Don't own Chuck
The caravan made its way through the winding streets of the capital then continued on past into the jungle. The city was built as a citadel on a peninsula carved out of the jungle and it didn't take long to put civilization behind them as they traded paved streets for the dusty rutted roads of the countryside. They passed plantation after plantation that used to be owned by big conglomerates but were later nationalized under agrarian reforms the Premier dictated when he came into power.
"See all those haciendas," said the Premier looking out the window. My land reforms took all those away from you rich North Americans and now our people own them or that was my intent."
"You sound a little despondent dude," said Devon. "What happened? Things didn't go the way you hoped? Your people are benefiting from them now right? I believe in zero mile farming."
"What? No… Well, like I said that was my intent," said the Premier as he continued staring out the window. "But things seldom go as you plan."
"The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which,' that's from Orwell's Animal Farm. He was another disillusioned socialist."
"Yes and you've guessed what happened to my reforms and why this new constitution is so important. My lieutenants and my most trusted advisors divided our beloved country like one of your apple pies until, well you quoted Orwell the Pigs and the Farmers couldn't be told apart."
"I may be speaking against our own interests but you realize you're taking a big risk with this new constitution. You could lose the elections and then what?"
"I go back to being Alejandro Fulgencio Goya citizen but my people will have made their choice. I think once they get a taste for democracy, true democracy they won't give it up so easy any more. I have tried to raise them like my children, educate them so they could one day make their own decisions and now it's time to see what my children will do."
"Just being the devil's advocate, you could've set up a sort of constitutional monarchy passing the government down to your children."
"What? Like North Korea? My people deserve better. I want the very best for my child I think both of you do too and when he or she is old enough they will chose their path. If they want to go into politics fine but if they don't want to… well I want them to know there's another option. Enough of my melancholy mood I get this way when I'm away from mi amor. She and now my niño are the joy of my life."
"I know how you feel," said Chuck. "I need to call in to my General and tell her we're on our way. She'll be able to track us via satellite then guide us to Casey's last known location."
"We won't be there until tomorrow the plan is to drive until the road ends. We should get there about nightfall. We'll make camp there then precede the rest of the way on foot tomorrow morning."
"That will mean Casey will be missing for three days before we can start looking for him. I just hope he can hold out that long."
"I know it sounds like a long time but it's unavoidable considering the distance and the terrain. Had your General told me she was sending him, I would've had him escorted and this could've all been avoided. I'm the one who should be upset that my country's sovereignty was violated but I understand why it was done."
"I'm calling Langley," said Chuck as he dialled the General's number. "It's ringing. I'll be right with you guys as soon… wait someone's picking up."
"I forgot to congratulate you and your wife. When's the baby due?" said Alejandro. Chuck wasn't paying him any attention because Connie was on the line telling him to hold for the General.
"Excuse me," said Devon. He heard what Alejandro said clearly. "But Sarah isn't expecting or at least that's what she says."
"I don't know what she said but there's an unmistakable fragrance. She is most definitely with child. There is nothing sweeter than a ripe fruit, no?"
"No, I mean yes. Oh Chuck, dude, you need to get off the phone and listen. You're going to want to hear this."
"Devon, I'll be right with you but I need to finish with the General first," said Chuck. "I'm sorry ma'am you were saying."
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Back in Langley it was the beginning of another work day. The General walked into her office to find coffee brewing Connie sitting at her desk with her aide waiting with her secretary. He already had a cup in hand. She walked in hung her coat and as she was hanging her coat Connie got her a cup of coffee ready that she grabbed as she walked into her office with her aide trailing along behind her.
"Any word on the Colonel and have either Chuck or Sarah reported in? I was expecting something before now and so far all we've got is nothing."
"I'm sorry no but I expect something momentarily. In the meantime, I've had them go over the area again from above and I'm sorry nothing."
"I wish I knew what was going on so when I'm asked I can give some sort of answer even an educated guess but something based on fact. I'm as concerned as anyone else about the Colonel but let's not lose sight that what we're after is that downed Satellite. I used the word downed to mean fallen but we still don't know why or how. I hate to dump all this in your lap Major but I'm going to have to fly out this evening for that conference in Brussels. But I expect to be kept in the loop and don't hesitate to call me if something comes up."
