A/N Big chapter here, with the technical explanation of how Hartley transformed himself into Volkoff. Team B invades the Contessa, and Frost is ready this time for the ultimate mission of her life.
General Beckman greeted the news with her customary enthusiasm. "I trust you will share this theory with us, Doctor."
"The key word here," said Ellie, sounding not a bit chastened, "Is 'polyzygotic.' Remember it, little brother."'
"I'm remembering it, sis," said Chuck. "What am I remembering?"
"It refers to a pregnancy resulting from two or more fertilized eggs."
Now Chuck had the same confused look as his partners. "I doubt Volkoff is pregnant, sis."
"No, but Hartley is," said Ellie, "In a manner of speaking. The Agent X files you unlocked are records of very early trials with a very primitive version of the Intersect. I'm pretty certain it's the original version."
"Wait a minute, Doctor, I thought Chuck got the original version," said Casey.
"Chuck got the original version of what might be a gen-2 or even gen-3 program, Casey. Hartley got the gen-0 prototype, barely capable of implanting a single memory."
"Ah, polyzygotic," said Chuck in a voice of great enlightenment.
Someone who wasn't Carina growled at him, "That better mean you understand what she's talking about, Bartowski."
Chuck raised a hand, and Casey stopped distracting him. "And how many of these singleton memories did he get, El?"
"Too many, Chuck, and the trend over time does not look good. The early trials are okay, but the later ones just cannot be from the sources listed on the forms."
Chuck picked up one of the disks in the box. "We may have something for you there, sis."
"So, wait," said Carina, trying to make sense of what she was hearing, "You're saying that Hartley went looking for memories, to turn himself into Volkoff?"
"He went looking for memories to make himself into something," said Ellie. "But he went too far."
"Typical mad scientist," snorted Casey.
"You gonna say that to his mother?" asked Carina.
Casey looked out the window at Mrs. Winterbottom, smiled, and gave her a thumbs-up.
Now it was Carina's turn to snort derisively. "Mama's boy."
"So Volkoff is like Carmichael?" asked Chuck.
"Not a bit, Chuck," said Ellie decisively. "Carmichael lost. You didn't want to live out that fantasy."
Chuck wasn't so sure. "I need you!"
Carmichael shook his head. "You've never needed me. You just need this!" He spread-eagled his body in the air.
"Did Mom and Dad know about this?" asked Chuck, shaking the memory out of his head.
"They must have suspected something," said Ellie. "Probably they expected the memories to fade, but the code was too crude, too powerful. It was about this time Mom started disappearing for no reason, and Dad started working on the code for that panel."
"To remove these, uh, singletons?" asked Beckman.
"I think so, General, but putting them in is a lot easier than pulling them out. It wasn't long before he started working on a more global version of the code, which is what Chuck eventually uploaded. The singletons would be embedded in that, and then he could remove the whole thing at once. Or at least that was the theory."
Chuck got a faraway look in his eyes.
"What happened that time?" asked Casey, taking advantage. Something awful and nightmarish, he was sure, because this was the Intersect.
"Ted Roarke happened. Dad had to run away, and try to develop the code while on the run. This slowed everything down considerably." Not to mention the consequences to her personally, and Chuck, but they wouldn't have known it from her voice. "Didn't you ever wonder why Dad could build the removal program so quickly, once he had access to Roarke's labs?"
From the look on Casey's face the answer was 'No'.
Chuck chose that moment to rejoin the group. "So you're saying the panel in our basement was meant for Volkoff?"
"I was hoping you wouldn't notice that part, Chuck," said Ellie. "I'm sure it was meant for him, but you were in the way with Sarah behind you. Mom couldn't have known it would hurt you."
Hurt me? "She could have ended Volkoff right there, sis, and I stopped her. How else could I feel?"
"I'm sorry, Chuck, I wasn't thinking," said Ellie. "I meant the Intersect, and the skills. The 2.0 plugged the skills in where the singletons were supposed to go. Dad's panel…cut them loose."
"Well, that explains a lot," said Casey into the silence.
Chuck lifted his hands. Loose inside him. The shots that killed Gaez. Were they reflexive? "She said Dad never wanted me to see it."
"I wouldn't have either. Hitting you with this was like hitting an eggshell with a hammer."
Chuck dropped his hands into his lap. Carina put her hand in one, and squeezed. Chuck looked at her, and she gave him a smile.
"Mr. Bartowski," said General Beckman, after a moment, "I am sorry."
