A/N Mostly taking from the Tooth this time. Not a lot from Frosted Tips to use here, but those parts were fun ones.
"You selected her, Colonel."
"Another bad dream?"
"Maybe she has a tiger."
"I want to know what Chuck the man is made of."
"You did what?" asked General Beckman, after Leo Dreyfus finished giving her the summary. The 'C' in CIA didn't stand for confidentiality, especially not for someone like Chuck.
"I gave him a mission," he said. "A non-standard treatment for a non-standard problem." Time for the details. "It's pretty much a given in my profession for subconscious concerns to manifest themselves in dreams, although I've never seen two people who affect each other's dream states the way these two claim to do."
"I've never heard of a tandem shooting, either," said Beckman.
Leo chuckled. "There is that. In Agent Walker's case it seems to be a matter mainly of regret, not only for Chuck but also for this woman Eve. Agent Jones' presence at the scene may ultimately be helpful in that regard…"
"Sarah saved 'Eve Shaw' this time."
"Exactly." And likely saved herself as well. "Ironic that Daniel Shaw's insane plot to kill Agent Walker and save his wife turned out completely opposite in the end." For a moment he considered voicing his suspicions about Sarah to the General.
"Isn't 'insane plot' a little melodramatic, Leo?" Beckman's voice carried a hint of amusement. "Do psychiatrists even use words like 'insane'?"
"I'm not diagnosing him, I'm allowed," said Dreyfus, putting his suspicions away in the same non-professional box. "Chuck appears to be experiencing the same remorse, but in a unique way, owing to the joint nature of the event. Sarah is helping him greatly in dealing with that part of it."
"'Suicide by spy'?" said Beckman.
"An interpretation of the event that takes some of the burden of guilt off them both." Unseen by Beckman, Leo shrugged. Agent Walker had been there, he had not, and her abilities to read people were legendary in the agency. "It might even be true. Like these side-effects, a piece of wholly unexpected good fortune."
"What side-effects?" asked Beckman. "His dreams?"
"Forcing Chuck not to flash is forcing the Intersect to find alternative routes of expression," said Dreyfus, sure that the General could connect some dots on her own. "Putting him into therapy is putting him in a place where those alternative routes can be studied. What interested me most about the imagery was that Shaw was delivering Zamibian food."
"So you gave Agent Carmichael a mission to dig into it?" Beckman sounded less than happy.
"He would anyway, the reports are pretty clear about that," said Leo, not entirely blind to the political ramifications that Beckman lived with daily. He didn't know much about Zamibia, but he wasn't about to turn down an opportunity for the psychiatric equivalent of a field exercise. "Telling him not to get involved would simply put us into an adversarial relationship which would undermine any attempt at therapeusis I might need to make."
"If you're worried about making enemies, worry about Sarah."
He did, almost certainly not for the same reasons, although 'unstable assassin' was probably high on both their lists. This mission wasn't just for Chuck. "You also mentioned some enhancement in his computer skills…"
Beckman sighed her acceptance. "At least this way we can control him."
"If by 'we' you mean Sarah and I, then yes," said Leo. "I'd rather you stayed in the shadows on this one, General."
"I'd rather not have an international incident before tomorrow's breakfast," said Beckman. "Keep me in the loop."
"Trust your team, General," said Leo confidently. "This will all work out fine."
"I have no doubt of that, but it's the working in that's the problem," said Beckman. "Good luck."
At Verbanski Corp…
"And this is our combat simulation room," said Gertrude, as they entered the latest stop in her seduction, that is, the grand tour of her facilities. Alex had been quite taken with her office, as Gertrude expected, given what she'd learned about her at SAFE. The younger woman was mainly interested in her collection of weapons, captured from her various enemies, well, opponents, over the years.
The boyfriend, though, was proving a little harder to understand, and therefore to impress. He'd seemed a little overwhelmed by the activity in her outer office on the way in, like most of her clients, but on the way out after the initial interview he seemed…envious. Must be a management thing. On the other hand, he was a gamer, so she'd sent a minion on ahead while she walked her guests through the other stops on the tour. And now, here they were. "With laser-pulse rifles, sensory armor, and movable screens for a variety of computer generated tactical scenarios, it's the closest we can get to actual combat inside city limits." She let her tech guy take over, showing off all the bells and whistles, while she kept an eye on Alex. She was interested in the team's pulse-rifles, until she discovered that they were basically glorified flashlights, with sound cards.
"Wow," said Morgan, staring around him in awe. "It's like Laser Tag on steroids."
