A/N1 You knew it was coming - the dreaded exposition chapter. Dum dum dum dum...Hold tight.
Actually, it shouldn't be so bad. Remember, this is meant to be fun. I'm certainly having a good time with it. And the plot is hardly more convoluted than The Big Sleep: although it is worth remembering that even Raymond Chandler (the writer) didn't understand the plot when Howard Hawks (the movie director) called with questions.
Thanks for the reviews and PMs! Two or three more chapters to go, and then those of you not reading MisEd will be done with me. Folks have been kind and hospitable in my year and a half stay here. Sorry for leaving words all strewn around...
Don't own Chuck. Even at this late date, almost finished with fanfiction writing, and I own nothing, nothing. Oh, I do have a Chuck coffee mug; it puzzles my students when I lecture with it in hand...
Chutes and Ladders
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
What's My Line?
Chesko flamed behind them. His tinny cackling crackling...fading...gone.
Virginia led them around the hedge and back toward the clubhouse. The course was chaos, a battle scene. Sarah scanned the wreckage, human and putt-putt.
Some of the tires on Hole 14 were kicked around and one of three men Sarah saw exit the SUV was faced-down among the tires, unmoving. Another man was head-down in the funnel of Hole 16. He too was not moving. The final man was seated, cuffed, on the extended bottom lip of the frog on Hole 12. A dart was sticking out of his leg. He looked woozy and completely disoriented - and it did not help that he seemed to be about to be swallowed by the frog. Another FWA (Frog With Attitude) - even if its eyes weren't red.
Morgan was standing beside Matthew, who was seated on a stool the clubhouse. Morgan was helping him wrap a towel around his upper arm. There was blood on both their hands, but Morgan seemed uninjured. The blood must have been Matthew's.
Neither Alex nor Sasha was in view. As soon as Virginia saw her husband, she began to walk fast, almost to run, toward him. Sarah reached out for Chuck's hand and slowed him, turned him toward her.
"So, Jessup got a shot off, Chuck?" She felt her stomach clench just asking the question; the thought literally sickened her.
Over Chuck's shoulder, she saw Virginia kiss Matthew and take over nursing duties from Morgan. Morgan wiped his hands, gave up the towel and faced his course, his head rotating as he surveyed it.
Sarah looked back into Chuck's eyes.
"Yeah, I've never actually...you know, shot anyone before. I have never actually shot at anyone before…But Jessup missed and I didn't. Casey will be proud. I don't think Jessup expected Chesko to start moving and laughing. Me either. He must have malfunctioned again. It startled Jessup. He killed Chesko - but not me, I guess."
Sarah rose up on her toes and kissed Chuck, her lips plump with love and relief. "Well, thank God for...Wait, the clown has...had...a name? Chesko?"
"Yeah, yeah. But don't ask me, ask Morgan. I just accepted it and never questioned it. Better not to pry into clownish secrets."
Sarah let that pass. She put her hand on Chuck's cheek. "Chuck, I can't tell you how frightened I was when I heard those shots. I am not going to lose you. Never." She kissed him again.
They walked on and reached the others just as an ambulance arrived - no sirens, no lights or sounds - and two black vans. Virginia walked toward the vans, but stopped and pointed the paramedic who first got out of the ambulance toward her husband. The second out went around to open the rear. Men in coveralls began to emerge from the vans, all with small bags, like doctor's bags, in their hands. They wore tool belts. Virginia talked to them and gestured toward various spots on the course. The men nodded in unison then dispersed. A couple headed for the cuffed man in the frog's mouth. Others headed for the bodies. A final two headed toward Hole 18, Jessup. It was all orchestrated, balletic. A touch frightening.
Morgan was no longer rotating his head. He was staring fixedly into the distance. Without moving his eyes, he spoke to Sarah and Chuck. "That smoke there...Chesko?" His voice choked. Morgan finally looked at them, his eyes wet.
"Um, yeah, sorry, little buddy, sorry, but Chesko's given up the ghost, as they say."
Morgan looked puzzled. "Who says that, Chuck?"
Chuck shrugged. "I'm not sure, actually. Heard it somewhere."
"I'm...I'm gonna miss him, Chuck, the big pain in my ass." Chuck put his arm on Morgan's shoulder in consolation.
After a moment, Chuck spoke, his voice sounding like a TV voice-over: "We can rebuild him, Morgan...we can rebuild him. We have the technology. We have the capability...Better than he was before. Better, stronger, faster." Chuck paused. "Okay, maybe not faster."
