A/N: I can't wait for the day when someone's initial AN announces that they do, in fact, own Chuck. Now that will be a fun day.
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Team Bartowski, together with MI-6 agent Cole Barker, sat at the conference table in Castle to plan their next steps. Chuck and Amy had brought down coffee and danish for everyone from the studio's commissary (including chocolate croissants, of course). Sarah made a note that they had to get a pantry installed, so they didn't have to go upstairs for coffee.
Sarah's interrogation of Alexis White under the influence of SP-117 truth serum had been successful, so far as it went. Sarah had learned all that White knew about the man (they now knew it was a man) code-named Perseus. Unfortunately, Fulcrum had practiced tight operational security and compartmentalized the information about Perseus and its own Intersect project. As a result, White only knew a limited amount. But what she knew, she shared.
White had provided the following information to Sarah: Perseus was a scientist working on developing an Intersect computer system (confirming what Cole had already told them). He had previously worked on the government's Intersect, but now worked exclusively for Fulcrum. He was kept under strict control and protection by his handlers, but was not formally "bunkered." One of the events that they intended to permit him to attend was the opera. It seemed he was a fervent fan of that art form. In fact, White knew that Perseus would be attending that evening's performance of Norma by Bellini at the LA Opera. White's team had been tasked with protecting Perseus at that event, but with her team either dead or captured, she was certain another team would act as a replacement for the assignment. The Intersect Perseus was building was progressing well, but that bit was merely Fulcrum gossip not a hard analysis. White did not have any information about its completion schedule or its whereabouts.
"Ok," said Casey. "Looks like we're going to the opera."
"Yes," said Sarah. "She couldn't describe the man, but I'm certain that if there is someone there with a team protecting him, I'll be able to spot it. There are protocols for movement and positioning that are standard. They won't be able to hide it and be effective at the same time."
Cole said, "How do you know this stuff?"
"A year with the Secret Service protecting high value targets."
"Bloody hell," he mumbled.
"What do we do when we identify Perseus?" asked Amy.
"We kill him," said Casey. "Shut down their Intersect project."
"Not if we can take him alive," said Chuck. "Absolutely, if there's no other choice, he's dead. But he's going to be someone we'd love to interrogate. That new drug was very effective. We try it on this guy? We'll learn a lot."
"Indeed," said Cole. "...it was pretty good. What did you use again?"
"It's called SP-117. We...," she gestured with a waving finger to encompass her team. "... picked up a sample a few months ago. The Company has been testing it for efficacy and safety ever since. It's not quite ready for deployment, but I pulled a few strings and got some for us to use a bit early."
"Well, the bloody stuff worked, eh?"
"It did," said Sarah.
"Think you might share with your cousins?" he asked with a charming grin.
Sarah gave him an amused look in response and said, "Well, I guess that's up to Beckman and Graham and how they feel about you guys at the time you ask. Maybe Sir Trevor should try a little ass kissing."
Cole reached out and took Amy's hand. He said, with an insouciant grin, "I'm hoping Amy will put in a good word for me."
Amy gave a 'phfffttt' noise and gave him a look that left him laughing.
"I've never been to the opera," said Chuck.
"Yeah. And I don't think you should go to this one, Sweetie," said Sarah. "I think that you and Cole just got through...a bad time with White. It's too early to throw you back into the field." She looked at Cole and said, "Both of you." Casey nodded his agreement.
"I'm as good as I ever was," objected Cole.
"That's exactly what we are worried about, Moron," said Casey. Amy snorted at the jibe and then looked at Cole with a contrite expression, almost (but not quite) hiding the fact that she was laughing.
He squeezed her hand and blew her a kiss. She laughed out loud in response.
"Guys, I'm with Cole. I'm a bit stiff, but I can make it into the field tonight," said Chuck.
"I know you think so, Sweetie, but it would make me feel better if you took an extra day or two. Please?" She gave him a look, a look reserved only for him.
