Don't own Chuck
Morgan pulled into the parking lot of Trader Joe's and almost right behind them pulled in a late model Chrysler. Moran and Kat made their run inside two men from the Chrysler followed them inside while one man stood watch the last man slipped under Morgan's SUV to plant a tracking device.
"Morgan, you should grab the cooler and ice first," said Kat. "That way it will be cold and ready when we bring the ice cream and perishables out."
"Good idea," said Morgan. He went over grabbed a Styrofoam cooler then went to the check-out line to pay.
"Huston we have a problem," radioed one of the men tailing them. "The short bearded guy is about to come out. Are you done out there?"
"We're almost done here but not quite. We need a little more time. Stall him. Do something to slow him down."
"Like what? Geez I hate impromptu," said the man. He took out a pen from his pocket then stood in line behind Morgan. When he was almost there and not looking the man punched a hole in Morgan's ice cooler. "Hey man your cooler's got a hole in it," said the man.
"What? That can't be I checked it when I picked it up," said Morgan but looking inside there was a hole in the side.
"Crap, how did I overlook that? Now what?" said Morgan as he put his finger through the hole and wiggled it.
"Yeah and I can tell you how you overlooked it. Because it wasn't there before," said the woman behind the man. "I saw this guy jab it with a pen. I know what you're up to... You don't fool me I've seen your kind before. You're in a hurry to buy… what, a pack of gum? So you sabotage the person's goods in front of you so they have to leave the line and you jump ahead. This is Trader Joe's so what you're doing is claim jumping."
"Lady keep your voice down. I don't know what you're talking about. I was just pointing out to my friend here that there was a hole in his cooler."
"And like I said buddy you punched a hole in it with that pen you're trying to hide in your right hand. Maybe we ought to ask security to review the camera footage. If you look up above, there's a 360 smiling right back down at you. You'd better get to the back of the line and give this poor man money for his cooler."
"I don't know what..." the man started to say but as he looked around he noticed everyone was staring at him. "Okay, okay let me pull my wallet out," said the man but when he did the woman saw his pistol tucked under his jacket.
"Gun," yelled the woman as she pulled out of her bag a .44 Magnum, a dirty Harry gun. "On the ground face down and hands on your head. "You didn't expect this from a grandmother did you sucker. But I've been mugged three times there won't be a fourth not without blood."
"Listen crazy lady I've got a license to carry that. It's in my wallet along with my badge if you let me get up I can show you. Do you even have a permit to carry that canon?"
"I've got a permit from the State of California to carry a concealed firearm. My son Wilbur got it for me on my birthday. It's in my bag next to the card my other son got me for medical marijuana so mister I'm packing and I'm a toking. You'd better watch out. You're about to become cash and carry… I cash in your chips and someone else carries you out."
"Hold up let me check him out. Homeland," said Morgan as he showed everyone his badge. He reached inside and took out the man's wallet. "DEA," he read out loud but in his other hand Morgan found the pen. "You should feel ashamed of yourself an officer of the law. Here take your pen, take your badge and get out of here."
"You go and get yourself another cooler I'll watch your place in line," said the woman to Morgan as she gave a look of disgust to the other man.
"I hope you're done out there because I just sacrificed my dignity," radioed the man as he walked out the door. He saw his partner standing next to the Escalade so he walked over. "Are you done yet?"
"No the stupid thing won't stick. We've tried everything but the magnet doesn't work and the sticky backing isn't that sticky."
"Here try this," said the man as he handed the other guy a packet of chewing gum. "I'm going to wait in the car before I get arrested for shoplifting."
[Meanwhile back inside]
"I'm here," said Morgan after he hurried back. He heard the grumbling of the people behind him. "What? I was here before. Thanks again for saving my spot."
"No problem, you're right here after me. We're almost at the cashier. You were lucky I saved your spot look how many people are in line now."
"Yes, real lucky," said Morgan. He saw the woman's game now. In all the confusion she was able to jump ahead of two people."
