A/N: Hello again. Still don't own Chuck. Fine. That's done. Now let's go. I know you're impatient. I've been away a while, so we've got to get cracking. No time to waste. Thanks for sticking with me.
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Graham said, "Well, Chuck, what's the verdict?"
Chuck responded, "Can't tell, Sir. The sample the Turners got last night isn't complete. No surprise there. Von Vogel isn't going to give us the software to look at before he gets the money. I can say that what is on the flash drive is excellent work. Elegant and original. He's a top coder and has a fantastic grasp of the mathematics of encryption. Much better than I do, frankly. The really important parts of the program are blank, though. If it's true that the bits he excised are as good as the rest, this is a masterful piece of work. I just can't tell with this sample if the entire program works."
"Would you pay him for it, if it were your money?" asked Graham.
Chuck paused and thought about it. Finally, he said, "The Turners believe that he is telling the truth. With that assurance, I think I would. But, it's your call, Director. It's a lot of money."
"How much?" asked Amy.
"Five million dollars. We started at $100,000 and he worked us up. What can I tell you? He wanted Ten Million. I think we did pretty well," said Laura.
"Sounds like a fair price," said Graham from the screen. "I'll order the money wired to Von Vogel's offshore account. It should hit shortly."
"Excellent," said Craig. "We can handle the pickup tonight. I would suggest the whole team again, Director, in case Fulcrum tries to interfere."
"I agree," said Graham. "We've arranged for six tickets for Cats's show. Once you get the complete software package, Chuck, I'd like you to check it out top to bottom."
"Yes, Sir," said Chuck.
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Sarah thought that the Wiltern Theatre was beautiful. It was her first time in the huge, old Art Deco theater in the historic Wilton district of Los Angeles. The Turners were sitting together someplace else in the theater, perhaps in the balcony. Amy and Casey had tickets off to the left and she and Chuck in the center. The four members of Team B had arrived together in Casey's Crown Vic. They didn't see the Turners, but had agreed with them to meet and head backstage when the show was over and the crowd was disbursed.
The show started. The house lights dimmed, and multicolored spots lit two ornate poles on the stage. Buff shirtless men walked out from either side of the stage carrying burning torches. when they got to the poles, each man reached his torch up to the top of the pole and lit it on fire with a poomff noise. While the men retreated offstage, the fire at the top of each pole seemed to levitate upward, away from the pole itself to be burning in midair. As they watched, the flying balls of fire moved outward away from the stage over the audience and towards the back of the theater. All eyes were on the balls of fire impossibly flying over their heads. As the balls moved over the balcony, some members of the audience sitting under the balcony lost sight of them. Moving slowly, when each ball got to the back of the huge room, it turned and crossed to the other side of the room. Picking up speed, the flying fireballs headed back to the front of the room and the stage itself. Suspended over the stage were two empty cages, about forty feet in the air. The balls of fire seemed to hesitate before the cages, then move through the bars and into the cages themselves. The moment the fire entered the cage there was a bright explosion and ball of smoke. When the smoke cleared Roye Cats was in one cage, and a beautiful Bengal tiger was in the other. It was a great trick and the audience roared.
Sarah loved it. The last magic show she had seen was in Las Vegas and, while it was excellent, it wasn't nearly this spectacular. She made a point to remember to ask Chuck how the tricks were done. That was just the kind of nerdy stuff he would know.
The show went on. Tigers and other big cats disappeared and were replaced by scantily clad women (or sometimes scantily clad men). Big cats appeared out of empty boxes. All the while Roye Cats dominated the stage, his long blonde hair flying, his grin infectious. Overall, it was a great performance and a fun show.
It ended to sustained enthusiastic applause.
As the crowd began to leave the theater Chuck and Sarah met up with Amy and Casey. "Where are the Turners?" asked Sarah.
"Dunno. Haven't seen them," said Casey, annoyed. "Their transmitters are off again, and neither one answers their cell phones."
"Trackers?" asked Amy.
"Nope," Casey shook his head.
"Do we wait?" asked Chuck.
