Usual disclaimers, no rights to any characters portrayed, this isn't the real world and it's not a Disney Princess tale.
When they reached the Bamboo Dragon, an old favourite of Chuck's from when he was a teenager, they ordered the food for the horde back at the office and stood out the front of the restaurant, talking as they waited. One time Chuck glanced up though, he flashed on the tattoo in the inside of the forearm of one of the waitresses. Sarah felt him stiffen and snuggled into him, stretching up on tiptoe to kiss him on the cheek and whisper "Did you flash?" He put his arm around her and bent down to kiss her on the other cheek to give her a clear line of sight. "Yes, the waitress at table twelve? She's Mei-Ling Cho, China's top operative, she's never been on U.S. soil before."
Sarah managed to make her gasp at that seem as though it was because of the way he was kissing his way up her jaw line and whispered. "Are you sure?"
"The Intersect is!"
"Shit!"
She jumped, stepping back to get her phone from her pocket as if it had just rung on vibrate and called Casey on speed dial. As she brought the phone to her face she said "Da Dyadya Alexei?" as if she was answering a call before entering into a few bursts of rapidfire Russian in a whining tone, glancing at Chuck and turning away to whisper the woman's name as if she were hiding something from him. When she'd hung up, looking upset, he asked what that was about? "Uncle Alexei is getting impatient for his food, and he won't accept that the delay isn't my fault!"
He put his arms around her and kissed her on the cheek to comfort her, whispering in her ear "You really are incredible, you know?" She kissed him on the cheek and responded "Why thank you, but I do have to be to keep up with my husband! Casey said to try to keep an eye on her and he'll be here as soon as possible."
He nodded "It was evil to use Russian though." She gave him an innocent look at that "What? I had to use a language that most people wouldn't understand!" but gave herself away with the grin she finished with. He just grinned and kissed her again.
When they got their food, Chuck used his phone to bring the van up remotely so that they could sit in it and cover the Bamboo Dragon with its cameras, continuing the discussion about Auntie Di's plans and eating while they were watching multiple windows on the smart glass screen across the inside of the windscreen. One thing they weren't sure about was the caveat that had been made that Roan wanted to create the offices and penthouse for the Carmichaels that would 'create the image of who they were', because while Chuck loved Roan as the supportive Uncle he'd been to him ever since he was ten, he was under no delusions about the incorrigible lethario's character. Knowing his Uncle Roan as he did, he envisioned a totally decadent pleasure palace that would project an image that Chuck didn't think either of them wanted to be associated with.
It took over half an hour for Casey to turn up, which surprised them until he handed Chuck the thumb drive with everything they had on file for Mei-Ling Cho to plug into the on board computer. Sarah was getting more and more pissed off as they went through the reports on the very impressive Lieutenant Colonel Cho though, because she now knew how Chuck had known that she was China's top operative, and it wasn't from the Intersect! Eventually she spat out.
"Every one of these reports was written by Charles Carmichael, Philip Smith, Karol Zaleski, Eleanore Charlemagne, Nora Jones, Eleanora Zaleska, Emmeline Boudreaux, Emma Burdon, Lisa Black, Marie Lestrange, Maryam Krieger or Elizabeth White!"
"Yes?"
"They're all you, Ellie, Mama and Auntie Mary! Didn't you think it relevant to share that you guys are apparently the resident authorities on this agent?"
"Not really, no."
Her voice was dangerously low as she asked. "Why not?"
"Because nothing that we know about her from our research or the Intersect gives us any indication of what the hell she's doing here! I'm flying blind and I don't like it!"
At that point, Casey spoke up from the rear. "Enough with the domestics! She's leaving!"
When they looked back at the screen, sure enough she was hurrying in bike gear around the corner from the kitchen entrance out back, which served as the employees' entrance. There was also a stretch limousine pulling away from the front of the Bamboo Dragon so Chuck asked. "Did you see who's in that limo John?"
"Ben Lo Pan, he owns half of Chinatown and he's believed to be big in the triads too." Just then Mei-Ling reappeared on a sports bike and started following the limo.
