Don't worry, I haven't packed it in, just been catching up with things and getting stories started over in the 'punk 'verse. I've also been having a trip down memory lane with some of the old stories again, Armadilloi's in particular. Wish I could have met him, from the stories he wrote, I'm betting he would have been one hell of an interesting character.
Usual disclaimers, no rights to any characters portrayed, this isn't the real world and it's not a Disney Princess story.
Pasadena - April 2009
Now that Dasha had come out to her mother about Anna, they weren't worrying about hiding what they had in the breakfast meetings any more, which was making things more relaxed again. They'd had to get a bigger table in there though, given that the group had almost doubled from the original six, but as Dasha had seen, these unconventional meetings with food, laughter, hugs and kisses were more effective and achieved more than formal meetings did, so no-one was complaining. They tended to take shifts at the cooking now though, with Chuck, Ellie, John and Emma stepping in at different times, and sometimes Vinnie, Sarah and Anna as well, but that worked well as no-one was tied up at the stove all the time.
Their next big operation came out of Chuck keeping up with his nerd cred, as he was looking into Roark Instruments' imminent Roark Instruments Operating System (or RIOS, as it was generally known) release like most nerds, but he got some Intersect flashes that were indicating that it was going to be used by Fulcrum as a distribution mechanism for targeted malware that was intended to collect sensitive government information. While they were discussing this, Chuck, Ellie and the others noted that Stephen was becoming more withdrawn and agitated than he'd been for a while, but they were tied up with what they needed to address this before RIOS was released and just put it down to him being away from D.C. for too long, and him needing to go back to take up his sessions with Dr Dreyfus again.
When they tried to get into the Roark Instruments systems, they found that the security was rather stronger than they expected. When Chuck reported that it wasn't likely that he'd be able to get past the defences to see what was on the systems without setting off alarms from the intrusion detection systems in the time frame that they had available, they had to accept his suggestion that the only way to get what they needed in time was for him to go in and get access from inside. Sarah rejected any suggestion that he was going in alone, but wasn't at all happy when he agreed with her, then turned around to say that the only person who could go in with him was Anna, as only the two of them were in the correct age bracket and had the necessary qualifications, with their degrees Stanford and the ability to fight their way out of trouble.
Sarah took Chuck back to the Keep to 'talk' about this, but eventually gave in to the logic of his argument, so while they were up there they went into the workroom (or rather Dulcinea's Boudoir, as Anna named it) and Chuck brought up the available jobs at RI. As Chuck had expected, coming up to the release of something as big as RIOS, RI was clamouring for qualified people to address the thousand and one issues that were coming up as it deadline drew closer, so he just put in applications for two of the jobs. He wasn't too surprised when they both got calls to come in for interviews immediately within the hour.
They'd both remade themselves into the expected image (using the looks they'd adopted for their PS&T, LSS or CCE jobs), and headed straight to RI in the cheapest looking cars from the pool. Their 'interviews' were sub half hour 'rubber stamp' sessions and they were asked to start immediately, RI was getting desperate. Of course, they could quite understand that, as less than three days from the release, RIOS was full of bugs, and the vast majority of the people their were mediocre at best, but closer to incompetent if you wanted to be brutally honest.
Glendale - April 2009
As soon as they were inside, they started attaching the remote access devices to the computer networks and security systems and piping out the RIOS source code for Jeff and the others to start wade through it, they also started hacking into the systems and sending out copies of any relevant information on the systems, but they had a problem. This was that they couldn't find anything very incriminating on the RI systems. With the intersect Intel that there was malware inside RIOS that specifically targeted Government systems, they were sure that they'd find evidence of Fulcrum or any other nefarious activities on the systems, so they couldn't understand why they didn't.
While Chuck and Anna were working on the inside, Jeff and the rest of the tech team, including Stephen and Leslie, were searching for the malware in the RIOS source, and they were getting as frustrated as Chuck and Anna were, as they couldn't find any. By the time they got to the day of the release, they were starting to wonder whether the Intersect flash had been wrong, but they'd organised invites to the RIOS release event anyway for Sarah, Carina, Zondra and Dasha, plus Mei Ling, Sydney, Vinnie and Javier, all with their appearances changed enough to stop them attracting too much attention.
As well as the rest of their efforts, Chuck and the others were wading through blueprints, utility usage and everything else for the Roark Instruments buildings, and Chuck was getting more and more aggravated, as he KNEW that he was seeing something wrong here, but he just couldn't put his finger on it.
It didn't help that the more they were involved with Roark Instruments, the more Stephen was getting irrational, going on and on about how Ted Roark had stolen his designs and that was what he'd built his empire and fortune on. Mary explained that Roark had been one of Graham's minions who'd been added to the Omaha Project over Stephen's objections, and that he'd always been making advances to her, until she'd eventually broken his wrist for trying to stick his hand up her skirt. After she'd made it QUITE clear just what she'd do to him if he ever came near her or any of the other women associated with the project again, he'd scampered off to hide whenever he saw her, like the spineless rat that he was. That still didn't explain what Stephen was going on about though, and Stephen didn't seem inclined to tell them anything other than moan and carry on about it.
