A/N: Thank you guys for still reading this story and leaving reviews! Um…there's not much to say about this chapter…I did have fun writing it though. There's some angst, some humor (hopefully), some romance, and a little bit of action thrown in this chapter. I hope you guys like it!
Disclaimer: Don't own Chuck…if only I did, though…
Casey nodded pointedly toward the small girl, huddled in her own corner. "You want to talk to her?"
"Yeah," she replied. To be honest, she didn't want to leave her husband's side, but she gave her husband's shoulder a squeeze, and made her way over to Alex. The girl didn't look up. Instead, she just gazed straight ahead, tears still streaming down her face. Clearing her throat, Sarah asked, "Do you mind if I sit?"
The girl didn't respond. Feeling uneasy, Sarah glanced back over at Chuck and Casey. Already, they were in a deep conversation…at least Casey was, anyway. Letting out a breath, Sarah sat down next to Alex. Minutes went by, and neither woman said a word. Sarah watched as Casey spoke to Chuck. She couldn't hear what he was saying, and as hard as she tried, she couldn't read Casey's lips as he barely moved them when he spoke.
"We were going to have a Star Wars marathon." Sarah turned away from Casey, and turned to Alex who was still staring straight ahead. "Morgan and me. It wasn't supposed to be until this Saturday, but…I went out yesterday, and bought a six-pack of grape soda for him." Alex chuckled to herself, and shook her head. "I've never been that kind of girl, you know? The ones that actually look forward to dates or just hanging out with some guy, or whatever, but with Morgan, well…"
"I know what you mean," said Sarah, smiling slightly. "I was the same way…"
"I just can't believe something like this would happen…" Alex murmured. "I knew this business was dangerous, but I didn't know it was this dangerous."
"I've been with the CIA since I was seventeen," said Sarah. "God, has it been thirteen years already?" Time sure did fly. "Anyway, something I learned in those thirteen years is that once you think you understand how things work, something always comes up to surprise you."
Alex just nodded, and looked over at Sarah. "Can I tell you something?"
"Sure, shoot."
"I think it's my fault that Morgan died…"
Sarah raised her eyebrows, and scowled. "Hey!" she said sternly. "Why would you even think that? It's not your fault that he died…"
Alex shook her head, as more tears formed in her eyes. "It is…he would have made it out of there in time if I had just listened to him. I was downstairs with him, and we were arguing. He wanted me to get up to the roof, but I didn't want to leave him. If I just went when he told me, there would have been enough liquid nitrogen to buy him some time to get up to the roof. Casey was already up there, and Carina was on her way... If I listened to him, and left, then he would have made it up to the roof on time…"
"You can't blame yourself," Sarah sighed. "I know how you're feeling, but I swear, Alex, it's not your fault that Morgan died. You wanted to make sure that someone you cared deeply about was going to be okay. You're not the one who put those bombs in the basement. So quit blaming yourself, Alex. That's an order." Sarah smiled encouragingly at the girl. "Seriously, it's not your fault. Morgan…he's always tried to help people. That's just how he was made. And he wouldn't want you to think that it's your fault that he died when it clearly wasn't."
Alex wiped her eyes with her hands, but she didn't say anything.
"Listen," Sarah sighed. "Shaw's to blame…and I promise you, we're going to get him no matter what." She placed a hand on Alex's shoulder. "In the morning, one of us will take you back to your home. You don't need to be here. But I promise you, we're going to get Shaw."
"I'm not going home," Alex protested, shaking her head stubbornly. "I'm going to stay and fight." Sarah opened her mouth to argue, but Alex continued, "You said so yourself. I'm ready to be a spy."
"That may be so, Alex," said Sarah. "But you're going to make this personal—"
"Oh, and you, Chuck, and Casey aren't?" the girl scoffed. "This whole thing with Shaw and the Ring is personal, Sarah. And if you think I'm going to leave quietly, well…that's not going to happen."
"Okay, this is personal," Sarah said, resting her hand on the bridge of her nose. "But Chuck, Casey, Carina, Forrest, and I have been agents for a long time. We all know when to shove our personal matters aside." Sure, it took Chuck quite awhile to shove his feelings aside, but nonetheless, he still learned. She looked directly into Alex's eyes. "Besides, this is too dangerous for you. You're not ready for something like this."
