A/N1 More story. Chapters will be staccato for a while, as we move into an extended period of action.

Thanks for the reviews and PMs.

Don't own Chuck.

Chutes and Ladders

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

Stratego

...From the sublime to the ridiculous...

Chuck wasn't sure the thought was entirely apt - in the ambient light of the Porsche's headlights, Perry's gun made his baggy suit seem less clownish (gulp) - but Chuck couldn't stop the thought from ticker-taping through his mind.

A couple of hours ago, he had been making love to Sarah Walker, been in her arms, in her bed. There, he had felt like himself. Not again, but for the first time. The lingering demoralization from his parents' death, from Stanford, the strange nervy stasis he had been in for years, playing detective: he felt himself liberating from it, a cicada colorful from its seventeen-year shell, dull and imprisoning.

And, now, this, Perry-and-a-gun. Shit.

He had those thoughts, followed by a brainstorm - a flash of lightning and bass of thunder: he understood Monroe's AI program. It just came to him. But he had no time to consider it; he had more pressing issues.

Sarah stood beside him, her hands up. She seemed oddly calm, as if the situation had slowed, not hastened, her heart rate. He could see her regarding Perry, thinking. Chuck thought of her knives and became discordantly excited, the two sources of excitement not making much sense together.

There was a sound of music: the Teddy Bears' Cobra Style. Perry was making music. Or, rather, his phone was. His phone was ringing. The Teddy Bears? What the hell? Chuck thought of the video and imagined Perry wearing a Teddy Bear head. He grinned without realizing it.

"What's so damn funny, Dick?" Angry Perry.

Sarah giggled. Perry got angrier.

"He's also tall and curly…" Sarah added, upping the ante.

"Shut it, blondie."

Sarah tried unsuccessfully to smother her giggles.

Perry finally answered his phone, ending the Cobra Style. Sarah glanced at Chuck from the corner of her eye, still fighting back a laugh. But he could also see that she was poised to strike, looking for an opening.

Chuck felt the weight of his gun against his side. But it was beneath his jacket and it would take time to get to it. Risky. The same was true of Sarah's knives. Chuck reckoned she was fast (she was amazing at everything), but Perry's gun was in his hand, his finger beside the trigger, ready.

"Perry here. Speak." Perry kept the gun on Chuck and Sarah as he listened to his phone.

"So, they are dead? Both of them?" Perry listened more closely but kept his eyes moving from Chuck to Sarah.

"Not supposed to go down that way, but go ahead, do as we planned. The timetable will have to accelerate."

It took Chuck a moment to process Perry's words. In his head, he was still hearing the Teddy Bears. Oh, God! No. No. Casey! Rhonda! He glanced at Sarah. She had paled.

Perry ended his call. He made another. "Come to me. I'm at the cops' cars. I've got two new players here."

Chuck's mind seized up: he couldn't believe it. He wouldn't believe it. No. It could not be. He heard Sarah whisper his name, gently. Perry, phone now down, pointed the gun at her.

"Shut up."

They stood there like that, Chuck and Sarah, in utter disbelief. The moment seemed to stretch on and on, out past all temporal markers, out into eternity. No!

ooOoo

Sarah could feel Chuck's misery like a body blow. It added to her own. She did not know Casey and Rhonda well at all, but they had been terrific. Rhonda had been kind to Sarah, and it was in part because of Rhonda's words that Sarah had decided it was time to make a commitment to Chuck, to make love to Chuck.

Gradually, Sarah could sense that Chuck's misery transposing into anger, heading toward rage. She stepped toward Perry, subtly inserting herself into Chuck's straight path to him.

"Who do you really work for, Perry? You may be CIA, but you are in it, not of it. Someone else is pulling your string, making you walk and talk - who is it?"

