As always thanks to nevr for beta'ing.
December 15, 2007
Zondra walked into the Starbucks, she quickly found her contact waiting for her in the corner, hopefully she'd finally get some answers.
"Miller."
The other woman smirked at her, "Rizzo, I'm guessing Walker hasn't gotten fed up with you yet."
"Cut the crap Miller, why the hell is John Casey of all people telling me to avoid pissing her off?"
Carina's smirk dropped from her face.
"Short version, she'll take you apart in no time flat. Long version, Walker was sent to handle the worst of the worst after we all parted ways. She lost herself in that world."
"What do you mean she lost herself in that world?"
Carina stared into the distance, "You were in exile, it… was interesting in a National Geographic kind of way. It was like everything Human was being slowly removed from her. I remember when I went to meet her at a bar. She showed up, talked quietly didn't smile once. It was like seeing a robot that had barely learned how to socialize."
"So what does that have to do with the nerd?"
"I don't know, maybe the sex is great," Carina finished noncommittally.
"Does that mean that it's real? Whatever she's doing with him?"
"What does real mean?" Zondra smothered her frustration at Carina's reply.
"Carina, you know what I mean, is it a real relationship?"
"I think that if you want to know that, you should ask Walker."
Their conversation continued, to Zondra's frustration, Carina didn't give her any more details about Chuck.
Carina slipped into the building and picked the lock. She quietly entered the apartment. She braced herself for the knife throw or the kick that would come her way. None came.
She looked around the apartment, the Nine Inch Nails poster was new, as were all of the guitars hanging on the walls. As she stepped around the bong discarded on the floor, she examined the messy room carefully, Carina concluded that it was likely Sarah had moved.
She slipped back out of the apartment, locked the door behind her and dialed a number.
"Blondie, is there something you forgot to mention?"
"I'm not sure what you mean Carina," there was amusement in her voice.
"Seriously, we need to meet. Since you've clearly moved apartments…"
Sarah gave her new address and instructions to knock.
Carina stood outside the door, why had Sarah moved? She'd had the same apartment the entire time they'd known each other. She knocked on the door and the blonde woman opened it.
"Come on in, want some water or something?"
Carina looked around, "Nice place, water please. Glad you ditched the Stanford wear."
Sarah walked over to the sink and filled a glass. "Here you go, keep it down. Chuck's asleep. Shirt is in the wash."
"He's living here?" She kept her voice down and to her surprise, Sarah blushed and nodded shyly.
"Told ya Blondie, you love him." There was an element of smugness in Carina's tone.
Sarah smiled gently, "Yeah, I do."
Carina let the content air persist for a moment, "Zondra was asking about you and Chuckles earlier today. Be careful."
Sarah looked at her, "What did you tell her?"
"The basics, nothing she couldn't get from office gossip, it's clear she's got no idea what you've been up to since you split with CATS, guess she was in deeper exile that we thought."
Sarah sighed, "This whole situation is a pain."
"You want me to tag in? I'm sure I can talk the DEA into misplacing me for a bit," Carina looked serious.
"No, it's okay, I'll make this work," Sarah shrugged.
"Okay heavy stuff is over, can I gossip now?"
Sarah laughed, "Sure."
Chuck woke up to muted laughter, he heard a voice quietly say, "So he seriously fixed this girl's phone over lunch and she just hugged him?"
"Yeah, I had to talk myself out of a reaction. Turns out I can be a bit possessive." The sarcasm was thick at the end of Sarah's sentence.
She noticed Chuck as he walked out, "Hey honey," she said with a smile.
Carina turned around, "Chuckles! Blondie here was just telling me about meeting your family."
He froze awkwardly, "H- Hey Carina, nice to see you again."
She smiled, "Don't worry, I won't bite. Unless you ask nicely."
Sarah watched as Carina left the apartment. Chuck looked at her. "Well, that was better than last time."
"She's a whirlwind, that's for sure."
Bryce walked into the office. He wasn't sure why Beckman had asked to meet him this late in the afternoon.
The assistant looked at him. "The General will see you now."
Bryce stepped into the office.
"Larkin," the tone in her voice indicated this wasn't going to be a nice meeting.
"Have you read these reports on your actions during the last mission? This one is the most critical." She picked up a paper on the desk and read from it.
"Summary: Agent Larkin's actions were detrimental to the completion of the mission. He directly disobeyed the chain of command and put other personnel at risk. Our overall team efficacy has been negatively impacted by the addition of Agent Larkin and it is recommended that he be placed in a secure facility where his unique skill-set can be leveraged more effectively.
His performance as a Field Support Officer during this mission has not met the standards expected by the Central Intelligence Agency and provides no material benefit.
That is one small paragraph in a very critical report."
