A/N: Ownership. There. Now let's get moving. A lot to cover in this chapter. Buckle up, kids.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
FBI Headquarters
The takedown of the Twins' assassination squad in Pennsylvania had been two days ago and people were still congratulating Carmichael and his team. Jenny Statler told him that they were welcome at the FBI any time.
"Thanks, Jenny. You know I'm uncomfortable though. The Twins are still on the loose."
"Oh, come on, Chuck. Take the win. You and your guys did good," she said with a happy smile.
"Any word on when I can get the computer you guys found in the Miata?"
"I know you've been after it. I made another call. Sometime this morning, I'm told. It's coming in by messenger from Pittsburgh."
"Great, Jenny. Thanks."
"You think it might be important?" she asked.
"I hope so. The security footage showed the man trying to turn back to the car and go back for something. The woman stopped him. I hope he was going back for the computer."
"Hope it helps you. It'll be protected by a password, though. Isn't that going to be a problem?" asked Jenny.
Chuck smiled like a shark and said, "No. No problem."
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Chery Auto Factory and Showroom, Leesburg, Virginia
Sarah and Mei-Ling stood with Casey after having watched the Secret Service triple check the room. Mei-Ling and Casey had settled into an easy relationship. There was zero tension lingering from their last liaison. Sarah wasn't sure what conversations her two friends had had, but whatever they had discussed, it had settled into an easy friendship and seamless working relationship.
The Chinese auto company Chery had opened a factory in Leesburg, employing almost three hundred people. Cynics claimed it was an attempt by the Chinese Communist Party to avoid retaliatory tariffs from American cars being sold in China. Sarah assumed that they were probably right. She stood in the large showroom, showing a selection of the company's cars on display for the guests and the press. The entire facility took up about three hundred acres of land, with the factory, the showroom, an office building, and a huge lot for the finished product to sit while awaiting transport to dealerships.
The event was scheduled to take an hour and a half, starting just after sunset. The Presidents would tour the showroom floor, admiring the cars. Shake hands with the American workers and the Chinese managers. Bush probably hoped to put in some good words for John McCain, engaged in a hard political battle with the young Illinois Senator Barak Obama. When they had concluded the event, they were scheduled to have a relatively small dinner at an upscale Chinese restaurant on the main drag of the town.
The summit was ending the next day and, as the feeling amongst (most) of the National Security Community was that the Twins' plans had been thwarted by the FBI, the concentration at the moment could focus on physical security. With that in mind, Casey, Bryce and Zondra had moved to augment the Secret Service at the event.
Chuck had had the laptop computer from the Miata, the Twins' computer, for a few hours. The encryption had been world-class. He broke it, of course, but it took a while and an entire bottle of Chardonnay. While the rest of his team was with the Secret Service, Chuck elected to stay in the nearby FBI command center set up on the Chery grounds and continue his work on the information he was finding in the Twins' computer.
Deng stayed with him, to translate the information in Mandarin. Tony stayed, as well, mostly because Jenny had told him to.
It was another hour or so later, and the Presidents had arrived, when Chuck's phone buzzed and he looked at it to see the most beautiful face in the world on the screen. "Hi, sweetie."
"Hey, handsome. Just curious if you found anything interesting," Sarah said.
"Some stuff to check out later. Contacts and things like that probably, but nothing earthshaking. It's going to be a long-term analysis, I think. Thank God Deng is here with me or I'd be lost. How are you guys?"
"Fine. Hot. The AC isn't working and it's like a sauna in here, even with the sun down. The Presidents don't seem to care, though. Must be a politician thing."
"They didn't check it or something before the big event?" Chuck asked.
"Oh yeah. The business guys here are pissed. Said a couple of HVAC techs were around all day yesterday. Seems that they broke it rather than fixing it," she said.
"The brothers of Jeff and Lester?" asked Chuck with a chuckle.
"Probably. Although old Jeff. Not new Jeff," she said.
"Principals, ok?" he asked.
"Yeah. Glad handing, each in their own way," she said. "As these things go, it's bearable."