"That's Agent Bartowski, General," said Chuck, knowing she would take it as he meant it. "Maybe Volkoff isn't like Carmichael, but I could be like Volkoff." 'Now I know he was wrong,' his mother had said. Wrong about what? Sure it could have been a simple random comment, designed to confuse him, or he could have been…what, some kind of test case? Or maybe she knew what it would do and wanted it to happen. He'd likely never know his mother's mind, but he knew what he had to do about it. Hartley lost himself to the memories. I have to own these skills, before they own me. "Maybe I need to be."
"For what conceivable purpose?"
"I'm going to get my wife back, General, and complete my mother's mission."
Casey put his hand on top of Carina's, on top of Chuck's. "We can't let Mom…I mean, Mrs. Winterbottom suffer any more."
"We won't, Casey. We're going to end this."
St. Petersburg…
The cold air reeked. Rotting vegetation, rusting metal, and oil.
Frost put her hand on Sarah's leg. "Here at last," she said, while tapping 1-3-1-3. Suddenly she looked concerned. "How are your hydration levels?" She smacked the seat in front of her imperatively. "Water."
The bodyguard passed a bottle back and Sarah drank gratefully. The air in the plane was a bit dry.
They waited until the guards had moved into position, then Frost opened her door, keeping a grip on the chain linking Sarah's wrists together as she got out and Sarah, necessarily, followed. The gangway bounced under a heavy tread as they approached.
"Frost," said Alexei, enfolding her in a hug. "Welcome to the Contessa, my floating fortress of fun." He looked at Sarah's hands. "Taking no chances, I see."
"Would you?"
Volkoff touched Sarah's cheek. "Out of this dangerous nettle we shall yet pluck the flower of safety." He turned and walk away, and they followed. "Captain, you may get under way when you are ready."
"So quickly," mused Frost, so softly that only Sarah could make out the words. "I wouldn't have expected us to make our move until tonight."
On the way to St. Petersburg…
"You think she'll get there okay?" asked Casey, tippity-tapping with his pencil as he considered alternative scenarios.
"She's on a government plane, she'll be met by a government driver, who'll take her to a government office where she'll deliver top-secret government property," said Carina. The semi-pro havoc-maker shook her head. Mrs. Winterbottom had been offered, and joyfully accepted, the task of delivering her son's spy will to 'that lovely woman in the states.'
"Honestly," added Chuck, plugging another flash drive into his computer, "I'm more worried about the pilots, drivers, and secretaries."
"Smart," said Carina, nodding as she read her trashy romance novel. "Speaking of dangerous women, Chuck, any explosions lately, in the St. Petersburg area?"
Casey said nothing, but Chuck filled the gap for him. "What makes you think she's even there, Carina? We couldn't get a signal from my tracker."
Suddenly Casey leaned over and started rapping on Chuck's head with his knuckles. "Hello! Think, Bartowski, think!" Satisfied that he'd gotten his trainee's attention, he sat back in his seat. "Those guys didn't find us at the cottage by a lucky guess. They followed us from Prague, and if they were watching us there–"
"They could have been watching for Sarah too."
"Bingo," said Casey, "But I'd think it was the other way around. Even if Volkoff was ready for war he'd want to have his nearest and dearest with him, and Sarah on hand to bargain with, but I doubt he's ready for war."
Carina stopped pretending she was interested in the trash on the page. Her diary was more interesting. "Either way he's got Sarah and Frost on board with him, hence–"
"'Hence'?" said Casey.
Carina stuck out her tongue at his sneer-by-implication, then looked at Chuck. "Hence my question, which you still haven't answered."
Chuck checked the overheads quickly. "Uh, no, no explosions yet," he said. "She must be waiting for us."
On the Contessa…
"What are we waiting for, Father?" asked Vivian as she came onto the bridge. "I thought we'd be out to sea by now." From the look of things they'd managed to get a few hundred yards from shore, but no further.
"There have been…developments since you went to take your rest, my dear." He indicated the professionals as they worked over something. "Our departure has been delayed due to mechanical difficulties." Volkoff licked his ice cream cone. "Armand suspects sabotage."
"Armand always suspects sabotage."
"That doesn't make him wrong."
"No, just dull and predictable," said Vivian. "Has anyone checked on Agent Walker?"
He knew she'd ask that. "In Frost's personal charge. Armand is interrogating Hydra's security recordings for clues." He went to check the logs, and verify that that was all his security man was checking.
"Does she know how to pick a lock?"
Off the Contessa…
Chuck poked his head above water, amazed at their good fortune. Getting aboard while the Contessa was underway would have been much more difficult.