He looked at her. "Look, just because Major Casey has a problem with me doesn't mean tha-"
The General gave him a nasty smirk and handed him the page, he looked for the name at the bottom. It was Sarah's, he felt the breath leave his lungs.
"Agent Larkin, was I unclear with regards to our agreement? Did I in any way confuse you? If you cannot perform satisfactorily, I will have you thrown in a bunker."
"General, while my performance was not up to par during the last operation, I believe that Agent Walker's criticisms of my actions are driven primarily by the impact it had on Mr. Bartowski, her relationship with him has clouded her judgment."
"Are you telling me that you believe that Agent Walker has become compromised by her relationship with Mr. Bartowski?"
"I can say with a degree of certainty that her report would not have been as critical had I placed Major Casey in danger."
She looked back at him, "I'll take that under advisement, in the meantime I strongly suggest that you prove your worth in the field. Or else. You're dismissed."
December 16, 2007
Zondra walked into CASTLE, she tried to keep her frustration from showing.
The talk with Carina hadn't given her much to work with. She needed better leverage and figuring out exactly what Bartowski meant to Walker would give it to her.
She noticed Bryce reviewing reports, the data hadn't been coming easily out of the system, he was scheduled to go to the Constellation team later that afternoon to undergo further diagnostics. He seemed tense and frustrated as he made notes.
She heard a door open behind her, she turned around to see Casey and Bartowski talking as they walked in.
She moved to overhear them. "Thanks, today should be the only day I need to leave a bit early."
"No problem Bartowski, Larkin is going to get his head scanned again, see what's going on up there. Rizzo will be following him."
"Sounds good, I'll head over there after lunch."
"Works for me."
This was going to be tricky, she thought as she watched Chuck go to his office.
Waiting a few moments, she followed him.
Rob sat at his desk, thankfully Mark had been discreet.
PROJECT STARGAZER
The file had been redacted to the point of uselessness, all that was left were a few photos, one of a younger Perseus, a tall broad shouldered man with the name Hercules on the back, he kept going through them until he found a photo.
That of a slightly pudgy man with sharp eyes and an easy smile, across the back was written:
ORION
He looked at the photo, who are you Orion?
Zondra followed Chuck into his office. "Bartowski, want to hit the gym? I want to see what progress you've been making."
He looked at her in surprise. "Oh, yeah, give me a few moments I just want to kick off a few things."
"Understood, don't keep me waiting."
Good, this was a stepping stone, she'd get her time with Walker.
Sarah sat at her desk, out of the corner of her eye Bryce was going through the reports, she felt her hand tense in suppressed rage at him. She made the effort to relax it.
She kept writing when she heard him clear his throat.
"Really, Walker?" he turned to look at her. "You want to say something?"
She turned to face him, "What?"
"No material benefit?"
Sarah looked at him curiously, "Where did you hear that?"
"Not ever going to deny it?" The derision was thick in his voice.
"Just curious where you heard it is all." Her tone was even.
"Beckman told me. You know, you've had some choice words about people before, but never anything like that about your own partn-"
She cut him off, "You know Bryce, you seem to have an issue here. You're not my partner, you're an asset to the team, nothing more. Officially speaking, you're field support, just like Chuck is. Only he's proven his value, you haven't."
"And there's the crux of it, Chuck. Whatever you're doing with him, it's putting us all at risk, your judgment is compromised."
"Really Bryce? That's what you're going to tell me? You're the one who decided in the middle of a mission to jump out and go where you weren't needed, you put the team at risk. Not me. As for my judgment? Everything I've done has been above board, and let me be clear, what I'm doing with him is loving him, he's mine."
"You told me spies don't do love. Remember?"
Sarah felt her frustration almost bubble over. Before she could say anything, Casey's voice rang through the office, "LARKIN."
Sarah calmed herself down, There was a cold fury in Casey's voice, one she hadn't heard before. "Larkin, my office. Now! Walker, no retaliation."
He grabbed Larkin and pulled him away.
"Larkin, what the actual fuck are you doing?"
"Really Casey? Worried I'll upset the Great Sarah Walker?"
"No Larkin, Walker's a big girl, but I'll ask you again. What the Kentucky fried fuck are you doing?"
"Did you read her report on the last mission? Sorry if I'm a little hostile here, but I needed to know why she said that."
"She said that because you put Bartowski at risk."
Bryce rolled his eyes, "Her relationship with Chuck is compromising her judgment."
Casey snorted, "Larkin, did you ever take any of the Team Dynamics or Team Management courses at the Farm?"
"No, I had my focus on other areas."
"Of course you did, well I had to once I became a Captain, let's talk a little about how a team works. I hope you're familiar passingly with Tuckman's stages of development.
Forming when the team gets together," Casey held up one finger.
"Storming when the team starts resolving conflict internally," A second finger went up.
"Norming when the team starts performing and working properly." A third finger joined the other two.