"So you're from Homeland? So what homeland would that be the land of Lilliput?" said the woman then she laughed.
"Yeah real funny pistol packing grandma," said Morgan. He finally paid for his cooler and ice. He grabbed the bag of ice on the way out.
"I'm done," yelled the man from under the Escalade but as he started to get out. "Ouch! Don't kick!"
"Get back under there our target just came out. You don't have time to get up. Just get back under and wait. Stay put the bearded guy is heading this way," said the lookout as he pulled out his phone and pretended to receive a phone call. Then he slowly walked away as Morgan got there. Morgan gave him a strange look then shrugged his shoulders. But the man below wasn't fast enough getting back under and Morgan stepped on his hand then stood there.
"Augh," said the man below as he bit down on his hand to stifle the pain. Morgan thought he heard something so he turned around grinding his foot on the man's hand. He looked at the man walking around talking on his phone.
"Morgan you're just paranoid," he said to himself. He finished putting the cooler and ice in the Escalade then went back inside to help Kat.
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Sarah and Chuck worked the morning on the tablet looking through the hard drive and server files gleaning information. As they worked it became apparent that they need a faster method of processing the intel so Chuck wrote an algorithm and Sarah helped him set parameters. Chuck had a bottle of Chardonnay next to him and she fed him cheese and bread.
"There we go the Piranha did it again. Now we just have to sit back and wait. The mainframe in Castle will do all the heavy lifting," said Chuck. "I know as Morgan puts it 'I get a little giddy'."
"Yeah, and you're kind of cute when you're doing it," she said as she leaning into him put her arm around him and kissed him.
"I know you can say it. It won't bother me. It's also super nerdy," said Chuck as he smiled back at her and kissed her.
"It's definitely that, too…" said Sarah then Casey cut them off
"Yuck, I think I'm going to be sick," said Casey. "Okay so what do we know?" Chuck looked up at him then at Sarah.
"That depends big guy if we're still on the same team. I'm still feeling a little run over after being thrown under the bus."
"Okay I admit that there are times when you might be useful and this is one of them so can we get on with it. Hurry up the guards will be here soon."
"What do you think I should do? Forgive and forget because I'm getting a little tired of repeating this over and over again."
"I knocked him on his can," said Sarah as Jack walked in the middle. He cut himself off a piece of cheese."
"If you don't mind might I interject a thought. What makes your team work so well is that each one of you brings something different to the table. Sure cop face may have screwed up," said Jack. Casey reacted with a growl. "I said may have. I'm sure from your perspective you did nothing wrong but what I'm saying is could your team work as well if you lose one of its players. Sure he screwed up but haven't we all… sometimes a lot. I wish I could tell you he won't anymore or that I won't but that would be a lie. The fact is I will… Cop face will that goes for you too schnook and Angel. It's a part of being human."
"Okay well John part of the problem here is that things just don't add up. There is a movement of money as well of merchandise that just doesn't make sense. There's a company in Bulgaria called Apple Pie, Inc that is being credited and debited by El Serpiente. The firearms down in the vault were part of an order that was to be delivered to the DEA…"
"But they were shipped here from Koper. How do DEA firearms end up in Slovenia then get shipped here?"
"I'll give you another one John. This Apple Pie, Inc used to be a company front but at least on paper it was closed down during a joint CIA-DEA operation and the men who were running the company were relieved for cause. But if you look at the cooperate chart the same people are still in charge."
"What does this all mean? The DEA sold Tomas the weapons he has down in the vault? But why and for what reason? They're the ones who approached the General for this joint operation."
"Yeah some joint operation all right. John look around you do you see any DEA agent in this gaggle? The only DEA agent I know of that was involved was the mole that I rooted out and now I'm really wondering if he was a mole or simply Tomas' handler."
"Well if he was his handler then he wasn't handling him too well. It seemed like it was the exact opposite if anything."
"It's hard to tame a tiger when you're a piece of meat. You can do it as long as the tiger is always full but the moment the tiger gets hungry you become the tasty snack. But that part is conjecture maybe they'll find out more in Poland when they get him to the dark site."