"Sightsee later, Bartowski," said Casey. "If this scow starts moving we're fish food."
"Relax." Chuck pulled a mike from inside his cowl. "Bedrock, this is Graboid."
"Graboid, you are go for insertion. Two guards, fore and aft. They rest are under cover."
Chuck held up two fingers for his team, and their relative positions. "Roger, Bedrock." He fired a pneumatic pistol, shooting a grappling hook up to the rail.
They scaled the side of the ship up to the railing, vaulting over it and into the shadows as the irregularities in the guards' patrolling allowed. "Idiots," said Casey, as they rearmed from their waterproof bags.
Carina smiled as she coiled the grapple cable. "They're thugs on a boat, not Marines."
"If I had my way they'd be thugs off a boat." The short way. Unfortunately, the best way to make them think they hadn't been penetrated was to let the outer picket continue as they were.
Chuck touched his mike. "Phase one complete. See you when we're done."
"Good luck guys."
Chuck lifted his laptop. "All right team, time to get hacking." He led the way into the ship in search of a connection.
As Carina followed, Casey whispered in her ear, "And here I thought the piranha was a tropical fish."
On the other side of the ship…
Frost emerged from a hatchway, all in black, followed by her silent shadow in breakaway shackles. It appeared that Volkoff's top lieutenant was simply making her usual rounds, in a different place, but appearances could be deceiving.
"Twenty years I've been working for this," said Frost, her voice almost quivering. So close, so close! She cleared her throat, forced the hope down. "I'd still be waiting, if it weren't for you and your team. Thank you."
Sarah smiled, but put a finger to her lips.
Frost sighed. "I know." The finish line was only in sight, they still had to cross it. Now was not the time to slow down. "I just wanted to make sure it got said, whatever happens tonight." She squared her shoulders, once more firmly in control. "Let's not keep Orion waiting."
Volkoff was reading quietly in his quarters when the lights suddenly went out. Instantly he slid out of his chair, crawling across the carpet to his desk, and the intercom. No connection. He was on his own.
Light flickered behind him.
Someone pounded on the door. "Father, it's me!" said Vivian. He opened the door and there she was, holding a weapon as Frost had trained her, hands shaking only slightly. She slipped inside and he sealed the hatch behind her. "Are we under attack?"
"Yes," said Volkoff, "But not how you think." He pointed at the only light source in the room.
The big monitor on the wall was lit, displaying only a few words. I want my wife back, Alexei.
Her father chuckled. "Orion is finally making his move." He uncapped the speaking tube, an antiquity that he was very glad he'd left in place. "Send me Armand."
On the upper deck…
Chuck tucked his laptop behind a desk, out of sight but not of mind.
Casey looked out the window at the darkened boat, trying to keep track of all the men milling around on deck. "Well, I'd certainly say you've gotten their attention, but I wouldn't have minded some lights on so I could see the mark."
"You'll see him," said Chuck. "He'll be the one walking in straight lines."
On a lower deck…
Frost emerged from shadow as the tall man strode past, his footsteps brisk and purposeful. She knew of Armand more than she knew him. Volkoff liked to keep his security teams separated, and clearly this man knew his way around Volkoff's floating fortress. He would lead her where she needed to go. "Tonight it ends," she said, a promise or a prayer. She didn't have to tell Sarah to be quiet as they followed Armand into the bowels of the ship.
Looking down from the upper deck to the lower deck…
"Well, well, well."
"What…?" said Frost, aiming her pistol upwards.
"I'd move if I were you, Casey," said Carina.
Chuck pushed Casey out of the way as he vaulted the rail, landing on the deck below at his wife's feet. He swept her into his arms as the rest of his team descended the stairs.
"I wouldn't have shot him," said Frost.
"I wasn't talking about you," said Carina. She left to keep tabs on their quarry as the others tried to coordinate their plans.
Or not. "You aren't supposed to be here," said Frost. "I have the situation under control."
"Yeah," said Casey. "I saw how much control you had last night."
Sarah let go of Chuck and latched on to Casey for a huge hug.
"Don't sweat it Sarah," said Casey, patting her awkwardly on the back. "Let that be a lesson, next time you try to kill me, bring a bigger building."
"Fine," said Frost. "You can be my backup."
