AN- Ah, Stanford, and the thin as heck excuse for a setup. Any number of stories deal with this and most don't wait nearly as long as the show did. No different here.
vs the Alma Mater
"Are you absolutely certain?" Sarah asked, looking at the files displayed on the screen.
Chuck shrugged. "I mean, it could be faked, but it seems like a lot of trouble. Its already pointing fingers at senior officials. Why make a double fake pointing at yourself? All of these operations are using Graham's access at CIA. Or this set look like they're using Beckman. The common thread, and it wasn't easy to find, the origination is faked. The codes are real – which means someone has some deep access. However the trail showing the origin is fabricated. In at least three of the instances the order came while one or the other was in a Congressional hearing."
Sarah's blood ran cold. This was worse than anyone could have imagined. Someone with real access was using portions of the CIA and NSA as their own personal criminal task force. Assassinations. Theft. Influence and propaganda operations. Was Bryce a part of it, or was he a dupe following orders? All of them were small in operational scale, but disproportionately effective. Most had tapered off with the theft of the Intersect. She wondered if that meant the 'someone' had a real organization now. Her thoughts were interrupted by Chuck continuing his comments.
"Then I found this." Chuck said, pointing at the other screen and a scrolling list. "Someone's been filtering and cherry picking from your recruitment list. Looks like it goes all the way back to college in most instances."
"Holy shit." Sarah said softly. Yep, someone's building a real organization.Then she shook herself. "OK, load all of that into some encrypted drives. Include my personnel file. Then wipe all of this, no trace we saw it. If the people that did it find out, they'll send entire armies after us."
"OK, after that?" Chuck asked.
Sarah took a deep breath. "We focus for a while on your training and Ellie's work."
Chuck pressed. He could read her now even better than before. "And?"
"And I start tearing apart my assumptions and plans. I have to talk to Casey. At first I thought I might have to kill Beckman or Graham. Its starting to look like we may have to rescue them at some point." Sarah said and then looked at the screens with windows opening and closing, commands scrolling by. "That about finished?"
"Another minute or two, the scripts are tearing down the virtual machi…" Chuck said, before she interrupted him by pulling him from his chair.
"What did I tell you about technical information that's above my head?" Sarah asked, putting her hands on her hips.
Chuck grinned at her.
"Did you do that on purpose?" Sarah asked, grinning back. He didn't answer and she shook her head. "Well, I'm not above taking advantage of the situation. I'll take my forfeit now."
"Shower or bed?" Chuck asked, stepping to her and picking her up by the waist. Which was a sign of his improving condition. Sarah Walker was a solid stack of muscles, much like an overly tall gymnast.
"Both?" She replied, biting her lip.
Later that morning, quite a bit later, they made it into the Buy More. Sarah waited patiently while Chuck dealt with a number of minor store issues that Big Mike had left for him. Including ensuring Big Mike's danish arrived at his desk. Her plan today was to spend as much time as she could working on her assumptions and re-working her plan to get in contact with their superiors. Finally Chuck tore himself free and occupied his space at the main Nerd Herd desk, which he was using as a sort of combined space for the Herd and his managerial duties. Sarah was about to kiss Chuck and head over to the Wienerlicious, when Morgan popped up and leaned in, hissing. "Chuck, Sarah, we have an emergency. We need to talk."
"Buddy, can it wait? We're…" Chuck was saying, gesturing at Sarah.
"Shh, shh… Not here. There are spies at the Buy More." Morgan said, looking around.
Both Sarah and Chuck straightened. Sarah glanced around, then down at Morgan. "Spies, really?" she said, quietly. Chuck seemed like he was about to hit the button on his watch.
"Yeah… yeah. Tang's minions. They're…" Morgan paused. "OOOH. No, not those kind. I mean…" his voice dropped low. "I mean apart from like us." He went back to a normal volume. "He's gone out of his mind since you took the assistant manager's job."
Chuck relaxed and Sarah shook her head in amusement. "Yes, Morgan, thanks for the reminder of my increased workload which – I'll note – you're keeping me from just now."
"Got it, right man. Listen, we need you to step in." Morgan said.
"And just what did you need me to step in on?" Chuck asked, warily.