"There's later stages, but these are the relevant three to our conversation. Now we actually had a very rushed period to become operational, and you know what? We actually pulled it off, honestly, a major part of that was Bartowski. His skills work well with Walker's and mine."
"Casey, as fascinating as the lecture is, do you mind if we get to the point of this?"
"I feel like with the amount of feelings we've talked about here, I should be braiding hair," Casey said with frustration as he ran his hand over his face.
"Okay, let me break it down for you, Barney-style. I don't want you on this team, Bartowski and Walker were in a relationship before you joined, her judgment was fine then. It seems like it only became a problem when you started putting us at risk. I want to be as clear as possible, I was plenty pissed at you for your actions during the last mission too. Dismissed."
Bryce was silent as he left.
Chuck walked back into the main room, Zondra had given him more pointers. Fighting with her was an interesting experience, she didn't stop after every punch to explain something, she just picked a concept and demonstrated that the entire session, it was a difference from Sarah's more technical sessions where she'd methodically break down a technique.
He needed to evade Sarah. This was going to be complicated. After he made it to his car, he drove to his destination, Benson's Jewelers.
December 16, 2007 – Afternoon
Rob was reviewing the information on Volkoff's network when he heard a knock on the door.
"Enter"
Chuck walked in, "Hey, what you got there?"
"ROC's report on Volkoff, he's going to be trouble."
Chuck picked it up, "Trouble for today?"
"Not today, but soon. What brings you here?"
"I was going to ask Mark, but he misplaces everything, can you hold onto this for me?" Chuck pulled a small box out of his pocket and handed it over.
"Wow," he examined the ring closely, it was stunning.
"Downside of wanting to propose to a super spy, she'll sniff it out in a heartbeat." Chuck was almost laughing as he said that.
"You sure you don't want to keep the ring on you in case you find the right moment?"
"I've got a plan, I just need to get the pieces in place."
"Sounds good, let me know when you need it."
Graham looked at the notice, the Senate Intelligence Committee wanted to meet. This was going to be a challenge; chances are it was the corrupted and blackmailed members of the SIC pushing for this hearing.
He picked up the phone, before he could call Beckman, it rang. McConnell wanted to meet with them, tonight.
McConnell didn't waste a moment with pleasantries, "So we got the call we've been expecting. The SIC wants to meet, this is the next phase in Fulcrum's attack on us. Bob, let's get started, what do your men have?"
"Sir, we've found that before this meeting was called, three Senators received calls from new numbers. We can assume comfortably that Fulcrum put the pressure on them."
Beckman waited until he was done then asked, "Where are we at with the known Fulcrum members in interrogation?"
Mueller looked at his notes. "Due to the methods used to identify members, we were able to pick up quite a few of their "Middle Management" we're interrogating them to see if they'll flip on their superiors. It looks like the cells were compartmentalized. So, this is our best route."
McConnell looked at him. "What were their inducement methods? Seduction? Blackmail? Payoffs?"
"Unfortunately, something far worse, a shared ideology. The at-risk list was used to establish a foothold, but they kept the at-risk folks at arms length once they started running major operations."
"Okay, let's discuss how we're going to approach this, the AG is going to be here in an hour, we're going to discuss what we do and don't discuss with the SIC."
Diane left slightly behind Graham, "Langston." He turned to look at her.
"Mind walking and talking?" She nodded.
"I had an interesting debrief with Larkin over his performance, he thinks that Agent Walker's judgment is compromised."
"Diane… That's-"
"Since this is an NSA run project, I'm going to begin a 49b review of their conduct. I'm just notifying you as a courtesy." Diane looked frustrated, he couldn't tell if it was with him, or the situation in general.
"Seriously? We don't have time for this, they worked well together before Larkin."
"I'll make it unobtrusive as possible. In fact, I'll let you pick the Observer."
Graham looked at her suspiciously as she walked away.
Sarah waited for Chuck to get home, she was lightly dozing on the couch. She heard the door open and quietly pounced on him as he walked in. He caught her.
"I really could get used to this," she said as she smiled happily at him.
"Me too," his voice was warm and full of affection.
She leaned her head on his chest and luxuriated in his hug.
December 17, 2007 – Senate Intelligence Committee
"Director Graham, do you know why we've called you and General Beckman here today?"
"No, Senator."
"We've received credible reports that several officers under your command are operating domestically without an accompanying domestic agency involved. Do you have anything to say to these allegations?"
"Senator, all current CIA operations are adhering to all appropriate law-"
"Director, we have the evidence. Several of your agents were spotted domestically without an accompanying law enforcement agency."
The first Senator looked over. "General Beckman, your personnel were also spotted operating domestically, we checked with the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, no requests were filed in any of the areas you're operating in. This is beginning to look like our Foreign Intelligence Apparatus is exceeding their legal remit."