"Not too long, I think," opined Sarah. Casey grunted in agreement. All four of them, though, were worried. With Fulcrum sniffing around to have two members of the team go missing put all of them on high alert.
Not too much later, the Turners had still not shown up and the room was starting to clear. Ushers had begun to look at them with curiosity. Casey said, "We better go on back. Maybe they made it to the back some other way."
When they got to the stage a security guard pointed to the back of the room and told them that the exits were that way.
Chuck said, "Yes, thank you. We have a meeting with Mr. Cats's husband, Mr. Von Vogel. We were told to meet him backstage after the show."
"Oh. Are you Carmicheal?"
"Yes," said Chuck.
"Fine. You and your party can go on through. Mr. Cats's dressing room is off to the left, down the first corridor. First door you see."
"Thank you, Sir," said Chuck.
They made their way to the room where they would find Von Vogel and his magician husband. Chuck knocked on the door while the rest of the team stood watch looking for Fulcrum or the Turners.
The door was opened by Roye Cats. He was no longer dressed in his leather pants and white silk shirt outfit from the show and now wore jeans and a tee shirt. His long blonde hair was pulled back into a shortish ponytail.
Chuck smiled a very happy friendly smile and said, "Great show, Mr. Cats. My friends and I loved it. May I speak to Mr. Von Vogel, please?"
"You Carmichael?"
"Yes."
Expressionlessly, the man turned, "Otto. It's for you."
Cats stood back from the door to be replaced by Von Vogel. He looked at Chuck a moment or two and then at the rest of the team. He said, "Where are the others? The two from last night?"
Chuck knew well enough not to tell the truth and alarm Von Vogel. He said, "They'll be here. You know...they had...stuff..."
Von Vogel nodded, as if he knew what spy stuff entailed. Although, Chuck wasn't even too sure what he had meant. Von Vogel motioned them away from the door and closed it behind him. "You're Carmichael?"
"Yes. Here to pick up the key."
"No, no, no. What did you think of it?" asked Von Vogel eagerly.
"A masterful job of coding. I'm very impressed. Your work is very elegant. It was a pleasure to go through it," said Chuck. "If the balance of it matches the rest, we will have made a great decision to back you in..."
"What do you mean the balance of it? You were supposed to help me with that. The ...Turners they call themselves...they said you were the country's top encryption coder. They said you could help me fill in the missing code." Von Vogel stopped and looked at Chuck with alarm and suspicion. "What's going on?"
Oh shit, thought Chuck. He glanced quickly at his team and, turning back to Von Vogel, said, "Mr. Von Vogel, did you offer to sell your software to the government for Five Million Dollars?"
"What? No, of course not. I told them last night it didn't work yet. I couldn't get the algorithm to work. It wasn't right. I couldn't sell it yet. It wasn't done...wait, you're not here to help me the with the software?"
"Do you have an offshore bank account?" asked Chuck.
"Oh, hell no. I'm an immigrant. You think I would mess around with that stuff and risk getting deported?"
Turning away from Von Vogel, Chuck looked more than a little upset. "Guys," said Chuck, with alarm. "Where are the Turners?"
"And where's the five million bucks we wired someplace this morning?" asked Casey, looking a little upset himself.
"Hey," asked Von Vogel with surprise. "What the hell is going on?"
The members of Team B looked at each other for a few heartbeats and all thought "OH, SHIT."
Chuck turned to Von Vogel. "Mr. Von Vogel. There's a lot of stuff going on right now. The most important thing is that you and your husband stay safe. We have this. But it's much more dangerous than you thought. Please go back into your husband's dressing room and wait for us." Von Vogel, clearly confused and upset by these developments turned to go. Chuck touched him on the arm gently and said, 'We're the good guys.'
Von Vogel nodded, but said, "Yes. That's what they said too."
As Von Vogel turned, alarmed at the actions of the agents, they were interrupted. A strong sounding voice came from down the corridor, "Nobody move. I've got Fabio here and if anyone wants him to live you will do exactly as I say."
Roye Cats was pushed roughly down the corridor towards them by a tough looking man with a gun to his hostage's head. At the same time, six or seven other men came from the backstage area with guns drawn and surrounded Von Vogel and Team B. The man holding Cats seemed to be the leader, or at least the spokesman. "Drop your weapons or I kill him."
