A/N: Someone owns something. That I know. Maybe not Chuck, but something.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
The team, together with Cole and Busgang, sat in the main area of Castle. Busgang had gotten the woman's makeup off his face and was dressed in clothes from the studio's wardrobe department. 'Man,' thought Chuck once again, 'that wardrobe thing is one cool gadget.'
Sarah opened the conversation. "Dr. Busgang, you were working on the Intersect project last fall. When did things change?"
"Well, we had had a good day at the site. I thought we might almost be ready for limited human trials. I mean, not yet, of course, but within a few months. You know, with a controlled amount of data transfer. To make sure it worked." Several people at the table flicked their eyes to one another, but said nothing. "Anyway, I had just gotten ready for bed when there was a ring at the doorbell. It was the CIA … well, I thought they were CIA agents..."
"They might have been," said Chuck. "But they were part of Fulcrum."
"Well, that makes Fulcrum insanely dangerous," said Busgang.
"Yes," said Chuck, nodding in agreement.
"Anyway, they told me that the Intersect I had been working on had been destroyed..."
"Yeah. Blown to smithereens," said Casey, in a deep growl.
"...and my colleagues killed."
"That one not so much," said Sarah. "There were no casualties that night."
"Really? Oh, that's wonderful news. I didn't know that. So, Rebecca is alright? And Jonas? Cliff?"
"Well, none of them were hurt that night. But things have been going on since then," said Sarah. "Please, go on."
"Oh...well," he said. "The men came and got me. With the Intersect destroyed...they told me all the research had been destroyed...anyway, they told me that, for my protection, I was being relocated to work on the Intersect in a more secure facility. That all the survivors were. Separate disbursed locations all around the country."
"Where?" asked Casey.
"Palm Springs. At least for me it was Palm Springs. They didn't give me much of a choice. I complained about someplace in the middle of Wyoming, and we came to a compromise. Someplace the bad guys...well, what I supposed at the time were the bad guys, wouldn't find me, and yet close enough to a big city that I wouldn't go insane. At least this way I could get to civilization every once in a while." He rolled his eyes at the concept of civilization in Wyoming (which sort of annoyed Casey).
"What's there?" asked Chuck. "What's physically in Palm Springs?"
"The mainframe I've been working with. My lab. The equipment. My research..."
"Paper or digital?" said Chuck.
"Digital. I keep some paper notes, but I scan them in every night to a file. Once done I drop the originals into a shredder bin."
"Can we access the system from here?" Chuck asked.
"No. Not at all. It's air-gapped except for the daily offsite back up."
"What does 'air-gapped' mean?" asked Cole, with a hand partially raised.
"It means that to get into it I have to be standing next to it. No way to do it from here. It's the ultimate protection against hackers. It's not connected to the Internet." Chuck turned back to Busgang. "Tell me about the back up."
"Every night at midnight, on the dot. It's the only connection the system has."
"What's backed-up?"
"Everything. Software and files both. Data. Everything."
"Ok. Where's the back-up server located?"
"I have no idea," said Busgang.
"How far along is it? The Intersect. Are you as far as you were in the fall, when the last one was interrupted?"
"Not quite. We are, er, were, getting there. The conversion matrix is still a problem. And some of the video algorithms don't fit. I can't seem to get it right. None of the models came out successfully. I'm still working on it."
"Human trials?"
"Oh, heavens no."
"Any contact with the rest of the Intersect scientists who were on the project with you in the fall?"
"No. Not really," he said. "I see things other people have done, but I have no idea who they are. No connections."
"Ok," said Chuck. Turning to the rest of the team he said, "What do you guys think?"
"We have to destroy it. We have to destroy Fulcrum's Intersect," said Sarah.
"I agree..." said Chuck.
"Bomb it," said Casey.
"Sneak in and blow it up?" asked Chuck.
"No. Why take the risk? From the air. We call in an airstrike and blow the shit out of it," said Casey.
"On American soil? An airstrike? Seriously?" asked Chuck.
"Sure. Gas leak and explosion. You don't really think all those gas leak explosions are real, do you? Ninety percent of them are our doing. If gas was really that dangerous no one would use it," said Casey.
"Wow. That's disturbing. But ok, blowing it up destroys just the hardware. All the data and software is backed up someplace else. Without destroying that they just buy some more computers and they are back where they are right now."
"Yeah, but without the Doctor," argued Casey.
"That's true," said Amy.
Sarah said, "So, what do you have in mind, Chuck? We have to destroy the backed-up information, but we have no idea where it is. Right?"
"Yeah, so we send it something to kill it wherever it is," said Chuck.