"General, I have Chuck on the phone," said Connie sticking her head in the General's office. "He's on line one.
"Sit there," said the General to her aid, "I want you to listen in and I might need you to get something for me."
"General, I just wanted to check in and let you know we're on the road out of the capital heading towards Casey's last known location," said Chuck as he explained the rest of the details. "We'll be at the location tomorrow probably morning latest midday."
"Roger we'll use your phone to ping your location and use it to keep track of you. I'll be out for a few days but my aide the Major will be following your progress. I was just reminding the Major about the mission objectives but I should also remind you. The object in this is information about that satellite, why it dropped out of the sky…"
"General, I understand what you're saying. I don't agree with it but I understand. However, I feel when we find Casey we'll also get you that satellite information."
"I hope you're right because as of now it has priority. Beckman out."
"Gez, somethings never change," said Chuck as he hung up and put away his phone. Looking back sitting in front of him were Alejandro and Devon both had grins that seemed to stretch from ear to ear. "What are you two up to?"
"Here drink this," said Alejandro handing Chuck a shot of very good rum. "This is from my own private reserve given to me by the Che."
"I wouldn't share that story with Casey if I were you but I appreciate just… well… it's a little early in the day to be drinking," said Chuck as he took the glass. "What's going on? You both have that look like Sam when she's up to something."
"Tell him again," said Devon as he smiled at Chuck. "You were on the phone before Bro so you didn't hear. You know you really ought to pay more attention to what people tell you."
"Tell me what? I didn't hear because I was arguing something important so tell me now," said Chuck a little angry. He had been arguing for Casey but Devon didn't know that.
"Your woman is with child and Devon here says you don't know. If I had known that you didn't know I would've told you sooner you know but I was distracted. Congratulations Chuck, we're going to be fathers for you the second time for me the first… well the first I know of."
"Enough with the knows. What did you say? No that can't be, a doctor told us it was impossible," said Chuck as he downed the rum. "How's this possible… well I didn't mean that literally of course I know how… obviously but I was told or… I'm so confused."
"Chuck, Bro, don't freak out we doctors are human too you know and sometimes we make mistakes. Luckily there's a system that looks over our shoulders when that happens and it isn't often but Bro looks like Sam is going to have a brother or sister after all."
"I need another," said Chuck as he handed Alejandro his glass. "What am I going to do? No offense Premier, but Sarah's not going to take your word for it. Did you happen to tell Hortencia my wife was expecting?"
"Of course we share everything."
"Oh crap," mumbled Chuck hoping Sarah wouldn't shoot Hortencia but seeing she was pregnant that might stay her hand.
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Inside Pablo's Parrot the preparation was underway for the evening's rally. Luis was getting men together to help him with Casey and others were making signs and protest banners. The Doctor stuck his head outside and wondered in all the confusion if now wasn't the time for him to make a break for it. He started softly walking getting ready to run when a voice called to him from behind.
"Doctor just the man I wanted to see," said Turrini coming up behind him. "Where were you headed? I thought I told Luis to make sure you stayed with your patient."
"I was just going to see Luis about getting some coffee. Everyone looks like they're really busy so I was going to forget it and go back to my patient."
"Yes your patient that's who I want to talk to you about. He needs to be ready to be moved this afternoon and when I say moved he has to be able to walk."
"I know I'll give him something to boost him up but after that…" Turrini cut him off he already knew what he was going to say.
"I promised you didn't I? We'll cut you loose and you can be on your way. I just need for this to happen," said Turrini but as he was talking to the Doctor the two military officers came back to see him. He noticed them as soon as they came through the front door so he waved for them to come back.
"Doc go back to your patient and get prepared," said Turrini as the two men came up to him. "Come on back I don't want to talk here."
"We can see you're busy with tonight's rally. I won't lie we were hoping you'd decided to postpone it but it seems you've decided to go forward anyway."
"I told you I was. So tell me how is everything going? You got the men on the Premier's detail without a hitch, right?"
