Ellie stared at Sarah, dumbfounded at the younger woman's admission. She didn't quite understand everything that Sarah had said, but now that the dam had started to break down, perhaps those questions would be able to be answered as time went on. And there would definitely be a lot of talks between them in the days, weeks, months, and possibly even years ahead of them. She was still mad that so much had been kept from her throughout her life, and the fact that her brother not only knew about it, but willingly went along with it was incomprehensible. However, she would have to wait to confront her brother about everything until he had regained consciousness.
All she could do was deal with what was in front of her. "You say you love him, yet you knowingly put him in dangerous situations." She finally spoke.
"Sometimes the situations we wind up in are dangerous," Sarah admitted, "We do our best to keep the danger away from Chuck, but there's only so much we can do when he insists on running headlong into the fray."
Ellie looked at Casey for clarification.
"Damned idiot is too noble to stay in the van," He supplied, "Your brother is a gifted analyst, no one can do what he does. And I will deny this until the day I die if it is repeated outside of this room. Chuck is the smartest man I've ever known, how he can simultaneously be the dumbest man at the same time is beyond me. He seems to struggle with understanding the command 'stay in the van, Chuck.' I don't think he's ever lasted more than 90 seconds before getting directly involved rather than serving as overwatch when we're in the field. Kid's too noble for his own good. If he thinks Walker or I am in danger, he'll go charging in."
"That does sound like Chuck," Ellie rolled her eyes and sat, "Always trying to be the defender, even when he's outmatched. I can't tell you how many black eyes, bruises, and busted lips I had to deal with from him trying to protect Morgan. Only thing that saved him from being punished at school was that he never threw a punch. He knew how, he was in karate until Dad left, he just chose to not engage other than to defend."
"That's not surprising," Sarah huffed a laugh.
"Explains a lot," Casey agreed, "I didn't need to train him nearly as much as I thought I would in hand-to-hand. Thought it was just because he grew up watching all those martial arts films, kind of like how he claims he's so good at the range because of that one game, what was it, Duck Hunt?"
"Range?" Ellie's eyes widened as she looked over to Casey, "As in guns?"
Casey nodded, "He's been trained with live rounds, but the kid refuses to carry live ordinance in the field. At least as he primary weapon; he carries a tranq pistol."
"I'm not sure if that's much better," Ellie shook her head.
"I agree," Casey nodded, "He made a good case for it, though. Said we can't get vital information from the dead. I still make him carry a live back up in an ankle holster in case he needs it."
"Casey, I don't think you're helping," Sarah warned her partner, noticing the look on Ellie's face which seemed to be a combination of shocked, scared, and pissed off. "Ellie, we don't want to upset you more than is necessary. We are honestly just doing what Chuck has wanted to do since he started working with us; tell you the truth of what is going on."
"In that case, you kind of glossed over why Chuck is working for you when his computer was destroyed after that bastard, Bryce, sent him government secrets. John said something about encoded images and retention rates?"
"That's the part that ties into your father's research and programming," Sarah explained, "The secrets that Bryce sent were in the form of encoded images. By viewing them people with the ability to retain such images essentially 'upload' the information to their brain like files stored on a hard drive. The idea is to be able to recall the information at will. It took a while for Chuck to figure out how to do that, and he's thus far only been mildly successful in doing so, most of the time the information is triggered randomly by something he sees or hears."
"So, you're saying my brother is basically a walking computer? A skin job?" Ellie asked.
"More like 'The Computer Who Wore Tennis Shoes,'" Casey corrected, causing both women to look at him impressed he knew the reference, "What? I wasn't hatched!" When the women shrugged in acceptance of his answer, he continued, "In the spirit of full disclosure, since your brother was considered such a high value asset, we had the courtyard and your condo under surveillance."
"You what?!" Ellie looked around frantic as if she could spot the bugs.
"They haven't been active, for the most part, since your brother was promoted to analyst," Casey informed her, "I just haven't had the opportunity to collect the bugs from the condo. Just for your peace of mind, they are only in the public areas of the condo, I'm not some pervert who gets his rocks off watching you in the shower, I would never invade your privacy... to that extent. After it was established that your brother was not a liability to the Nation's security, I've only turned on the bugs a couple times. Both times were right after your parents showed up again and when your ex-fiancé came to speak his piece about why he took your mom's offer to come to the states. It was for safety and security reasons only; they've been off since."
"As a result, we now know that your father has asked for your help in fixing Chuck," Sarah added, "I know what we are asking of you is going to be hard considering your history with your parents and I get it, believe me I do, which is a long story for another day and will take at least a couple bottles of wine to explain, if you still wish to be friends when all this is over."
Ellie sat in silence looking between the two government agents as she contemplated everything that they had told her. "Okay, so first thing is, I am so not okay with you having surveillance equipment in my home, John Casey, and it will be removed before you leave tonight, am I understood?"
"Yes, Ma'am," Casey agreed, "But the surveillance in the courtyard stays."
"I can live with that," Ellie nodded, "Secondly, from here on out, no more secrets, no more lies. I don't expect you to brief me on every one of your missions, all I ask is that you don't hide things from me anymore."
"Yes, Ma'am," Casey nodded.
"I promise," Sarah echoed.
Ellie sighed and ran her fingers through her hair, "I guess I have a phone call to make. This may take a bit, John you should start removing the bugs."
Casey nodded and stood, "I know where I put 'em, but I'm gonna head back to my place real quick to grab my bug detector in case your brother decided to get cute with some of them." What he didn't mention was the very real possibility that Frost, Orion, or Dmitri could have easily slipped a bug or two into the residence and he wanted to make sure he removed those as well.
Ellie nodded her understanding as she dialed the number her father had left her, "Hi Dad, it's Ellie..."
Over the next hour, Ellie went over the project specs and negotiated some ground rules and boundaries for when she and her father began to work together. Every so often Mary would try to get Stephen to hand over the phone only to have Stephen put her off a while longer, the older man in tune enough with his daughter to know that Mary's presence on the call would not be welcomed. As she spoke, she watched as Casey, some odd box looking thing in one hand, meticulously went over every bit of the apartment, some areas a few times just to be absolutely sure that nothing was missed. Once everything had been established, she agreed to meet her father at the old house the next morning. About the same time Casey nodded the all clear and took the reclaimed bugs back to his apartment.
Casey quickly checked over the recovered tech, finally satisfied when no alien tech had been found amidst his American made bugs. Figuring Ellie and Walker would be chatting until the early morning, he decided to take a short walk over to Kathleen's house to take advantage of a rare random time he was free and clear to spend time with his daughter. It amused and scared him in equal measure that he was slowly realizing that he both was scared of and impressed by the fact he was just as compromised, if not more, as Sarah, and one day he would admit it to himself and to the one who really should be the one to hear it.