"So where are they!?" the pixelized figure shouted on the computer screen at the man in the back of the van.
"I don't know!" his colleague shouted back, "I've been watching the store like a hawk all day; I even went inside and tried to get into the back employee areas. Chuck Bartowski, John Casey, and Morgan Grimes aren't there anymore, and neither's the Sarah Walker lady you mentioned!"
"Then they must have sneaked out a back entrance. I'll alert everyone in Washington I control right now to be on the lookout for them; the cleanup team I sent to the warehouse never reported back in, so they probably caught them and got critical information from them. So we'd got to step up the time frame. I'll take care of things once I land in Washington."
"Well what am I supposed to do here!?" the man in the van protested.
"What I told you to do earlier; get ready to turn up the heat on Bartowski, Casey, and Grimes. Get the team on your end together and..."
"There, there, they're stopping there," Morgan pointed from the back seat of the rental car Chuck's team had taken from Reagan Airport at the agents' car pulling to a stop inside the rearmost section of Arlington National Cemetery in the dusky twilight, where they had followed them to from the airport.
"I am not a blind man, Grimes; I can see perfectly well they're stopping!" Casey growled at him, pulling over behind some trees that shielded them from the agents' view and shutting off his car's engine. "OK, let's see what's going down here-got the cameras and mikes ready, Walker?" he asked Sarah in the front passenger seat.
"Right here," she hefted a high-grade camera and handed a parabolic microphone back to Morgan for assembly. "Let's see what we got here..." she leaned out the window, aiming the camera through an opening in the trees that allowed a clear view of the other agents.
"That's Igor Drenkov there," Bert pointed to the well-dressed man getting out of another car parked nearby-whom Chuck quickly flashed on, Drenkov's role in money laundering and drug running for the Lieberstani government flashing through his mind, "He must be ready to take whatever they have straight to General Mountanski..."
"And look who else is there..." Chuck pointed himself with a very deep frown at a familiar figure he had never wanted to see again climbing out of another car, "It's that ditch witch Alexandra Forrest...!"
"I don't believe it, it is...!" Sarah gasped in shock at the hard-as-nails professional agent striding towards the Shadow Squad and Lieberstani agents, "Although, if anyone we know was going to turn, I'm glad it's her..."
"Uh, just a reminder here, I haven't been in the spy business as long as you guys have; who's Alexandra Forrest?" Morgan inquired, fumbling around trying to unsuccessfully assemble the microphone.
"Beckman wanted to replace Sarah with her two years ago after starting to think Sarah cared for me too much," Chuck explained, scowling at Forrest through the trees, "She's a cold, heartless robot who does anything to get a job done; she almost ruined everything with Ellie and Awesome by making it look like Awesome had been drinking and partying with other women right before their wedding to get the job we were doing then done, even though I asked her not to. Fortunately Sarah proved herself to be essential for the team, and Beckman kept her on. But apparently Forrest's taken a detour to the dark side since then..."
"How's that microphone coming, Grimes; there could be an important conversation going on here!" Casey snarled impatiently.
"I'm working on it, Casey, but I don't do well under pressure!" Morgan hissed, having put the microphone on backwards in his haste.
"Let me, Morgan," Chuck reached over to help him. Working together with Morgan, they quickly had gotten it right. Chuck handed it to Bert, who aimed it at the knot of agents and turned it on, right as Drenkov handed a suitcase to Forrest. "...twenty million in gold coins as was requested," the Lieberstani ambassador told her, his words now crystal clear over the microphone in the car. Forrest opened up the suitcase, inside which the glistening of gold could be seen even from a distance. "Very good," she commended Drenkov without changing her rock-hard expression at all, "And inside our men's case here is our ultimate Intersect in its final form," she gestured at the case the Shadow Squad agents were holding, "The assembly instructions are inside; it should be ready for General Mountanski to use within six hour of installation at most."
"And that's high treason for selling United States secrets, you wench," a furious Sarah muttered under her breath, snapping photos of Forrest and the agents. Drenkov now barked instructions to his men in their native tongue, prompting them to open the briefcase (which was facing away from Chuck and thus denying him a chance to flash on whatever was inside) and nod in satisfaction. "I am quite pleased, Agent Forrest," Drenkov commended her, "Sedgefield made a good choice in giving you command of this phase of our mission."