Most of the remote access devices also contained payloads of particularly virulent malware that would corrupt and wipe out all of the code and storage on any system attached to the networks, and they'd taken a leaf from the book of those who created the Trojan cipher that was used to wipe out the Intersect Facility and added the mechanisms to get through gateways into any other systems connected to the networks. The purpose of this was so that, if they found any evidence that the expected malware WAS in RIOS, and they couldn't halt the release, any of them inside the building at the time of the release could activate the Armageddon devices from their phones. The mechanisms were also coded so that it didn't matter how many signals they received, all it took was one to get through. When the activation signal was received they'd drop any connections to the outside world and release the malware, wiping out and destroying any and all systems within Roark Instruments.
On the morning of the release, they were scanning the copies of the RIOS code that they extracted again and they found the proof that they were after, because overnight, the version that was complied from the 'clean' source had been replaced by one that included malware, even though the source was still free of malware. Jeff and the others jumped onto reverse engineering the code to find out what the malware was meant to do, while Chuck tried to get to Ted Roark to get him to stop the release until it could be cleaned.
As the release time drew closer, Chuck became increasingly suspicious of what was going on in RI, because he kept getting blocked from talking to Roark. Eventually, about ten minutes before the release was meant to happen, he threw caution to the wind and physically pushed his way through to Roark. "Mr Roark, Ted, you have to stop the release! I was looking at the code and there's large amounts of malware in it!"
At that moment, any doubts he may have had about his suspicions went out the window, because the affable, bumbling buffoon disappeared. Roark looked around to ensure that no-one but his people were in earshot, and then barked in a cold, unemotional voice. "Got rid of him before anyone else hears anything! Do it quietly though, and make sure that there's no evidence linking him back to us!"
Two of the guards grabbed him and started hustling him out. Chuck flashed on them when they grabbed him, identifying them as Fulcrum, and kicking himself swept a look over the rest of the crowd around Roark, getting confirmation from the Intersect (presumably Fulcrum's) that nearly all of them were Fulcrum. He presumed that he'd just missed the triggers on the others to confirm their part in it, and while Roark wasn't in the Intersect as Fulcrum, there was enough in the flashes on the others to confirm that he was definitely part of it, and from what he was seeing, Roark was very high in the organisation, of not the boss.
As soon as they were out of sight from anyone else, Chuck took out the two guards who were dragging him away and contacted Sarah, Anna and the others to get out and activate the Armageddon devices as soon as they were out of the building, adding that they only had five minutes to do it! He lied to Sarah, telling her that he was currently leaving the building by another route, because he was going after Roark. He was putting his money on the fact that Roark was the key to bringing down Fulcrum, and he wasn't about to miss his chance of grabbing him.
He took the weapons, access cards and anything else of use or identification from the bodies, stashed them away in an empty room and headed back to where he'd seen Roark as quickly as he could with out attracting attention. The others activated the Armageddon devices before he got all the way back there, and he stopped to activate the infrared mode of the imaging glasses that he was wearing so he could see where he was going. Even with the glasses, having the lights out and smoke everywhere from the fires started by the wiring shorting out, made it hard to see anything.
When he got back to where he'd seen Roark, waiting to go up on stage, he saw Roark being hustled away from the stage, it wasn't hard to identify him, as a six foot four fat man stood out. Chuck kneecapped the man in front of him to trip him up and slow him down, but these must have been his elite guards, because they immediately identified where the shot came from and rained lead down on him. There wasn't much Chuck could do other than watch the guards hustle Roark through a door which somehow still seemed to have active security systems, so as there was no point in shooting the guards once Roark was gone, Chuck just slipped away.
He did stop to drag the two bodies out of the room where he's stashed them and stage them so that they'd appear to have died as a result of the explosions and fires before heading for the foyer. Chuck had an advantage over the hundreds of panicking nerds who were trying to find their way out of the building, in that he could actually see where he was going. As he was heading for the door, he tucked the two handguns he'd taken from the guards into the back of his jeans and pulled his shirt down over them and when he got close to the foyer, started pretending to feel his way along like everyone else.
When he came out of the building though, he knew that he was in trouble, as his wife had heard the fire fight over his mic AFTER he'd supposedly left the building, so she was looking for him and saw him come out the same way they had. Given that he told them that he'd already left by another exit over ten minutes before, before they'd activated the Armageddon devices actually, she wasn't happy at all. She didn't give him a chance to make any excuses, as soon as he came up to her, she slapped him hard enough to loosen his teeth and stormed off. He hadn't had a chance to recover from that before Anna did the same, but from the other side (Sarah was right handed, while Anna was left handed), so he was standing there reeling as they left.
He didn't get any sympathy from any of them, except maybe Sydney and Javier, as the others could all relate to the girls' position. Chuck could too, for that matter, he'd just thought that that would be his best chance to grab Roark and didn't think that he could afford to let it go without trying. Zondra and Vinnie took his keys and pushed him into the car he came in to drive him back to the Castle, but not a word was said on the drive.
When they to the Castle, Chuck thanked them and then went straight up to the Keep, as he knew that Sarah would have gone up there to be alone. He was slapped another three or four times over the next fifteen to twenty minutes, but her tears and pain hurt him more. When they'd accepted each other's positions and kissed and made up, they went into the boudoir to start a videoconference to inform Auntie Di and the others about Roark's Fulcrum involvement and confirm that they'd stopped RIOS going out.
While they were talking, Chuck suddenly started swearing. They were all shocked at the language he was using, none more so than Ellie, who'd talked to him nearly every day of his life and had never heard him using those words. Eventually Sarah shouted at him to get through, and asked what he was swearing about?