"I'm not leaving." Alex glared at Sarah, crossing her arms. "You guys need all the help you can get. Do you really think you can take Shaw and the Ring, who are most likely in control of the CIA and NSA, with only five agents? I'm staying."
Sarah, feeling exhausted, stared at Alex pitifully. Alex didn't back down. She continued to glare at Sarah.
"Fine," Sarah sighed.
"The second choice is…that I download the 3.0…" said Chuck. As soon as the words came out of his mouth, he felt a hard, stinging smack on the back of his head.
"Are you an idiot, Bartowski?" Casey demanded, his face turning beet red. "If you do that, you're a dead man. The 2.0 nearly killed you, or did you forget that?"
Chuck rubbed the back of his head to try to ease the stinging. It didn't help. "I can handle it, Casey."
"Nope," said Casey, shaking his head. "I'll kill you myself before you can."
"I have to, Casey," said Chuck. "It's the only way we can actually stand a chance against Shaw."
"You are an idiot," muttered Casey. "There are other ways we can stop him. We just have to be smart. You can outsmart him, Bartowski…without the Intersect."
"Well, what do you suggest, then?" asked Chuck, sounding irritated, seeing as his head was still stinging. "Because whether I download the 3.0 or not, we're going to have to break into the Intersect compound to destroy the Intersect."
"I thought you were the only one with access to it…"
"I am for now," said Chuck. "But assuming the Ring has taken over the CIA and NSA, I wouldn't be surprised if they've got scientists and engineers who are trying to get past the codes to get into the vault right now. It's only a matter of time before they do, and when they get that vault opened, then we're going to be in trouble."
"But not everyone can download it," Casey reminded.
"Casey, I'm fairly positive that they've been planning this for awhile," said Chuck, as Casey nodded. "They probably have lined up a bunch of candidates for the download."
"Right…" Casey muttered, flicking away his cigar. "Looks like we're going to have to come up with a plan. Actually, you think your old man can still control that predator? We might as well just bomb the crap out of the building…"
Chuck shook his head. There were so many things wrong with that statement; the first of which was the fact that the Intersect compound was located in a highly populated area which meant that there was a high possibility that many innocent civilians would be injured.
"We're going to have to break in the old fashioned way," said Chuck. "But before we destroy it, we need to make a copy."
"Why?"
"We could use the intel," Chuck replied. "I mean, think about it, the 3.0 most likely has a bunch of stuff we could use against the Ring."
"Could we do that without someone downloading the Intersect into their head?" Casey asked skeptically.
"I'm pretty sure we could," Chuck replied. "I mean, what were they using the Intersect for before Bryce sent it to me?"
"Good point," said Casey. "So after that, we use the intel to take out the Ring higher ups…"
"Right. Then the proper people can take over the CIA and NSA again," Chuck finished.
"And Shaw?"
Chuck felt a surge of anger rush through his veins. "If we see him," he said darkly, "We kill him."
For the last three hours, everyone sat around the dining room table, planning out their mission. There had been a few arguments, mainly between Forrest and Carina; both agents unhappy with the fact that they'd be teamed up. Sarah found it odd that Casey would want to partner up with a rookie, Alex, but she didn't think that now was the time to let something trivial bother her. As usual, Sarah and Chuck were teaming up, and they would be the ones to break into the vault when the time came.
Chuck had remained silent for most of the planning. He sat still, his hands folded on top of the table, and his eyes glaring down at them. Sarah wanted nothing more than to comfort him, but in all honesty, she didn't know where she would even begin. She had never seen Chuck looking so…hopeless.
"So after the two of you break into the vault," said Stephen to Sarah and Chuck, handing her something that looked like a flash drive, "Just link that up to the Intersect, and it'll send all the data to my laptop."
"How long is that going to take?" asked Sarah.
"Three to five minutes," he replied, turning to Casey. "You think you can hold the guards off for that long?"
Casey snorted. "Piece of cake."
"Right, well," began Stephen, getting up out of his chair, "I'm going to go back to my cabin. Ellie and Devon are probably waiting for me."
At that statement, Chuck finally looked up in surprise, and smacked his palm to his forehead. "Ellie and Devon…" he murmured. "God, I can't believe I forgot about them…"
"It's all right, son, they're both safe at the cabin," said Stephen, placing a hand on Chuck's shoulder. "I made them go straight to my cabin as soon as Sarah contacted me. They'll be fine. Get some rest, Charles. You've had a hard day…" As Chuck nodded to his father, Stephen turned to the table. "Well, I have room for two more at my cabin. I don't think there's enough room here for everyone to sleep…"
"Alex and Carina can go," said Forrest.
