A/N Wow what an amazing time for Chuck FanFiction. Leap Day may have been the best day of this amazing community in a long time. So much great stuff! Thanks to all my readers, reviewers, alerters and skimmers for both of my active stories. You guys rock and I love being a part of this amazing group of people.
This chapter was going to be much larger but it was getting out of hand so I decided to split it a bit. This will allow me to post both stories more regularly. I love those 10k chapters but writing two stories with that length is too much to keep a good schedule of updates.
Thanks to esardi and BDaddyDL for all their help with this chapter and for becoming good friends.
Don't own Chuck but if I did I wouldn't be missing it as much as I am now.
Chapter 19
The Disks
Castle
Saturday
7:35pm PDT
Sarah led the team down the stairs to the newly activated Castle. She and Chuck had called General Beckman on the ride back from Malibu. They had arranged for an NSA cleanup team to meet Carina and Shaw to pick up Stromberg, Estevez and Kovalenko for transport to a holding facility. Sarah had wanted to brief the General on the mission with just the original Team Intersect first before she included the new members.
Shaw had tested her authority on the mission and seemed to have tried to dismiss Chuck's role on the team. She had set him straight and he ultimately backed down but Sarah could see that integrating an agent who had worked solo for a number of years would be difficult. Most male CIA Agents had huge egos and were definitely alpha males. But the way this team was structured it was bound to cause problems for such a personality. Sure they still didn't trust Shaw completely yet but his Intel had been accurate. A case was being transferred to Ring operatives by the currier that Shaw had claimed would be there. So as long as he continued to provide accurate intelligence on their missions he would be allowed to remain on the team.
"Casey, set up the clean room. I want to know what's inside those cases once Shaw gets back. Chuck, after we check it out, I want you to take the case with the cash and run the serial numbers through Treasury and lets see if we can get anything on the money trail that leads back to Estevez and Kovalenko."
Chuck just stood there for a second with a big shit-eating grin on his face.
"What?"
"Nothing, I just love watching you all in charge." Sarah smacked him on the shoulder and stifled a chuckle.
"Could you two please at least let me leave the room before you start your little banter. I've got no interest in tasting that shrimp from the party again." Casey then stormed off shaking his head muttering something to himself.
Sarah took a step over towards Chuck and took his wrist in her hand. She led them to a corner of the main conference area she knew was not covered by the cameras or mikes. "Chuck, Casey's right. We have to be professional when we are in Castle especially. We can not let on that there is something real between us going on. Especially now with Shaw on the team. Until we know if we can trust him I don't want him checking out the security footage and figuring out something he might use against us later on."
"I'm sorry Sarah. You're right. It's just I'm so proud of you. You are our leader and you are amazing at it. It's hard not to show you how it makes me feel seeing you like this."
Sarah leaned over and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek. "Thank you Chuck. That means a lot to me, especially coming from you but we have to watch ourselves. We are on very thin ice here and I don't want anything to create problems for this team and for us."
Chuck then zipped his lips. "Ok Mr. Professional Intersect from now on I promise."
"Well I hope not always though." Sarah said with a seductive grin. "There are a few places in our lives not under constant surveillance."
"Duly noted and I will have an Excel spreadsheet listing all of them by morning."
"See that you do." She leaned in and gave him another kiss that was full of promise for later on.
Just as the couple pulled back away from each other they heard the sound of the elevator from the Freezer in the Orange Orange opening. They quickly walked back into the conference room to see Shaw and Carina coming down the stairs.
"No trouble with the transfer I take it?"
"No Agent Walker, the three traitors are on their way to secure facilities."
"Thank you Agent Shaw. By the way, good work today on the intel. Just remember to respect the chain of command next time."
"Understood, ma'am." Shaw looked over and saw the two cases that they had brought back from Malibu sitting on the conference table. He stepped over and reached out to open the case they believed carried the intel."
"Shaw! What the hell do you think you are doing?"
"Agent Walker, I've been working on this transfer for three months. I'm getting a look inside these cases as soon as possible. The Ring may already know we have them and the longer we wait the more useless it becomes."