Chuck brought up the utilities usage and heat images of the Roark facility, but while Anna, Jeff and Leslie understood what they were seeing, he had to explain it to the others. "THIS is what wasn't making sense before, I don't know why I couldn't see it! It's so fucking obvious!"
Sarah squeezed his hand "Chuck, what are you talking about?"
He pointed at some charts on the screen "That." He could see from Sarah's, and the faces on the screen that they weren't getting it. "I'm pointing right at it!….." Still nothing. "The power usage is twice what can be explained by the visible portion of Roark industries, and now that the power usage for that side has just about stopped, RI is still using nearly fifty percent of the power it was before."
Chuck drew a circle on the plans "There was an active security door here that Roark was taken through when I was trying to grab him. All the access systems, computers and everything else here (drawing a circle around the area where the Roark Instruments offices and computer rooms were) were fried by the Armageddon devices, so that shouldn't have been possible. For all that, even though I thought it was strange, I didn't stop to question it. I'm an idiot, everything in this part (drawing a circle around the area on the other side of that door) must have totally separate power, networks, everything. And here…" He pointed to another screen with a heat image "While the RI offices are only showing a few hot spots from fires, that area obviously has a lot of serious equipment running, my money's on large computers, in fact….. Fuck! That's an Intersect computer, I'm sure of it! Nothing else is configured quite like that. Anyway, we're going to have to get in there, tonight, before they have time to clear out."
Sarah and the others were shaking their heads, it was so obvious now he'd pointed it out. Well, not the Intersect part but they didn't doubt that he was right about that.
They laid out the plans for the operation there, but no-one noticed that Stephen had slipped away while they were talking. Afterwards, Mary was tied up in the activities to get the raid organised, so she just presumed that he was working on things in the Novatech labs.
Given that they expected the best of Fulcrum would be in there, they took a team of sixteen of their best into the facility, with another dozen out at the vans with Ellie, as the commander of the operation, and the tech team. They'd also have a few FBI strike teams to provide additional support. Of all of them, Chuck and Mei Ling could be the most stealthy, so it was decide that they'd slip in first, to try and attach the remote access devices to the security system so that Anna and the others could take it over. Mary wasn't at all happy that she was part of the backup team, but she had to concede that if Roark saw her, it could blow the operation.
After the sun went down and the emergency services had packed it in for the day, they went in. The passes that Chuck took form the two guards got them in the door, and they instantly checked for cameras. When Chuck saw the camera sweeping bank towards them, he grabbed Mei Ling and pulled her into the dead zone for the cameras, then hoisted her up to stand on his shoulders when she had what she needed to deal with it in her hands. Standing on Chuck's shoulders, Mei Ling bared the wiring for the Camera and attached the remote access device, staying there until Anna announced that they had control of the cameras and then hopping down so that Chuck could do the same with the security and access systems. Anna's confirmation there was just to unlock the door, so Chuck pulled it open to let the others in.
Anna and the tech team prevented them showing up on the security monitors and warned them whenever anyone was coming as they swept the facility carefully, adding remote access/malware devices when they found good locations to attach them. As the remote access devices became active, Anna and the others started getting into the systems to copy off what they could. Their first priority was the Intersect files, but some were working on getting whatever else they could off the systems at the same time. They still wanted to know where the hell Stephen had gone to, because he was supposed to be working on this as well, but he'd disappeared when they were ready to go.
The directive that they were going with was to put down anyone who attacked them, but capture anyone who they could extract information from if possible. So far, everyone they'd seen went for their guns and/or tried to raise an alarm, so they were put down with shots from the VALs as quickly and quietly as possible.
When Chuck heard Roark's voice, he signalled the others to be quiet as they came up on his position. He worked his way forward until he could to run a camera around the corner to see what Roark up to, but that showed him another problem, because Roark was talking to Stephen, and they had over twenty heavily armed guards around them. Seeing Chuck's reaction, Sarah knew that they had a new problem, so she came forward to see what had set him off. When the others heard her whisper "Oh fuck no!", they knew that they were in trouble.
Chuck checked the area around the corner to scope out what cover was available and then they retreated down the corridor far enough to fill the others in on the plan of attack. While the others were looking at the recording on the camera, Chuck quietly called to his mother and sister in the van, whispering "I found Dad, he's in here and Roark's got him."
The others grinned at his mother's response "Get him back please Sweetie, so I can kill him!"
When the sniggers died down, Chuck pointed out the points of cover that existed around the corner and they agreed who was going where, and when they were ready, they moved. Some ran to their cover, some slid across the floor, but they were all engaging targets in seconds. The problem was that the guards around Roark and Stephen were geared up for war and they were all wearing heavy ballistic armour, so while the impact of shots to the torso staggered them, they weren't enough to take them down at over a hundred yards.
Roark proved then that the bumbling buffoon was only a facade, because he reacted in seconds, grabbing Stephen and dragging him through the door behind them with about half a dozen of the guards.
As soon as they saw that shots to the torso weren't taking the guards down, they all shifted their aiming points to head and neck shots. The fifteen or who stayed to fight a rear guard action went down within fifteen to twenty seconds after that, but that had given Roark enough time to get out and have the door manually sealed behind him to slow them down.
They wasted ten seconds while Anna tried to release the door then Chuck barked "Blow it!" A few charges took out the primary attachment points then a kick from Chuck sent the remains of one half down the hall. As they ran for the next door, the others looked at each other, thinking about what it would feel like to be on the receiving end of a kick like that and promising themselves not to spar with Chuck again until he'd calmed down.
