OK, that took longer than I wanted it to. I'm trying my best to keep to the two-week schedule, but I have to admit having a bit of difficulty organizing these chapters. We're making our way towards the end of the story, but there are still a number of chapters to go. If you have suggestions for what you'd like to see (or not see) please let me know. I can't guarantee I'll honor all requests, but maybe something will pop up somewhere that shakes this thing loose and I'll be full-speed ahead.
Obviously I want to get some Shaw and some Clyde Decker involvement. There probably could have been more, but not to worry. It's coming. And again, I try to involve all of the characters as much as I can. And a few little funny moments here and there. At least I hope they're funny.
NBC and Fake Empire (would it kill ya to put Chuck back on the air? Really?) are responsible for the characters, while I can be blamed for the current content. But please leave reviews. Always want to hear what you have to say.
Enjoy the chapter, and remember, we now live in a world where the Cubs have won the World Series. Yay! :-D
Hyatt Regency Hotel – Reston, VA
June 3, 2016
1:00 AM EDT
Chuck finished brushing his teeth and wiped his mouth off with the towel next to the shower. He was exhausted from the night's events, but the night was a success. The Intersect data was successfully downloaded, and Casey had it sealed in a strongbox in his hotel room. They would leave in the morning on the jet to return to Los Angeles so his father could continue building the two Intersects they needed: the one to remove the Intersect already in Chuck's head and the one they would download into Jimmy.
He walked out into the bedroom and saw Sarah on her phone. "OK. Thanks, Case," he heard her say. "Get some rest and we'll be ready by nine. Good night."
She put her phone down and looked at Chuck. "Casey talked to Carina. They were able to get the stolen drive back, but she said they were attacked and Jimmy may not have been able to purge all of the Ring's files from their servers."
"Are they OK?" Chuck asked.
"They got away, yes. But there's no way to know if the Ring still has any of your father's data."
Chuck slid into the bed. He couldn't miss the look on Sarah's face. "Are you OK?" he asked.
"Fine," she replied in a clipped tone. Certainly it didn't take a degree in psychology to figure out Sarah was far from fine.
"Sarah…" Chuck prodded.
"What?"
"I've seen you do that before. Switching back and forth between being an agent and just being Sarah. Half of you wants to yell at me and the other half is trying to stop you."
"I'm not…" Sarah started to say, but the look on Chuck's face made her halt her automatic denial. She exhaled slowly. "This is…this is hard for me. When we're in the field, I want to treat you the same as I treat the others, especially now with all that you can do. But…with what the Intersect is doing to you and the danger we keep getting in and…I just can't…"
Chuck put his arms around her shaking form. "I want you to worry, OK? I think I'd be more scared if you just let me walk right into danger without a second thought. I worry every time we're out there, too. I don't want to see you get hurt."
Sarah smiled and caressed Chuck's face, giving him a gentle kiss. "I can't decide which part of you I love the most. Your beautiful eyes, your big smile, how caring and sweet you are…"
"But what about…"
"…and how you make me laugh," Sarah said with a grin, putting a finger in Chuck's face. "I didn't forget that."
Chuck planted a few kisses along Sarah's cheek and neck as he held her in her arms. "So glad you kept the charm bracelet," he said, looking at the nightstand behind Sarah.
"I'd never get rid of that." She reached behind her and grabbed it. "I even added a couple of charms I saw at a store in Europe while we were there." She turned the bracelet to show Chuck. "I found this one of a castle in Sweden, and then I thought this little hummingbird was pretty…"
Chuck froze as he began to flash. He saw images of an actual hummingbird, a training site, gardenias, and a birth certificate with the name Samantha Lisa Baker.
"Samantha?" he said to himself, wincing at the pain from his flash, but Sarah looked at him in wide-eyed shock.
"How do you know about that?" she said in alarm, bolting up in the bed.
"I'm…I'm sorry. I saw the hummingbird on the bracelet and I…I didn't mean to…"
Sarah turned so she was sitting on the edge of the bed facing away from Chuck and buried her face in her hands. Chuck could see her shake uncontrollably. He slid over to her and wrapped his arms around her. "Talk to me," he said gently. "You can tell me."
