Disclaimer: CBS Owns all rights to Jericho and it's Canon characters, and NBC owns Casey. My own plotline and characters are mine though.
Timeline Layout: Bombs+210 days. 30 days after "Why we fight", Set during Episode 2.01 Reconstruction and 4 days after chapter 3 of the Hawkins files.
Series Layout: Follows Hawkins on a AU path (Chinook universe) to tracking down Valente and his group of thugs. IN this AU the Western Government (Allied States of America) is not inherently evil. More like Valente, J&R and a number of picked thugs have corruptiuon throughout the government. This will cover mainly conspiracy and laying out the outline of the politcal aspect of my "Chinook" universe. Whereas the actually Chinook series will cover the little peoples aspect. Also, I am going to stick somewhere between Canon and total AU for the next few episodes.
Chapter explanation: Sortof confusing midway through. But after a few "Experiments" they turned out worse so I went with this.
Feedback: Let me know how Casey appears, canon-wise :)
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It was late in the fourth day after leaving, before Casey pulled his SUV back into Jericho, along with him, his "reports" and "tips" he had aquired in New Bern. After having little sleep and only crappy MRE packets to eat for the last three days, he decided to put off his paperwork until the next day.
Casey pulled the SUV into the military's motor pool behind the town hall and turned it off. Gathering up his suitcase and duffel bag, he grabbed the keys as he opened the door and locked it behind him. Although the outfit was government issued, there was no way in hell he was going to let some mindless grunt use HIS wheels.
He quickly walked up the back steps to the building and upon reaching the top was stopped by a soldier gaurding the back door.
"ID sir?" The soldier asked. Casey stopped and gave his meanest glare to the young private, probably no older than 20. He recognized him and was positive the private knew him. Only thing was that the private was a green recruit and trying to prove his toughness.
At the glare the young soldier shifted uncomfortably and provided no resistance as Casey shoved past, "Get lost buttwipe," he growled and the continued through the doors.
He ignored the somewhat dejected soldier behind him and continued down the halls towards his office. He passed by the several rooms of the sheriff's department and on to the military's section of City Hall.
Jericho's city hall had been divided amongst the various departments working there. The older sections, which had been abandoned before the bombs, had been taken over by the military for their use, and neighbored the sheriff's area, which was handy. And the sheriff's office had been expanded another several rooms. This was possible, because in the last several years, Jericho's use of computers had overtaken the old paperwork system, and the number of offices and workers in city hall had been nearly halved.
At first the military had wanted to squat down in the sheriff's department, but after discussion agreed to move to the abandoned area's, so as to not infringe on Jericho's law enforcement. The close vicinity however, still allowed the military to moniter them and vice versa.
He turned into his office, and with a grunt, Casey dropped his armload of stuff on the floor. He looked at it for a few seconds, "Ah t'hell with it," he muttered. He opened several empty filing cabinets and dumped the bag's contents inside without sorting it, and then locked them. Sorting and organization could wait until tommorrow.
"Ah, Major Casey." A voice said from behind him. With a internal sigh, he turned to face Major Beck.
"Yes?" he replied.
"Got your work in New Bern done?" Beck's eyes wandered to the filing cabinets Casey had just stepped away from.
"Yes," was Casey's only reply.
There was a silence lasting for several minutes, the tension thick enough to cut. Finally Beck spoke.
"See you tommorrow Major," Beck gave a final glance around Casey's office and then returned to the hallway.
Casey watched him leave and then moved to leave as well. It was only a short walk to his apartment, a single room in a abandoned tenant house about 2 blocks from city hall. The military resided in their base camp outside Jericho, transfering into town for their duties, but he had obtained a room inside town. In his mind a good deal, thus avoiding a dusty, drafty Vietnam surplus army tent.
Exiting City Hall, he looked around the street and stretched for a moment. It was a beautiful spring day and he just didn't relax like he should. Taking a brief moment was a huge relief on him, considering the nearly constant strain and work he had been doing for...well...as long as he could remember.
Looking around he saw Hawkin's wife, Darcy, walking down the sidewalk, occasionally stopping to chat with a passerby. As she continued farther down the street, he noticed a soldier cautiously following her, being very careful to avoid her seeing him.
