A/N: Today is October 16, 2022 and it's been more than a year and a half since I updated this story. I'm not sure how long it's been since WillieGarvin took a look at it and gave me his insights (invaluable as always), but it's been a while. Shameful, I know and while I make no apologies, that doesn't mean that I don't feel bad about putting work out there and then letting it hang. I hate being a quitter and I don't want to quit on this or any of my other stories. It feels like I'm cheating myself. None of you would believe me about how often I think about this story, but I just can't seem to translate all that mental energy into the act of actually writing. I'm sure there are writers out there who know exactly what I'm talking about. If you find a way through, over, under - whatever - please clue me in.
I'm not really ready to post this but I'm doing it anyway. I need some kind of jump-start. Maybe this will help.
The Four Seasons Hotel – Los Angeles, CA – September 25, 2017 – 8:00 PM PST
Sarah looked at the two NEST scientists intently. "Is there anything else about this device that gives you clues as to its origin? According to Agent Walters, we believe we have the architect in custody, but you mentioned that it's based on a Russian thermobaric weapon at its core. Does it fit with any models that you guys might have?"
Dr. O'Leary responded. "No, that's not really how NEST operates. We're almost exclusively reactionary. We're typically called in after some kind of nuclear emergency and we take control of the event. We're scientists, not investigators. We focus on the nuclear and radiological aspects of an event. Our primary focus is to identify the source and contain the spread of nuclear material. We gather information, but we turn all that over to the appropriate investigating bodies and act as advisors to the investigation."
"Which will be FBI in this instance," Deputy SAIC Singh said quickly.
Agent Walters made placating gestures to the lead FBI agent. "Agent Singh, I can assure you, you will have my complete cooperation in this matter," he replied. "DSS is even less of an investigative organization than is Dr. O'Leary's team. I was the supervisory agent on the scene for the entirety of this event tonight. One of my own men was involved at least peripherally and has been a rogue operative for God only knows for how long. Including the Syrian Colonel, you have four men in custody. I don't think there's any question that you have the lead from this point forward in the investigation."
Sarah addressed Agent Singh directly as well. "Casey and I were only in LA tonight by happenstance on an unrelated matter," she added. "Besides, neither the CIA nor the NSA have any investigative authority in the US. However, I'm sure both General Beckman and Director Graham are going to be in touch with you tonight. I recommend you look at forming a separate task force to handle this investigation. You guys will obviously carry the ball, but you're going to have to liaise with CIA, NSA and DNI, among others."
Casey looked at his watch. "With that in mind, Agent Walker and I need to check in. General Beckman will want to brief the DNI and he's almost assuredly going to want to brief the President tonight. It's after eleven in DC. We also still need to find lodgings."
Agent Walters offered a solution to the question of lodging. "Why don't you stay here, at least for tonight? It's not like the hotel can bill you. I know I'm not going anywhere else. You can take a couple of the rooms that were assigned to my team. Except for three of them, they've all left anyway."
Casey shrugged and looked at Sarah. "Works for me. I'll get our bags from the car and meet you upstairs in ten."
"Thanks, Casey," she said, then looked at Agent Walters. "Travis, I still want to see if we can capture a photo of Reese off the security cameras, but let's do that after Casey and I check in."
"That works for me. I'm sure Agent Singh is interested in that footage as well."
"Indeed I am. I'm looking forward to seeing this Agent Reese in action."
"Ok, give us a while to get settled and give our reports. Let's reconvene here at nine."
The other two agents nodded their assent.
"Dr. O'Leary, Kevin, thank you both for your insights. Agent Walters will provide our contact information. Feel free to contact either of us if you have any questions for us or discover anything new you need to share," Sarah said to the two NEST doctors.
"Thank you, Agent Walker. Good luck in your investigations," Dr. O'Leary offered.
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Since it had been General Beckman who had originally tasked the two of them with looking into the events at the hotel, Casey contacted her and let her know they needed to provide a report to both her and Director Graham. The two of them were in the room Sarah had appropriated from one of the absent DSS agents, waiting for the General to call Casey back with Director Graham conferenced in on her end.
Casey handed Sarah a scotch on the rocks then settled into one of the chairs in her sitting room and sighed as he sipped his own, poured neat.
"What's your initial impression of this situation here tonight? The high-level view, the timing of everything," Casey asked as he put his feet up on the table.