"That's…that's a part of me I've wanted to forget," she said softly. "Ever since I became an agent."
"I know. You hate your past. As a picture of me discovered the hard way when you threw that pencil through it."
Sarah smiled at that and pulled Chuck closer to her. "It's…I think about what I went through with my father. The cons we pulled. Jenny Burton, Katie O'Connell, Rebecca Franco…I had to change my name more times than I'd care to remember. I just didn't want to…"
Chuck took her face in his hands and turned her gently to him. "It's hard, I know. But look at what happened to Samantha Baker. Forget about how great of a spy you are or how beautiful you are. Well, I mean you're both of those things. But you keep saying what's on the inside of me makes me beautiful. That's true of you, too. You've made such a big difference in everyone's life. Case's, Carina's, Jimmy's…"
He placed his lips on hers, giving her a soft kiss. "And what you've meant to me is beyond description. I couldn't love anyone more than I love you. So be Samantha, be Jenny, be Katie, be Rebecca, it doesn't matter. You're the person I want to be with. Forever."
Sarah looked into his eyes as her own began to well up. She grabbed him and kissed him with unbridled passion, pushing him back onto the bed and wrapping her arms tightly around him.
"Sarah Walker is who I want to be," she said. "The person who is completely and totally in love with someone as wonderful as you."
The two continued to kiss each other passionately.
~/^\~
Casey took a sip from the glass of whiskey he poured. It annoyed him to no end he'd have to go outside if he wanted to enjoy a cigar, a tradition of his whenever a mission went successfully. But it was late in the night and it would be an early morning. He could save it until later.
He looked over at the nightstand to see his smartphone vibrating. He quietly growled; he was ready to get some sleep. He looked at the caller ID and exhaled.
"Ilsa? What are you doing awake?"
"I'm too tired to sleep," she replied. "I'm starting to get the feeling these high school boys are breaking their computers on purpose just so they can leer at me in the store. And the two scary ones that work with me are less than useless."
"Would you rather have Victor Federov lying on top of you stinking of alcohol and cigarettes while waiting for the blue pill to kick in?"
"Point taken. How are you doing?"
"Everything was a success here. Chuck and Sarah got the intel we needed. Mr. Bartowski and Ellie are back in business."
"You make a good team. Chuck is so different than the last time I saw him."
"I admit being very impressed with what he can do using the new Intersect. What he did that night when he saved Sarah and me from those Ring agents. Never saw anything like that in my life."
"Indeed. All of you did such a wonderful job setting me free. I just hope we can make this a success."
"We'll be back in Los Angeles later tomorrow."
"Good. I miss you out here."
"You do, huh?"
"We haven't had time to ourselves, John. We were captured in Lankaran not five minutes after reuniting, and then with everything that happened. I haven't had much of a chance to be alone with you."
"I wouldn't mind a little alone time myself."
"In fact…" Ilsa's voice became softer and more throaty. "…if you were here, I'd be unbuttoning your shirt, planting hot kisses all along your chest."
"Oh, you would?"
"Then I'd slide my hands over your body, move them downward, and start to unbutton your pants…"
"Are you…are you trying to have phone sex with me?" Casey asked in confusion.
"It's been too long, Sugar Bear," Ilsa purred. "A girl has needs."
Casey rolled his eyes. "Good night, Ilsa."
He hung up the phone and placed it on his nightstand, exhaling in mild irritation. He pulled back the covers and got into the bed. A moment later, his smartphone vibrated again, indicating a message. He reached for it and opened the attachment with the message. His eyes widened.
He sat up in the bed. "Being a nerd has its perks," he said to himself as he responded to Ilsa's text.
