AN: Same disclaimers apply as always. Thanks for all your reviews good or bad, they do mean a lot. I have the next few chapters done; well the story is complete actually. I keep adding to it and cleaning it, boring I know. Well enjoy.
Chapter 12
June 2007
ISA
The first week of their time mandatory time off had flown by. Sarah had been asked by Chuck to stop by the War Room and pick up a package he was expecting from Orion. Because it was on her way to Chuck's place she decided to pick it up on the way over to his place. He informed her he would be busy most of the morning talking with Ellie making sure everything was in place for their mother's return. Sarah decided that since she was already in the building she would get her daily workout in. She changed into her workout clothes and went to the room that housed the heavy bag and other practice gear.
When she opened the door loud thumps could be heard coming from the direction of the heavy bag. Sarah saw a shirtless man attacking the bag with a fury she seldom saw take place in a gym. From what she could tell he wanted to knock the bag off its hanger and through the wall behind it. The bandanna on his head was soaked with sweat and he had a MP3 player attached to his shorts. Faint sounds of Guns-N-Roses' 'Welcome to the Jungle' could be heard from his ear buds. His back and arms were well defined and his muscles rippled every time he threw a punch. He wasn't a large man standing only about six feet tall, and not overly muscular. What he was doing on the bag could only be described as a boxing routine. Crisp left jabs were followed by right hooks then a flurry of body shots. Each of the body shots got louder as he increased the force he used as threw them.
Sarah knew one thing for certain; this Agent could pack a punch. While he was throwing punches he was also dancing around the bag with agility and grace. Being one of the major players at ISA Sarah made it a point to get to know each of the agents that worked there. This was a big change from before when she kept herself isolated from almost everyone. Chuck had changed that for her. She made her way over to the man and keeping a safe distance she began calling out to him. One thing she knew for sure was never surprise an agent. The results were generally not good for the home team. Unable to get his attention by calling out to him she tossed her towel at him. The towel hit him in the back. The man stopped hitting the bag and turned to face her. He popped his ear buds out and addressed her.
"Sorry Ma'am, I didn't realize anyone else was here. I didn't mean to hog the bag. It's yours if you want it. I'm Sergeant White, by the way." Sarah was stunned when she heard the name. The old guy was standing right in front of her. Damn she thought, my initial thoughts were way off. This guy's body looked anything but old.
"Sarah Walker, but call me Sarah."
"So your broke foots main squeeze? He is a lucky dude."
"Broke foot? Why do you call him that?" Sarah really wanted to know why he was calling Chuck that.
"It's a private joke between Chuck and me. It goes back to when we first met in Iraq. He had a broken leg at the time. He called me old," White said with a small laugh. "I looked right at him and said yeah I am, but I ain't broke. It got him to laugh. It looked like he could use some cheering up."
"Chuck told me the story about how you two met for the first time. I'd like to thank you as well for helping him out back then."
"Just doing my job," answered White. "It's a joke I use. At my age in the Army the young bucks see me as old. But as you can see I am. The thing about that is many of them have some kind of profile, job related injuries and such. So when they call me old, I say to them, yeah but I ain't broke. I'm just lucky I guess." He added a shrug for emphasis.
"That makes sense to me. So when did you get in?"
"I arrived here just after you two got back. I processed in over the last couple of days. Kinda pissed me off too when I got the call."
"You got pissed because Chuck asked for your help?" Sarah was getting mad at that thought.
"Hell no! Helping Chuck will be a blast. I was finishing up setting up a date with a young chick and my phone went off. It was some General on the phone, Becker, Buckingham or something like that."
"Beckman, maybe?" suggested Sarah.
"That's it. I'm horrible with names of people I don't deal with. She tells me I have been called to active duty. I've heard that a few times before, just not from a General. Then she tells me I have to be at Ft Meade the next day to meet with her." Then he began to go off, "I mean really, what's the hurry? Didn't she know I was seconds away from sealing the deal? I mean this chick was hot! Long legs, dark brown hair, piercing green eyes and her body…" he stopped in mid-sentence when he saw Sarah give him a strange look that appeared to say, and you're telling me this why? "Sorry, guess you didn't need to hear that part." This was said with a laugh.
"No not really. Then you ended up here."
"Yep, pretty much. After a brief stop to see the General and get read in on the basic's I caught a flight here. I do expect to hear the true reason I'm here and not the reason the General gave me."
"Let's take a walk. You can tell me what you were told and I'll fill in the blanks." Sarah said as she turned to leave the room.
"Hey Sarah, you might want to rethink that plan a bit."
"Why?"
"Well it's not up to me, but if I were you, I would want to change from what you're wearing and into some regular clothes. You don't want all those men out there to suffer a heart attack do you?" this caught her by surprise for two reasons. The first was White was so calm and relaxed about everything that he eased any concerns she still had about him being on the team. Second she realized that all during their talk he never once checked her out, he just looked at her eyes the entire time. Third she forgot she was still in her workout clothes consisting of tight spandex shorts and a sports bra. Yep I'd better change.
