So first of all, thanks to all those who didn't give up in disgust after 6 months wait. Yeah, I have no excuses. I just don't have much time to write stories now a days and that's not very fair to the readers of this story. So I apologize once again for the very long wait.
Also I don't have a Beta right now so if anyone is willing to help me with that, please send me a message
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Flashback, Two months ago
Chuck typed furiously at a certain desk on the top floor of DEA's headquarters. The computer screen kept flashing as various letters and numbers emerged in front of his eyes. The young man knew he could easily solve this issue in no time but the hackers were using a system he shouldn't be able to break through using his "current" level of skills.
"Any luck cutie pie?" A beautiful red haired woman leaned over the cubicle barrier separating their workspace. A nervous and obviously love-struck analyst held her coffee and bowl of fruits, a bit too eager to please her. Chuck glanced at her DEA badge which read Special Agent Miller before focusing back on the computer.
"Don't fret Miss Miller, all good things come to those who know how to persist." Chuck tilted his head with a sigh.
"That brat from NGA...where the hell is he?" Administrator Annie Valdez's voice came from her office. All eyes began avoiding Chuck except Agent Miller as the lady in charge herself entered their floor.
Chuck sighed and raised his hands casually, "Right here, Ma'am!"
"Bartowski!" Valdez stormed towards the GEOINT analyst, her mood blacker than ever, "Why in God's name is our system still offline?"
Before Chuck could respond though, Doctor George Bowman- nearly his only ally on site- entered the fray.
"Ma'am, with all due respect, Mister Bartowski is the real deal when it comes anything related to computers and electronics." George began
"I know. You have been telling me the same over and over again since last forty five minutes." Annie scoffed
"It's not his fault you are dealing with some really experienced players here. These guys know their turf quite well. They have done it before and heck, I am willing to bet they will do it again. This is a planned attack on your agency. Just give him some more time, I am pretty he will figure out a way to break through their system eventually. " George paused and looked at him reassuringly.
"Do I look like I care?" Valdez shouted before turning to Chuck. "I highly doubt you have what it takes to deal with a cyber attack of this scale, but for the sake of Admiral and Doctor Bowmen, I will give you an hour and half. If you can't get rid of this problem by then, get the hell out from here so I can send someone with real skills to resolve this issue."
With that final declaration Administrator Valdez marched back to her office, George gave him one last apologetic look and followed her right away, trying to make her see reason. Chuck on the other hand , just gave Administrator the bird as she left the room, remaining completely unfazed by her parting glare Agent Miller grinned, amused by his reactions.
Agent Miller stared at him in fascination as Chuck began battling the hackers, a bit more seriously than before. The hackers was at least good enough to avoiding the traps he laid for them and even attempted to lure him in one of theirs, which didn't work since Chuck was more than capable of blocking everything they tried at this point. Carina once studied about computers and internet security in her college and from what she could tell based on her limited knowledge, vulnerabilities in the Hackers' defenses have started showing up. Perhaps, this expert from NGA wasn't as low key as she initially thought.
"Ah looks like you have got a little rebel inside of you!" Agent Miller strutted around her cubicle to Chuck's, seductively sliding her fingers along the edges before messing with hair and whispered sexily into his ears, "How about showing me that spark of yours somewhere in..." She then clutched her hand tightly on his thigh, causing him to almost letting out a high pitched squeal "Private?"
Chuck gulped, looking up for a moment , his gaze only falling below the neckline of her see through black blouse (which didn't seem even remotely appropriate for work btw) for less than half a second. Even that was enough for her notice as she grinned proudly, as if she won this year's Nobel prize.
"Listen Miss...Miller. I am flattered, I really am." Chuck sighed, taking a deep breath to calm himself as he lightly pushed her hand away. The rest came much easier to him. " I am working on a very important project right now and I can't afford any distractions right now."
After she gave him a look which made him both uncomfortable and aroused at the same time, Chuck threw in, "Something so much important that my entire livelihood depends on it."
Chuck felt like he was closer than ever to fully deciphering the Intersect inside his head, so as long he solved the medical side of things, he might be able to overwrite or at least suppress the whole thing altogether and finally move ahead with his life.
The whole incident with Lou made him realize that in order to be happy like normal people, he had to become someone "normal" himself. And at present, he was anything but normal.
"Oh well, Charles!" Agent Miller shrugged her shoulders, then she pulled back, smacking her lips seductively, Chuck's mind almost went blank, and he knew, even the supercomputer inside his head might have short circuited thanks to her teasing, if she was teasing at all. "If you regret not giving it a try in future, don't blame it on me." She added with a dazzling smile which lightened up the entire room. The lovesick analyst sighed in relief, at least he didn't have to compete with this monster-physically and intellectually- in order to gain this supermodel's attention.
