Orion pushed back from his work station with a groan. After all he had done to try to keep his children out of the CIA, Charles still had wound up working for the company. Granted, when he'd convinced Larking to frame his son for cheating to void his test results on Fleming's image retention test, he hadn't expected it to result in Charles' expulsion, he just thought the kid would have to retake the test and be put on academic probation for the remainder of his semester. There was nothing he could have done about it without revalidating Charles' test results which would have brought him to the attention of the CIA sooner. Not that any of his plans had done any good.
It didn't help that Larkin seemed to have a change of conscience four months ago and sent Charles the damned Intersect anyhow. At least some good came out of it, as it resulted in Charles finally being issued the degree he'd worked so hard for, and had been denied. On the other hand, it also brought Agent Sarah Walker to his son's door, and it looked as if his son was going down the same path that he, himself, had gone down over three decades before; falling in love with a spy. He still loved his Mary, and missed her every day, but it was a hardship he'd never wanted for his son.
He stepped to a panel in the wall of his cabin, moved the family picture – the last one of all of them together – that hung there aside and pressed his hand to the biometric scanner that was inset into the wall. The pad turned green and the wall slid to the side revealing a set of stairs heading down to the hidden basement. He slowly descended the stairs, his knees not what they used to be, and went straight to the section of his storage he knew housed the disks holding the data packets from the Agent X Intersect. The clamshell-style disk storage case was right where he knew it would be. Tucking the box under his arm, and grabbing the auxiliary disk reader, he headed back up the stairs to his workstation.
Compiling the data packets and converting them for transmission took a few hours as he had to load the data packets individually from each disk, but the files were finally ready to upload to the server Charles had provided him with. The upload took another 45 minutes to fully transmit, and through the whole process he questioned the intelligence of doing so. He had tried and failed 20 years ago to disengage the Volkoff programming and bring Hartley back, multiple times. At this point he counted it as a loss, and while he hoped to, someday, see his wife again, his faith that it would actually happen dimmed every day, week, month, year that she was gone. He just prayed that if she met her demise in the 'employ' of Volkoff, it wouldn't be too gruesome.
He silently watched the upload bar as it processed the transmission, when it hit 100%, he sat back and sighed. "Good luck, Charles. You're gonna need it." With that, he shut down his system and ambled off to the kitchen to make his dinner.
It was around three in the morning when Chuck stumbled out of his room in search of food and drink for himself and Sarah to replenish the energy they'd just spent the past few hours expending when he heard a soft chime from his computer. Taking a seat, he woke his system to see what the alert was for, a smile graced his lips as he saw his father had done as he'd been asked and sent him the data packets he's requested. He pressed a few buttons to download the data packets to the auxiliary hard drive, he'd plugged in for that very reason, and set his computer to shut down after the download was completed. He grabbed a few pieces of fruit and some bottled water and headed back to bed to get a few more hours of sleep before it was time to meet with Casey for their debrief.
They had managed to wake up and finish showering in just enough time before Casey's scheduled arrival. Chuck was seated in the living room, wearing jeans and a brown Henley, sock-covered feet propped up on the coffee table. He was skimming over the coding the data packets his father has sent him on his laptop while he sipped his coffee and nibbled on a pastry when Casey knocked on the door connecting their suites. Chuck set his feet on the floor and his laptop on the coffee table and ambled over to the door.
"Good morning, Casey," Chuck greeted the older man warmly, "There's coffee brewed and pastries on the table."
"Where's Walker?" Casey looked around the room.
"I'm right here," Sarah responded, entering from the bedroom, securing her hair into a ponytail.
Casey gave her a once over from her still-damp hair, to the t-shirt she'd clearly stolen from Bartowski, to her jeans and sock covered feet and, then taking into account Chuck's wet curls, let out a frustrated groan, "It's enough to know you Bartowski is actively stuffing your pierogi, but do you have to flaunt it?"
"I don't know what you're talking about," Sarah smiled sweetly at her partner as she sauntered up to her boyfriend, kissed his cheek, and stole his coffee cup, taking a swig of it before handing it back to him.
Casey grunted in disgusted, "Can we just get on with this?"