Chuck smiled, unable to deny her anything she wanted. "You win. But just so you know, looking at me with that expression is not at all fighting fair."
"What? This one?" she looked at him with pleading kitten eyes.
He buried his face in his hands and said, muffled but laughing, "Yeah, that one."
"Amy, Casey and I can cover the opera house, looking for whoever Fulcrum is protecting," said Sarah. "Chuck, you and Cole can stay in Castle and watch our backs remotely. Can you access the opera house security feed without any special set up?"
"I don't know. Probably. If I can't, we can get in there in the next few hours to be setup when the guests arrive tonight. Cole and I can finagle our way in somehow and plant some toys to make it work. And before you tell me you don't want us in the field, you guys can't sneak in under cover at lunchtime and attend later as guests or something. We'll be fine. If we even have to go at all."
"You're right. Ok, then," Sarah said. "So, that's it. We attend the opera and take Perseus. If we have to kill him, we do it, but, otherwise we bring the bastard home for a long chat."
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Chuck said into the microphone of his headset, "It's the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. Opera now, but it used to have the Philharmonic too, but they moved. Christmas Eve they have a free event every year. You know, for the community."
"Focus, Moron. Just tell us what you can see."
"How do you think you'll ever learn about stuff about LA if you aren't open to new things, Case? I mean I know the job is everything to you, but you can expand your horizons a bit? I've been thinking that I want to introduce you to the arcade at the Santa Monica Pier, for example."
Casey growled. Sarah said, with a tiny bit of humor, "Ok, that one might have gone just a bitty bit too far."
"Right. Right. I'll straighten up."
Next to him in Castle, Cole (also listening through a headset) was quietly chuckling at the playful banter among the team, so different from what he was used to. He was amazed that these men and women could be so casual and joking and friendly one second and all cold business the next. Heartbeat to heartbeat. He remembered Casey and Sarah's quick draws to kill the Fulcrum men the other night. Faster than he had ever seen, and some of the troopers he'd served with in the SAS were some very deadly men. This team was as good as any he'd ever been with. And Chuck...holy shit...his easygoing, open, friendly demeanor belied the fact that the man was brilliant. Not just with the tech stuff, where he was casually off the charts better than anyone else, but just the disarming way he dealt with people and put them at ease.
Cole's ruminations were interrupted by Chuck talking to the team.
"Right. Sarah, scan left and right across the area below you." She had moved up to the first level of a small balcony area in the grand lobby area of the building. She moved her head around, the feed routed by Chuck to one of the larger screens on the wall. "Move ten feet to your left, facing the way you are now facing and do it again." She acknowledged the instruction and the view on the screen changed. "Right. That's good." Casey, Amy and Sarah were all wearing eyeglasses (different styles, of course) that fed a live video feed to Castle.
Chuck had infiltrated the computer system of the opera house without any difficulty earlier in the day. At his option, he could take control of anything and everything computerized in the building. Given that he was sort of law enforcement, and he had no interest in any personal information of anyone associated with the opera house, it was even legal. Sort of.
"Amy, you are good where you are." She was taking tickets at one of the entrances. There was the sound of a couple of taps to tell them that she had heard Chuck.
"Casey, what do you think? You can see the geography better than I can. Left or right?" There was a grunt and the camera began to move to the right.
"Ok, then. I'm going to assume you decided right. See? Good communication, partner." Chuck was rewarded by another grunt.
Cole stifled a laugh as he watched the dot representing Casey move on the moving map Chuck had set up on one of the screens in front of them, with all three of the team shown. On other screens were the feeds from the building's security cameras, the feeds from the other members of the team's glasses, the map of where everyone was, and, off to the side of the display, the outdoor cameras and traffic cam footage for the area around the opera house. If there were areas of the opera house that were not under observation by him and Chuck, Cole didn't know where they were.
Sarah said, "Look alive everybody. SOP would dictate bringing the principal in at the last minute and that's now."