"Agent Shaw. Take you hands off that case." Sarah stared directly into the Shaw's eyes never wavering when she spoke. "Chuck, remind Agent Shaw the protocols for opening unknown packages from enemy agents inside CIA facilities. It seems he must have missed that class at the Farm."
"Certainly Agent Walker." Chuck stepped forward and stood opposite Shaw at the conference table and cleared his throat. "All packages without a complete chain of custody form or from unknown and untrustworthy sources must only be opened in a CIA approved clean room with full environmental and bomb protection capability. All personnel in that room must wear protective clothing until such package is identified as being safe."
"Thank you Mr. Bartowski. It seems Agent Shaw, that our team analyst has a better working knowledge of proper procedure to protect this facility and the personnel in it than a full fledged field Agent. does."
Shaw was fuming. He needed to get his hands on that case and the intel inside. He had to make sure that Ursula had used the special encoding on the disks. That way no one but him could break the encryption. All they would see would be some marginally important Ring Agents mission status and operational plans that he was more than willing to sacrifice to complete his mission. He took a step towards Sarah but tried to hide his anger.
"Agent Walker, I will remind you that we wouldn't have this case if it wasn't for the information that I acquired through my sources. I am the expert on the Ring and I am fully aware of this type of case and its capabilities. It is fully safe. You have my word on it. Now if you will excuse me I have work to do."
"Agent Shaw, what if your intelligence was wrong and this case is booby trapped? What happens if you open it and it releases some toxic gas here in Castle? We could all be dead in minutes. There's no knight in shining amour waiting to carry us all to safety because of your screwup. That is not going to happen while I am in charge of this facility and this team. Do I make myself clear?"
"Yes Agent Walker." Shaw's teeth were grinding and Sarah knew he was pissed at being publically dressed down in front of his teammates.
"That is a rookie mistake and I'm surprised that someone as experienced as you supposedly are would endanger the lives of your teammates by your over eagerness to see what's inside."
"Ok Agent Walker. We'll do it your way. I'll go change into the haz mat suit and open the case in the clean room." Shaw then reached over one more time for the case on the table.
"Agent Shaw, Colonel Casey is already preparing the clean room and the containment facility. He will open the case and once he deems it safe we will all look at what's inside."
Shaw simply nodded and headed over to the observation area behind the protective glass of the clean room. As he watched Casey prepare the containment chamber and set up the glove box he tried to hide the rage that was burning inside. Twice in the last three hours he had a confrontation with the woman who killed his wife and more importantly was the key to bringing the Intersect to the Ring thereby giving him his well deserved role as the new chief Elder. He knew he had some rethinking to do. His plan to just take charge of this team and manipulate both Walker and Carmichael into doing his bidding wasn't going as planned. He needed to use a little more finesse as Walker's reputation as a hard ass, by the books Agent seemed to be deserved. He turned around and noticed that Carina was now standing next to her. Maybe she could shed some light on the blond bitch. Plus Carmichael seemed to be the weak link on the team even if he was the Intersect. Preliminary reports he had received from Ursula seemed to indicate he was failing in Zuoz until something happened that allowed him to flash again. Hopefully what he needed to learn was on those disks from Saunders computer. Now he just needed to get his hands on them.
Carina leaned in to Sarah's ear and said." Well I guess I know who's got the biggest balls in this room."
Sarah kept her perfect Agent persona on her face but there was a little bit of pride showing to those that knew her well like Carina and Chuck. Sarah then turned and looked at Chuck signaling him to bring the cases to Casey who was now ready at the entrance to the clean room. Once he was securely inside the rest of the team went and stood next to Shaw looking through the glass.
Casey proceeded to place the case they believed contained just the cash in the glove box. He closed the four inch titanium steel door and looked at Sarah who nodded for him to proceed. Casey then began to slide back the latches that opened the case. Inside he found bundles of hundred dollar bills wrapped in packets of ten thousand dollars. Once he had removed all fifty of the bundles he examined the case and found no other secret compartments. Chuck and Sarah both had seen that case opened back at the party in Malibu and had been confident it was just cash but they were being cautious like good spies should be.