Venice Beach – Venice, CA
June 3, 2016
5:45 AM PDT
Jimmy ran along the sand as the sun began to rise. It was a routine Sarah and Carina had imprinted into him since his early days with the team. He would typically go for a three-mile run whenever the opportunity presented itself. The view here was beautiful, to be certain. But he had done runs through San Francisco, the streets of Paris, and even through Red Square in Moscow and those were very picturesque. His favorite, however, still remained the bike path along Lake Michigan back home. That little curve the path took just south of Fullerton Avenue that made the Chicago skyline pop out right in front of him was incredible. It was a rare he took the run at this hour, but he figured to be in for a busy day and he had to keep up on his exercise. After all, famous Hollywood hunk was part of his job description.
He turned his head as he jogged, sensing a presence behind him. Suddenly, someone breezed by on his other side. The slender frame, ponytail, and long, sexy legs were all he needed to know that Alex just lapped him.
"I flew right by you and you're just going to sit there and take it?" she yelled over her shoulder, teasing him.
"Trying to motivate me by wounding my pride?" Jimmy called out. "Do you even know me?"
"Fine, if I beat you to that next dune, you have to wear that outfit I bought for you to bed tonight!"
Aaah, hell, he thought to himself. He hated wearing anything to bed other than a t-shirt and boxers. And he sure as hell didn't want to wear those black leather briefs that were at least a size too small and left zero to the imagination.
He launched into a full sprint, which caused Alex to stand momentarily in shock. She then took off just as he passed her. She quickly regained the lead.
"You should know I lettered in track in high school," Alex warned him.
"What events?"
"Half-mile and the mile."
"Then I'm glad there's only two hundred yards left."
Jimmy found another gear and took the lead back. Alex was about to lose…badly. She swooped down and grabbed a bottle someone had left in the sand. She whipped it forward into Jimmy's path, forcing him to swerve around it to avoid it. But it knocked him off-stride enough for her to reach the dune two seconds before he did.
"Oh, you cheat so bad!" Jimmy growled.
"I say I improvised," Alex said in a gritty voice, trying to imitate Clint Eastwood.
"Yeah, improvise this!"
Jimmy lunged at her and lifted her up, throwing her over his shoulder. He started jogging towards the water.
"Don't you dare!" she squealed. Jimmy wasn't having it as he approached the ocean with Alex pounding his back and laughing her head off the whole time. "OK, OK! I cheated! Now put me down!"
Jimmy got to the water and threw Alex towards it. She screamed as she fell, but Jimmy caught her in his arms two inches before she got soaked. She laughed hysterically as she wrapped her arms around his neck, kissing him hard.
"Mmm, no more cheating. I promise," she said breathlessly, giving him another sizzling kiss. "I don't think I've ever laughed that hard in my life."
"Glad I could entertain you," he said with a tinge of annoyance.
Alex gave him a playful growl. "I never would have pegged you as the jogging type. I figured it was a gym or health club for you and that was it."
"That's what I did before joining the team three years ago. Free weights, stair climber, and the occasional swim. Sarah told me to take up running and Carina dragged me to a few yoga classes early on. I guess they figured I needed to clear my mind as much as keep in shape. Although Carina insisted I do the downward-facing dog pose. A lot."
"And I'm thinking she did a few of them in your presence, too. But I agree with them." She took a long, lascivious look at Jimmy. "I certainly can't complain about the results."
Jimmy gave a shy smile and put her down gently. She kept her arms wrapped around him. "Everything alright?" she asked.
"Are you sure you're OK with this? Me being the new Intersect?" Jimmy looked at the ground. "I mean, I know I didn't talk with you first before making this decision, but I didn't want to assume anything about…you know…where we are. And I owe this to Chuck and Sarah. I mean…you know how much of a screw-up I used to be. They really want this, and I want to be able to give it to them, but…"
Alex grabbed his face and kissed him hard, gripping the back of his head like a vise as she teased and tasted his lips with an insatiable hunger.
"THIS is where I want to be," she said in no uncertain terms. "With you. I'm not going anywhere. My life is good again and you're the reason why. That's the best thing about you…outside of how crazy hot you are. There's no limit to what you'll do for the people you care about. I know I've been on the receiving end of your talents quite a few times." She raised her eyebrow. "And sometimes outside of the bedroom."
"Good. I don't want you going anywhere, either."