Morgan rubbed the water from his eyes and smiled damply. "The six-million dollar clown?"
Chuck laughed sympathetically. "I hope he won't cost that much."
Morgan nodded. "Me too."
Sarah interrupted. "Morgan, where's Alex, Sasha?"
"Alex kept Sasha in the van. The woman with the shiny gun - Jesus, is she scary or what? - she asked Alex to keep the little girl in there. The little girl is hers, his?" Morgan motioned to Virginia and Matthew, both talking quietly with one of the men from the van as the paramedic tending Matthew's wounded shoulder.
"Yes, theirs."
"And these guys…" Morgan motioned to the bodies and the coveralled men all at once, "I'm guessing I shouldn't ask?"
"Probably not, Morg," Chuck conceded. "I will tell you whatever I can...later. For now, you might want to go and hose down whatever is left of Chesko."
"Right, dude, right." Morgan paused. "I know you don't mourn his passing, but it's nice of you to commiserate with me, Chuck."
Morgan headed toward Hole 18. He passed two men who had Jessup between them, his arms around their shoulders. The knife was no longer in his hand and his hand was bandaged. A tourniquet was on his leg. Morgan looked at them as they passed but he kept going.
Virginia joined Chuck and Sarah. The three of them watched as Jessup was taken to the ambulance.
ooOoo
"So, Miss Walker, Mr. Chuck…"
"Just Sarah and Chuck, please," Sarah replied.
Virginia smiled. "Thanks, call me Ginny. My...friends...do. Turns out, Matthew didn't take a bullet. He got grazed. I wasn't able to tell from where I was when it happened." Another flash of pain went across her face and was gone. "We need to talk to you. You two know things we need to know and vice versa."
The paramedic had finished with Matthew and Matthew joined them, his arm in a sling. The four of them walked into the clubhouse and sat down at the table, still covered in with plates of tacos, chips, and salad. They pushed the food aside.
After an awkward moment, Chuck started. "Say...Ginny...outside, you called yourself 'Agent Wilmore' not 'Agent Monroe'..."
Ginny smiled at Matthew before she answered, real warmth on her face. "Yes, Wilmore is my married name, Matthew's name. I decided to take it when we got married. Monroe is our cover name."
Chuck looked at Matthew. "Wilmore - as in Wilmore Laboratories?"
Matthew nodded. "Small world, huh? Richard Wilmore was my father. He owned the labs, developed them. He hired Stephen Bartowski...and Stephen - he was your father?" Chuck nodded and Matthew continued. "I knew him when I was a boy. I sometimes would hang out at the labs; Dad would take me to work on school vacation days and stuff. I really liked your dad, admired him. He and my dad were my heroes…"
"I want to hear about that," Chuck said eagerly, "but, later, I guess. First, we need to figure out what just happened. How did you two end up here, here at the putt-putt course?"
Ginny sighed. "Long story. Short version. After you two left with Sasha, the Ring agents attacked the house…"
Chuck broke in. "Ring agents?"
"A group of rogue agents and criminals bent on creating a Fascist America - 'America' with a 'k', as they like to say."
Chuck nodded slowly, a grin creeping onto his face. "Okay...Okay...but 'The Ring'? Why not 'Our Gang', or 'Bad Guys Club'? I mean, 'The Ring', that's not even scary."
Matthew laughed bitterly. "No, the name's not. But what it names is. Don't confuse the properties of the name with the properties of the thing named.
"Ginny and I have been in a running battle with them for a long time. Anyway, to answer your question I need to tell some more of Ginny's short version of the story. We have, had, a tracker in Sasha's shoes. Actually, there's one sewed into each item of her clothing. That's how we knew where to find you. We knew we needed to because the Ring agents told us we did."
Sarah in disbelief: "They told you?"
"Yes, but not intentionally. We fought them off at the house and got to our car. They chased us. There was an...incident at a busy intersection, and the SUV and the panel truck got separated. Only the panel truck remained in contact with us. The SUV got lost.
"We turned the tables on the truck. Ginny shot the driver and the truck careened into a pole. The driver was dead," Matthew shot a look of affection and awe at Ginny, "and the other men were hurt. I tranquilized them. Ginny and I were talking, trying to figure out what to do about Sasha and the thumb drive...when I realized the truck was bugged. I should have figured that the Ring wouldn't trust the Ring. I realized it was likely the other Ring agents, the ones in the SUV, had heard. But I don't know how they knew to come here."
