Don't own Chuck

Sarah landed at Midway airport then she and Stefan went their different way. He promised to keep her in the loop as to his progress but it would be better for the people he was meeting if they didn't know anything about her. That arrangement was good for Sarah since she was planning on spending quality time with Sam. Lately between work and Bunny she'd neglected her so this was her opportunity to make up for some of it.

"I'm going to spend the evening in one of our safe houses then I'll make initial contact with my people tomorrow. If everything goes well I should know something in a couple of days or less."

"That's fine by me. I'm taking the girls to Chuck's sister's house. You have my telephone number and I gave you Ellie's home number. If you need help just give me a call."

"I don't think I'm going to need any. But I'll give you a ring if something comes up I can't handle," said Stefan as they went to the rental company where they both got separate rental cars. A few minutes later Stefan was headed for the Ukrainian village. He drove around the red brick houses with white trim then he drove by Saint Volodymyr church and before long he was pulling into a driveway.

He looked around as he got out then he opened the garage where he parked his car inside. Once in he began opening the house. It wasn't long before the phone started to ring in the kitchen. He picked up the receiver and put the call on speaker as he looked for bottled water to put on to make tea.

"This is the electric company. We have been alerted that there is a problem with the electricity in your area. Can you confirm that it's out? Then would you be so kind as to give us your customer identification number."

"Yes, the electricity is out and my customer number is Serria-Mike-8-5-4-7-1-1-9," said Stefan. The electric company wasn't the electric company. When he entered the house, he tripped an alarm that rang back to the Russian Consulate in Toronto. They in turn called to verify the person was in the house was one of their own.

"Very good we'll get right on having your electricity restored," said the voice then they hung up. Ten minutes later the electricity was on.

"Okay, now to keep track of what's going on," said Stefan as he turned on a police scanner so he could monitor what was happening outside his safe house. Then he activated the exterior alarms and after he was sure that the house was safe he went looking for something to eat.

"Great wonderful food," he said when he found a case of MREs under the sink. He shook his head and took out his phone and dialed a number putting it on speaker so he could put water on to boil.

"Yes, I'd like to order a supreme and can I get a six pack with that. … You're not licensed to sell alcohol. Okay, make it a supreme and a bottle of Fanta," said Stefan as he closed the doors to the pantry.

"Your total will be twenty-three seventy-five. Please have the exact change our drivers carry very little money on them to make change."

"No problem, I'll be here waiting and if he's not here within the next half hour the pizza's free, right?"

"We don't do that anymore. Traffic has become a nightmare so it has become hard to deliver within a half hour. Your pizza will be there within the hour."

"Okay, I'll be waiting," said Stefan then he hung up. He sat up his tablet and began gathering intel on the Navy Pier where he'd be meeting his people the following evening. He was still looking over the location for good and bad spots when the doorbell rang. He went to the door and there was the pizza boy.

"Pizza delivery," said the boy. "Did you ordered a supreme?" he said as he handed Stefan his pizza and Fanta.

"Here you go," said Stefan handing the boy the money for the pizza along with a good tip. "If you'd like to make a twenty I could use a six pack of beer to wash this pizza down with. There used to package store down the street from here."

"Yeah there used to be until it burnt down in a fire. But I know where I can get you your beer. I'll be right back," said the boy. Ten minutes later he was back collecting his twenty.

"And they expected me to eat MREs," said Stefan as he pulled a slice out of the box and popped a tab on one of the beers. He took a bite of the slice then washed it down. "Now this is the real deal," he said as he sat down in a chair with a map of the city out in front of him. He was about to get another slice when his phone rang. He answered it putting it on speaker.

"Anatoly, how goes it? I'm eating your favorite food and drinking your favorite drink to wash it down with."

"I'm glad you've got time for food. We've been working around the clock here trying to decipher this mess. I hope you come up with something there because we've arrested a lot of people and they're talking. However, they're contradicting each other and it's getting hard to separate the lies from reality."

