Don't own Chuck
Silvia was in the center of the celebration. After months of grueling work everything came together and the first true run of the constellation was a success. Her friends at the post and her colleagues were all cheering and congratulating her but the one person she really wished was there wasn't. Frank hung around long enough to have a glass of champagne then stood up and gave a few words of praise for her and the team. While he was talking she ducked out and called Marcus but his reaction was anything but what she expected.
"Where's Frank," asked Silvia when she came back to the party. Oscar pointed towards the elevators.
"I take it your phone call didn't go well," said Oscar. "Here have more champagne. It will make you feel better."
"No it won't. Can you believe his nerve he told me to run away with him? Me? After everything I built here throw it all away."
"He said that? Well you know if he said that it wasn't just you throwing everything away. It would've been him too. I know when I went to find Frank for you I walked in on them talking and the tension in the room was... well you could've cut with a knife. I think Frank pulled a gun on Marcus. I saw his holster out for the first time. I didn't even know he carried a piece?"
"Really? Maybe I've been looking at this all wrong. Thanks Oscar," said Silvia as she ran to the elevator. "If we're going to do this I want to see your face," she said to herself as she got on the elevator practicing what she was going to say. "What am I thinking, how is he going to be able to say what he feels around Frank? Silvia, you're an idiot. How did you let this happen? I know I'll play it off with Frank," she said as she talked to herself more. "I'll thank him for everything he's done for me and tell him I wanted to see them off. Yes, that way Marcus will see me and know I was thinking about him."
"You know that's pretty contorted," she said to her reflection. "Okay here it goes." The doors opened and she stepped out to see the Mercedes disappear in the distance.
"Well you screwed that up," she said as the black dot disappeared. She walked to the end of the clearing they used as a parking area. She had hoped that maybe they might turn around and come back. Maybe they forgot something... or someone like her. But soon it became apparent they weren't.
"Silvia, you might as well go back to the party even if you're not in the party mood now some of that champagne might do you some good." She looked around at the lush green jungle but all she could understand was it was hot humid and she was already starting to feel sticky.
"I need to get back to my air condition habitat," she said as a hamster ball came to mind. She started to turn around when her world literally got turned upside down.
There was a loud explosion followed by a series of smaller explosions but more intense as the ground shook under her feet. At first she thought the cenote was actually a volcano crater and it was erupting but there was no lava or magma. Maybe it was an earthquake but she really wasn't sure what was happening she only knew she was in trouble. Standing on her feet was hard as the ground shook and worse cracks started to appear as parts of the walls began to slide into the sink hole.
"You have to move," she told herself and she knew she had to or risk sliding back down inside with the tons of debris caving in now. She scrambled into the jungle as the noise and explosions subsided but she saw smoke bellowing up from the cenote. Shocked and dismayed she walked back to see everything she had built gone. Fires raged as fuel burnt below but through the smoke and fire she could see nothing was left. The platform they had constructed was now at the bottom of the underground lake that had created the sink hole millennia ago and at the bottom of the lake were all the people she had worked with and who just a little while before were cheering her and congratulating her on a job well done.
"All gone," she mumbled to herself. "All gone." Then the words came back to her that Marcus had said just before he hung up. She heard his voice in her head.
"No Silvia wait, hold on you need to listen. Get out of there. Get out right now. Run grab the elevator we're at the top just get out, please. Frank's here I've got to go."
"Oh Marcus you knew this was going to happen," she said as she stared down in the crater. "Frank… this was Frank. That's what Oscar walked in on. Poor Oscar you're down there somewhere." It was hot but she felt cold, very cold thinking that she was supposed to be down there then she turned and realized she had nowhere to go. She turned back around and stared into the abyss
"What now? Maybe it would be better if I…" she said as she let out a sigh and began to take steps to the edge but as she started to get close something flew out of the tree behind her hitting her in the head.
"Ouch! Isn't it bad enough I just lost my life's work now nature has to clobber me too?" She said as she bent down and picked up a banana that had been hurled at her then she heard the chatter and cry of a spider monkey from the tree.
"Thanks," she said as she ate the banana. "At least today I'm not going to starve and if I follow that path I'll eventually find civilization. Then what?" The spider monkey began to squawk and chatter agitating branches.