"Chuck, if what you say is true, he won't make it to the black site or if he does he won't last long there before he has an accident. The same way if the wrong people find out we know this we won't last long."
"This is like Clyde Decker all over again," said Sarah. Chuck wished he could tell her it wasn't but she was right except this was much higher up the food chain.
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[Springfield Virginia in the DEA Headquarters]
Jordan can back early from his golf date with the President which was not a good sign. On his way back he sent a text message to one of his special assistants and he was waiting for him in his outer office when he walked through. He walked swiftly past his secretary only stopping long enough to tell him to hold all his calls and that he didn't want to be disturbed.
"I got your text message to be here Sir," the agent started to say but Jordan held up his hand to signal the man to keep quiet. He closed the door then pointed at a chair.
"Marty, I just had an interesting golf date with the President. Beckman came by and dropped in front of me the money trail that El Serpiente used to pay our front company for the weapons. Tell me there's nothing there that can be traced back to us."
"There's nothing there that can come back to us. What did you do with the President? He must've wondered what was going on."
"I played it off as some sort of mistake and he dropped it. He doesn't want to know what we're doing that would mean he'd be an accomplice… no he wants plausible deniability."
"Well it's not too plausible if a folder is dumped in front of him. But if he accepts your excuse then I guess it will still hold water. How did she get a hold of it?"
"I don't know. It was either that idiot El Serpiente or the moron Starks. Starks can never be allowed to talk. If he does you will be hung out to dry."
"Thanks for looking out for me but Starks had an accident a little while ago in Poland. He slipped on a bar of soap left on the floor in the shower room. He fell cracking his skull wide open and was pronounced dead on scene."
"Good I want you to get on the phone and call El Serpiente. Find out what's taking so long to finalize this plan. I want him to hurry this poker match along. Beckman knows I tried to screw her and so now she's looking…"
"Don't worry there's nothing she can find. It's all taken care of. If you remember I told you not to get her involved but you wanted to screw her over…"
"I know and if El Serpiente… I'm getting so tired of calling him that… well if he had acted when he was supposed to then she would've ended up with egg on her face and would've had to step down. The President would've nominated me and I'd be the new head of clandestine services."
"I'll call him and find out what's taking so long then I'll get back to you. Is there anything else I can do for you?"
"Call our people in L.A. find out what's going on there. If they've made progress that will make El you know who more congenial to our demands."
"I really don't like using our wet team on this. I would've preferred to contract it out. Do we even know why he wants those people hit?"
"That doesn't matter but if you put this out on the dark net or tried to hire the hit out Beckman would see that in a heartbeat. Then I'd have a hard time convincing the President that it was nothing and this was a guy we should get into bed with. No, this is better if we take care of it on our own. It also shows El… him just how far we're willing to go to guarantee this arrangement goes through."
"You don't think he might try to use it against us one of these days like a bargaining chip when things go south."
"He might try but the same way we raised him up we can bring him back down and replace him with one of his Lieutenants. He should keep that in mind when he's making his silly demands. We helped him out this time but there will be a time that the well runs dry and he'll be on his own. So he needs to keep his demands down to the reasonable and we'll all get along fine or we'll find someone else."
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Tomas sat for most of the day in his office on a cushion with a glass with of water and lemon to help alleviate his current problem. He left word with the men outside his door that he didn't want to be disturbed and closed his eyes. He wasn't sure how long he was out for just that he was sound asleep until there was a knock at his door.
"Geez doesn't anyone listen to me," he said as he woke up. "Come in and this had better be important." Pedro stuck his head in.
"I'm sorry for bothering you but I know you weren't feeling well so I thought I'd show you the jewelry I picked up for you to give the woman."
"You're right coming here. I want to see it but let's hold off me giving them to her until tomorrow by then my… well things should be back to normal. Let me see?"
"I picked up a pair of Tiffany cut diamond earrings and a diamond sapphire necklace," said Pedro as he showed them to him. "Did I do good?"