Graham and Beckman shared a glance.
"We're going to mandate a freeze on all of your domestic operations. Pending Review. "
"Understood Senator."
"Graham is wily, we'll need to take him out of play. This Senate thing will just slow him down for a moment."
"Understood, I'll make the arrangements."
They both entered the office of the DNI. The others were waiting for them, "It went as expected, we're being shutdown, they want an outline of all Agents operating domestically."
Graham sounded dismissive as he detailed the asks from the SIC.
McConnell looked at him, "Okay, here's what we'll do. We task our team against a foreign enemy. Then we hand over a list of all domestic operations. They won't be able to complain without tipping their hands."
"We've been meaning to investigate Fulcrum's international network, why not have them work on this?"
"You know, there's rumors Sasha Banacheck was spotted in Toronto, CSIS could use a hand."
McConnell nodded, "I like it, Graham make it happen."
"If we're going after Banacheck, I'll need to pull Montgomery out of the Farm."
The challenges that Diane brought were starting to outweigh her value. He didn't have much time to think about this, between the 49b and Sasha Banacheck he was going to have his plate full trying to politically maneuver his way around this.
He picked up the phone to dial Roan Montgomery, thankfully the man had elected to teach at the Farm rather than retire.
Roan was sitting there staring at Graham.
"So, Banacheck, huh?"
"That's right, I'll need you to head over to this facility link up with the team there and get them to Toronto and investigate what she's doing out there. We also need to develop her into a viable long term source of information. The orders for your missions are in that packet."
Roan picked up the folder, "Heh, sounds like a good time. I'll head out now."
December 17, 2007 – Afternoon
Chuck walked into CASTLE carrying the new gear from TAO. Rob had asked him to gather it up this morning.
There were some raised voices coming from the main briefing room, he bypassed it using a side passage and set the gear down in his office. Chuck started the inventory process when his phone rang. He picked it up, "Bartowski, get to the briefing room."
Casey was as curt as always. Chuck locked the door behind him as he left.
When he entered the briefing room there was a tall white haired gentlemen standing in the center talking with everyone.
"Ah, and now the last member of our little group deigns to grace us with his presence."
Chuck looked at him in confusion.
"I've heard a lot about you Mr. Bartowski, Diane had some choice words about you. Sadly, I'll never know what that project was about."
"Bartowski doesn't know your name," Casey sounded more frustrated than usual. That was worrying.
"I'm Roan Montgomery, nice to meet you."
Chuck held out his hand, "Oh, I heard a bit about you from General Beckman."
Roan shook the outstretched hand.
"Now as I was filling in the team, our target is Sasha Banacheck, she's ex KGB, now potentially working for Fulcrum internationally. We've been asked to look into her, she's a tough target to approach."
He handed Chuck a briefing packet.
"Now my usual approach would be a seduce and steal."
Sarah's head snapped up at that, her eyes narrowed.
"But Agent Larkin isn't authorized for field operations, Major Casey would repel her, and Mr. Bartowski isn't a viable option due to his lack of training."
Roan sighed, "Also we've been asked to develop her into a long term asset. She'll never work with us willingly, so our options are somewhat limited. Now, Mr. Bartowski I understand the TAO can do some remarkable things to cell phones these days."
"Yeah we can, but implanting her phone won't guarantee anything, she could be using burners, she coul-"
"Mr. Bartowski, I may be old, but give me a little credit. I understand that a phone implant is a transient tool, not one that can be guaranteed to work long term. It might however give us blackmail information on her. Grab your gear, we're heading to Toronto. We can finish the rest of this on the plane."
Roan watched the team on the plane, Agent Walker was leaning quietly against Mr. Bartowski while he worked, her eyes were closed and she looked content.
Agent Larkin was shooting glances over at the two of them over the file he was reading. Roan made a note in his file, that type of behavior was worrying. Agent Rizzo and Major Casey were doing contingency planning.
Agent Walker, in love. This was surreal, like waking up and finding the sky green. Bartowski gently slipped his arm around Agent Walker, she shifted to get more comfortable. She had a soft smile on her face as she slept.
He silently moved closer to Mr. Bartowski, Agent Walker's eyes opened and focused on him, once she dismissed him as a threat she fell back asleep.
Remarkable.
"Mr. Bartowski, I just wanted to properly introduce myself, I apologize for the snarky comment earlier regarding your tardiness. I didn't realize you were at Meade."
"That's fine. I apologize for not being present," Roan waved his hand in a dismissive gesture. "No worries dear boy. Now I've heard a lot about you, one of TAO's whiz kids. Why did you join the NSA? Why not a major tech company?"
He watched as Chuck tensed then said, "It was the best option I had available."
"Ha, well the nation is lucky that you felt that way."