"Have you ever thought they might not be lying. Each person might've been told a different truth so if they ever were captured…"

"They'd contradict each other and drive us crazy trying to figure out who is telling the truth or just where the truth was at."

"Exactly, and it's a pretty cleaver maneuver making you waste time and manpower as you either prove or disprove what they're confessing to. I don't know if I told you but I'm in Chicago now. I'm meeting with some of our contacts here tomorrow."

"Be careful. Those people haven't been out people for a while and they might not like it that you come in and risk their covers that have become who they are now."

"I hear what you're saying and I'll be threading lightly."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Chuck pulled up at the rendezvous site then got everything set up. Casey and his tac team set up camp in the ravine hidden out of sight. Chuck checked his disguise then did the only thing he could do… wait. He grabbed a couple bottles of water then he walked over to join Imma at the Joshua tree.

"Here you need to drink to keep hydrated," he said as he handed her a bottle. "How do you like the view from here?"

"It's magnificent. It reminds me of when I did desert warfare training in the Gobi Desert. Hot and sandy… and the sand got into everything. It was hard training but by the same token I never felt so alive."

"It's not exactly Moscow weather either here or there," said Chuck as he looked out on the expanse of sand, barrel cactus, and Joshua trees. "Here, I don't know if you've ever had this before," said Chuck as he took out a pair of gloves putting them on then he went to a cactus where he cut off the fruit growing on the end of the pads. "You need to be careful how you handle this or you'll get needles in your hands. But if to stick a knife in the bottom then peel it from the top," he said as he did it then handed her a peeled fruit.

"Ummh, this is good. What's it called and how did you know it was edible?" said Imma as she ate the fruit off the knife.

"I've had my own training too. It goes by a lot of names but around here I think they call it a prickly pear but the scientific name is Opuntia ficus-indica. This is good to know if you get stranded in the desert. It's a good source of liquid and food."

"If you guys are done jibber jabbering," radioed Casey. "You'd better look alive we've got an inbound chopper coming your way. ETA is twenty minutes coming in from your seven flying in low."

"Roger that," said Chuck as he took his earbud out then took Imma's and his them in the heel of his shoe. "I hope you're ready," he said as they heard the sound of a chopper coming towards them.

"Let's do this," said Imma as she got herself ready. In the distance coming in low over the horizon, Chuck saw a Bell chopper heading towards them.

"John, remember to stay out of sight until I give you the go ahead," said Chuck. "No one move until I say go." Chuck couldn't hear the answer but he didn't have to in order to know Casey wasn't happy with the situation. The truth was he wasn't either but this was the hand he had been dealt so he had to play it.

"Chopper is in sight, I don't see Peter... I repeat I don't see Peter. Everyone stay put until I can see who's on the chopper," said Chuck as he checked the pilot out with his binoculars. As the chopper was heading towards them the phone Peter gave Chuck started to ring. He answered putting it on speaker so Imma could here.

"I see your chopper heading for us but I don't see you onboard," said Chuck. There was a pause on the other side. "Peter, tell me this chopper is yours?"

"No, I'm calling to tell you we got held up in a traffic jam and are still about twenty minutes out. I don't know what you're talking about… helicopter." Suddenly there was a swooshing sound and the van exploded in a ball of fire.

"I think you need to hurry up. We're under attack," said Chuck as he hung up and grabbed Imma by the hand pulling her on the other side of the burning hulk. The dense smoke provided them cover.

"What's going on? Who's shooting at us?" yelled Imma as she pulled out her weapon from her bag. As she was speaking a gunner in the chopper opened up with automatic fire shooting the ground around them.

"Give me your mirror," said Chuck as the chopper came around low. "I need it now." She handed it to him and he used it to catch the sun reflexing it back in the gunner's eyes. "Stand by and get ready to fire."