Casey put all of the cash back in the case and closed the latch. Beckman had told them once the cash was processed and its trail know, they could keep it in the Castle safe to use when cash was needed by the team. This way they could also follow its path once it left their hands.
He took that case out of the bomb proof containment chamber and replaced it with the case they hoped contained some valuable intel on the Ring and its activities. As Casey was getting the case in the chamber Shaw became a bit antsy. His normal calm almost stiff manner seemed to break just a bit. This did not go unnoticed by Carina who was more intent on watching her teammates than what Casey was doing. She still hadn't figured out what Shaw's angle was yet but there was something about this whole situation with Shaw and Sarah that had her spy senses jumping. Sarah and Chuck were both intently watching what was going on before them.
Once completely sealed inside the chamber Casey began to use a small ultrasonic microphone to pick up the tumbler sequence on the latches. This took about thirty seconds and the first latch snapped open. He then moved it to the second latch and followed the same procedure. This time it took only about twenty seconds before the second and final latch was opened. Once that was complete he inserted a small fiberoptic camera into the now unlatched case to look for any possible triggering devices. After a full scan of the insides all he had in his heads up display on his haz mat suit was a round red shell with no visible makings on the top.
Deciding that it was safe to open the case he withdrew the camera and reached in with the robotic hands and opened the lid on the case. Inside was just the round object he had seen on the camera feed. Next Casey ran a spectrograph test for explosives on the device inside the case and it came up negative. It was simply a carbon composite shell of some kind.
"Walker, all my tests have come up negative. I think we can assume that the case itself is of no threat. I'm going to remove the device I found inside and you will be able to see it on the monitors."
"Go ahead Colonel."
As soon as the device was placed in the camera view, the flash hit.
A hummingbird
A dolphin
The Ring logo
A four button pattern
The ring logo
A dolphin
A hummingbird
Chuck tried to hide the flash when it hit but it had caught him a bit by surprise before he was able to completely control the reaction. He hadn't flashed that much in a day in a while and the 2.0 intel flashes were a bit different than the old intersect was but he was able to hide the outward signs of the flash better. He hoped that neither Shaw nor Carina had seen it. Shaw had been so focused on the monitor and his back was to Chuck but Carina saw the whole thing.
Chuck turned to see her staring at him and he simply gave her a brief look but he knew she had seen it. Chuck then reached out and touched Sarah on her forearm causing her to look at him signaling both that he had flashed but when his eyes turned to the right towards Carina, the unspoken communication was conveyed. Sarah looked back at the redhead agent and she saw the look on Carina's face. She simply raised an eyebrow and glanced at Shaw and Carina got the message that they would talk about this later when Shaw wasn't around.
Sarah turned back and looked at the tall Agent whose focus had not left the monitor once since this began. "Agent Shaw, do you have any idea what that device is?"
"Yes, it is a specially encrypted container used by the Ring that unless the proper pattern is entered on the four buttons on the back in the proper sequence within the proper time limit, anything inside the device is vaporized. Any attempt to bypass the encryption will also cause whatever it contains to be destroyed."
"Did your source happen to supply you with the pattern and the time parameters?"
"Of course Agent Walker. Knowing about the package would be of no use without the proper encryption sequence to open it. We might as well have thrown it in the dumpster at the beach house for all the good it would do us." The cockiness and disdain for his team leader was quite evident in the robotic Agent's voice.
"Colonel Casey, have you ever dealt with this type of device in the past?"
"No Walker. But I can handle it if Shaw gives me the pattern and time parameters. Piece of cake."
"I'm afraid not Colonel." Shaw interrupted.
Sarah reached and grabbed Shaw's elbow turning the Agent towards the fire that was growing in her sapphire pools. "Agent Shaw! Do I have to give you a direct order to deliver the information your 'teammate' needs to complete his mission? Be careful how you answer that question Daniel." The use of his first name spoke volumes about what the consequences would be if she didn't like the answer to her very pointed question.