"No problem, we got them in without any question. The only thing we told them was to phone in before they struck for confirmation."
"Well you've got it," said Turrini as he laid out a plan for the square. "Come here and look at this with me. First of all I need you to close the market for today. The fewer civilians we have floating around the better that will give us the whole square to operate out of. Here at the front gates to the palace I want you to post our people during the rally then throughout the day leading up to it I want you to substitute the members of the palace garrison with our own personnel."
"But this has nothing to do with the elections, does it?" said the one officer as he looked over at his friend. "You're planning a coup. Did you know about this?"
"I'm finding out about it right now with you. Turrini don't you think you're biting off more than you can chew? You know the Americans aren't going to sit back and do nothing."
"Don't worry I have powerful friends who will come to our aid. But if we remove Alejandro and Hortencia from the equation there's nothing left to hold the government together except me. Which will mean for the Americans, if they want something here, they'll have to negotiate with me."
"You mean us," said one of the officers as he looked at his friend.
"Yes, that's what I meant of course just have everything ready and in place then wait for my signal."
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After the men left Hortencia took the women with the girls to visit the nursery. It was to be next to their bedroom in a private part of the palace and was still a work in progress. For that reason she wanted them to see it so they could give her their opinions. Like any mother she wanted the very best for her child.
"So what do you think? I picked this room not only because it was near ours but also because there is lots of sunlight.
"I agree that's important," said Ellie. "But I think until you know the sex I would hold off painting or go with a nice neutral color like a beige, a light yellow or a light green. You don't want to paint it all pink then find out you're going to have a boy."
"No my husband would have a fit if that happened. No I like the idea of yellow and green and I want it painted way before the baby comes so it can air. The last thing I want is for the room to smell like a paint can."
"I tried to go with all natural fibers for Sam and in her room. I choose cotton, linen and wool for her clothes and bedlinens. It's not that I'm against manmade fibers it's just well babies have sensitive skin and I don't know it's just something I read about. The truth is I had no clue what I was doing when Sam was born and I've done the best I could do hoping I wasn't screwing up royally."
"I think you've done quite well," said Ellie as she put her arm around her. "Where have the girls disappeared to?"
"Don't worry about them I had Juanita take them to the kitchen for a snack. Juanita knows where my stash of canillitas de leche is. I have to hide them or I'll eat every one of them especially now. Then my husband will tell me again to let out my clothes. They just don't understand." Both women laughed with her and nodded.
"This is really nice," said Sarah as she felt a little nostalgic thinking about when she and Chuck put together Sam's room. The love and care they put in picking out everything.
"Okay I've bored you enough let's go see if there are any more canillitas de leche left if not we can make a trip to the market. There's a man who's known us since we were children who sells them…"
"Oh can we? I need to go to the market. I need to get some souvenirs to take back with us and that would be the perfect place."
"Sure I don't see why not that is if Sarah's feeling up to it. How do you feel this morning?" asked Hortencia.
"Fine, why shouldn't I? Chuck just left but this isn't the first time we've worked separately. I might not like it but sometimes it can't be helped but this isn't what you're talking about, is it?" said Sarah noticing something else in Hortencia's look.
"I didn't want to tell anyone in the beginning and telling you was my husband's idea. I'm a little superstitious and for us a woman doesn't say anything about expecting during the first three months."
"And that pertains to me because?" asked Sarah. She was suspicious that someone had told Hortencia she was pregnant when she knew she wasn't and if they did there would be hell to pay.
"'Come on' as you Americans love to say I told you my secret well technically my husband did so you can tell me yours. How far along are you?"
"I haven't got the foggiest idea what you're talking about," said Sarah as she gave Ellie a look. Ellie replied by shrugging her shoulders that said don't look at me.
"Oh madre de dios. You really don't know do you," said Hortencia as she began to laugh. "My poor woman, my husband told me you were expecting before they left and he's never wrong. Congratulations."
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Frank was in the middle of explaining the situation with Turrini to his Boss when he got a knock on his door and Marcus walked in. At first he was angry for interrupting his conversation but when he told him he just got off the phone with his one of his contacts in the Capital confirming Turrini had upped the ante on the rally to a full blown coup. He left the monitor on and asked Marcus to explain.