"A virus," said Busgang.
"Yeah. I insert a virus into the Fulcrum Intersect computer. It stays inactive until after the back-up at midnight. At that point it wipes out everything, both in the back-up server and in the local computer, and then commits suicide so it can't get out into the wild and cause mayhem everywhere."
"What if the back-up server is shared? Like those new "cloud" systems they are developing?" asked Busgang.
"Ok. Fair point. What if I write something that will only kill the files with the same names as the files on the local drive? Would there be a lot of files on the back up with other names?"
"No, there shouldn't be any. There are no categories of data or software that have been discontinued and shelved. At least not since I've been there. Whatever is on the local server will mirror the back-up sever. If you kill those files, and only those files, you would have destroyed what Fulcrum has from my Intersect research. I mean, of course, they might have backed it up again from the other server. We'd have no way of knowing if that were the case."
"Yeah, but there's not much to be done about that," said Sarah.
"True," said Busgang, nodding his head in agreement.
"There's always whatever they might glean from the papers remaining in the Doctor's office," said Cole. "After the virus does its work, I agree with Casey that the place should be destroyed. I mean...assuming I get a vote."
Sarah made a dismissive face and said, "Cole, for the time being you are as much a part of the team as anyone else and have the same right to an opinion as any of us. Do not feel yourself an outsider. Not at all."
"Thanks, love," he said with a grin.
"But, don't ever call me 'love.'" She pointed at him with a finger and did not smile when she said it.
"Never again," he said, meaning it.
"Ok," said Amy. "Summarize. We get to Palm Springs. Break into the building with the Fulcrum Intersect. Insert Chuck's virus and wait for it to do its thing. When that's done, we destroy the place and go home. I miss anything?"
"Sounds like a plan," said Chuck.
"How long will it take you to create the virus?" asked Busgang.
"I can do it as we drive. I have some existing ones that are pretty close. I'll just modify one of those."
"Guys," said Amy. "All this depends on Fulcrum not changing what they would otherwise do. The Doctor has disappeared. I don't think they know we have him...thanks to Chuck's foresight, but he's missing. What if they freak out and shut everything down?"
"Right," said Sarah. "Let's try to make them think he's just missing and not with us."
"I met a woman," said Busgang, enthusiastically. "I met a woman and went back to her place. I'm involved in extended coitus." He said the last bit with a smile, as if the concept was pleasing.
"And how do we get these assholes the message that you met a babe at the opera and are getting your ashes hauled?" asked Casey. Something in his voice indicated skepticism that "opera hook-ups" were a thing.
"The SIM card from my phone. It has the number pre-programed in. In case of emergencies." After they took him, they had taken away his phone, removed the SIM card and left the rest of the device in the opera house.
Sarah said, with a shrug, "It's as good a reason as any for him to disappear. They might not buy it, but it's better than nothing."
Chuck took the info off the SIM card Sarah handed him.
The others agreed. Amy got a burner phone from a (vast) collection of burner phones, asked Chuck for the number, and entered a message. It took them a bit of back and forth, but they concluded on the message:
DON'T WORRY, AGENT. NO PROBLEMS. I MET A NICE WOMAN AND I'M AT HER PLACE. I'LL BE BACK WHEN I'M DONE. I HONESTLY HOPE THAT TAKES A WHILE. TELL THE OTHER BOYS TO KEEP CALM AND NOT OVERREACT. WHEN I CALL FOR A LIFT, JUST LOOK FOR THE SMILE.
He ended the text with some icons which, when combined, indicated either "coitus" or an eggplant taco. One could never quite be sure.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
The drive from Los Angeles to Palm Springs took them a little over two hours. Not the most comfortable drive, but manageable. Chuck and Sarah sat towards the back of the van, cuddled up and sleeping. Casey drove, with Cole in the passenger seat. Amy stretched out on one of the benches and slept soundly. She seemed to believe that any opportunity to get a bit of sleep wasn't to be missed. Busgang sat with them and fidgeted.
They arrived at the corner of Ramon Street and Neuma Drive, finding a two story building with desert on all sides, at about 11:45PM. They had to get Chuck's virus into the Fulcrum Intersect before the midnight backup.
Chuck said, "Doctor, you and I will go in and insert the virus and wait for the backup to confirm that it made it there. Then we can signal the rest of the team to come in and burn the place down, or whatever."
"Fine," said Busgang.
"I'll go with you, Sweetie. Just in case," said Sarah. She was not comfortable leaving him alone in danger, at least for the time being.
"We'll keep watch out here," said Casey.
"Ok. Let's go," said Chuck, opening the back of the van and stepping out.