Von Vogel looked like he was going to be sick. Cats looked terrified. "Otto, what's going on?" he asked.
Von Vogel didn't answer. Team B dropped their weapons to the floor.
"Good. Now give me the software key, Von Vogel. Give it to me and your boyfriend lives."
"But..." said Von Vogel.
Jamming the pistol harder into Cats's head, the man said, "I'm not going to ask again."
Chuck said, "He can't, dude. He can't, because I have it already. If Fulcrum wants it, you'll have to let us go. I'm not kidding."
"Sure," said the man, with a grin. "Fulcrum is known for its mercy."
Chuck said, "It's in my pocket. Can I reach into my pocket? With all these guns, I don't want anyone to be nervous."
"Do it," the man said.
"Ok, ok, just everyone keep calm." Chuck slowly reached into his pocket to give them the flash drive that contained Von Vogel's incomplete program. All eyes were upon him. He moved slowly and the tension mounted amongst the group. Just as his hand left the pocket of his pants, he sniffed heavily and suddenly sneezed into his other elbow, murmuring, "Sorry." He scrunched his eyes closed for a moment and sniffed again.
"Get on with it," said the man holding Cats.
"Right," said Chuck. The tough guy let go of Cats with one hand and reached out to Chuck. As Chuck stretched his hand out to give the flash drive to the man holding Cats, Cats decided to try to break free. He twisted sideways and away from the gun. The man holding him, though, snatched back the hand that had been reaching to Chuck and took hold of Cats's tee shirt. He was a good bit stronger and pulled Cats back towards him and hit him in the side of the head with the gun barrel to enforce the other man's compliance.
There was a growl from behind them all. All heads turned to the sound. A huge Bengal tiger was approaching from the shadows backstage. It seems the animal didn't care too much for its master being manhandled. With one huge leap it brushed past all the other people and hit the man holding Cats full on with the weight of its body, sinking its teeth into the man's shoulder and neck. The gun flew out of his hand and he was driven to the ground with the enraged tiger on top of him. Cats was knocked aside and shouted "Sasha." While everyone else there was frozen in place with the sight of the Fulcrum man being eaten by a tiger, Amy, Sarah and Casey squatted to pick up their weapons and make good use of the distraction.
Suddenly shots were fired from the corner of the stage from which Sasha had appeared. Out of the shadows Craig and Laura Turner were walking quickly towards the group. Each of the spies had a silenced pistol in each hand, held straight out in front of them. As they walked, the four weapons were spitting fire rapidly. Previously frozen in place with shock while their man was attacked by a tiger, the Fulcrum men twisted to face the more immediate threat, but instantly they began to go down. Each shot from the Turners hit a joint, either an elbow or a knee. The Fulcrum men were shortly disarmed and writhing on the ground screaming. One reached for a dropped gun with his other hand, earning himself a second shattered elbow. After that none of them made any aggressive movements.
Team B stood back. Casey growled, "Some dramatic entrance. Took your time, didn't you?"
As Cats moved to get Sasha off the man the tiger was chewing, Craig looked at Casey with a crooked grin and said, without heat, "Go fuck yourself, Casey."
Chuck sneezed again.
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Graham said, sounding a little annoyed, "This is the best team I have running, Craig. They've brought a lot of pain to Fulcrum. You and Laura could have trusted them with your plan."
"Look, Langston, I know they're hot shit. I got it. It's why you gave them this cool new clubhouse. And everyone knows Walker is your protégée. Fine. But someone told Fulcrum about the drop. Someone talked. Probably not this team, ok. Maybe the people wiring the money...oh, did the return wire hit?"
"Yeah, we got the money back," said Graham.
"Well," said Sarah, "Maybe it was because you walked out of the room at the party and practically shouted the time and place of the software transfer."
"Yeah, that could have been it," he grinned at her. "Be good if that one worked."
Laura said, "Once it was clear that the software key was a bust and didn't work, we did the next best thing and entrapped a Fulcrum squad. You have seven Fulcrum men in the hospital to interrogate, Director. I think that's a hell of a win."