Chuck mused, "Well it looks like he's the one she's after" as he shut down the computer displays and pulled out to follow them, having an electric vehicle which could take off instantly was handy.
The limo pulled up at another building in Chinatown and they hung back as Mei-Ling put her bike out sight around the corner from the limo, using the zoom lenses and wide spectrum imaging of the van's cameras to see what she was doing as she popped the compartment behind the seat open and extracted a couple of pistols. Casey made a crack about 'crotch rocket and Glocks, my kinda gal', but Chuck corrected him distractedly. "Those aren't Glocks John, they're Chinese military issue QSW Oh Sixes, and that's a worry because those particular pistols are normally used by their agents for sanctioned assassinations."
As they watched her climb the drainpipe to the roof of the building that Lo Pan had gone into, Sarah and Casey reluctantly agreed that it was their duty to stop the assassination of a prominent foreign national on U.S. soil. It rankled when they told that he couldn't be seen to be part of this so he had to stay in the van, but when Sarah got upset at his reaction he kissed her and told it was OK and to go.
Sarah and Casey didn't have any trouble dealing with guard outside the private club in the building, but when Sarah saw Mei-Ling with her pistols in hand and called out "Gun!" Lo Pan's guards started shooting at her and Casey! While most of the guards were shooting it out with Sarah, Casey and Mei-Ling, a small group got Lo Pan out of the club and the building.
When the doors burst open and they hustled Lo Pan out of the building, Chuck swore, grabbing his Glock 20 with a couple of extra mags and jumped out to run through the shadows towards them. He was almost up to the building when the doors burst open again and two more guards came out, supporting a third man who was bound and hooded between them. Chuck had to slow to a fast meander as he came into the light, but they took no notice of him as they threw the man into the trunk and jumped in as the limo took off.
Chuck broke into a run, drawing the 20 as he did so, but shooting at any viable target from this angle would have endangered the man in the trunk, so he swore and grabbed one of the other mags from his back pocket. He released the mag in the pistol, catching it as it fell, ramming home the other mag and pulling back the slide to eject the round in the chamber and load the first round from the new mag in one continuous movement. He stopped to carefully take aim, firing a subsonic tracker round into the safest part of the bodywork he had a clear shot at before quickly tucking the pistol into the back of his jeans and bending down to pick up and pocket the round he'd ejected, just before Mei-Ling burst out of the building with her pistols extended at the rapidly departing limo.
When Chuck shouted "Don't shoot!" before she could fire, she turned the pistols on him "Where did they take him?"
"Who?"
"My brother! Where did they take him?"
Playing a confused civilian seemed the safest course when faced with an aggravated assassin pointing two pistols at him, so Chuck said. "He must have been that guy they threw in the trunk, that was why I tried to stop you shooting at the car, I don't know who they were or where they went, I was just passing and saw them throwing a guy in the trunk and ran up here to try and stop them."
She was starting to calm down a little when Sarah and Casey came barrelling out of the doors and freaked when they saw Chuck with two pistols pointing at his face, shouting "Federal agents, drop your weapons!" and aiming their pistols at Mei-Ling.
Mei-Ling couldn't understand the frustrated sigh that the man in front of her gave at that, but she saw all the signs of fear suddenly disappear as he said in flawless Chinese. "Lieutenant Colonel Cho, you cannot help your brother by getting yourself killed, and I can assure you that will happen if you harm any of us. I do not want to see you dead, and I definitely do not want my companions harmed, as they mean a great deal to me. Please, if you lower your weapons, I promise you that we will help you find your brother, I fired a tracker into the car just before you came out so we will be able to follow them."
She just stared at him, she couldn't understand any of this, the way he was looking down the barrels of her pistols without showing a shred of fear, the fact that he knew precisely who she was or how he spoke to her in such fluent Chinese. He was making sense though, because now she could see them she recognised the two agents behind him, there was absolutely no way she could take on both of them and she would need help if she was to locate and rescue Li-Wei, so she lowered her pistols.