"Yeah, don't worry, it's not you but me. I totally get it, Miss Miller." Chuck agreed, rolling his eyes in mild irritation. He then stood up and connected his wrist watch like device to the computer using a cord.
The computer screen went dark for a moment before coming back to life. Agent Miller's eyes widened as a pop up window appeared on his screen, showing that the hackers' were beaten and their systems were clean.
Chuck then looked up at the analyst, smiling as he threw a USB towards him, " Tell your security specialists to try this program of mine next time if the attacks continue. That should do the trick. I also added a nasty tracking spyware in it so you might be able to catch the culprits with that, given you guys don't fall for those black haters' lousy tricks."
The analyst nodded begrudgingly, he threw one final look of defiance - like Morgan used to give him when he didn't want to share his favorite smoothie with him- towards Chuck before he went off to carry his message to his colleagues, who were working on this issue since last six hours , in secret, hoping to impress their higher ups and the pretty supermodel who showed up today, at their field office. Unfortunately, some rookie from NGA completely stole their thunder and ruined their best laid plans.
Agent Miller turned towards him with a gentle smile, her eyes filled with admiration this time around, "You really dealt with the worm in less than an hour. Not bad, not bad at all."
Chuck threw on his coat and winked at her, "Looks like my luck has started turning around."
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Both Sarah and masked lady went toe to toe for a while. Dodging, punching, kicking, evading etc. Chuck couldn't help but notice how the masked lady was good, quite good actually when it came to fighting. She had a solid stance, was fast in her attacks and defending, rarely left out any spot Sarah could take advantage of and had a lot of energy. Despite having some crazy and unpredictable moves, she just couldn't catch the blonde off guard. They continued with their sparring match until neither of them started having trouble moving because of the pain and fatigue they were experiencing.
However once the masked intruder revealed her face, Chuck felt the gears inside his head rolling as the Intersect stirred into action.
A Siberian husky
A map of Argentina.
A passport belonging to the masked lady herself, now revealed to be the overly bold DEA agent he encountered a few weeks before the whole Intersect mess began, but the name now read Maria Elena Alberti.
DEA Agent: CLASSIFIED
A humpback whale
Chuck could feel a micro migraine of sorts settling in, ho ever the unpleasant feeling was a lot of more bearable compared to full blown head aches he used to get before. But still the amount of information he received in a short time, that was still a lot to take in, especially since he hadn't completely recovered from the La Ciudad fiasco yet.
Sarah took a moment to catch her breath before pointing towards the striking redhead , letting out a long suffering sigh, "Chuck this is Carina. Carina, an exceptional analyst and a member of new team, Chuck Bartowski."
Carina looked at Chuck before giving a playful wink, and he could feel her eyes scanning his body as she walked towards him, sending a chill running down her spine.
Carina looked at Chuck with a flirtatious smile, "Fancy seeing you here, Mister Bartowski, the famous techspert from NGA. So what are you analyzing now a days? or who may be?" She whispered playfully into his ears, brushing her hand along his arm.
"Oh shit! Here it comes." Chuck cringed internally. He wanted to so much to shake his head in annoyance right now. Chuck couldn't help but be reminded of Lou upon seeing her. Both of them enjoyed same kind of crude humor- innuendo of sorts and made men nervous with their overly bold approach. He had an inkling if they ever met each other or got a chance to work on the same team, they would either be great friends or fierce rivals who'd always be at each other's throats.
"Not you for sure, Miss Miller. My danger senses keep telling me that analyzing someone like you might result in me losing one of my kidneys." Chuck sighed in a deadpan manner.
"My my! How interesting?" Sarah commented bemusedly, slapping a hand over her mouth to muffle her laughter, "Looks like our analyst got a perfect measure of your dark heart in just a single glance. "
Carina just smiled as she replied calmly, " I am offended, Blondie! I don't bite people unless they want me to. Ah, and hey Casey, welcome to the party." She added with a meaningful wink, turning towards the door
Casey entered the room, his gun cradled close to his body , which he immediately drew closer upon seeing Carina, "Oh you!" He frowned, a nasty scowl instantly settled in on his perfect stone like face.
"Been a while big guy!" Carina all but purred, smirking viciously towards him " Nice to see you with your pants on."
Casey gave her a look that showed how dearly he wished she would spontaneously combust on the spot.
Oh boy! He really didn't like her at all.
Thankfully, before the NSA agent's emotions reached boiling point and spilled over into violence, Sarah stepped in to diffuse the situation. Taking a moment to straighten her clothes and regain her composure, she turned towards Carina, her tone now being all brisk and businesslike.
"Why are you here Carina? You are here because you need something, right?"