They went through the next few manually locked doors the same way before they ran into a problem, as they had TWO manually locked doors, as Roark had obviously sent at least one of his men down another corridor to muddy the trail. Chuck just barked for both of them to be blown and told Casey to take half of the team down one corridor while he took the other.
When his group exited the building and came under fire from one position, Chuck realised that he'd chosen the wrong door and called it through to Casey. Mary quickly got Chuck's location and took off running with two of the shadow team, taking the guard who was keeping them pinned down alive in case he could tell them anything useful.
Casey came out at a loading bay that was empty, but smelling vehicle exhaust quite clearly in there he knew that they'd just missed them. He called for Anna to bring up the video from the loading bay to tell them what they were in. Anna left the others to keep sucking off what was on the Fulcrum systems while she brought up the security footage from the loading bay. She could confirm that Roark and Stephen got into one of the two SUVs that left, and could give a good estimate of make, model and colour, but the cameras were far too low resolution to get the license plates, the images just couldn't be cleaned up enough to read what they said.
By this time, Chuck had reached the van and he took over one of the stations, hacking into traffic cam and security cam systems to locate those two SUVs. He was the maestro with this stuff, so Anna left him to it and went back to ensuring that they got everything they could off the Fulcrum systems before they wiped out the facility. The rest of the team had already gone back in to collect whatever physical evidence and external storage that they could find (as well as the cipher) and set thermite and explosive charges on all of the computing and storage systems.
As soon as they'd collected whatever they could off the systems, they were going to trigger the Armageddon devices to wipe out any code and data on the systems and fry what they could, then they were going to set off the thermite and explosive charges. Once they'd finished, nothing left would be recoverable from the Fulcrum systems, which would hopefully mean that they'd destroyed the last of the Intersect systems.
While this was going on, Chuck had picked up the trail of the two SUVs and traced them to where they changed vehicles. By then he'd hacked into the satellite imagery systems and was using them to get visibility of areas where there was no traffic or security camera footage. That was how he identified what vehicles they transferred into, and saw that Roark still had his father with him. The vehicles split up again to muddy the trail more, but Chuck handed off the SUV with two of the guards in it to someone else to track while he stayed with the one that had Roark and his father in it.
He'd also taken over a predator drone by the time they swapped vehicles, as he expected that they'd be heading out of town, so he was watching them via the drone and the satellites when they did so.
When Anna and the others finished getting what they wanted out of the systems, she looked at Chuck, but didn't want to interrupt him while he was tracking Roark and his father, especially as the malicious way he was muttering "Run, Fatboy, Run!" was a little disturbing (as it was ruining her memories of what had been a fun movie for her), so she turned to Ellie. Ellie nodded and drew her thumb across her throat, leaving no doubt as to her orders. Anna told the others to can their links into the facility and then activated the Armageddon devices, waited a minute and triggered the thermite charges, waited another minute and triggered the explosive charges, then she sent the team back in to confirm that everything had been destroyed.
Chuck was still tied up with controlling the drone, satellites and traffic cameras as the SUV with Roark and his father was heading north, so Sarah fastened the seatbelt across her husband's lap and then took the wheel, as they had to get away before anyone came to investigate the explosions in the building and she didn't trust anyone else to drive smoothly enough not to disturb him. Chuck had kissed her distractedly and murmured "Love you" as she strapped him into his seat, and when she softly called "Are you ready Baby?" he nodded, saying "Yes thanks Honey" without looking away from the screens, determined to ensure they didn't lose that fucking SUV.
Pasedena – April 2009
When they were back in the Castle's parking garage, they plugged the van into the Castle's power and systems and left Chuck, Sarah and Mary there, they knew that Ellie and Casey would handle everything else while they were tracking Stephen. The SUV went through Barstow and suddenly went off road near an abandoned drive in, heading up the arroyo behind it until concealed doors opened to allow it to drive into a tunnel. It only showed up on the heat sensors once it was closed again. The Fulcrum Intersect identified this location at Black Rock, one of their fall back bases.
With Stephen's location locked down, Chuck moved the Predator back to where it was supposed to be and released control of it to the Air Force again after wiping the logs of any record of where it had been or what it had been recording. He set the satellite imagery to keep recording the Black Rock site, then they headed down to the Dungeon, to go to the bathroom and pick up where they left off.
Once he was ensconced in the operations centre, Chuck identified a satellite with ground penetrating radar as well as the other imagery systems he needed and took it over to move it into the correct orbit to capture the Black Rock site properly. He also sent a request for three Super Stallions to bring three SEAL platoons up from Coronado and pick up the team and their equipment on the way through at around 0200.
He suggested that the others try to get some rest while he planned the strike, but he couldn't get Sarah to go further than the couch behind him to take a nap while he worked. Ellie brought him food and coffee and helped him, as she shared his ability to get by with little rest, and wouldn't be part of the team going in either. They made arrangements for the requisite trucks and vans to be waiting for them far enough away from the Black Rock site to ensure that they wouldn't hear the helicopters coming in.
They'd transfer a command unit much like what they used in their control vans into one of the vans and Ellie would run the operation from there, they'd have Anna, Jeff and Skip handling the technical support. The SEAL teams would handle things on the surface and provide backup while they went in. If things got hairy enough down there, the SEALs would join in. Chuck, Sarah, Casey, Carina, Zondra, Dasha and Mary would each go in with three from the shadow team, as they had to go through the facility to locate and extract Stephen and Roark, as well as any other captives and intel they found, because when everyone was out, that site was getting hit with enough bunker busters to ensure that nothing survived.