He nodded thanks when she did so and held out his hand, speaking again, still in Chinese "It will help diffuse the tension if you hand over your weapons, they will be returned to you later." She glanced at the other two and did as he asked. He bowed to her and turned to show the pistols to the others. They lowered their pistols but Sarah's anger was obvious as she gave Chuck a 'this isn't over!' look and Mei-Ling murmured. "She is not happy with you!"
He shook his head in sorrow. "No, she is not!"
They quickly manhandled Mei-Ling's bike into the back of the van and headed for the apartments in Echo Park. They slipped into the one furthest away from Skip and Jethro's apartment that they kept free for this sort of thing and Chuck fired up the computer there, getting to work while Mei-Ling told her story.
He appeared totally engrossed in what he was doing, but often asked for clarification on points of what she was saying, so he was certainly paying attention. She observed him as she was talking, trying to reconcile the fact that he was obviously the one in charge, even though these other two were both known as being among the best spies in the world. She was also observing the woman, Agent Sarah Walker, whom she knew to be one of the most formidable spies in the western world, if not the whole world, because she was obviously totally in love with this man.
After about fifteen to twenty minutes of this Chuck suddenly swore, hitting the desk hard enough for it to make a cracking noise, and stood up and stalked off. Mei-Ling saw Agent Walker look after him in concern, but they went to the computer to see what had angered him. What she saw up on the screens astounded Mei-Ling, because he'd somehow gotten into some of the Chinese government's most secure computer systems to extract everything about her, Li-Wei and his kidnapping. It also had the triad's demands to exchange Li-Wei for a senior triad captain and the government's refusal of their demand, but she couldn't see what had angered this…. Chuck so much until Agent Walker tapped on one screen. "This, this is what upset him."
Mei-Ling took note of the fact that this small group obviously had two people who were capable of reading Chinese reasonably, or more likely very, well. Which again brought up her earlier thought, just what was a group with two, no, three, because Major John Casey was spy of considerable repute around the world as well, people of such calibre doing buried away here in Los Angeles? But even though Agent Walker had pointed it out, Mei-Ling couldn't understand what there was about that document that upset him so, it was just the official notice that she had gone against her orders and was therefore officially disavowed by the People's Republic, it was essentially her death warrant but she knew that this would happen when she came after Li. It was a price she was willing to pay to get her little brother back to his family.
She turned a confused look at Agent Walker, but while the woman was talking to her, she was still looking after her man in concern. "Family and what's right is everything to Chuck, and to him sanctioning you for trying to save your brother because they just wrote him off is very, very wrong."
Mei-Ling looked at John Casey for an explanation but he shook his head, indicating that he couldn't explain it, it was just the way the man was.
Chuck came back with a glass in one hand, and a bottle in the other. The bottle was over a third empty and the look John Casey gave it said that it had been unopened prior to this. Chuck started speaking as he returned "We have two problems that we need to address. The first, obviously, is how to rescue your brother, hopefully unharmed, and the other is how to safely return him to the People's Republic. From that…." pointing to her death warrant "You can't return him, as that would most probably get both of you killed. The safest bet would be to get our State Department people to return him, but they will undoubtedly demand a price for their assistance, and that price will most probably be you, or at least what you know."
"No! I will not betray my country, I could never return if I did that!"
"I'm sorry to say this Colonel, but that..." Pointing to the document that amounted to her death warrant again "Says that you could never return anyway. I am sure that you know many things that you could share which would not cause any significant harm to the People's Republic?"
He waited for her reluctant nod and then went on. "Then you can use those things to pay your way and we will do our best to get you put into the government's witness protection scheme afterwards."
John Casey snorted at that and Mei-Ling looked at him with a question in her eyes, his response was. "Let's just say that this isn't the first time he's engineered this type of thing, so when he says 'we will do our best', it's pretty much a guarantee that it will be done."
She turned back to Chuck. "Very well, I will do this."
He nodded. "Okay, let's get your brother back then!"
