A/N: White blood count low so no Hemlock for a bit. Sorry about Nik's rant. She jus wuvs her widdle patient. That's so much for the well wishes. Not hanging the crepe on the door yet. Like Dejah Thoris says 'I still live'. Ah, pearls before swine...lol. seriously, thanks a lot.
APR
A Slip of the Tongue Chapter 12
The S-10 tore out into the driveway and out onto the highway. He pulled on a monocular night vision headband and killed the headlights. Two miles down the road he cringed in the flare of headlights just under the crest of the road ahead and pulled off the road and into the brush and shut everything down. It had taken him almost 20 minutes to make his escape and now he was afraid he'd taken too long.
Within 30 seconds the road was filled with three fast moving SUVs heading down the road to his house. Casey's warning had saved his life or at least given him a head start. He opened the glove box and took out the envelope that had been in there when it was delivered and tore it open.
Mr. Bartowski – if you are reading this letter after receiving a 'bug out' message, follow the instructions exactly as written and you will find a safe haven at the end of your journey.
Good luck.
D. Beckman
Chuck opened up the tailgate of the fiberglass camper shell and pulled out a crate and opened it. He ran out into the road and threw several objects down onto the road surface and then closed the tailgate and drove toward the interstate exit a few miles west of Eden.
Carmichael residence
Carmichael's car was parked in the driveway. He was still here.
None of the protective detail knew about Chuck's anti-boredom project and never checked the shed earlier. It was a bad move on their part.
The first squad of Fulcrum agents clustered quietly on the porch. They could hear the TV blaring and the leader slowly tried to open the door but it was locked. He signaled two of his men to break down the door. He grinned when the door flew into the house and then he and his squad collectively had a really bad day.
The house was partly filled with natural gas and the explosion ignited the gas and the house was instantly engulfed in flames.
Flynn picked himself off the driveway and swore. Half his team was dead and nothing was going right.
They'd waited for Carmichael to come roaring up the road but minutes passed without him responding to O'Hara's call so he decided to take the bastard in his home. The Eden city council would have to advertise for a new police chief. The last one had apparently shot himself while cleaning his weapon.
Flynn had eliminated the protective detail a few hours earlier. Fulcrum agents had the house and Bartowski under observation for the past week. When his CIA handler had been reassigned the plan to extract the intersect was moved forward and executed.
Flynn ordered the remainder of his team into their vehicles and they drove up the road figuring Carmichael would be on foot using the road. Another bad idea.
The first SUV hit the small anti-armor mine and exploded. The second one was hit when the remaining mines fratricided. Flynn's vehicle barely escaped with only minor damage but the front tire had been shredded and he lost valuable time mounting the spare.
Looking back at the sky lit red by the flames of Carmichael's house, Flynn knew he'd blown it and would himself be eliminated for his failure. As soon as the tire was mounted he shot the last member of his team and drove to the interstate. He was on the run from Fulcrum and the NSA.
Chuck broke protocol and called Casey's cell but got voicemail. Unsure of the situation, he called the General figuring her response would tell him if he'd just escaped Fulcrum or if Casey's call had been to warn him of an extraction team. He'd called him 'Moron' and Chuck knew it was to remind him of Burbank – but why?
"Mr. Carmichael, it's late. What is it?" She really wished he'd deal with his protective detail instead of jumping to her level in the chain of command.
"I just blew away a bunch of shooters after getting a warning call from O'Hara. The house is toast and I blew up two of the remaining three vehicles that are in pursuit. Casey is probably dead. What is my status, General?"
"Shit! Are you injured? Are you secure in a vehicle? What's your status, Charles?" Her concern bled through her terse words. It had been Fulcrum.
"Moving per instructions. Intact. Estimate 18 hours to reach Safe Haven unless things have changed?"
"Follow procedure from now on. I'll have Agent Walker join you at Safe Haven with a new cover as soon as she's able. Be careful, Charles. Don't take any more foolish risks. Your instructions were to drop everything and run, not ambush the attackers. Safe Haven. Punch in the GPS coordinates and drive safely. Contact me when you arrive or if you encounter any difficulties. I would provide an escort but I'm not sure who has been compromised."
She hung up and began initiating clean up procedures and issuing extraction orders for John Casey if he was still alive. She debated calling Walker but opted to delay until Carmichael was safely within Safe Haven. She was surprised at how calm he'd been on the phone and how effective he was in fluid situations.
If Beckman wasn't sure 'who has been compromised' then the NSA was knee deep in poo. If Beckman could see her asset, she wouldn't be so positive he could make the trip unaided.
The magnitude of what he'd done, the desperate straits he found himself in and the General's uncertainty of the loyalty of her own agents all ended up hitting Chuck within seconds of one another.
He pulled into a rest stop and parked as far away from the interstate as he could manage. He was physically ill. He was trying not to barf up the pizza and beer he'd had right before Casey's call. Eden was supposed to be safe. Eden was where he was supposed to spend the rest of his life. There were definitely serpents in the apple trees of Eden.
He locked the truck doors and slipped back into the 'rear seat', folded himself up and tried to sleep for a few hours.
Chief Casey O'Hara was found by a deputy and rushed to the local hospital. The official report said that the Chief was injured by an accidental firearms discharge but unofficially everyone knew that someone had tried to kill O'Hara. You don't accidentally shoot yourself in the back.
The news about the Chief of Police was forced onto page 7 of the regional newspapers by front page news of the tragic death of a high school physics teacher in a house fire caused by a gas leak.