"Ah, It's not like I meant to bother you lovebirds like this but we really have a connecting case this time around." Carina replied with a mischievous smile, " "Peyman Alahi , an international financier who is in cahoots with Sinaloa Cartel and consortium of criminal organizations. He has connections from Afghanistan to Tokyo. Laundering millions in and out. I need your help in nabbing him!"
"Unfortunately, we don't take orders from you." Casey replied with a vicious sneer.
Carina shrugged, rolling her shoulders with a slight wince. "Don't fret Big guy, it's not entirely off the books. My Administrator has already reached out to CIA and NSA beforehand. Briefing shall begin in the AM, at the usual place, whatever that shit means ."
"Fort Belvoir" , Chuck's eyes widened in realization.
"Fine, I will be taking Bartowski with me then." Casey announced, and before Chuck's brain could even process what he meant, he was already bodily hauled out of the room. Of course, the only reason Chuck didn't object to this manhandling was because Carina's parting smile reminded him of the tragic scene of a shark circling a drowning man and it didn't seem like a great idea to stay anywhere close to her right now.
Once they were out of earshot, he effortlessly broke free of Casey's ironclad grip. However, even if the stoic distant cousin of Jayne Cobb was surprised at his sudden display of strength, he didn't let it show on his face.
Chuck sighed miserably, slightly rubbing his forehead.
"Casey, I flashed on her files, the undercover DEA agent, she...has a mad flair for improvisation. She is like a total wildcard but in the worst way possible. "
"I know." Casey cursed under his breath, "Make sure to not get within five feet of her unless you have started developing suicidal tendencies."
"By the way, her files also showed that you two went on a some join op...as a couple, Prague, right?" Chuck raised an eyebrow, asking out of curiosity.
Casey turned towards him with a look which was far vicious than the one La Ciudad and her henchmen gave him sometime ago.
"Guess I don't need to know all the juicy details, Loverboy!" He heaved a melodramatic sigh, barely holding back his laughter. His brain had already made the unwitting connection that Casey must have been on the receiving end of one of the crude pranks mentioned in the beautiful red head's mission reports , just like many others who once had the misfortune to work with her
"No you don't. I might be tempted to beat the crap out of you otherwise." Casey remarked, his stoic façade returning once again as they started walking towards his residence, "It looks like I will be babysitting your ass until the storm called Carina passes. So try not to do anything I won't."
"Let me remind you once again Major Killjoy, I am a grown ass man who can handle himself." Chuck frowned.
Somewhere deep down, Casey respected Chuck as his fellow compatriot. Perhaps much more than he initially expected to.
However, at the same time, he felt that he was boundlessly overconfident and needed to be taken down a peg or two before his recklessness got him killed out there in the field.
Of course, he was never going to say it out loud for anyone to hear.
"No offence Charles, but the last time I left you alone for less than ten minutes and you were abducted by the one of the world's most notorious arms dealers and her henchmen. And don't even get me started about the Mouser thing. These events alone speak volumes about this highly capable grown ass man who doesn't need any sort of babysitting whatsoever." Casey growled as he opened the door of his small house. Which surprisingly turned out to be cozy and warm, opposed to the gruff and cold personality Casey often projected onto others.
Chuck stretched his arms, stifling a yawn. He could have come up with a funny rebuttal if he wanted to but ultimately decided against that. He wasn't petty enough to antagonize Casey every time he made any condescending remark . Besides, it had been a long day and he could finally use some rest.
I really hope that crazy She-devil doesn't give Sarah too much of a hard time.
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Sarah went to the washroom to wipe the blood from her face. Actually, a part of her was happy to have Carina around. She was possibly the closest thing she had akin to a friend. Sure she met Chuck first, but they couldn't keep in touch and Zondra, the one she met during her training days, turned out to be a filthy traitor who sold her soul to Augusto Gaez, for monetary benefits. Besides despite being a tremendous field agent, Carina was too much of a wild card. And not in a good way . She wouldn't have bothered much with her tendency to improvise during missions if she only did it when the mission required it or their team was in danger. But no, she did it only for the sake of getting the kick out of the situation, making her a literally ticking time bomb. She had no possible way to control or predict her next move.
Sarah was also getting anxious Chuck's safety, and it wasn't just about the mess they made during Ciudad mission.
A couple of days ago, Graham called her to inform about the mysterious disappearance of Jonas Zarnow. A highly accomplished scientist working for NSA who also happened to be the part of the original Intersect project, the one which was created by Orion and Hartley. Graham suspected that he might have been abducted by the same rogue spy outlet Bryce was once part of. Sarah expressed her desire to look into this incident but her boss quickly dismissed that notion, telling her that a team of CIA operative, personally handpicked by him had already taken from the local FBI and now had full access to the ongoing investigations, no question asked. But even they failed come up with anything worthwhile yet.