The tracker confirmed that the limo had gone to Lo Pan's mansion and that it was still there. Chuck collected what information he could find about the security systems and force in Lo Pan's mansion and they put together a plan for Casey, Sarah and Mei-Ling to go in, attaching remote access devices to the security and computer networks so that he could get control of them. While he was doing this, he surreptitiously sent a message to El Castillo to bring in the full Thebes Security crew for backup. They'd do this with just Casey, Sarah and Mei-Ling as they'd agreed if they could, but the second anything went wrong he was sending the full team in, he wasn't going to risk Sarah, or any of them.
Sarah came over to wrap her arms around his shoulders as he explained a few things, and when Mei-Ling was out of line of sight he brought up the window with the message for her to see. He closed the window when she nodded to say that she'd read it and kissed him on the cheek.
When the team sent him a message to say that their eta at Lo Pan's was about ten minutes before they could get there, they left the apartment and headed there themselves, with Chuck driving the van slowly down the street for them to jump out on the move before parking out of sight to get into the systems once they enabled his access. It went to plan initially, as soon as they got him into the security systems, he took them over, turning off alarms, unlocking doors and directing them to the guards so that they could take them out quietly. As he was doing this, he was also hacking into the computer systems and copying everything off them he could. Then the house camera feeds suddenly cut out and Casey and Sarah's cameras showed them being taken, so he sent the rest of the team in.
He saw the team going in over the fence, but was sure that no-one else would have. They went through the house like silent death, taking out the guards with suppressed weapons, knives or their bare hands. When they reached the room where Lo Pan was cackling about his brilliant plan though, Chuck ordered them to hold off until Lo Pan had told them his plan, unless there was any indication of any action against Sarah, Casey, Mei-Ling or Li-Wei, in which case of course they were to take out everyone else in the room. As soon as Lo Pan told the guards to get rid of them Chuck gave the team the go order, and all of Lo Pan's guards were down in seconds. Chuck thanked them and asked them to deliver Lo Pan to the FBI office and tell the FBI that the A/V and computer evidence would be sent to them.
When Sarah and the others came out, Chuck was waiting in the van for them and Mei-Ling just smiled when Sarah went straight up to kiss him. Normally she would have been angry to be out of the loop that much in an operation, but given the fact that she would have lost Li and they would have probably all died without his backup plan, she could hardly complain. In the van on the way back to Echo Park, Mei-Ling told her "Your man, he is exceptional" and Sarah just nodded happily. "I know!"
At Echo Park, Casey took Li-Wei to another room while they contacted Diane to have her make the necessary arrangements with the State Department to deliver Li-Wei to the Chinese Consulate, in return for Lieutenant Colonel Cho's information. Sarah noted the way that Mei-Ling was staring at Chuck right through this and wasn't happy about it. She was even less happy when Mei-Ling asked to talk privately with him after they cut the link, so it took Chuck ten minutes to convince her that he'd be OK, and that they'd leave the door part way open so that he could call for help if he needed to. When she finally agreed with great reluctance, Chuck directed Mei-Ling to the spare bedroom where they could talk.
Mei-Ling looked at the partly open door and quietly asked. "Do they know that you're Captain Carmichael, and Major Smith and almost certainly at least six or seven other senior intelligence officers as well?" Chuck looked at her for about a minute before he said. "I do not know what you are talking about Colonel Cho."
The look she gave him said that she knew that he was the people she'd named without any doubt, so he shook his head. "Yes they do, but we'd prefer to keep that very quiet, how did you know?"
"At first I didn't, I just thought you were someone exceptional, but as I watched you work I started recognising the patterns that I've observed from studying your work the last thirteen years or more. You have quite a following in China you know, people like myself who follow your achievements, because even though you are not at all popular with our superiors because of the way you've thwarted the People's Republic so often, many appreciate and respect your brilliance."
"What do you intend to do with this knowledge Colonel Cho?"