"Sedgefield knew good talent when he saw it, and he convinced me that what we were doing was in the best interests of the world," Forrest said flatly, "Did you fulfill your end of the mission?"
"I got the codes, as General Mountanski had asked of me," Drenkov said triumphantly, "This was the last set of codes we needed, so when the general gives the command, we can move ahead with the final mission. So when Alexei Volkoff arrives for the ceremonies, we can think him in person for his invention that allowed me to get the codes; they were the hardest to get..."
"Codes? That doesn't sound good," Chuck gulped, "What codes is he talking about?"
"A couple of possible codes, Chuck, but all of them are pretty scary," Sarah looked deathly worried herself. She and he turned back to see Forrest continuing the conversation, "...smuggle you and your envoys and bodyguards here back up the coast to the former Fulcrum base in Rhode Island we brought you in at, then fly you back to Lieberstan to give the codes and Intersect to General Mountanski. We'll be along shortly afterwards for the final execution of the plan; we have some loose ends to tie up here still, namely giving extraneous members of the project their permanent pink slips..."
"Gretchen...!" Bert gulped worriedly. Chuck had to agree; Forrest's wording sounded ominous to him. "...establish our base of operations in the presidential palace in Mountanskistan going forward," the turncoat agent continued, "And of course, the final piece of the overall puzzle, locating the original Intersect. Which, gentlemen, turned out to be a lot easier than we thought..."
There came the sudden click of semiautomatics from outside Chuck's car. "Everyone out of the car now!" shouted an angry voice. Chuck worriedly looked out to see they were surrounded by close to a dozen men that he quickly flashed on as Shadow Squad members-far too many for he and his team to win against. A sighing Casey had apparently also come to this conclusion, as he slowly opened the driver's side door and climbed out with his hands up. Everyone else did the same. They were pushed into the clearing. "Well, Team Bartowski. I should have guessed it would have been you that was following these men from the airport," Forrest sneered at them, "I had these gentlemen," she gestured at the gunmen, "follow the ultimate Intersect here, and they recognized you following it. We've been waiting for you."
She glared right at Bert. "I don't know you..." she muttered.
"But you, I never forget a face, Mr. Chekhov," Morgan cracked in his best Ricardo Montalban impression, "Although, though, that's actually a fairly big plot hole, since Khan and Chekhov were never actually face to face on camera in Space Seed, so we have to wonder how, or if..."
Forrest slapped him hard in the face, cutting him off. "I don't want to listen to anything you have to say, Mr. Grimes, except whatever I ask you to say," she warned him.
"How do you live with yourself, Alexandra!?" Sarah barked at her, "This is treason in the highest form...!"
"I'm working for a better world, Walker. Unlike you, I'm not weak," Forrest told her coldly, "You're not the only member of the CIA that went soft. The whole agency's lost its focus. Sedgefield recruited me six months ago, and I've been working with him as one of his top aides since then. Ironic; he sent Hades to search for the Intersect all these years, when he could have just asked me when I was hired by Shadow Squad," she gave Chuck an ominous glare.
"Uh yeah, this Hades, who is he?" Chuck grilled her, stepping behind Casey.
"I'm not one of those idiots who tells the hero whatever he wants, Mr. Bartowski. But you've seen him before. He just wasn't who you thought he was," Forrest gave him a small clue.
"Who are these people, Forrest!?" Drenkov asked her.
"One of them, Igor, is exactly who you want. As I was saying, Hubert Sedgefield sent his top agent Hades to find the Intersect after he learned it wasn't actually the late Bryce Larkin as we'd initially thought. The search led our organization to the Burbank Buy More. And as it turns out, Igor, the man you need is right here," she turned her gaze back towards Chuck, "The Intersect is in fact Mr. Charles Irving Bartowski here."
Chuck gulped worriedly, wondering how he could get out of this one. He thought quickly and desperately for a countermeasure...then hit one that at least had a chance. He burst into loud laughter. "There, you see, we fooled her, guys," he chortled to Sarah and Casey, "She believed it the whole time!"
"What is so funny, Mr. Bartowski!?" an unamused Forrest snapped at him.
"We fooled you. We were all in on it, Beckman too. We just wanted you to think I was the Intersect during that time you were assigned to us," Chuck snorted with laughter, "I mean, really, you thought someone like me would have been given something so big and important!? We were only testing you, Alex. Casey here's the real Intersect," he pointed at the colonel, "Bryce Larkin sent it to him; the cover was he was protecting me to throw everyone off. It was the oldest feint in the book, and you fell for it."