Casey and Amy acknowledged her guidance. Almost as if on cue, the doors opened and a group entered the building. From their numerous cameras, Cole and Chuck could see the same scene from divergent angles. The men and women they were watching filed through one at a time, but clustered around a balding middle-aged man in glasses wearing a sweater.
As a group, the new arrivals headed across the lobby area towards one of the doors to the theater itself.
"Sweater," said Sarah.
The rest of the team agreed, or at least grunted.
Cole said, "They are packing."
"Got it," Sarah said. "Right, I'm going in."
Chuck and Cole watched on the monitors as Sarah went downstairs and inside to keep an eye on Sweater, who they had decided was Perseus.
Sarah found her seat in the large theater as the lights dimmed and the opera started. Casey and Amy avoided the performance and made themselves as inconspicuous as possible in the lobby area, Amy as an usher and Casey as a security guard.
From the camera feeds, Chuck was able to get several images of the man they believed was Perseus while he was crossing the lobby. Chuck fed those images into a photo recognition software program with files of the scientists who had worked on the Intersect. He knew it was slow and inaccurate, but it might help identify the man.
They couldn't get to Sweater until the intermission of the production, so Chuck decided to spend his time usefully.
"Casey, can you tell if the Fulcrum guys are using a communications net among themselves?"
"Yeah, Kid. It looks like it," he responded.
"Ok. Let's see what we can do with that," said Chuck.
"You going to jam it?" asked Cole.
"Nope. Much more fun to get into it and hear what they are saying," responded Chuck while looking at the computer screen in front of him.
"Ah. You going to use our net?"
"Naw, we need ours. Can you take over the monitors for a bit? I have to focus on this," said Chuck.
"Sure, matey. What are you doing?"
"The opera house has a cell phone booster routed through its computer system. I'm expanding the frequencies to pick up the Fulcrum net. I mean I hope so, I'm guessing at what frequencies they are probably using." He tapped away at his keyboard for a few moments. "Casey, let me know when you see them using their communications."
They waited. Perseus watched the opera. Sarah watched Perseus watch the opera. Amy and Casey watched the Fulcrum men who had remained in the lobby. Chuck waited for the Fulcrum guys to talk to each other. Cole watched the monitors and Chuck.
Casey said, "Now. They are talking."
"Bingo. Thanks," said Chuck. "I've got the frequency. Ah, damn. Only problem is, it's encrypted. But..." he pressed some buttons on his keyboard. "...if we can keep them talking long enough, we can crack the encryption."
"I know better than to doubt you at this point, Chuck," said Cole. "But why are you so sure you can break the encryption?"
"Well, first of all," Chuck said, pointing over his shoulder, "that's a DU 97, a hell of a lot of computer power, and it's got a cryptoanalysis package installed. But, more than that, I know one of the words they will be speaking. It's always easier to break a cipher when you know a word or two upfront."
"What word?"
"Perseus."
"Ah, yeah. So, we wait for them to talk and then the machine cracks it and then we can listen to them?"
"Exactly," said Chuck.
While they waited Chuck and Cole made small talk. Cole was encouraging Chuck to learn how to scuba dive, so he could take a diving vacation for the honeymoon. Chuck was interested, but hesitant. Cole was recommending Grand Cayman, but many of the other Caribbean islands had world class diving as well.
Intermission arrived. As the crowd filed out of the theater to find a glass of wine at the lobby bar or just stretch their legs, Sarah followed Sweater out to the lobby. He had one Fulcrum man staying close and a few more milling around. Chuck and Cole watched through the various monitors.
A monitor on the table beeped and Chuck rolled over to it on his chair. "Guys, Sweater is Dr. Howard Busgang. DoD scientist. Worked on the Intersect until it got blown up and is now listed as missing. His specialty is digital neurology. No wife or kids. You want his schools?"
"No. I've got it from here," Sarah responded.