She gently stroked his chin. "Besides, if all of this goes according to plan, your team will have a job opening. Think I can get an interview?"
"Mmm, I don't know," Jimmy teased. "Not really sure what you're capable of."
Alex grinned and kissed him hard, one of her hands sliding under his shirt to caress his chest. She slipped the other hand inside of his shorts. "Oh, I think you know what I'm capable of," she whispered hotly into his ear, tickling it with her tongue.
"Let's get back to the hotel," he panted, completely turned on at this point.
"Not enough time." Alex straddled his waist and grinded against him. "Head for that food stand over there. We'll break in."
Jimmy ran for the food stand with Alex wrapped around him.
Office of the Director of National Intelligence – McLean, VA
June 3, 2016
8:30 AM EDT
"Your report?" Beckman asked.
"We're still trying to track down as many of the Ring's assets as possible. Finding Basta's files was helpful, but with what Walker's team did yesterday in Los Angeles, we can assume the Ring is scrambling to find new hiding places and shore up their encryption to keep us from getting our hands on anything."
"We have to remain aggressive. Call in whoever you need to go through those files and see if there's any unusual chatter that may be of use to us."
"Will do."
The man stood but accidentally dropped the folder he was carrying. "Sorry, General."
Clyde Decker bent down to pick up the folder, which gave him just enough time to plant the clip on the network cable leading to Beckman's computer. The Ring figured they could bypass the DNI's firewalls and listen in on her phone conversations, but they needed an insider to plant the bug.
"Goodbye, General," Decker said, leaving her office. He could stonewall Beckman for as long as he needed and the Ring now had access to her computer. But stopping Walker and her team was up to them.
Buy More – Burbank, CA
June 4, 2016
1:15 PM PDT
Stephen Bartowski hooked up the drive Casey brought back from Washington, D.C. and ran a check. All the necessary data was there.
"OK, great," he said as he scanned the monitor. "The data architecture from both my original Intersect and the one Beckman had altered is here. I should be able to sort through the changes they made and make the proper adjustments."
"Which will you build first?" Casey asked.
"The Intersect I'll use to purge the one in Chuck's mind is the easier one since I simply have to take Beckman's Intersect and redesign the algorithms so the images cancel out the ones Chuck has seen. Building Jimmy's is much more difficult."
"It has to be adapted to his cranial network?"
Stephen nodded. "Ellie and Devon are working on that as we speak. Jimmy and Alex went over to the hospital an hour ago to get the neuroimaging done on his brain. That should provide what I need to make an Intersect to suit Beckman's needs that he can safely carry."
"So they're scanning Slade's mind? Shortest task they'll ever do," Casey said with ample amounts of snark.
Stephen shook his head and smiled. "Now I know where Duke Forrester gets his attitude from."
Casey shrugged. "We give each other crap all the time. Slade gives as good as he gets. So does Miller. Walker keeps all of us in line. Best agent I ever knew. Best team I ever worked with."
"I'm so glad I trusted her. And then to have Chuck and her fall in love…I made so many mistakes in my past. So many things I regret. But how my children turned out wiped so many of those away."
Stephen stared ahead for a moment. "There are a lot of people I'm indebted to. And you're one of the big ones. I can never thank you enough for protecting my family."
"Honored to do it. Well, most days." That gave Stephen a smile. "You've got two good kids. They deserve the best."
"I think the same can be said for you. Will you stay with the team or do you have other plans with Ilsa?"
"Haven't given it much thought. Only thing I know is I don't want to sit behind a desk in D.C. the rest of my life. Six days and I was already crawling up the walls."
"I agree. You don't strike me as the type. What about Ilsa?"
"She's not happy. French government is still denying her very existence. Didn't even give her credit for the work she did. I'm guessing she'd be happy to tell them to piss off."
"Sounds like you two have a lot to discuss."
Casey nodded. "Once we get through with this."
"Well, if I may suggest you take her away from the store and get lunch somewhere. She could use a break right now. I'll be fine for a while, and everybody else should be back within the next half-hour."