Cole stepped out behind them and said, "I'll wait in the night air, I think."
The four of them walked to the front of the building, marked with a sign that said, "CONSTELLATION SCIENCE."
"Cute," said Chuck. "Constellation. As in Perseus the constellation."
"Yes," said Busgang. "Someone's idea of a joke I suppose."
Busgang's card key got he, Sarah, and Chuck into the building. Cole leaned against the wall and waited for them outside the darkened building. The remaining three members of the team went through the door to the lab. When the lights came on and they were able to see the room, they were able to appreciate its size. The room was two stories tall, with a catwalk along the side with banks of computers and a workstation.
"This way," said Busgang. He took Chuck up the stairs to the computers. Once there, Chuck powered up a terminal and entered Busgang's information to gain access. Taking a small thumb drive from his pocket, Chuck inserted it into the USB port and tapped the keyboard.
"Annnnd, there we go," he said. "It's in."
Sarah was below, looking at the papers on the desk and brain scans up on corkboards.
Busgang said, "So, we wait for midnight and the backup. Then it gets loaded onto the backup server and kills everything that was here. Well done, Agent Carmichael." He was very enthusiastic.
While he was waiting for the midnight back-up to swallow his virus, Chuck looked at the names of the files on the Intersect computer. "What's this one?" Chuck asked, pointing to a file labeled 'Orion.' "Another constellation?"
"Orion is the code name for the developer of the Intersect. It was all his idea. His brainchild," said Busgang.
"Where is he now?" asked Chuck.
In their ears they heard Casey say, "We've got company...shit...a lot of company. Walker, get Busgang and Carmichael out the back way. NOW."
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Casey and Amy were in the van, idly watching the desert, when Amy said, "Shit. Company."
Casey turned to look and saw five black SUV's pull up in front of the building and begin to unload men with long guns in their hands. Casey screamed into the mike, "We've got company...shit...a lot of company. Walker, get Busgang and Carmichael out the back way. NOW."
Five or six of the men headed for the front of the building, where Cole was standing guard. Five or six ran to the side of the building to cover the rear. The balance of the men took firing positions and began to fire at the van with their weapons.
There was a deafening drumming as the rounds impacted on the bulletproof sides of the vehicle. The glass began to splinter, but not break, under the hail of fire. Moving quickly, Amy and Casey donned vests, took rifles from the wall and grabbed pouches of magazines and gear.
Casey pulled up the computer and opened the file Chuck had used to decrypt the Fulcrum communications at the opera house, hoping the attackers would be using the same system. He forwarded it to a walkie-talkie, which he connected to an earphone. Immediately, he heard the other men.
"Ok," he said to Amy. "One last thing." The attackers were walking closer to the van. The fire not slacking in the slightest. He handed Amy a gasmask, which she donned quickly. He put his own on as well. She nodded to him. He pushed a button on the van's control panel. From under the chassis of the truck spewed a dense mix of smoke and military CS gas. The gunfire ceased as the Fulcrum men struggled to see and breath and began to pull back.
With a nod to each other, Casey and Amy exited the van from different doors and, protected by the gasmasks, came at the Fulcrum men from two angles. Within moments, all of the newcomers were dead in the street.
As the wind carried away the gas, Casey and Amy stripped off the masks and dropped them. Together, they ran to the building.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Cole stood with his back to the wall of the building, taking deep breathes of the cool desert air. He was mostly a city dweller. Although his training and military service had taken him to some very wild spots, since he'd joined the River House, he had mostly operated in the cities of the world. He did enjoy the night sky away from the city lights. Just to look at the stars, and, for a change, not have to use them to tell the time or your location. Just to appreciate...
Five black SUV's pulled up in front of the building and began to unload. A handful of the men began to run to the building, straight at Cole. Others opened fire on the van. His training kicked in. He drew his weapon, a Browning High-power 9mm, took aim, and began to fire. Two of the men running to the building went down hard before the others stopped and took aim at him.
Even with his vest under his shirt, Cole expected to die at that moment, but the initial burst of fire was inaccurate and shattered the glass wall behind him. Cole threw himself backwards onto the broken glass inside the lobby and let off a couple of rounds at the remaining men. While they were keeping their heads down, he scurried up to the desk for the security guard and threw himself over. Although the top was made of stone, the sides weren't, so while it could offer concealment, it offered little in the way of cover. He changed magazines.
The three men moved forward into the building, shooting at the security desk in the hope of killing the man behind it. The moment the shooting paused, Cole screamed in agony. One of the men stuck his head over the top of the desk to check on the status of the wounded man. Cole shot him in the face three times.
