Usual disclaimer for the Land of Litigation, no rights to any characters portrayed.
Until Carina was transferred out of the DEA and into their DCS team, it was agreed that she'd stay out of sight in Casa Bartek. She spent much of that time in the gym downstairs, working with Chuck, Ellie and Sarah to put together an exercise regime that would get her closer to their levels. She'd almost killed herself trying to keep up with them on their pre-dawn run/parkour session, because she wasn't close to a match for Chuck, Casey, Sarah, or even Ellie, and that was rather embarrassing for someone who was used to being ahead of nearly everyone else.
She did have to be careful around Chuck when he was dressed for working out, though, because he looked so hot like that he turned her on. Quite aside from not wanting to upset Sarah, because she could see how much they meant to each other, she was pretty sure that getting caught lusting after Sarah Walker's guy would be a very dangerous thing to do.
It was actually a few days before the transfer got processed because the President was out of the country until then, and Carina was starting to wonder whether they'd be able to pull it off, but as soon as he was back in in the US of A, the papers were signed. By 14:00 D.C. time that day a very pissed off Administrator of Drug Enforcement had formally released Special Agent Carina Miller from the DEA, and by 15:00 that day she was formally inducted as a DIA Special Agent and they were processing everything else for her identity as part of the team.
The DEA was asking a lot of questions about who had the pull to get the President to force the issue like this, because what he'd signed left absolutely no latitude for the DEA to appeal against or even delay their orders. They were told in very precise terms that Special Agent Carina Miller was to be formally released from the DEA immediately, that all entitlements to her would be paid out in full, all ties to her would be severed, and that any and all records that related to her under any alias were to be removed (leaving no trace within the DEA), and held pending release to officers carrying the appropriate authorisation. (What no-one knew was that similar orders had also been signed off for Sarah, and were being held ready in case Graham ever tried anything against her.)
The only things that the DEA managed to find out was that there was a Special Projects group, nominally under the umbrella of the DIA, that apparently reported only to the DNI, and the POTUS himself, that the group had been around for well over a decade, and that the old nickname for this group was Alias Smith and Jones. The Administrator of Drug Enforcement wasn't comfortable with this development. Uncomfortable escalated to frightened though a few weeks later when the hammer came down because files had been retained in a few areas that related to the agent, how the hell had anyone found out about them?
As soon as it was official, the General called Chuck, and he went to get Carina's DIA credentials out of the safe and took them to her, putting them on the table beside her without a word as she was talking to Ellie over lunch. Carina caught something in Ellie's expression at the same time she saw something out of the corner of her eye and whipped around, but Chuck was already well away from her, then her elbow nudged the folder with her credentials in it.
When she opened the folder, she looked at him and asked him if it was done? Chuck nodded and told her that she was processed out of the DEA an hour ago, and now she was officially a DIA Special Agent, it would take a while to process the rest of her identity as that relied on other branches of the government, and she may be adding NSA Agent to that sometime in the future, but for now she was in the DIA, and she could start her new life.
It was still agreed that the best option for her was to spend a while in D.C. to get off everyone's radar, so Carina hopped on the C-37 that the General supplied and headed over there, she was going to use Sarah's apartment while she was there, as that would keep her further under the radar.
Now that things were sorted out for Carina, the team had some serious catching up to do for their CCE customers, so they were spending long hours at the shop. Around 20:00 one night, it was obvious that they weren't going to be done any time soon, so Chuck and Sarah did a food run. For some reason, Chuck had a hankering for Sizzling Shrimp, which had been a favourite of his when he was a teenager, so they headed down to the Bamboo Dragon, because that was where they got it from.
They placed their takeaway order and were talking and idly looking around the restaurant while they were waiting, when Chuck got a flash of information that was triggered by a tattoo that showed on the inside of one of the waitresses' arms. Sarah recognised the signs of a flash, and cuddled up to him to ask what it was? Chuck nodded in the direction of the waitress "That waitress, she's Mei-ling Cho, Chinese Intelligence, she's never set foot on US soil before." "Are you sure? "Pretty sure, yeah."