"Interesting," Casey murmered. He carefully eased his sig out of it's holster and ensured it was loaded before returning it, "Well pal," he murmered, addressing his gun, "Let's go see what the scumsucker is up to."
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There was a knock at the cabin door. Hawkins picked up his handgun and stood to the side, "Come in," he said.
The door opened and Darcy entered and closed the door behind her, "Sam and Allison are at the Taylors. I told Margarate we were having troubles at home. And I also got this," she handed him a sheeve of papers, "You were right. They are looking for Sarah, not you."
"I knew that awhile ago," At her confused look, "Oh I'm sorry D.......Casey told me. I must have forgotten to mention it......And I thought I told you I didn't want you to be a part of this?"
"Yes. You must have forgotten...... And I ignored you. We're in this together and you need my help," Darcy shot him a look and he decided not to push it.
"What's this?" he asked, gesturing to the papers she laid on the table.
"Everything that has came through the fax machine in the last few days."
"Copies I hope?" He began flipping through the papers.
"I put the originals back in the tray within two minutes."
Hawkins nodded, "That's good. With Casey in New Bern, it is good to have eyes in the office now."
Darcy started to reply but stopped a noise scraped through the building, "What was that?"
"Are you sure you weren't followed?" Hawkins asked, picking up his handgun.
"Yeah.I....I think so."
"Oh, D......," he said almost wistfully, "That is not a yes." He turned and looked through the door and stopped before going out he spoke behind him, "You know what to do."
He looked throughout the old cabin, turning several corners and not seeing anything. He slowly entered the garage. Although he didn't see anything he....felt...like there was someone around. He was about turn when he heard a voice behind him, "Drop it."
Hawkins winced and slowly laid his gun on the floor. This was the second time, the second time someone else got a drop on him....And right now that bugged him more than it worried him.
"Now turn around slowly, and give us a hug." Hawkins turned to be looking at Chavez holding a gun on him.
"Chavez," it took to sink in before he could continue, "What are you doing here?"
"This is the rallypoint isn't it? Better late than never," a small smile slid across the man's face for a instant.
"So put it down," Hawkins gestured at the gun. He felt somewhat better having Chavez pointing a gun at him rather than Casey, but still didn't like it.
"Your getting lazy old man. Ten years ago there's no way I'd get this close," Chavez got the smile again.
"Maybe," Hawkins replied calmly.
"It doesn't bother you?" Chavez's face turned questioning.
A pair of clicks sounded behind him.
"Not really. So you going to put that thing down?" Hawkins asked. Chavez grunted and dropped the gun.
Hawkins turned towards the two new arrivals, "Chavez, this is my wife Darcy, and government agent Casey. Casey, Darcy, this is Chavez."
Chavez turned more and got a look at Casey and then hardened, "So you're on THEIR side," he glared at Robert and emphasised the 'their'.
"And what's that supposed to mean, huh, punk?" Casey growled. He turned to Hawkins, "You know this creep?"
"This is Chavez. He was in on Red Bell."
This got Casey's attention, "And just when were you planning on telling me about him, Robert?"
"When I was sure you weren't going to put two in my back," he replied. Turning to the group he addressed them, "Let's all move inside shall we?"
Once inside Hawkins filled Casey in on the rest of the project. And then Chavez on Casey's involvement in the group.
"So it's just the three of us now then?" Chavez asked, "You, me and Cheung."
"Then you have had contact with Cheung?" Hawkins asked.
He shook his head, "He's deep embedded in Cheyenne. I lost contact when I infiltrated this army unit back in Nebraska."
"How long ago?"
"Bout a month."
"How high up was he?" Casey asked.
Chavez shot the agent a sharp glare, "High. Last I hear, he was only one level of security down from Valente's staff."
"Then he wasn't killed," Casey stuck in, "I would have known about any major staff changes that high." At Chavez's skeptical look he continued, "I have been keeping a eye on Valente and anyone close to him staffwise, or staff's assistants."
"Well what the fuck differance would it be to you? Your working for the fucking traitors," Chavez snarled. The comment came out unexpectedly and with an amazingly, forcefull, viciousness.
"No worse than working for the god damned Blue Helmets," Casey snarled back.
"U.N. my ass, FREEDOM is more like it."