"Actually," Casey interjected. "How about you and Carina go? The two of you have to get some supplies in the morning anyway, and the Bartowski's and I have some other stuff to do before the mission. It's more efficient that way, don't you think?"
Forrest glared up at Casey, causing his face to burn red.
"It's okay, Grumpy," Carina piped up, putting an arm around Forrest's shoulder, "I don't bite."
"Let go of me," Forrest snapped, shaking Carina away. She glared back at Casey. "See you tomorrow, then, Colonel," she said coldly, turning away to walk out of the door. Carina gave Sarah a sly smile, and followed.
"Well, guys," said Stephen, pulling on his jacket. "I'll see you all tomorrow. Good night, Charles."
"Night, dad…" Chuck mumbled. Sarah stood up off her chair to bid Stephen farewell. The man stepped forward, and gave her a hug.
"Take care of him for me," Stephen mumbled into her ear.
"I'll do my best," she replied, releasing the hug. With another wave, Sarah watched as Stephen left the cottage. She turned to Chuck, and gently took his hand, avoiding the scrapes from earlier. "C'mon, sweetie," she said softly. "Let's get some sleep." As Chuck slowly lifted himself up from his chair, Sarah turned to Casey and Alex. "See you two in the morning."
"Yeah," said Casey.
"Good night, Sarah…" said Alex. "Night, Chuck…"
"Night, guys," Chuck mumbled, letting Sarah lead the way to their room. Suddenly, while Casey was trying to persuade Alex to take the bed and he'd take the couch for the night, she felt a pull on her hand. Chuck stopped, and turned to face Casey. "Hey, Casey?"
The colonel stopped mid-sentence, and turned to Chuck; a questionable look on his face.
"Thanks," said Chuck. "For earlier…"
"No problem, Chuck," Casey smiled, "Get some shut-eye, kid. Big day tomorrow…"
"Yeah…"
He turned back, and made his way toward the bedroom, leaving Sarah curious as to what Chuck and Casey had talked about earlier. But she wouldn't pry.
"Chuck?" Sarah called out in the darkness after they had gotten ready for bed. She felt around the bed for Chuck's arm, and pulled it over her, so that Chuck would face her.
"Yeah?"
"Do you remember the night before you met Carina for the first time?" she asked, "You know…when we played that silly Newly Wed game with Ellie and Devon?"
"Yeah…what about it?"
Hesitating, Sarah let out a breath. "Morgan totally kicked my ass that night…" she said, hoping with all her might that it was the right thing to say. Seconds passed, and just as she was getting ready to apologize for bringing Morgan up, Chuck began to laugh.
"Remember how he listed my favorite ice cream flavors in descending order?" he asked, gasping for air from laughing. Sarah began to laugh as well.
"He actually made me memorize them…" she admitted. "A couple of days later. He told me, 'I refuse to let Chuck date someone who doesn't even know what his favorite ice cream flavors are!' And he even wrote up an exam and everything…"
Chuck let out another laugh.
"Yeah," she continued. "You should have seen the questions! There were questions like, 'When playing Super Metroid does Charles Irving Bartowski prefer butter toffee or chocolate chip cookie dough?'"
"And what did you say?"
"Butter toffee…that was a given," Sarah smiled. She wrapped her arms tighter around her husband, pulling him closer to her. "He was a good guy…" she whispered into his ear.
"I miss him, Sarah…" said Chuck, his voice cracking.
"I know, baby…" Sarah cooed, clutching onto Chuck tightly as he began to shudder. "I miss him too."
A sob escaped her husband's throat as his body began to shudder uncontrollably. As Sarah rubbed circles across Chuck's back, she began to feel her eyes brimming with tears…
Echo Park Apartment Complex
"Seems secure," said Casey, parking the Vic by the curb.
"Yep," said Chuck, gazing out the window. "It sure does…"
"You guys go first, Alex and I will keep watch."
Chuck and Sarah nodded, and quickly stepped out of the vehicle. They both looked around, checking for any sign of enemy operatives as they quickly walked across the courtyard. Sarah quickly pulled out her keys, and opened the door to their apartment. She was greeted with the sight of upturned chairs and couches. Their dishes were strewn across the kitchen floor. Sarah pulled her gun out from her waistband, Chuck imitated her movements as they quietly skimmed around the apartment looking for any possible threats.