"Okay, you're right one problem at a time. Food is taken care of. Now let's try to get out of here in one piece. She began walking but she was a scientist not an anthropologist or someone who's used to this type of environment. She was already burning up and parched after the first few miles so the first stream she came to she drank from. The water had a fishy earthy taste and an acrid odour but she was too thirsty to pass it up.
"A little can't hurt," she said as she forced herself to drink it. It was foul and rancid. Her first reaction was to heave but she needed this to survive. She wasn't going to give Frank satisfaction and she was more determined than ever to dish out a little payback.
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Ellie had Sarah sit on their bed then went and got a syringe from a medical bag. As she was doing that Sarah rolled up the sleeves on her blouse and patiently waited as Ellie got everything together. Ellie put an elastic band around Sarah's arm found the vein then pricked her with the needle filling a vial of blood. After she got done she put a band aid over the spot so it wouldn't bleed.
"So how is this going to be different from the home test I did?" asked Sarah. Now that she was moving forward everything was becoming so real.
Both tests measure hCG in your system and the home test is faster and cheaper than the blood test but the one you had just measures the presence of hCG. With this blood test I'll have our Doctor friend not only check for the presence of hCG but also give us the level present. I think this result will come back between five and twenty-five mIU/ml but it will give us a baseline then forty-eight hours from now we'll do another one by then your hCG should double then we'll know you're pregnant."
"And if it doesn't? What will that mean? That something's wrong with me, right or my baby," Sarah said. This was the first time she let herself think about the possibility.
"Then we'll need to do other tests and look for reasons why your body is producing hCG," said Ellie not wanting to use the word 'cancer'. But looking at Sarah's face she knew she understood. "You should talk this over with Chuck. I know my brother would want to know and help…"
"Help me to do what? You're my doctor right… I'm your patient?" Ellie nodded her head. She could see where this was going and didn't particularly like it. "You said we should know something when? How long will it take?"
"Twenty-four hours for the blood work, forty-eight for a second test then another twenty-four so say three days more or less."
"Then we don't say anything to anyone until we have the results back," said Sarah. She could tell Ellie didn't agree with her but in the end she went along.
"Okay I'm not sure I understand why but you realize the position you're putting me in with my brother."
"Ellie, I appreciate it but he's my husband too. He's been through a lot and I don't want to burden him. Besides it's not like I'm keeping a secret," said Sarah as she caught Ellie's look. "Okay maybe a small one but not forever. In three days we'll know something then I'll tell him good or bad but until then mums the word."
"I'll need to have this blood work picked up," said Ellie as she and Sarah walked out to find no one. Everyone was gone.
"Where's everyone?" asked Sarah looking around and seeing no one. "Don't tell me it took everyone to clean Sam?" Ellie shrugged her shoulders then they heard laughter coming from their room.
"Hey what's going on in here," asked Sarah as she and Ellie went to investigate. They found Clara and Sam armed with squirt bottles dousing Devon. Clara fired at Sarah but she dodged the blast but Clara hit Ellie square.
"Wow, can you show me how to do that?" asked Clara as Ellie looked down at the front of her wet blouse.
"Maybe another day but it takes practise and timing. Where did you get the bottle? What are you guys up to and where's Chuck?"
"Clean," said Sam as she held up her semi-clean hands in her wet clothes as she smiled with a bottle still in her hand.
"Don't you even think about it," said Sarah as she grabbed her up before she could fire and kissed her. She giggled and tried to break free but Sarah disarmed her before letting her go. "You need to change your clothes now and I've got nothing to change you into so you're going to have to chill here with Clara."
"Uff," said Sam then remember she had two halves of Nutella croissants to eat. Sarah shook her head as she watched Sam eat and get dirty again but she loved her.
"So Devon, where's Chuck at? And why did you get stuck with cleaning Sam. I thought Chuck was going to do that?"
"Casey came and got him. He said he was needed in some place called the vault and John said that you should join them after you came out. Did you give Ellie the sample," asked Devon as he took off his shirt then grabbed one of their towels to dry off.
"Yes, she did," said Ellie. "Hun maybe you could do that over in our room. I don't think Sarah wants a floor show. Call your colleague and have him come by and pick it up. We want him to put a rush order on this."
