Sarah starts her new job with Galois Media Special Projects
Chapter 17
After sharing her good news with Zondra and getting her congratulations, Sarah resisted the urge to run back to the suite she shared with Chuck at a full sprint. When she arrived she was delighted to find Chuck waiting for her with a bottle of chilled champagne. He wrapped her in his arms and held her close, then gave her a lingering kiss.
"Congratulations, Baby. I'm SO glad you're part of Special Projects. We're going to have so much fun," Chuck was practically purring.
"Thanks, Chuck. I want to know EVERYTHING and gorge myself on inside information until I make myself sick," Sarah giggled.
Chuck popped the cork and poured them each a full glass. They clinked their glasses together and he toasted, "To My Most Beloved Sarah Samantha Lisa."
After taking the time to relish the taste and the bubbles, Sarah could restrain herself no longer, "Spill Chuck, what exactly does GMSP DO?"
"We analyze data. We extract people and objects. We obtain documented proof of covert activities. We do most of the same things as government intelligence services but as private contractors," Chuck explained. "We're very selective about who we work for and we regularly offer work product pro bono if we find ourselves in possession of something a client isn't aware they need."
"Can you give me a couple examples of things GMSP has offered pro bono?" Sarah asked raising an eyebrow.
"We discovered a plot to frame General Beckman as the mastermind of a Ring operation to provide transport services for a Columbian drug cartel. We obtained recordings that were being used to blackmail a key player into implicating General Beckman and recorded the actual mastermind meeting cartel leadership. We turned these over to Beckman at no charge," Chuck elaborated. "We obtained evidence of a French DGES station in Algeria colluding with Russian mafia and turned it over to French authorities. We raided the auction of a substantial tranche of German weapons designs and turned the data and the seller over to the BND."
"Wow," Sarah was impressed. "I imagine we've made some powerful friends AND enemies."
"We're pretty sure the Ring's effort to recreate the intersect project started because of the impact we're making," Chuck agreed.
"How many people are in GMSP?" Sarah asked.
"Ten, including you," Chuck replied. "You haven't met the analysts. Four of them are intersects and my Dad is their leader. I'm sure Antonia plans to introduce you to them as part of your orientation."
"Your Dad is part of GMSP? So he saw me talking about the female orgasm?" Sarah was appalled.
"He did. But you have nothing to be embarrassed about, your answer wasn't the least bit graphic," Chuck tried to reassure her. When he saw that she was still a little creeped out he added, "It's not like he saw your face while you were HAVING an orgasm."
Sarah winced as she imagined Chuck's father walking in them while she was in the throes of passion.
"You have nothing to be ashamed of," Chuck said, reading her thought process. "You have a BEAUTIFUL orgasm face."
She stared hard at him, her train of thought completely derailed. As Chuck nodded to reinforce his sincerity she suddenly realized how ridiculous the conversion had gotten and burst out laughing.
"I'm pretty sure he wasn't the one who ASKED that question," Chuck continued. "Most of those weird ones came from his team but..." Chuck's mouth twisted into a half frown as he considered the case against Stephen Bartowski being the origin of the question and he realized how thin it was.
"Stop," Sarah gasped out as she laughed even harder. "You're killing me."
Chuck held up his hands in surrender and waited for her to catch her breath.
"I guess I'll just have to get used to the fact that the father of my designated playmate knows more about me than I'm comfortable with, won't I?" Sarah concluded.
"To be honest, Dad knows more about EVERYONE than they're comfortable with, including me," Chuck acknowledged. With a salacious grin he added, "Designated playmate? I'm liking the sound of that."
"Me too," Sarah giggled happily. "Speaking of which, let's begin part two of this celebration: a spectacular show of appreciation for the woman of the hour by her designated playmate."
Chuck's wide grin and evil laugh made her shiver. WHAT had she gotten herself into now? She felt an answering evil laugh deep within her.
"You WROTE the check, Sarah," Maggie warned her as she uncoiled. "I'm just cashing it. Remember that when this sore body is screaming at you tomorrow."
Sarah was pleasantly surprised to find that as active as she'd been over the past week, she was still capable of experiencing 'spectacular.' By the time she drifted off to sleep she felt very appreciated indeed.