The fire in Shaw's gaze was just as intense as he looked down to the smaller woman standing in front of him. "Sarah, if I obeyed that order I might as well let Colonel Casey destroy it right now. He has no experience handling these kinds of packages. This entire mission would be a complete waste of time."
"And I suppose you happen to have the 'experience' that Casey is lacking?"
Shaw simply smirked and nodded. 'I hate smirkers' Sarah thought.
Sarah stared directly into Shaw's deep dark eyes for a few seconds before she relented. "Colonel Casey, leave the device in the containment chamber and we will let our new 'partner' open it for us. Give him the haz mat suit to change into."
"That will not be necessary Colonel. It is perfectly safe on the outside."
"Agent Shaw, I know you don't want to wrinkle your overly expensive yet still somehow cliche designer clothes, but as long as you are a member of this team and under my command you will follow proper protocol for the opening of suspicious packages. Do I make myself clear?"
"Perfectly Agent Walker." Chuck looked over at Carina with a bit of a stunned yet prideful look on his face. The redheaded agent was trying to not let her enjoyment of the battle of wills going on in front of her show
Shaw turned and headed towards the staging area where he would meet up with Casey. The remaining Agents were all looking forward to seeing the self-righteous Agent have to don the awkward looking suit and mask.
Once Shaw was finished helping Shaw adjust the suit he came back around to gather with his partners to watch and see if Shaw fulfilled his task.
"Agent Shaw make sure you keep the device fully in view of the cameras. We need everything you find inside visible at all times." Shaw simply nodded.
Looking at the hidden buttons on the back of the device he realized that the gloves he was wearing would make it impossible to enter the pattern properly. "Agent Walker, I'm going to have to remove the gloves to enter the sequence."
"Very well Shaw, but leave the latex surgical gloves on in case there is a release of contaminants."
Shaw removed the suit gloves and inserted his hands into the surgical gloves that were sitting on the other side of the chamber.
Sarah glanced over at Chuck who gave a slight nod that told her that Shaw was following the proper procedure he had seen in his flash.
"Proceed when you are ready."
Shaw then entered the sequence he, himself had programmed into the case before he had it delivered to Switzerland. As all five team members watched, the lid of the case slid open revealing two BluRay disks.
"Nice work Agent Shaw. Once you have secured the containment chamber, bring the disks out to Mr. Carmichael so that he can begin his analysis."
Without responding directly to Sarah, Shaw simply nodded his head while he seemed to be examining the disks. Actually he was checking to see if he saw the distinctive slight etching of the inner most tracks on the disks signaling him that they had indeed been encrypted with the proper software when Ursula had copied all of the data from Saunders' computer. His face still hidden by the protective mask of the haz mat suit didn't show the satisfied grin that was now showing. Not only had he gotten Walker to acknowledge his work, he now would have access to the data he had been looking for on the training of the Intersect. Saunders had never sent her personal logs to the Ring and after a very thorough 'cleaning' he would present it to the Director. Plus the data he had put on the disks before he sent them was just enough to show Walker and Beckman he was valuable on the team. Sure a few Ring Agents would probably be sacrificed but that was a small price to pay.
Once Shaw exited the chamber Chuck was waiting for the disks to be handed over. The so called Ring expert handed them to him and he headed back to his partners while Casey helped Shaw get out of the haz mat suit.
"Chuck, get started on the analysis of the disks and see if there is anything significant on them."
"Yes, ma'am."
"Carina, help Agent Shaw store the haz mat suit and begin your reports on the mission. Colonel Casey will show you where everything is stored and catalogued. We will reconvene back here in the conference room in half an hour with Chuck's preliminary analysis. I'm going to grab us a few snacks and some coffee from the galley while we are waiting." Each of the Agents headed off to their respective tasks.