Fortunately there happened to be a spare set of equipment. "Bravo Team is just going in," said Gertrude. "Would you like to play?"
Morgan hefted the pulse rifle. "Can I be Red 5?"
"You can be Bravo 5," said Gertrude firmly, as Alex set a helmet on his head with a smile. "He's out sick today."
Meanwhile, back at the Piranha-cave, or lair, or whatever they're called…
"Okay," said Sarah, coming up behind Chuck and running her fingers through his hair. Watching the Piranha at work was unexpectedly hot-making. In his own element, he was at once sexy as hell and utterly oblivious. "What have you got for us so far?"
"Not much," said Chuck. "Just President Kuti's itinerary, flight plan, hotel and dining plans, and his entourage, dependents, and other hangers-on."
"So Kuti's clean?" Sarah sounded doubtful. There had to be something more, something Chuck could dig up. He looked so good, digging things up.
"As clean as the 'president' of a tiny nation ever is," said Chuck. Which wasn't 'very', but nothing that jumped out at him as Ring-related, or Shaw-related. "As much as it pains my hacker self to say it, we're going to have to leave the safety of my mom's basement and venture out into the real world." A performance of Beethoven, complete with his Ode to Joy, because what performance of Beethoven could be complete without his Ode to Joy? Chuck was tempted to do a search of the audience list, to see how many of them were music directors for other orchestras.
"We can't go yet, Chuck," said Sarah, as he rose from his chair. "This is a society gala." Gowns. Tuxedoes. She pushed him down the hall, towards the CIA outfitting computer, complete with holographic projection. "We have to get you…" she licked her lips "…dressed."
After the simulation…
Verbanski watched Bravo Team walk to their lockers, high-fiving each other and Morgan equally. "Did he get a single call sign wrong?"
"Not that I noticed, ma'am," said her aide.
Hmmm. Not that she'd noticed, either. "He did miss that last trap," added the aide.
"Yes, but he died so well," said Alex. Gertrude had to agree. When the trap was sprung, only Morgan was in a position to do anything about it, and he did the only thing he could do to save the rest of his team. He leapt on the attackers, taking every shot while his comrades brought their weapons to bear. Unless it's successful, a discovered ambush is a dead ambush. Not a perfect mission, but looking into Alex' face, Gertrude knew it was a complete win for Morgan.
Chuck came out of the locker room in Castle, pulling and tugging on his tuxedo for maximum elegance. "I told you we should have gone with the second one."
Sarah ran her hands up his arms, tugging on his tie. "Oh, I completely agreed."
"Then why did you make me try on the third one?"
"So I could take it off you," she said.
"Oh," said Chuck, transfixed by her expression. "Silly me."
"I thought so," said Sarah. "Stopping at the boxers was very…" she clenched her fists. "Hard."
"Yes," gasped Chuck. "Yes, I can see that."
Her nostrils flared. "We'd better go."
"Yes," said Chuck, smiling feebly. "We'd better. The Ode to Joy won't wait."
Sarah seized him by the arm and dragged him along. "The Ode to Joy is going to have to."
Back at Verbanski Corp…
The elevator opened to the sound of a ding, and the sound of many voices, counting off a cadence. Alex looked through the clear walls at the sight of all the men and women going through the motions of a basic martial arts drill.
"You like what you see?" asked Gertrude, coming up next to her.
"Isn't that guy's hand supposed to be closed?" asked Alex, pointing. "I'm not sure if that's a block or a strike, but either way he's got to be doing something wrong."
Gertrude watched the man for a moment, before tapping on the glass. At the sound the instructor turned, and called a halt to the drill. His people waited at rest while he went to the door. Gertrude pointed out the rank and file of the man in question. "Keep an eye on him," she said. "Either he's having trouble with the basics, or he's picking up moves from that new instructor, and either way I want to know about it."
After the instructor went back into the room, Alex asked, "New instructor?"
"Different regions of the world have different fighting styles," said Gertrude. "While we can't have all our people current in everything, we do try to keep them current in styles where they will be stationed." Alex smiled, and Gertrude smiled back. She gestured to the room across the hall, and they turned and walked up to the wall. It was much quieter there, with everyone dressed in sweats with blue armbands, standing in a circle. Someone was talking, but between the people and the glass they couldn't make out any words. "Our Pacific Rim instructor is here giving demonstrations, looking for likely candidates. If the man you noticed is picking it up that quickly, we'll send him there and let him learn."
