cannot arrest him there.

"That's what this mission was all about. Lure him to Cedar Rapids to visit his daughter and her fiancé and nab him there. We're not sure what went wrong. Maybe he's just more cautious than we thought or maybe one of our guy's let down there guard and it cost us."

"You said you had Intel sir," Sarah said slightly irritated at the babbling without purpose.

"Well it's not much, but he spends almost all of his time in his villa in the Caribbean. That's probably were we can reacquire Bartowski and Irving."

Sarah stood. "Is that all sir?"

"I have one other question to ask you. This Yuri Karlanov…did you kill him or was it Larkin?"

"I did sir. Larkin was already decommissioned by then."

Director Mella regarded Agent Walker appraisingly. "Was it luck?"

"Excuse me," she said not understanding his meaning.

"Killing Karlanov…was it luck. If you had it to do over what would be your odds?"

Sarah looked at him and realized what an odd question he asked of her. "I'd give it sixty – forty sir."

Mella smiled at that. "Then you're saying you got lucky?"

"Sixty – forty I'd do it again," she said and turned to leave. She didn't see the expression on her bosses face.

"Walker," he said and waited for her to stop. When she did he continued. "I tried to suppress it…but word has leaked out. The whole community knows you killed Yuri Karlanov. That kind of notoriety is not helpful in your line of work."

Walker had not turned around. But Mella knew she had heard what he had to say by the way she stood in his doorway without moving.

When he saw that she was not going to respond, he continued. "I'm just saying, be careful out there."

Walker left closing the door behind her. She did not hear her boss on the phone to an unknown colleague. "Yeah, I told her. Not that it did any good. I can tell you one thing. If she's good enough to kill Yuri Karlanov, she's getting ready to drop holy hell on someone. My guess is that someone is Rich Trask."