When her alarm went off, Sarah was thankful she didn't keep a tactical nuclear bomb under her pillow. She doubted she could have resisted using it on her alarm clock. She did take some small satisfaction in Chuck's answering groan as they both rolled out of bed despite the protests of their aching muscles. She cocked an eyebrow at him with a sardonic grin.
"Worth it," Chuck insisted, wincing as he stretched.
"Totally worth it," Sarah agreed as she did the same.
"I don't even want to hear about what put that silly grin on your face this morning," Zondra said, shaking her head as she met Sarah at the trailhead. They ran in silence for a minute while Sarah let the highlights of the night before unspool in her in her mind's eye. She realized she was still wearing the silly grin and focused on being present with her friend.
"Now that I'm gainfully employed, I'd be happy to hire a live-in servant/boy toy for you," Sarah offered magnanimously.
"Funny," Zondra replied in a sarcastic tone. "I'd settle for a couple of your special friends acting as bodyguards for a night on the town so I can have some fun without getting taken by a Company contractor."
"Top of my list then," Sarah assured her.
"Did your boyfriend tell you what to expect today?" Zondra wondered.
"Sure, Zee, my silly grin was all about an evening spent assimilating the entire history of GMSP and a detailed agenda for my first week," Sarah laughed. "I thought you didn't want to hear about it."
"OK, fair point. You're right, I still don't want to hear about it," Zondra conceded. "How are you feeling about it?"
"Excited, nervous, a little giddy," Sarah replied. "I'm glad I'm working with Antonia instead of Chuck. I may need to take a few solid punches before I settle down."
"I feel you," Zondra said. "Hold up a second."
While Sarah continued jogging in place Zondra whipped out her phone and took a short video. Then she put her phone away and they continued running.
"Had to get a 'before' clip. You'll thank me when they film your biography. Historical proof that BEFORE she started working for GMSP, Sarah Walker was so gorgeous she glowed," Zondra explained.
"Well I hope they have the sense to give in to whatever demand you make for the actress who plays you so they can get their hands on it," Sarah replied, laughing.
When they finished their run, Zondra gave Sarah a sweaty hug and wished her a great first day.
Freshly showered and dressed to train, Sarah showed up at Antonia's office at 8:50am and was immediately invited in.
"Welcome to Galois Media Special Projects, Sarah!" Antonia greeted her warmly. "You are now officially the fifth member of our Field Operations Team, led by Charles Galois himself. I've scheduled a field trip for Wednesday to visit Galois Media HQ near Rome to introduce you to the five members of the Analytics team led by Stephen Bartowski."
"Do you mean to tell me Orion is based here in Italy now?" Sarah was a bit surprised.
"Indeed he is," Antonia chuckled. "It took some serious persuasion from Charles to get him to leave California but he is a very logical man and with the Ring's capture of the CIA, the risk of staying in the US was undeniable."
"Well I look forward to meeting them all. What will I be doing in the mean time?" Sarah's eyes sparkled with eagerness.
"Today we'll construct a training plan and get you measured for a tacsuit. Then you'll get your first round of intersect implants and train them in," Antonia replied. "Thursday we'll finish training and run you through a battery of tests to see how your brain is working with the implants. If you've got optimal assimilation Friday could be your second round of implants."
"Sounds like an eventful week," Sarah said appreciatively. "When do we discuss compensation?"
"We were planning on opening a Swiss bank account for you but will be happy to translate your weekly salary into any form at the institution of your choice," Antonia replied. "I have to admit I'm surprised that was one of your first questions."
"My most pressing need is to hire a security detail from GMSP so my friend Zondra can safely go clubbing. I want to give her every possible opportunity to find a boy toy to help ease her tension." Sarah clarified. "Then I'll probably be saving for a hypercar, but that need can wait."
"I see," Antonia nodded. "I'm sure we can work something out for Zondra. What's next on your list?"
"What kind of tacsuit do you use? I've never seen anything like what you guys were wearing at the black site," Sarah noted.
"Good eye," Antonia replied approvingly. "The GMSP tacsuit is the pinnacle of a huge investment in maximum performance activewear. It's impact resistant, distributing forces exerted by anything from projectiles to blunt objects and almost impossible to tear. It's got a cutting edge integrated passive exoskeleton. The feature I expect you'll enjoy the most, however, is the flexible membrane that can turn it into a wingsuit."