After a few minutes Sarah returned to where Chuck was working and placed a water bottle on the table behind where he was seated. He had discovered that the disks did in fact contain data that was heavily encrypted but it used a fairly standard data sequence that reminded him of some of the encryption he had found on the flash drive that he had retrieved from the puzzlebox that led to his former girlfriend being exposed as a Fulcrum agent.
But what had also caught his eye was the fact that the telltale color changes of recorded blu-ray media seemed to be showing that more data was recorded on the disks than he seemed to have access to. Blu-ray recorders were still rather rare and expensive at the BuyMore but he had been fascinated at the advances in the technology after he had bought his first Playstation 3.
Morgan had been known to have access to some shall we say less than authentic versions of some popular games prior to their release dates and when Chuck caught him taking pre-release versions of the games from the BuyMore, he deleted all of the illegal game copying and hacking software Morgan had installed. But he still knew where to download it from.
The difference he was seeing in the disks was small but the gamer in him was telling him that he wasn't getting access to everything on the disks. So while no one was watching he had run the game copying software and copied both of the disks to a portable hard drive he had stashed on the back of one of the servers in Castle. Once they left Castle he would work on it at home in private.
After the allotted time had expired the entire team was gathered around the conference table waiting for the link with Beckman to connect.
"Good evening team."
"Good evening ma'am" they all said in unison.
"Do you have the results of the preliminary analysis of the data confiscated from the ring agents in Malibu, Agent Walker?"
"Yes, ma'am. With the assistance of Agent Shaw we were able to open the cases and found two disks of data inside a special device that our Mr. Carmichael has been examining. We have sent the device the disks came in on to Langley for further analysis. Agent Shaw has said that it is a device used by the Ring that will destroy the data inside if anyone tries to open it without the proper sequence and timing pattern. Our analysts should be able to find out some useful information about its construction and how we can deal with it safely in the future."
"Good work Agent Shaw."
"Thank you ma'am."
"You may continue Agent Walker."
"If I may I'd like Chuck to begin the presentation."
"Very well. Mr., Carmichael what have you found?"
"General, the disks we discovered seem to be encrypted with a newer version of software that we first saw used when we discovered the list of Fulcrum Agents last year. This encryption is far more advanced but the lessons learned from that discovery should help our team of analysts decrypt these files. I believe this could be a list of Ring operatives that are working throughout the world."
"Excellent work team. I assume that the data has been sent to DC already?"
"Yes, ma'am."
"We will convene at 09:00 monday morning. Hopefully we will have some results from the analysis by then. Dismissed." The logo of the NSA appeared on the screen.
"Good work, Chuck."
"Thank you Agent Walker."
"Agent Shaw. May I have a minute?"
"Yes ma'am." The rest of the team headed to the locker area.
"Agent Shaw. Though we accomplished our mission today based on intel you provided us, and we may have retrieved some critical data in our fight against the Ring, your behavior on this team and your disrespect for me and the other members stops right now. Do I make myself clear?"
"Yes Agent Walker,"
"Good keep it that way. The success of this team has been exceptional and I will not tolerate anyone or anything using it for their own personal agenda or ego. We each have a role and those roles will be respected."
"Understood."
"Just do your job and we will get along fine." Sarah then turned and headed off to find the other members of the team.
Shaw stood and watched as his 'target' and 'team leader' left the room. A smile spread across his face as he thought to himself. 'Mission #1 was a success. Now on to mission #2.' He had 36 hours to learn whatever he could about the rest of his 'team' from a certain redheaded DEA Agent.
Casa Bartowski
Echo Park CA
2:35 am PDT
Sarah still sleeping, instinctive sought the warmth of Chuck's feet she had grown so accustomed to. Finding them not in their usual place for her comfort she began to awaken. Reaching over to snuggle in to her favorite position all she found was cold empty space. Opening her eyes she noticed a dim light coming from Chuck's computer monitor. The silhouette of her boyfriend and partner seated in the chair intently watching line after line of code stream by on the screen.