Through one of the monitors, they saw Sarah's view of the man they had now identified as Busgang. Sarah said, "Oh, hello. Are you enjoying the show?"
"I am. Thank you. And, if I may ask, are you?" he said, doing his best to be charming.
Sarah said, "Yes. It is one of the leading examples of the bel canto style, as I'm sure you know."
"I do," he said with a smile. "It's a particular favorite of mine. Have you heard the performance by Maria Callas?"
"From 1961? Of course, but ...don't hate me..." she said with a smile in her voice.
"Impossible," he smiled back at her.
"I actually prefer the performance by Beverly Sills from 1973," said Sarah.
"Really? Interesting. And how does that compare to tonight's performance?" he said.
"Oh, I actually prefer tonight's, but I have to be honest. Claudia Bernet, playing the role of Clotilde, is a close friend of mine. I'm a bit biased. You know."
"Oh, she is?" he asked. "What does she have to say about the production?" His face was uncomfortably close given the screen in front of them. His nose much bigger than life size. At least Chuck hoped it was bigger than life size, because it was pretty freaking big.
They heard Sarah's musical laugh come through to Castle as she said, "Oh, my God. She's having the time of her life. I'm just going to talk to her now. Want to come? If we hurry we can have a few words now and maybe arrange to meet her after the show."
"Really? That would be spectacular. How can you pull this off in the middle of the show?"
She started to laugh, "Oh, come on. Friends and stuff. Let's see if this woman can help us."
From a different camera angle, Amy approached Sarah and Busgang at the bar. Sarah said, "Hi. Ms. Bernet asked me to come to the back during intermission. Can you help me with that?"
"Of course, one moment. Just let me check with the director." Amy took out a walkie-talkie and pretended to talk into it. She looked at Sarah and said, with a smile, "Your name, please?"
"Sarah Walker...and friend." From two camera angles they saw Busgang charmed at the reference.
Chuck touched his headphones and said, "I've just unlocked the door to the left of the bar."
On the screens in front of them, Amy said, "Ms. Bernet will see you both, but only for a minute. You'll have to hurry. This way, please."
Chuck said, "Amy, slam the door before the bodyguard can follow. Casey, get ready."
Amy, Sarah and Busgang went through the door to the left of the bar. The bodyguard tried to follow, but Amy slammed the door in his face. Chuck re-locked it immediately.
The guard tried it several times and began to speak into his sleeve. Casey arrived and said, "What seems to be the problem, Sir?"
"I have to get through that door," said the man who had been guarding Busgang. He was joined by one or two other Fulcrum men, supporting his position.
"I'm sorry, Sir. That will not be possible. That door is for employees only," said Casey.
"Bullshit," snarled the guard. "I just saw two guests to through that door. And now it's locked."
"They did. And they were escorted by an usher," said Casey reasonably. "You are not. So, you are not following."
In their monitors, Chuck and Cole watched the men look Casey up and down, as if judging the usefulness of challenging him. Whatever they saw caused them to turn away and confer among themselves.
There was a burst of activity on the communications channel the Fulcrum men were using. It wasn't too much longer before a tone sounded on a computer a few yards away and Chuck said, "Done. We've broken their encryption. We're in, guys."
They heard the Fulcrum men reacting to the fact that their protectee had vanished behind the door and was now out of sight. One of them said, "We are still tracking him by his shoes. Where do they show him to be?"
Chuck shared that bit of intel with his team. That and that the Fulcrum men didn't seem to have audio on Busgang.
Cole and Chuck watched as Amy and Sarah moved Busgang down a hallway and led him into an office. Once inside, their pleasant demeanors evaporated. They pulled their weapons on him.
His smile disappeared. "What is this?" he asked.
"Take off your shoes," said Sarah. Sarah looked at Amy and nodded towards a fish tank in the corner of the office.
"Why?" he asked, seemingly confused.