Sarah shrugged. "The only conclusion I think we can draw right now is that the timing of the DNI event last night and tonight's event are coincidental. They seem to be completely unrelated. Bryce's attack on the DNI last night was surgically precise. He was able to do it without hurting anyone and we both know he could have made it a lot worse. The plan for tonight was the opposite of that. Obviously, the Syrians want to up the stakes, but what's their end game here? I can't help but wonder if Moscow is in the loop or if this is al-Assad himself trying to make a statement. If the plan had succeeded, they had to know we would eventually connect Mahmoud to Pertsalis and know it was them. That's assuming they didn't just step up and take credit immediately."
"What about the fact that Mahmoud's men were already hired on here before the General had scheduled the event? That's a wrinkle."
"I'm wondering if maybe there was a sort of informal schedule. It's possible that Stansfield let it be known before the event was formally scheduled that he was planning it. Another possibility is that someone else was the originally intended target, but that event was cancelled. Or maybe the hotel was already the plan for the Syrians, and Stansfield became a target of opportunity. Either way, that's going to be a thread the feds tug on."
Casey gave her a little salute with his glass and took a sip. "I concur with you on all that. I keep coming back to this Reese character. There's something off there, obviously. Your prior assessment of Reese makes perfect sense, but Walters is convinced Reese is on the side of the angels. How do you reconcile your analysis of Reese as Agent McFuckup with Walters' Golden Boy?"
Sarah took a drink of her scotch as she pondered the question. "I think we can agree that Dr. McCallister added some insight into Reese's skills, which don't necessarily fit the profile I came up with. And to be clear, I'm not stating that's my view on the matter, just that it provides easy answers to some of the questions regarding his sudden appearance. McCallister also was the first to raise the question about a field agent not only having the skill set to disable such a complex device but carrying with him the tools necessary to do so. Not to mention the fact that he was able to do it so much faster than a guy who does it for a living. You and I both know if it had come down to one of us in that room during the countdown, we'd have hauled ass out of there and hoped we got to a minimum safe distance in the time that was left."
Casey nodded soberly at that admission. "You got that right." At that moment, his phone rang with the initials GB on the screen.
"Casey, secure with Agent Walker on speakerphone," he intoned.
"Major Casey, I was not able to track down Director Graham, so it looks like you're going to have to provide your report to me as no one else is cleared on your mission at the moment."
"Understood. To start with ma'am, at first glance, the events tonight do not seem to be linked to our mission. However, with that said, the first thing you need to understand is that we came within a couple of minutes of having a dirty bomb go off in downtown LA tonight. The bomb had been successfully disabled before we arrived, but the countdown had already started when the agent in question started working to disable it. The bomb's architect is Dr. Saif Mahmoud, Syrian national, and he is in custody along with Colonel Karam Khaled of the Syrian Arab Republic. They also captured one of Mahmoud's cohorts and a rogue DSS agent. A second cohort was killed resisting arrest, which is what we believe initiated the countdown on the devices. Dead-man's switch, apparently. Everything had been handled by the time we arrived onsite, but those are the highlights."
To her credit, General Beckman maintained her composure. "What was the radiological payload and the dispersal method?" she asked.
"The payload was about a kilo of caesium-137 and the dispersal method was a repurposed Russian FAE device that I'm not familiar with. The fuel canister was approximately fifteen inches in diameter and about thirty inches tall. It was hidden inside the central support core of one of the large tables in the ballroom where Stansfield was scheduled to speak." Casey reported.
"What about the report of an explosion downtown? That's been on the news. You can sort of make out a building that has the glass broken out in one of the shots."
"Yes, so this was a multi-stage event. That first device was obviously much smaller and did not have a radiological component associated with it. It was mounted in one of the chairs. The precise payload is unknown at this time but likely something exotic because the bomb dogs didn't pick anything up. The chair was positioned behind the podium where the General was supposed to speak. It would have killed him along with anyone else in about a 20-foot radius and seriously injured anyone else out to about 50 feet. The plan was to allow for a half hour after the first bomb, get a lot of emergency responders into the building, after which the primary device would have detonated. Consensus from the NEST personnel onsite is that the second stage device was powerful enough to take out enough support structure and that the central core of the hotel would have collapsed in on itself. A significant amount of radioactive material would have also been blown outward from the hotel and into the environment."
"I think I can see the course of events," the General said. "The bombs had been discovered but the agent onsite needed to focus on the primary device, so they carried the chair bomb outside to a cleared area. It went off and broke the window on the building."