"Thank you sir, I'm sorry to ask, but General Beckman mentioned your secret war against Slobodan Milošević, I have to ask… what was it like?"
"You ask the fun questions, don't you?" Roan gave a dry chuckle, "It was… complicated, we were running several off books operations all at the same time."
He was interrupted by Casey walking over, "Bartowski, CSIS is on the secure line, they want to talk with you about some of the tools you want deployed."
Chuck shifted and Sarah took her weight off of him. He followed Casey to the other side.
Roan examined the blonde. She had a smile on her face he couldn't recall seeing before.
"You surprise me Agent Walker, I thought you followed the mantra of "Spies don't fall in love.""
"Well, this one did." Her eyes followed her boyfriend across the plane.
They were met by two CSIS officers when they landed. Casey introduced the team and they set off.
"Mr. Bartowski, Welcome to Toronto. We filed the request for SIGINT support from NSA. Here's the report from the ROC operators on Ms. Banacheck's phone. Unfortunately, there's nothing there of significance to flip her. We've placed the CANDYGRAMS in the positions requested."
Chuck read over the report as they walked to the car.
They found themselves in the CSIS OP at a hotel near the one that Sasha was staying at, Roan led the briefing.
"So, SIGINT hasn't yielded anything. She was KGB, so searching her hotel is useless. Ideas?"
Bryce looked over at Roan, "Well, we could try a cold approach. Since I'm not viable, Casey isn't an option and as funny as it'd be to see Sarah try, we're down to Chuck."
Roan looked over at Agent Walker, judging by the fury in her eyes, he better stick with Agent Larkin lest the man suffer an "accident."
"We'll call that Plan F, right now I want A through E."
Bryce shook his head, "Roan, I respect the desire for options, but we have none. We're going to have to do the cold approach." He shot an awkward look to Sarah. "I don't want to cause any problems, but since you've ruled out all of the other people on this mission, we'll have to train Chuck how to seduce her."
Chuck looked slightly thoughtful at that, "You know, we do have another option. He paused to gather his thoughts. "A cold open would work, we'll need Casey and myself. The ROC used a persistent agent on her phone, so I can get back into it. What I'll need to do is make it look like she's planning on selling out Fulcrum. I'll fabricate emails and messages and plant them on her phone. We can leverage that into getting her to turn."
Roan looked pensive, "We'll need photographs of you and Casey being friendly with her, selling this will be difficult. As an unwilling asset, she's going to be hard to manage. Also we'll need a separate phone, no one would believe that she used her Fulcrum given burner phone to plot against them."
Casey grunted and then spoke, "You think this would be the first Commie I've turned? I'll handle her. Bartowski, start fabricating the evidence, she's from the Urals so make sure you get the dialect and slang correct, Kravitz in Linguistics has family from the area, so have him take a look at it."
"Okay, we'll get started in the morning."
December 18, 2007 – Morning
Casey was helping Chuck create accurate documents, Sarah was helping with some of the translation work, for proper localization they were sending the documents for review by Casey's contact. Rob had put in a resource request for them.
Zondra and Bryce were busy coming up with false conversations.
Roan walked in with coffee. "So back in the day we used to just plant documents in rooms, this seems far less dangerous, yet much more difficult."
Chuck laughed, "What we're doing is creating a forensically accurate trail of these documents, they have to look like they're coming from multiple burner accounts with the right headers and time stamps. No one would believe that Sasha would be stupid enough to use a phone Fulcrum gave her to plot against them."
Roan handed out the coffee. "Who is the terrifying Ms. Banacheck selling Fulcrum out to?"
Sarah replied, "Volkoff, Chuck thought any of the Five Eyes would be too absurd for anyone to believe, but Volkoff has been trying to build his own private intelligence service. So, he seems like the best choice for an ex-KGB officer."
Roan sat down at the free chair next to Chuck. "Mr. Bartowski, do you know how to induce cooperation from a hostile target using fabricated blackmail?"
"No sir, sorry I don't."
"Then we'll need Major Casey to take the lead, you're going to be there to sell the technical details. We'll have Agents Walker and Rizzo covering you with rifles. Myself and Agent Larkin will be here as Support."
A few hours later all of the conversations were ready as were the documents. Authenticity was added by including some of the previously gathered information from the operation with Yuri and La Ciudad.
Chuck pulled Sarah aside. "Hey, you're okay with me making the approach with Casey, right?"
She looked at him curiously, "Yeah, I'm fine. You won't be seducing her and I'll be keeping an eye on you the whole time."
December 18, 2007 - Afternoon
Sarah reviewed the documents that came back from Linguistics, "I'd believe that these are authentic."
Chuck grabbed a burner phone he'd bought a few blocks away. "Okay this is the phone we'll load all the data on, I asked ROC to load metadata from other devices to the files, so it looks like she's been jumping from burner to burner."