"Listen," said Sarah as she closed the bathroom door. "None of this gets back to Chuck until we've got something definite and I mean it. I need for you guys to watch Sam for me while I go and see what's going on."
"Sure no problem," said Devon, "and don't worry we understand." She left the bathroom and then they heard the door to the suite open then close. "No, I don't understand. Ellie, Chuck's your brother. How can you keep this from him?"
"Devon, we're also Doctors and Sarah's our patient. We have to respect doctor patient confidentiality. She's like any of our other patients."
"I'll let you think that but I don't agree. None of my heart patients have gotten me involved in two coups, dangled me from a roof top or threatened to blow up my house."
"Awesome you're spiralling," said Ellie as she opened the bathroom door only to get sprayed by Clara. Sam dropped to the floor giggling and laughing as hard as she could.
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Kaptain Yanis Primack had been sailing in the Baltic fleets for over thirty-five years and he had never heard of anything like this happening in the submarine service. There was the Storozhevoy the basis for that American novel but no Russian submarine captain would ever do what his next in command had done. Munity never and this wasn't the Bounty or the Storozhevoy. His next in command was a far cry from Marlin Brando and they weren't sailing for Leningrad.
"Kaptain, what's going on? What does the Kaptain Lieutenant want?" asked one of the seamen. He voiced what the rest of the crew locked up with him was feeling.
"I don't know Matrose. The man is insane if he thinks he can get away with this," said the Captain as he could see everyone was looking to him for leadership and courage. He wasn't going to let them down. "But this is my boat, our boat and I don't know how yet or when but I'm going to take her back. The first thing is we need to remember our discipline and who we are. When the time comes we may have to make hard decisions but we didn't choose this life because it was easy."
"But all the officers are with him," said the seaman looking around at the people that were with them locked up.
"That was his first mistake," grunted a Chief who sat back on of the torpedo tubes. "Listen men to the Old Man and remember good things come to those who wait. Order and discipline that's what we rely on."
"Thanks Chief ship Starshina, take charge of the men," said the Captain. The man stood up walked in the middle.
"Okay this is what we're going to do; half of us sleep while the other half stays awake. One man stays alert at all times near the hatch and warns us if anyone is coming. The rest who are awake look around for weapons. Sorry, Sir do you have anything more you'd like to say?"
"No but can I see the senior enlisted after you get the watches set," said the Captain then he stood back letting the chiefs take charge.
That was days before… then they heard the ballast tanks empty and felt the boat rise. They were surfacing but where.
"Look alive someone's coming," yelled the watch by the door. The Chief motioned the man to move away. Men came in carrying automatic weapons and the Captain Lieutenant followed them.
"End of the line, you're all to follow these men. They'll take you to your new quarters and don't try anything they will shoot you but for old time's sake I hope you don't."
"Touching for a traitor, you'll never get away with this," said the Captain. "Someone will come looking for us and when they do your days will be over."
"Maybe but right now everyone is looking in the North Sea. Captain Primack, you either start moving or they start shooting. The choice is yours."
"Come on men let's go," said the Captain as he let the chiefs take their men out making sure he was the last man out. They took them up topside through the nearest hatch then they went off the boat. It was night time and they were in port. The air was rigid and the sky clear, one look up and the Captain knew they were now in the Southern hemisphere. They were escorted off the boat and walked into a block building with racks. There was a stove in the middle with a fire going and a bucket of coal next to it."
"I'd go easy on that coal that's going to have to last you for a while. There's water in the barrel in the corner with a bag of potatoes and cabbage next to it. One of you can figure out how to cook. This is going to be home for a while so get used to it," said their former second in command. He walked out closing the door and locking it on his way out.
"Sir, do you have any idea where we're at?"
"From what I saw of the stars we're in the southern hemisphere but other than that no I don't know where."
"We're in the Falklands," said one of the chiefs pointing at the wall. "There's English and Spanish graffiti plus it's cold and windy so makes sense we're in the Falklands."
"The real question is why?"
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The Hypersonic wasn't in any better position than the submarine. It was traveling southwards with a mysterious force flying the plane. It passing by Costa Gravas and continued its southward trajectory. There was little they could do but sit back and relax hoping they'd reach their destination before they ran out of fuel. But somehow they knew that wasn't what was planned for them.
