Don't own Chuck

The hop up to the airfield outside of Yubula was a short trip. It only took twenty minutes to make the short distance but below them was one of the most breath taking views they'd ever seen. Apart from the natural beauty with verdant plains and thick lush jungles there were also winding rivers that fed into Lake Victoria. The whole thing was beautiful and humbling. Chuck was just overwhelmed.

"Wow look down there, there's a herd of zebra running. I wonder if they're running from us and over there are some elephants. I've never seen anything like this in the wild," said Chuck excited almost giddish.

"You're really getting into this aren't you," said Sarah smiling looking over at him. He reminded her sometimes of a little boy in a man's body and she loved this in him. How with all the ugliness they had to deal with he could still see wonder in the world and make her see it too. And that made her love him even more.

"Yeah, aren't you? I mean it's like living animal planet," said Chuck as he searched the ground below for lions. Those were one of the animals he wanted to see but hadn't been able to yet even if they'd kick in his allergy.

"Right now I'm worried about gaining a little altitude before we scare up any water fowl and they fly into our turbos. We really don't want to have to make an emergency landing in the lake but at least you could see some crocodiles up close."

"Funny, very funny," said Chuck. "Okay, maybe I was overreacting a little but don't you feel kind of little in the scope of things. It kind of makes me feel small."

"I'm just making fun of you. You look just like Sam when someone mentions the word 'bunny'. I miss her so much. She'd like the animals here too."

"Yes, she would but knowing her she'd want to take a lion cub home as her little kitty," said Chuck as they both laughed. "Why don't we meet this security person the agency lined up then work on a video call back home?"

"I'd like that but if it's day here it's night there. I don't want to spy on them if we can't talk to them. It makes me feel like I'm a stranger looking in on someone else's life." Chuck reached over and took her hand.

"Well, why don't we do this then? I'll meet this person and you try to connect. I'll stall for a bit on the tarmac if they're asleep you can come down and we'll go to the mission site together. If they're awake take your time and talk with everyone. I'll make sure you have transport to come and join us later."

"Sweetie, I can pull my own weight," said Sarah but then she thought for a bit. "You sure you don't mind?" Chuck bent over and kissed her hand.

"I'm sure," said Chuck. There was a knock on the cockpit door and the two women walking in yawning.

"Have we arrived in the capital yet," asked Roberta stretching. "I think we must've dozed off for a bit."

"I'd say. I don't know how to tell you ladies this but we've been and are about to arrive in Yubula. The embassy has lined up a contact for us to meet once we're down. You two can come with me we'll meet this person and he or she can give you the rundown on the logistics. I'll tell you this now but I'll repeat it when the rest of the team gets here, no one goes wandering off by themselves."

"Okay but what it we need to go off with this person we're meeting? Will one of you come along with us? I'm not saying we'll have to but if we do what then."

"We'll play that by ear. We should all try to make a run out to the mission site together and from there we'll see. Oh in the back just outside the cabin is a box, open it up and take two of the wrist bands out," said Chuck as Sarah gave him a look.

"Can we pick the color we want?" asked Julie. Sarah rolled her eyes and stifled a laugh. "I'm just saying yellow looks better on me."

"If you like yellow take it. You guys get first choice. They're electronic mosquito repellents. They emit an ultra-high frequency that keeps mosquitoes away. I picked them up for the team."

"Wow thanks," said the women as they put them on. "That was a cool idea, are they water proof? Or do we need to take them off when we shower?"

"No you can keep them on and as a matter of fact you should keep them on for the whole time we're out here. I'll let you guys to hand them out to the rest of the team. But make sure everyone gets one and they know to keep them on at all times. We don't want anyone catching malaria or any other disease mosquitos might spread."

"Sure, no problem this is much better than having to hose down with DEET all the time. Then forgetting and getting eaten up."

"Well this isn't to replace chemical repellants but it's an addition to and I'm sure you'll find by using both you'll be well protected."

"Ladies were about to make our approach. You need to go back and sit down. Bring your chairs to the upright position and buckle in. I'm putting the fasten seat belt sign on now and once we're down I'll take it off," said Sarah to get rid of the women. She waited until she was sure they were back in the cabin and in their seats before she questioned Chuck.