Morgan held out a paper. "New rules for the greenshirts. Its like, he's expecting everyone to read the employee manual and follow it. What's worse, he's encouraging snitching!"
Sarah hid a grin. Chuck sighed and took the paper. "From the desk of Harry Tang? I don't even have a real desk…" he trailed off as he skimmed it. "OK, its a little strict. Possibly over and above the manual."
"He wants to ban Red Bull, Chuck!" Morgan said, a desperate note in his voice.
Chuck winced. "Ooh. Ouch. I remember the last time you tried to detox.
Morgan continued in a rush, "How am I supposed to move electronics with the sweaty shakes?"
"Grimes, is this the… Talk More?" Harry Tang's voice came from around a display. He obviously couldn't see Chuck and Sarah from his angle.
Sighing, Morgan turned to respond but Chuck stood and tapped him on the shoulder – waving a finger. "Mr. Tang, Morgan here was just bringing something to my attention in my role as the assistant manager." Chuck said, just as Harry stepped around the display.
The change in Harry's expression was rapid and Sarah was fascinated as she watched the mixture of surprise, anger (with a little hatred), and fear flicker. Harry Tang's face then settled on a mask of respect before he responded.
"Oh, yes, of course. I'm just trying to keep my team on track." Harry said in a false sort of ingratiating tone.
Sarah looked up at Chuck and saw his expression change a bit. She knew that after Chuck had decided to take the job, he'd approached Casey for some advice. Sarah had been slightly surprised, but also approving. Casey's advice had been direct. Don't be too harsh with subordinates, but don't forget that they are subordinates. Support them when they're right, correct them when they're wrong. Under no circumstances accept a challenge to your authority.
Chuck smiled thinly. "Here I was under the impression that Big Mike made them my team, Harry." his voice a near duplicate of Ellie's 'deceptively reasonable' tone.
Tang blanched. "Uh… Yes?"
"I applaud your devotion to the rules, however it appears that devotion is to the rules as you see them – not as they are." Chuck said, crisply. "Buy More regulations prohibit, 'intimidation, harassment, and retaliation', in more than just areas of employee complaints." Chuck held up the paper. "This would appear to include several items that could be interpreted as such harassment or retaliation against individuals who may have supported their new management team. Wouldn't you say, Harry?"
Mutely, Tang nodded. Chuck smiled broadly. "Excellent. I'm sure you'll be able to handle helping our greenshirts be their best without anything like this then. Won't you?"
Again Tang nodded. Chuck crumpled up and tossed the paper into his bin at the Nerd Herd desk. "Off you pop then. Big Mike will be done with his morning danish soon, don't want him to think anyone's lounging around now do we?"
"Yes, right. I think I see someone that needs help." Tang replied quickly and retreated, attempting to salvage some of his dignity.
"Man, that was great Chuck!" Morgan said happily. "What do you say we…"
"Morgan?" Chuck said, tone level.
"Yeah, Chuck?"
Chuck pointed at the sales floor. "You too. We still have our day jobs."
"Right, Chuck." Morgan replied and headed out. Probably to find a place to hide in the merchandise.
Sarah was grinning, looking at Chuck and he looked back at her and raised an eyebrow. "What?"
"Nothing." Sarah replied. "Just happy to see the leadership qualities I saw the day you helped that little ballerina put on full display."
"It did feel… not bad." Chuck admitted. "However, I'd prefer if we could still work on getting out of here?"
"No one more than me." Sarah shuddered. "At least the Buy More is grease free."
"Sarah, you've seen the cage right?" Chuck said, also shuddering.
Later that day, they were called into the Home Theater room for a briefing. Chuck stepped in a moment late and made the mistake of assuming the audio was off.
"Wow, that new HD screen sure shows every wrinkle…" Chuck was saying before Casey elbowed him.
"They can hear you." Casey growled. Beckman started to scowl from the screen.
"Twinkle!" Chuck said, attempting to cover for his statement. "Every twinkle in her eye… eyes." He trailed off looking at the glare from the general.
"Good morning, team." Graham said from the monitor, suppressing a grin. He stood, as he often did for some unknown reason, behind General Beckman's desk. She said nothing, and still scowling at Chuck, nodded at the camera. "We have an update and a situation."