"I do, I think," Casey said as he entered the clubhouse, Alex behind him. Ginny jumped up, but Chuck motioned to her.
"It's okay. This is my friend, Detective John Casey. Alex is his daughter."
Ginny relaxed. She looked at Alex. "Sasha?"
"In the truck with Morgan. They're playing video games on his phone. A golf game, believe it or not." Ginny smiled in thanks at Alex.
Casey looked at her and at Matthew, then at Chuck. "The Monroes?"
Chuck nodded. "Yes. Well, sorta…The Monroe-Wilmores."
Casey let that go. "Jessup overheard my conversation with you on the phone, Chuck. He heard me ask about Alex."
"Yeah, and as I just told Dad, that creep, Jessup - I didn't know his name, just his face - had been coming to the truck for lunch, and to stare at me lately. He knew my name, and must've figured out I am Casey's daughter." Alex looked at Casey and he nodded in thanks. She left the clubhouse.
Casey went on. "Rhonda saw him standing near me and mentioned it to me after my meeting with the interim Captain," Casey added. "That's when I knew I needed to get here. Looks like I missed all the fun. Putts the fun in the hole. Ha!"
Chuck furrowed his brow, ignoring the sloganeering. "But Jessup asked for the thumb drive…" When Casey grunted in question, Chuck looked at him. "That'll get explained as we go along, Casey." Casey grunted again in response. Chuck went on. "How did Jessup know?... Oh, I see, Casey… Jessup's in with the Ring. Still…"
"He also heard me reporting to the Captain - about the desert, about capturing Perry and Shaw…"
"Wait," Ginny said, excitedly, "Perry and Shaw - you captured them?"
"Yes, last night. Long story, but that's why we showed up at your place earlier." Chuck explained then returned to Casey.
"So he knew Sarah and I would be of interest to the Ring, and they knew about me and the thumb drive….So they - the SUV guys, I guess - they told Jessup about the drive?"
Matthew raised his hand. Ginny laughed. "You can just jump in and speak, Matthew. We've gone over this a few times…"
Matthew looked chagrinned. "Sorry. They couldn't take the chance you'd hide it or destroy it, so they told Jessup, hoping he could secure it…"
"Right," Sarah growled, "and he thought he would make a play with it on his own. Make the Ring pay to get it. If you'd gone with him, Chuck…" Sarah shivered.
Chuck grabbed her hand. "Thanks, Sarah." He kissed her cheek. "Thanks. For everything."
"So was Jessup a Ring agent or not?" Chuck turned back to the others as he asked.
Ginny shrugged. "Semantics, I think. He was with them in some sense."
Suddenly, the room was filled with a shrill whistle - Casey. He stopped whistling and shook his head, muttering to himself. "Goddamit, goddamit…" He stomped his feet.
"What is it, Casey?" Chuck asked.
"I hadn't thought about it, wouldn't have thought about it, until today...and given last night...I have a sick feeling about those drums in the desert, Chuck. Have you asked him," Casey indicated Matthew with a dip of his head, "about your anti-rejection drug theory?"
Matthew's eyes got big. "Chuck?"
"Yeah, um, Dad told me once what he was working on. In simple terms, anyway. He said that he was trying to move information from a computer into the brain, but having trouble getting it to work. It was impermanent and plagued by side-effects. He said it was like a transplant and that he thought he needed an anti-rejection drug to make it work, to get the person who received the information to accept it…"
"He knew that then? All that time ago? It wasn't in the notes we found at Wilmore. Odd. But, yeah, your dad was right, is right. The problems are analogous. I've been working on a new version of the AI. Your Dad called it the Intersect. Before, I created a version of his version, patched up, and I thought it would work, but it didn't. The decay rate of the information was slower than his, but the rate of psychosis turned out to be higher and the onset more immediate and nearly irreversible. Your dad's volunteers almost all recovered." Matthew stopped talking and stared at the floor. "Many of mine didn't."
He shook himself. "But the thing to focus on now is that the Ring stole a copy of that version. They might have hit upon the strategy you mentioned...what did you say again, 'anti-rejection drugs'. I thought of it. Your dad did too. My current version, the new one on the thumb drive," Chuck took it out of his pants pocket and passed it to Matthew, "is an attempt to change the character of the information, not the character of the mind that receives it."
"Yeah," Chuck commented absentmindedly, shaking his head, "that's why it took me a while to understand…."