"Okay, now tell me what those bands really are. Yeah, I'm sure they're electronic mosquito repellants. Where did you get them anyway?"

"Oh but they are. I got them from the Buy More in the Lawn and Garden's section made in China but I added a little something extra. I put a GLG-4000 in everyone so like this we won't lose anyone."

"That's genius and you have the girls handing them out so coming from their own team members they won't think anything about them. Chuck you know that's…" Sarah was saying but Chuck cut her off.

"I know, I know kind of sneaky and maybe a little underhanded but I figured what they don't know just might save their lives."

"I was going to say brilliant."

"Actually, it's kind of nerdy if you think about it."

"And it's that too."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

A man on a motor scooter zipped through the busy city traffic of the capital. The bike kicked up dust on a dirt road as he took a short cut driving behind some dilapidated buildings with corrugated steel roofs. Malnourished dogs, goats and children roamed the streets all of them gone feral. If it weren't for the money these people paid he wouldn't be caught dead in this neighborhood and that was what was going to happen to him if he made too many of these trips. Cutting across the market he drew the ire of both sellers and buyers alike. All made comments about him and his family most of which were true. Then he arrived at the building.

"I need to speak to Izad," said the man into the door buzzer. There was a noise inside the house. At first the man wasn't sure if he should stay or go then finally the door opened up and he was usher in.

"Izad will be right with you, follow me and have a seat. Would you like some tea or something to eat? I have some nshima and there's a little stew if you like?"

"If it's not too much trouble," said the man trying to be polite but meat was expensive and to have it offered for free that was something he couldn't pass up. Soon he had a plate in front of him and he began eating with his fingers, rigorously using his right hand to eat with. The food was good and he was enjoying his unexpected meal so much he didn't notice Izad and Yousef when they walked in.

"I'm glad you're enjoying our hospitality," said Izad to get the man's attention. He almost dropped his plate as he tried to get up. "No, stay, stay, what do you have for us?"

"It's in my pouch," said the man as he reached for it after wiping his hand clean. "These were taken at the airport a little while ago. My boss printed them off then told me to run these over to you immediately. He said they were pictures of the people you were waiting for," said the man as he turned to his meal cleaning the plate.

"I see," said Izad as he took the photos of Chuck and Sarah. He looked at them then handed them off to Yousef. "Do you recognize them?"

"No but they could be a part of the team that took down our operation in Los Angeles. I heard there was a man and woman involved," said Yousef then he turned to the courier. "Are they still at the airport?"

"No they were on the ground for about a half an hour maybe a little bit more then they took off. My boss wanted to let you know that the man and woman in the photos filed a flight plan for Yubala. I don't know if you know it but there's a landing strip there my government used to use."

"Yes we know," said Izad. He took out money and paid the man then sent him on his way. Izad waited until the courier was gone before they started talking about action. "Have you heard from your man on the team?"

"The professor called me to let me know their plane was all packed and they'll be leaving late our time. I don't want to hit them as soon as they land. If these people think something is going on then they'll have their guard up. We should let them set up then hit them when they least suspect it."

"I concur on that but I've already taken the liberty of getting some of our people in place. I had some people hired on as laborers and others are in their own security detail."

"That's fine as long as they know to wait for my signal. If they jump too soon everything could be lost and I can tell you back home they won't be happy."

"Relax I've got everything under control. By the way your Mr. Brown has been busy from what I hear. Seems he had a CIA agent taken from a dark site in L.A. Is he going to be a problem?"

"Crap I told him to chill out before I left and to put any plan he had to get even on hold until after we grabbed the chip."

"Well it looks like he didn't listen," said Izad. Yousef could see Izad was using this to gloat over him but there was little he could do at the moment except take it.

"No it doesn't. Give me a moment and I'll sort this out," said Yousef. He didn't like what he was going to do but he didn't see any way around it. He warned Mr. Brown but he hadn't listened and now he'd backed him into a corner.

"Hello Carlos this is Mr. Robinson," said Yousef looking around making sure not one was near who could hear.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Alex and Morgan dropped over to visit with Emma and Jack to check on the girls. Alex had promised Sarah she'd stop by and make sure Sam was okay but she hadn't had the time working in Pasadena all day. Morgan had a sixth sense when it came to mealtime and always seemed to know when it was time to pop in to get fed. Tonight was not different Emma had just set the table when they walked in.