"Yes, ma'am, that's correct," Casey affirmed.
"How was the plan uncovered? Who was the agent onsite that disabled the primary device?"
"General, this is where things get a little strange. The agent in question was gone by the time we got here so we were not able to question him. Agent Walters didn't believe he had the authority to stop him from leaving, so he let him go." From Casey's tone it was clear he would not have let Reese leave.
"Anyway, it seems the entire plot was uncovered by a CIA agent using the cover name of Kyle Reese. He claimed to be in LA on unrelated matters but had a quote-unquote 'bad feeling' about the General's speech. He knew about the threat called in a couple of days ago. He showed up here earlier today and hung out in the lobby for a while. He eventually saw Mahmoud getting off an elevator and crossing the lobby. Mahmoud was registered as an attendee of General Stansfield's speech under the alias Constantine Pertsalis, a Greek immigrant who owns a construction firm here in California. Reese recognized Mahmoud and so followed him. They ended up at a coffee shop a few blocks from here where Mahmoud met with Colonel Khaled. The agent proceeded to eavesdrop on and transcribe their conversation, which they had in Greek. The conversation pertained to a surprise party at the hotel where the none of the attendees would ever be able to talk about the surprise. Reese was able to plant a burner phone on Colonel Khaled in order to track him later when the time came." Casey paused to let that information settle with the General.
"If I'm understanding you correctly, a mysterious man shows up earlier this afternoon, recognizes Saif Mahmoud not just as a Syrian demolitions expert but as a PhD, follows the man and is able to listen in on and understand a conversation in Greek? And from that conversation is able to deduce the bomb plot? And then use pickpocketing skills to plant a phone on the Syrian Colonel?" the General asked dubiously.
"That's correct, General," Casey replied. "But it gets better."
"Ok, Major. Please continue."
"So, after planting the phone on the Colonel, he followed Mahmoud back to the hotel. Reese then proceeded to introduce himself to Agent Walters and explain his discovery of the plot and Mahmoud's true identity. Interesting side note, he knew Walters by name and knew he was the detail lead. Details like this and the fact that he was able to recognize Mahmoud on sight, along with his other demonstrated skills lead us to believe he's CIA, though Reese very specifically never confirmed who he works for and patently refused to provide any identification. Working with Agent Walters and a couple of people from his team, they were able to neutralize Mahmoud pretty easily, but things got away from them after that. As I mentioned, one of Mahmoud's cohorts was killed resisting arrest and a dead-man's switch initiated a five-minute count down. During the course of events leading up to that, Reese was able to expose the rogue agent on Walter's detail. Guy by the name of Richard Whittaker. He'd taken one of the maid staff hostage and was trying to work his way out of the room. Reese was able to get behind Whittaker unseen and take him down. Dislocated Whittaker's shoulder in the process."
"And after all that, this Reese was able to disable the primary device before it could detonate," the General stated in a monotone voice.
"That's correct, General," Casey confirmed.
"Is it at all possible that this mysterious Kyle Reese was actually Bryce Larkin?" the General asked.
The question took Casey and Sarah by surprise. "Uh, I would say no on that, General. Reese is described as about six-foot-four, one-ninety pounds. Larkin was maybe five-ten, one-seventy. Besides that, other descriptions of Reese would not lead us to believe there is any connection to Larkin," Casey responded.
"Such as?"
"He was described as hyper-competent but not the least bit arrogant. He was polite, respectful, even deferential. Not words that I think anyone has ever used to describe Larkin. The only thing bigger than Larkin's mouth was his ego."
"Agent Walker, is this your assessment as well?"
"Yes, General. We weren't given any information at all that would lead us to connect Reese to Larkin. As Casey explained, quite the contrary. But regardless, we should be able to get confirmation shortly. We're going to capture a photo of Reese from the internal hotel security system."
The line was silent for several long moments before the General spoke again. "Would you consider yourself a gambling type, Agent Walker?"
Sarah had no idea where the General was going with that question, so she simply answered it as honestly as she could. "Uh, no ma'am, I do not. We train as much as we do and plan our missions in as much detail as we can specifically because we don't want to gamble anything. Leave nothing to chance. As the saying goes, luck favors the prepared."
"I agree but in this instance I'm making a mental bet with myself. I'll tell you which way the bet comes down when you call me back. I have to brief the DNI and probably the President tonight but call me back if you're able to capture a picture of this mystery agent. Call me back right away. I'll see if I can find any information on an agent using the cover name of Kyle Reese." The General hung up before either of them could say anything further.