Everyone was up, fed, watered and briefed in plenty of time to get to the site where they were being picked up before Super Stallions arrived. Chuck, Sarah and Ellie filled in the three SEAL platoon leaders on the plan on the flight up, also mentioning that if everything went to plan, they'd have at least two and possibly more extra passengers for the trip back. They also showed them the ground piercing radar and other imagery that Chuck got with the Air Force satellite that he'd appropriated.
This was a bit of a risk, as while he'd returned it to its regular orbit, scrubbed any records of what he'd done with it and inserted records in the system (in the wrong place) to show that it had actually been diverted off in the OTHER direction for a routine test, if the Navy talked to the Air Force for some reason, the truth would come out. But Chuck's view of things was that they needed the intel to do their jobs and keep their men safe, and there appeared to be a lot more men in the bunker than they'd been expecting, so it wasn't debatable in his book. Besides, these men had worked with Commander Carmichael and his team before, and they were quite aware that just about everything he did was classified above top secret, so he wasn't too worried about them talking.
Outside Barstow - 0230
The trucks and vans were waiting for them in the appointed place and they quickly manhandled the command unit into the selected van, securing it there before everyone mounted up and they headed for Black Rock. They put their 'command van' out of sight at a location within range of the Remote Access Devices, and released a swarm of drones. The computers in the command unit handled their basic flight functions, so all the humans at the command consoles had to do was direct them when they saw something that required closer attention. Using the drones, they located and mapped out the coverage of all the cameras and security devices on the surface, and identified they best options for getting into the system without detection.
Chuck and Mei Ling went in first again, but the camera where she needed to attach the remote access device was fifteen feet off the ground this time, so they had to add Sarah to their circus act. They slipped into position under the camera, being careful to avoid it or any of the other cameras capturing them. Chuck crouched down and Sarah stood on his shoulders before doing the same so that Mei Ling could clamber up onto HER shoulders. Mei Ling carefully stood up first, then Sarah, and finally Chuck. Sarah marvelled at the way that he rose smoothly and surely as if he didn't have two other people standing on his shoulders, mentally shaking her head at yet more proof of how special her man was.
As soon as Anna confirmed that she had control of the cameras, Mei Ling edged back and hopped down like she had in the Fulcrum facility at Roark Instruments, though she was more careful here as she was twice as high off the ground. Sarah waited until she was clear and then did the same, giving her husband a hug before he hurried over to get the remote access device into the access and security systems. The others converged as he did this, so as soon as Anna took control of the system and opened the hatch under the bouncing pony in the play yard, they started sliding down the ladder into the bunker, using one hand and their feet to brake their descent while they held their weapons in the other hand.
Chuck had Mike and Louie with him, as their team's primary target was Roark, and they'd be tranqing him and carrying him out. The only thing he let slow him down was plugging remote access devices into the network and attaching them to the camera and security wiring as they went. Anna had located Roark using the security cameras and was directing Chuck to his location. As he went, Anna was whispering in his ear that the Fulcrum Roark seemed to be a different kettle of fish to the sleazebag that he played in public, as he was sleeping alone and his quarters were all business, none of the decadence he showed in public.
When they reached his quarters, Chuck slung the VAL and drew a pair of tranq pistols, he wanted to put him under before he could raise an alarm so he wanted to put as many darts as he could into him as quickly as possible. As soon as the others signalled that they were ready, Chuck got Anna to release the door and Mike to throw it open so that he came through the door fast, aiming at the bed. Roark woke instantly and reached for a gun on the bedside table, but Chuck put four darts into his neck in under a second, with at least two getting him in the carotid artery, so he slumped, unconscious, before he reached the side of the bed.
Chuck notified Anna 'FATBOY captured, repeat, FATBOY captured' while the others came in and closed the door. They secured Roark hand and foot and taped his mouth, then they turned over his quarters looking for information. When they found the safe, Chuck got to work cracking it while Mike ripped the drives out of Roark's computer, adding them to the files, phones, laptop and external storage that had already gone into the bag they brought. It didn't take him long to get into the safe, and when he did, he was surprised how big it was and how much was in it. As he was shovelling everything into a bag, he noticed that a lot of the paperwork and designs were in his father's handwriting, but he didn't have time to stop and look at anything.
When they were sure that they'd gotten everything (even going so far as to check the mattress), Chuck and Zoe secured the bags with what they collected across their backs, Mike picked up Roark in a fireman's carry and they headed out once Chuck sent 'FATBOY enroute'. At the ladder, Chuck and Louie went up first to haul Roark up, Mike following to catch him if they slipped, and to get moving as quickly as possible when they got him to the surface. Zoe kept glancing up, and as soon as they pulled Roark through the hatch, she slung her VAL and scampered up the ladder like a monkey, coming through the hatch as Mike was settling Roark across his shoulders again and they took off.
While they were doing this, Mary and her team were collecting Stephen and any information worth getting in his lab, and Sarah and the other four teams were collecting any information and external storage that they could find, taking down and stashing the bodies of anyone they came across. They did find two other scientists there, Howard Busgang and Jonas Zarnow, so they tranqed and secured them and carried them out as well. The fact that Dr Busgang was also locked up seemed to indicate that he was there against his will, while the fact that Zarnow wasn't made him a questionable element.