"A CIA asset has gone missing. We've had no communication from him in two days." Beckman picked up the thread of the briefing. A picture appeared on screen.
Sarah didn't recognize him right away, but he seemed oddly familiar. She frowned and glanced at Chuck who had a look on his face.
"No, way…" he said.
Sarah took another look at the screen and then back to Chuck. "What, did you flash?"
"No, I don't have to. That guy was my professor at Stanford." Chuck said, slowly. Then he looked up. "Wait, asset? He's CIA? My professor was a spy?"
Graham spoke up. "The CIA recruits on campuses across the country. Professor Fleming is a company scientist, not a case officer."
"This was the last communication we received." Beckman said, hitting a button.
An audio recording began to play. "This is Glass Castle reporting hostile contact. I made a mistake, Black Coat. I copied intel for myself onto a disc. They're after it. I know I shouldn't have."
Chuck looked at Sarah. She made a tiny shooing down motion and spoke up. "Do we know what intel he copied?" she asked.
"We don't." Graham replied. "He's handled many sensitive projects for us, any leak could prove devastating."
Casey chimed in. "How can we help?"
"Fleming has contacts in LA." Beckman replied. "If we can find him, you can extract him and hold him until we can retrieve him."
"We'd like your help on this, Chuck." Graham stepped in.
Chuck looked mildly ill. "Look, I don't think I'm your go-to guy on this one."
"Your knowledge of Fleming and Stanford is key here." Beckman said, attempting to explain. "We only have his official reports. You have a personal connection."
"Yeah, I do have a personal connection. Very bad personal connection." Chuck replied, bitterly. "You guys have the file. You know all about Fleming and what happened to me. The guy kicked me out of school."
Sarah put her hand on Chuck's shoulder and tried to steer things away from personal, back to the mission. "Chuck, Professor Fleming is one of us…"
"Maybe you can find someone else to help you this time." Chuck said, getting up. "Maybe just this once." He turned and slipped out of the home theater room without a backward glance.
Beckman frowned and opened her mouth when Graham put his hand on her shoulder. "Agent Walker, can you…" he trailed off.
"I'll talk to him, after I give him a few minutes." Sarah replied, coolly and trying to hold onto an appropriate reaction for a 'handler'. "However, I'm not certain that it will do any good. Or that I blame him for his reaction."
"The reports simply say that he was expelled for cheating." Graham said thoughtfully. "This reaction implies there's considerably more to it than the records indicate."
"Considerably more is a mild way to put it, sir." Sarah replied. "A straight 'A', full ride scholarship student, was kicked out ostensibly for having copies of the final in Professor Fleming's class and offering them to others. Nothing other than a test found in his unlocked room for corroboration, found by his accuser with no other witnesses." She snorted. "Now, later on, this same man who was accused of cheating because of this 'evidence' and his over ninety percent score on Fleming's encoded images exam… becomes the human Intersect. A technology based on retention and understanding of… encoded images."
Graham winced at her tone. Beckman looked thoughtful. Sarah waited until they both nodded and continued. "His accuser was Larkin. Who later went rogue and sent this same technology to him. The available information certainly seems to suggest to me that the charges were completely baseless and that he was setup. Given his background and scholarship status, this pretty much ended any professional advancement and left him stuck in a dead end job in Burbank." Sarah sighed. "I don't know about any of you, but I'd probably be a bit unhappy about being asked to help one of the men that ruined my life. Wouldn't you?"
"Don't forget, pretty boy Larkin nailed Bartowski's girl right after." Casey spoke up causing the directors and Sarah to wince at the matter of fact tone. "The moron's at this store told me the whole story." His tone grew slightly more respectful. "They're idiots, but they're loyal."
"What year was this?" Beckman asked, suddenly.
Sarah put a deliberate expression of consideration on her face before answering. "2003, ma'am."
"Graham, when I went over Larkin's file after the explosion, I seem to recall his recruitment was from Stanford in…" Beckman said.