One of the men in the circle stepped forward. In just a few seconds men were dodging as his body rolled out of the circle again. More stepped forward, in twos and threes, but it didn't help. As the circle grew thinner they could see that the person wiping out all of Gertrude's mercs was both small and apparently female, judging from the hair.
Suddenly she came to a stop. "What the hell?" said Morgan. "That's Anna!"
"Yes," said Gertrude. "Anna Wu. She's been with us for almost a year now."
Alex watched the woman, moving with a dancer's grace and sticks in her hands. "You know her?"
"She's my ex," said Morgan. "Dumped me in Hawaii for a pastry chef. Stole my mojo. I was living in the Buy More, for God's sake."
"The Buy More?" asked Gertrude.
"The Buy More?" snarled Alex, glaring at the tiny woman. "She did that to you?"
Anna, looking around at her fallen opponents, chose that moment to ask, "Who's next?"
In an unnamed concert hall…
Chuck sat awkwardly in his chair, scanning the crowd. ""It looks like I'm overdressed for the occasion."
"Not from where I'm sitting," murmured Sarah.
"Eyes on Kuti," said Chuck, looking up at the box with the best view.
Shhh! said the woman next to Sarah.
"Who are the people with him?" she asked quietly.
"On the left is Mrs. Kuti–"
"No 'cutie' jokes, please," said Sarah.
"Wrong venue," said Chuck."The man on Kuti's right is kind of weird."
Shhh! said the woman again.
Sarah looked at her funny and pulled away as far as her seat would allow. "Weird how?"
"Weird that he's there," said Chuck. "His name is Martin Kowambe, some sort of biologist. Not even a minister."
"So what the Hell is he doing on the president's right hand?"
Shhh! said the woman again.
"You know what," said Sarah, smiling brightly at the annoying biddy. "You're right. We're going to go home and have sex. Enjoy the concert." She stood up with Chuck, laughing as they hastened up the aisle.
"You're evil, you know that?" said Chuck as they hit the lobby.
"Not yet I'm not," said Sarah, as they approached the guards at the base of the stairs leading to Kuti's box.
At the casa de Woodcombe, Ellie was on the phone. "No, Morgan, I'm pretty sure the medics there are quite capable of handling that sort of injury…Yes, fine, I'll look it over, but not tonight, I've got something special planned. Yes, fine, see you then." She pressed the red button with extra force, bat all that did was make it ring again.
This time it was someone she actually wanted to talk to, if only to find out how much time she had, so she hit 'accept'. "Hey Devon, did you find that set of DVDs you were looking for?" Ellie personally didn't think ER was 'the greatest show ever', but it was as good a reason as any to get him out of the house. "No…You don't need a referral…Devon, I've seen that van, all right? It's a carbon monoxide factory…well tell him not to!" She hung up, brushing a hand lightly down the front of her shirt as she continued setting the table for her special dinner. "Some people shouldn't breed."
Upstairs, outside Kuti's box…
"Okay," said Chuck, "Now you're evil."
"Yeah, okay, fine," said Sarah, ready to cop to just about anything by that point. "Let's just get this over with."
The security chief, warned by the men downstairs, had passed the message to the occupants of the box. "Do not trouble yourself, Mr. President," said a muffled voice. "I will take care of this matter."
Martin Kowambe stepped outside the curtain, looking first at Sarah and then at Chuck. "You are not who I expected," he said just as the orchestra played the first distinctive notes of the Fifth symphony, another staple. Dit-dit-dit-DAH!
Chuck flashed. Beethoven's Fifth v for victory morse code Ring agent V scientist specializing in cellular regeneration techniques and organ harvesting…Kowambe saw Chuck's facial spasms and glared at the guards. "What is wrong with this man? You would let him near the president…?"
Chuck lashed out and hit him in the jaw, then fell to the ground, twitching. A tooth flew out of Kowambe's mouth, striking Sarah in the chest and sliding down into her cleavage. No one noticed, except her.
A tall man dressed in black parted the curtains. President Kuti. "What is happening here?" He saw his countryman holding his jaw and Chuck writhing on the floor. A guard spoke into his ear, and Kuti pointed at Chuck. "Remove this man! He is a danger to all around him." He glared at Sarah. "I will be in communication with your State Department about this."
Sarah kept a straight face as the guards restrained Chuck, and said the only thing she could say. "Yes, sir." God-dammit!
A/N2 All kinds of interruptus going on in these episodes. Really couldn't figure out a good ending point based on what I had.
When Beckman said 'good luck'. I was sooo tempted to have Dreyfus reply, 'where we're going, General, we don't use luck', except that it would have been out of character. But funny.