Sarah hit a button to make her phone ring and pulled it out of her pocket, calling Casey on speed dial as she did so. As Casey's Russian was pretty good, that was what she spoke, lowering her voice when she gave the name that Chuck got a flash on. From his time with Chuck's team, Casey knew that she was China's top spy, but he snorted when Sarah gave him an exasperated "Da!" when he said that.
She told him to get the guys to start looking things up, because they'd have to wait there until the food was ready, it'd be too suspicious if they left without it. When she hung up she looked upset as she switched back to English and told Chuck that Uncle Josef was getting impatient for the food, and wouldn't listen when she tried to tell him that they'd only just ordered it. He pulled her in for a hug and whispered in her ear "God, you're good at this!" He could hear the smile in her voice when she replied "I need to be to keep up with you!", turning her head quickly to kiss his mouth, which was right next to her ear.
As soon as the food was ready, they went back the van and settled down to wait for Casey. Chuck called the shop and told Jeff and Anna to go home, as they shouldn't be stuck there working while the rest of them were chasing up NSA/CIA matters. Casey went back to his place to report the sighting to the General and Graham, and then grabbed the file he'd put together of everything known about Mei-Ling Cho and headed to the Bamboo Dragon to join the stakeout with Chuck and Sarah.
After an hour and a half or so sitting in the van, going through the files to try and determine what Mei-Ling was doing here, Sarah suddenly started madly hunting through the files and turned to Chuck with an accusing look. "Over half these reports are from John Smith or Susan Jones, that's you and Ellie." "Yeah?" "You didn't think it was relevant to tell me that you put together a lot of the information we have on this woman?" "Not really, because nothing I know tells me why she's here now, and that's what we're looking now." That got him a look he'd rather not receive from Sarah, but what he'd said was the truth, to the best of his knowledge.
When the restaurant closed at 22:00, a stretch limo pulled up out front and an elderly Chinese man was wheeled out in a wheelchair and put into the limo before it pulled away. Casey identified the man as Ben Lo Pan, a local big shot who owned half of Chinatown (he obviously did his research after Sarah called him). Soon after that, Mei-Ling came out in bike leathers and jumped on a sports bike that was around the corner, taking off to follow the limo. They in turn followed Mei-Ling.
They didn't go far, as they were still in the Chinatown area when the limo pulled up in front of a building and Lo Pan was offloaded. Mei-Ling ducked around the corner to park her bike and she was pulling a couple of pistols out of the small compartment behind the seat on her bike when they pulled up, Casey made a typically Casey non-PC comment about "Glocks and a crotch rocket, my kinda gal", but when Chuck saw the pistols he got another information flash and saw that they were Chinese military issue QSW-06s.
The military issue weapons raised more questions about what Mei-Ling was doing here, because they didn't go with a covert mission to get intel, they went more with assassinations, and the obvious target was Ben Lo Pan, given that she was following him. As they watched her climb a drainpipe to the roof of the building, Sarah and Casey decided that they needed to go in and stop the assassination, if that was was it was, so they left Chuck in the van (because the civilian "Intersect" couldn't go into dangerous situations, something he got an apology and kiss from Sarah for, but not Casey, much to his relief) and went in.
Inside was a private Chinese club, and any chance to talk their way in quietly was gone when the doorman/guard saw Casey's pistol. It wasn't difficult for them to disarm the guard and take him out, but when they got inside and Sarah called "Gun!" when she saw Mei-Ling advancing on Lo Pan, all hell broke loose. Lo Pan's men were shooting at Sarah and Casey as much as they were Mei-Ling because they thought they were together, but some of Lo Pan's men got him out of there as soon as the shooting started.