"Nothing, Cap…." Chuck held up his hand "Chuck, please" She nodded "Nothing Chuck, I am in your debt, you and your people's, for saving my brother. I know that you understand my culture well enough to know that this is a life debt, I would never do anything against you or your people and whatever you need of me, you have but to ask and I will deliver it to the best of my ability."
He looked at her musingly. "Would that commitment extend to your working with us?"
She shook her head. "There is no way that your government would ever trust a defector being anywhere near someone as important as you…. Chuck."
"You'd be surprised what we can arrange, the question remains, would you be prepared to work with us if it could be arranged?"
She smiled at him, she was beginning to see how Agent Walker could be so in love with him and so infuriated with him at the same time. "I do not believe that this is possible, but yes, if it could be arranged, it would be my honour to work with you, Chuck."
He nodded and politely signalled her to follow him out of the room (as it wasn't likely to be healthy for her to come out until he was seen to be safe), stopping down the hall where Sarah was standing with a VAL, ready to come in firing if anything happened. He filled her in on everything they'd discussed, and while initially hesitant she agreed that Mei-Ling would certainly be a great addition to the team. Back in the lounge room they asked Li-Wei if he'd wait in the other room with Major Casey again while they contacted their superiors and at Mei-Ling's reassuring nod he went with Casey.
Diane looked suspicious when Chuck called again to tell her that some of the arrangements that she was making would have to be changed. When he explained what he was after she was adamant that there was no way that that could ever be approved and Mei-Ling slumped in resignation, convinced that it was as she'd expected, but she jumped when Sarah reached over to squeeze her hand. When she looked at her, Sarah smiled reassuringly and shook her head. Mei-Ling smiled hesitantly when she got the message, 'don't give up yet!'
Mei-Ling was surprised when Chuck and the General's discussion changed to a excited torrent of Russian that she couldn't follow, no more than a word here or there anyway. In the end, the General looked at Sarah, and while she looked unhappy at her agreeing with this, she shocked Mei-Ling when she smiled fondly at Chuck and said. "You'll be the death of me yet Honey, put the case together and send it through, I'll present it to them. In the meantime I'll change the other arrangements as you've….. requested."
Chuck smiled at the screen. "Thanks Auntie Di!"
She shook her head at him and asked. "Have you thought about my proposal yet?"
Chuck looked at Sarah and she nodded happily, his smile for her stayed on his face as he turned back to the screen. "Yes Auntie Di, we'd like that, we're just a bit worried about what type of things Uncle Roan may have planned…."
She shook her head again. "Oh Honey, you know that he loves you and he'd never do anything to embarrass either of you, but if it makes you feel any better I'll make sure I look over all the plans and have final sign-off of everything to make sure that he doesn't do anything you won't like, will that work for you? Both of you?"
Chuck and Sarah looked at each other again and nodded with a smile, so Chuck answered. "Yes Auntie Di, that would make us a lot more comfortable, thank you."
She nodded. "OK, I'll contact the State Department, FBI and US Marshals to make these changes to the arrangements for Ms Cho, we'll let you know when and where to deliver Mister Cho in the morning for State Department to escort him to the Chinese Consulate. By the way, the Bob has asked me to pass on the FBI's thanks for Lo Pan and the evidence you supplied with him. Night Honey." With that she cut the link.
Chuck turned to Mei-Ling, who was looking stunned. "I expect that you didn't get all of that?"
She shook her head.
"Okay, you'll be taken to Washington D C by the FBI and remain in their custody, under General Beckman's orders, until you finish making your depositions. If State or anyone else tries to go off script, expand those sessions or take you away, General Beckman will order them finished and you'll leave in the custody of her people. Once we get everything signed off by the relevant authorities, you'll come back here and work with us, under a different name of course, is that okay with you?"
She nodded, "Yes, but might I ask what that last part was about?"