The remaining two men had passed him by to get to the main room with Sarah and Chuck.
Cole got up and followed them.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Walker said, "Move it. We're leaving now." Her gun was out and in her hand.
It sounded like a war outside, with machine guns blasting.
"Right," Chuck said. Grabbing Busgang by the arm, he said, "Let's go."
Before they had gotten halfway to the stairs, two men burst in, guns drawn. Sarah killed one with a snap shot. The second one died from a shot coming from behind. Cole came in quickly behind the falling dead man.
He called up to Chuck and Busgang, "Stay where you are, lads. There's a team coming in the back as well."
"Right," said Chuck.
In their ears, they heard Casey say, "I'm listening to them. They had an alarm on the building card key. Scrambled when we came up. They figured out the plan. They want to stop the upload in … 3 minutes."
"Can you get to the basement, Case?" asked Chuck.
"Yeah, why?" asked Casey.
"Protect the POE, the point of entry for the fiber coming to the building. It's the way out for my virus. If they are smart enough to figure out what we are up to, they will certainly figure out the way to stop it."
"Kill the power?" asked Amy.
"UPS. I'll bet they installed an uninterrupted power supply system. Batteries to keep this sucker going." Beside him, Busgang nodded. "Yeah. If I was trying to stop the upload, I'd be trying to get to the fiber in the basement."
"Right, Kid. We're heading there now. Cole, stay with Sarah and Chuck."
"Right, Casey. Will do," said Cole.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Casey and Amy found the door to the basement stairs ajar. The lights were on below them. The logical assumption was that the Fulcrum enemy was already down there. He and Amy took flashbang grenades from their kit and pulled the pins.
Casey pointed to himself, to indicate that he would head down first, after the grenades had detonated. It was the most dangerous task of the night, as the enemy would undoubtedly have their guns pointed at the stairway. Amy shook her head defiantly 'NO'. She mouthed the words 'my turn' and threw her grenade down the stairs.
Taken by surprise, Casey threw his a moment later. Jostling him aside, Amy dove at the stairway head first. She curled herself into a ball and rolled down the stairs. It was such a bizarre move that the gunfire lagged, and the bullets impacted behind her rolling body. By the time she had rolled onto the basement floor, Casey was starting down the stairs and the gunfire was split between them.
Amy found a bit of machinery and took cover behind it. She opened fire, forcing the Fulcrum men to duck while Casey made it down the stairs. The remaining men were clustered around a conduit coming in through the concrete wall and were being protected by the other two men.
Amy made some hand gestures to Casey, and lunged out from cover, going for cover closer to the conduit. It was a borderline reckless move, but it drew the defender's fire to her. Casey stood up and killed both men before they could get an accurate bead on Amy.
That left two men by the conduit. One of them spun to face the threat from Amy and Casey, the other put his weapon to the conduit, preparing to damage it as much as possible and hopefully stop the transfer of Chuck's virus to the backup mainframe.
Amy and Casey both fired at the man pointing his weapon at the conduit. He died before he could get off a shot with his weapon. That left the other man. He fired at Casey and hit him with a burst in the chest, just as Amy killed him. Amy rushed to Casey. He groaned, "Ok. The vest held."
Amy touched her watch and said, "Basement secure." She glanced at the watch she just had touched. Less than a minute left until Chuck's virus was uploaded.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Sarah took the back entrance to the room, and Cole took the catwalk near the computers with Busgang and Chuck.
They heard the gunfire from elsewhere in the building, but it seemed to be dying out. In her ear, she heard Amy say, "Basement secure."
They knew there were more Fulcrum attackers there. They heard Casey say, his breathing rough, "On our way up."
There was movement outside from the back of the lab.
Midnight struck and Chuck's virus was uploaded to the back-up mainframe. A moment later, Chuck saw the files on the monitor in front of him flicker and disappear.
Sarah opened fire on the Fulcrum man coming in that way.
Another Fulcrum man came in the door to the main room and ducked behind the wall. Casey had just caught a glimpse of him moving into the room. He called out, "Bartowski, Barker, watch out."
Busgang looked up with surprise and said, "Bartowski?"
The Fulcrum man opened fire. Barker leapt forward, yelling, "Chuck." He tackled Chuck, knocking him to the floor of the walkway just as the rounds hit the area where Chuck had been a moment before. Barker was hit three times, twice in the vest and once in the shoulder where the vest didn't cover.
Busgang, also knocked off balance, fell off the walkway to the floor below.
Sarah and Casey spun on the Fulcrum man and shot him from both sides, killing him.
Busgang lay on the floor unmoving.