"Lord have mercy," Sarah exclaimed. "Any other surprises?"
"Just one," Antonia smirked. "The exoskeleton terminates in retractable claws and foot spikes of lab grown diamond."
Sarah shivered, "I've GOT to be dreaming. That's incredible."
"If you think that's incredible, your mind is gonna be completely blown when you find out what you can do in a tacsuit with the right intersect skills," Antonia assured her.
"Let's get me measured as soon as possible," Sarah's eyes were slightly glazed. "I don't think I'm going to be able to concentrate until I know the tacsuit elves have everything they need."
They made their way to the bunker. A laser scan later Sarah's mind was able to focus on a discussion of intersect implants. She and Antonia discussed a number of options before settling on falls, climbing, and fighting in a tacsuit. There was a ray tracing program that would give her the ability to intuit where bullets would hit a target from a gun she was holding or a gun she could see someone else holding. Finally there was a tactics module that would help her organize the activities of a team or defenses of a position as an integrated whole.
"The human brain isn't organized like a computer," Antonia explained. "It doesn't have rigid separations between different programs or different modules of a program. There IS a limit to how many capabilities can be active at once before they interfere with each other and decohere. To get around this limitation, we link each skill set to a persona."
"So Maggie's sexual awareness and Sarah Soldier's combat awareness won't interfere with each other," Sarah nodded in understanding. "Yeah I can see how a lethal punch during hard sex would completely ruin the mood."
"Most soldiers naturally form a combat persona carefully segregated from any kind of compassion or empathy or they wouldn't be able to inflict damage and kill," Antonia elaborated. "If they couldn't, only sociopaths would be capable of being soldiers."
"So how do we decide which personae will get which skills?" Sarah wondered.
"That's not a simple problem. Fortunately we have an in-house genius in Charles," Antonia smiled. "His software can calculate affinity coefficients between an intersect program and a set of mapped personae. It looks like Sarah Soldier is a good match for the ray tracer, no surprise. Patricia is a good match for tactical analysis, even less of a surprise. The best match for all three tacsuit skills is Sam. The fighting module has Sarah Soldier in the same ballpark but even there Sam's match is stronger."
"I'm not sure how I feel about asking Sam to fight," Sarah frowned uncomfortably.
"This is where intersect implants get tricky," Antonia agreed. "We could try to split the fighting module into more and less aggressive tactics but that would make it tougher to transition between the submodules in the middle of a fight."
"Lisa is supposed to be my protector, why isn't her affinity for fighting higher?" Sarah wondered.
Antonia typed commands into her console for a couple minutes before she had an answer, "It looks like Lisa would be a very strong match for a lethally aggressive fighting submodule. As we broaden the set of fighting skills her affinity drops off sharply."
Antonia and Sarah worked through a number of possibilities quite some time before they decided it was time to break for lunch.
"What happens if the way we set up the fighting skills doesn't work out? Can we erase the implant and try again?" Sarah asked between bites of salad.
"Erasing or suppressing a 3.0 implant is so much harder than doing the same for earlier versions that we just accept that it's not possible," Antonia admitted. "We can overlay new implants to 'drown out' the influence of earlier implants but if we make them too 'loud' we risk drowning out other things in the brain that we wouldn't want to lose. That's the main reason we implant in progressive phases."
"Why is the 3.0 so different?" Sarah was curious.
"It's because it's multi-modal," Antonia explained. "Recall of a memory that can be activated by multiple sensory modes is an order of magnitude easier than a memory confined to single mode. That huge jump in recall is also what makes attempts to set up a flash cascade so problematic."
After lunch Sarah came to a decision, "I want to break up the combat module into a lethal submodule tuned for Lisa and a nonlethal one tuned for Sam."
"So no physical combat training for Sarah Soldier?" Antonia asked.
"Nope, I'd prefer not to split it up at all but the more I think about it, the more I realize Sam's deep attunement to my body and Lisa's primal rage would be better guides for physical combat than Sarah Soldier's detachment," Sarah explained.
Antonia approved of Sarah's reasoning and it wasn't long before Sarah found herself once again stripped down and getting wired up to the intersect machine. She still felt the irrational notion that the machine was somehow an extension of Chuck. Surrendering herself to its influence left her almost breathlessly excited. When her session was over she noticed Antonia's frown.