"Now," yelled Chuck. Imma fired into the chopper. They saw the gunner drop back inside which caught the pilot off-guard. The pilot looked back and for a moment let the chopper dip even lower. Chuck seized the moment drawing his Makarov firing quickly at the rotator turbine. The chopper began to sputter and smoke. The pilot panic and tried to gain altitude but the engine cut out. There was no way to auto rotate and the chopper dropped in the desert like a big rock.

"Come on. Someone still might be alive," yelled Chuck. Before Imma could stop him, Chuck ran to the smoldering wreckage. He pulled out the pilot and another man in the back. The gunner had part of his head taken off but that was Imma's doing not the crashed.

"Check them while I go back inside to see if I can find something to tell us who these people are," said Chuck as he started back to the smoking hulk.

"Don't go back inside. I know who these people are," said Imma as she checked them for vital signs but found none. "There gone."

"Are you sure," said Chuck as he bent down to check only to find Imma was right. "You said you knew who they were?"

"Yes… well I don't know their names but they worked for the GRU out of the consulate. These were my people. Chuck, what's going on here?"

"I don't know. I wish we could contact Igor to ask him. Casey, I hope you're getting all of this. The General needs to get on her hot line to Moscow and ask what's going on." As they were talking Peter's phone rang again. He answered it putting it on speaker again.

"Peter, what the heck? If you need to know where we are just look for the pillow of smoke. Oh, and we're okay if you're concerned."

"Of course I'm concerned," said Olga. "Or I wouldn't have called. There's been a change in plans. I'm picking you up then taking you to Peter. I'm afraid this was an attempt on his life and we can't have that."

"How do you see that when he wasn't here? I think they found out how important Imma was to Peter and tried to grab her."

"Well, you have your theory and I have mine. I assume Imma is listening in to our conversation. Imma, my name is Olga and I look forward to meeting you soon. We'll have a chance to get to know each other on the drive back. Juri, I don't have time for prisoners."

"You don't have to worry about that. There were no survivors," said Chuck as he pulled out his Makarov and put a round in each corpse. "Like I said you don't have to worry about survivors."

"Juri, you keep this up and I'll let you adopt me," said Olga as Imma looked at him with a puzzled expression. "I'll be there in ten," she said then she hung up.

"I had to sell it," said Chuck. "Casey, stand down… I say stand down. Peter isn't with Olga and we need him to find where those satellites are being controlled from. What is it?" he said as Imma was still looking at him.

"It's the switch that takes place when you become Juri. It is truly frightening. Your whole look changes as well as your mannerism."

"I did what I had to do."

"People use that to justify a lot of things."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Back in Lubyanka, Igor was back up in his office talking with Anatoly as they were mapping out the intel they'd gathered. The two of them began putting together a who's who on a board Igor had put in his office for that purpose. They had photos with names they arranged trying to get an idea of the structure of this organization that was hidden in their military.

"I don't see that old SOB as being there ring leader," said Anatoly as he looked at the General's photo. "Most of these people have to know his war record was a sham and I can't see them following him."

"I agree," said Igor as he stepped back to get a better view. "You have to believe in the cause and the person who's running it to risk everything. I think we're still missing some people."

"We could go back down below and squeeze the people we have a little more. Maybe if we put a little more pressure on them then we can get some more names."

"We need more that the word of a traitor. I've got men watching the generals but by now they know they're being watched so they're going to behave themselves," said Igor as he went over to pour himself a drink and held up his almost empty scotch bottle. "I swear if Dimitri wasn't dead I'd shoot him. Look what he did to my scotch."

"I've got a bottle in my office Chuck gave me. I can run down and get it for you," said Anatoly as he smiled. Leaving Anatoly closed the inner door to Igor's office then turned to his secretary. "Igor is complaining about his missing scotch blaming General Dimitri but there's a lot of scotch missing for a man who had ulcers."

"Really, he had ulcers. Maybe that explains the way he acted," said the man without saying one word about the missing scotch. Anatoly left laughing.