"You shouldn't be left alone…"
"Morgan's still here and so are the people Cole brought in. I'll be OK back here."
Casey hesitated, but Stephen did have a point. As last night's impromptu 'conversation' with Ilsa proved, the two of them needed some alone time.
"Maybe you're right. I'll…"
His smartphone began to ring. "Yes?" He listened for a moment and his eyes widened. "Call Chuck and Sarah right now and get them over here," he ordered Stephen. "I'll get on the horn to Slade and Forrest."
"What is it?" Stephen asked, the alarm rising in his voice.
"Someone took a shot at Miller and Barker."
KTLA Television Studios – Los Angeles, CA
June 4, 2016
12:45 PM PDT
"Thank you so much for joining us here in the studio, Carina," the news reporter said. "And we look forward to the new season of Jen Burton: Spy Girl."
"Thanks for having me here," Carina replied in her well-practiced interview persona. She took off her microphone and walked back to the green room of KTLA Studios where Cole was waiting for her.
"God, I hate these," Carina grumbled.
"Yeah, it really sucks being adored by the public," Cole replied with a teasing lilt.
"Hysterical. Any time I do one of these, they always ask more questions about who I'm dating than about the show. These idiots in the media don't do that to Sarah and Jimmy, and they're way better at these things than me."
"You don't exactly project the image of a nun, you know. Sex sells. Haven't you learned that after six years?"
She huffed in frustration. "True, I guess. I made my bed, now I have to let everybody sleep in it."
Cole laughed and wrapped his arms around her. "Hey, you have a handsome, sexy, confident guy in your life now. Consider yourself lucky."
"True." She paused. "I wonder where he is right now."
Cole made a face at her before breaking out into a grin. Carina gave him a kiss. "We should head over to the Buy More," she said. "Your team over there could use a break, and I'm sure Ilsa would take Casey someplace if she had an hour or two free."
"Sounds like a good idea," Cole replied.
The two left the studio and headed to their car. They noticed a construction crew setting up shop a half-block away. Carina started her Ferrari and drove away from the studio, turning onto Bronson Avenue. They then saw more construction signs and detours away from the area.
"This was set up awfully quick," Carina said cautiously. "We were only in the studio for an hour."
Cole started to look back and forth. The construction workers kept glancing in their direction.
"I don't like this," he said quietly.
Carina threw the steering wheel hard to the left and the car spun around. A garbage truck started to move to block the street. She floored it, the car quickly reaching 60 MPH. She threw the wheel hard to the right and back, skirting around the garbage truck. Two people near the truck fired away with automatic weapons, the shots barely missing the Ferrari.
Two SUVs peeled out and chased after Carina and Cole as she banked hard onto westbound Santa Monica Boulevard. The two vehicles in pursuit closed the gap.
"Do you have a gun?" Cole asked.
"Check the glove compartment," she quickly replied.
Cole reached in and found Carina's Sig Sauer P229. He loaded it as the first car got close, almost touching the Ferrari's bumper.
"Now!" Cole shouted.
Carina threw the steering wheel hard to the right, spinning the Ferrari. Cole emptied the Sig at the windshield of the SUV in pursuit. The vehicle skidded out of control and plowed head-first into a building, killing everyone inside.
Carina and Cole spun forward again as the other SUV started to catch up.
"They'll be on us really fast," Cole said, looking at the vehicle from the rear-view mirror.
Carina gripped the wheel hard. "Check your seatbelt," she warned.
"What for?" Cole asked nervously, quickly making sure his seatbelt was fastened properly.
Carina threw the wheel hard to the left while slamming on the brakes. She then floored it. The Ferrari drove directly at the other vehicle.
"Uh, Carina, you're going to play chicken in a Ferrari? Against an SUV?" Cole asked in shock.
Carina stared straight ahead with a snarl on her face as she pushed her car to 100 MPH. The SUV got closer and closer and showed no signs of blinking first. They would crash in two seconds.
"Get down!" she shouted, pulling Cole down with her.