"Anything wrong?" Sarah asked, feeling nothing but simple curiosity.
"These readings are unusual but I have no idea what to make of it," Antonia seemed a bit frustrated.
"Well if it counts for anything, I feel pretty good," Sarah shrugged as she finished drinking a nutrient solution designed to feed her hungry brain.
Antonia helped her into a bulkier version of the exoskeleton that would be integrated into her tacsuit and ran her through some basic falls and light combat drills. Sarah raced up the climbing wall before Antonia had time to attach her harness.
"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Antonia asked pointedly.
"Oh god, that was stupid, wasn't it?" Sarah realized she had pointlessly risked injuring herself. "All I was thinking was that this is so much FUN."
"Your performance is amazing but you're going to have to make sure there's enough Sarah present to keep Sam under adult supervision," Antonia struggled not to laugh. "I'm glad you didn't hurt yourself. I have to admit that as reckless as it was, Sam's eagerness is a joy to watch."
Although they had originally planned a basic run through each of the implanted skill sets, they agreed that it wouldn't hurt to wait for the next day to check lethal combat, shooting, and tactics. Sarah had to work hard not to let Sam's enthusiasm completely consume her but she and her mentor let Sam play until her muscles ached.
"I have to admit, I wasn't sure about leaving Sarah Soldier out of physical combat," Antonia said as they changed back into regular clothes after showering. "After watching you in action, there is no doubt in my mind you made the right decision."
"Thanks," Sarah smiled. "I honestly can't remember EVER having that much fun as a child. My body may be sore but my soul is drunk on childlike bliss. Is there such a thing as a bliss hangover?"
"I've never heard of one but I imagine we'll get the answer tomorrow morning," Antonia laughed.
It was late so Sarah just grabbed a premade wrap from the kitchen and made her way back to the suite. She found Chuck waiting for her. She tossed her wrap onto a side table and let out a squeal of joy as she jumped into his arms. She wrapped her arms and legs around him and nuzzled his neck. Eventually she pulled her lips away to stare directly into his eyes for a long moment. Some strange law of physics kicked in, drawing their lips together. They both went with it and immersed themselves in making out. It was quite a while before Sarah was finally able to pull herself away.
"I spent my whole childhood being taught every con in the book so I would never be a sucker," Sarah said quietly. "By the time I was twelve I was as hard as the most curmudgeonly cynic in the underworld. I grifted for another five years before the CIA taught me to lie with every muscle in my body and kill without a second thought. I was so completely lost that when a twist of fate gave me a chance to be with a man who was trusting and caring and who loved me, I betrayed him, destroyed him, and just walked away."
Sarah had to close her eyes and breathe for a while before she could speak again. She couldn't really see Chuck through the tears but she knew he was there.
"I spent one soul searing week in your bed learning to be a real woman. Now I've had one transfiguring day in your amazing machine learning what it feels like to have a happy childhood," she continued, her voice trembling with emotion. "You're a wizard, Chuck Bartowski. After all those years of cynicism it took you just ONE day to grant me an unshakable conviction that magic is REAL. I'll never be able to repay you for giving me that but I want you to know that if you ever feel like you might doubt yourself I'll be here to remind you that you're the most amazing man in the world."
Chuck scooped her up, cradling her in his arms. He kissed her forehead tenderly and said in a low but urgent voice, "Thank you, Sarah. I know we've both made mistakes but I bless every one of them for bringing us to this moment. If I've got magic, it doesn't create, it only reveals. I'm so glad you've been able to discover what I've known for years. Sarah Walker is a shining star who never burns brighter than when the child within her comes out to play."
They didn't make love that night, they just snuggled under the covers, told each other stories, and held each other close until they finally drifted off. Sarah found herself awake half an hour before her alarm. She gazed lovingly at Chuck's peaceful face as he slept. Pulling him close, she felt his erection against her tummy. With a mischievous giggle she rolled her body atop his and nibbled on his earlobe until he stirred. Then she sat up and pressed her pelvis firmly against his erection.
"G'Mornin Chuck, wanna fuck?" Sarah asked in a playful sing song.
They both agreed it was the perfect way to start her second day at GMSP.