Perry sneered at Sarah. "You're brave, I'll give you that. You might have had a Company future, you know? Instead of wiping kids' asses…"

Sarah let the remark blow to her and past her like a dead leaf, giving it no more attention. Her dad had taught her how to remain in control, on top of herself, and although she had relaxed those disciplines, they were still available to her. The calmest person in the moment usually wins. Don't feel, don't react. Just breathe. Don't try to plan, let your mind relax. Inspiration can't find a way in if you are clenched tight. Her dad's words. Sometimes he sounded like a teacher in a karate movie.

Calm center. Find your calm center.

Sarah could tell that Perry was expecting something. Then she heard it. An engine. Low. Louder. Louder. Loud. An old military truck with a cargo cover, all olive drab, at least as far as Sarah could tell, gunned toward them. It came to a stop in a self-made sandstorm and a man got out, walking into the beams of the truck's headlights. He was wearing khaki pants and a beaten leather jacket over a light colored t-shirt. He had a pair of sunglasses pushed up on his head.

"Hey, Perry." The man said, speaking in a normal tone of voice that sounded like a shout against the fierce whispers of Perry.

Perry did not turn. "Hey, Shaw. Two more."

Waving the gun toward the covered rear of the truck, Perry forced Sarah and Chuck to move. Sarah saw Chuck stumble. She wanted to touch him, hold him. Shaw walked ahead of them and pulled the gate of the truck down.

As Sarah's eyes adjusted back to the darkness after the headlights of the truck, she could see two bodies in the back. Casey. Rhonda. Sarah heard Chuck release a low moan; he saw it too.

Sarah could feel Shaw staring at her, felt him purposely brush against her. "Get in the truck." She did, seething.

Perry was covering them with his gun. Sarah climbed up into the bed of the truck. She turned quickly to Chuck and extended her hand, not so much because he needed help getting in as to force him to focus on her and not on Shaw and Perry and his anger.

He took her hand - Shaw guffawed - and she pulled him in. Shaw shut the gate. Perry stepped up to it his gun on Chuck. "Give me your gun, Dick, and do it carefully." Chuck took out his gun, holding it in a pinch between his thumb and forefinger, and he handed it to Shaw.

"Don't even think about jumping out of here. I will know and I will have Shaw turn this truck around and run you down. Do you understand?"

Chuck was white, even in the dark, staring at Casey and Rhonda. Sarah nodded. "We understand." Perry made them surrender their phones and walked away, around the truck on the passenger side.

Shaw took another long look at Sarah, and shook his head, reacting to some mental image. Sarah felt the knives on her calf and longed to get to one.

Shaw went around the truck and got in. He put it in gear and they pulled away. Sarah turned immediately to Casey and Rhonda. She felt like she might vomit.

The truck lurched and Sarah lost her balance. She stepped back, overcompensated, and fell forward, landing on Rhonda's body.

Warm. Breathing. Not Rhonda's body. Rhonda.

"Chuck!" Sarah scrambled onto all fours. "Chuck, she's alive!" Chuck immediate knelt beside Casey.

After a moment of checking: "Casey is too! Thank god!" Sarah reached out and Chuck took her hand and then stayed that way for a moment, their hands joined above the side-by-side unconscious forms.

Chuck: "But wait a minute. If they are alive, who's dead?" Chuck stared at Sarah and she stared back.

"Oh, no. Sasha's parents! The Monroes!"

The truck lurched again and they were thrown apart.

ooOoo

Chuck felt a new panic replace the relief for Casey and Rhonda. But he knew he could do nothing for the Monroes immediately.

He pushed himself back up and checked Casey. He had a large lump on his head, and the skin had been broken. There was quite a bit of blood, as there always was with a head injury, but the wound was not deep. A concussion was the more serious possibility. Chuck grabbed one of Casey's hands, rubbed it, and spoke in sing-song.

"C'mon, Casey. Casey-baby, I'm feeling ladyfeelings here, Casey-baby, all worried about little ol' you. Wakey, wakey and tell me to go straight to hell-i-bye."

Sarah had looked Rhonda over. She had a similar injury. "I think she'll be okay, Chuck."