"Of course," Chuck smiled and gestured toward the living room. After grabbing some pastry and coffee, including a refill for Chuck, the trio took their seats to begin their briefing. Chuck and Sarah explained about meeting up with Cole and Vivian and the connection between Chuck and Vivian's fathers. Casey's eyes widened for only a moment when Chuck revealed that his mother had been undercover since Volkoff's Intersect and failed to disengage. "She doesn't know I'm here or that I work for the CIA, but we're fairly confident she will work with us when we tell her our plan."
"So, are we no longer going after Federov?" Casey took a sip of the coffee that he claimed he took black as his soul, "Do Beckman and Graham know?"
"Yes, we are going after Federov, in a way," Sarah nodded, "We are thinking that if Volkoff is taken off the board, it will cause whatever pipeline that Federov is using to get weapons for his buyers will dry up. And no, we haven't briefed them yet."
"Why the hell not?" Casey demanded.
"We don't know how my mom will react to seeing me again, let alone finding out I'm working with the CIA and NSA." Chuck gave his partner a half-smile, "It didn't go so well when my dad found out."
"What does you dad have to do with this?" Casey looked between his partners in confusion.
"Casey, my dad is Orion, in case you forgot." Chuck gave the older man a skeptical look before he continued, "Twenty years ago, he and Vivian's father along with Dr. Busgang – code name Perseus – and my mother were involved in developing an early prototype of what would eventually become the Intersect. They called it Agent X as their goal was to download a personality matrix into an operative to eliminate the risk of blowing an agent's cover. According to my father's notes, the CIA had pushed for a test of the programming and threatened to revoke funding if no test was done within a specific time frame. Apparently, no one in our government heeded Quantum Leap's warning about testing experiments before they're ready.
"Vivian's father, Hartley Winterbottom, a scientist and former operative for MI:6, volunteered to have the program uploaded into his head. They tried first with a small packet of information, which seemed to be well received and was able to be accessed until the coding told the program to essentially 'switch off.' Eventually they worked their way up to uploading a full personality matrix into Hartley and it seemed to work. He was able to successfully insert himself into the Bratva. After a few months, the program was supposed to shut off. When they didn't hear from Hartley, my mom was sent with a way of overriding the program, but that failed. They attempted a few more times, I remember her leaving for several business trips during this time, but each time it didn't work. Eventually it was decided that my mom would go under as his assistant to be his handler. Withing a few years Hartley had managed to build a reputation and a name as one of the most prolific arms dealers Russia had ever seen. My mom was always at his side and is now his most trusted right-hand man… or woman as it were."
"So, you're saying that your dad, under the direction of the CIA…" Casey started.
"Created Alexei Volkoff, yes," Chuck confirmed with a sad smile.
"And your mom is…"
"Frost," Chuck confirmed.
"Oh, Chuck me…" Casey groaned.
"Why is this so surprising to you?" Sarah challenged, "The rampant nepotism in the CIA is not exactly a state secret." Both men gave her a dry look, "Okay, so it is a state secret, but not within the intelligence community."
"So, what's the plan?" Casey looked between his partners.
"We spoke with my father last night and he sent me the data packet from the Agent X Intersect." Chuck explained, "I am going to try to see if there's a way I can circumvent or override the programming enough to disable the Volkoff personality. With any luck, I'll also be able to reprogram the update glasses to administer the override."
"The thing is we need to get the glasses to him and somehow get him to turn them on voluntarily," Sarah added, "Since Frost is his number two, we're hoping to get the glasses to her to give to him, but first we have to gain her cooperation."
"We are taking advantage of our friendships with Cole and Vivian, the bride and groom, to get an introduction, or rather a reintroduction," Chuck added, "They invited us to their rehearsal dinner, where Frost is bound to be considering Volkoff is the father of the bride."
"Are you sure she's going to agree to work with us?" Casey gave them an uncertain look, "Being under as long as she has, her loyalties may have shifted."
"I think the risk is worth the reward," Chuck shrugged slightly, "The worst she can do is say, 'No.'"
"No, kid," Casey shook his head, "The worse she can do is put a bullet through your brainpan, and I don't know about Walker, but I really don't have time to deal with dead geek."
"Nerd," Chuck and Sarah corrected on reflex.
"And let her try," Sarah's face hardened.