"Because we have guns pointed at your center of mass and will take them off your cooling body if you don't," said Sarah. Chuck and Cole couldn't see Sarah, but from the look on Busgang's face, she must have been pretty scary.
He shut up and took off his shoes. Amy took them and drowned them in the water of the fish tank.
"What are you doing?" asked Busgang.
Chuck was following the conversation while Cole was following the chatter among the Fulcrum men. Cole said, "They are starting to panic a bit."
"Ok. Calm them down," said Chuck. He started to punch some buttons on his keyboard.
Cole nodded that he was ready. Chuck entered a command on his keyboard and pointed to Cole. In Cole's ears, he heard the frantic chatter of the Fulcrum men now that the tracker had been neutralized. He picked up a piece of paper from the table in front of him and began to crumple it up near the headset's microphone. In an American accent, he said, "...visual on Perseus...control...loading dock...bringing..."
The Fulcrum men began to question. Which of them had been speaking? Someone had a visual on Perseus? The leader sent four men to find the loading dock. Meanwhile, there were repeated questions for whoever had been reporting. They were answered with the sound of crumpling paper, which, over the radio was indistinguishable from static. They had the Fulcrum men chasing their tails. At least for the time being.
Chuck, while watching Cole, with the other half of his attention, was paying attention to Sarah and Amy.
Sarah said, "I'm going to offer you a choice, Dr. Busgang..."
"You know who I am? Of course, you do. That's why you lured me here, away from my security team," he said, shaking his head at his own stupidity. "And I just went right along with it. I'm an idiot."
"You are more than that. You are a traitor. My partner and I will kill you and leave your body here without a second thought," said Sarah, her voice cold.
Notwithstanding his earlier self-characterization, Busgang looked at them with intelligence and said, "You indicated there was a choice. The alternative is what?"
"You come with us and tell us everything there is to know about the Intersect you are building for Fulcrum."
"I should have figured this was about the Intersect. I have no idea who or what Fulcrum is, but I know a lot about the Intersect. If those are my choices, then go ahead and kill me, young lady. I will force you to before you get me away from here, so let's just save ourselves all that nonsense. I may be many things, but I'm not a traitor to my country. I've worked for this nation for my entire adult life and I will not divulge its secrets to you or whatever foreign government you work for. Kill me." He looked at her with a steady expression. Chuck and Cole, from the screens at Castle, were impressed. This Busgang guy had balls.
On the screens before the men, Sarah and Amy looked at each other with a bit of surprise. Sarah said, "Foreign government? We work for the CIA."
Busgang scoffed. "Young lady, a word of advice when you are kidnapping someone. Before you tell them that you work for the CIA, you should first check to make sure that the kidnappee doesn't actually work for the CIA."
Amy said, "You work for Fulcrum." She sounded confused.
"I don't even know what you are talking about. I told you that already."
"But you admit you are building an Intersect," said Sarah.
Chuck heard Cole further confusing the Fulcrum men, sending them hither and yon, but by this point he was mostly listening to the other conversation. With a bit his concentration, he was locking and unlocking doors to direct the Fulcrum team elsewhere.
"There's nothing to admit. You knew that when you came for me. No surprise there. It's why the government is protecting me. Not that well, apparently, since you two managed to get to …."
"That's not the government, Dr. Busgang. That's Fulcrum protecting you," said Sarah.
"Are you going to tell me what the hell you are talking about?" He sounded a little exasperated.
"Fulcrum is a rogue faction of the Intelligence Community. Disgruntled CIA, NSA, whatever. They are a major threat to the nation. It's why Agent Turner and I, and our team, are trying to stop them from getting an Intersect of their own."
"A rogue faction? Really? That sounds a bit far-fetched. The men and women I've been dealing with were all working agents, operatives, whatever."
"They told you they were," Sarah said, exasperated herself. "Chuck, you getting this?"
"Yeah," said Chuck, in their ears.
"What do you think?" she asked. "I certainly wouldn't put it past Fulcrum to fuck with this guy's understanding."