Carina's marks led then deep within the ship, to the top of a set of stairs. She pointed, and they saw some guards on the next level, in front of a secure door and a computer access panel. They moved into the shadows and waited. Eventually Armand left the room and retraced his steps, returning to his master. Frost raised her pistol and moved toward the stairs. Chuck held up a hand and stuck his finger in the barrel, pushing the gun down. He raised his tranq pistol and shot both guards in the neck. They collapsed, losing consciousness faster than they could yell, move, or aim.
"The benefit of tranq pistols," he said quietly. "Silent but not deadly."
They gathered in front of the door. Chuck plugged in his phone as Casey, Sarah, and Carina dragged the guards away.
Frost looked on with approval. "You came prepared."
Chuck smiled up at her. "What did you bring?"
"Hairspray and shaving gel."
"Wow, you too?" Gotta love the classics.
"You could just try the key," said Carina, walking up and sliding her trophy through the slot in one motion. "The guard had it on him." She tossed it to Chuck, stepped through the portal, and turned. "Ta-da."
The door slid shut. They heard a shout, something monosyllabic and probably not very polite. "What's happening?" said Chuck.
"Lasers," said Carina. "Very powerful lasers."
"Hold on, Carina, I'll get you out. I'm opening the door right…now."
"Wrong door, genius."
"If you can get through it you should be able to disable the lasers and open the door," said Frost.
"…You're kidding, right?"
"Come on, Carina, you're always going on about how limber you are, how flexible…" said Chuck.
"That's true."
"This should be a piece of cake for you."
"It should be."
"Or are you just gonna let Volkoff have his way with you?"
"Them's fightin' words, mister. I'm the only way-haver in this room!"
Chuck and Frost listened as Carina moved, slid, squirmed, and wiggled her way through the barrier, grunting and groaning with the effort and some of the contortions she was putting herself through.
Someone large grunted over their heads as they listened at the door. "She better not be doing what it sounds like, Bartowski."
"Lasers, Casey."
Heh. "Hurry it up, Miller," he said loudly, "Haven't got all night."
"Goddammit. I'm stuck."
Casey raised a brow. "You?"
"Yeah, me. I don't normally practice the Kama Sutra with fins on my shoes."
Chuck went back to his controls. "Hold on, Carina."
"Oh, oh, no! Stop! They're moving! Ah! Hey!"
Frost got out her hairspray just as the screen under Chuck's thumbs blinked green. The door opened, and they saw the blue glow of the lasers as they winked out, leaving nothing but scraps of rubberized cloth. "Carina?"
She stepped out and stood in the doorway. "Guess it's a good thing I wore underwear this time."
Frost shouldered her way past, finally within sight of her goal.
Chuck moved past her, with a quick murmur of "Glad to see you're all right." His eyes looked into hers, full of concern.
Casey moved past, looking anywhere but at her.
Carina looked at the last member of the team with fading hopes. "Show me some love, Sarah?" Sarah gave her a coat. "Oh, come on!" Then she realized how bloody cold it was in that room, and shrugged into the coat gratefully. She'd made Casey avert his eyes, and Chuck act all gentlemanly, that would have to do.
Frost was busy moving holographic screens around, while Chuck was over in the corner admiring the hardware and Casey and Sarah checked for all the bad stuff.
"We're in time," said Frost. "Alexei hasn't managed to make another backup yet. The only head for this Hydra to go to is ours!"
"Voice identification required," said the computer.
"Mom?"
"Got it," said Frost. She pulled a preprogrammed phone, with only one app on it, and plugged it in. "It's loaded with most of the commonest words in the language, spoken by Alexei. Like an electronic lockpick, but with words." She activated the app.
Alarms blared.
"Time to go," said Carina.
"You go," said Frost. "I came here to finish it and that's what I'll do, even if I have to scuttle the ship to make it happen."
"Let's all go," said Casey, using his mass to herd everyone toward the door.
The door opened in front of them, but all the armed men behind it prevented them from making an exit. They backed against the computers, so no one would try to shoot them out of hand. The room secure, Alexei made his entrance, followed by Vivian and Armand. Alexei's glare swept the room, but lingered on the one he'd trusted most.
"Faster than even I expected," he said. "When your husband declared his intentions I took immediate steps to secure all the things I valued most. Hydra will no longer accept electronic inputs, but it never occurred to me that you would be so willing to be taken as he is to take you from me."
"I don't know what you're talking about, Alexei. I burned those bridges years ago. The only people in America who even know I'm alive think I'm a traitor."
"Then explain this to me." He pulled her close and tapped at a screen, bringing up a recent file. I want my wife back, Alexei. "Anything to say, Frost?"
Chuck stepped out from behind a server. "Only that you're talking to the wrong wife."