Sarah gave Casey a perplexed look. "What was all that betting stuff about do you think?"
Casey grunted as he stood up and drained his glass. Who the hell knows.
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Agent Walters was seated in front of the primary control computer of the hotel security system while Agent Singh, Casey and Sarah were arrayed around him. When his team first arrived at the hotel, he'd taken the time to learn how to use the interface that managed the Digital Video Recorder for the more than one hundred security cameras that monitored the hotel, both inside and out, as well as the parking garage, the roof and the basement storage areas.
"So it was about twenty minutes to four that I first received the call over the radio that someone in the lobby wanted to talk to me. Let's look at the lobby feeds first starting a couple of minutes before the call came over the radio." Agent Walters used the mouse on the computer to quickly select the appropriate group of cameras and the timeframe he wanted to see. Each camera had a date and time stamp in the upper right-hand corner of the frame along with a name for the camera. Several of the lobby cameras suddenly switched to playback mode with a time stamp of 3:38 PM that afternoon. They watched for a couple of minutes when the camera feed suddenly jumped to 3:49 PM for all of the lobby cameras.
"Whoa, what the hell just happened?" Agent Walters looked confused as he queued up the original command again. The result was the same as the group realized that nearly ten minutes of video feed were missing from all of the lobby cameras for the time period that Reese had been in the lobby. Casey gave Sarah a look and she nodded.
"Travis, bring up the cameras in the ballroom for the same time frame," Sarah asked. He clicked around for a few moments and the screen changed to show the cameras covering the ball room. The cameras did not seem to be affected as they watched random hotel personnel move through the ballroom.
"Is there a camera covering the hallway you and Reese walked down to get to the hospitality managers office?" Casey asked.
"There are two actually," Walters replied. He queued the two cameras up a minute before the lobby cameras feed cut out. The feed played normally for a minute then jumped ahead 39 seconds.
Agent Walters put his hands up in frustration. "What the fuck?"
"How long were you and Reese in that office talking?" Sarah asked.
"I want to say about fifteen minutes, then I called in Agents Wilson and Sweeney and filled them in on the plan to capture Mahmoud. The four of us talked for about another ten minutes or so then Reese, Sweeney and I came here while Wilson went and got a stun gun and a clipboard to hide it on. We watched Agent Wilson go up to Mahmoud's room from here."
"So you guys were in that office until at least 4:10 PM?"
"Yeah, about that," he answered.
"Bring up the hallway cameras at 4:10 PM," she requested.
The four of them watched intently for just over two minutes until they saw the office door open. Agent Wilson walked out followed by Agent Sweeney then the video jumped ahead thirty seconds and there was no one in the hallway. Agent Walters paused the playback then spun his chair around to look at the other three agents. Casey and Sarah did not seem particularly concerned, but Agent Singh was obviously extremely angry.
"Agent Walker, I don't know if this Reese is a colleague of yours or not, but it very much looks like he tampered with the video surveillance equipment to remove his presence from the system. These recordings represent evidence that could be crucial to any case we might bring against these terrorists."
Casey shook his head as he addressed the FBI agent. "Agent Singh, you need to think this through. None of the men captured tonight can ever see the inside of a courtroom. We can't let it be publicly known how close we came to having a dirty bomb going off on US soil. You know that." Casey's tone was firm but respectful.
The FBI agent did not seem pacified. "That's beside the point. He still tampered with evidence in a Federal investigation. Why would it be so important for us to not see his face?"
"We'll be sure to ask him that when we see him," Casey replied. "But for now, let's not lose sight of the fact that he's the one who stopped the bomb. The federal building is only a few blocks from here and it's due east. Seeing as how he stopped your offices from being contaminated with radioactive material why don't we give him the benefit of the doubt?"
Agent Walters used a calm tone with the lead FBI agent as well. "Agent Singh, under normal circumstances I would agree with you wholeheartedly that tampering with this footage is unacceptable. However, I'm with Major Casey on this one. I'm willing to cut Reese some slack on this. If he hadn't shown up tonight, I along with the rest of my team and untold hundreds of other people would be dead right now. You would be looking at the worst terrorist attack since 9/11. How much slack would you be willing to cut someone if they'd been able to stop just one of those planes that day?"