"I don't know. One sure way to put it to the test, though. Hang on."
Chuck rolled his chair over to one side, to avoid the noise disruption from Cole dealing with the Fulcrum men and said, "Keep it together, Cole. Keep the balls in the air. I'm getting Graham."
"Right...wait, what? You can call the Director of the CIA in the middle of a mission? What?"
"Sure. Can't you call C?"
"Umm, no."
"Sucks, dude. You should talk to somebody about that."
Cole was still looking at Chuck with surprise when Chuck said, using his headset, "Hi, Anna, it's Chuck. Can I speak to the Director, please?" A pause. "Sorry to bother you so late, Sir. We have identified Perseus as Howard Busgang, a scientist missing from the Intersect Project since September. He claims that he thinks he's building an Intersect for you and that he's never heard of Fulcrum. Sarah and Agent Turner are having to convince him otherwise. Convincing him is ...well, Sir, it's a bit of an emergent situation." A pause, as Chuck listened. "Exactly, Sir. Perfect. Can you move to your computer and contact me here in Castle? I'll take it from there. Thank you, Sir."
Chuck touched a button on the keyboard and said, "Sarah, there's a computer behind you powered up. Turn it around and get Busgang in front of the camera, please."
Director Graham appeared on the screen in front of Cole and Chuck. Chuck did some things with the keyboard and mouse and Graham appeared on the computer in the room with Sarah, Amy and Busgang. Chuck and Cole could see him through the feeds from both Sarah and Amy's glasses.
Graham said, without preliminaries, "Dr. Busgang, i presume you recognize me?"
"Yes, Sir," said Busgang. If he was surprised to see the Director of Central Intelligence suddenly appear on the screen, he hid it well.
"Agents Walker and Turner have been telling you the truth. You have been deceived by members of an outfit called Fulcrum. You need to believe these agents and do exactly what they say. Your life, and the lives of many others, depends on it."
"Yes, Sir. Thank you, Sir. I will do that."
Graham turned his gaze away from Busgang. Cole, frankly, had too many screens to keep track of and wasn't at all sure what the hell the Director of the CIA was looking at. Graham continued, "Good luck, team."
Sarah said, "Thank you, Sir. We'll let you know of developments. Team B out."
Chuck killed the feed.
From his perspective, he saw Sarah turn to Busgang and said, curtly, "You believe us now?"
"Yes. Yes, I do. I swear I had no idea..." He was obviously upset at that he'd just learned, and sounded somewhat breathless and eager to be believed.
"Not now," said Sarah, with a pre-emptory wave of her hand. "Chuck, Cole, what's the status?"
Chuck said, "The Fulcrum team is looking for you, but so far Cole is keeping them looking in the wrong directions. I don't know how long we can keep that up, though."
"Ok, then. We're going to need a major distraction to get out of here with Busgang. Got any ideas?"
"Yeah, Sweetie, I do. Leave the room you're in and turn right. Five doors down from you, on the right, is the costume department. Get in there and disguise Busgang. Get him some shoes. Wait for our signal."
"Right," she said. They could see her, with Busgang and Amy, moving down the corridor, through the various monitors. Amy, with her gun in her hand, was watching behind them mostly.
"Casey, I need you to leave the building and get the car. Pull it around to...the southeast side of the building, on North Grand. I'm going to be sending them out that way and you might have to make a quick exit. There are two doors to the music center, not fire emergency doors, so they wouldn't be open. Wait there."
"Right, Kid. On my way," said Casey.
Cole thought, 'fire emergency?' He noted that Amy, Sarah and Busgang were in the wardrobe department and, from what he could see in the subdued light in that room, were making use of the costumes they had found.
Once again, or maybe it was still, Cole was impressed by Chuck and the team. His orders were clear and concise, and his team followed them immediately and without question. There were times when it seemed he deferred to them, but not now. Now he was clearly in command. Bloody hell.