Roan looked at his watch, "Okay we'll wait for her and her goons to leave the hotel, when they do you and Major Casey will make your approach."
"Understood, we'll be ready."
While they waited Roan looked over, Agent Walker was methodically checking her rifle, making the minute adjustments she needed. After looking down the sight, "Roan, I'll get up top and throw some camo netting over our nest." She was remarkably efficient.
He looked back at Mr. Bartowski, he was discussing approach techniques with Casey.
Professionals were so boring, he thought with an internal chuckle, he could really use a drink.
December 18, 2007 - Evening
Banacheck left for dinner, Sarah was covering Chuck and Casey's approach.
Casey walked up to her. "You know Ms. Banacheck, I figured a Commie like you would be more discreet when visiting the decadent West."
She looked at him with interest, "Well, Major Casey I'm honored they sent you to threaten me. Care to join us for dinner?" She turned to face Chuck. "And who might you be, my little snack?" Sasha moved to run a finger down his jaw, Chuck stepped back before she could make contact. "Well, they certainly are making them cuter these days. Why don't we ditch him and go have fun?"
Casey stepped between them. "Well, since you're in the mood for dinner, we can take it right here at the hotel restaurant."
"Ah, I assume I'm in a sniper's scope right now?" Neither of the two men escorting her reached to grab their weapons. She looked around, "Well, I guess I'll be dining in, let's go to this nice exposed location where I will laugh at you."
She turned around and gestured for them to follow her.
"Please tell your sniper they're welcome to join as well. Though I doubt they'll accept."
They sat down outside. "So, gentlemen, make your offer. Money? I have enough. Blackmail? You certainly couldn't find anything on me. So out of curiosity, I'd love to hear your approach."
"We'll make you a one time standard offer, you work for the NSA, we'll pay you a stipend of $20,000 a month and you'll get a bounty for any intelligence you bring us."
Sasha laughed, "Oh wow, I expected better from the great John Casey. Something more threatening, maybe a bit more money. Frankly I'm offended."
Casey shrugged, "It's our offer, the next one won't be so lucrative."
She pulled her bag onto her shoulder and stood up. "Gentlemen, thank you for your time."
She held out her hand to shake Casey's, "John Casey, as always, a pleasure."
Looking over at Chuck she stepped into his personal space, she rubbed her hand on his upper arm. "As for you, well, it's a shame you weren't part of the CIA. They do love to seduce their targets. We could have had a lot of fun."
Casey took the opportunity to slip the phone into her bag while she was distracted by flirting with Chuck.
As the two of them walked away from her, Chuck said quietly, "That was unpleasant."
Rob called out enter, as he heard the knock on his door,
"Thanks for coming in Mark, I appreciate you tracking down this file."
"No problem Rob. It yield anything interesting?"
Rob held out the photo. "Run him discreetly through facial recognition, see if we can't get a name or something to work with."
"Discreetly, or you want me to scrub the logs entirely?"
Rob thought for a moment. "Scrub it entirely, be smart about this, I have a bad feeling."
Mark looked at the photo closely. "Got it, I'll let you know when we have something."
When they walked into the OP, Sarah was waiting for them, her rifle slung over her shoulder. "Chuck, sweetie, when a lady flirts with you on an operation. The proper look is "enticed" not "disgusted" that's the sort of thing that can kill a mission you know?" she was laughing lightly as she teased her boyfriend.
Roan couldn't help himself, "Young man, it is quite fortuitous that Agent Walker is so taken with you, I suspect you'd have a rather lonely life otherwise."
Chuck took the teasing in stride. "Well, I don't need to seduce anyone, so I guess we'll just call it a funny story. I'm going to run a status check on our tools."
Casey looked at Sarah as Chuck walked off. "Walker, you okay?"
"You know Casey, I joke, but I had to exercise some serious self control up there. If she'd gone further than a light touch, this would have been a messier conversation."
Casey looked back at the blonde. "We can't put Bartowski in that kind of situation again, when we left he looked like he was going to puke. If I'd known she would have taken that level of interest in him, I'd have left him up here. I'll talk with Graham and see if we can't use Larkin for those types of moments."
Roan could feel the gratitude and relief radiate off of Walker as she thanked him. It was fascinating to him.
"I told him I wouldn't put you in that position, to avoid causing him issues. I'll have to do the same for you. Joyce I can outrun, you I can't. Well, I guess that's it for the evening, we'll watch Banacheck and see if her Fulcrum handlers find the phone."
December 19, 2007 – Morning
Roan stepped out into the hotel hallway to go to the gym and was stunned. Agent Walker had a take out bag and was applying her considerable stealth training into sneaking into her room. She immediately turned to face him. "Good Morning."
Her situational awareness had been commented on by her mentors and the staff at the Farm, it still never ceased to amaze him.