Agent Singh apparently found that argument hard to rebut and nodded curtly after a few moments. "I will put in my initial report that there were technical errors with the digital recording system, but if I find even a hint that this Reese person is trying to obfuscate his identity for other, less noble purposes…" Agent Singh left the threat hanging.
"If it turns out that Reese is anything other than what Agent Walters believes him to be, I'll help you draw and quarter the man myself," Casey offered.
That seemed to mollify Agent Singh. "In the meantime, though I'm sure there's nothing to find, we should go through the rest of the camera feeds to be sure he didn't miss anything. Maybe will get lucky and get a reflection image or something."
Nearly an hour later and they confirmed that all footage of Reese on the system had been erased.
"Gentlemen, Casey and I have had a long day and need to file our reports still tonight. If you don't need anything else from us, I think we should be turning in for the night," Sarah advised. "Travis, we'll touch base with you before we move on in the morning."
Agent Walters dry scrubbed his face with his hands. "I know what you mean about it being a long day. I get the feeling I'm in store for a few more. You guys may as well get some sleep. This isn't really your problem anyway, but we should keep in touch while you're in LA."
As they stepped onto the elevator, Sarah looked at Casey and asked, "Why do I get the feeling that General Beckman's bet had something to do with the security feeds and that she didn't think we'd be able to capture a picture of this Reese?"
"I'm betting we find out in a few short minutes," Casey answered, earning a tired snort from his partner.
As soon as they got to Sarah's room and activated the resonance device to defeat external microphones that might try to listen, Casey dialed the General who picked up just before the call could be forwarded to voicemail.
"Beckman, secure."
"Casey, secure with Walker on speakerphone," Casey replied.
"How did it go with the security feeds?" she asked.
"General, how did you know Reese wouldn't be on the security recordings?" Sarah asked.
"I wasn't certain, but I had my suspicions. Ultimately I just didn't buy the timing."
"What timing?" Casey asked.
"The timing of Larkin's event last night and this one tonight."
Casey gave Sarah a confused look and she shook her head and shrugged.
"General, the timing of the two events is admittedly strange but are you telling us they're related?" Sarah asked.
"Yes, but not in the way you're thinking. I did some digging and Kyle Reese is in fact the cover name of an Agent currently working with a team in Uzbekistan. Since it's an active operation, the file has extremely limited access. I actually spoke to him briefly. He chose that name because it's a reference to a science fiction movie from the 80's. Something about him being the father of the savior of mankind. Anyway, the actual Kyle Reese is on the other side of the planet. On top of that, he's forty years old, five-foot-nine, two-hundred-fifteen pounds, blond hair and green eyes."
"So not our Kyle Reese," Sarah said plainly.
"I think not."
"So how are the two events related, General? What is it we're missing here?" Casey asked.
"After we spoke, I tasked a couple of researchers with finding a picture of Dr. Saif Mahmoud. They found one buried in a report from a Delta Force Captain who's platoon had been sent to Syria to help train members of the SDF. He got the information from an SDF officer who had formerly been associated with the SAR but defected when they bombed the village where his family lived. It was a pretty comprehensive dossier on Mahmoud, including his schooling, his field of study, people he interacted with while at Oxford and so forth. It should have been linked with the dossier we already had on him, but it never was. A clerical error on our part. There were actually two NSA files on Mahmoud. Our main file had him listed simply as a demolitions expert, but the more comprehensive information was buried as part of the Delta Force report given to the NSA last year. I also looked into the anonymous call we got regarding the threat on Stansfield. As you know it was called in directly to the general information line for the CIA in Langley. Also, Agent Walters being chosen to lead the DSS team was part of an addendum added to a separate CIA file."
Sarah was the first to catch on. "Holy shit!" she exclaimed.
"What?" Casey demanded, obviously getting frustrated.
"Casey, the Reese that was here tonight had detailed knowledge of both NSA and CIA data sets, one of which was very obscure and the other very recent and also highly classified."
"You're saying that the Reese from tonight is the one who somehow received the Intersect from Bryce? How does that make any sense?" he asked, obviously not buying it.
"Major, it's the only answer that does make sense. Detailed knowledge of both NSA and CIA classified information, physical skills sufficient to disarm a seasoned DSS agent, technical skills sufficient to disable an extremely complex explosive device, and prepared with the tools he would need to do so?"
"Isn't it possible that Reese was with the Delta Force unit that was in Syria and saw the file that was submitted? CIA recruits from special forces all the time. That could explain how Reese recognized Mahmoud and was able to take out Whittaker," Casey offered.