When Chuck heard shooting, he ran out to the front of the building to see Lo Pan being loaded into the limo, but then he saw another, younger, Asian man being hauled out of the building and thrown into the trunk. As soon as he saw the younger man hauled out, Chuck started running, but they either saw him or they were desperate to get away from the gunfight, because they jumped in and took off before he could reach them. Just before he got there, Mei-Ling burst out the door and started firing after the limo, then turned her pistols on Chuck and demanded to know where they took him.
"Took who?" "My brother, where did they take him?" "Oh, I expect that he was the guy they threw in the trunk, sorry, I have no idea where they took him, I was running up here to try and stop them." At that moment, Sarah and Casey came of the main entrance behind him and called out "Federal agents, drop your weapons!" Which did little to diffuse the situation, it actually looked like it put her more on edge.
Deciding that someone had to diffuse the situation, Chuck spoke to her in Chinese. "Cho Mei-Ling, you're not going to help your brother by getting yourself killed. If you shoot any of us, one of them will kill you, I don't want that to happen, and I'm rather attached to them, so I don't want anything to happen to them, so please lower your weapons and we'll try to help you rescue your brother."
She stared at him, not quite believing that the man in front of her could speak fluent Chinese, or that he was displaying absolutely no fear as he looked down the barrels of the two pistols she had pointed at his face. His argument was valid, though, she couldn't help Lee if she was dead, and she recognised the pair behind him, there was no way she could get both of them, so she lowered the pistols.
When she did so, he held out his hand, saying "Please? It will diffuse the situation if you hand them over now, they will be returned to you later." She nodded and placed the two pistols in his hand. He bowed and said "Thank you." Then he turned to the pair behind him and motioned for them to lower their weapons, too. They did so, but the look he was getting from Sarah was saying "We're going to talk about this later!" He heard Mei-Ling murmuring "She is not happy with you." behind him and he sighed "No, she isn't."
They loaded Mei-Ling's bike into the back of the van and headed back to Casey's. At Casey's, Mei-Ling watched the young man who was obviously in charge of this team, whether it was official or not. He spent about fifteen minutes digging up information on the computer while Mei-Ling told her story to them, he was obviously listening to her though as he asked for clarification of a few points as she was talking. She was also watching the woman, Agent Sarah Walker, who was one of the most formidable spies in the Western world, as well as being completely in love with this, Chuck.
They all turned to look at Chuck when he swore, standing up and walking away from the computer without a word. That intrigued them so they went to see what had upset him, up on the screens there was everything about Lee's disappearance and the Triad involvement, including the fact that they wanted to trade him for a Triad captain in custody, and that the PRC would not consider the trade, but Mei-Ling couldn't see what got this, Chuck, upset until Sarah Walker pointed to one screen and said "This".
It was the image of a document that formally stated that she had disobeyed her orders and that she was disavowed by the People's Republic of China (she also filed away the fact that obviously both of them could read Chinese well enough to understand the document, something that hadn't been known before about Agent Walker. This was a very strange team to have two people of this calibre, no, three, Major John Casey was extremely skilled as well, buried in a city within their own borders).
She looked to Sarah Walker as if to say "This was expected, why is he upset?", but the woman shook her head, saying "Chuck doesn't think like a spy, his moral compass always points to "right", and to him, burning you because you're trying to save your brother is most definitely NOT right." Mei-Ling looked at the young man, musing "He is a very strange man, he is most skilled and as brave as anyone I've ever met, but he is upset about standard protocols? I do not understand him."
At that point, Chuck came back with a drink in his hand, from what they'd seen, the second since he walked away and almost two thirds gone already. When he was at the computer he started speaking. "We have two issues to handle, the first is to rescue your brother, and the second is to safely return him. From that (pointing at the document), you can't return him as you'd probably both be shot. The logical approach would be for our State department people to formally hand him over and say that he was rescued by our government. The problem with that, of course, is that they'll want some baksheesh before they'll do that, and the obvious thing that they'll ask for is what you know."