"Any nice cars on display?"
"Nothing compared to ours, Mr. Carmichael," she said.
Chuck started to laugh, "You're a snob, Ms. Walker."
"Well, I picked you, didn't I? I only get the best."
"Sweet talker. You trying to have your way with me later?"
"You better believe it, buster. It's like an addiction. Sex with Chuck Bartowski. I'll have to go to a support group or something. Twelve step program."
"Please don't. I'm delighted that you are addicted," he said.
She paused before answering and was clearly distracted when she said, "Yeah. Me too. Love you. Gotta go."
"Love you," he said. They broke the connection.
Chuck turned back to the computer with an apologetic shrug to Deng.
They continued to dig into the files. There was quite the collection and it was taking them some time.
After a while, Chuck found a file about a chemical called methyl antcarnide. He had no idea what that was, even as he read some specs that were essentially meaningless to him. But, at the end of the file, was a recent invoice for two cylinders of the chemical delivered to a local address in Virginia, each containing 330 cubic feet of gas. So, a total of 660 cubic feet overall. Chuck had only recently learned about the size and pressure of gas cylinders from his studies of scuba. A scuba tank for a dive held 80 to 100 cubic feet of air. Six times as much was a lot of gas. Why had they purchased something of this quantity and what the hell was this chemical anyway?
After a brief discussion with Deng, he decided to make a call or two. A few moments on the internet and he had the name of a Professor Synder, a professor of applied chemistry at Stanford. As it was earlier in California, he managed to reach the man at his office. He kept it on speakerphone so Deng could hear.
"Good afternoon, Professor. My name is Carmichael. I'm an agent with Homeland Security. I wonder if I can ask you a quick question, sir."
"Of course, Agent Carmichael. How can I help?"
"We are looking into an organization that has purchased a number of items. This is just a routine follow-up as we try to get a handle on their activities."
"Ok, sure. How can I help? What sorts of things?" asked the Professor.
"Among the purchases were two cylinders full of methyl antcarnide. Six hundred and sixty cubic feet of the chemical. I'm wondering if you can tell us what that chemical might be used for?"
"Is this a factory or something?" asked the professor.
"Not that we know, sir," said Chuck.
"Humm. That's weird," he said, pausing to think.
"What does the chemical do, sir? Might it be used to make an explosive?" asked Chuck. "Maybe when combined with something else?"
"An explosive? No, no, no. It's nothing like that. It's a bleach. It just removes smells. Airborne smells. Particularly sulfur. It reacts with sulfur and binds to it. It is mostly used in manufacturing. That's why I assumed you were dealing with a factory. It would clean sulfur smells out a factory product. If you don't want your product to smell bad, you could mix in some methyl antcarnide. But the quantity you are talking about...I don't know. That's a lot."
Chuck's blood went cold in an instant. The HVAC system in the building was broken after two technicians tended to it yesterday. OH FUCK.
Chuck turned to his computer and typed in a quick search.
"Professor Snyder, would methyl antcarnide affect mercaptan?"
"Why yes, yes it would. It would eliminate..."
"SHIT," barked Chuck. "Thank you, Professor." Chuck disconnected the call and touched his watch as he was standing. "Sarah, evacuate the principals. The building is going to blow up. Casey, the rest of you, evacuate the whole building. Everybody out. NOW." Chuck turned to Tony and said, "Tony, call 911. Tell them there's a gas leak."
Chuck bolted through the door and began to sprint to the showroom building across the large lawn, after a moment or two he found Deng at his heels.
"What's mercaptan?" he asked Chuck as they ran.
"It's the chemical they add to natural gas to give it an odor. Without mercaptan you'll never know there's a gas leak. Natural gas is colorless and odorless."
"Oh, shit," said Deng. "So, with the mercaptan rendered inert the whole building can be full of explosive gas. The bomb-sniffing dogs would never even know it."
"Not that they are trained to find natural gas in any event," said Chuck.
"What are you going to do now?" asked Deng.
"I'm going to get to the basement and shut off the gas line to the building."