"Like hell," retorted Casey, "The guy that was next in line conveniantly died of a heart attack. Next week, the Ambassador to the UN was picked as their new President. Now ain't THAT conveniant."
"The next in line was 78 years old. And the Ambassoder was his Vice President," Chavez began yelling back at him, "Besides what the hell do you know? You didn't pull your head outta your butt long enough to realize that J&R was involved in it. It was your bosses who told you."
Hawkins grimaced at the two, but kept out of the middle of it and decided to let them blow off.
Casey snarled, but instead of a retort drew his handgun. Chavez had a hint that might happen and snatched his handgun off the table, with both of them ending up holding a gun on the other, neither having enough of a edge to do anything.
"ENOUGH," Hawkins shouted over the two of them. He raised his beretta and thumbed back the hammer. A second click sounded and Darcy appeared alongside him, "Put down your guns and act like human bein's. We got bigger fish to fry."
They both glared at each other for a moment before lowering and reholstering their guns. After a moment's glaring at each other Casey gave a brief retort.
"Well, he started it," Casey jerked his head towards Chavez.
"Did not," Chavez muttered.
"Did toooouuuh," Casey growled.
"Son of a bitch," ,"Asshole," they muttered to each other.
"Okay knock it off. I don't care who started it," Hawkins raised a hand to his forehead and rubbed his eyebrows. 'I'm getting a headache,' he thought to himself.
He paused a moment and continued, "What we need is a plan."
Casey interupted him, "I got one."
Chavez started to snort a reply and Hawkins stopped him, "What is it?" he asked.
"We hack into Valente's personal files," at their confused looks he continued, "The military has access to a portable database. EVERYTHING related to security info is there. There's a few levels of access. Low level which any ASA grunt can access. Then higher level that myself and Major Beck have, background info and information on operations and people of higher importance. The last level is only available fully to the CIA heads and the other high echelon members of the government. It's a fourth one however we want into, one that even the President doesn't know of."
"Valente has integrated a lot of sensitive data into differant areas of the database. It is seperated into hundreds of differant areas, in bits and pieces. It can only be accessed by Valente and his...high class partners," Casey stopped to wait for the questions he knew was coming. Chavez was the first.
"Why would Valente keep this stuff in the main database? I mean, couldn't that be stumbled onto?" Chavez seemed skeptical.
"No. The few files can only be gathered into readable files through use of a special computer program. Seperately they appear as small files that are corrupted and unreadable. He left it in the main database so that any of his PERSONAL field agents would have access and anyone else big in say...J&R headquarters could access the main database and search it without going to extreme lengths. You just need the computer program."
"Well, where can we get it?" Hawkins asked.
"The programs are on any laptop carried by one of Valente's personal agents. It's disguised as a game in the program files folder. All you do is run the game, select a specific player name and type in the password unlocking the profile. Once that happens the game shuts down and the info gathering program comes up."
"So we just copy the game from a agent's computer, and then the main database? What about the password?" Hawkins began thinking on the plan.
"Basically that's it. The only problem is I don't know the password. I have a contact working for J&R's head honcho. She has been watching and almost got it, but wasn't able to snag it," Casey began pacing, "I have the database. All the field agents have it. But I don't have high level clearance, this program will provide it. And I haven't been able to get to one of Valente's agent's laptops. And even if I did, I need that password first."
Meanwhile......Back in Jericho.
Jake entered Major Beck's office, somewhat apprehensive of what he is about to ask.
Major Beck set down the phone and looked up, "Jake." he said.
"Uh I just came by to," he cut off as Beck opened a drawer and tossed him the sheriff's badge, "Came by to take you up on your offer.....How'd you know?"
"I told you before. I am good at what I do."
Jake looked at the badge and picked it up. He gave it a long look and then stuck it onto his belt on the opposite side of his pistol.
"I'd like to tell you not to worry. But your trial by fire as Jericho's sheriff will be coming sooner than later."
"How's that?"
"You've heard about the President's whistle stop tour?"
"Yeah. Everyone's heard about it on the news," Jake stopp and realization hit him.
"Well. I have just recieved a call informing me that Jericho's been added to the route," Beck paused to let the information sink in, "The President is on his way."