Carina hit the brakes hard as the SUV veered left to avoid her. Its left wheels hit an empty car-hauling truck. The SUV flew into the air, rolling over and over, before landing on its engine block and exploding.
Carina and Cole slowly looked up and turned to see the destroyed SUV behind them.
She turned to him. "I probably should have warned you that dating me isn't very good for your health."
"Perhaps," Cole replied. "But it'll never be boring."
Carina smiled. "Good point."
She got on her smartphone and called Casey.
West Side Medical Center – Los Angeles, CA
June 4, 2016
1:00 PM PDT
"OK, one more scan and we should have it."
Jimmy lay on the table with his head inside the MRI chamber. Ellie and Alex watched Devon and the technicians run the tenth and final scan of Jimmy's mind. To be safe, they used both an MRI and made a documented computer tomography of his neural and cranial network. There were volumes of information being generated by the machines, but both Ellie and Devon insisted on being thorough, and Jimmy knew it would be stupid for him to just play it off and tell them not to go overboard.
"Aww, dammit. I was getting so comfortable lying on my back on this small table," Jimmy replied with a grin.
"Any chance the Intersect could do something to fix his lame sense of humor?" Alex asked Ellie.
Ellie shook her head. "That's WAY too much effort. It'd take forever."
"You sure? Feel free to quote me a price."
"I CAN hear you out there," Jimmy spat.
"Jimmy, stay still," Devon said, and Jimmy stopped moving. "In three…two…one…"
The last images were taken, Jimmy hearing the motors and the clicking of the magnets inside the MRI.
The technicians began to compile the data as Ellie, Devon, and Alex went into the room, helping Jimmy sit up.
"Do you have everything your dad will need?" Jimmy asked.
"We got it," Ellie said. "There's still so many questions I want to ask him about this."
"You took a few neurophysiology classes at UCLA, right?" Alex asked.
"I did. It became sort of a side project for me. I gave a lot of thought to specializing in it, just like Devon is a heart specialist. But I wanted to get out there and save lives. And with all that was going on...our Dad leaving, having to worry about Chuck...it sort of fell to the sidelines. I've given thought of going back to it. Certainly, they don't lack for experts out here. To study under one of them would be amazing."
"I'll go get dressed," Jimmy said. "We should get over to the Buy More and deliver this data to your father."
Jimmy left the room to change out of his hospital gown as the technicians finished compiling the data and saving it to a portable drive. They handed the drive to Devon. A moment later, Jimmy emerged fully dressed.
"Ready?" Alex asked, to which everyone nodded. "Let's go."
The four headed out of the hospital and went towards the car Jimmy borrowed from the NSA. Ellie and Devon got in the back as Jimmy got behind the wheel and Alex sat in the passenger's seat. They drove away from the hospital, heading east towards the Buy More. Jimmy and Alex kept an eye open for trouble, figuring after what happened yesterday, the Ring wouldn't be so easily deterred.
They weren't.
A sedan with blackened windows screamed through a red light. "Look out!" Alex yelled.
Jimmy threw the wheel hard to the right and hit the brakes. The sedan overshot them and also hit the brakes, spinning around to pursue them.
"Let's go!" Ellie shouted.
Jimmy floored it and Alex reached into her purse to pull out a Glock, loading it and putting her other hand on the door handle. The sedan closed the distance.
"Brace yourselves," Jimmy warned.
Ellie and Devon held on. Jimmy slammed on the brakes and veered slightly left into the next lane. The sedan shot forward, and Alex rolled down her window. She emptied her clip at the driver's side window, and the sedan started to weave back and forth. Jimmy pulled away as the sedan ran into the back of a truck. He put the car back on the road heading east.
"We have to get out of here!" Ellie exclaimed.
Devon looked back to see two more sedans heading at them. "Easier said than done."
"We can't get into a shootout with these idiots," Alex said. "Not with you two here."
Jimmy looked around and saw a parking garage two blocks up. "I have an idea."
He turned hard onto Gentry Avenue and tore through the garage, exiting out on the opposite side on Radford Avenue. He then went into another garage and ascended two levels.