Chuck's anger returned. "I'm going to stop this damn truck, Sarah." He put Casey's hand down and stood up as far as he could. He shucked off his sports coat.

"I wasn't entirely out of it when they put us in here. I'm pretty sure I can climb on the outside of this cargo cover and work my way toward the cabin…"

"But Chuck, they've got guns. They'll just shoot you if you don't fall. Don't do it. They don't know I have my knives. We could surprise them when we stop. We might have a decent chance if we can get Casey and Rhonda awake by then." She made herself smile, knowing Chuck was dead serious about his plan but hoping to dissuade him with humor. "I know how much you want to Indy, but...really?"

His determined, stony face cracked and he smiled, dropped his head. "Okay. Okay, Marion. So we do it your way."

He leaned down again and started smacking Casey's face lightly. With each smack, he said one word. Smack. "Morgan!" Smack. "Morgan!" Smack…

"Hit me again, Bartowski, and I'll pull your little friend's beard off him like a peel off a kiwi."

"Oh, hey, Case. Good to have you back. And Alex would not approve."

Casey pushed himself up, shaking his head gingerly. The truck was rocking and rolling, and so he had to keep putting out one hand or the other to stay in his seated posture. Each movement elicited a groan.

Sarah had been working to wake Rhonda, and she was now showing signs of coming to. "Rhonda, come on. It's Sarah. Sarah and Chuck. We found you. Sort of."

Rhonda opened her eyes. "Hey," she said tentatively, her hand moving to the lump on her head automatically, "what's going on?" Sarah quickly explained.

When she finished, Chuck put his hand on Casey's shoulder. "What are you doing out here, Casey?"

He looked up at Chuck. "I got an anonymous tip. A call. Something fishy at FARMA. I went by and saw Perry and the other guy leave the building. I followed them. They went to a warehouse, stayed a long time. Hours. I waited. Eventually, they came out but left their car. Took this truck and headed out into the desert. I followed but didn't think they knew. But I guess I'm not exactly a spy. The truck stopped but evidently, Perry had jumped out. When I stopped, Perry got the jump on me. Made me get out and pistol-whipped me, the bastard. Must've hit me more than once. I assume he also got Rhonda. I don't know what they are doing out here."

With that, Casey turned to Rhonda and wrapped her in his long, heavy arms. "Sorry, sweetheart, to get you into this."

"Hey, Casey, I'm a cop too. Your partner. We are supposed to run the same risks - sweetheart." The way she said the last word made it clear that the word was new between them, both for Casey and for her. She smiled at him and he smiled back.

"So, do we have a plan?"

Chuck nodded. "We are going to attack them when they stop and try to unload us. You two need to pretend to still be unconscious."

Casey nodded, clearly considering the plan, such as it was. "Okay, but they have guns. We ain't got any weapons.

Chuck looked at Sarah. She pulled up her pants leg, displaying the cache of knives.

Casey let out a low whistle over Rhonda's surprised chuckled, and then he turned to Chuck. "I told you, numbnuts. She's the one."

ooOoo

Casey was talking low to Chuck, finishing the details of the plan. Sarah noticed Rhonda looking at her. "What is it?"

"Well, forgive me this, but, judging from the glow I can see in the dark, I'm guessing 'numbnuts' over there ain't so numb?"

Sarah felt her blush burn in the dark. She said nothing, but she shook her head hard. Rhonda chuckled again.

But then Sarah remembered Perry's words. Dead. The Monroes.

She took a breath and got Chuck and Casey's attention. She explained to Casey and Rhonda - Sasha, the case, everything, Chuck adding details - as the truck bounced through the dark desert.

A/N2 Tune in next time as our intrepid heroes face the terrible twosome of Perry and Shaw. (There had to be a universe in which they were working together, right?) Chapter 19, "Checkers".

Thoughts? Reactions?

Nice to be back in the relative warmth of Bama after my jaunt to frigid Milwaukee. New MisEd chapter soon, probably Tuesday.