Sarah shook her head. "Casey, those DF guys are good, but how many of them do you think have the technical knowledge to disarm a FAE faster than a NEST engineer? Or somehow hack the hotel security system and wipe all traces of their presence in the building?"
Casey seemed to come to terms with the idea, but he didn't seem to like it. "So, we proceed from that assumption moving forward? We treat this as confirmation that Bryce did somehow transmit the Intersect to a third party and now this person is running around LA, foiling terrorist plots and saving lives in their spare time?"
"That is correct, Major. Your primary focus still needs to be on finding Bryce Larkin, but your secondary task is to also try and locate the Human Intersect. And effective immediately, this information is compartmentalized among the three of us. Limit your reports as it pertains to searching for this individual. Graham is not to have this information."
Sarah frowned at that request. "General, is that really possible? Graham is eventually going to be brought in on the investigation here and he'll see the same patterns you did. Once he makes that connection, he'll know you intentionally withheld the information."
"You misunderstand me, Agent Walker. This isn't my order; this is by order of the President. Once the DNI explained the potential effect that knowledge of this plot could have on the markets and our economy, he was able to convince the President to simply make it go away. Effective as of about fifteen minutes ago, the President has ordered information pertaining to the second device sealed, and knowledge of it classified level Black. As you know that means it is never to be spoken of again and no new personnel can be informed of its existence. The call is going out to the Deputy SAIC of the LA FBI, the NEST Commander and Agent Walters. There was no second bomb. Since there was no second bomb, there was no Reese on site to disable it. It never happened. The investigation will be limited to the chair bomb. The evacuations were a precaution after the chair bomb was discovered. By not being available to take my call earlier and thus obtain this information when it was first available, Director Graham has effectively placed himself outside the loop."
Casey looked concerned as the General explained the new developments. "Ma'am, I understand the reasoning behind the President's order, but we also need to keep in mind the massive intelligence failure that tonight represents. Without a follow up investigation, we'll never have a firm understanding of where the breakdowns occurred and what we might do differently in the future to prevent it from happening again."
"I don't disagree with you, Major. Under normal circumstances I would have pushed back on the level Black classification, but in this instance it helps us. If it makes you feel any better, I'm going to put together a team of analysts tasked with a theoretical investigation based on the events from tonight. I know it's not as good as an actual investigation would be, but it might help."
Casey grunted his reluctant acceptance of the compromise. Sarah changed the direction of the conversation. "General, we need to build a profile of Reese, of the Human Intersect, starting with the information we obtained from Agent Walters. He was highly impressed with the man calling himself Reese, not just with the skills he demonstrated, but with the man himself. His presence, his attitude. Travis genuinely liked Reese and I can affirm that Agent Walters is a pretty good judge of character," Sarah observed.
"I agree, Agent Walker," the General replied. "The two of you start building your profile based on what you learned tonight. Once you have a baseline, I'll submit it to our psych-analysts here and see if they can shed any additional light."
"General, as far as a profile goes, if this Reese really is the Human Intersect, how do we know where his skills leave off and the Intersect picks up? Does the Intersect knowledge system have detailed computer engineering files, or information on hacking video surveillance systems?" Casey asked. "If we know what aspects of what Reese did tonight were him versus abilities or knowledge derived from the Intersect, it will help us narrow our field of suspects."
There was a long pause on the line and they finally heard the General sigh. "We don't know, Major."
Her answer prompted another long pause. "I'm sorry, General. Can you elaborate? What is it you don't know?" Sarah finally asked.
"We don't know exactly what skill and knowledge systems were included in the Intersect. We didn't develop the technology, we… acquired it. Or rather, Graham acquired it. Most of it from a project he was working on decades ago. The truth of the matter is, we don't even really understand exactly how it works. We know it's modular. It's broken into parts and while we have an idea what some of them do, we don't know how they do it. Much of what we've learned has been through trial and error that the scientists have done over the years. Keep in mind that I was only read into this project earlier this year when the final system was completed."
Sarah could tell by his flexing jaw that Casey was biting back his anger at not having been given this information sooner and she was right there with him. "General, why wasn't this information shared with us previously? It seems pretty apparent that Bryce must be working for whoever originally developed it, and that's who's helping him. That's how he's eluded us for so long." Sarah was seething but she kept her tone respectful. "How can we be expected to do our jobs if critical information like this is withheld from us?"