"Oh we're sorry for dropping in like this. I promised Sarah I'd stop by but we can come back another time. You're about to eat" said Alex as Sam ran to her and jumped into her arms.

"She's been like that since Sarah left. Why don't you two eat with us? I've made plenty of food so if you want pull up a chair."

"Thanks," said Morgan as he went the refrigerator got himself a grape soda then sat down at the table. "So what's for dinner? It smells delicious."

"Bunny stew," said Jack. Sam gave him an evil look then stuck out her tongue.

"Sam, don't pay any attention to Dad," said Molly. "He's making fun of you. There's no bunny in the stew."

"Jack bad," said Sam. Then she let out a series of "momma, momma, momma…" and fought to get down. It took everyone a little while to understand that Sarah was on the monitor.

"How's momma's baby," said Sarah as Sam tried to understand why she couldn't touch her mother in the end she held up Mr. Rabbit so Sarah could kiss it through the monitor. "I'm sorry if I caught you guys at a bad time but we just landed in Yubala and everyone is off the plane. Chuck is talking with the security coordinator and our passengers are working up transportation."

"We boxed up the rest of the team and sent their stuff to be loaded on the C-17 which will leave in the morning."

"Good that'll be late night our time. I'll make sure that gets passed on. Any word yet on the agent that was taken? Do we know him?"

"No and no but Dad and I worked until a little while ago down in Castle doing aerial surveillance along the border. I left the mainframe working using facial recognition. If I get a hit it'll notify me."

"You don't think I could borrow that the next time I organize a poker tournament and have it read cards instead."

"Jack, I'm not even going to answer that," said Sarah. "Alex for no reason whatsoever is Jack to be left alone in Castle."

"Oh darling, is this what you think of you old man so two bit thief that has to run out of town A good conman can…"

"I know the line but we all know why Chuck and I are here so let's just drop it for now. Well, I ought to go and help Chuck get some work done. I just called to say hi and make sure everyone was okay. Sam Momma loves you," said Sarah. Sam held up Mr. Rabbit. "Yes and I love Mr. Rabbit too. Bye Molly, bye everyone, we love you all," said Sarah as the screen went blank.

"Momma gone" said Sam as she looked down at Mr. Rabbit. Emma went over picked her up and hugged her.

"Yes Momma's gone but she'll be back soon to her baby," said Emma as she kissed her. She didn't know how much Sam knew or could comprehend but Sam did realize her mother wasn't there with her.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Somewhere just north of the border with Mexico a truck filled with seasonal labors drove down a dusty road. It was a back way across the border that only a few coyotes knew. But recently that way was coming under more scrutiny so the easy border crossing at least temporarily was shut down. But this truck load of workers really didn't care because they were all legal residents with bonafide green cards and that was half the reason they stopped. It was dark when they started back home. Then all of a sudden they saw him, a man was dressed in black walking in the middle of the road in a dusty torn black suit.

"Look out, Jesus," screamed the man sitting in the passenger's seat as the driver swerved to go around the man in the road, just barely missing him.

"Que estoy muy loco," said one of the men in the back as the others agree. Only a crazy person would be walking dressed like he was in the middle of the road at night.

"Mister is everything okay," asked the driver as he pulled up next to him. "Would you like some water or something?"

"Por favor," said the man having a hard time speaking because of his dry parched throat. The man got out and handed him a bottle of water. He turned it up and began drinking in gulps.

"Hey buddy you need to slow down a bit or you'll make yourself sick. You haven't had anything to drink in a while, have you? What are you doing out here in the middle of nowhere?"

How was the man supposed to explain everything that had happened to him in the last twenty-four hours? He was grabbed downtown then bound and gagged tossed in the back of a van and driven to just this side of the border. He lost track of how long he sat in that van with no air conditioning and under the sun.

"I need to contact someone to have them come and pick me up," said the man. "Can I use your phone, por favor?"

"Sure," said the driver as he handed the man his. "Did you go to one of those rave parties in the desert? I hear you can really get messed up and that they serve some really weird crap."