"Agent Walker, may I ask exactly what it is you're doing?"
"Chuck likes French Toast," she held up the bag in explanation. "And I don't want to wake him."
He laughed lightly, "Of course, well don't let me get in the way of a good breakfast, when you have a moment please tell Mr. Bartowski I'd love to see him."
"Will do," she quietly slipped into her room.
He heard the knock on his door, he stood up from the chair and went to open the it.
"Mr. Bartowski, please come in, come in."
Chuck stepped into the room, "Sarah said you wanted to talk with me?"
"Yes, yes I did, your performance yesterday with Ms. Banacheck was abysmal. If you want to improve, here's my number. I can work with you to improve your ability to talk with assets."
"Sir, I… I appreciate that, but I don't think it'll ever be my specialty."
"Of course, I appreciate your position, but if you ever want advice. Please, feel free to ask."
Bryce was watching the monitors, so far Sasha hadn't made contact with anyone from Fulcrum yet. All this NSA gear was surprisingly handy. He watched as Banacheck made some phone calls.
The phone Casey had planted on the woman was broadcasting back to them. So far she hadn't found it in her bag, she had arranged for her Fulcrum contacts to meet her later today.
Leveraging Fulcrum's infiltration was an inspired idea. Casey was in the process of filing the observation report outlining that Banacheck was suspected to be working with Volkoff. The infiltrators would hopefully pass that report onto the contact team. That would give them the leverage they needed over Banacheck.
December 19, 2007 – Afternoon
Bryce was grinding his teeth. They'd been watching Sasha all day, nothing had come of it, Chuck had been working with TAO on something else. Sarah, Rizzo, and Casey were over on the other side of the room planning something.
All of a sudden he heard an order to search Banacheck's room from unknown men. Bryce gestured for everyone to come over and turned the listening gear to speaker.
"Well, looks like the reports were correct, she's been in contact with Volkoff," a voice said. They heard from another man, "Restrain her, take her to an isolated area and kill her." The phone was destroyed.
"Bartowski and Larkin, stay here," Casey said as he grabbed his rifle, while Sarah and Zondra geared up. They ran downstairs to the car CSIS had left them. Roan ran into the room as the three left.
Chuck took over the workstation. "Okay, so her phone just tripped Candygram #4, she's moving east."
"Got it, we've got eyes on the suspected vehicle."
"Bartowski, scrub all mentions of that report and get me all the members of the Fulcrum cell here in Toronto, for this to work we'll need them all taken out of play."
Casey made a mental note to thank whichever program manager had the idea for the Candygrams, they were irritatingly useful.
He followed the car at a distance. After a moment a small rectangle had been tossed out the window. It looked like Fulcrum found her phone.
They followed them to an empty industrial area on the outskirts of Toronto.
The two Fulcrum men dragged a bound Sasha out of the car, she was screaming profanity in Russian.
"Walker take the right, I got the left. On my count." Casey looked down the sight of his rifle.
"Go."
The shots were nearly simultaneous. Both Fulcrum men dropped.
Rizzo ran up and secured Banacheck. She was silent as Casey walked up to her. "You know Commie, you should've taken the offer."
She spat at his feet in fury.
"So, here's the deal. Fulcrum has you burned. The question is, what do we do next?"
She snarled, "What do you mean? I assume what's next is you put a bullet in my head, blame it on Fulcrum and get what's left of my old allies to go to war with them."
"While that would be useful, we have a better idea. You're going to work for us."
Sasha laughed bitterly at him, "How? my reputation with Fulcrum is burned, they won't trust me again."
"We had the report pulled, and traced the cell members here in Toronto. We'll have the information contained by the end of today."
She smirked, "I guess it doesn't matter either way right? You win no matter what, either I'm used against Fulcrum, or they kill me and my old allies go to war. So out of curiosity, what prevents me from agreeing here and then simply stabbing you in the back. The same trick won't work twice against me."
"I guess you're right, except we have photos of us sharing a friendly dinner, and in a few hours a series of deposits will appear in your bank records going back six months, they'll come from a known bank that's used to pay CIA assets who are "on the record," Between that and the cell phone data, I'd say that should keep you in line. After all, you can explain the cell phone, easily, you can't explain the money movement. Even your old allies would abandon you if they suspected you were working with us."
He shrugged, "Or you could decide you hate the West more and next time we cross paths we'll simply kill you. How long did it take you and Fulcrum to set this up? How long did it take us to smash it?"
She sighed, "You know, I hate you."
"I'm sure, the feeling is mutual," Casey didn't even bother to hide the smug tone in his voice.
"So, I take it you'll want everything I know about Fulcrum's international network?"
"Yeah, I do."
"Do I get the stipend?"
"Told ya Commie, you should have taken the first offer. You'll still get the incentive payment though."