"I will not betray my country, if I did that I could never go back!" "Sorry to say this, but from that (pointing to the document again) you can't go back anyway, and this may be the only way to get your brother safely back. I'm sure you know many things that you can tell our people that will not harm your country?" Mei-Ling nodded at that. "If you do that, I am sure that we can pull strings to get you put in witness protection so that you can have a comfortable life afterwards." Mei-Ling looked at the others, and they nodded, assuring her that he could do this. Mei-Ling looked at Chuck and nodded. "Very well, I will do this." He smiled "Great, now let's work out how to get him out of there."
They agreed that the only logical place for Lee to be was in Lo Pan's mansion, but the looks that Sarah and Casey were sending Chuck's way said that they were going to make him stick to the innocent civilian role and not be part of the team going in. On the basis of the information they discovered about the systems there, it should be relevantly simple, Sarah, Casey and Mei-Ling would attach remote access devices to the security system wiring so that Chuck could manipulate the security cameras, alarm systems and locks, they'd grab Lee and get out before anyone knew that they were there.
Chuck drove the van down the street slowly so that Sarah, Casey and Mei-Ling could jump out safely without being noticed, and then parked out of range of the security cameras. The first stages went off perfectly, they hooked him into the system and he took charge of it, leading them to the guards so that they could take them out, then suddenly all the camera feeds except for the ones that Sarah and Casey were wearing cut out. Sarah and Casey's cameras suddenly started moving violently and then cut off as well, and he could easily recognise the image of the sole of a boot rapidly approaching the cameras before they cut out.
Inside the mansion, Sarah and Casey were looking at each other, hoping that Chuck wouldn't do anything stupid to try and save them while Lo Pan gloated that the Chinese government had just told them that they could do what they wanted with Lee, so he was no longer any use to them, and a disavowed Chinese Agent was of no value either, but now he had two American spies that he could use to make a deal with, that pleased him greatly.
He immediately went into the back of the van to get some weapons, but they'd cleaned them out, obviously to try and stop him from attempting anything heroic. Chuck went back to the driver's seat and was trying to work out what to do when he saw Sarah, Casey, Mei-Ling and Lee being led out of the building and forced into a Bamboo Dragon van. He knew that that they wanted him to leave, but he was pretty sure that they'd know that there was no way he'd do that when they were in danger, now he just had to keep thirty yards behind the Bamboo Dragon van and see where they were taking them.
It turned out to be simpler than he thought, because they took them straight to the Bamboo Dragon. The left the van outside the front door of the restaurant when they took them inside, but Chuck knew where the kitchen entrance was, because he'd seen the cooks coming out when he was twelve or thirteen, so he quietly went around there. Luckily they still had the window in the door to let light in, so he saw Sarah and the others being pushed into the cool room in the back of the kitchen.
Unfortunately, most of the guards stayed in the kitchen area after they locked up his people, so he had to think of a way to get them out of there. He remembered that there always used to be black market fireworks peddlers hanging around Chinatown, and was pretty sure he could make a distraction that way, but he made sure he could pick the lock on the kitchen door quickly enough for this to work before he went looking for one. Once he'd confirmed that he could, he went hunting.
He didn't have to go far to find someone who hadn't been doing too good a job of selling their fireworks, so he had most of the bag of fireworks left. Now armed (of a sorts) Chuck went back to the Bamboo Dragon and as soon as the way was clear, he opened all the doors of the Bamboo Dragon van, lit a couple of the fuses and deposited the bag in the van before hoofing it around the kitchen entrance.
As soon as the fireworks in the van went off, all the guards ran straight out the front of the restaurant to see what the commotion was and Chuck let himself, making a beeline to the cool room to let them out. They didn't manage to get out of the kitchen before someone worked out that it WAS a diversion and sent the guards back in, though, so they then had eight or nine guards to take on.