Cole sat up, cursing, as blood ran from his shoulder.
Amy got to the room and thought, "What a damn mess."
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
A few days later, Cole was enjoying a celebratory dinner. Although he was not a party to the event they were celebrating, he was delighted to be there nonetheless.
The waiter came to the table and asked for the drink orders. Chuck ordered a vodka martini, up with a twist, using Ketel One vodka. Sarah went with a vodka gimlet, without a preference for vodka. Casey ordered a Johnny Walker. Eileen Burke ordered a glass of Patron Anejo, with a single rock. Cole himself chose Jameson's over ice. Amy liked Sarah's idea and went with a vodka gimlet.
Although Cole's right arm was in a sling, it didn't dampen his mood. When Chuck mentioned it, Cole laughed and said, "I'm not ordering steak or anything I need two hands for, Matey. So, no worries for me. And let me tell you, booze is way better than Percocet."
They were at Spago, the Wolfgang Puck establishment in Beverly Hills, to celebrate. Team B had signed the Operating Agreement for Carmichael Industries that morning, which allowed them to open a bank account and make their first deposit that afternoon. The three million dollar reward check was in the bank soon after lunch. Not everyone at the table knew it, but Chuck had also received the paperwork for the Piranha Presidential pardon, which was now sitting in the safe in his apartment (although he had transmitted a copy to Neilson, the New York lawyer, for safekeeping), as well as the pardons from two state governors. The new business owners had decided to have a blow-out dinner to celebrate. Eileen, through some magic, managed the last minute reservation at Spago. And here they were. In a very happy mood.
Cole was thrilled for his new friends. Given the skills, intelligence and judgment they had shown in the few days he had known them, he was certain that their business was going to be a smashing success. He didn't envy that, not at all. What he did envy was the tight bond among the four of them. He'd been with the SAS and, among the troops there was a brotherhood, a camaraderie, that was totally lacking in the spy world. Spies weren't supposed to trust anyone, even each other, but this team did. One hundred percent. He missed it in this line of work. He saw it and envied it without shame or resentment. Lucky sods.
After the destruction of the Fulcrum Intersect, they had airlifted Busgang and Cole back to LA. Cole was told that he would make a complete recovery, although his shoulder would need a great deal of physical therapy. Busgang, on the other hand, had hit his head falling off the walkway and was still in a coma. Dr. Bartowski, Chuck's sister, didn't know when or if he would wake up. The brain was an uncertain organ.
The Palm Springs location for the Fulcrum Intersect was destroyed, but they had no way of knowing if the backup server had been destroyed as well. They trusted Chuck's virus, but without getting to that server itself, they couldn't be sure. The destruction of the Intersect was accompanied by the deaths of the entire team that had been guarding it. It seems that they had been alerted to Busgang's entry into the building and, knowing that he was missing and presumed to be with a woman, knew something was off. That understanding had been pieced together from the recording of their radio chatter, but there were no survivors left to question.
Cole was enjoying himself immensely. Looking around at the others at the table, he couldn't think of a better group, a group he'd be happier to spend time with. He didn't know Casey's woman, Eileen, very well, but her no-bullshit attitude and frank sense of humor had made her a favorite immediately. At the moment, she was telling a story about a man named Morgan, who was working out very well at the restaurant where Eileen worked, although he was apparently working his ass off, and leaving her with some hilarious stories.
Cole would be flying back to London the next day and knew he would miss his new friends.
The drinks arrived. Chuck raised his in a toast. "To new days."
"To new days," they all responded, clicking their glasses in the center of the table.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
A/N2: For the location for the Fulcrum Intersect, I used a building on Ramon Street in Palm Springs housing a store called Chuck's Auto. Because...well, because.
A/N3: I had the pleasure of having dinner at Spago with my son a couple of years ago. I've been to a number of wonderful restaurants over the years (as my belt size attests), and I'm prepared to be disappointed by something too hyped. It was wonderful. Really, really expensive, but wonderful. There was even some famous guy at the bar. I mean, I didn't have any idea who the guy was, but my son thought it was very cool. Anyway, if you are in LA and have a bunch of money to spend on dinner, you could do worse.
A/N4: Having had shoulder surgery at the end of 2019, I can tell you with certainty that booze is better than Percocet.
A/N5: The end of the Perseus arc. The Fulcrum Intersect project has been damaged, but we don't know to what extent. I kept the good Doctor Busgang alive (unlike canon), in case I ever want to use him again. Orion got the first mention in this happy little AU, so there's that. Cole is much more user friendly than he was in canon. What think you nice people? Let me know. And wear a mask.