"Most of whom will be crippled for life, to one extent or another," said Graham.
"Good," said Craig Turner, with some satisfaction.
Graham continued, "The guy bitten by the tiger you released came out the lucky one."
"And Von Vogel?" asked Laura Turner.
"He's agreed to come under contract with the NSA. That way we can assign him round the clock protection for him and his husband. It turns out it's a win for everyone," said Graham. "And we are letting the rumor mill get out the news that the software Fulcrum was after was a flop. That should lessen the danger."
"Good," said Chuck. "He's a terrific coder. I'm glad he's working for the good guys full time."
Craig spoke up. "One more thing, Langston. My wife and I are done. It's time for us to pull the pi..."
"No," said Graham. "I have one last job for you. A long term undercover assignment under new cover identities. No end date. I need you both on this operation for as long as you keep working. It's something you are ideally suited for."
"Sorry, Director, but we're not..."
"I need you to be the President and CEO of Castle Studios there in Burbank," said Graham.
"What?" asked Craig, obviously surprised. "You want us to run a movie studio?"
"Not just a movie studio. Castle has all kinds of businesses. Publishing. TV. Computer and video games. Hell, even comic books. It's a pretty diverse corporation. And right now it's a vast intelligence operation with no public face. The press thinks that the new owners back East are interviewing prospects to install in the top couple of positions. I want that to be you both."
A grin was forming on Craig's face. Even Laura's perpetual frown seemed to be easing a little bit. "Sounds like hard work," she said.
"I expect it will be," said Graham. "The party circuit alone will be exhausting. It does come with certain perks though. I mean in keeping with the new cover identities you will have to assume, that is. A mansion in Beverly Hills. A vast expense account. Limos and drivers. You know, stuff like that. The stuff that studio execs in Hollywood take for granted. But if you two aren't interested, you just let..."
"Let's not jump to conclusions, Langston. This idea has merit," said Craig.
Graham started to laugh. "Meet me in Langley on Monday and we'll work out the details."
The screen went dead.
The Turners looked at each other and grinned. "Interesting development," he said.
"Very," she replied.
Craig turned to Team B and said, "Well. Been good working with you. See you again soon, I guess." They shook hands all around and the Turners left Castle via the elevator to the office building's lobby.
Amy said, shaking her head, "And I thought they had betrayed us and stolen the money we intended for Von Vogel."
"Yeah, me too," said Casey with a grunt.
Chuck looked at them both for a few moments and said, "Guys, they went alone into the room with Otto and killed their transmitters. The plan was to bring me in to talk to Von Vogel, but they never had any intention of living by that." When his team nodded, he continued, "That was before they knew the software didn't work. Before they knew it was a dud. Why did they do that? It couldn't possibly be part of a trap for the Fulcrum team. They went in having something else in mind. What was it? Whatever they had in mind then, their plan excluded us."
"You mean they could have intended to steal the five mil all along and just changed their minds and came back to bag the Fulcrum assholes and save our butts?" asked Casey. Chuck shrugged to indicate that he didn't know one way or the other.
"My guess," said Sarah, "is that we will never know."
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A/N2: I try to be more realistic than canon (an admittedly low bar), but I have to diverge from realism sometimes. The dealings with Von Vogel here are better than the canon software theft, but still don't pass a serious realism test. Where are the lawyers and contracts? Where's the government paperwork? Non-disclosure agreements? As realistic as that would be, it makes for a pretty boring story though. No place for Sasha, for example.
A/N3: I took the description of Roye Cats's magic show, very roughly, from Siegfried & Roye's spectacular. Basically, when you google magician and tiger there's only one real choice.
A/N4: Well, now everybody knows why I took this episode out of order. Once I made Castle Studios an intelligence operation, I needed spies to run it and be the public face. I thought the Turners would be ideal for the job. He's even going to be able to get the right kind of cherries for his Manhattans as an important studio exec.
A/N5: Please stay safe, everybody. Even in places where the virus danger has eased we can't let down our guard. Wash your hands. Wear a mask. Socially distance. Be safe. I can't afford to lose a single reader.