He bent over, laughing hard. "He's right; I'm the real Intersect," Casey spoke up, picking up Chuck's angle and trying to protect his cover, "Beckman wanted to test you by seeing how you'd react to someone out of the ordinary seeming to have it," he pointed at Chuck, "I'm the one you really want..."
Forrest abruptly grabbed him and Chuck hard by the cheeks. "Nice try, gentlemen, but I'm not that stupid," she snarled at them both, "I could tell Mr. Bartowski had the Intersect in his head the whole time. "And that's why he's coming with me to Lieberstan," she grabbed hold of Chuck's wrist.
"He's not going anywhere with you," Sarah slapped Forrest's hand away. The other Shadow Squad agents grabbed her and wrestled her motionless. "Yes, he is," Forrest snarled at the woman she had once been slated to replace, "And there's nothing you can do about it, Walker. Kill the rest of them," she instructed the rest of the agents, who cocked their rifles.
"No, no, no, wait; I'll go willingly if you don't hurt them!" Chuck begged Forrest, "We can make an agreement here; no one needs to die! There's enough dead people here anyway!" he gestured at all the tombstones around them.
"Forget it, Bartowski; real life works differently than you want it too. Finish them quick," Forrest told the agents, who took aim at Chuck's team.
...when suddenly, there was a loud bursting sound, and fireworks shot into the sky nearby. "Huh?" Chuck frowned, "Who set those off in here after dark?"
"We've been spotted; evacuate the area!" a panicked Drenkov shouted at his men, who grabbed him and pulled him towards the nearest car. In the meantime, Sarah bit the hand of the agent holding her, making him release her, then leaped at Forrest and knocked her to the ground, while Casey grabbed an assault rifle off a Shadow Squad man while he watched the fireworks and shot him square in the chest, then dove behind a headstone a few rows back and started spraying the other Shadow Squad members with fire. "Grimes, get Bartowski out of here!" he shouted to Morgan, tossing him the car keys, "And don't blow this one!"
"Well, may I can...!" Chuck tried to protest as Morgan dragged him off towards the car.
"Chuck go; we'll catch up!" Sarah shouted at him, blocking a blow from an angry Forrest and giving he a kick to the face in turn.
"Chuck, they'll be fine, they're professionals," Morgan shoved his best friend into the front passenger seat, then dove over him to the driver's side, "Right now, finding a good hiding spot works fine by me."
He started the car and threw it into reverse back down the road, ducking low to avoid machine gun fire from the other spies who were now running after them. Soon, though, they had been left behind. "Any idea where we're going, Morgan!?" Chuck had to ask.
"I'm guessing best bet would be the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, Chuck; we know for sure there's good guys with guns there," Morgan reasoned, peeling hard to the left at a fork in the road, "Who do you suppose set those fireworks off?"
"No idea, Morgan. Maybe it was a Fourth of July celebration surplus that malfunctioned or something," Chuck guessed, "What a lucky break, though."
"I'll say," Morgan glanced back to make sure they had lost the Shadow Squad men, which they had, "I think we've left the bad guys in the dust, Chuck..."
Chuck, however, now let out a terrified gasp. For Daniel Shaw had suddenly appeared in the road ahead of them with his gun raised. Or was it Shaw? Was the Intersect overloading on him again in the heat of the moment despite the governor's counteraction, he wondered worriedly? For Shaw was still firmly in prison...wasn't he?
"Oh my god...!" a now equally horrified Morgan had seen him too, and thus hit the deck, seconds before a loud bang rang out, prompting Chuck to hit the deck himself, seconds before the windshield shattered. So it was really Shaw, he knew with horror. Which meant he'd just gone out of the frying pan and into the fire...
He rattled about as Morgan crashed hard into a tree. "Bail out, Morgan, quick!" he shouted to his best friend, who had the same idea and was stumbling out of the driver's side door...
...straight into Shaw's hands. "I'll deal with you later, Morgan Grimes," Shaw said without a hint of emotion. He hurled Morgan violently into the tree he'd crashed into, sending him slumping to the ground, clearly unconscious now. "Right now, Chuck, it's just you and me," he advanced slowly towards Chuck, his gun raised.