"2002." Graham replied, then did something that left both agents and Beckman staring in surprise. He smacked the desktop and growled. "The little shit was working for me already when he did this. I expect agents to be able to perform… morally ambiguous tasks – when ordered to. Not…" he trailed off and just looked angry.
"Sir?" Sarah asked.
"Walker, talk to Bartowski. See if you can get him to help. No coercion, just ask. You're right about the situation and pushing is likely be counterproductive." Graham replied. "Then find Fleming and his intel. Then find out what the hell happened in 2003 while you're at it. If our recruitment effort is compromised we need to know."
"And if I find hard evidence of… malfeasance in his expulsion?" Sarah asked. If only you knew what I knew about what Chuck found. I wonder if we can slip it into this investigation?
Beckman made an 'up to you' gesture at Graham and said, "It seems like we might have the chance to right a wrong here, for little or no extra effort." She shrugged. "Which is not something we get to say all that often in our line of work."
Graham spoke, carefully they could all tell. "Take whatever actions you deem appropriate to protect your asset and his trust in you." He very obviously wasn't saying, 'Go threaten some Stanford deans'. He was, however, implying it. Sarah knew her boss relatively well. When he wasn't ordering her to murder people, she liked him.
"Understood, sir." Sarah replied.
Graham nodded, then seemed to remember something. "Oh, one more thing. The local team concurs that the open apartment in Echo Park is consistent with security requirements and your cover. I approved the budget a few days ago and it should be move in ready in another day." He paused and picked up a paper, reading something. "They wanted to know if you needed them to decorate and furnish – and if so what general package."
"I believe I can handle the furnishing and decoration. Too much done by an outside party would be noticed since everyone is in the same complex." Sarah said with a small smile. "I expect Ellie Bartowski will insist on helping."
They ended the meeting and Casey left with a grumble about Beastmasters. Sarah went in search of Chuck.
Sarah took the time to sneak into the break room at the Buy More to retrieve an outfit she had stashed in Chuck's locker. After changing in the bathroom, she went looking. She didn't want to resort to using the watch's tracker, it felt… it felt like something that would make the situation worse. Outside of an emergency you didn't 'lo-jack' the man you loved. So she wandered the store and the various storage and stock areas. Eventually she found him out behind the store, near the loading dock. He was lying back on a Herder's hood, parked in the shade.
She walked up from his right, making sure he could see her. She stopped about a foot away.
"Did you track my watch?" Chuck asked without opening his eyes.
"Did you learn to sense my presence with your mind alone?" Sarah asked in return, putting a light tone in her voice.
Chuck smiled, eyes still closed. "I always know when you're there." He paused. "Plus I can smell your shampoo."
Sarah laughed. "Ah. Well in answer to your question, no. I wandered the store like any normal abandoned girlfriend."
"So, what did they say?" Chuck asked, sitting up and turning to face her. He didn't seem to mind that he was denting the hood a bit.
"About what?" She asked, keeping her tone light.
Chuck sighed. "Sarah…"
"You know what they said, Chuck. At least about Fleming." Sarah replied. "There was some more back and forth, but they asked me to ask you for help. Not to coerce you." She smiled then. "Which is good, because the most I want to coerce you into is taking me to that Mexican place again tonight."
"So no 'stick'. Did they offer a 'carrot'?" Chuck asked.
"I quote 'Take whatever actions you deem appropriate to protect your asset and his trust in you.'." Sarah could see where his thoughts were going and took his hand. "You know I wouldn't do…" She paused and waved her hand at the two of them. "I'd never use us against you. The only work related thing I'll pull out the girlfriend card for is keeping you out of danger. Any girlfriend would."
Chuck squeezed her hand. "I know. Its good to hear every once in a while." He smiled at her and tilted his head. "That being said, what did they offer you."
"Honestly, nothing that I wasn't already intending on doing." Sarah replied, shrugging. "We'll be looking into Fleming's work at Stanford. If I should happen across some data I can use..."
"What do you want me to do?" Chuck asked, sounding resigned.
Sarah let go of his hand and hugged him. "I want you to take me out to dinner tonight. I want to see if there's a good band at that club where the NSA interrupted us." She gave him a quick kiss on the cheek and let go.
