A/N: Can we vote to decide who should own Chuck?
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Sarah, in her Wienerlicious outfit, made her way through the mall towards the pet store to buy goldfish food. Her mind, though, was not on her somewhat mundane errand, because she was sure she was being followed. She considered using the comlink on her watch to contact Chuck or Casey and ask for another pair of eyes, but didn't want to call in the cavalry just yet. She hadn't even seen her watcher, but she knew he was there. Her spy sense was acute and blaring. She smiled to herself slightly. Spy sense sounds like "spidey sense" from those comics Chuck reads and she'd never have known that a couple of months ago. Then she thought 'Focus, Walker,' as she scolded herself angrily.
She stopped to appear to look at the display in a random store and, instead, used the window as a mirror to see the people behind her. She was looking, in particular, for out-of-place movement. As she had stopped suddenly, any watcher might also be expected to do the same. The sudden movement might give them away. Even a head turning suddenly in her direction. Nothing. No one. She walked another hundred yards or so and tried again, spinning on her heels and walking back in the direction she came from. Nothing, no results. Nobody looked odd or made any sudden moves. She made a point of checking out people's shoes. While disguises changing a person's looks were easy (jackets, sunglasses, hats, wigs, etc.), watchers almost never changed their shoes.
After a couple more anti-surveillance drills, none of which yielded results, she made her way to into a large store and immediately left by the back exit to the parking lot. She stood behind a decorative tree in a planter and watched the door she had just passed through. She waited for the watcher to leave the building. Suddenly, her arm was grabbed from behind and a hard object was jammed into her lower back on the right side. An indistinct growl said, in Polish, "One move and you're dead." Woman's voice. Shit.
Sarah glanced back to her left and saw the woman's left shoulder, so the right hand held the gun. Sarah spun in place, her left forearm sweeping behind her to knock the barrel of the gun out of alignment with her body, her right hand sweeping up for a teisho palm strike to the woman's nose. To her surprise, her left wrist was caught midstrike in the other woman's left hand. Sarah jammed her whole body forward to knock the other woman off balance and was shifting her weight to follow with a head butt when she realized she had brushed aside not a gun, but a plastic water bottle.
The other woman, grinning behind large sunglasses and a Lakers baseball cap, said, in English this time, "Hey, Blondie. You're getting slow. I think you're getting too many wieners here in LA."
"Oh, for God's sake." Sarah stepped back, looked at her old friend and said, "Your cover?"
"Carina Miller. You?"
"Sarah Walker." Sarah thought for a couple of seconds and said, "You were tailing me from the front."
Solo surveillance on foot without being spotted by the target was a very difficult practice. That's the reason such surveillance is most often executed with a team of watchers, instead of solo. To do it solo from the front of the target required an operator of exceptional skill, superb intuition, and, to be perfectly honest, a good bit of luck.
"Sure," said Carina with a grin. "Was a hell of a lot easier when you started doing anti-surveillance drills. After that I knew what you were going to do next...cause it was just what I'd do. How did you know I was around?"
"I didn't. I just had a feeling. This way." said Sarah, motioning for them to walk. Carina nodded. She knew better than to scoff at another spy's intuition.
"Can't you ever just say hello, like a normal person?" asked Sarah.
"Oh, come on. Where's the fun in that? This is much more exciting," said Carina.
They were now back walking through the mall to the pet store. Sarah still needed the goldfish food. "What?" asked Sarah. "Like that time in Amsterdam? When you jumped me in my hotel room dressed like a ninja? That was insane. You are legitimately crazy."
"It was fun," said Carina in her own defense.
"It was stupid. You could have been badly hurt. I didn't know who you were and wasn't pulling my punches."
"Oh, don't be boring. All I ended up with was a bloody nose," said Carina.
"And the broken table. You still owe me the cost of that table, by the way."
Carina laughed and said, "You can't make that money up handling wieners? I'll bet you're pretty good at handling wieners. God knows, I've known you to..."
"Here we are," Sarah interrupted as they arrived at the pet store. The transaction to purchase the goldfish food was in-and-out. They were back in the mall in a matter of minutes and began to walk back to the Wienerlicious and Sarah's car.
"So, what's in the jar?"
"Goldfish food."
"No, seriously."
"Goldfish food."
"Look," said Carina. "I understand if you can't tell me. I mean, I understand classified and stuff. Just say you can't tell me."
"I can't tell you," said Sarah.
"I knew it. I knew was a drop."
"Of goldfish food," said Sarah.
"Hah. Right. So, you're working in Los Angeles now? Sounds really boring."
Sarah laughed. "Not always. But seriously, Carina. Tell me. If you're here it means you need something. What is it?"
"A diamond"
"Wow, you looking to settle down," asked Sarah, with a smile and a disbelieving look.
"No, I'm going to steal one. And you are going to help me."