Sitting next to Chuck in a bit of a homemade ice bucket was a bottle of Chardonnay. The bottle was open but she saw no glass on the desk. She quietly lifted the covers and felt the warmth of the carpet on her bare feet. Clad only in Chuck's number 32 Lakers jersey, she walked over towards where Chuck was seated. Softly so not to startle him she wrapped her arms around his shoulders and kissed his neck. Chuck reached up with his left hand and caressed her arms holding her close.
With a kiss on the ear she asked him, "Still working on those disks? There are analysts all over the country working on them right now. You should let them do their job and come back to bed."
Turning to look at the blonde goddess behind him he leaned in and gave her a tender kiss on the lips this time. "I know but something isn't right. I can feel it. The hacker in me just won't let it drop till I figure out what it is. The files I sent to Beckman were smaller than what I copied from the disks back in Castle. Somehow the data I was able to access using CIA encryption models was less than a, shall we say, unconventional method is used."
"Chuck, I'm a spy remember. I really don't care if your methods are conventional or not. In fact your unconventional methods usually are far more accurate and have been one of the reasons we have been so successful as a team. You just need some rest."
Sarah then stood up straight and Chuck took a good look at the vision in front of him. In the dim light of the computer monitor, the sight of the most beautiful woman in the world wearing his favorite basketball player's jersey with no bra or panties was devastating. The long open sleeve holes left nothing to the imagination. His mouth froze about an inch wide at the sight of her.
Shaking his head to wake himself from his stupor he saw the grin on Sarah's face. She knew she was an attractive woman but the only man she cared at all about how he reacted to how she looked was seated in front of her. She loved the affect she had on him and had since the day they met.
"Oh wow Sarah. Just when I think I've seen the most gorgeous sexy sight in the world you top it without even trying."
"Thank you Chuck. I figured I needed to pull out a little 'Magic" to get you to come back to bed."
"Sarah, God I want to but I've almost broken the encryption blocking the data and when 'The Piranha' is in the zone I really can't stop him."
"The Piranha?"
"Yea it was my hackers nickname back in college. Let's just say I had quite a reputation among some of the seedier side of the nerd world."
Sarah couldn't stop the giggle. "So there is some flesh eating fish DNA in your family pool?"
"Well have you seen Ellie when she is on a quest to find out something about what is going on between us? Some nights I felt like she was picking my bones when I got back late from a mission, especially without you."
Turning back to the monitor he brought up some of the hidden sectors of data on the two disks he had just started to uncover. He had one disk in one window and the other in another window next to it. As he started to scan through them his eyes got huge. He took a deep breath and turned and kissed Sarah hard on the mouth. "Sarah you're a genius! I love you!"
"I love you too but why am I such a genius?" A stunned and confused Sarah replied.
"DNA is the building blocks of life, right?"
"Yes, but..."
"Well the way DNA replicates itself is by splitting in two and then the appropriate proteins are built onto each of the strands making two identical strands.
"Unhuh but I still don't know how that has anything to do with data encryption?"
"Well a lot of encryption uses a key to jumble the data and then you need the key to put the data back together in the appropriate pattern so you can recognize what the data means. "
"Ok I get that."
"Well what the Ring guys have done here is split the data into two halves with each half on a different disk. Each disk is worthless without the other except for the data whomever acquired this data wanted us to see. All I have to do is figure out where in the data stream each half of the stream was taken from and combine the two 32 bit data bytes into a single 64 bit byte and then run it through my 'non-conventional' data tool set and viola! Cohesive files appear!"
Sarah's smile grew wider and to be honest nothing turned her on more than when Chuck was in his element using his smarts instead of the Intersect. Sure the stuff it gave him was cool but Chuck's normal brain was the sexiest thing about him.
As Chuck ran the small program he wasn't supposed to have, files started appearing in separate folders. As he looked at the dates, titles and type of files they were his heart dropped.
He turned and looked at his partner and lover with a stunned look on his face. If he was right this changed things and changed things severely.
"Sarah, we have a big problem."
A/N2 Next chapter of Permutations should be out next week then soon after that chapter 20 of LL&L. Next time important stuff gets revealed!