Chuck looked at her and asked, "What do I do about Fleming?"
"What do you want to do about Fleming?" Sarah countered.
"I suppose…" Chuck sighed. "I should at least tell you and Casey what I remember about the professor and his class."
After surviving the afternoon at the Wienerlicious, Sarah picked Chuck up for he drive back to Echo Park. She figured she'd spring the apartment news at dinner, so she kept the conversation in the car light.
"So, what do you think the planners are going to replace the hot dog shop with?" Sarah asked at a red light. "I'm hoping for an office of some kind. Maybe financial services."
Chuck was looking out the window, but he turned back to her smiling. "What, no detective agency? You'd be a brilliant hard boiled LA detective."
"While I admit the three of us have the skill set to make something like that work, the idea is to be boring. We don't want customers or clients – at least not curious ones." Sarah grinned back at him as they started driving again.
"Wait… is that why everyone thought Bryce was an accountant?" Chuck asked.
Sarah nodded. "Yep. Did I ever tell you what my normal cover job is?"
Chuck shook his head 'no'. "No, you just said you moved here from DC."
"If I'd needed it, Sarah Walker – in addition to not being employee of the month for Weinerlicious, is the supply and logistics manager for a subsidiary of a defense contractor." Sarah said and punched it to get through a traffic gap. Chuck didn't squeak, which was an improvement.
"Have you ever thought that giving spies extra boring cover jobs is a clear tip off that they're not that boring?" Chuck asked.
Sarah considered that for a moment. "Perhaps, but if you're too high profile – eventually someone's going to put together missions with where the famous person was."
"True." Chuck replied.
"OK, so what would you pick as your boring cover job?" Sarah asked. "As a twist, it has to be something you've got no idea how to do."
Chuck pursed his lips and shrugged. "Oh god, I don't know… actuarial table proofreader?
"Is that actually a job?" Sarah asked
"No idea. Just sounded reaaaaaly boring." Chuck replied.
The conversation carried them through the short, due to Sarah's general disdain for traffic laws, drive to the apartment. Chuck got out of the car and Sarah lowered the passenger window.
"I'll come by at seven?" she yelled.
Chuck gave her a wave and a nod as he backed up the walkway, then he stumbled and recovered looking a little sheepish. Sarah laughed and waved. Then drove on to go change.
Sarah polished off another carnitas taco and then stopped at Chuck's grin. "What?" she asked after taking a drink of her Mexican Coke, which as Chuck had pointed out – was the only way to drink Coke.
"Nothing. Just struck by the difference between this visit and our first visit." Chuck replied. "Apart from the topic of conversation and my general lowered anxiety level."
Sarah looked at him with a 'thin ice' expression. "And what difference is that, Chuck?"
"Comparatively you ate like a child, or bird, then." Chuck said, ignoring the warning look.
"You've been working out with me." Sarah said. "And I've seen you putting away the protein whenever it crosses your path. Don't tell me you don't get it. Do you realize how hungry I was after our first date? I'm shocked you didn't hear my stomach growling on the beach."
"I did, I was just distracted." Chuck said.
"Yeah… me too." Sarah smiled at him. "Changing the subject, last time we were here we glossed over ex's, found out that I am neither funny – nor – a cannibal, and that it wasn't your worst first date. Which I still find amusing, and hard to believe."
"Ah, fishing for the famous eleventh grade date/breakup story. I'm onto you, Walker."
"You got me. I still wanna know though."
"Well, I shall keep the innocent nameless as I feel at this time that they are in fact blameless for the events of Valentine's Day, 1998. Despite how much getting dumped hurt."
"Oh, no." she said, putting her hand over her mouth.
"Oh yes. It was a big night. Dinner, dancing, young love. All on display. Except, dinner made me ill. Dancing made me vomit. And the young woman was left with little option except to retire from the field. Attempting to retain some dignity in the face of unprovoked, if also accidental, attack." He affected a bad British documentary voice over accent. He proceeded to explain in great detail each of the events, accent wavering, complete with pauses for dramatic effect. Culminating in a fabulous vomiting sound effect she'd never known someone could make without actually vomiting.
