A/N Welcome back, and thank you to all those who have reviewed the story. This chapter is rather short, but the next chapter was too long to combine the two like I did in the last posting. I'm tempted to post the chapters a lot faster in order to avoid the temptation to tinker with the story and accidentally cause a major revision to happen...but it's a little too late for that. Barring any major rewrites, this should shake out at 14 chapters with an epilogue.
Chapter 4: Chuck versus the Helicopter
The wheels on the Coast Guard helicopter hadn't even made contact with the roof of the store when Sarah propelled Chuck through the downwash and into the open door of the chopper. A crew member quickly helped him aboard, not commenting on the bizarre fashion accessory that Chuck had forgotten to take off in the heat of the moment. Sarah leapt aboard without assistance, and with gun still in hand. Spinning inside the helicopter, she pointed to the pilot and gestured for her to get the helicopter back up in the air. The pilot had a couple tours under her belt performing combat search and rescue ops. She recognized the vibe emanating from Sarah that things were going to be done her way, there was no "highway" option. The pilot had little doubt that if she didn't move fast enough the spook with the gun would dump her out of the aircraft and take the stick herself.
Sarah glanced at Chuck's face and was somewhat relieved to see the stunned expression there. She knew that it was only a matter of time before that incredible mind of his put together the clues and realized that the situation must be truly dire. Not only had the NSA Director issued an emergency evacuation order for the most important intelligence asset the United States has, but she hadn't used CIA or NSA resources to carry out the evacuation. By calling in assets from the Coast Guard and Navy, Beckman had pretty much guaranteed that questions would be asked. Those questions could lead to the exposure of Team Bartowski, and that was a risk that General Beckman took extremely seriously. The magnitude of the threat must be sufficiently high to outweigh that risk.
Meanwhile the crew chief was shaking his head over what had turned into a far more exciting afternoon than he had been expecting. While they occasionally got the call for a rapid response evacuation from a vessel in trouble at sea, this was the first time they had deployed on land-and their flight plan was instantly cleared through one of the busiest airspaces in the country. They must have broken 20 regulations already on this flight, but their base commander was in their ear urging them to move faster.
The pilot called in that the package had been secured, and was given the coordinates on where to drop the mystery couple. Glancing at the flight chart in the thigh pocket of her flight suit, the pilot requested a verification of the coordinates even as she hurtled the helicopter at is max cruising speed toward the destination- a random spot in the ocean three miles offshore. The base commander himself verified the location, and then told the pilot that she was to forget anything she should see when she got there, as well as anyone she had seen on the helicopter.
With all aircraft diverted out of their way, the direct path to the coordinates took just minutes. Just as the pilot was starting to think to herself, what the hell do we do now? We're here even though 'here' is nowhere, she looked down at the wave crests directly ahead of the helicopter and saw the feathering wake of a periscope break through the surface of the ocean as a submarine emerged from the depths of the seas.
"Strap them in, Chief" she called the to the crew chief who was looking over her shoulder, eyes popping out at the realization of where their passengers were headed. The Dauphin was equipped with a winch that could easily support the weight of either of their passengers, although normally it was used to haul people up from the water, not down towards it.
Yelling over the sound of the motor directly above their heads, the crew chief instructed Chuck and Sarah that they should put on harnesses and he would attach the winch to them and lower them down. Sarah simply nodded once, but Chuck looked from one side of the helicopter to the other, seeing nothing but open water. Realizing that Chuck didn't know where he was headed, the crew chief leaned out of the open door and pointed straight down. Chuck peeked his head over the edge and looked down at the Navy attack sub rolling in the swells twenty feet beneath the helicopter. He quickly snapped his head back inside, looking rather green from the experience.
"This is just like 'Hunt for Red October'," he called to Sarah who merely rolled her eyes while grabbing the harness at his waist and latching the winch line to Chuck. She already had her harness on as well. When the crew chief pointed to her and signaled that she would follow next, she simply shook her head, grabbed a heavy line from a nearby storage compartment, connected one end to a u-joint welded to the floor and tossed the other end out of the far door.
As Chuck was slowly wound down towards the sub conning tower, Sarah hurtled out of the helicopter in a classic fast rope deployment, snapping the line to a stop a few feet above the tower. The two officers on the conning tower were stunned at the maneuver out of the helicopter, and then more stunned when the daredevil turned out to be a woman with supermodel looks. Sarah punched the heavy line free from her harness and dropped, cat-like, onto the rolling deck. Given the limited space on top of the conning tower and the six foot rollers that the sub was pushing through on the surface, it was a truly spectacular move.
Sarah grabbed the grappling hook from one of the sub officers, only trusting herself to bring Chuck safely aboard the submarine. She had to give the helo driver credit, she was not only keeping station directly above the submarine, she was doing her best to match the ocean swells to make the transition as seamless as possible. On her first attempt, Sarah hooked Chuck and pulled him into a tight embrace. She then unhooked the winch line, tugged it and gave a thumbs up to the crew chief who started reeling in the winch line as the helicopter veered back toward the Coast Guard station, where they would write up reports that they did not have the security clearances to read.
Fortunately for Chuck, he had left the Barbie lifejacket behind on the Coast Guard helicopter, as he and Sarah were greeted by a somewhat dumbfounded, but no-nonsense Executive Officer. "Welcome aboard the Key West. We are currently en-route to San Diego. It will be a little crowded as we already have some guests below."
Sarah gave the man a hard look that made him uneasy even though he had several inches and about thirty pounds on Sarah, "We were never here. This never happened."
Chuck gave Sarah a look of joy that confused her, but more confusing to her was the response of the XO, "Neither are the guys down below that we are giving a lift to."
Sarah walked over to the open hatch and dropped down inside the conning tower, her hands and feet sliding down the sides of the ladder like an old sea dog. Chuck tried to scramble down after her, but had trouble trying to go down as the conning tower swung from side to side in the choppy seas. When he finally made it to the deck, he spun to face Sarah, smacking his forehead on a bulkhead positioned for people shorter than his 6'3" frame.
"Are you okay?" Sarah instantly asked, her hand shooting to his forehead to check for any sign of injury.
"I think my ego is more bruised than my noggin," Chuck replied with a rueful smile.
"Well, you are a bit taller than the average submariner," Sarah responded with a slight smile.
A nearby clang signaled that the XO had come down from the conning tower after Chuck and dogged the hatch shut behind him.
"Straight board signals green," called out a young seaman seated in front of a computer monitor covered with information on the status of the sub.
As soon as the word green started to come out of the sailor's mouth, the Captain was ordering, "Down planes. Make your depth one five zero feet. Resume course 171 and make your speed 24 knots." Making his way out of the conning tower, the Captain glanced back at Chuck and Sarah, "Folks, if you will follow me to comms, I've got orders to put you in touch with your boss." Raising his voice as he started heading off of the bridge, he called out, "XO has the conn."
Chuck heard "XO has the conn, aye. Sonar check for any activity on all passive systems" as he followed the Captain and Sarah to a nearby room not much bigger than Sarah's closet at Maison 23.
Knocking on the door, the Captain opened the door and ordered his comms specialist to give them some space.
"A helicopter ride to an attack sub? All we need know is some Russian speaking with a Scottish accent," Chuck said with a grin. Turning to Sarah, he continued, "Would that make you Jackie or Jacqueline Ryan?"
"If you are finished," countered the serious sub skipper, "I've got orders to put you spooks in touch with Fort Meade ASAP."