"Even though you've just ordered the building evacuated?"
"Well, yeah. You stay outside."
"To hell with that, Chuck. I'm going with you," said the Chinese spy as he ran.
Chuck touched his watch and said, "Guys, I'm going in to shut off the gas line to the building."
XXXXXXXXXXXXX
Sarah and Mei-Ling found Fred to the side of the event, watching as the principals walked among the cars and glad handed the men and women responsible for the event and the business venture.
Sarah went right to Kemp and said, urgently, "Chuck says evacuate the principals. The building is going to blow up. Now."
"Sarah, we've had the bomb dogs everywhere in this building. That's not going to happen," he said in a reassuring tone of voice.
Sarah stepped up in front of him, a bit inside his personal space and said, her voice as hard as granite, "Carmichael calls Thunderrun." She looked him in the eyes without any semblance of doubt, emphasizing the name of the man who had issued the command.
Her words had a dramatic effect on Kemp. After only a couple of seconds he brought his left wrist to his mouth and yelled, "THUNDERRUN. THUNDERRUN. THUNDERRUN." He was drawing his weapon as he did so.
Every Secret Service agent reacted instantly as they had been trained. The ones on duty with the bodies, the two principals, pulled their side arms and clustered tight around the two men. The ones on the periphery drew more formidable submachine guns. Everyone was looking everywhere for danger. Sarah and Mei-Ling were in the lead, with Kemp and the scrum of agents and principals immediately behind them as they began to move through the building to the exit at almost a light jog, brusquely pushing anyone else out of the way.
The media, present to record the somewhat bland event, suddenly found themselves with the story of a lifetime. They scrambled to get their cameras recording and the two beautiful lady agents leading the charge were, without question, photogenic.
The fire alarm began to wail, and they heard Casey's strong voice shouting behind them, directing everyone to exit the building immediately through all emergency exits. There was no doubt that his commands would be heeded.
They were in a hallway leading to the exit when Kemp spoke into his wrist and said, "Sniper Three, we are coming out the west exit. Acknowledge...Sniper Three? Sniper Three, acknowledge...shit."
Sarah and Mei-Ling stopped and put out their arms to stop the group. Everyone stopped at their direction.
Kemp shared a look with Sarah for a moment. The look said 'Shit, Chuck was right', but aloud he said, "Mobile one, bring the cars to the north exit. Sniper one, acknowledge."
"Sniper One, acknowledged," said a disembodied voice in their ears.
"We are taking the principals out north."
"Roger that," said Sniper One.
Sarah, Mei-Ling and the grouping behind them, turned and began to jog down another corridor, at right angles to the one they had been on. It was a bit further to the exit, but at least they had a sniper team covering them when they got through the doors.
As the group burst through the doors to the outside air, every man and woman scanned the surrounding area looking for threats. Kemp said to Sarah and Mei-Ling, "Let's go," as he pushed the principals into the waiting car.
"No," said Sarah. "You go. I'm going to check out Sniper Three. Mei-Ling, you go with them."
"Fuck no. I'm going with you, Sarah," she said.
"Sarah..." said Kemp.
"Get the principals out of here, Fred," she said, turning away.
The cars left with a crunch of thrown gravel, as Sarah and Mei-Ling began to run to the adjacent building where Sniper Three had set up a nest.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
With some difficulty, Chuck and Deng made their way past the crowd being hustled out of the building. They passed Bryce as he was encouraging people to leave. He looked at them with surprise.
Chuck said, "Going to shut off the gas valve to the building."
"Shit, I heard, be careful, dude," said Bryce.
"My middle name," said Chuck as he jostled past. "Get the rest of these people out of here."
"Right," Bryce replied.
Chuck and Deng found their way to the basement and started to look for the gas pipe, opening doors on their way. The basement was empty, as they might expect with the fire alarm still blaring. They opened multiple doors down the corridor and didn't find anything that might help them.
"Do you think there's a more efficient way to find the right room?" asked Deng, as he opened a door and stepped through to see what was inside.