"Clear," said Chuck as he checked the spare bedroom.
"Your computer's missing," said Sarah, poking her head out from their old bedroom. Chuck shrugged.
"There wasn't anything important in there aside from games and music," he said. "And even if there was something important, no one could get past my security."
She gave him a grin as he walked into the bedroom.
"The Ring might have put tracking devices on our things," said Sarah, as she and Chuck pulled their bed off the frame.
"I'll be sure to double check everything." Chuck let out a groan as he propped the mattress against the wall. Sarah nodded as she stepped inside the frame, and pulled a pocket knife from her pocket. Carefully, she tore around the carpet with her knife and gave it a hard tug, revealing a safe.
"And you told me this was a stupid idea," she teased, nudging at the safe.
"Well, it seems I owe you an apology," Chuck smiled crookedly, watching Sarah flip the combination dial. A few seconds later, she pulled open the safe, revealing a large case of her knives, some extra ammunition, and about 150,000 dollars. Sarah pulled out her case of knives and opened it, revealing two dozen of her throwing knives. Chuck watched as Sarah smiled, and pulled a knife out of the case, giving it a fancy twirl around her fingers.
"Hey, babies…I'm sorry I kept you guys cooped up in there for so long…" she lovingly mumbled. She felt Chuck's smile radiating from behind her. "Shut up!"
"I didn't say anything!" Chuck cried, holding his hands out in an innocent gesture as he knelt down beside her. He grunted as he pulled the bag of money from the safe. Tearing the plastic wrapping around the large block of money, he began to shuffle through the stacks.
"What are you doing?" asked Sarah.
"Making sure they didn't put a tracking device in the money," he replied, shuffling through more stacks.
"Do you really think they would take the time to reupholster the carpet?" Sarah scoffed.
"You never know," said Chuck, shrugging. "They could have deliberately made a mess in here to make it look like it was a quick in and out. You know…give us a sense of security or whatever…aha!" He pulled a wad of money out from the stack, and held it out to Sarah. She took it, and saw that underneath a few hundred dollar bills, there was a green box containing a GPS device.
"Touché," she smiled, as she placed the device back in the safe. She began to help Chuck shuffle through the money, but they didn't find any more tracking devices.
"We should leave the ammo here," said Chuck. "We don't have time to—"
Sarah held up a hand, and got back up to her feet. She walked across the room to the radio, and turned it on, filling the room with an old Depeche Mode song. She held up the speaker. "Bring my knives and the ammo over here."
Chuck gave her a confused look, and before she could say anything, he smiled knowingly. "Oh, the old static trick…if there was a tracker, then the speaker would emit static…" he chuckled. "You out-nerded me!"
"I knew I could do it sooner or later," Sarah smiled, holding the speaker at an angle as Chuck scanned the ammunition and her case of knives.
"You know," said Chuck, making his way back over to the stack of money so they could double check for a tracking device. "We could have saved a lot of time if you remembered this earlier…"
"Hey," Sarah scowled playfully at Chuck, "You're supposed to be the nerdy one, remember?"
"Yeah, well…" Chuck began to pack the money and the ammunition into a large duffel bag. He straightened up with a defeated look on his face, causing Sarah to grin widely. "You win this round, Blondie…"
"That's right," Sarah huffed, picking her case up off the ground. "We should go to a chop shop, and get some new cars…" she said as they walked back toward Casey's Vic.
"Do you know any chop shops around here?"
"Of course I do," she smiled. "Back in the day, I had an escape route planned out for us in case they wanted to throw you into a bunker. I found a chop shop about forty minutes away from here…"
Chuck raised an eyebrow at Sarah, looking impressed. "My, my, Sarah…you sure know how to make a boy blush." His smile faded. "Wait, how come you forgot about that when we ran away to Barstow?"
"I was in a rush," she said lamely, nodding to Casey as he popped open the trunk. She placed the case of knives down, and helped Chuck straighten out the duffel bag into the trunk. "Didn't have time to think," she finished.
"Think about what?" asked Casey. Sarah shook her head.
"Nothing," replied Sarah. Casey rolled his eyes.
"C'mon, Alex," he said, making his way to his apartment.
"Casey!" Chuck called. "The Ring might have put tracking devices on your things. Turn on the radio, and hold up everything to the speakers. If there's static, then it's bugged."
