Don't own Chuck
The Alexandria rounded West Falkland undetected then made her run between the islands of Westpoint and Carcass entering the mouth of Byron Sound. The water was relatively deep enough and the currents were strong but manageable. The Captain had his best helmsman at the sticks. This was not a training mission.
"We're in position Sir and ready to launch the attack," said the XO to the Captain. "What are your orders?"
"Let's go up to periscope depth and run the antenna up. I want to see if there are any last orders before I sink that Russian. The last thing I want is to be put in the history books as the guy who started World War III. Have the Comms officer send back to the powers to be we're in position and ready. We just need the green light to go."
"Roger that Sir," said the XO. "Is there anything else?"
"In the meantime sound battle stations ready tubes forward and aft. Standby two harpoons and ready the Tomahawks. If we're going to war I expect to win."
"Sir we're at periscope depth running the antenna up," said the Helmsman. "Sir, holding course steady," he said as he read off the relative bearing.
"Good easy as she goes, we don't want to give away our presence. While we've got the periscope up we might as well take a look at our adversary," said the Captain as he brought the Russian submarine up on the monitor. "Isn't she a beauty? Just because she's owned by the other side doesn't mean you can't admire her. I want radiation signals taken and all this written down in the logs. If we have to go at each other again this might help us track her down."
"Sir you sound like the boy who got to open a present the day before Christmas," said the XO as he smiled at the Captain.
"Bob as a former reactor officer, I'd give my right arm to get a tour of hers. Especially if our intel is right and she's got a lead-bismuth cooled fast reactor."
"It's a shame we might have to sink her," said the XO as he too was getting caught up in the mystique. The Russian sub, for the two men was like admiring a Ferrari.
"I agree but orders are orders. Yell at the Comms officer and tell him we can't hang around here all day.
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Chuck was standing in front of a Russian Officer with a Makarov nine pointed at his face. Some of the other crewmembers were standing by waiting for the show down to finish. They had boxes in their hands as the work detail came to a standstill. The crewmembers stood there looking wondering what was going on and what they should do. But in the end no one did anything because they weren't in any position to help. Chuck looked at the Russian and flashed.
"Mischa Rasovinov... Mischa, how can say you can't remember me? Don't tell me you've already forgotten me? Come on think back... it wasn't that long ago?"
"School? We went to school together? I don't remember you," said Mischa as he tried to picture Chuck in his classroom.
"That's right... together," Chuck carefully let Mischa create the false memory. He just agreed and guided him along. "I joined the Navy a year after you and honestly I didn't know you were here either. I got orders to report onboard the day we pulled out for sea trials. I was told I was needed because..."
"We had to leave Kristoff behind so they sent you as his relief," said Mischa as he tried to get all this clear in his head.
"You can put away the piece," said Chuck. "You know discharging a weapon inside a metal box isn't such a good idea. But I can understand why you don't remember me I looked a lot different back then. Does that help jog your memory and I know you don't want me to say out loud what happened to you."
"Oh Crap, you're that guy... No... I mean... I'm sorry but you need to get back to work," said Mischa as he waved Chuck back in line.
"What's the holdup Mischa," he heard someone yell at him from the end of the line. "Can you get this moving again? The Captain Lieutenant is on his way down and he wants results."
"Yeah, yeah just a small accident is all, everything is mover again," yelled Mischa back as he was still thinking about Chuck and high school. "I need a relief down here now." Mischa took off before his replacement showed up looking for Chuck.
It had worked Chuck thought now he needed to get busy there was work he had to do but suddenly as he started to leave Mischa came up behind him.
"Follow me, we need to talk and I need to ask you a favor," said Mischa as he led him away from the group. This actually was better than Chuck could have expected.
"Sure, what do you want?" said Chuck wondering if Mischa was going to invite him to join the mutiny but it didn't matter they were headed in the direction he wanted to go anyway.