Chuck pushed Lee down out of harm's way, but he grabbed a handful of kitchen knives etc and was using them to make Lo Pan's guards keep their heads down to level the playing field a little. When he saw Lo Pan burning rubber in his wheelchair to get out of there, a heavy cleaver thrown into the crack behind the door from across the kitchen meant that there was no way the door was going to open until it was removed. Mei-Ling saw the cleaver bite into the gap, and the look she turned on him was quite calculating.
They secured Lo Pan and all his guards, and called for pick up and clean up crews. Chuck and Sarah took Mei-Ling and Lee back to Casey's while Casey waited for the crews to arrive, Casey had needed to come back here to pick up his beloved Crown Vic anyway, so he had his ride home. They called it in to the General, who made arrangements for Lee to be delivered to State to return him to the Chinese Consulate (if it had been just him he probably would have gone with Mei-Ling, but he had a young family back in China).
After Mei-Ling and Lee had made their goodbyes, Sarah took Lee to the rendezvous with State, while Chuck waited with Mei-Ling. The conversation that they had was most interesting.
"Thank you, Chuck, without you I would have not managed to save my brother, I am in your debt."
"Don't worry about it, I'm just glad Lee is safe."
"You are a very strange man Chuck, you put yourself and your team at risk for a cause that has nothing to do with you, and then you go out of your way to make arrangements for a pleasant life for an enemy agent that you have no reason to trust, and yet I am certain that you have no agenda to what you are doing." "Please understand, when I say that I am in your debt, I am making a commitment, if there is ever anything that you need of me, call and I will deliver."
"Thank you Mei-Ling, but it isn't necessary."
"Do your partners know that you are Agent Smith, or Agent Carmichael?"
"What?…..I'm afraid that I don't know what you're talking about Mei-Ling."
She gave him a look which told him that there was no point in trying to deny it. "Yes, but no-one outside of our group does, and I would appreciate it if it stayed that way."
"Chuck, you risked yourself to save my family, I would not betray you."
"As a matter of interest, how did you know?"
"I didn't at first, but the more I saw you do, the more I recognised the patterns of what you do, many people back home, myself included, study you and admire your work, even though you have caused the People's Republic considerable difficulty with the many times you have thwarted their plans over the years. I must admit, your youth is a surprise, has it always been you, or did you take over from someone else?"
"No, it was always me, I started fairly young….Mei-Ling, would you be interested in working with my team?"
"That would be impossible, they would never allow a defector like me work with someone as important as you are."
"I'm pretty sure I can make it happen, if you were interested in joining the team?"
"I still do not believe that it would be possible, but if it were, it would be my honour to be a part of your team."
"Great, now we just have to change the arrangements, hold on." He brought up the video like with the General again.
"General, we have a change of plans, Mei-Ling needs to go to you to give all her depositions, because once she's done, we're going to add her to the team."
"What? Chuck, that's not possible, we can't have a Chinese Agent in our team!"
"Well as we've already informed you, she isn't a Chinese Agent any more, they've burned her for trying to rescue her brother and she's changed sides because of that. As with our other additions, Ms Cho has a wealth of skills that would enhance our capabilities, so it makes much more sense for us to use them for our benefit, rather than put her in some dead end existence in Bumfuck Idaho."
"Chuck, I really don't think we can manage this one."
"General, I will be preparing the case for Ms Cho's new identity and her addition to our team, will I be presenting the case via yourself, or will I be presenting it directly?"
Her eyes flashed and he could almost see the steam coming out of her ears. "Don't take that tone with me young man! I'm still your superior officer!"
"I'm sorry Aunt D, but my question remains, who will be presenting it?"
I'll present it, but it'll need to be one hell of a case to get through!"
"Thanks Aunt D, I'll get the case to you tonight."
"I'll send Agent Miller to collect Ms Cho in the morning, you will be notified of the ETA, so you can bring her to the airport and hand her over to Agent Miller." "Beckman out" and she cut the link.
Mei-Ling stared at him "If anyone talked to their superior like that in China they would be shot!"