"Got it," Casey called, disappearing into the courtyard.
Sarah closed the trunk of the car, and leaned against it. She smiled as she held out her arms to Chuck. He gave a smile in return, and stepped toward her, feeling her arms wrapping around him. She gave him a kiss on his cheek.
"So…about tonight," said Chuck, looking into her blue eyes. "Should I take a gun, gun with me, or…should I just stick to my tranque pistols?"
Sarah bit down on her lower lip, before she replied, "It's up to you, Chuck…"
Chuck studied her expression. While she tried to look nonchalant, he could tell that just the idea of him shooting people dead scared her. So he let his lips curve into a smile as he said, "Actually, I think I'll just bring the tranque guns. I mean, I'm more used to them, you know? I mean, most of the stuff I do is based off muscle memory anyway…"
He saw Sarah give a slight look of relief as she smiled up at him. "Yeah…less kick…lighter…"
"Yep," he agreed. "Actually, I think Alex should take some tranque guns as well. We don't want her freezing up on us tonight if she kills someone…"
Sarah nodded. "Good point."
For the next couple of minutes, they stood wrapped up into each other in silence. Chuck breathed in the sweet smell of Sarah's hair as she rested her head against his shoulder. He felt her breath tickling his neck. It was almost perfect. Sarah was perfect…he wasn't going to let anyone take her away. He was going to do everything in his power to keep her alive.
Chuck leaned back a bit, causing Sarah to look up at him.
"I love you," he smiled, brushing back a stray hair behind her ear, and placing his hand just below it.
"I love you too," Sarah said softly, looking into his eyes, and letting them close slowly as he pulled her into a kiss.
Casey parked the van that Sarah and Chuck had purchased from the chop shop two blocks away from the Intersect compound, and made his way to the backseats. Sarah and all of the other agents were dressed in black tactical suits, each equipped with Kevlar lining. Carina had somehow gotten a hold of these suits…exactly how she did it, Sarah didn't want to know. Although the suits wouldn't be able to stop a straight shot bullet, at the very least, they'd be protected from fatal injuries…
"Okay," Sarah said, once Casey had settled in. She handed him and Alex two night vision goggles. "Let's run through the plan again."
Carina rolled her eyes, and said, "Forrest and I go first. I go in through the front—"
"And I enter in the back," Forrest finished.
"That's what she said," Alex said, causing Forrest to shoot her a death glare. The girl raised her eyebrows. "Actually, that's what he said. Okay, I'm sorry. I make inappropriate jokes when I'm nervous…"
Casey, to everyone's surprise, began to laugh.
"Oh, I like her," Carina giggled.
Casey took a deep breath to stop his laughter, and patted Alex on the back. "You have nothing to be nervous about, I've got your back."
"Anyway…" said Sarah, snapping everyone back to the moment.
"We open fire so the guards can hear us," said Forrest, "Then we high tail it out of there."
"Hopefully, most of those bastards in there will follow us," Carina added.
"Then we rendezvous in the alley three blocks away," said Forrest. Sarah nodded.
"Before that, Chuck and I will set up some mines in the alleyway, and leave the manhole cover opened," said Sarah. "When you two get into the sewer, you detonate the mines."
"Then Sarah and I will climb up to the roof of the building across from the facility," said Chuck. "And we wait for the mines to go off…"
"That's when Casey and I go in," said Alex. "And distract the rest of the guards."
"When Charles and Sarah zip line across to the facility, I shut off the power," said Stephen. "I'll give you and Casey a thirty second warning. Be sure you both have your goggles on. It's going to be pitch-black in there."
"Right, right," Casey groaned. Sarah didn't blame them. This must have been the hundredth time they had run through the plan, but everything had to go down perfectly.
"When Sarah and I get to the vault, Dad will turn the power back on," said Chuck. "If I'm right, then the Intersect will have its own generator, and we'll establish a link from the Intersect to Dad's laptop. The upload should take about three minutes. If Alex and Casey need more time to escape, Dad will shut the power off again."
"That is if we haven't already obliterated everyone," said Alex, smiling up Casey.
"Right," said Sarah, rolling her eyes. "After the upload, we'll plant a block of C4 on the CPU, and escape out the front. By then, everyone should already be back at the van. Understood?"
"Understood," everyone mumbled.
"Alex, you're cool with the tranque guns?" asked Chuck. Alex nodded, which caused Chuck to grin. "Team Tranque Guns!" he laughed, giving the girl a high-five.