She wondered just how deep this splinter cell ran to make people disappear left and right, without leaving a single trace behind whatsoever. And how far they were willing to go in order to get their hands on the Intersect database. Even someone like her, Graham's wildcard enforcer , whose entire life had been anything but normal, started feeling she was a little bit out of her depth, at least when it came to this specific assignment.
Once she went back to the living room, Carina had already straightened up some of the mess she made during their initial "spar" and came up with a peace offering of sorts, a beer in hand. Another was opened in the opened on the coffee table, alongside a couple of pizzas. She was a little bit reluctant at first since the red head always had an alternative motive with everything she did. But the temptation of pizzas and beers couldn't be beaten that easily.
Eventually, she took her offered seat and both of them sat across each other, taking a swig of their beers. Nothing was said for a while as a deafening silence settled in, as usual Carina was the first to crack the ice.
"So old friend...is there something I should know." Carina asked in a voice filled with concern.
"No...I uh...I just have a lot on my plate right now." Sarah said, sipping her beer. Which wasn't a complete lie. She did have too much to deal right now, especially with Chuck being at the forefront of the whole Intersect debacle.
"Oh yeah..." Carina's eyes widened in realization, "Listen Walker, I am sorry about the whole Brian thing. I had no idea..."
"Thanks Carina. But I'd rather not talk about him-it's all water under the bridge now." Sarah said adamantly.
"Right , sorry. Change the topic?" Carina lightly touched her shoulders with an apologetic smile.
Sarah immediately calmed down a little, "Sure, sorry for the outburst."
"Anyways, I can't help but feel a little bit curious about your new team though. What kind of operation requires CIA and NSA to work on some sort of join operation? I thought guys couldn't stand each other. And why is NGA so hands on with everything- even putting one of their most promising techies on this team. " Carina raised her eyebrow, snorting in disbelief.
"Sorry old friend, that stuff is way above your fifth tier drug bullcrap. " Sarah shrugged. She really hated keeping Carina in dark regarding such important matters which affected the entire US Intelligence community as a whole. Especially about the splinter cell operating right under their noses. But at the same time, she couldn't bring herself to tell Carina about what kind of terrifying monster they were up against. Cause she feared that might cause Carina to doubt everything she once believed in, like that particular mission in Budapest did to her and she didn't want her only friend to suffer like that.
Carina frowned for a while before a playful smirk formed on her lips, "Oh Walker, I will have to get my answers from that feisty NGA guy. He might know a thing or two. He is smart cookie after all."
"This is what I am worried about, Carina. I won't have you acting in such a manner around him. Chuck isn't ..wired like us and the last two ...field missions our team went on...almost turned into a bloody mess if it wasn't for his smarts and quick thinking. He is still recovering and I don't think your ideas of fun would be beneficial to him, do you?" A now anxious Sarah immediately voiced her objection.
This time Carina clearly detected clear signs of Sarah holding something in. Sarah might be one of the best field agents out there but she wasn't that good of a liar, at least when it come to her close friends. That was partially the reason behind her not having any in the first place.
"He may be a nice guy for sure but even nice guys won't be fool enough to pass a girl like me up." Carina pressed further with an almost evil sounding snicker, "Besides I can't let some nerd spoil my near perfect record."
Determined to keep her calm, Sarah scoffed in annoyance, "Do you really have to be the world's biggest bitch every time I ask you for a simple favor?"
"Only when a cute guy gets involved." Carina remarked in a sing song voice.
Sarah really had enough of Carina's mind games at this point. She knew Carina was trying to expose her emotional vulnerabilities , to get her to admit that there was indeed something going on between Chuck and her. Normally Sarah wouldn't be fazed by Carina's teasing that much. But unfortunately, she was already a little bit irked about the lack of intimacy between her and Chuck right now , all thanks to Chuck's absurdly busy schedule. Still, she figured out by the point that they were managing to fit in some couple activities amidst his packed schedule as the chief architect of the new Intersect AI and the way Beckman kept increasing the number of files he was supposed to analyze and review for them , seemed enough of a reason for her to let him off the hook about at least that failing of their budding relationship.
Hell, may be if it wasn't for the Ciudad mission popping out of nowhere , they could have finally really gotten intimate with each other on this weekend.
I bet that little bitch is doing this on purpose, Sarah fumed inwardly.
On top of everything that was currently going on in her mind, the very last thing she needed was to hear Carina teasing her about wanting to sleep with the very same guy Sarah'd all but (unknowingly) committed herself to going steady with.
Her face burning red hot in anger, she responded with the deadliest glare she could possibly muster, in response, Carina merely giggled in amusement.
"Fine , fine, I won't try to sleep with him, dummy!"
Satisfied, Sarah breathed in relief, sipping her beer . At least she now had one less thing to worry about the upcoming mission.
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