Chuck spoke again to the whole team. "Ok, guys. Here's what we are going to do. There's about to be a fire in the opera house. The whole place will empty into the plaza on the northwest side. I'm hoping the Fulcrum guys are there watching the crowd leave and looking for Busgang. While that is going on, he's leaving with you in the other direction. Wait til I tell you to move."
"Understood, Chuck."
Chuck turned to Cole, "I need your American accent again. This time coughing, like you are choking on smoke."
"Ok, matey, but can't you just trigger the fire alarm?"
"False alarms happen all the time," said Chuck. with a shrug.
"Then trigger them all," said Cole.
"What better indication that it's a false alarm? That's not the way fires work, Cole. They start someplace and they spread. All the alarms at once is obviously false. If we want the security folks to take it seriously, we have to do it right. We start it in one place and have one of their guards, coughing, tell them there's smoke. That would be you."
"Right. Wait, you can get into their own communications network too? You know what? I'm daft. Silly question. Of course, you can. Of course, you can. Right, matey. Let's do this."
Chuck hit some buttons on the keyboard and one of the security monitors blacked out. Soon afterwards the fire alarm went off in the control center of the opera house. It showed an alarm condition in the area with the emergency back-up generator, housing an oil tank to power the generator if necessary. There was no security cam footage of the area with the alarm, as Chuck had killed that feed. Chuck figured it would make the most sense for someone to go down and look at the area before they cleared out the building in the middle of a performance.
He turned and pointed to Cole. "You're up."
Cole activated his headset and started to cough. "Boss, boss. Smoke down here. I'm coming up." Cough, cough. "Coming up."
They heard, "Jackson? Jackson? Is that you? Jackson?"
Cole coughed some more into his headset and said, "Boss, almost out. Nobody behind me. Clear it. Get everyone out." Chuck was impressed with Cole's quick thinking. 'Nobody behind me.' They wouldn't send any heroes down to check for stragglers. Very smart. The control center spent a moment or two more to try to contact whichever guard had been reporting in, and then gave up as a waste of precious time.
Chuck considered contacting the NSA local office and instructing them to override the LAFD alarm system and send their own men and women to the building to put on a good show. But, who knows if Fulcrum had any members with that cleaning crew? So, he allowed the regular LAFD to take the call. He hoped like hell that he was not pulling them away from a real call.
The opera house's security team came to a decision. In an instant, the alarms in the theater itself began to sound. The lights in the main theater came up and the performance stopped. A carefully modulated voice came over the intercom, telling the audience to exit quickly but carefully and move away from the building. From the security cameras, Chuck and Cole could see that most people in the audience began to file out in an orderly manner. There were a few panicked individuals, who bolted, but for the most part the crowd was incredibly well behaved. 'Opera goers,' thought Chuck.
Chuck killed the cameras and activated the two fire alarms in the corridor outside the room with the generator, so it looked to the security men that whatever condition that was in the room was spreading.
Cole and Chuck looked to the outside security cameras and traffic cams as they watched the crowd disburse into the plaza in front of the building. Chuck said, "Ok, Sarah, Amy. Get Busgang out of there." Then he quickly gave them directions to the outside doors, beyond which Casey would be waiting with the car. He made a point of locking behind them every door they passed through.
"Right."
Chuck checked Casey's location and saw him approach the designated spot. Unfortunately, there was a man in a suit hovering near the doors who looked a lot like one of the men from Busgang's security team.
"Guys, looks like there's one of Busgang's security team by the door I was sending you through," Chuck said.
"Never mind, Sweetie. We've got it covered. And they are probably covering all the doors anyway," said Sarah. "We'll bluff our way through."
"I can kill him," offered Casey.
"Let's try to avoid that if we can, Case. So far, Fulcrum doesn't know that we have Busgang and that he's on our side. That may be to our advantage to get to the Intersect." said Chuck.