Matthew looked at Chuck carefully, taking his measure again. Then he asked the group, "But why does this matter?"
"Because we found out last night, yesterday, that Perry and Shaw, aka the Ring, is connected to FARMA," Chuck explained.
"FARMA? The monolithic drug company?"
Matthew asked the question then looked at Ginny. "What do you think? It fits - in more ways than one."
"What's that mean?" Chuck looked from Matthew to Ginny and back again.
"We've long thought that the Ring is ultimately run by one person, and it had to be someone with enormous wealth, enormous resources, enormous political clout."
"Like the guy who spearheads Big Medicine, who runs the government lobby, who has a lot of Congress in his pocket…"
"Yeah, but Foxworth has always come up clean - at least in that way," Ginny noted. "We know he's dirty in other ways, but they aren't normally things US intelligence gets involved in."
"So," Chuck offered, "Foxworth, FARMA, could be the money and power source for the Ring?"
"It's possible. It would also be just the right place to pursue research on the drug you were talking about. Where better?"
Chuck pointed at the thumb drive now in Matthew's hand. "So does your version work?"
Matthew chewed on his lip and Ginny nodded at him.
"Yes," he reported, "I think so. But I have been reluctant to test it on...anyone. So, I haven't told the CIA how far along I am. Given what's happened, I'm guessing that kept us unmolested.
"The Ring tried to capture us a while ago, but thanks to Ginny, we got away. The CIA moved us here, to protect us, and so I could continue my research. We thought that doing the research in the suburbs of LA was likely the last place anyone would expect it.
"But I'm now sure the CIA has been infiltrated. If Perry and Shaw were here, it was for us - we've had run-ins with them in the past, particularly Shaw." Matthew and Ginny shared a look.
"They must also have known what I told the CIA, because, it seems, since they didn't bother us yet, they were hoping to wait it out, wait for me to finish before interfering again. They're evil sons of bitches, but they also know that torture and blackmail are not trustworthy stimulants for serious research. They knew where we were and thought their mole would relay word when I finished.
"I think you are right about the mole," Chuck threw in, "I found Virginia's photo and CIA information on a site on the dark web. Now, I'm betting it was a Ring-run site, a buried source of information for operatives."
Matthew shook his head. "That must have been some impressive hacking, Chuck. I've dug around to no result, just to keep us protected. So, did you use the…"
"Tron boys," Casey graveled out, "let's put the kibosh on the Festival of Geek…"
Both Chuck and Matthew muttered 'Nerd' at the same time...
"...until later...Here's the thing. Jessup has been working a case for a while, one Larkin gave him, having to do with the disappearance of homeless people across LA.
"It hasn't been a lot, not enough to make the front page, and it has happened over time. Jessup never seemed to get anywhere on the case. But Larkin left the case with him. I thought it was just Jessup's normal sloth. Rhonda asked Larkin about it once, hoping to take it on, and Larkin told her the case was low-priority. She didn't push - she really couldn't, and Larkin was a privileged ass who thought the law only meant to serve certain people and not others..."
"Casey," Sarah began softly, "are you suggesting what I think you are suggesting?"
"Yeah, sorry, I am. I wonder if FARMA's been conscripting their 'volunteers'. I wonder if the man who was supposed to be solving the case was involved in the case, was actually making lost the very folks he was supposed to make found...I hate to say it, but there were a lot of drums out there in that desert hole."
No one spoke.
Chuck changed the subject, hardly able to bear the thought.
"So, how did you two meet?" He looked at Virginia. She got a panicked look on her face and sent a glance toward Matthew.
He spoke. "Ginny was assigned to me. My handler. I was her asset. The government got wind of my continuation of Stephen's research and they invited me to either continue it in an underground facility or above ground, with a full-time handler. I chose above ground, especially after I met the handler."
Ginny actually blushed. She looked at the ground. Matthew went on. "She's the best of the best, and I have no idea how it happened, and I guess it was against her better judgment," Ginny shook her head at that, "but, over time, we fell in love. She was posing as my girlfriend and over time the cover dates just became…"
"Real," Ginny said, completing the thought and looking up for a second.
Matthew beamed at her and she blushed again, looked down. "Yeah...Yeah...We secretly got engaged shortly before we, um, well, before we conceived Sasha, and at that point, Graham really couldn't stop us.