"Agent Walker, I understand your frustration. All I can tell you is that Graham withheld a lot of this information from me as well. I just discovered much of this myself earlier today and it was only because of the destruction of the Intersect system last night that this is now coming to light."
That information provoked Casey's ire. "You're saying that for the past two months while Walker and I chased shadows, Graham withheld crucial information that could have helped us find Larkin?"
"It's worse than that, Major," the General said with another sigh.
"How so?"
"I don't have any proof, but I believe Director Graham may have created a number of Intersected Agents over the last few weeks. We know he's tested the system previously, but it seems all the case files and notes were destroyed in the explosion."
"Do we know who these Intersected Agents might be?" Casey asked
"No," the General admitted. "We have no idea."
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The drive from the Ace Hotel to his apartment was less than a half hour, but it seemed to stretch out in front of Chuck like an endless journey. After his alter-ego's laughter faded from his mind, Chuck realized that he was incredibly tired. Drained and bone-weary beyond anything in memory. Not even after all-night study sessions at Stanford had he been this completely consumed with exhaustion. He lost count of the number of times he yawned as another one burst out of him with jaw-cracking intensity. At several points in the drive home he considered simply pulling into a parking lot, reclining his seat and letting sleep claim him, but the thought of his bed kept him pushing forward, fighting the boulders that seemed to be chained to his eyelids.
When he arrived home he shambled zombie-like into his room and literally fell into bed without even removing his suit coat. He never noticed the slow drip of blood from his nose that had been spattering his shirt and tie as he shuffled through the courtyard of his apartment complex.
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Ellie Bartowski considered herself to have an almost inexhaustible supply of patience, especially where her little brother was concerned. Life had repeatedly kicked Chuck "right in the sack" as Devon was so fond of saying, and while he seemed to have lost his ambition, he was still one of the most genuinely good people she knew. The love she felt for him was not something she thought could ever be measured or calculated.
But as she lumbered sleepily towards his room and the god-awful blaring of his alarm-clock, which had been screeching unanswered for several minutes, for the second day in a row, she wondered if maybe her patience hadn't run out as she envisioned beating him with it. She and Devon had worked a late shift at the hospital, having only gotten home a few hours earlier.
Her first thought was one of mild concern as she opened his door and saw him on his stomach sprawled diagonally across his bed still dressed. She wondered briefly why he was dressed in one of his only suits, but that thought was quickly squelched when she saw the blood. So much fucking blood. Her first thought was he'd been shot and fallen down on the bed.
"OH MY GOD, CHUCK!" she screamed. "DEVON, HELP!" She ran to him and quickly put two fingers on the carotid artery of his neck, careful not to jostle his body. The relief she felt at immediately finding his pulse was muted by how fast it was beating. As she was timing it, Devon burst into the room wearing only his boxers.
"What's going on? Jesus, who's blood is that?" he cried as he saw Chuck lying across his bed.
By this time Ellie had noticed the dried blood around Chuck's mouth and chin and realized he'd had a bad nosebleed, but one that seemed to have cleared up on its own.
"CHUCK! WAKE UP!" she shouted as she shook him. Her insides clenched at his lack of response. She shouted louder, almost straining her voice as she felt threads of panic wrap around her heart. "CHUCK, PLEASE WAKE UP!"
"Ellie, babe, let me look at him," Devon said quietly as he gently pulled her away.
"His pulse is about 90 but strong. The blood appears to be from epistaxis," Ellie said as she tried to get a handle on the terror that threatened to consume her.
Devon gently pried open one of Chuck's eyelids. His pupils were the smallest Devon had ever seen. Combined with the epistaxis, the elevated heart rate and unresponsive condition, Devon started feeling the same threads of panic as Ellie. "He's demonstrating severe miosis. Ellie, call 9-1-1, Chuck needs a hospital," he said quietly as he started examining Chuck, feeling along his extremities, looking for any signs of injury.
Ellie sobbed loudly as she ran to their room to get her phone.
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Chuck became aware of his surroundings in minute increments, as if a dimmer switch were being turned up ever so slowly but one that that controlled all his senses. The first thing he noticed was how peaceful he looked lying on his bed, how vibrantly, deeply crimson the blood was that had continued leaking from his nose during the night.