December 19, 2007 - Night
"Well, this is going to be a hell of a report." Chuck was stretching after writing down everything Banacheck had told Casey. They'd told her to lay low while containment was going on.
The infiltrator who accessed the report was quickly arrested, as were all of the remaining Fulcrum members in Toronto. CSIS was going to interrogate them and pass along any information they acquired. Chuck was able to validate that they hadn't sent their findings outside of their cell. With the information contained, Casey would give her the go ahead to meet with Fulcrum when the opportunity presented itself.
December 20, 2007 – Morning
Roan walked into Graham's office. "Well Langston, they're a hell of a team. I'll have the full write up for you tomorrow, but I have to say, I can't see any major impact that the relationship is having on team dynamics. Walker flips to consummate professional during the operation and switches back to doting girlfriend the minute it's clear. The only concern I have is she's possessive, Casey is going to approach you for authorization to use Larkin to handle any seduction missions from the male end. I endorse that wholeheartedly, Bartowski is in no way trained to do that. I'll let Diane know she can consider the 49b closed, at least with regards to Agent Walker and Mr. Bartowski. I have some major concerns with regards to Agent Larkin's behavior. That will be outlined in my report."
Graham nodded, "Thanks Roan, I appreciate it. I'll discuss with Diane what to do about Larkin."
"No problem, thanks for letting me stretch my legs."
"So, you and Bartowski are heading to LA for Christmas?" Casey looked at the form.
Sarah leaned against the wall and nodded, "Yeah, let us know if you need us back here, but with everything being handed off to the analysts, now's as good a chance as any to steal some downtime."
"Have fun."
"So, you're really going to do this over Christmas?" Rob was looking at the younger man curiously.
"Yeah I am," Chuck said as he fiddled with the ring box.
"Happy for you. See you when you're back, I've got something I want to talk to you about."
"Sasha, I'm glad to see you escaped that little CIA trap in Toronto. I assume you're still willing to do business?" He shook her hand.
"Would I be here if I wasn't?" She said as she took it. "So what do you need me to do Clyde?"
Chuck waited at the Starbucks. He'd told Sarah he was running out to grab something before their flight.
He smiled as he saw his guest arrive. "Mr. Montgomery, thanks for meeting me. You did say if I ever had any questions I could ask."
"Of course, dear boy. Let me guess; you question the authenticity of your relationship with Agent Walker?"
"No! No, that's one thing I don't question. I know we love each other, it's not some spy game she's running on me."
Roan smiled, "Good, I'm glad to hear that, hold onto those feelings. They'll keep you going when life gets rougher."
Chuck nodded, "Thanks, I have a planned proposal for Christmas, but I feel that it's… a bit too cliché."
Roan gave a chuckle, "Mr. Bartowski, may I make an observation? I suspect that you could ask in the middle of a desert and Agent Walker would be overjoyed. Don't overthink it. If you see a moment that feels right, take it."
I hope people enjoy my take on Chuck vs Seduction. I wanted to do something different. (And I hope fun)
Okay, so Carina's comment about Sarah moving apartments is a subtle reference, without going into too much detail, during the Cold War the Soviets had their own version of James Bond, it was a series of stories and a TV show about a Soviet spy who infiltrates Nazi Germany. Col. Maxim Maximovich Isayev, his cover was Standartenfuhrer Max Otto von Stirlitz.
He was so popular that he spawned a series of jokes about his character's mannerisms and the TV show's dramatic voiceovers.
A couple of popular ones:
"Stirlitz blasted the door open with a mighty kick and discreetly tiptoed toward Muller who was reading a paper."
and
"Stirlitz and Kathe are walking through the park. A gunshot rings out. Kathe falls. Blood flows. Stirlitz, relying on his keen instincts, immediately gets suspicious."
There's a few more, but they lose something without the context of the show (and in translation). Carina breaking into the apartment and realizing Sarah moved is my own little homage.
Also, the whole, "Retired spy gets brought back in," trope is popular. But generally speaking, unless something absurd happens, you're not pulling someone back in for Banacheck. Sending someone with a few moments of training against an ex-KGB officer is asking for a failed mission and a dead asset. So, Casey makes the cold approach.
I know this was a bit more talking and technical trickery than shooting. But I hope that everyone enjoyed it. Leave a review or a PM and let me know.
Given where we're at in the year, I'm going to play with the order of the episodes. Next will be Chuck Vs Tom Sawyer.
Casey working side by side with a Communist would be a bit of a stretch, but given his background, he would have definitely handled a few during the Cold War. So now we have an in with Fulcrum.
Anyone who's worked with the USMC for any length of time is familiar with Barney-Style. Honestly the thought of Casey shouting that with a knife hand in Larkin's face is a mental image that keeps making me laugh.