"This was just before he retired, and that helped. He wasn't in the mood to fight about it. We got married. Ginny stopped working until after Sasha was born but then she went back into the field. That meant that Sasha and I went underground while she was away…"
Ginny was studying her hands, scowling outwardly, but Chuck could tell she was targeting herself inwardly. She did not look at Matthew, although he tried to get her attention, to let her see him smile. He gave up and turned back to the others, his eyes soft.
"But we eventually decided that wouldn't work. She took a leave of absence and we were trying to plan a new life when the Ring turned up with their version of the Intersect. They started hunting me, and so we went underground again.
"But the Ring found us, attacked us, and would have gotten us if it weren't for Ginny. A lot of good people died or got hurt in that fight, and it's haunted Sasha, even though she was too little fully to understand. - Sorry, Sarah, we weren't at liberty to explain that." Sarah nodded.
"We got moved here. We thought we were safe. We seemed safe for a long time. I knew my work was almost over and we started...thinking about, planning for...a brother or sister for Sasha." Ginny did look at Matthew then, and her bright, eager smile counterbalanced her earlier look of self-chastening. "And then, well, you two showed up at our back door. That's it, more or less."
Casey let all that settle, then asked the obvious question. "So, what now?"
Ginny answered, brandishing her phone in her hand as she stood. "I need to go talk to Boosinger, the CIA director. See what she thinks we should do. If we can take Foxworth down, we may be able to finish the Ring. And maybe then Matthew and I can take the kids and have a normal life."
Chuck and Sarah turned to Matthew, understanding before he did. "Wait," he called out to Ginny as she went out the door. "What did you just say?" He turned to everyone else as he got up, grinning. "I hate it when she walks off alone like that." He practically sprinted out of the clubhouse after her.
Casey pushed his chair back and stood, digging his phone out of his rear pocket. "I need to call Rhonda. Tell her what's what. See if she has news." He looked at his phone. "Hey, she sent me a text. Legal skank is conscious. She told officers you had nothing to do with the shooting, but they don't know what to make of the gun. Anyway, right now, the heat's off. Let me see if Rhonda knows anything more." He left.
ooOoo
All of a sudden, Chuck and Sarah were alone in the quiet clubhouse. The sound of the clock on the wall was audible. Tick, tick, tick. Chuck gave Sarah a long, blinking look.
"Don't know about you, but I'm sorta dazed."
She did not reply. Before he knew what hit him, Sarah was in his lap, kissing him as if the world was about to explode. When she finished, he looked into her eyes. They were dazed, as he knew his must be, his now two times over.
"Wow! Wow. What did I do to deserve that?"
"You are Chuck, and that deserves that. You're wonderful, you know that?"
"No, not really, but when you say it, I believe it. You're amazing. Thanks again, Sarah."
She gave him a narrow-eyed look, tilting her head to one side. "Chuck, could you really afford to buy that car seat?"
He was surprised by the question. "Yes, yeah. I made some money off a case I finished the other day…Why do you ask?"
Her gaze flitted away from his for a second and then returned. "I would kind of like it...if...we kept it."
"We?" Chuck repeated before he understood. He tilted his head down, looking up at her, joking. "Is there something I should know?"
"No, not that I know of, Chuck," she gave his shoulder a little shove, "I mean, nothing that's supposed to happen in nine months or anything like that. And I don't mean we have to be in any hurry, for anything, but I would like it if we were...ready, hoping...that, you know, sometime not too far away..."
He laughed softly then he gazed directly into her eyes, his countenance perfectly steady. "Okay. I'd really like it if we kept it."
Sarah gazed off into the distance for a moment, then she gave him a shy smile. "Are you okay with everything, Chuck, you know, with what happened, or did not not happen, in the truck this morning?"
He smiled a relaxed and happy smile. "Yeah. Yeah. Are you still not not accepting?"
She gave him a serious look, as direct as his a moment before. "No. No, I mean, yes, yes. Yes, Chuck, yes, yes, yes. I accept." She hugged him. Yes, yes, yes…
"Hmmm..." Chuck said, pulling slowly away. Sarah leaned back to see his face. He made his face solemn and spoke. "Sherlock, I fear that this may be the last investigation in which I shall have the chance of studying your methods. Miss Walker has done me the honor to accept me as a husband in prospective."
She grinned, delighted with him. "I suppose that is my loss and her gain, Dr. Watson."
A/N2 So, what about Foxworth? What about Jill? Tune in next time for still more action and still more answers. Chapter 24, "Go".