The initial reports were wrong especially when investigators found the burned bodies of 4 men in the debris, their automatic weapons but no identification. Someone took pictures with their cell phone cameras before police (FBI agents) sent them scurrying.
The two SUVs destroyed by mines were caught on film and by 6pm that evening the story was pieced together and made it to the networks. Before Beckman and her lawyers could intercede, the story made it to prime time network news.
Sarah Carmichael and her therapist and friend, Katherine, were sitting in Sarah's room talking 'off the record' about her future. The TV was on but the sound was turned down and Sarah glanced up and saw less than a second of a photograph of Charles Carmichael standing with several of his students.
"Quiet, Katherine! Turn up the sound!"
"…teacher from Eden, Missouri whose fate is unknown. Original reports were that Carmichael had perished in a fire in his home but that all changed when investigators discovered the bodies of four men armed with automatic weapons in the burned wreckage. To compound the mystery, two large SUVs with men and weapons had been destroyed by roadside bombs similar to those used by insurgents in Afghanistan and Iraq. None of the bodies found carried any identification."
The images of the two burned hulks being loaded onto flatbed trucks were startlingly familiar to those that watched the news from the Middle East.
Katherine glanced at Sarah who was sitting frozen with a look of horror on her face.
"Sarah, we don't know that he's dead. They haven't found his body and you said yourself he was pretty damned tricky. I'm sure the General has the situation under control. Let the doctor give you something to allow you to sleep and I promise I'll come back with as much information as I can."
He woke up cold, stiff and confused. The confusion abated and he crawled up into the driver's seat and started the truck cursing his lack of foresight and not putting blankets in his 'escape pod'. It only took a few minutes for the heater to begin blasting warm air into the cab and he began to feel human again.
He'd just decided that his first order of business was finding a diner and coffee when his cell phone chirped and he saw it was the General.
"Carmichael. Secure but cold and stiff. Good morning."
"Your face is all over the newspapers and the TV. Where are you?"
'So much for coffee and food.'
"About 100 miles east of Eden on the interstate. I pulled off and caught a little sleep and now I'm heading for Safe Haven. What's my status?"
"I'm sorry, Charles, but you're dead again, assuming the evidence we planted is interpreted correctly. You blew up your house?"
"I booby-trapped the front door and slipped out the back turning on the gas as I left. Yeah, I did. Cut down the odds, too."
"Indeed. Your wife is very concerned about you, Charles. I'd like you to call her and reassure her that you're alive and reasonably healthy. We'll have to develop a deeper cover for you and your handler. Major Casey is in the hospital. Apparently Agent Flynn was co-opted by Fulcrum. The entire watch team was murdered and he's unaccounted for. I'll be in touch in 6 hours. Contact your wife as soon as you can and then turn off your cell to conserve battery power."
H didn't miss the phrase 'you and your handler'. So much for change. He called Sarah immediately but got Katherine instead.
"I'd like to speak with Sarah Carmichael, please."
"Who's calling?"
"Who is this? Where is Sarah? What have you done with her?"
"Ah, the elusive Mr. Carmichael. Or should I call you Lazarus? I'm Katherine, her therapist and new best friend. She's asleep, Chuck, and I won't try to wake her. She's been sedated. The news broadcast really shook her up and she needed something to help her sleep."
"How are the operations going? Is she in pain? I asked her to only do the ones that others could see. I don't care about them but she does and it's not vanity. Tell her I'm fine and I'll try and call her once I know where I'm going. Beckman said Sarah would be joining me once she's recovered. She's going to bring a new cover for us."
"So are you OK? She's going to have a hundred questions but mostly she'll need reassured that you're safe and healthy."
"I'm in a lot better shape than those bastards that tried to take me. I'll be a lot better when she's out of there and we can pick up where we left off. Look, I'm losing the battery. I'll call…"
The battery died and he disconnected and swore. He should have put a cell phone charger in the truck. He never stopped to think about it. He should have. He'd have to risk finding a truck stop and buying one and using the cigarette light for power. He also needed gas and food and the men's room.
He pulled out of the rest stop and headed east toward Safe Haven.
When Sarah woke from her drugged sleep she was alone. It was still daylight and one of the things she missed was a plain ordinary clock. Her time sense was horribly skewed by the medications.
Katherine walked in with two cups of coffee and a grin. "Well, sleepy head, you missed the latest episode of Celebrity Caller."
"Huh? Celebrity…Chuck! Chuck called? Is he OK? Was he hurt? Where is he? Is he safe? Why didn't you wake me?"
"He's going to call back when his cell is recharged. He's on the road to a safe house Beckman set up when he first went to Eden. He's fine and uninjured, but I only got a few seconds of his status because the phone died. He did say that Beckman would be sending you to join him with a new cover and that, I paraphrase now, he'll be a lot better when you two can pick up where you left off. Something you want to share with the class, Sarah?"
"Nothing you don't already know or suspect. Any more updates from Eden or have his 15 minutes of fame expired or been pushed off the news with updates on Paris Hilton's sex tape or Britney's latest go-round with her ex?"
"The General has thrown the networks to the lawyers and the story basically has died although the very last update reported that a body had been tentatively identified as Chuck's after fire marshal's debris studies uncovered it. It's been 'sent to the capitol' for forensic examination."
"Good. Fewer people will be on the prowl for us. When did he say he would be calling back?"
"He didn't finish his last sentence. His cell died. He has to recharge it."
80 miles north of Atlanta
Safe Haven? You have got to be shitting me! He stared at the GPS coordinates he'd read in the General's letter and then at his GPS unit. Yep. The numbers were the same. No I/O error. This was Safe Haven?