"Your funeral," Casey shrugged, "If the Moron is working on deprogramming the most dangerous man on the planet, what is our next step?"
"I'm staying here, to make sure he doesn't overdo it on his thinking juice," Sarah explained, "Last thing we need is for him to show up to the rehearsal dinner three sheets to the wind."
"That'd be a more apt descriptor if used to describe a drunk Casey," Chuck snickered, "You know, since he's a marine."
Casey growled.
"Boys, focus," Sarah gave them both a stern look., "Chuck will get a start on trying to figure out how to override the Agent X programming, the goal being to have it ready to go by the time of the wedding tomorrow, or at the very latest by the time Volkoff and Frost head back to Moscow. Casey, meet with Ilsa and keep working the Federov angle, just in case removing Volkoff doesn't resolve the pipeline issue."
"Fine," Casey grunted, "Debrief again tomorrow, same time?"
"That should work," Chuck nodded, Sarah mimicking the motion.
Casey gave a grunt of understanding, then exited the room.
"So, what do you need in order to get started?" Sarah turned to her boyfriend.
"I already have," Chuck pulled up the window displaying the coding for the Agent X program, "But if you could uncork a bottle and maybe grab me another pastry, that would be helpful."
"Sure," Sarah nodded, did as he asked and brought the pastry and opened wine bottle handing the bottle to him and watching him take a swig, "Open," Chuck opened his mouth while she inserted a bite of pastry into his mouth. "Don't get used to this."
"I won't," Chuck assured her, opening another window to make notes, "But I love that you're willing to do it when I need it."
"Alright then," Sarah patted him on his shoulder before going into the bedroom and emerging with her own laptop to go over any recent briefings and releases she received. Every so often she would make sure Chuck ate a little more pastry.
As Chuck reviewed the files, he saw that his father had included his attempts at a program override and notes as to what he thought might have gone wrong. Finishing the last swig of wine, he was surprised when the bottle was removed from his hand and replaced with a cool green bottle with a blue label reading 'Theodora.' The surprise must have shown on his face, because Sarah gave him a soft smile, "Drink that and eat a sandwich, then you may have more thinking juice."
"Fine," Chuck huffed lightly to show he wasn't overly upset by her direction. Putting his laptop aside, he screwed off the metal lid and took a long swig of the cool drink, feeling the slight buzz he was getting from the wine to ebb a bit. Once a third of the bottle was gone, Sarah handed him a turkey and muenster sandwich, which he promptly ate while finishing off the last of his water.
Sarah accepted the empty bottle and used plate from him and walked back to the table to uncork another bottle. This cycle of making sure he was snacking while coding and drinking his thinking juice, then insisting on him drinking a bottle of water along with something more substantial repeated itself a few more times until it was a little after five PM. She handed him one last bottle of water, instructing him to drink, and waiting patiently until the empty bottle was handed to her.
"How are you feeling?" She sat down next to him, looking between her boyfriend and the computer which had dominated his attention all day.
"Not bad, all things considered," Chuck shrugged, "I feel relatively sobor, so that's good. And I think I made good progress on this. I'm almost ready to run a simulation, but that can wait until after the rehearsal dinner, that way I can program in a few variables and allow it to run overnight, see which comes closest to the desired result."
"You are such a nerd," Sarah smiled up at him, "But that's why I love you." She kissed him, "Now go get changed, we have friends to watch practice getting married."
"Why, wanna take notes?" Chuck gave her a teasing look.
"Maybe," She smiled, "Now get going."
"Yes dear," Chuck laughed, rising and heading toward the bedroom door.
"And make sure you brush your teeth and use some mouthwash," She advised, "Oh and shower, you smell like you spent all day inside an oak cask."
"Maybe you should come with me," Chuck suggested, "Make sure I smell nice and am all prettified."
"Maybe I should," She grinned, following him into the bedroom and on to the ensuite bathroom.
A little over an hour later, they were both showered and dressed, Chuck in a Navy suit and light blue dress shirt, and Sarah in a burgundy cocktail dress with a lace illusion off-the shoulder neckline, a bow at the waist and an A-line skirt which she had paired with black pumps. Their wedding invitation had arrived earlier that day by way of one of the bellmen. Included in the envelope was an invitation to not only the rehearsal dinner, but the rehearsal itself.