If it were anyone else, Sarah would have scoffed, but, it was Carina, so Sarah was pretty sure she'd be stealing a diamond sometime soon.
They ended up back at Sarah's Porsche where Chuck was waiting for her. As Carina and Sarah approached, Sarah saw Chuck flash on Carina. Carina didn't notice or more probably didn't recognize it for what it was.
Sarah said, "Chuck, this is my friend Carina Miller. She's with the DEA."
Chuck smiled and shook her hand. "Nice to meet you, Carina."
Carina was obviously surprised that her professional affiliation had been so casually dropped to this man in a Nerd Herd uniform from the nearby Buy More. Sarah continued, "Carina, this is Chuck. He's the analyst on my team." Carina spent a long moment looking back and forth between Sarah and Chuck. She was struggling very hard to hide her surprise.
Finally mastering her facial expression, she said, "Oh, great. Any team can use a tall, handsome analyst. What do you analyze, Chuck? Or who, maybe? " Carina asked in a sexy voice, reaching out and lightly touching his upper arm.
"I...Uhh...I..."
"Oh," Sarah said. "And Chuck is my boyfriend." She leaned in and gave Chuck a kiss that made it very, very clear that she meant it. "Just thought you should know," she told Carina with both a smirk and a warning look.
Carina took the news without much change in expression. "Ok...lucky you, Sarah. Does he have a friend you can introduce me to?"
Chuck and Sarah shared a look and broke out laughing. Casey approached in his Buy More green shirt and said, "What's so..." He caught sight of Carina and stopped. "Miller." There was no warmth in his voice (not that his voice was ever overflowing with warmth).
"Casey. I hardly recognized you. Have you gained weight? No...No, that's not it...oh, I get it now, you're wearing pants."
He growled. Sarah stepped in to defuse the situation. "Well, Carina. Now you've met the team. Let's head somewhere and you can tell us about this diamond and why you need our help. Why don't you come with me? Chuck and Casey can follow in Casey's car. Guys," she turned to Chuck and Casey, "Carina has a mission and seems to need our help."
"I don't work for Carina," growled Casey.
Carina said, "Don't worry, Casey. It's not a favor and not off-the-books. My Administrator is reaching out to Graham, and, I guess, Beckman, to get official cooperation. You can get the download from me now or wait until you talk to your bosses and get the download then. Your call, Big Guy. Talking to me might stop you from going off half-cocked... like in Prague."
Casey growled louder.
"What happened in Prague?" Chuck asked Casey.
"None of your business, Moron." Chuck and Casey got into the Crown Vic.
Sarah got into the driver's seat of her Porsche and Carina took the passenger seat. As they pulled away from the parking lot, Carina said, "You didn't tell them where to go...where to meet you."
"They know."
"What is this team? A hybrid? NSA and CIA working together? That never happens. You guys hate each other. And your boyfriend...Oh," she interrupted herself and reached out and lightly touched Sarah's arm. "I'm sorry to hear about Bryce."
"Thanks," Sarah said with a sad smile of thanks to her friend. "Yeah. It sucks."
"Well, getting dead is an occupational hazard. More likely than retirement. Anyway, what's the assignment here?"
"Sorry, Carina. It's top secret. It's enough for you to know that this is my team and it's a good one." She smiled to take away the sting of her words.
"Ok, so just to be clear, you didn't give up being a field agent for the CIA to handle wieners and Casey and Chuck aren't selling Buy More stuff for a living. Your," she used finger quotes, "boyfriend isn't really a geek."
"Nerd."
"What?"
"He prefers 'nerd'."
Carina made a frummmppppff noise and looked out the window. "What's the story with you two then?"
"I told you, we're dating."
"It's a cover, right?"
"No. We're really dating. For real."
"Are you two serious? I mean is the relationship serious?"
"Oh, who the hell knows, you know? Graham could decide that tomorrow I'm in Jakarta and then what? I just take things one day at a time. We both know spies don't..."
"Fall in love...yeah, that's just what I know." Driving, Sarah missed the odd look she got from Carina. "Well, if you won't talk to me about your mission here, I'll just have to talk to your boyfriend Chuck."
"That's not going to happen. It's my team and you're going to do things my way. Here we go." They pulled into a parking lot and stopped in front of O'Malley's Bar and Grill. Making their way inside, they found Chuck and Casey sitting in a booth, facing each other. Carina sat next to Chuck, just a little too close, a little bit inside his personal space. Sarah frowned slightly at that.
Sarah began, "Carina tells me our mission will be to obtain a diamond. So, Carina the floor is yours."
Carina twisted around a tablet computer that she had removed from her purse, showing a photo of a middle aged balding man. "The Nadan-I-Noor is currently in the possession of a man named Peyman Alahi, a financier for the Afghan opium cartel."