"Okay!" Carina cried, clapping her hands together. "Let's do this bitch!"
Sarah pushed open the side door, letting Carina and Forrest out of the van first, before she and Chuck followed. Casey handed her and Chuck two duffel bags filled with landmines, and gave them both a nod.
"Alexandra!" Casey called to Forrest, as he jumped out of the van. The woman turned as Casey jogged over to her, and looked startled as he pulled her into a hug. "Be careful, okay?"
Even in the dark of the night, Sarah could see Forrest's cheeks burning red as she mumbled something to Casey, and gave him a quick kiss on the lips. As Carina and Forrest ran down the block, Casey walked back toward the van where she, Chuck, and Alex were standing, wearing a rare smirk.
"Check, check… Sarah, can you hear me?" Carina's voice rang from her earpiece.
"Loud and clear." Sarah tapped Chuck's arm. "Let's go."
Chuck picked the duffel bags off the ground, and turned to Casey and Alex. "Good luck, you two. Good luck, Dad."
"You too, son," said Stephen, waving Chuck away. "Go! You have to hurry."
With a quick nod, Chuck handed Sarah the lighter duffel bag containing the zip lining equipment, and they sprinted down to the alleyway where Carina and Forrest were going to meet. Chuck stopped and planted to mines between the building.
"I'll plant the mines," said Sarah, taking Chuck's duffel bag from him. "You open up the manhole." Chuck nodded, and sprinted toward the middle of the alleyway where he began to pull the manhole cover up. Meanwhile, Sarah planted two more mines halfway from the alleyway entrance and the manhole, and sprinted down to do the same to the other end.
"You good?" Chuck asked as Sarah ran back to him.
"Yeah," Sarah breathed. "I'm good. C'mon, we gotta get to the building."
The two of them began to sprint toward the tall building across the street from the Intersect facility. When they reached the back entrance, Sarah pulled out her pick keys, and immediately began unlocking the door.
"Dad," Chuck said into his watch. "The security system is off in the building, right?"
"Right," Stephen replied.
"Got it!" Sarah smiled, kicking open the door. Chuck took the duffel bag, and pulled out two night vision goggles, handing one to Sarah. After they pulled the goggles on, everything in Sarah's vision turned green. It took a few seconds for her to adjust from the harsh green light. When her eyes adjusted, she and Chuck made their way to the staircase, and began climbing up the stairs to the roof entrance.
"Okay, team," Forrest's came from the earpiece, causing both Sarah and Chuck to freeze mid step. "Carina and I are going in, in three…two…one!"
"Let's go," Sarah said, "They'll be okay."
"Yeah…" Chuck mumbled, shaking his head as he ran up the stairs.
About two minutes later, she and Chuck knelt down on top of the roof, gazing over at the Intersect facility. Sarah saw Carina sprinting out of the building, a trail of operatives pursuing her. She counted about twenty men chasing after the redhead. Carina was well ahead of them. Sarah had to admit, she was quite impressed at how fast and how well Carina dodged bullets. She watched in amazement as the redheaded agent sprinted down the street, slid over parked cars, and kicked off the sides of buildings to dodge the bullets. She hoped that Forrest was doing just as well…
"Wow," said Chuck, as Carina disappeared from view. "She's good…"
"Meh…" Sarah shrugged, jokingly. "I could do better."
"I never said you couldn't," Chuck smiled, straightening up to turn toward the alleyway rendezvous. Sarah did the same, waiting for the explosion, but just then, the ground beneath her began to shake as she saw a cloud of black smoke rising from the alleyway.
"Alex, Casey, you two are up," Chuck said into his watch.
"Ooh-rah!" Casey replied.
Sarah brought her watch up to her mouth. "Carina, Forrest, you guys all right?"
"Yeah," said Carina.
"We're good," came Forrest's voice. "I got grazed though. The fuckers got in a lucky shot…"
"We'll get that patched up for you in a bit," Chuck said. "Is it bad?"
"No," replied Forrest. "Just grazed my arm…I'm fine."
"That's good," said Sarah. "Okay, get back to the van."
"Yes, ma'am," came Carina's voice.
"Chuck, Sarah," Casey's voice called. "We count about thirty men down here…"
"Can you proceed?" asked Sarah.
"Hell yeah, we can," replied Casey. "Just letting you know, you and Bartowski are probably going to run into some more operatives…"
"We can handle it," said Sarah.