When Chuck got back to the 'command van', he called for the F-16s with the Bunker Busters, but told them to hold off until he authorised the drop as he still had people inside. He notified the three platoon leaders that the F-16s were on their way and to pull their men back as far as they could while keeping watch on the entrances.
Stephen tried to talk to Chuck when Mary brought him in, but Chuck's response was "Shut up and get out of the way. If any of our people are hurt in this, I'll make you rue the day you were born!"
When Sarah turned up with her team and Dr Busgang, the relief on Chuck's face was palpable, and they threw decorum to the winds as they kissed. None of them were that surprised when Casey's team was the last to leave the bunker, and as soon as they shut the hatch, Chuck stuck his head into the van and asked Anna whether they had everything off the systems? Anna checked with Jeff and Skip and when they agreed that they thought that they had everything of use, Chuck said "Wipe them!" and called for the bombing runs to begin, telling the platoon leaders to get their men further back.
Five of the SEALs were using laser designators to 'light up' their targets, but it was still damned impressive when the first bunker buster from one F-16 went straight up the narrow tunnel that the SUV had gone into, and then he dropped two more on one diagonal across the bunker while the other F-16 crossed his flight path, slightly higher up, as he dropped two more bunker busters on the other diagonal. They were only small bunker busters, but they were still bunker busters and the concussive force was phenomenal.
The bombs were timed to go up together, and when they did, it was impressive the way the entire area of the bunker and tunnel rose into the air, then settled back down to form a depression. They were quiet for a moment, and then Chuck called Auntie Di and asked her to notify the commander of Fort Irwin to get his unit down here take over the site, and the Director of the FBI to get his team up there to take control. He notified her of the other two they extracted with their primary targets, and their probable status, then cut the call so that she could get things moving.
As they had to wait there for the Army and FBI, Chuck called the Super Stallions in to load them up. Two thirds of the SEALs were still out, watching for anyone who may have managed to get out and were trying to escape, but everyone else was loading the equipment into the Super Stallions while they were waiting.
They'd administered the antidote to Roark, in case they needed him to answer any questions, and he was trying to put on his 'Ted' act again. The girls didn't appreciate the looks he was giving him, so Chuck took the easy way out to stop him, he just cut another length of duct tape and applied it across his eyes. Carina grinned at Chuck, saying "You know that he'll lose his eyebrows and lashes when that tape comes off?"
Chuck shrugged, "If he wants to complain, I'll show him what I was going to do originally, just wrap it around his head a few times. If I do that, he'll lose more than his eyebrows and lashes when we rip it off."
She grinned and stepped up to kiss him on the cheek "I like the way you think Chuckie!"
When everything had been transferred from the trucks and vans to the Super Stallions, they thanked the drivers who'd delivered them and let them get back and try to get some sleep.
Fifteen minutes later, the trucks from the Fort Irwin arrived, but they were surprised to see the Commander of Fort Irwin had come along to see what the hell was going on down here, not who they expected to see at 0350 at all. Chuck respectfully introduced himself, Commander Charles Carmichael United States Navy, and Casey, Lieutenant Colonel John Casey, United States Marine Corps, but advised that he was not at liberty to discuss the operation.
He also explained that they were waiting on a team from the FBI, who would be taking control of the clean up operation. He stopped then, cocking his head and saying "Ah, that's them coming now", which worried the General, because it was five minutes before he could hear the helicopter.
The General looked at Chuck and asked "How the hell did you hear that five minutes ago?" Chuck just smiled "We've been pinned down and desperately waiting to be pulled out of the fire enough times that we're able to pick up the first hint of the sound of a Black Hawk General." A very impressed General shook hands with both of them and went to oversee his people taking over from the SEALs and Casey snorted when he was out of earshot.
"You've never waited to be extracted in the time we've worked together, you had an ap on your phone alert you when the FBI's Black Hawk was approaching, didn't you?"
Chuck grinned at him "Hey, it makes the regulars feel a bit of kinship with us if they think we do things the way they do, and it was easier than having him standing here, asking us questions."
When the FBI's Black Hawk landed, Chuck officially handed over the site to them and they departed with the SEALs. Half an hour later, they touched down in the park where they'd picked up the team and they quickly off loaded everything, thanking the SEALs and aircrews and waving them off. They were back at the Castle in less than twenty minutes, passing the cops who were coming to investigate more reports of helicopters in the middle of the night on the way.
In the Dungeon, they apologised to Dr Busgang, but told him he'd have to stay in custody until his story was confirmed. He was philosophical about it, as he was a lot more comfortable now and he wasn't afraid of these people, they weren't at all like Roark's people. Zarnow wasn't given any explanation, he had the tape ripped off his mouth, taking a few chunks of skin with it, then he was thrown in a cell and locked in.
Roark didn't go to a cell, he went straight into an interrogation room. At first he was hopeful when his restraints were removed, but his arms and legs were strapped to a chair and then he heard the ones who'd strapped him in leave. He heard lighter footsteps entering, but they stopped beside him for a while as though whoever it was was looking at him.
Suddenly the tape was ripped from his eyes, taking his eyebrows and lashes and fair bit of skin with it, as that woman had been saying. He was trying to tell the bastard what he thought of them, trying being the operative word as his mouth was still taped up, but he froze when his vision cleared enough to see who it was, because it was Mary Fucking Jaworski! That bitch had terrified him a long time before Graham had his fun telling him all the things she'd done as the KGB's infamous Frost Queen. The fact that she was wearing a plastic coverall, and rubber gloves and safety glasses, with a face mask hanging around her neck just made him more terrified, because that gave him a pretty good idea of what she was going to so to him.