"Shaw...how did you...!?"
"Questions you don't need to have answered, Chuck. Because this time, I'm going to kill you once and for all, to finally avenge Evelyn's honor," Shaw said coldly, "I spent every waking hour in my cell waiting for the chance to destroy you for destroying everything I'd hoped for in life..."
"Destroying the CIA and NSA wasn't going to bring Evelyn back, Shaw!" Chuck tried to reason with him, "And killing me now won't either!"
"But you'll be dead, and that's all that matters to me right now," Shaw leveled the gun right in his face. Chuck dropped down at the last second, the bullet zinging right over his head. He grabbed a handful of dirt off a freshly dug grave nearby and flung it in Shaw's face, making his former ally turned enemy yelp and and stumble backwards blindly. Chuck raised the communicator to his lips while he cleared his mind to activate the Intersect. "Sarah, it's Shaw!" he shouted to her, feeling himself having the ability to do kung fu, "I don't know how, but he's here! If you're able to, get over to...whatever section I'm actually in...!" he glanced around in the darkness, unsure of his location in the cemetery, "Hurry, I'm...!"
He yelled as a hard kick from Shaw into his wrist shattered the communicator. Chuck swung a kick back that connected with Shaw's shoulder, and soon the two of them were dueling hard, neither seeming to have the upper hand...
...until suddenly a blast of electricity hit Chuck square in the chest, sending him down to the ground with a scream. "You didn't think I was going to come prepared, Chuck?" Shaw sneered at him, a taser in his hand that he'd pulled from some hidden location, "All this time later, you still keep underestimating me, and what I'm capable of thinking..."
Vibrating hard, Chuck swung a punch at Shaw from his knees, but missed, then screamed again when Shaw quickly pulled out a second taser and zapped him again. Chuck collapsed flat on his back, gasping...gasps that grew harder as Shaw planted a foot hard on his throat. "Happy Halloween, Chuck," his foe said coldly, aiming his gun between Chuck's eyes, "Time to go meet daddy..."
But suddenly, before he could pull the trigger, a half dozen or so dark figures appeared out of the darkness, jumped Shaw from behind and pulled him off Chuck. "What in the...!?" a confused Shaw raged, but it was then one of the figures held what looked like a large iPhone in front of his face-the screen facing away from Chuck, so he thus could not see what was on it-which seemed to make Shaw freeze up. Chuck did not have time to process this, however, as a set of arms dragged him away rather forcibly. "Who are you, where are you taking me!?" he demanded, knowing he was now out of communication with the rest of the team and was a sitting duck if they also meant harm.
"Just relax, Mr. Bartowski, you'll be safe with us," one of the figures said, coming to a stop and pulling the branch of a nearby tree. Immediately, the ground opened up below them. Chuck screamed as he dropped down a long chute for what seemed an eternity. They finally came to rest on the floor of a long tunnel that seemed to stretch into the distance, lit by rudimentary overhead lightbulbs. "All right, come with us, Charles Bartowski," one of the figures, dressed from head to toe in black told him.
"How the hell do you know who I am!? Where am I? What are you going to do with me!?" Chuck demanded, struggling to get out of their grasp, which felt like iron.
"Please relax, Mr. Bartowski; we have your best interests in mind here," the other figure said firmly, tightening his grip.
"Let go of me!" Chuck shouted, "Or I'll...!"
"Use the Intersect? There's no need for that, Charles; these men are friends," came a sudden voice from a nearby side tunnel. A very familiar voice, in fact. One Chuck would have thought it would have been absolutely impossible for him to be hearing at the moment. He spun towards the shadowy figure standing in the darkness of the side tunnel. "Oh my god...!" he mumbled in shock, his eyes blinking hard at the dark figure, "No, no, it's not possible...!"
"I'm sure it seems impossible that I'm here," the figure said calmly, "But it's true..."
"No, no, no, it can't be true!" Chuck protested, his eyes widening, "You died right in my arms; it can't be you!"
"Now, now, calm down, Charles," a somehow seemingly alive and well Stephen J. Bartowski stepped out of the shadows and approached his son, "I know this has to be a major shock for you, but I can explain..."
Chuck, however, did not hear the explanation. His eyes rolling back into his head, he keeled over backwards to the floor, and everything blacked out.