"Shush, not here there are too many people who can hear us," Mischa said as he led him to just outside the bridge. "Hey, I need for you to promise me you won't tell anyone about what happened in high school. I think you can understand why. In exchange I can make life easier for you. The Captain Lieutenant and I are good friends."
"Sure not a word, my lips are sealed," said Chuck as he put his hand to his mouth. Mischa stood there staring at Chuck's hands. "What's the matter?"
"It's your hand? You lost a finger in the accident. How did..." the man went for his gun but Chuck already had his tranq pistol out. He darted Mischa then opened the hatch to the bridge there was one guard inside.
"Help me," yelled Chuck as he held Mischa in his arms. The startled guard reacted by pointing his weapon at him.
"You're not supposed to be here," was all he could say. "You're going to have to leave now. You can't be here."
"What?" said Chuck. "You've got to be joking right? How am I supposed to move with this guy? Just don't stand there this man just dropped. Gez, he's one of yours."
"I'll help you put him out in the passageway then we can call for a medic. But like I said you can't be here," said the man as he shouldered his AK 47.
But as soon as the man dropped his guard Chuck darted him too. He dragged Mischa the rest of the way inside then secured the hatch to the bridge. As he was doing that he heard movement behind him. Chuck turned quickly with his tranq gun in hand but found he was covered.
"What kind of gun is that," said the Russian Captain with the 47 he took off the tranq'd guard outside his cabin.
"This... this is a tranq gun. I don't particular like guns and I only use them when I have to. Captain Primack," said Chuck, "you can put that weapon down and help me. We don't have much time."
"You're Chuck, the one your General talked about? The one she said would come. What do you intend to do to my boat?"
"I hope she said good things," said Chuck as he removed an access panel to the central computer unit for the submarine. "I'm trying to save it and your crew. I need to be quick here because there's a Los Angeles attack submarine headed this way if it's not already here with orders to take out this boat."
"What do you need me to do?" asked the Captain as he sat down the AK47
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Sarah went back inside the vault and sat down at the console. There she pinged the satellite and it returned a signal asking for the validation codes. She took a deep breath and entered the first code it was accept so she exhaled then it asked for the next. She entered the second one and she was in. A blue menu screen came up on the monitor so she chose standby mode. Now she had to wait.
"Let's monitor progress," she brought up the Satellite feed from Langley's bird that they had positioned overhead. She watched Chuck from above as he made his way onboard the sub. She wished she could see onboard but with the reactor hot IR scanning was out of the question. She turned to Mary and Casey watching them next as they entered a building with two guards posted outside.
"Crap if only I had a drone I'd feel better about everything," said Sarah as another bout of nausea hit her. She went and got a trash can and positioned it next to her. She tried to relax and tell herself everything was proceeding as planned.
She looked up at the monitor above the big screen. It provided her live feeds from CCTV cameras out in town. She watched the guys go round the Market and for a moment she let herself wonder what live would be like with two kids. Sam was a joy but what if the next was different.
"What if...," she said as her monitor flicker and the Major came on from the situation room under Langley. She saw his puzzled expression. "What is it Major? I assumed you called for a reason. The mission is underway and the team is in place if that was what you're wondering?"
"No... Yes... Well no... Crap we just got a message from the Alexandria she's standing by to begin her attack. You need to get word to your team to get out."
"But Major, Chuck's still onboard the submarine and as you can see Mary is still extracting the General. Both need a little more time so they can extract themselves out of the compound. They're early."
"I'm sorry but orders have already been signed off by POTUS. The fear is they get everyone on the submarine and put to sea then they're gone for good. We might not be as lucky next time. I'm calling you just out of courtesy to see if you can get your people to hurry up but in five minutes the attack begins. I'm sorry Langley out."
"Out my..." Sarah started to say as she got an idea. "Not if I can help it," said Sarah as she brought the whole constellation on line then began adjust the GPS signal for the military feeds. If she got caught doing what she was doing it could land her in Supermax but she didn't care.