"Let's go," he ordered. Everyone got out of the car. Jimmy quickly found a BMW and picked the lock. He set his smartphone to scan for the right code for the vehicle. He hit the ignition button and the engine roared to life.
"You two take this car and head directly to the Buy More," Jimmy said, getting out and pushing Ellie and Devon towards the car. "Don't pass Go, don't collect $200. Alex and I will lead these assholes away from you. They can't know about the Buy More."
"But…" Ellie began.
"Just go! You're only a mile away! Call Casey and tell him what happened."
Ellie looked ready to protest further, but Devon nudged her into the passenger's seat. Alex and Jimmy grabbed their weapons and ran for a motorcycle parked on the same level. Jimmy fired up the engine and got on, and Alex got on behind him. He sped out of the garage just as the two sedans exited the first garage, thinking they were in there. Jimmy stopped and honked the horn.
"Hey, morons!" he yelled, and both of them gave the sedans the finger. The two sedans took off in pursuit as Jimmy and Alex turned back onto Burbank Boulevard and hit the on-ramp to go northbound on the Hollywood Freeway.
"I probably should have asked before we did this, but how many of the stunts on the show did you actually do?" Alex yelled.
"Do you really want the answer?!" Jimmy yelled back.
Alex gripped Jimmy even tighter as the first sedan began to close the gap. Alex turned and opened fire but the sedan continued to gain ground.
"Five seconds to impact!" she said.
"Did you ever see that episode where we had the motorcycle chase through the streets of Rome?"
"Yeah?" Alex said nervously.
"This isn't that!"
Jimmy veered left into a construction zone on the shoulder, breaking through the barriers and ending up in the southbound lanes on the opposite side of the freeway. Cars started hitting the brakes hard as Jimmy weaved the motorcycle in and out of the lanes, barely missing the cars. The sedan tried to keep up by driving on the interior shoulder.
"Finally, something to hate about you!" Alex screamed.
"Hey, those pricks can't hit us now, right?"
"Yeah, because getting creamed by two hundred other cars is so much better!"
Jimmy maneuvered the motorcycle back towards the interior shoulder. The sedan moved up to intercept them again.
"Here we go!" he yelled.
He gunned the motorcycle to 90 MPH and veered to the right, crashing again through construction signs and returning to the northbound lanes. The shrapnel blinded the sedan's occupants, and their vehicle ran directly into a gap in the barrier, splitting in two.
Jimmy and Alex continued in the northbound lanes, and the other sedan began to close the gap. They looked for a ramp to exit, but the next one was closed for construction.
"Any ideas?" Alex said. "And riding in the wrong direction is NOT an option!"
"There's no exit ramp for four miles!" Jimmy exclaimed. "Idiots! Figures there's only two seasons in Los Angeles: construction and construction!"
A shot went off, and Jimmy and Alex barely missed being hit. The sedan was almost on top of them, and it was obvious they didn't care how many people they had to kill to take out the duo. They were a half-mile away from the uncompleted ramp. Jimmy looked over and saw a large crawler crane being used to lower support beams into place on the ramp.
"OK, you weren't a big fan of driving in the opposite lanes?" Jimmy asked.
"Not even a little!" Alex retorted.
"Then hang on because this will REALLY suck!"
Jimmy gunned the motor and cut across the lanes, speeding towards the uncompleted ramp. The sedan kept up the pursuit as Jimmy drove for the edge of the ramp. He put his feet up on the seat of the motorcycle and pushed off with Alex draped on his back. The motorcycle went over the edge and fell one hundred feet to the ground as Jimmy grabbed the large hook dangling from the crane. The sedan tried to hit the brakes, but it was too late. It also drove off the ramp and plunged to the ground.
Jimmy swung the hook over to the crane and Alex got her bearings once again, climbing off him and down the crane to the ground. Jimmy followed her down. Alex looked ready to kill him.
"I have to wear the leather briefs tonight, don't I," he said bashfully.
Buy More – Burbank, CA
June 4, 2016
2:00 PM PDT
Chuck and Sarah pulled into the parking lot and hurried to the back door of the store. They found almost everyone there.