"I'll grant you that Pedro. You did better than good. These are great," said Tomas as he took the necklace out of the box and held it up to the light to admire it."
"The woman would have to be crazy to ignore presents like these," said Pedro. "You know when you give them to her you should also have a special wine to share. Who knows how things will go after a couple of glasses?"
"That's not a half bad idea actually. In the wine cellar I have that '86 Château LeFranc a peppery Pinot with a stable on the label, and a stork on the cork. Why don't you go get it for me and bring it here? Leave the jewellery I want to look it over a little more. Excellent work Pedro."
Pedro was about to step out when the office phone began to ring. Tomas looked at the caller ID it read anonymous.
"Go ahead and on your way out tell the guys at the door I don't want anyone coming in until I tell them they can."
"Yes, El Jefe," said Pedro as he left. He told the men what he was told to tell them then went down to the wine cellar. But he couldn't help wonder who was on the line and if he shouldn't have stayed to listen in on the conversation or if El Jefe wanted him to listen in which made him even more curious.
"I want to go back and listen in but to do that you need that bottle of wine," said Pedro to himself. "You'd have an excuse to go in then."
Pedro entered the cellar then he went over to the French section. From there he looked for the province. He tried to remember the province the wine was from but for the life of him he couldn't.
"Crap," he said then he had an idea. He ran back up went to the kitchen and found the Chef had all his help lined up against the wall shaking a meat cleaver in his hand at them.
"Are you trying to tell me that my aged parmesan cheese just got up and vanished along with a loaf of ciabatta bread? I don't want to hear the crap about El Cucuy. He doesn't come into my kitchen steals my cheese and bread. It sounds to me like someone wanted a snack."
"Chef Ronald excuse me," said Pedro as he nervously approached the man who still had the cleaver in his hand. "I need a word with you. It's urgent."
"Okay I'll be right with you. While I'm talking with Pedro all of you get your heads together and come up with the name of the guilty party. You don't want to piss me off." He walked over with Pedro glancing back with contempt at them.
"If there's one thing I can't stand in my kitchen is someone with sticky fingers. That's how you get ready to cook something and suddenly find you don't have all the ingredients. So what do you need? How's El Jefe's… well intestinal disturbance?"
"Better, much better but he asked me to bring up that bottle of '86 Château LeFranc from the cellar but I can't remember what province it's from."
"It's from the Loire Valley also known as the garden of France. A peppery pinot now that would've been the perfect match to my missing parmesan cheese and ciabatta bread. If that's all I need to find out who stole the strawberries… I mean cheese and bread."
"Thanks," said Pedro. He was wondering as he left if they'd made the right choice when they picked this Chef or if his cheese hadn't slipped of his ciabatta bread.
"Okay we're back in France," said Pedro as he looked over the labels. "Here we go Loire Valley and… crap." There was an empty spot were the wine should've been. "Now what am I going to do?"
[Meanwhile back in the office]
El Jefe waited until Pedro was gone and the door was closed before answering. He had a good idea who it was. He placed the call on speaker so he could lean back in his chair and sip on Gatorade which for him tasted like orange flavoured soap but it helped him replace the minerals and electrolytes he'd lost.
"El Jefe, I think you remember who I am? I wanted to touch bases with you to find out if something was wrong and why you haven't proceeded with the plan."
"Things just haven't come together. Don Alonso is supposed to be here in a few days then we'll be able to finalize the project."
"Good because I was led to believe that you'd been dragging your feet because you were infatuated over the CIA skirt they'd sent."
"Can't I mix business with pleasure?"
"You can do whatever you want but in the end they all have to die. You do realize that or do I have to remind you what will happen if you leave a witness alive?"
"I know my job and I don't need you to remind me what I do and don't have to do. Remember, it was you people who came to me."
"And don't make us regret it or we'll go looking somewhere else. I don't think you'd like that."
"Don't threaten me or you might not like what I'll do."
"That goes both ways."