"Yeah, that was it," said the man wanting to cut down on the explanations. As it was he wasn't sure if what had happened to him had really happened or he just imagined it. But the red marks on this wrist and the knot on his head told him it was real.

"Do you know if these guys played there," asked the driver as he show him a CD, 'Jeffster's Greatest Hits' and in fine print 'Hits on me and I'll punch you back'.

"No I don't think so…" the man started to say but the driver cut him off.

"I understand. But you know getting that messed up isn't good for you. That's how I ended up with two paternity lawsuits and three alimonies to pay." Suddenly a light appeared in the sky above them illuminating their truck then two helicopters came in hovering overhead. Men rappelled from the choppers by rope taking up position around the man and his truck.

"Gez guy, what did you do? Did you whack someone important or did you do something really bad? I haven't seen so many law enforcement officers since Dunkin Doughnuts had a two for one sale."

One of the men came up and took the man in black away then attached him to a rope. He was hoisted up to the waiting chopper and gone. Two agents left on the ground got all the people from the truck together.

"What are you going to do to them? They really deserve a reward or something. I don't know if I could've walked out of here."

"We're just going to give a whiff of X-13 gas," said the Agent in combat gear. "General's orders, tomorrow they'll wake up and not remember anything. General Beckman wants a briefing ASAP."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

After Sarah terminated her video call with Echo Park she had to take a few minutes to regain her composure. Then she dried her tears. This was every bit as hard as she thought it was going to be and maybe even more. But now she had to turn her attention to the mission at hand. Grabbing her bag she deplaned. As she was making her way down the ladder she heard Chuck speaking.

"Good you're still here," she said to herself, "so I really haven't hadn't missed much." Then she heard the person Chuck was talking to and she recognized the voice.

"Oh here's Sarah now," said Chuck. "Love come we're over here. Look who we're working with us." She couldn't believe her eyes. "The government contracted Verbanski Corp."

"You mean who will be working for us," said Sarah. "It's been a while Gertrude. How is everything? We haven't seen you since Tahiti."

"Well, well if it isn't the other half of the Cleaver family," said Gertrude. "I've been talking to Ward now here comes June. Since we're all here we can head out to the mission site if we don't have to wait for Wally or Beaver."

"Where are the girls? Did they go ahead?" asked Sarah not seeing them around. "Don't tell me we've already lost them?

"No they're in Gertrude's Range Rover. I told them to wait inside where there's A/C there was no need in having them stand around in this heat."

"That was a good idea," said Sarah as she walked up and put her arm around Chuck's waist. "Thanks," she whispered in his hear.

"Yuck," said Verbanski. "I see some things haven't changed. So can we get a move on it, we've still got about an hour's drive ahead of us?"

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The newly liberated agent was in the chopper on his way to Westside Memorial for a complete checkup. He was a surprised as everyone else as to find himself free. Part of him had already given up hope and resigned himself that this was the end. But he promised himself if he had to go he'd make it as hard as he could for captures. He wasn't just going to roll over and die.

"Here," said one of the men sitting up front. He passed the man a tablet. "The General wants to talk with you."

"With me? Why? What have I done? Well, except get captured."

"And believe me we're well aware of that," said the General. "What we're trying to figure out is why they freed you? Do you have any idea? Did they ask you anything or did you tell them something to get yourself released?"

"No never, I didn't tell them anything but truthfully they really didn't ask me anything. I was knocked out then I found myself in a late model Dodge van. I spent most of the day sweating with no water. I thought they were trying to soften me up but then there was this guy name Carlos."

"Are you sure he said his name was Carlos," asked the General. Could this be the same Carlos they had on video? She thought. He certainly didn't act like him.

"That's what he said his name was at least. He told me it was all a big mistake and that I was free to go. They blindfolded me then I found myself walking down that road where you found me. I don't know what to think."

"I don't either," said the General. "Beckman out."

"What do you make of this," asked the General's aide. "Maybe this Carlos found out we were looking for him. He decided to cut his losses and try to appeal to your good side."

"I don't have a good side and this still doesn't change anything I still want Carlos found and brought to justice. The only difference is now I'm willing to let him walk in instead of being carried in."