"Well, we're going in."
With that, Sarah heard more gunshots ringing in her ears. Chuck ran over to the duffel bag, and tossed a grenade launcher with a loaded grappling hook over to Sarah. They took aim, and fired their hooks across to the other building.
"Okay, Dad," said Chuck, tying the end of the line to a pole. "Get ready to kill the power."
Sarah finished tying her line to a pole next to Chuck's, and stared over at the building across from her, waiting for the lights to turn off.
"Okay," said Stephen. "The lights are going off in three…two…one…"
At that, the building turned black, and Sarah and Chuck zip lined across. They landed in a roll, and he was the first to recover. She saw him flip on his goggles, and she did the same as he opened the door. From here on out, they were going to have to remain silent.
As quietly as they could, they ran down the spiraling staircase all the way down to the basement. Luckily, they did not run into any guards. If the guards were smart, they'd probably remain still if they didn't want to kill each other…
Minutes passed, and both Sarah and Chuck began to pant when they finally reached the basement. Chuck held up a fist, to tell Sarah to stay still, as he slowly, and quietly, opened to door. Sarah heard confused voices ringing through the door, as Chuck turned back to her.
"There's about thirty guys, all lined up against the walls," he whispered so quietly that Sarah could barely hear him. He pulled out two tranque guns from his holster. "I'll take the ones on the left, you take the ones on right."
Sarah nodded, as she pulled out four knives from her ankle holster. He held up three fingers, and nodded as he put down each one individually. When the last finger fell, he slowly opened the door. Sarah watched as he took out his first victim by shooting a dart into his neck in point blank range. Before the guard crumpled to the ground, Chuck caught him, and gently laid him down.
She turned to the right side of the wall, and quietly shut the door. She stepped lightly over to the closest guard, and covered his mouth as she slit his throat. Thankfully, with the chattering of the other guards, no one was able to hear the poor guy gagging in pain, desperately trying to suck in oxygen. Sarah looked down the hall way, and counted fourteen more guards on her side. She saw Chuck staring at her, and she gave him a nod.
At that, the two of them moved quickly. Sarah flicked her wrists, and four of her knives landed in the chests of four guards. She quickly pulled out two of her guns, and began to run down the hallway, firing rounds into the rest of the guards. One of her Smith & Wesson's went dry, so she dropped it. She guessed that she only had about three bullets left in her other gun, so she tucked it back into her waistband.
Seeing that she still had two guards left, Sarah quickly grabbed two more of her knives, and threw them at the guards. She watched as they fell to the ground. When she turned around, she saw Chuck grinning at her.
"Good job," he said, bringing his watch to his mouth. "Casey, Alex? You guys good?"
"Yeah…" Alex mumbled. "We took out all the guards…"
"Good job," said Chuck, pulling off his goggles. "Okay, Dad, turn the power back on. Alex and Casey, you guys can head back to the van. Sarah and I will take it from here."
"Roger that," Casey grunted.
Sarah pulled her goggles off as well, and in two seconds, the lights flashed back on. She looked down at the fallen guards.
"That's odd," she said, as Chuck was fumbling with his phone.
"What is?" he asked, plugging in a USB extension into the iPhone.
"They're carrying tranque guns," said Sarah, holding up a pistol from one of the fallen guards.
"Beckman wanted the person who tried to steal the Intersect alive," he said, bringing his phone up to his eye for the scan. "So that she can question them, and see who they work for…then kill them after she hears everything she needs to know."
"Hm…smart," said Sarah, stepping beside Chuck as he punched in the code to open the door.
"Open sesame," he smiled, pulling the door open. Before Sarah was able to smile back, she saw his smile begin to fade. He quickly pulled Sarah to his side, and they hid behind the solid steel door as gunshots rang down the hallway.
"More guards?" Sarah asked.
"It's Shaw," Chuck said. Without warning, she felt his fingers wrapping around her arm as he shoved her into the vault. He pulled her gun from the holster, and before she could say or do anything, he slammed the door. All she saw was white…
"CHUCK!" Her scream echoed around the large room. She felt her heart racing in fear. He was all alone out there…with Shaw! She need to help him! "Damn it! Chuck, open the door!"
Then her breath caught in her throat as she heard a faint gunshot ringing through the door.
Gosh, another cliffhanger? Hm…well, you know what to do. :-)