Unimpaired by the fog of exhaustion, he now remembered the moment the nosebleed had started, which had been as a slow drip on his drive home, not long after Carmichael had disappeared from the mirror. It had built to some kind of crescendo during the night, then slowly tapered off. He suspected he'd lost a little more than a pint of blood, but not too much more. It certainly looked like a lot, but he knew it looked worse than it was. Just like Carmichael had told him, his body, specifically his brain, was going through a process and though it was one he didn't fully understand, he knew it was necessary.
The next thing he noticed was that it wasn't just the deep maroon of the blood that was vibrant; everything around him seemed to glow with ambient energy. It didn't give off light of any sort, but everything he looked at seemed to… vibrate. It was strange and yet seemed completely natural at the same time. He wandered around his room for a period of time just admiring the resonant vibrations that everything around him seemed to radiate. He recognized when his alarm went off and found the contrasting vibration fascinating when compared to the clock itself, the electricity flowing through it, the nightstand on which it sat. The vibrations were so intimately connected and yet so disparate that he got lost in the space between them for a while as the similar-yet-dissimilar energies washed over him.
He was pulled out of his reverie when Ellie stumbled into his room and saw his inert form lying on the bed. He instinctively knew that this would be a distressing moment for her, and he wanted to let her know it would be ok. He studied her intently as she took his pulse and almost immediately became lost in the stunning field of energetic vibrations she emanated. It was by far the most beautiful thing he'd ever… seen wasn't right. He was seeing them, but he wasn't seeing them with his eyes.
Devon bursting into the room pulled him back into focus as he worked to isolate all the various vibrations he sensed in his sister. Her sob as she left the room to get her phone tugged at his heart and he desperately wanted to let her know he would be ok. He followed her down the hallway and felt that strange sense of intrusion he always felt as he passed across the threshold of her doorway into her bedroom. This was hers and Devon's private space and he was never comfortable coming in here, but he needed to find a way to tell her not to worry.
As she grabbed her phone and dialed 9-1-1 he could tell she was barely holding it together. As she spoke to the emergency operator he relaxed and let his attention be drawn by his intent. She ended the call and closed her eyes as tears trickled down her cheeks and Chuck saw what he needed. He gently placed his palm on her forehead and could feel her hair on his fingers, but that was the least of the sensations he encountered. First and foremost was her terrible fear, coming very close to overwhelming her. He felt her love for him as well as her love for Devon. He could also feel so much more than that, but it was so complex he couldn't possibly unravel it all. He focused his thoughts to keep from getting lost in the vast complexities that made up his sister.
Chuck was inexplicably calm in what he knew to be extraordinary circumstances, but he had a deep sense that this was not a life-threatening situation for him. He imagined sharing that calmness with Ellie, placing it on her as if it were a tangible thing.
He spoke and was almost surprised to hear his own voice. "It's going to be OK, Ellie. It's going to be OK. Take a deep breath."
xx
As Ellie hung up the phone she nearly collapsed from the raw panic. She couldn't lose her brother. Not after everything they'd been through together. She honestly didn't think she could handle that. They'd been each other's anchor for more than fifteen years. If she lost him, she would be cast adrift in the world.
Just as the dread reached a peak that threatened to buckle her knees, she heard Chuck's voice in her head. It's going to be OK, Ellie. It's going to be OK. Take a deep breath.
She couldn't resist his request and almost without conscious effort, took in a deep, cleansing breath and released it slowly. She felt a sense of stillness and peace wash through her. It didn't completely rinse her fear away, but it gave her back control.
xx
"It's going to be OK, Ellie. I promise. You're a neurologist. Use those years of schooling and experience to start making a plan. They won't let you be your brother's doctor, but they'll listen to you."
Chuck continued to focus on the sense of calmness he felt and sharing it with his sister as he spoke.
xx
As the fear receded, Ellie took another deep breath and heard her brother's voice again. It's going to be OK, Ellie. I promise. You're a neurologist. Use those years of schooling and experience to start making a plan. They won't let you be your brother's doctor, but they'll listen to you.
With focus and forethought, she took another deep breath, and felt the last of the fear flow out of her as she exhaled. She started building a checklist of tests she would order as she walked with purpose back to her brother's room.
A/N: I have another chapter I've been sitting on in addition to this one, and I'm a few thousand words into chapter 8. I've been getting DMs periodically about this and some of my other in-progress stories. The only response I can really give is that I WANT to get these stories out there more than any of the readers want to read them. And to also say, I get it - there are any number of stories that I'd love nothing more than to see an update notification for.