"While I go change you should hit the showers. You'll stink up Chuck's office if you don't."
"Sounds like a plan to me. I should only be about twenty minutes. I'll meet you in the War Room."
A short time later they were seated in Chuck's office and the explanation began. White was the first to go.
"General Beckman told me I was coming here to support Chuck's team of analysts. I knew that was crap because of how we met. There is no way an analyst would have been where I found him."
"That's true. Chuck and I are CIA Agents, sort of. That's all I can tell you for now. He requested you for a special mission. One of our agents has been stuck in an undercover operation for a long time. We have received information on her location and we plan to extract her and bring her home. We have a plan in place to do that. It will be a dangerous mission and we may not get out alive."
"Sweet! So I'm not going to be babysitting some analyst like Beckman said. You just made my day. Now that I have a better understanding of what's going on let's go grab Chuck from where ever you have him stashed and get some lunch."
"What makes you think I have him stashed somewhere?"
"Easy, he's not here. I saw the other agents in the War Room, some of them are smoking hot. I'd want to keep him all to myself, well if I went that way."
"You're too much. Chuck and I are in a monogamous, loving relationship. Neither of us has to worry about the other fooling around."
"Good to know. That being said, you think Chuck would mind if I had a go at some of them? The little blond caught my eye." this caused Sarah to laugh out loud.
"Shouldn't you be chasing someone a little more your age? She's barely twenty five years old."
"Nah, I'd be afraid I'd kill em. I may be old but I'm still fully functional. No little blue pill for me."
"Ok, way too much information for me. Let's go grab Chuck." She could hear White chuckling all the way out to the car, mumbling about how easy it was. He yanked her chain but good. Yeah she thought, this guy will make things interesting. He's like an older male version of Carina.
When they made it back to Chuck's place after lunch Chuck filled White in on every detail. This surprised Sarah to a small extent. The only thing Chuck did leave out was the part about him being the Ghost. Other than that he laid all the cards on the table and offered White one last chance to back out. White of course declined after he stopped laughing. He simply said he was tired of fighting in the sand and this was a much better deal. After all, how many times do you get to save somebody's mom?
Volkoff Industries
Mary was counting down the days. Her freedom was just a few weeks away. While she was pondering that thought Alexi came into her office and told her that Waytt would be here in a few days and he would be bringing his girlfriend with him. He wanted her to run a check on the name Elizabeth Coates. Within a few minutes Sarah's well put together undercover identity popped up. She was wanted in Texas for murder and several states for armed robbery and assault. Minor charges for drug possession were also in her file. Her know associates included Tony Waytt. Alexi told Frost to let Waytt know his girlfriend would be welcome to join him. Frost made the call to Waytt. Alexi figured he was getting two killers for the price of one.
Echo Park
It took a few weeks to finalize the plans to extract Frost from Volkoff Industries. Chuck and Sarah were already packed and ready to go when the day of the mission finally arrived. They would fly ahead on a private jet and get set up while White would follow them on a commercial flight the next day. They also devised a plan on how to communicate with each other during their time in Russia. When Chuck and Sarah landed at a private air field on the out skirts of Moscow, Alexi and Frost were there to meet them. After the normal pleasantries were exchanged they went back to Volkoff industries.
"Nice place you have here Mr. Volkoff," Stated Waytt.
"Thank you, Waytt. I have you living arrangements ready for you. You two will be staying in the building across the street from this one."
"Excuse me or being bold Mr. Volkoff," Liz began. "I would feel much better if we lived away from here. The less I know about what goes on around here the better. I don't want you sending someone like Tony here after my ass because I know too much. I've seen firsthand what he can do, I like my life just like it is now, alive."
"She does have a point Alexi," added Frost. "Waytt is just your enforcer. The less he knows the better. They can get some place close to here where if you need either of them it won't take long for them to get here."
"Frost, that's why I love you, you're always keeping my best interest at heart. You two will stay here until I find you a suitable place to live."
"Thank you Mr. Volkoff," was said by Waytt and Liz.
Echo Park
Morgan
Morgan was given his first assignment by Shaw; he was to take pictures of area around the ISA building. His main tasking was to get pictures of Sarah as she entered and left the building and who she left with. So far things were not going well. He only had a few pictures and those he had taken a while ago. He gave up for the time being because he found out through the grape vine that Sarah was out on a mission.
CIA Headquarters
Graham was very pleased with the information Larkin was now sending back. His biggest coup so far was the names of several high ranking Fulcrum members. The CIA tried to bring them in during a raid of a Fulcrum hive, but the agents refused to come quietly and were killed in the resulting firefight. The other part of Graham's plan was also proceeding along nicely. There were several more recruits waiting to receive the intersect upload but the plans were put on hold when the system crashed. The tech's told him it would be a few weeks before it would be ready again.