This was the one they had been searching for. The gas intake for the building had been jury-rigged to the HVAC air intake with the two cylinders of methyl antcarnide connected between the otherwise separate systems.
Deng didn't see his attacker until the sledgehammer hit him in the middle of his leg, breaking his femur. Chuck, also taken by surprise, was immediately hit in the belly with the butt of the handle of the hammer, making him involuntarily bend over. The butt end of the hammer continued its swing and clipped him on the side of the head.
The wielder of the hammer, a surprisingly small Asian woman, smiled at them and said, "You're too late." Behind her was the pipe to bring gas into the building. With a strong swing of her hammer, she hit the circular valve handle, snapping it off at its connection to the pipe. Now there was no way to shut off the gas to the building without special tools.
The woman dropped the hammer on the floor and ran down the corridor towards the exit on the south side of the building.
Chuck, still reeling from the blow to the head, drew his trank pistol and fired at the retreating figure, but missed. She disappeared down the hallway, heading to the exit. A moment later he spoke into his watch. "Yami on the run from the south side of the building. Get her."
Deng, his face a mask of pain, said, "Chuck, leave me here and get out. It's going to blow up. My leg is broken. Get out of here."
Chuck, still recovering his wits, just looked at Deng.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Casey, Zondra and Bryce had gotten all the people out of the building. They didn't think there was anyone left inside...well, except for Chuck and Deng, trying to shut off the gas.
In all three of their ears they heard, "Yami on the run from the south side of the building. Get her."
The three spies began to elbow their way through the crowd of evacuated people to the south side of the building. Bryce got there first and caught sight of Yami, on the run from the structure. He took off, with Zondra and Casey behind him.
Yami was fast. Very fast. Bryce, a star of the Stanford track team, was faster. But it wasn't an easy run. It took some time for Bryce to catch up with her and they were almost in the woods bordering the complex once he did.
He was just behind her and still gaining when she unexpectedly stopped dead in her sprint and threw herself backwards. Bryce, caught by surprise, began to stumble as he tried to avoid her body in front of him.
Yami, expecting that, rolled backwards and thrust her legs straight up, catching Bryce in the belly. His momentum, aided by the upwards push of her legs, sent him sailing a dozen feet past her. He compensated instantly and curled himself into a tight ball, to roll out of the surprise fall. Unfortunately, his roll took him into a tree which stunned him for a few moments.
Only a second or two later, Yami caught Zondra with an aikido throw, using her momentum to throw the American spy to the ground. Yami looked down at Zondra and said, "Too late." She pushed a button on a device in her right hand.
Instantly, the building they had just left exploded in a huge fireball, shattering windows in the nearby buildings and throwing debris high into the air. Yami, Zondra and a somewhat stunned Bryce all looked at the rising flames lighting the night sky. That was exactly the moment when 230 pounds of rock-hard Marine hit Yami at a full sprint. She was picked up from the charge and carried along for another ten yards until Casey dove into the ground atop her, his shoulder digging into her midsection.
She broke three ribs with the landing. She tried to smack at Casey's ears and pop his eardrums as he wrestled atop her, but he smashed his head down in a vicious head-butt, smashing her nose and knocking her unconscious.
Bryce looked at the burning building and screamed in anguish, "CHUCK." He took an involuntary step to run back, but stopped himself with almost a physical effort. He looked at Casey to get permission, pleading, unimaginable pain in his eyes.
"Go," shouted Casey.
Bryce spun and began to run back to the destroyed building faster than he had ever run in his entire life.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Sarah and Mei-Ling ran up the stairs to the fourth floor of the nearby building with their sidearms in their hands. When they got to the floor they opened the door from the fire stairs to the corridor. With a nod to each other, they stepped out, each facing the opposite direction, guns leveled. The corridor was empty.
Silently, they crossed the corridor to the door to the office where Sniper Three was supposed to be based. Both she and Mei-Ling put their backs to the wall next to the door, which was ajar. Sarah took out her phone and pushed a few buttons. Holding it low to the ground, and angled towards both her and the room, it showed her the scene inside the room. Two bodies off to the side and a single figure, seemingly a man, perched at the window with a rifle waiting for a target.