Mary gave him and evil smile "Hello Ted" She looked down at what had started dripping off the chair he was strapped to and the smile broadened "I see you remember me then?" "Oh, I'm sorry, I guess it's hard to talk with this on." With that, she ripped the tape off his mouth, tearing more skin away. "Now, we're going to have a little talk, and you're going to tell me everything I want to know. Because if you don't Ted, I'm likely to get angry."
She leaned in a little and said quietly "Don't make me angry Ted, you wouldn't like me when I'm angry." He just looked at her, horrified and she laughed, shaking her head "Oh come on Ted, don't tell me you didn't like The Hulk? Stephen used to make we watch re-runs all the time, I thought all of you crowd were into it?"
Roark stared at her, thinking 'I'm going to die, this bitch is as much of a psychopath as Volkoff is!'
Mary questioned him for over an hour, and she didn't have to hurt him much to get him to start talking again when he tried to clam up, because he was terrified of her. When someone came into the room, Mary spun to abuse whoever had interrupted her when she was working and Roark got even more terrified, because she was furious as she started to turn, but his whimpering litany of "I'm going to die, I'm going to die" stopped when she registered who it was and her face softened.
His relief was short lived, as he realised that it was the one who was the commander of this operation, and his eyes had terrified him as well, as had his voice as he'd explained to that woman what he'd do to him if he said anything about having his eyes taped over. When she turned around and said "You remember Charlie, don't you Ted, my baby boy?" Roark's blood ran cold, 'Oh fuck! They're both psychopaths! If she doesn't kill me, he will!'
The man, Charlie, whispered in her ear, and the smile on her face turned grim. She stretched up to kiss him on the cheek and then pushed him towards the door "Go, you don't want to see this Sweetie!" He bent down to kiss her on the cheek and whispered something else in her ear. She nodded and pushed him towards the door again before moving back to the chair that Roark was tied to.
He thought she was frightening enough when this seemed to be some sort of crazy game to her, but he was now realising that he had been seeing her nice side then. NOW he thought he understood the name she was given, because the look she fixed on him gave him the feeling that she was seeing him as a frozen corpse. "Tell me about how you took all of Stephen's designs and inventions and used them to make your fortune."
Half an hour later, she had his confession which, with the corroborating evidence that Chuck had taken from his safe in Black Rock, would be enough to have all the money he made from Stephen's inventions returned to him. By the time she finished with Roark, he'd given up everything he knew. He took whatever he wanted when he was the rich and powerful Ted Roark with a private army to ensure that no-one stood in his way, but here? Strapped to a chair in a room with a psychopathic bitch who wanted to practice surgery on him? He would tell her whatever information she wanted if that stopped her carving him up! He wasn't about to try and fool her either, because he believed her when when she said that if she found out that he'd told her anything but the truth, no matter where they put him, she'd get to him, and nothing would stop the retribution.
Casey took Roark off to get himself cleaned up and get some clean clothes (he would have been happy throwing him back in his cell the way he was, but Chuck had insisted on some basic humanity), so Zarnow was panicking when Roark hadn't returned before they came to drag him out of his cell. When they pushed him into the interrogation room and the chair and floor around it had just been washed (to clean up the mess that Roark had made, pissing himself when he was strapped to the chair) and Mary Jaworski was covered up to prevent blood getting on her, he was convinced that she'd carved up Roark and they'd dumped his body somewhere. As a result, Mary didn't have to touch him, he started telling her everything he knew before they even finished strapping him into the chair. When he was taken back to his cell and saw Roark asleep in his cell, he felt like an idiot though.
Dr Busgang had fallen asleep soon after they put him in the holding cell, so as they were fairly certain that he was a victim here, they decided to let him sleep and talk to him in the morning. He was taken into a meeting room and had a pleasant talk with him. Chuck was watching this via a video feed (as was Auntie Di), and between the Intersect and what he was checking on-line, he was comfortable that they had enough confirmation of what Dr Busgang was telling them.
Auntie Di agreed that the best way to protect him was to take him into protective custody and have him working on the Intersect Project, so she broke into the meeting "I'm sorry Doctor Busgang, I am Brigadier General Diane Beckman. I must confess that I've been listening in on what you've been saying, and I've been having my people confirm what you've been telling us. I'm sure that you understand how we have to be careful in view of those creatures that we brought back from that site with you?"
He nodded "Yes General, of course."
She smiled and nodded "Good, now my people have told me that they have confirmed what you have told us, and it has been suggested to me that the best way to protect you would be to take you into protective custody and offer you a position within the Intersect Project. That way you could continue in your chosen field and be under the protection of our trusted security people. Now I'm not trying to pressure you into accepting this, but I feel compelled to inform you that your other options would be the Witness Protection, where you could never have anything to do with anything in your fields or contact anyone you knew for fear of leading people like Ted Roark to you. Another option would be to relocate you into a secure facility, you could work there but you would be stuck in a bunker all the time and you could never contact anyone. A third option would be for you to continue as you were, but I'm afraid that you wouldn't be under any government protection and it would only be a matter of time before you were taken by people like Roark. In the interests of full disclosure, under the first option, your communications with anyone outside of the group would be controlled as well, but I'm sure that we could make arrangements for you to talk to people you wanted to. Of these options, which would be your choice Doctor Busgang?"