Somewhere in Patagonia in an underground Hydra Command and Control Center...
Scientists and technicians walked about going from station to station carrying clipboards and taking down readings and making notes. The operation was almost identical to the one they had in Costa Gravas. Everything was quiet and low key until all of a sudden as the whole constellation came on line at once.
"What's going on," yelled one of the men in a white coat to his colleague. They both worked frantically to shut the system down.
"I don't know. It looks like we've been hacked. Crap, we lost the host satellite," said the one as he tried to ping the mother but he got no signal back. It was as if the host satellite was ignoring their attempts to make contact.
"Do you have anything over there? I'm DOA over here," as he finally had to give up. "I don't know what's going on maybe it's mechanical."
"I'm dead over here too. I think mechanical will fly better than saying we got hacked that would be like saying we got pants. I don't see that as going well for us."
"No considering what they did to the last operation. Who's going to notify the board you or me? I think sense you're senior you should have the honor."
"Honor? You call this honor? I wasn't the one who bad mouthed Dr. Martin and did everything I could to take her job. You got her job, you got her responsibility, that's why I have assistant in front of my title so you can take the credit and now you can take the blame."
Later that evening Hydra tested the theory – 'if a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?' This they did when the laboratory in the middle of a desolate stretch of Patagonia exploded. This time there were no survivors.
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On top of the conning tower a watch was posted to keep a look out in the Sound. His job was to survey the horizon and make sure to notify security if boats seem to get too curious. The watch was observing the whales that seemed to appear out of nowhere when he saw it.
"Crap," he said as he looked again. "Captain Lieutenant," he screamed from the conning tower. Petr was on the pier looking over the work detail and why they had slowed down.
"You need to get this stuff on boards and I mean now," said the man when he heard the watch screaming his name and pointing out to sea. "What is it," he yelled back but he couldn't hear a word the man was saying now because the wind had changed direction. He just saw him gesticulating pointing out in the Sound so he pulled his binoculars out and looked for himself. He saw it too, an antenna. "Everyone onboard now, there's a submarine in the sound."
"What's it doing out there," asked one of the officers standing next to him. Petr gave him a look that said what he thought. "I mean no one knows we're here?"
"Well, it looks like someone does. Get everyone onboard and be ready to submerge. Screw casting off and screw the lines and cleats we need to get out of here. Right now we're sitting ducks."
"What do you want us to do with the Captain Primack and his men? Do we take them with us or leave them?"
"Leave them but we'll take the Captain as insurance," said Petr as he pushed and ran to get back onboard the boat. He called Frank on his phone as he ran and gave him a head's up as he got back on the boat.
"Listen I've got to pull out I don't have time to wait for you or your people. Keep this line open and we can make arrangements to meet and I'll pick you up. We've been found. Got to go," said Petr without giving Frank time to speak.
"You man the sticks and get us... what the...," said Petr as he and his officers broke on the bridge to find two of his men tranq'd. "Just get us out and submerged," said Petr as he went to the Captain's cabin where he had Captain Primack held and guarded. He half expected him to be gone but he didn't know what to make of what he found.
"Dohb-reyhh dehyn Good afternoon," said Chuck as he and the Captain played cards. "You can consider yourself under arrest." Chuck tossed him his false credentials as an FSB officer. "I'm here so you don't do something stupid like getting Russian Federal property damaged. Come in quietly and I can guarantee you and your co-conspirators a fair trial."
"It's your turn to draw," said the Captain as he studied his hand. Inside he loved every moment as the table was turned on his ex-second in command.
"Oh, I'm sorry I was distracted. Now where were we Captain? Oh I'm supposed to draw," said Chuck as he took a card then laid down another.
"I don't know," said the Captain as he laughed. "But this is call gin. Let me see how many points you have. You know I haven't had this much fun in a long time."
"See what you made me do. Well Captain as long as you're happy. Listen my offer expires once we pull out," said Chuck. "I suppose the Americans are here already?"