He walked down the hallway towards the elevator then pushed the down button. When the elevator opened three men stepped off pushing past him.

"At least let me get out of your way first," he said but the men just pushed on. He noticed one of the men was carrying a Grach. At the time, he didn't think anything about it. He got on the elevator and push the button for his floor. The doors started to close when he remembered the wet team at Anton's house were carrying Graches. He immediately pushed the button for the floor below. When the doors opened, he ran out then hit the stairs to go back up.

"Out of my way… emergency… coming through," he yelled as he ran up the stair pulling his Makarov. The people on the stairs gave him wide berth as he blew past them.

[Meanwhile]

The three men continued down the hallway towards the Director's office. They stopped in front of the door looking up and down the hallway. When the coast was clear they pulled their weapons. Two went inside while one posted on the door.

"Can I help you," said the secretary but the one man shot him with his suppressed weapon. The Secretary felled backwards away from his desk to the floor. The other man went straight into Director's inner office. Igor had heard the noise outside and had opened his desk drawer to reach for his weapon but the man was there pointing his weapon at Igor.

"This is for snooping into matters that don't concern you," said the man. But just then there were two loud gunshots from outside of the office. The man turned back to see what had happened which gave Igor time to grab his weapon and dive below the desk. The man fired once then dropped to the ground bleeding from the back of his head.

"Director, are you all right," said Anatoly as he walked in. Anatoly had run back up the one flight of stairs took a deep breath then slowly walked down to where the one man was standing outside the door.

"Hey, I want you to apologize to me for bumping into me. It was uncalled for you shoving me out of the way like that."

"I don't know what you're talking about," said the man. He knew he couldn't risk having people look at them. "Why don't you do yourself a favor and piss off somewhere else before you get into trouble."

"You're the one in trouble," said Anatoly as he got close to the man. He wasn't sure how close he could get but the man was reluctant to pull his weapon in public. "I want my apology and I want it now."

"Okay, okay, if it makes you feel better. I'm sorry. Now piss off before you make me angry," said the man as he glanced inside.

"I'm sorry too," said Anatoly as he shoved the barrel of his Makarov into the gut of the man and fired. He shoved the man out of the way then dropped the man in the outer office with one round through the face. Then he went straight into the Director's office in time to see him get off one round.

"Oh, crap," he said. He thought for sure he was too late but that didn't stop him from putting two rounds in the back of the man's head.

"Director, are you all right," yelled Anatoly as he ran around the desk. But Igor was getting up by himself on his own feet.

"Yes, but what about Stanis… how is he," said Igor as they both ran out to check on him. They found him on the floor in a pool of his own blood. He was seriously wounded but alive. A security team came in to secure the floor along with medics from the basement. They stabilized Stanis then whisked him away to a nearby hospital.

"I want my office secured until the clearers get here," said Igor to the head of the security team. "I don't want to find a paper clip missing when I get back. And when I get back I want an explanation as to how these people got through our security checks and got all the way to my office without being challenged."

"Yes sir, there's an investigation going on right now into that," said the head of the security team then he went inside to oversee his men.

"I never got my drink," said Igor. "Let's go back down to your office. Mine is a bit of a mess right now. How did you get here so fast if you went down to your office?"

"I didn't go down to my office. I only went down one floor then I ran back. I saw they were carrying Grachs like the men at Anton's apartment and I remembered they've only been issued to a small group of people in the North Caucasus."

"I guess I'm lucky you came back up," Igor said as they got on the elevator and road down. "I want you to ride rough shod over identifying those people and I also want to know who sent them. I'm tired of every time we think we're getting a head something like this sprouts up. It's time we push back."

"I'll drink to that," said Anatoly as they walked into his office. He got out the bottle and two glasses then he poured a glass for Igor passing it to him.

"You know you don't play this game as long as I have without realizing that you're probably not going to cash in your pension fund but k chertu to the devil if I'm going to let them come into my house and take me out."