Volkoff Industries.
Over the next few days Alexi and Frost showed Waytt and Liz around the compound. Waytt and Liz were impressed at the size of the place as well as what was taking place. They were also taking notes on where certain things were located. They found what looked like the server room in the main building. White was making his own plans as well. He was in possession of the toys that Orion had designed for Chuck. He wasn't having a good time at all. The TV shows stunk and were in Russian to boot. The sooner he got out of this hell hole the better. He began to formulate his own plan.
One night while the boys were busy entertaining guests, Frost took Liz for a private walk around the compound. Part of the way down a remote walk Frost stopped and looked at Sarah. She waited a few seconds and began to speak, "This three foot area we are in is the only place in the compound that is completely blind to all the security Volkoff has in place. We can talk safely here. I want to thank you personally for coming here with my son."
"It is my honor to help Chuck in getting you back home where you belong. Ellie sends her love as well."
"I see you get along as well with Ellie as you do my son. I'm glad he finally found someone that loves him as much as you do," saying that Mary pulled Sarah into a hug which she returned.
"At first I was worried that he would see me as damaged goods after all the stuff I had done in the past, but as we talked things out I saw he had done the same things as me and then some."
"That's one of the prices we pay for being spies. Lucky for us both of our men are also in the same lime of work, more or less. We need to go, Alexi hates when I stay away to long."
A week later Waytt and Liz moved into their new place. When they finished they put their plan into motion. They met with Frost and told her they wanted to do something nice for Alexi and take him to dinner at a five star restaurant. Alexi knew Frost enjoyed the company of the two new employees and when he saw her eyes light up at the thought of going to dinner with them his decision was made. He would do anything to keep his Frost happy. Part of their plan was to get Alexi more at ease around them while in public. It would make it easier for them in the long run. When they left to change for dinner they sent a message to White with the information he would need. Since they arrived in Russia he became there shadow in case something went wrong.
Alexi arranged for a private room at the Ararat Park Hyatt Hotel and for the meals to be ready when they arrived. The two couples were enjoying their meal while Volkoff's armed security detail stood around and watched. Midway through the meal the door bust open and a man in a suit came in holding what looked like a game system in his hands.
"Mr. Volkoff, Mr. Volkoff," the man said in a panicked voice. Waytt and Liz were in shock at seeing who it was. Frost was just stunned. The armed security detail pulled their weapons as did the other three members sitting at the table.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa! No need to get violent, here. One of the guys at the office sent me over here with this to give to Mr. Volkoff. He said it's an important message from a contact in the CIA." He held out the device he was holding.
Volkoff arose from his chair wait an angry look on his face. "CIA, the bane of my existence. What's the message?"
"He said to tell you the CIA is sending some agents to get you. He sent their pictures over on this," He said holding out the electronic device. "He said just hit the green button and the picture will come up. Then hit the arrow key to see the next one."
Volkoff grabbed the device and pressed the button. Different color lights illuminated Volkoff's face and his eyes were locked on the screen. It was over in a couple of seconds. Volkoff slumped back down onto the chair he was sitting in. He had a dazed and confused look on his face. He spoke to the only person he recognized.
"Mary? Mary Bartowski, where are we? And who are the rest of these people?" his voice sounded nervous and not like Volkoff at all.
"Mr. Volkoff, Hartley, Sir. Can you please tell your men to stand down, guns make me nervous," asked the messenger.
Hartley looked over at his men and spoke, "Please gentlemen lower your weapons, and the others will lower theirs as well." It took a few moments but calm had been restored to the room.
"Hartley, what is the last thing you remember?" asked Mary.
"Stephen and I were working on a project as you know. I tested it out and then everything is pretty much a blur after that," no sooner had he finished than the sounds of a tranq gun being fired were heard. The security team was slumping to the floor.
"Guy's I hate to break up this party but the more those guards hear the harder it will be to do what you three have left to do," the messenger said as he pointed at Chuck and Sarah. "I would suggest you get to Volkoff industries as fast as you can and get to work. Save the damn twenty questions till we're on the way home. I hate this place. I haven't seen a good piece of tail since I got here."
They started to plan their exit when the messenger began shouting, "Mr. Volkoff was attacked!" at the same time he was dragging Hartley towards the exit, followed by Chuck, Sarah and Mary who by now were going along with what was happening and had drawn their weapons. "The men that did it are in the room. Call the authorities! Hurry Mr. Volkoff we need to get you to safety."
They ushered him into the waiting limo and sped toward Volkoff industries.
AN: This chapter kind of grew from where it was supposed to, lol. I am trying to keep the chapter lengths about the same. I am breaking this chapter up into 2 parts.
TBC in chapter 13.