"Someone watch the two of them," ordered Petr as he came back out on the bridge. "I need a status report. Pull us away and put to sea." The submarine shook violently. "What was that?"
"A harpoon missile just struck the pier aft of us. We have another one in bound," yelled a man standing at the scopes."
"Dive," yelled Petr. "For God's sake we need to get out of here." But in all the panic no one was watching Chuck.
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Casey had everyone on the Rover. He had the Colonel on the floorboard in the back of the cab. Frank had worked him over pretty well. Behind him were Mary and the General, riding shotgun was Frank's man. Casey accelerated as he took off driving fast so fast he started sliding on the melting snow that had changed into ice.
"Hey be careful," said the man next to him. "You don't need to drive like this on the compound. Why don't you let me drive I know the way."
"You want to drive," said Casey as he looked over at the man. "Well if that's what you want be my guest." He popped the guy's seatbelt buckle then stomped on the brakes sending the guy's head into the windshield then John finished him off by bouncing his head off the dash.
"Just like cracking eggs for breakfast," said John as he pushed the guy over against the door like he was asleep. "You know some people like brains with their scrambled eggs. Is everyone okay back there? How's the Colonel? I thought there was supposed to be a Major with you guys?"
"He didn't make it," said the General. "He was a good man."
"We need to get out of here and contact Sarah so she can bring wrath down on Frank's head. I swear I hope that rat doesn't worm his way out of this."
"I have an appointment with him myself," said the General. "But as much as I'll love every moment of it I really want the hand that has been guiding him from behind."
Casey headed towards the gate when out of nowhere Frank cut them off. He jumped out of his car and ran over to them. At first Casey thought he'd been made so he pulled his Sig and held it down beside him.
"Hold on John if he wanted to do something he'd have more men with him," said Mary. "Let me handle this." Mary rolled down her window as Frank got near.
"Good you got the word. We need to get out of here," said Frank obviously agitated something was going on.
"What's got you all worked up? Is something wrong," said Mary as Casey looked away. Frank ran up close to her window.
"I thought you knew you're headed out of the compound? Oh, I get it you were told to leave but they didn't tell you why."
"Yes... that's exactly right. I guess they didn't want to excite me but since we're here now what's going on? I want to know."
"An American submarine was sighted in the Sound. Our Russian friends pulled out and left us high and dry so we're on our own. We need to get out of here before..." He didn't finish his sentence when they heard a loud explosion from the pier. Casey rolled down his window to get a better look. The Russian submarine broke free of her moorings and started moving into open water. John had to roll up his window as Frank walked around.
"What are we going to do," said Mary as she got out of the car trying to keep Frank's attention away from Casey.
"Just follow me. I swear if I get my hands on Marcus I'm going to kill him. Just try to stay up with me and we'll make it back to the airstrip at Fox Bay. We still have the General we can use her as a bargaining chip."
"Good idea," said Mary. "Just lead the way and we'll keep up."
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Marcus was sitting in the air terminal waiting on his flight to Santiago when an RAF officer came running through the terminal then shortly afterwards four pilots in flight suits scrambled through the terminal. One had a cup of coffee and was swearing as he ran scolding his hand.
"The fricking yanks bring a war to our door step and now we've got to scramble all our planes. We only have four. Don't they know that?"
"If you got rid of that coffee and closed your trap you might be able to get your plane in the air quicker."
Marcus had a sinking feeling in his stomach. He went to a place in the terminal where he could see the runway only to watch four Eurofighter Typhoons take off in pairs. They circled the field then banked and disappeared heading west.
"Excuse me sir," said a woman in a LAN flight attendant uniform. "May I see your ticket?"
"What?" he said as he watched the fighters disappear from sight. "Oh my ticket... Oh my flight, I'm sorry I was distracted. Yes here it is, why?"
"Because we announced the flight was boarding and you didn't show up. We really don't have that many customers so I came looking for you. Can you please follow me?"