Sarah stepped in to answer that. "Chuck and I are married, legally, but not openly. I don't know how Chinese Intelligence expects its female operatives to operate, but some individuals in the American Intelligence community expect female agents to do things that I am no longer prepared to do, and always found utterly repulsive. What the General has proposed is that our cover identities be changed to that of a high profile married couple, so that I couldn't do those types of missions without compromising our established cover, and our team is too important for that to be allowed. Someone else who is part of our extended family has asked to be given leave to create our business and residential presences to present the right image, and while we love him... do you have a beloved uncle in your family who has the tendency to often be quite inappropriate?"
Mei-Ling had laughter in her eyes as she nodded at that. "Well that's Uncle Roan! We had no doubt that he'd mean well, but it was the question of just what image would be presented that worried us, so having Auntie Di there to provide the necessary checks and balances makes us much more comfortable about what we'll see when it's done."
When Li-Wei came back with Casey, he wanted to know what Mei-Ling and Sarah were laughing about, but he joined in the laughter when Mei-Ling told him. "They were just telling me that they have an uncle like Uncle Li-Wei who you were named after in their family too."
In the morning, Sarah and Casey delivered Li-Wei to the State Department people, and they were notified when he was safely back on Chinese soil in the Consulate. That call came through just before they had to take Mei-Ling to Bob Hope Airport to be flown to DC to start her depositions.
The contractors arrived the next day to start preparations for the changes to El Castillo, so the initial plans at least had obviously met with Auntie Di's approval. One of the things they would be doing was removing the actual armour glass from that end of the building and replacing it with normal mirror glass, with protection behind it anywhere the blast effect would hit before the blast, because that armour glass was expensive stuff, not something to be wasted, even if they did own the company that made it (Chuck's father had come up with the process to create it).
To this end, they set up equipment to quickly lift the sheets of armour glass up onto the roof and began unfastening them while the demolitions experts planned a blast that looked spectacular and levelled the buildings at the end, but didn't really harm anything it wasn't supposed to. They also emptied everything they wanted to keep out of the Charlemagne and Thebes offices.
On the night of the blast, they started working as soon as the sun went down, and all of the armour glass was under cover on the roof within a few hours. They were ready to set off the blast by eleven, and as soon as they had the all clear, up it went. The Police were suspicious of the fact that the FBI got there before they did, but accepted the explanation that they'd been looking into gang activity in the area, so they'd kept the task force on the ready. Once the fire crews had put out the fires and confirmed that as far as they could see, no-one had been in there, the FBI took over the site and kicked everyone else out.
There were questions about how construction started on the extension of the existing building next door to encompass the entire block within a couple of weeks, but records of threatened multi-million dollar lawsuits against both the owners of the property where the explosion had been and the city for the damage incurred to the building explained the hasty sale of the property and approval of the construction permits.
The wedding planning committee ended up being made up of Ellie, Emma, Anna, Lou, Alex, Auntie Di, Uncle Roan and, surprisingly, John and Carina (Mary said that she wasn't qualified to help with something like this). They were pressured by the powers that be into having a military wedding, but no-one in the family was surprised when Chuck stuck to his guns about Anna being his 'best man', as she'd been his best friend and family since he was ten and he didn't turn his back on either. Lou, Uncle Bry, Casey, Jeff, Skip and Rick were the other 'Groom's men' while Ellie was the Maid of Honour and Carina, Zondra, Lottie, Charlie, Viv and Kim were the Bride's maids, and Uncle Bry was giving the bride away too, so they had the wedding party sorted (it was rather bigger than either of them planned, but once Sarah decided that she wanted the girls, their sisters and Carina and Zondra standing with her, it had to be), and the wedding would be performed by a Navy Chaplin, so they were halfway there, sort of.
Roan had charmed influential people into getting Vera Wang to do all the dresses for the wedding party, and she'd insisted on making up custom tailored Navy Dress Whites for the Chaplain and everyone on the groom's side as well, including the 'best man' and the other female 'groom's man'. At least with the Thirty Seven, getting to New York for the fittings wasn't that difficult. Roan also helped procure the perfect wedding location for them, a beautiful plantation house in Virginia, because the majority of the guests would be coming from DC so it would be easier for the LA contingent to fly over.