He looked nervous "To be honest General, they all sound a little dangerous to me, but if I have to choose one of them, I'd choose option one."
She looked at him "Is that your choice then Doctor Busgang?"
He looked a little more confident as he nodded and said "Yes, General."
She smiled at him. "I think that you've made a good choice Doctor. You'll be brought back to Washington on the same plane as the prisoners, but I must ask you, for your own sake, don't talk to them. Actually, if you just sat there looking forlorn and not talking to anyone, you may be able to convince them that you're going to prison as well, and if the other side thought that you'd probably be safer as they'd be looking for you in the prisons."
He nodded again "I'll try that General."
She nodded as well. "We may as well start this now then, look upset and drag your feet when they take you back to your holding cell, and remember, don't talk to anyone."
Sarah smiled as she went to the door and called for Yuri. When he came in, she said "Doctor Busgang, this is Yuri." Yuri shook his hand and said "Pleased to meet you Doctor" and the Doctor replied in kind. Sarah went on then "Yuri, we're trying to convince those other two that Doctor Busgang has been arrested as well because he couldn't convince us that he wasn't part of what was going on there, so what we're going to do here is to have you drag him back to his cell, not too roughly mind you, but you can scowl because you look really imposing when you do that."
Yuri grinned "Mike's imposing, just ask him"
"Yes I know, but he can't help smiling if he sees Zoe, so that would ruin the effect."
Yuri bowed to concede defeat "So Doctor, are you ready to be dragged back to your cell?"
Dr Busgang shook his head with a laugh "It's hard to believe that you are the same people who destroyed that place a few hours ago, OK, wait, I have to make myself look scared again."
Yuri said "Would this help?" and suddenly leant forward with a fierce scowl on his face.
Busgang yelped and looked terrified and Sarah squeezed his and with a reassuring smile "That's perfect Doctor."
With that, Yuri kept that look on his face as he dragged the Doctor back to his cell, and all the Doctor had to do to keep in character was look at that expression.
Most of the team managed to catch a nap before they had to take their charges to the plane. They were delivering four to the plane, Roark, Zarnow, Dr Busgang, and Stephen. Mary, Chuck and Ellie told Stephen that he was going back to work with Dr Dreyfus full time, and he wouldn't be leaving until he was cleared by Dr Dreyfus. Stephen tried to say that he was a grown man and he wasn't going to be told what to do, especially by his own children, and he really got to see Commander Carmichael. He thought that his son had been frightening at Black Rock, but as the focus of his rage now, he found out why so many were so afraid of Commander Carmichael.
"You will do EXACTLY what you are told, and you will not say another word! You put my wife, my family and my team at risk last night because of your stupidity and your selfish pride, TWICE! First you ruined a planned incursion by my team into the Fulcrum facility at Roark Industries by going in there, WHERE YOU SHOULD NOT HAVE BEEN! by yourself and getting yourself caught. That meant that we had to engage in a fire fight which put my people at risk, two actually because we also came under fire when we were chasing after you. THEN, I had to track you to Black Rock by appropriating Air Force resources and get in enough resources to take on a major base at short notice, as well as destroying it to make sure that nothing dangerous was left. Which leads us up to your worst transgression, to save YOU, my wife and the rest of my family and team had to go into that place and risk being caught by vastly superior forces. If anything had happened to them, I would have killed you myself! So, DAD, you WILL go to Dr Dreyfus and put your best effort into working with him until he clears you to come back to the real world, otherwise, you'll be walking out that door and never speaking another word to any of us until the day you die!"
Stephen looked to Mary and Ellie for support, but their faces told him that they were in complete agreement with Chuck. He opened his mouth to say something, but Chuck had had enough, so he just stuck a tranq dart in his neck and authorised those escorting them to tranq him if he cause any trouble, along with Roark and Zarnow.
When they arrived in Washington, Stephen went to Dr Dreyfus's, Dr Busgang went to a secure living facility to catch up on rest while everything else was being set up for him, and Roark and Zarnow went into the deepest, darkest CIA/NSA black site there was.
Getting the news less than a week later that both of them had been killed in a prison brawl and were being cremated that day set off alarm bells for Diane and the DNI, and they scrambled into action so that Diane was there inside two hours with the authority of the DNI, the FBI SWAT team and a SEAL team from Naval Amphibious Base Little Creek. They stormed through the prison to the crematorium and stopped the ones who were trying to get the furnace hot enough to destroy any evidence before they could get through from the entrance.
The bodies were nothing like Roark and Zarnow, but the men there were more afraid of the one who'd ordered them to get rid of the bodies than they were of Diane, or at least they were until she ordered her personal security detail to strap them to the trays and push them into the oven. They held out until they were pushed in far enough for their hair to be burnt off, then they cracked.
They'd never know for sure whether the ones who died trying to stop the FBI and SEALs arresting the most senior people in the prison were part of their organisation, or just fiercely loyal, but the fact that all the senior people running the prison were part of it made anyone close to them questionable. The ones in charge refused to say a word, but the risk of someone like Roark being out there and working with the other side pushed them to extreme measures, so they were dragged down to the crematorium and treated the same way as the ones trying to get rid of the evidence had been.
They broke just as the others did, the fear of being burnt alive will do that to you. They didn't have a lot of information, but what they did have was enough to be a worry, they were on their way to Russia, to Volkoff Industries, oh shit!