"You look beautiful, Jenny," Chuck spoke softly in the local dialect as he smiled down at her warmly as he helped her on with her coat before shrugging on his own.
"Thank you, Charlie," She kissed him on the cheek wiping the lipstick from his cheek as she replied in kind, "You look pretty handsome yourself."
"Shall we go?" He opened the door for her.
"Let's go," She nodded, picking up her handbag and stepping through the door to wait for Chuck to join her.
He offered her his arm, which she gladly took as they headed toward the elevator. They got appreciative looks from other guests at the hotel as they crossed the lobby and thanked the doorman as he opened the door to them, wishing them a pleasant evening. Sarah was grateful for Chuck's arm a moment later as she slipped on a frozen piece of sidewalk as they walked next door to the large church where the rehearsal that night and the wedding the next day was to be held. He'd felt her feet start to slip and promptly held firmer to her to keep her upright, pausing a brief moment until she was steady on her feet once more, before proceeding to their destination.
Entering the church, they slipped into a pew about midway down the aisle on the bride's side, since they'd decided to sit on the groom's side the next day, assuming his side would be the lighter of the two. This gave them the ability to be close enough to be considered included in the event but far enough away to not be easily noticed. Chuck, once more, assisted her with her coat before sliding his own off his broad shoulders, laying the coats over the back of the pew beside him. As they sat and watched the almost-newlyweds walk through an abbreviated version of the service, they held hands and dreamed of the day that it might be them up on that dais… or on a beach somewhere… each promising to devote their lives to loving the other and their future family.
When it looked like things might be wrapping up soon, Volkoff was in a rather serious discussion with the pastor, Frost by his side, Chuck and Sarah shrugged on their coats and made their way back to the hotel. By the time they'd journeyed upstairs to deposit their outerwear and return to the lobby, the wedding party had returned and was making its way into the restaurant. They slipped in, blending with the rest of the guests and took a seat at a table out of the way enough to not draw attention to themselves, but made sure subtly to catch the eyes of the bride and groom so they would know where to find them.
Once all the guests were seated and Volkoff welcomed them with a toast to the future for the bride and groom, laced with a not so subtle warning of what would befall Cole if he were to hurt Vivian, dinner was served. The guests were given the choice of prime rib drizzled with garlic butter or chicken Kiev, served with garlic roasted potatoes and steamed green beans on the side. They were then poured red or white wine, depending on which entre they had selected, to ensure optimal food and wine pairing. Wanting to get a little taste of each, Chuck ordered the prime rib with red wine, and Sarah ordered the chicken with white. Once dinner had been served, the room was filled with casual conversation and light music overhead.
Soon the plates were cleared away and the guests began to mingle, some socializing, others taking advantage of the small dance floor. Chuck and Sarah mostly stayed to their area, exchanging small talk, in Russian and Hungarian, with other guests, identifying themselves simply as friends of the couple. As they socialized, they kept an eye out for Vivian and Cole, who were making their way around the room, often accompanied by Volkoff, greeting all their guests. Eventually, Volkoff excused himself from the couple and made his way over to a group of men standing in the far corner of the room. A few moments later the group were exiting for some clandestine meeting or another.
Sarah saw the moment that Vivian's eyes lit up, pretending to finally spot her friends in the busy room. Linking her arm with Cole's and nearly dragging the older woman who had been Volkoff's escort most of the night along with her. Sarah nudged Chuck, who nodded that he was aware of the trio's approach. As the nearly-weds grew closer, Sarah and Chuck heard Vivian insisting that Frost meet her friends.
"Frost, darling, you simply must meet our friends who came all this way for the wedding." She had insisted, earning her a slight eye roll and hesitant compliance from the older woman. Stepping up to the other couple, Vivian smiled at her father's second in command, "Frost, I'd like you to meet Cole's friend from University, Charlie Carmichael and his wife Jenny."
"It's very nice to meet you, Miss Frost," Sarah greeted the woman kindly, hand extended, which the older woman cordially shook.
Chuck, who had been turned in profile to Frost up until this point, turned to greet her, a wry smile on his lips, "Hi, Mom. Did you miss me?"