"I'm sorry for interrupting," said Marcus. "But I don't think this should wait. Remember you told me to call my people in the Capital and have them trail Turrini to find out if he was going to do something… well stupid."
"Yeah, don't tell me they already know something?" said Frank as he looked at the man's face in the monitor and he didn't look pleased. "Okay, go on and tell me."
"Well, I called them and one of them told me they just came from a meeting with El Comandante and he's planning on turning this rally into a coup. He's filling the square with his people and having his men put on post at the palace. My guy doesn't know what the catalyst will be but you can guess the rest. His idea is to take out the Premier and his wife in one strike then set himself up."
"Idiot if either escapes he's done for because the Americans won't hesitate to invade. If the imbecile had waited for elections they would've had their hands tied. Does he think people will just sit back and let him hijack the government?"
"In his words, he has powerful people who will come to his aid those were supposed to be his exact words. You know he was talking about us."
"I know I'm not an idiot like he is. We should've never gotten involved with him. Thank you, you can go now I'll track you down later. Oh, can you close the door on your way out?" Frank waited for Marcus to leave and close the door. "Sir you see what I've got to deal with here. What are your orders?"
"Frank you're in charge there not me. We put you there to see if you were ready for the big league but if you have to ask me what to do maybe we were wrong."
"No, I don't need your advice I've got this. I'm going to put our project here on standby for a few days. We're still going to be working towards our completion deadline but I'm going to be limiting transmissions so we can't be detected. Then I'm going to call the idiot and talk to him which will do no good then see how everything plays out."
"See you didn't need to call me. You have everything all worked out. Do whatever you have to do with this local guy but when this is all over he needs to have a rude awakening."
"I'll see to it."
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The women took the kids out of the palace to the local market to go shopping. Sarah wasn't very happy with this but Hortencia took a couple palace guards with them to make her feel better. Ellie found some nice scarfs and the girls loved the sweet stalls. But Hortencia made them wait until they found Carlo's.
"Hortencia, I just saw your husband the other day. Tell me it's my sweets that are keeping you so young and beautiful."
"Be careful to this one he's a charmer. My little friends want to try your goods. This morning they tried your canillitas de leche."
"You did and what did you think?" asked the old man. "I appreciate it when people like my goods especially people like you who are true connoisseurs."
"How do you say they were super good," asked Clara looking at Hortencia. Sam just rubbed her stomach and gave him a thumbs up. Everyone laughed.
"I think we need to get some more then," said Sarah as she noticed vendors packing up and putting things away. "Isn't it a little early to be clearing out?"
"Oh them, we were told there's some sort of political rally this evening and they want us out to set up. Sorry," said the old man to Hortencia, "but at my age I don't pay too much attention anymore to politics."
"How much do we owe," asked Sarah but the man refused their money.
"I'll send my husband to pay you when he gets back," said Hortencia as they laughed and she gave him a kiss on the cheek.
"Did you know about this rally?" asked Sarah after she pulled Hortenia aside but she shook her head no. "I don't like this. We should get everyone back inside. Ellie? Crap where's Ellie at? Did anyone see where she disappeared to?"
They all looked around the square but she was nowhere to be found. Sarah didn't know what to do so she sent Hortencia and the girls back to the palace with the guards as she continued the search. More and more vendors were leaving and then suddenly she saw her come out of a building with a sign hanging over the top 'farmacia'.
"Ellie when we're out, we stick together and no one goes wandering off by themselves," said Sarah. "If you do have to go off you should tell someone."
"Here I got this for you and I'm sorry but I had to use every bit of Spanish I knew to get it," said Ellie as she passed Sarah a pharmacy bag.
"What's in it?" she asked as she took it. She had an idea she knew.
"Look inside," said Ellie and in the bag was a home pregnancy test. "Before you blow off what you were told I think you need to at least try one. Then we go from there."
"Okay if it makes everyone happy but when it comes back negative will everyone leave me alone? Now can we please go back to the palace it's not safe out here."