"Right. Good thinking, Kid," said Casey. Cole thought, very good thinking. Chuck was already thinking through the next problem they would face. He's like a chess master thinking many moves ahead.
Chuck and Cole looked at the security monitors, but didn't see Sarah, Amy and Busgang. The feed from their glasses had been cut off. There were a small number of people leaving the building from the office areas they had been in, but they didn't appear to be among them. Cole tapped Chuck and pointed to the map with the trackers illuminated as dots. Then he pointed to a security camera feed of three brunette women in short skirts (without glasses) making their way to the exit. The one in the middle was having a bit of trouble with the heels and was held at each elbow by the other two.
Chuck and Cole grinned at each other. They had found their team and Busgang.
They looked to the camera with the outside view and saw Casey in the Crown Vic waiting for the doors to open.
As the doors opened the presumptive Fulcrum man intercepted them for a good look. Amy, her cleavage exceptionally prominent, got in his face and said to the man, in a very pronounced Southern accent, "You better get out of here, Sugar. The whole goddamn building is on fire. Burnin' up like crazy. I was you, I'd run like hell. Nobody else comin' out this way, that's for goddamn sure." As she was talking to him the other two made it into the Crown Vic.
The guy grunted and waved for her to go, trying to look into the rapidly closing door to the building. She piled into Casey's car and he pulled them out into traffic, steering around the fire engines beginning to arrive.
"We're out and moving," said Sarah.
"Awesome," said Chuck. "Stay safe, team."
Chuck and Cole looked at each other and started to laugh. Each rolled his chair towards the other with his hand raised. They exchanged happy high-fives.
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A/N2: In canon, Busgang was attending a party at the Swiss Consul General's home in Los Angeles, and he was accompanied by (protected by?) a Fulcrum team. But, come on, guys, he's creating an Intersect for them. The Intersect seems to be their favorite thing ever, like more than ice cream. We were never told why he went to that party or whether he was a regular on the party circuit of LA. I don't know. Seems to me that as professional as Fulcrum was, they wouldn't let their (sole?) hope for their own Intersect just wander around LA going to nice parties, having free booze and chatting up folks. I'd think that it would be sensible to keep him under tighter control than that. But, at the same time, if they truly tried to bunker him, he might very well object. So, I wrote a compromise. They keep him under control, but let him go to the opera occasionally. Unless he knew someone special at the Consul General's party (and there was no evidence that he did in canon), there's no real reason for him to be there as opposed to anywhere else. But he did have a damn nice car. A little showy for my tastes, but nice.
A/N3: "SOP" means standard operating procedure. What the security unit protecting Perseus would do under normal circumstances.
A/N4: Cell phone boosters are not really routed through a building's computer system. And Chuck couldn't really change the applicable frequencies on the booster from Castle. And, given the geography of the building and surrounding area, the emergency generator would probably be on the roof (easier venting of exhaust when in operation), rather than in the bowels of the building. There's no emergency generator on the roof of the opera house though. My guess is they use an emergency battery system (rather than a generator) to power only fire-life safety systems as may be necessary for long enough to clear the building of occupants and no more than that. Generators are used to keep buildings more operational, which is not the case for a theater.
A/N5: Just occurred to me. In canon, Casey and Sarah are always calling in the "cleaners" to magically make everything ok after an incident, like the Cat in the Hat cleaning up the house. What if a member of that outfit was Fulcrum? Or a whole team? Never considered in canon (correct me if I'm wrong, my friends). Forget the mayhem that might ensue, what would they learn about our heroes? I think I'm going to be avoiding the cleaners for the time being. At least until Team B can figure out a protocol for dealing with them.
A/N6: This was my sort of a shot at a "bottle" episode. Confined to the one room with just Cole and Chuck looking at the monitors. I found it hard to do without continuously reminding my readers that our POV characters were always looking at screens, but that's what I had in mind at least. Let me know what you think. Stay safe, everyone. It's scary out there, for many, many reasons.