She couldn't contain the giggles. So she just let them go. It was obvious the event had not left a terrible scar if it he played it off as funny now. When she got it under control, she took his hand. "I can't help but feel just a bit sorry for the young fellow in that story, and wish I could have been there." she paused and looked into his eyes. "I hope he's found a girl by now who would stick by him, even in that situation."
"I think I have." he replied quietly, then lightened his tone. "So you understand the low bar you had to clear."
"Hopefully its gotten better?" Sarah asked with a raised eyebrow.
"I'd say the bar is much higher now, but lets be honest Sarah…" Chuck paused and grinned at her. "If I ever ended up on a date with someone else, someone's probably going to get killed."
"I wouldn't murder an innocent woman who'd been blinded by your charm." Sarah said with mock indigence. "You maybe, but not some poor girl. Unless she made the first move. Then all bets are off." She gave him a predatory look. "You're mine, Bartowski."
"I suppose its handy then that I love you." Chuck replied with a sniff.
Sarah replied with raised chin. "Well, that works out well because I love you too!"
Both of them laughed at each other.
"You were saying something before threatening me or any potential female competitors you might have?" Chuck asked.
"Just trying to decide if we should go for random topics and avoid anything important or…" Sarah trailed off and shrugged.
Chuck sobered and looked around then back at Sarah. "Like work related important?"
"Maybe a tiny bit. We'd talked about me getting a place that wasn't the hotel." Sarah replied. "The apartment near yours opened up, its surprising what federal dollars will do. The point being, I'll be moving in across the courtyard this week."
"That's great!" Chuck said. "Ellie will be ecstatic."
"Right, yes. I'm getting an apartment in Echo Park to hang out with Ellie. Yep." Sarah said, a touch sarcastically.
Chuck raised an eyebrow in imitation of her earlier expression. "I'm not discounting the personal benefits."
"So, those benefits aside… do you want to move in with me?" Sarah asked quietly.
"Is that what you want or…" Chuck trailed off, not wanting to say it in public.
"I asked for them not even to furnish or decorate so that you and Ellie could help me." Sarah replied. "So, yes. It is what I want. It has nothing to do with what they want."
"I'd be stupid to say no, on a practical level" Chuck said, trying to sound as serious as possible. "Cutting down on the driving all the way over to Maison 23 has to be considered. For the environment."
Solemnly, Sarah nodded. "Practical, yes. For the environment."
"So, for purely practical reasons having nothing at all to do with privacy, Awesome making fun of us for the noise, and spending time together…" Chuck replied. "I have to accept your kind offer."
"That's extremely good news." Sarah smiled at him. "Now, finish your drink. I want to go dancing."
As the week went on, Casey took the lead in searching out Professor Fleming's trail in LA. Chuck had done a little digging, and had given them his impression of the man and his habits that he remembered from class. Then he'd stepped back and focused on his day to day work. Sarah had remained close by, taking on extra time as the primary protection for Chuck. Wednesday came and with it, no new information and Casey had even worked part of a Buy More shift waiting for facial recognition to work on traffic footage. Today was the day Sarah would be moving in and this afternoon Chuck had promised to help – and to bring a few of his things over as well. A discussion around this had ensued while shopping for a few essentials and on the way back to the apartments.
"Chuck. They're toys." Sarah said, as she got out of the car and retrieved two the bags from the local home store. She'd realized that forgoing the setup package meant that she'd have to buy even dishes and towels. Chuck picked up the other bags and they began to walk to the courtyard.
Chuck, in the patient tone of the expert talking to the neophyte, said, "No, they're collectible action figures." He paused as they negotiated the gate. "AND they're toys. More importantly they're reminders of my childhood and interests. I'm not suggesting they go everywhere – just a few out in the open instead of in boxes."
Sarah looked back at him and smiled. "OK, that's a valid reason. You could have led with that."
"I didn't want to make too big of a fuss…" Chuck trailed off as he looked around the courtyard. Emerging from Devon and Ellie's place, were a number of Awesome clones. They varied in size, skin tone, and facial hair – yet all seemed strangely familiar. All were wearing some variant of UCLA garb. Ellie put down the tray of burgers on a small table and looked at the two of them. Chuck put his bags down by the door and wandered over to Ellie. "Who invited the UCLA brain trust?"