Chuck shrugged "She's not happy with me at the moment, but she'll get over it, because she knows I'm right, she's just having trouble admitting it."
At that point, they saw the headlights of Casey's car coming up the drive, so Chuck quickly explained to Mei-Ling how this would go, she'd be staying here for the night, and unfortunately she'd have to be locked inside a secure room. In the morning, they'd take her to the airport to turn her over to Agent Miller, who was part of their team and a friend. When they got back to D.C. she'd make her depositions of whatever information she was giving up for State and the Military, then she would be getting a new identity and added to the team. He stopped that point "How do you feel about Mei-Ling Chiang?"
She looked at him again "That would be fine." She tended to agree with the General, there was no way that this could work, but she did appreciate his efforts.
When Casey came in, Chuck filled him in on the new plans, they said their good nights and he walked up to his house. When he got home, Ellie was up, so he asked her if she could spare some sleepwear and other clothes for Mei-Ling (as she was closest to her in height and build), and trotted what she gave him down to Casey's.
When he got back he went into the workroom and started preparing the case that they'd need to support giving her a new identity, citizenship, and adding her to a government team. It took him four hours, but he thought what he put together was pretty much bullet proof. After he'd sent it off, he went to their room and crawled into bed with Sarah (who'd come in while he was working on preparing the case), because their agreement was that he WOULD come to bed if she was there when he was finished working, no more napping on the couch in the workroom.
In the morning, they confirmed when Carina's plane was supposed to arrive, got ready and headed to Casey's. While Casey and Mei-Ling were getting ready, Chuck checked to confirm that Lee was already on his way back to China (hopefully to his family) and left it up on screen for Mei-Ling. When Mei-Ling came out, Chuck pointed to the screen, which brought a smile to her face, and she thanked them again for helping save Lee.
They were waiting at the airport when the C-37 landed, and the minute the door opened, Carina came bounding out, greeting Sarah and Chuck, and even Casey with hugs. When she turned to Mei-Ling and greeted her in very good Chinese, Mei-ling's eyes widened, so far, with the exception of Major Casey, these people ALL spoke good Chinese, who were they?
Once the greetings were done, they went through the formal process of signing Mei-Ling over to Carina and they boarded the plane, the others waiting until the plane was taxiing out onto the runway before turning to go.
The had a very full day in the shop, especially since their catch up session the night before had been interrupted, so everyone was head down arse up most of the day. There was a distraction later in the afternoon when a video call came in from the General and she glowered at Chuck when she told him that his case had been accepted and they would begin processing everything for Ms Chiang while she was giving her depositions.
She then told him that the transfers for the building to Piranha Security and Technology were being processed, so he needed to arrange for $600 thousand to be transferred to the account he'd been given sometime over the next day or so. The Global Financial Crisis had pushed all the values down, so they'd have at least a few million more than expected to put towards the remodelling efforts now. She also noted that Roan had told her that he wanted to talk to him about some ideas he had on that front.
Chuck was intrigued. "I'll call him when I have a chance, thanks Aunt D, and I'm sorry about last night, but I'm confident that Mei-Ling will be as good for the team as Jeff and Anna were."
She looked at him resignedly. "I should know by now that you'll never stop tilting at windmills Chuck, but it's just so damn frustrating that you always prove to be right, no matter how ridiculous your position seems to be."
Sarah looked thoughtful when she said that, but Chuck just grinned and said "Sorry".
A little after that, Sarah ducked out for a while, and came back with a smile on her face, Chuck wasn't sure what she was up to, but he knew she was up to something.
He found what that something was when he got home that night, as there were half a dozen large Don Quixote prints up around the house, in their bedroom, the workroom, and the gym. He just turned and looked at her but she said "What? When the General made the tilting at windmills crack it hit me that there's never going to be anyone that you're more like that Don Quixote, so it seemed fitting." he had to laugh at that as he pulled her in for a kiss.