Sarah gave a long silent sigh. She caught Mei-Ling's eye over the doorway and motioned that she would go in first. Mei-Ling, with a tiny smile, shook her head 'no' and stood up in the doorway.
"FREEZE," the Chinese agent screamed. "FEDERAL OFFICERS."
The figure at the window spun incredibly fast and fired while on the move. The bullet caught Mei-Ling in the chest and blew her backwards against the far wall.
The wall in front of Sarah blew outwards towards her, its particles stinging her face. Instinctively, she threw herself sideways and down as bullets smashed through the wall over her head.
She glanced at Mei-Ling, who had rolled aside and a bit into the stairwell, shielding herself from some of the gunfire from the room. The other woman's vest had taken the shot. She nodded to Sarah with a grimace of pain.
Sarah skittered down the hallway a bit and then stopped. She moved to the farther side of the corridor and raised her weapon with both hands. The wall was merely plasterboard. Concealment, but not cover. She closed her eyes and imagined the room in front of her gunsights as if the wall wasn't there and her eyes were open. The room with the window unmoving and the shooter, by his mission, in front of the window. In her mind's eye, he was there, half his attention directed at her and Mei-Ling and half directed to the outside.
With her eyes still closed, and picturing the shooter crouched where she had last seen him, she opened fire. She blasted through the wall at her unseen assailant lowering her fire a bit with each shot, emptying her magazine and replacing it, before she moved again.
She and Mei-Ling crept up to the door. It was silent inside. With guns in hand, the women spies entered the room.
Mei-Ling checked the man near the window, who was an unmoving bundle, as Sarah checked the two Secret Service agents. While in that process, the building across from them blew up with an enormous fireball and a shattering of glass.
Stunned for a second, Sarah looked out at the burning building and screamed, "CHUCK." She sounded as if her life was ending. As if her soul was being savagely ripped from her body.
She glanced at Mei-Ling who nodded 'I got this', and then spun on her heel and leapt through the door into the stairwell. She bounded down the stairs with reckless abandon, her feet only occasionally touching the ground as she jumped from landing to landing, and slammed out the door of the building to get to the nearby structure engulfed in flames. The building with her Chuck inside.
XXXXXXXXXXXX
The building was burning brightly and fiercely. No one could possibly be alive inside.
As both Bryce and Sarah ran towards the flames from different directions, they saw a bulky silhouette coming out towards them. Whoever or whatever it was, was backlit by the flames behind and therefore unrecognizable.
Both arrived at Chuck, carrying Deng over his shoulders, at the same time.
Sarah says, "Oh, thank God." She put her hand over her mouth as her eyes filled with tears.
Bryce, not even a bit out of breath from his sprint, said, "Hey, pal. Hey. Here, give me Deng. Gimme."
Together, Bryce and Chuck managed to transfer Deng off Chuck's shoulders and to the ground, where Bryce eased him gently down to the grass. The Chinese spy hissed in pain, but was otherwise silent. Firefighters from the Leesburg Fire Department were arriving and would tend to Deng shortly.
Sarah wrapped Chuck in a crushing hug and said into his chest, "You scared me. You scared me. Don't do that. I can't be alone again, Chuck. I can't. I can't be without you. I can't."
Chuck kissed her hair and stroked her back. "I'm ok, Sweetie. I'm ok. I'm right here. I'm not going anywhere."
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
A/N2: Mercaptan is real and works as described. Methyl antcarnide is not real. I made it up. And, frankly, I'm glad it's not real, because what the Twins had in mind was pretty damn scary.
A/N3: Bad news, guys. I'm going to miss the next few Saturday drops. I'm going to be out of the country doing research for upcoming chapters of New Day (ok, not really, but I thought you'd all forgive my absence more easily if I was to blame it on the story). I'll be back as soon as I can. You're in good hands in my absence.
A/N4: A good bit of action on this one. Hope you guys approve. Let me know, please.