Ellie waved at some of the guys and Devon who'd started the typical horseplay and were throwing a football around. "Those are Devon's fraternity brothers. We are all caravanning up to Stanford for the UCLA game this weekend." She turned her head to take in the bags and Sarah unlocking the door of the formerly un-rented apartment.
Chuck shook his head and turned to walk back to Sarah. From the other end of the courtyard, Devon called out. "Hey Chuck! Go deep, bro!" Then he threw a football.
Sarah had just started to turn back around in time to catch the throw. And the impact. Chuck oofed and sank to his knees.
"Oooh, right in the pills." Devon said, wincing. Along with all of the other men in the courtyard. Several started to approach Chuck to offer assistance.
"Don't touch me… don't…" Chuck's voice started out strained and high and then lowered to normal. "Please don't touch me."
Sarah had put her bags down, and left the door hanging open as she turned towards Chuck. Devon was helping him up. "Come on, man. Let me make it up to you. Got you a ticket for the game!"
Ellie had turned away from her brother, and stepped in front of Sarah. "Something you want to tell me regarding the empty apartment, the two of you, and the four bags from what looks like two different home stores?"
Sarah held up a hand and watched. In the background, Chuck was leaning away from Devon and gesturing at the new apartment. "Sarah and I have plans."
"Its your alma mater, dude." Devon said, confused.
Chuck moved towards the bags he'd left. "Look no offense, but I'd rather get hit… in the produce section again, than go back to that place."
"Hah! Suit yourself. Game on, boys! Where's the ball?" Devon's good cheer came back in full force as he turned to the other guys in the courtyard. "Lets do this!"
Looking back at Ellie, Sarah answered. "Well, I'm moving in. I want you to help decorate and find furniture." She paused deliberately and turned to step into the living room. "Oh and Chuck's moving in with me."
"What!" Ellie squealed, following Sarah into the apartment.
"Chuck's moving in with me." Sarah repeated and crossed to the freezer. She'd already gone shopping for some food that morning, and had stocked a few frozen items. Looking at the available options, she selected a bag of peas.. She then met Chuck who was coming through the door, limping. Sara guided him to one of the temporary folding camp chairs she'd set out. She smiled sympathetically and handed him the peas and pointed.
"Why didn't you tell me?" Ellie said, smacking Chuck's shoulder.
"Because we only decided like a day ago?" Chuck said. "And its going to take a bit, we'll probably be splitting time while we get furnishings."
"Right." Ellie glanced back out at the guys playing. "Listen…, I know Stanford doesn't hold a lot of good memories for you…"
Chuck interrupted. "They kicked me out for something I didn't do. OK? So that's it. Me and Stanford, we're officially done."
Ellie shrugged and laid a hand on Chuck's shoulder before heading back outside to supervise the chaos. Sarah pulled one of the other temporary chairs over and sat.
"Wanna talk about it?" Sarah asked.
"We already did once. It never made any sense, what Bryce said." Chuck sighed. "That I did it to myself? What the hell was that supposed to mean?"
"Sounds like a deliberate mind game." Sarah commented. "Like he didn't want you to fight or investigate." She rose and grabbed the bag of towels. "I'm going to put some things away, then check in with Casey on the perimeter security. Why don't you grab anything you want to bring over right away? If you're feeling up to moving" She smiled as she said it.
"Funny. Very funny." Chuck replied and got up. "I'll go see, I should have a box I can toss of and reuse." He made his way out, moving somewhat gingerly.
It was perhaps a half an hour later. Sarah was perched on the edge of Casey's desk watching as he went through the perimeter security. There was an urgent pounding on the door and Casey moved to answer it, a pistol having appeared in his hand. Sarah shook her head. "Casey, I'm expecting Chuck."
With a grunt, he decocked the pistol and put it up. He opened the door a tiny bit and then fully. "Get in here before someone sees." Casey glowered as he spoke. Ellie's parties always made him nervous.
Chuck walked past him into the center of the room and turned to face them both. He held up a Stanford student ID card. In a surprisingly angry tone he spoke. "I just flashed. On myself. Why am I in the intersect?"