"There has to be something we can do," said the General. "I refuse to believe there's nothing we can do. Maybe, we ought to shoot the on board computer. That would teach it who's the boss."
"And get us killed in the process. Everything on this plane is computer assisted to enable the pilot to make split second decisions. Shooting the computer would be like driving a car with power steering two hundred miles an hour then switching off the engine."
"Okay, it was a bad idea but at least it was an idea. Mary, I'm not comfortable with your plan but it seems that's the only one we've got," said the General as Greg walked back carrying a parachute.
"Are you sure you don't want me to do this," he said but she shook her head no taking the chute from him. "Well the plane has begun to decelerate and it looks like we're coming to an Island somewhere below Argentina. We're starting to be gone long enough to be missed but no one is going to think to look for us here."
"Mary that means you're up. Be safe and come back alive. Chuck will never forgive me if anything happens to you."
"I'll do my best. Let's get this over with." Mary opened the hatch for the lower hold then dropped in. The Colonel went back to his seat and the General took off her mask. The General was the first one to go to sleep followed by the Lieutenant Colonel and the Major. Mary was the only one to stay conscious with her oxygen tank, lodging it and herself in the wheel well. It wasn't long before she heard the hydraulics begin to come alive and then the wheel wells opened up and the landing gear came down. She had herself strapped in but she still almost fell out when the plane hit the runway.
In an improvised control tower…
"Watch out," yelled one of the men. "Take it easy you hit the deck too hard. They want that plane in one piece."
"You think this is easy. It's not like flying those stupid toy planes around," said the man standing next to him with what looked like a radio control remote for a model airplane. "Okay, I'm applying brakes and reversing thrust. You might want to radio the tow truck so we can get it stowed away."
"Oh yeah I was just distracted for a second. I thought I saw some FOD come off from underneath. You really smacked the deck when you came down," said the man as he got out his radio. "Juan, get the vehicle out there and pull the plane into the hangar. Have the team inside ready too we need to get started right away."
"Just get the tow truck out there and not a word about this to the new boss coming is. You and I can joke about this but word has it that this guy is a real winner. Word is bodies pile up every place he's been."
"Roger Señor Blake," he got radioed back. "We've got the plane under tow and taking it inside."
"Good, come on Richard, let's go see what we've got," said the man as he and Blake ran down to a waiting car. They drove to the hangar just after the tow truck deposited the plane. Blake was the first out.
"Get that ladder up against the plane and standby with the tranquilizers," he barked. He pulled a Glock then ran up with Richard following him on board. Blake went aft and injected the General while Richard took care of the flight crew.
"Hey we've got a problem," yelled Blake walking into the cockpit looking around. "There's a person missing. That other agent that was supposed to be here is nowhere to be found."
"What? It's not like they pulled off to the side of the road and let her out," said Richard. "Wait the bin for parachutes should be back here," he said as he checked between the main cabin and the cockpit. "Crap, there's one missing. What do we do?"
"Nothing the guy who jumped is dead. If they jumped while the plane was at cruising altitude they froze and if they survived the cold as soon as they jumped out of the plane it would've been like being hit by truck travelling at Mach 5
"So, what about a body? What happens if someone finds the body floating in the Atlantic? That could give us away."
"The only thing that might happen is there could be some red rain. Come on let's have them take these people off. They can take them over and put them with the Russians. Next thing our engineers need to do is start disassembling. Where's our Russian?"
"I saw him walking around in the hangar when we pulled up." Blake walked out to the hatch and looked around. He saw the Russians sitting in the corner of the hangar laughing and drinking.
"Hey Ivan, how about a hand here," yelled Blake from the hatch. "Our engineers will start stripping the plane but it needs to be stowed on your sub."
"First my name isn't Ivan and secondly we'll gladly supervise the stowage of your cargo on our boat when you're ready."
"Whatever Ivan just have a couple of your men ready. We need to get this done pronto. As to what you will and won't do you can take that up with the new boss. He's due in this evening." Blake ducked back inside before Ivan or Petr his real name could hurl insults at him. Blake had to stand aside as his men removed the flight crew and the General.
"Be careful with her, she's worth a fortune," yelled Richard as his phone rang. He answered and nodded his head looking over at Blake.
"What is it?"
"The new boss is in and you need to get over to the airport to meet him."