"Is everybody OK?" Sarah asked.
"Yeah, we are," Ellie replied, hugging the two of them. "We were attacked on the way over to the Buy More."
"Where are Jimmy and Alex?"
"We ditched the car we were in and they found us another car to drive here," Devon said. "They led the people chasing us away so they wouldn't know where we were going, but that was the last we heard from them."
"Neither of them are answering their phones," Casey said. "Miller and Barker also had company."
"They found us at the TV station where I was giving an interview," Carina said. "They sent a couple of SUVs at us, but we took care of it."
"We told Morgan and Big Mike to close the store early," Cole said. "They're going to pretend there's an employees' meeting, but they'll send them home, too."
"What about your people?" Sarah asked.
"Haven't told them a thing. I was waiting on you."
One of the sensors beeped and everyone turned to check the monitors, breathing a sigh of relief when they saw Jimmy and Alex.
"Next time, I'LL drive!" Alex spat at Jimmy as the two entered.
"OK," Chuck said carefully. "You did escape, right?"
"Barely," Alex said, still upset. "Apparently, the only way he knows how to escape is to do something stupid and risky."
"When will you stop doing that?" Sarah said in exasperation.
Jimmy put a hand up. "Hang on…"
He walked over to the opposite wall and rammed his forehead into it. He stumbled towards the group, completely dizzy.
"What did you do that for?" Stephen demanded.
"I always get injured when a couple fights around here," Jimmy replied. "I was just trying to get it out of the way."
Alex shook her head in frustration. "At least on the good side, they went after us instead of Ellie and Devon. So, this place is still safe."
"But how did they know where to find you?" Ellie asked. "Who knew you'd be over at West Side today?"
"Nobody outside of this room knows that information. Not even Morgan and Big Mike," Jimmy said. "Wait. Beckman knows. So, either she's trying to sabotage her own project, or…"
"Her office has been bugged," Sarah finished.
"Anything else that we need to do we'll have to do on our own," Stephen said. "We can't risk this leaking out."
"Until we know what's going on, the three of you can't be out of our sight," Casey said to Ellie, Devon, and Stephen. "Cole, you and Ilsa draw up a schedule to watch the three of them. Use the other agents if you need to. Bring in more if needed."
"And the rest of us must take the fight to the Ring," Sarah said. "Enough playing defense; it's time to go on offense."
"We'll need intel," Jimmy said. "Lots of it. And nobody can know how we got our hands on it. Chuck, you up for a little hacking?"
"I thought you'd never ask," he replied with a smile.
Buy More – Burbank, CA
June 4, 2016
5:00 PM PDT
Daniel Shaw reread the file on Chuck Bartowski as he sat in the car, taking the occasional glance at the store. He knew the Ring missed something. He learned they had sent agents to go after members of Sarah's team earlier today, but all of them failed. He wasn't sure why they even bothered, given they've failed repeatedly, despite the data they got from General Beckman's computer. He figured the team knew her office was bugged by now, so they'd play it even closer to the vest.
Shaw looked at Bartowski's timeline. He was kicked out of Stanford just before his final semester started for cheating on a test. That didn't make sense. Who would need to cheat on a test when they were so close to graduating, anyway? Something didn't feel right about that. Of even more bizarre coincidence was his work at the Buy More for over a decade following his expulsion from college. From nothing to all of this instant fame? Just because Sarah Walker came into the store? Shaw wasn't so cynical he didn't believe in romance…at least he used to…but all of this smacked of a series of conveniences. A spy suddenly grows an interest in some civilian? And what about his family? How come there was plenty of data on his sister, Ellie, but nothing on his parents?
And why was the Buy More closed? He knew they had been closed for two weeks supposedly suffering some issue with the gas lines underneath the store, but why close early just four days after you've reopened? That didn't make sense either. Something was going on.
He drove back to the hotel but had every intention of returning. The Ring wanted Chuck Bartowski for some reason. The Buy More was as good of a place as any to start. It might be the lynchpin for capturing Chuck and killing Sarah.