"What?" Casey asked.
"I said, I'm in the Intersect. Why?" Chuck demanded again looking at both agents.
"I know that the file I was given at the beginning of this was put together on the fly." Sarah said, dropping off Casey's desk and going to the keyboard. She started logging in to pull up the file. "I can tell because they look like they were written by a search engine instead of a person." She paused as she hit a few more keys. "Here, look."
Chuck walked around the desk and began to scan the file. Casey also walked over, and stood looking over his shoulder. He grunted. "That's pretty much what mine said too. You weren't on the NSA's radar until after Bryce sent you the Intersect." Chuck stiffened and Casey noticed. Sarah had more experience and hadn't shown her surprise, but she did react to Chuck's surprise. Which Casey also noticed. "What?" Casey demanded. "You look like you just got electrocuted. And you, Walker – you're very carefully not reacting."
"Look, Casey, we can talk about it in a bit, but first off... Chuck, the files you saw. Were any of them recent?" Sarah asked.
"Just college, I figure its why the ID triggered it but nothing else did." Chuck replied and paused. "That's some very specific and weird coding…"
"Hmm?" Sarah looked at him.
Chuck shook his head as if to clear a thought. "Think about it. If you were looking at some agent and needed information, the whole file – too bad. You're getting something specific. Actionable, more than likely. You're not getting deep background. Why?"
"File that in the Ellie needs to investigate column, Chuck." Sarah replied. "College. Focus."
"Right, so, Professor Fleming. I was in his class, he was CIA." Chuck replied.
Sarah nodded. "If we find him, we can get some answers."
"OK, then, lets do that." Chuck looked a little less freaked out.
"It won't be easy." Sarah said, stepping around Casey and putting a hand on Chuck's shoulder.
Casey pushed Chuck out the way and tapped some keys to change windows. "We've been looking for several days, knowing he's in LA. Intel suggests the professor's being hunted." He changed windows from the professor's file to a new one and a picture appeared. "NSA interviewed a witness who ID'd one Magnus Einersson. He's an Icelandic spy."
Chuck nodded then looked at Casey in surprise. "I'm sorry, Iceland does espionage?"
"He buys and sells intel to the highest bidder. Iceland is not officially aware of his activities." Casey snorted at this as if it were a great joke.
Sarah pointed at the file on screen and restrained a snort of her own. "Really? It says here the crossbow is his weapon of choice?"
"What, the slingshot's too ineffective?" Chuck said, his tone joking. Sarah, and even Casey, let out a bit of laughter at this. "OK, guys, I need to go put in some time at the store. Ensure no one has burned it down yet. I'll see if I can do some digging from the Herder desk. If you think he needs to know, Sarah, tell him." He gave Sarah a quick kiss, ignoring Casey's gagging noises and headed out. "See you later."
"See you. Love you." Sarah said, deliberately making her tone as sweet as she could. Casey looked nauseous.
The door closed and Casey looked at Sarah. "Tell me what? Don't tell me Bartowski knocked you up and you're getting married?"
"Nooo…" Sarah said. "Give me a few weeks." She laughed at his expression. "Seriously though this is important, and you have to keep it to yourself. It comes into play with our current… overall intel situation."
"OK." Casey replied. "What's one more secret."
"Chuck's the Piranha." Sarah said.
Casey had turned to look at a financial report on Fleming and said, without looking up. "Walker, I know we joke around, but it almost sounded like you just said Chuck's the Piranha – the hacker the NSA's been looking for six years now."
"I did." Sarah replied. "Casey, he got into SIPRNET and obtained my un-redacted file in under one minute." She paused and waited until he looked up, Casey looked impressed. "And he did it while I was about start re-enacting that scene from Swordfish." As she finished the sentence, Casey's face twisted in a grimace of pain.
"Dammit, Walker." Casey said. "Not enough damn brain bleach in the world."
"Well, stop reacting and it will stop being fun to torture you. Man up, I didn't tell you what happened after he got the file." Sarah said, calmly. "The point is, when Chuck says 'I'll see if I can do some digging', be prepared."
"Oh…" Casey stopped and considered what he knew of the hacker alias.