"He's a financier and his name is Pay Man? Who writes this stuff?" asked Chuck.
"He's living here in Malibu and my boss thinks that if we can remove the diamond from his possession..." she changed the picture to one of the diamond itself. It was huge, just slightly smaller than a golf ball. Chuck flashed. Sitting next to him Carina didn't notice, but Casey and Sarah did. "...we can disrupt the flow of heroin out of Afghanistan," said Carina.
Casey and Sarah willed Chuck to keep quiet about his flash and he did, with a small nod to them of understanding.
"Remove from his possession? You mean steal it?" asked Sarah.
"Ocean's Eleven?" said Chuck. "Don't we need George Clooney and Brad Pitt?"
"Not with you here, Chuck. I'd take you over Brad Pitt any day," said Carina with a small smile, putting her hand on his forearm and rubbing it slightly. Chuck looked uncomfortable and took his arm off the table. Sarah looked a little annoyed. Casey's expression was hard to read, but maybe held a little anticipation – as if he, and he alone, knew something fun was going to happen and he hoped to be able to watch it.
"Yes," said Carina. "We need to steal it. You've told me you have a good team, Wienerwarmer. Let's see if you're right."
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"Good morning, Team," General Beckman said. Chuck and Sarah had cleared the table of the breakfast dishes (pancakes) while Casey opened the com link to their bosses.
"Morning, General, Director."
"We understand that Agent Miler from the DEA has been in contact last evening. Her Administrator has reached out to us as well and asked for our ...your...help on this matter. We have agreed to cooperate with the DEA mission," said Graham.
"That's a good idea, Director," said Chuck. "I flashed on the Nadan-I-Noor yesterday when Carina showed us a picture. It's not a drug diamond. It belongs to an Afghani terrorist group called Hezb-e Islami Gulbuddin. It's really important that we stop Alahi from … well, whatever he's going to do with it. Those guys are some bad mamma-jammas."
"Good to know, Chuck. Thanks. That makes this mission even more important," Beckman said. "Well, then, Team. Steal the diamond from Alahi. Our intel indicates you have 72 hours before he moves the stone. It's kept in his Malibu compound." A picture of an extensive Malibu compound filled the screen. "Good luck."
"Umm, General," said Sarah. "Perhaps we can leave the DEA out of it. Miller is a tremendous field agent...but we can't trust her. Chuck is way too valuable as the Intersect. And we have a solid team dynamic here that another person might disrupt."
"We are confident that your team is resilient enough to withstand the impact of an agent of Miller's caliber," said Graham.
"Director, I've had dealings in the past with Miller as well. She can be a bit of a wild card."
"We're aware of what happened in Prague, Major. "
Casey looked very uncomfortable. Sarah tried to hide a small smile. Chuck just looked confused, but knew better than to ask a second time. Seeing their reactions, Graham said, "I'll tell you later, Chuck."
Chuck said, "Kay."
Sarah thought, 'Well, that's good. I don't have to tell Chuck...wait...what? 'Tell you later'? What? Chuck was going to talk to Graham later? Without her? And neither Chuck nor Graham seemed to think that was any big deal? What the hell?' She looked at him with surprise.
Graham continued, "Miller's reputation is exactly why you return the stone directly to us. Under no circumstances should she be entrusted with the diamond."
Sarah said, "Understood, Sir."
They broke the connection. Casey sighed deeply. Sarah said, "Ok, guess we're stuck with her."
Chuck said, "And I guess I have work to do. Casey, ok if I use your place today? Ellie and Devon are sleeping in after eighteen hour shifts. I don't want to disturb them."
"Sure, kid."
"What are you going to be doing?" Sarah asked Chuck.
"Getting everything I can find on Alahi, the diamond and his house. In addition to the NSA and CIA databases, and, of course, whatever is openly available on the Internet, Beckman and Graham've gotten me access to just about all the other government databases you can think of. Treasury, Customs, INS... hell, I can get all the local stuff too...LAPD, CHiPs, even the LA Department of Building and Safety. Want to know about fire extinguisher violations at his compound? I got that. It's gonna take me a few hours to get it all and review it. Want to meet back here this afternoon?"
"Sounds good," said Casey. He looked out the window and said, "Walker, your pal is outside by the fountain. You go deal with her. I'll follow when the coast is clear."
"You know, for a really brave guy, you are hiding in here from a woman."
"Not hiding and not just any woman, Walker. It's Carina freaking Miller. Wise men stay away from her."
Sarah laughed and said, "Well, hard to disagree with that. OK, see you guys this afternoon." She kissed Chuck and left.
Three minutes later Casey left, "G'luck, Bartowski."
"Later, Case."
Chuck buckled down to his research and let the hours pass.
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A/N2: Anyone who catches the James Bond homage in this chapter is … well, a huge nerd.